[RPG] How to respond to players who keep asking powerful NPCs to help them in ToA

dnd-5enarrationnpctomb-of-annihilation

I'm playing Tomb of Annihilation(ToA) with my group right after playing Waterdeep Dragon Heist. The group have met powerful characters like Vajra Safahr, the open lord Laeral Silverhand, Mirt, Artus Cimber and many more while in the jungles of Chult. These NPCs have high challenge ratings (17, 13, 9) so they are pretty strong: high level magic users, influential and rich people, some of them even have access to armies, mercenaries, spies, and so on. When you are playing ToA, the main quest is to

stop an evil Death curse who is affecting the whole world

and is a really important matter. The party have already very good relations with the NPCS, they've also received the quest and some money and magic items from them in order to complete said quest.

My DMing Problem

The players always try to get these NPCs involved in the quest by asking them for more money, more powerful magic items, asking them to go kill an important Boss, to give them an army, free healing, free lodging, free spells like, scrying, greater restoration. They are constantly trying to get Artus Cimber into the band and enter the Tomb of Annihilation.

I can't blame the players on this as I think it's very reasonable to ask this kind of things to the NPCS. For example, Artus Cimber wants

to retrieve Mezro, Kill Ras Nsi and he really likes to get into tombs

so, why shouldn't he help the party or just kill Ras Nsi himself? Even the guide says the only way to get Mezro back is to kill Ras Nsi, and even if he didn't trust the characters, (which he does, and also is family with one of the characters) why shouldn't he just go do the job himself?

On the other hand we have Laeral, Vajra, Wakanga o'tamu: they are very influential people, they all want to end the death curse, why shouldn't they? They are all good aligned characters who want the best for humanity. Why if the characters ask them to go with them to kill the evil Lich, or give them an army to kill the red wizards of Thay, or give them the super powerful magic sword or else everyone would die – wouldn't they, if they have such a good point? Also Laeral is an awesome adventurer, she actually doesn't care that much for politics she could end up the death curse Herself, kill the atropal and probably kill Acererak if teamed with Vajra Safahr, Artus and the team.

Why wouldn't powerful NPCs get involved to help the players?

I think the death curse is important enough to get everyone involved, it's a countdown threatening to kill everyone. Same would go if they were to face an evil Demon Lord or a terrible forgotten God, why on earth shouldn't the most powerful characters, and mighty adventurers go and help?

Laeral, come kill the atropal with us

Laeral: No

GIRL WE ALL GON' DIE.

Laeral: I'm a very busy person.

You'll be busy dying in a few hours.

What does a DM need to do to avoid this NPCs somehow getting involved and say No, so that the players can enjoy a challenging, meaningful and rewarding adventure without an NPC railroading them?

What's so important to them that they need to bargain for a magic item, or a little 6 lvl spell more than the death curse threatening to kill everyone?

Best Answer

The world is always about to end

From the players' point of view, sure, this adventure is the end-all and be-all of saving the world. Folks like Laeral Silverhand, though, have a lot more on their plate since they are worried about problems all over Faerun and in adjacent places in the multiverse. When you're working with a secret, continent-spanning organization like the Moonstars, you learn the world is always on the brink of destruction; Faerun has multiple countries that basically exist to come up with world destroying/conquering plans. You've got a dozen different things on your plate, and adventurers claiming they're trying to save the world are a dime a dozen.

If you, as a high level NPC, spent your entire resources on every such claim, you'd be tapped out on money and magic, Waterdeep would have no army left to defend it, and whatever threat they defeated would be pretty minor relative to the ten other threats you allowed to grow unchecked (and that's assuming you believe they're both honest and chasing the right lead; imagine how quickly they'd lose their resources if they threw all their money/resources at morons and con artists).

And remember, the death curse isn't all that bad. 99% of the population was never raised from the dead. A wasting disease that affects those raised from the dead is terrible for adventurers, but the average person doesn't die an untimely death, and can't afford to be raised even if they do. Heck, there are some who might consider pulling someone back from death a violation of morality and/or the natural order (historically, in older editions of D&D, druids were often of this mindset), so the curse could be viewed as a positive, even if "the good guys" would never admit it publicly.

In short:

  1. The perspective of your players is blinkered. They see one great threat (and overstate its importance because resurrection magic is super important to them), but miss the many more subtle threats the heavy hitters are keeping from growing out of hand.
  2. The heavy hitters can't afford to expend all their resources on supporting one specific adventuring band.

If your players have a personal relationship with old Uncle Moneybags, sure, let them get basic resources (healing potions and the like) "at cost" (some reasonable discount). Maybe even a token magic item, out of sentiment. But old Uncle Moneybags didn't become Uncle Moneybags by showering money on all their relatives; your adventurers are adults and should be able to handle their own needs most of the time. He needs the rest of it to fund that expedition to Mount Doom to see about a ring, interrupt the war between Thieves Guilds that's spilling into the streets, look into the latest plot from <Insert Evil Country of the Week #23>, etc. The world is far bigger than your party, and they need to accept that.