I should note that I misspoke when I said, "I'm going to place my PC's in a tricky situation..."
Rather, I should have said, "My PC's have unknowingly placed themselves in a tricky situation."
Here is what I stated about the situation in another thread:
For reference, this set of encounters is equivalent to the Ruins of Rhest in Red Hand of Doom. In RHoD there are outlined reactions based upon what the PC's do. If they engage but retreat before dealing too much damage, the Red Hand agents celebrate their "victory." If that happens a second time, or if the PC's kill too many things, or kill the Hobgoblin Mindbender, but haven't yet finished the job, they suffer a retaliation of Sarvith the wyrmlord goblin and the black dragon strafing their campsite with breath attacks. If the PC's are so effective that they hit hard and kill either the wyrmlord or the dragon, but retreat before they finish the job, then the red hand agents pack up and leave, and the remaining member of the goblin or black dragon leaves with any remaining Razorfiend eggs, and the Ghost Lord's phylactery... These result in a much more difficult time "winning" the Battle of Brindol.
That's basically what my PC's just did. They did very little scouting (just a quick aerial fly-by by the PC Druid), and dove right in without knowing what they were up against. They did a good job of hitting hard, and killed my half-fiend scrag "Fiendlord," but had trouble with the shadow creature red abishai that they weren't prepared for. They ransacked the place and got a lot of loot, as well as intel, and flew away, escaping just as the boats were arriving from shore with scrags, dekanter goblins, and eneko warriors. They didn't know what the horde agents were doing up here until after they had retreated with some journals that are basically laboratory notes on the breeding experiments the abishai was conducting to create Beasts of Malar (though they don't yet know exactly what has been bred, just that there was a breeding program). The PC's failed to even search the whole place, and thus never even saw any of the beasts of malar (though they have encountered one prior to finding this outpost). By the end of it the PC's where doing pretty well on hit points, but everyone but the NPC druid was basically spent on spells.
So, the bad guys have just had their butts handed to them, and their commander killed, but they still have their "payload" that they are supposed to deliver (the Beasts of Malar). Damn right they are retreating. As I said, it stretches credulity that I'm even having it take ~12-13 hours for them to pack up and leave. But given how "unfair" my players felt the shadow creature is, I'm throwing them a bone, as it were, and allowing them to encounter it once more, when they are better prepared with some daylight and faerie fire spells. But it sure as hell will not be easy. The boat will be filled with eneko, dekanter goblins, a few tanarukk, and a few ice trolls, as well ~12 scrags accompanying the boat. They also have four potions of Fly, so a few of these could be an aerial headache for the PC's, but otherwise, aside from an occasional nat 20 from an arrow, most of these won't be any issue for the PC's. The problem will be the abishai (and the 20% possibility that he summons two blue abishai), and the Beasts of Malar themselves. There are two fully grown ones (Gestalt CR 10 each), five "adolescents" (as normal, but all damage dice down-graded one step, and minimum HP's) (GCR 10, but half XP awarded), and five "welps" (GCR ~9, 5 HD instead of 9 HD, small size, minimum HP's, 50% XP awarded). Had the PC's discovered these prior to the bad guys' retreat, a few flamestrikes could have ended the lot of them, but alas, now they will shift into bat form, attack the PC's, and likely scatter, then fly south to the mainland if the boat is destroyed.
The Beast of Malar the PC's encountered before... they never figured out what overcame its regeneration. They tried acid, fire, electricity, and cold, but all came from arcane sources (Divine magic and blessed weapons overcome it). They did drip some holy water on it, which works, but that was the only vial they had. They ended up tying it up and dragging it out the back of their longship, drowning it. They now think that any type of water will kill it. So, this fight will be very difficult. The NPC druid does have prepped both call lightning and call lightning storm, but he will use them as he normally would, only learning that it overcomes the beasts' regeneration by "chance."
The Shadow Creature Red Abishai will still be an issue for the PC's. Regeneration 8 negated by good-aligned weapons, and from spells or effects with the good descriptor, and from holy water. I think the PC's might not have any of that...
Also, as per the rules for polar night in Frostburn, and due to the fact that it is overcast, and thus no stars are visible, and the moon would not be visible in the morning (given its phase), the PC's will be in complete darkness, and low light vision won't work without another light source. When they assaulted the outpost there was an aurora borealis, which provided enough light for their low-light vision to work (it is equivalent to a full moon). This time won't be as easy.
Were this Red Hand of Doom, the PC's would have no chance of "winning" against this outpost at this point, because the black dragon would just grab the phylactery and eggs, and fly away at 150 feet per round, which the PC's can't match, period.
Due to the setup of my campaign, the red abishai will continue to "herd" the "lesser trolls" and the beasts of malar by boat, which is why the PC's even have this chance. The abishai certainly still has the chance to escape (taking something equivalent to the blackmailing phylactery with him), but would like to see the Beasts of Malar delivered. The easiest way to do that is via boat. If need be, however, the BoM's can shift into bat form and slowly fly across the sea, at 30 feet per round.
What I expect will happen:
Someone in the party will hopefully make a listen check to hear the enemy boat scraping down a short portage over ice, like a toboggan, and splashing into the sea. One or more of the party characters will be ~15 short of finishing prepping spells for the day (they are gestalt, so they'll have one class' worth, and they would get 75% of the second class' spells if he stopped right then). The PC druid will likely be finished prepping by this point, so will go investigate. In the recap of last session I'll play up the point when he was a shark last session he could really smell the rancorous troll blood in the water. Hopefully the PC is intelligent enough to try it as a shark tonight, because otherwise, he has almost no chance of locating the boat.
Assuming he does locate it, hopefully he fireballs it, thus setting the sail on fire, slowing the boat, and making it visible to all the party. Then the fun will really ensue.
If the PC doesn't think to turn into a shark though... well, like I said, by this point in RHoD, their actions would have already cost them quite a bit.
