But not the stem!

For flavor, you might include some NPCs mourning relatives who joined other failed adventuring parties. And if the module includes hireable NPCs, some of those might be survivors from other hastily assembled parties as well - the players’ party might be more attractive as a more capable party than their former squad. Or some NPCs might be shell-shocked survivors of other parties instead!

Mostly, this would let The Edge look like the best of the opposition, rather than the only other game in town!

Hah, my first time, I had one of the bandits yell “Sammy!” to another, a name I just grabbed on impulse. Sammy was also one of the PC’s names…

And my toddlers both just turned it back around!