Goodman Games

On fairly short notice, I'm running a game for our falling-back-and-regrouping-'cause-a-few-members-left group...

I'm going to use Kurasawa's Hidden Fortress as the backbone of the storyline (Last surviving royal needs to be returned to homeland through hostile territory) and mixing in Temple of the Dragon Cult along the way. The heroes will have to protect a young princess while they lead her through hostile territory (Thay, from the Forgotten Realms, if anyone is curious) while also transporting a large amount of gold, which is not only heavy, but stamped with the symbol of the princess' homeland (Aglarond, iaic). IF the PC's go with the same approach from the film, they may try to cross the border into Thesk, which would be less heavily patroled than the disputed border between Thay and Aglarond....

I'm forseeing wilderness encounters, run-ins with soldiers, curious locals in towns and cities, the princess being difficult, weather causing trouble.... I'm seeing the opportunity of Temple of the Dragon Cult as a chance for them to 'justify' lugging around a lot of treasure and thus avoid that particular bit of trouble ("we eaarnned it!").

Basically, are there any ideas that jump into your head that you'd like to share... I can use all the collective consciousness I can get to pull this together into something more than just playable.

I know how I'm pulling the adventurers together in a city, then getting them to the 'hidden fortress', and attendant stuff going on there..., but beyond that nothing has really crystalized yet. Maybe you've got what seems like an obvious encounter/obstacle that I haven't thought of.... (I hope!)