[@King Kindred] Thank you. I have DM'd on this site on and off for 15 years and DM'd tabletop constantly for the last 8 years and if that experience has taught me anything is that situations like this will happen and i call them "A Bob Ross Moment"

The Bob Ross moment is when something has happened, due to nobody in particulars fault. Like, this wasn't expected, this wasn't planned, in the DM's perfect world, this was NEVER supposed to happen. But someone has made a series of decisions where you realize that the culmination of what was supposed to happen is probably not gonna. You then have 2 options. Carefully, craftily steer the RP back to where you wanted it to go, get the players back on the DM's masterfully create track with them having no idea this wasn't part of your carefully crafted, Machiavellian scheme... Or you can steer into it. Let the players have some actually natural, authentic moments where things just went a way you had NO idea it was going to go. And as it happens, you start realizing a story path you never considered before that you can take the players down which is just as good as before. [url=https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KKN-qE2bRuU]It wasn't a mistake, it was just a happy little accident[/url] As such: The Bob Ross Moment.