GM Rambles bout campaign and needs help

I'm having some issues with my game and how to connect certain parts of the story. And i'm going to be posting here in an attempt to rattle my brain and maybe get your thoughts. You know how simply talking out loud or saying things to people can help solve problems? Well thats what i'm going for right now.

I'm just going to be talking about my story, my intentions, and my problems so feel free to stick around and help out if youd like, or just ridicule a shitty GM for not railroading and writing everything out.

Plot, Players are working as hired adventurers, a king is using them to meddle in affairs without being publicly linked to these people, essentially he has hired them in secret to do various quests without his enemies knowing and without doing anything publicly illegal.

Players are motivated by personal interests, not even exclusively money, just whatever they agree they want to do, a pretty lax group.

System: doesn't matter, seriously

Currently the situations that the players have been hired to get the aid of a group of shamans with magical soul warping magics, Lycan like transformations, and all this other mysterious GM bullshit magic that wouldn't work normally.

“Yukani” the people who the players have to get on their side. They are based off what if the Forsworn and Native americans lived exclusively in the forest with a magic tree that gives them soul magic. They reward people for big game hunts and your status is proportionate to your skill in your chosen job. They worship a magic tree and follow the orders of their queen, the Queen is linked with the tree spiritually until she dies and a new leader is chosen and then bonds with the magic tree. They live in an area that looks like it used to be a big city but has been massively over run by nature over hundreds of years.

The players arrived, were asked what their business is, the Yukani agreed to let them into their forest if they behave, the players started their business and the Chieftain (one step below queen) says they must pass a ritual the queen gives. He comes back 5 minutes later and says they must collect 1. A strand of pure silver, 2. The last leaf from a dying tree, 3. A drop of the sun.

They went off to the ritual location with the Son of the Chieftain (a standard hunter) where they found a Table with a wooden cup, a circle of trees, one of the trees had a huge gash in it and the leaves were falling off it.

They solved it pretty fast, pure silver thread was silk from a spider on one of the trees, Last leaf they decided to wait until all the other leaves fell off and plucked it, then the drop of the sun they thought about it and one player decided he was gonna sit in the chair and look at the sun, it lined up with the gash in the tree and guessed that the sun would “set” into the cup. (some of you might know where i stole this from) I then offered them to just wait around until the sun sets or they could roleplay , they roleplayed and convinced the chieftains son (name undetermined) to sit down with them to try some food when he was originally told to just watch.

They succeeded and as the sun set into the cup a glowing orange light came from the cup, when the looked in there was an orb the size of a Cutie inside, they took all three objects and returned to the Queen, Upon presenting the items they were permitted to enter, The queen looked sickly and pale, she heard them out and replied by saying “you want us to fight in your war, and give up our kin, in order to get revenge for a king you yourself are not beholden to, and you would pay us with with currency we do not acknowledge. The answer is No” The players said “Fair enough, we did not expect you to” They were told they are allowed to stay here for the night and will be given accomodations, feel free to eat drink and rest as you feel, you'll be treated as guests.

Thats where the last session ended. And thats all the facts established so far, everything after this is going to be more info, random ideas, my plan for the situation, and problems i'm encountering.
cont

Next Step

I need the players to get on the side of the Yukani, they need to convince the queen to risk her family. But the players are unsure entirely how to go about this, as of right now they're gonna go to their lodgings and talk it out.

They do have one “lead” kindof, in the last quest they killed a monster who was using the same magics as these people, only the frowned upon version requiring human sacrifice, the chieftain said this brand of their rituals are bad and they thought they locked it all away.

I have no idea what the lead is going to be that gets them to go, but where they need to end up is the tree, because as it turns out the enemy of the king (he's a lich and well call him Brian) knows that these shamans are dangerous to him but instead of killing them he decided to send one of his generals sneak into the sacred tree and poison it until the queen dies from an unknown illness and theyre not strong enough to be a threat to him.

So as it goes

- queen says no
- something convinces them to head deep into the forest that they currently don't have permission to enter
- have a reasonable encounter on the way to the temple, probably just some creatures
- for some reason they decided to head to the temple and find out that theres an evil undead dude poisoning the tree
- probably some shit like the undead attack the village in order to rally the shamans against Brian

[HUGE BLANK SPOT UNTIL I FIGURE OUT HOW AND WHY THEY HEAD TOWARDS THE TEMPLE]

cont.

Random Facts
- The tree is powered by a magic item called an “Ebonheart” basically ley lines where magical energy gathers and takes physical shape, also super powerful
- The chieftain's son wears a half skull because he has not passed his “graduation” ritual to become a full fledged hunter, i don't know what this ritual is just yet.
- Yukani are supposed to follow strict religious vows, this includes only eating what you kill, the son has eaten food he himself did not kill, he's not very devout in this religion.
- Many generations have lived by this tree, as they progress deeper they will find older and older structures until they reach the temple at the base of the tree.

Ideas
- One of the shamans mentions that the queen is totally sick and they don't know why, when the players aks whats the deal maybe he explains that shes linked to the giant tree and they get the idea to go check out the tree
- One of the shaman witches or whatever whos all cookey says “hey venture into the woods and pick up some herbs n shit and go on a spirit trip and find your answer”
^ i might be able to tie the spirit trip into the bigger plot line and give them some sneak peeks into this evil place they have to head to later, and maybe do a few one on one sessions with the players the week between games.
- On the way to the tree maybe have a creature or two come across the players, because this place is full of dangerous monsters that the shamans hunt for glory

cont

Alright, Now they've reached the temple without knowing that there's someone poisoning the tree. In here i'm gonna have at least 2 sessions worth of content, basically a dungeon.
- Need a puzzle...hmm, what might a temple of souls have for a puzzle
- environmental dangers
- Bugs, IF i have enemies have them just be poisonous bugs to tip the players there might be poison involved
- reach the lower part of the temple where the tree is incorporated into the architecture
- [issue] if i lock the door leading to the heart of the tree how will i justify the undead general waiting in here in case anyone comes looking into why the tree is sick
- they meet the general, have a small fight with him and some enemies he summons
- [what does he have at his disposal?]
- should i have a small section between finding out that theres undead in the tree and reaching the center? Maybe a fight or two?
- coming back to the idea that they raid the village, does he leave the players to fight more of his minions while he charges towards the village to kill them? (why wouldn't he just destroy the heart?)

Random
- the chieftans son goes with them to help them get into the temple
- they help the son complete his ritual and be welcomed
- poison room what requires some clever maneuvering to get through it
- Visions of the sacred tree?
- players might ask the shamans to kill the players enemies for them after this
- Remember that the shamans can do [GM bullshit vague] soul magic
- are there signs that the temple has been tampered with?
- if i don't do the vision with the brew how do i make them have visions of the evil place
- are there rewards in this temple? It's a dungeon and aren't there supposed to be rewards in a dungeon?
- Are there any good challenges for large parties?
- how do i make this temple fun and cool to explore and not just a chore to get through?
- Are there “Guardians” of the temple that come to life to prevent people from getting in?

Cont.

Thanks for hearing me out, i've already made a bunch of progress simply typing this stuff up, i'm running low on juice, gonna go eat and come back in a few. I'm gonna post either more random ideas, answers to any questions even my own, and maybe pictures.

If anyone is willing to kick random ass ideas this way i would appreciate it, i'm stuck in my own little brainbox and i have trouble thnking outside of that box. Getting other peoples random ideas/perspectives is incredibly helpful.

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