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Have you ever had a party get so stuck, they start killing stone giants by the dozen?
Our party initially tried the blunt force method of culling the giant threat in the Valley of the Black Tower. Using several types of hit-and-run tactics, we've killed somewhere between 30-40 stone giants, 2 rocs, 3 red dragons, 4 night wyverns, 2 mammoths, and a fist-full of ogres and hill giants. We've also checked the three cave systems, finding what looks to be the dragon nests and a undead spiders' lair.
However, the party is not content to explore the giant gaping hole in the ground while there's still juicy targets above ground. Mokmurian has been clued into what the adventuring party is doing, and the last time we raided, he dimension doored in with a lamia and disintegrated our sorcerer.
The party is currently all 13th level, and has a sorcerer who specializes in save or die/lose spells, a black-bladed magus of Sarenrae, a cleric of Shelyn, a rogue 5/shadowdancer 8, and an archer fighter.
Here's the question: What could I do as the cleric to help get us inside? My proposals have been to capture and charm/quest, control weather to mask our stealthy entry, scry and teleport directly to Mokmurian's location, and a wind walk with (the sorcerer's) invisibility with a rushing plunge down the pit all seem to be rejected by the party.
I'm at a loss, and your ideas could really help. I'm trying to stop a catastrophic loss of giant life, and the avoidance of a green-bolt-of-death from the big boss would be ideal.
What can you think of?
perhaps there is a connection between the caves systems and the hole in the ground... i mean they both lead into the earth. But if the party doesn't want to go until they're all dead above thats another issue entirely.
Whats the parties alignment? When the US went into WWII they didn't say, "kill every soldier wearing a swastika," they knew many of them were scared and simply following the chain of command. My point is not every member of an army is your enemy. As a cleric it might help to point out that some of these giants may be content to just go home after their leader is taken out than die trying to protect their misguided tribesmen, and ending their lives would be immoral.
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Fair enough, and the players know that killing all giants is a bad idea. The characters, however? Blood-thirst for some, fear at being trapped with an army behind for others.
Our magus is NG, cleric is NG, shadowdancer CN, archer is N, sorcerer is LN (with the occasional slide towards LE).
We've explored the cave system in-character, and do not suspect cave system connection. Metagame? Sure, there's probably a hole or something in there. Can we re-convince the characters to investigate where they've investigated? Not really.
Why not? Sometimes when I play skyrim and cant figure something out I doubleback and say "maybe there's something I've missed."
dont get me wrong, I love separating metagame from character knowledge, but sometimes I think we do it so much that we sell our characters short.
I'm not saying there IS something to go looking for, I'm just saying they call them SECRET passageways for a reason.
Actually, at 13th Level, you could ask your Goddess if there is a passage way hiden there.
If I ask my goddess, then she'll say "Yes" or "No". If there's a "Yes" answer, we still have to ask 12 more questions to figure out where it is.
And, at your level, how many questions does Commune give you?
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How stealthy is the group? You mentioned some invisibility it could help. Is there a way to scale the pit? Have you had the opportunity to investigate it closely? There may be a way through the cave system as well but since it was not revealed with your initial investigation, it is likely, if it exists, might not be ideal, or may be well hidden.
I would say from an analysis standpoint, you would likely aim for stealth. Try and find out if the giants have a patrol schedule, see if you can find the weakness in their awareness/preparation... you have already killed quite a few of them, maybe, if Stealth is not the best option, you can either intimidate or use diplomacy to get them to back off while you find their leader. They may be fanatical though, and it may not end well.
Anyway, good luck!