As Misha explains your mission for the Pathfinder Society, the Elder looks surprised, and interrupts telling you, "a few months ago, a young human wizard, lets see, name was ......, ah yes, Aogarn. He had a sizeable retinue of armored warriors, all Morudhain stock. They purchased some supplies and left the town to go further into the underdark, seeking Athan Ruins.. He was quite eccentric, and quite driven, but we attributed his strangeness to the fact that he was a human.... Ah, no offense intended."
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"No offense taken, I am well acquainted with the strange and erratic behavior of human wizards." Josef offers a grin as he says this, obviously floating above the ground, wearing armor and carrying weapons.
"What kind of fighter is this Daen'Syn? A swordsman, magic user, or some combination of the two?"
"I say you have provided us with useful information," Rikar says, "and a worthwhile way to spend some time, ridding this place of the drow menace."
Chuckling at Josef's making fun of himself, he turns to his companions and says, "I'm sure we'll have more questions, to prepare ourselves for this task, but I'm in favor of taking the job. What do you all think?"
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"Ridding the world of some more evil drow slavers, helping out some underground gnome folks, getting paid at the same time? Sure, sounds like a win-win situation to me."
Josef bares his teeth in a fairly gruesome smile, "Besides, I have this new spell I'd like to try out, see if it works like it seems it should."
Misha silently takes special note of their mentioning the sapphire tear. "I agree, this is more than worth doing. But yes, more information would be helpful. How long have the drow been here? Also, should we deal with Daen'Syn first, or the priestess -- would one send forces to bolster the other?"
"Daen'Syn, like most of the drow males is mostly fighter with some arcane skills. He is the captain of the guard in town" the Elder responds to Josef.
"The drow have been here a few years now, and have thoroughly scared the masses. That is why their guard has been slipping, and now would be a good time to overthrow them. If you killed Daen'Syn, his men would most likely fight for a while then run back to the base with the priestess and reinforce her. If you could slip out of the city, and take out their base, then come back here and take out the guards, they would end up running back to the base, see it was decimated and end up heading back to the drow city much further underground, and hopefully not return" he replies to Misha
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"This sounds like a great time to utilize some traps and non-attended items. Kreig, think you could rig something up so when the boys run back to drow-mama, they all blow up, or get poisoned, or what have you? A large rolling rock on fire would also be fantastic."
Josef looks at his party with a sidelong glance before speaking to the svirfneblin leader in gnome.
"Of course, our classic 'drop them in pits and shoot them with arrows while Rikar turns their swordsmen into mist' plan seems to work fairly well. I'm game either way, to be honest."
"Is the way we came from the drow base the only route between here and there?" Therena asks.
"The base is currently on a higher alert since we .... made our presence known there." Telman says with a grim smile. "Might be that dealing with the drow here while they are unawares would be easier than going back to meet the priestess head-on."
"But traps and ambush tactics seem to be the order of the day. Elder, can you provide a map of the city, and point out places like exit tunnels, where Daen'Syn is holed up, things like that? And everything you know about him and his forces so we can plan."
Josef's got a good idea--if the answer to Therena's question is 'yes.' We also have to be sure the drow can't teleport. But if they were to retreat to base, then yes, trapping their only route back could be devastating. The question is then, how are we sure that route would be the only one back."
Rikar listens along attentively as the others discuss strategy.
Responding to Josef query in Ghomish,
Also, responding to Therena but in common, "yes, the tunnel you came down is the only way back to the drow area. We had explored this area quite thoroughly before the arrival of the drow and am sure of that. Leaving our city to the southeast away from the drow, is a series of tunnels that go further down into the mountain."
As Misha mentions teleportation, the Elder grins, "one of the reasons we settled in this area, besides this huge cavern, mineral and gemstone deposits, is because teleportation and dimensional spells do not work here. We believe that it has something to do with the ancient Athan civilization, but do not care why, only that we know that they fail."
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"Okay, that helps. I was wondering about that dimension door failure from before. If the area itself is the cause, that explains quite a lot about this civilization, and the fact that no-one from the surface has been down here fr so long."
Pulling out a bit of parchment, Josef sketches out the entrance tunnel to the city and holds out the pen to the councillor. "Could you indicate any drow strong points, or any areas we should be aware of ambush areas, weapon caches, or the like?"
Misha smiles. "Ah, that explains it. It messed us up a little while ago, but that is definitely reassuring."
She looks at the crew in general and then particularly to Krieg, "What do you think? Can we trap the passage?"
Kreig scratches at his beard, lighting a cigar and nodding. "Yeah, reckon I can put up a trap in one or two passages...
A-Team Build Montage
Kreig cannibalizes the remaining wolf trap for the coiled springs cutting them down for separate arcs of springy metal. Then he sets about constructing 3 wooden platforms, 1x3 feet and screwing in three hand crossbows to each. Each crossbow will be loaded with a drow poisoned bolt. When triggered by proximity, the curved metal arcs spring the triggers simultaneously, launching the arrows down range.
Here's my calculations on the trap:
》Perception DC 29 (+2 to CR)
》Disable Device DC 20 (no addition to CR)
》Reflex Save DC 20 (no addition to CR)
》Attack Bonus +15 (+1 to CR)
》Average Damage 20 (+2 x3 to CR)
》Total DC 30
Taking the parchment from Josef, he puts an "X" on it. "This is where the drow have taken over the old city guard building and use it as a barracks, and headquarters. As far as Daen'Syn, if he is not there, he once or twice a day goes out on patrol. Also stationed in the building is P’toech, the drow, humph, ambassador. He is worse then Daen'Syn, and he also is a warrior with magic skills. I suspect he is also a coward, and if you defeat Daen'Syn, he will run back to the drow spire and report to the clerics there."
He also makes marks on the map, near the tunnel entrances, one to the west, which he says is the way back to the drow spire area, and one to the east which leads to a series of tunnels that go further down into the mountain.
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GM:
"That is valuable intelligence. If we can remain out of their sight, we might be able to ambush the patrol and assume their role on return to the Guard house. If they can't teleport away, we have plenty of ability to slow them down on foot and impede their visibility. The priestess might never get the word they have been hit, in that case."
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Kreig nods grimly as he sets the spring wire on the crossbow device. He looks at the camera, breaking the 4th wall, "Yup. Sounds about right, bub."
+2 Underground
+6 Underground
Having decided to setup a trap for anyone trying to escape back to the drow spire, you, along with three gnome warriors, quietly head to the tunnel to the west of the svirfneblin city and continue down the corridor, perhaps one hundred yards, till Kreig announces, that this would be a good spot for his new contraption. Setting up the trap{LINK} takes perhaps thirty minutes and after insuring that all is ready you head back into the gnome city.
As your next step is to find a drow patrol, the gnomes take you to an area, while near the barracks that the drow have taken over, is not so close that too many reinforcements will arrive to soon. Walking the streets, you soon are noticed by a drow patrol. There are eight drow, one that is obviously in charge and seven others. The one in charge, has his men spread out a bit, "you there. Surrender yourselves, drop your weapons, or die."
"Hmmm," Rikar says loudly, as if considering surrender, before shaking his head and responding, "Naah. We'll kill you instead." With a tip of his head at Latys, he moves forward, waiting for the great cat to bound into position behind the guards before he swings his scythe, cutting two of them badly!
Latys leaps past the line of startled guards, biting fiercely at one that Rikar has already wounded and bringing him down!
Knowing that the entire plan hinges on surprise, Telman targets the officer to ensure that he cannot escape to report back to his superiors. As he puts the first arrows to the string he reaches out with his senses, feeling the arcane energy of Josef nearby, and draws that energy in as he releases.
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Misha draws her weapons (), moves into a position where Krieg can hopefully flank with her, and swings Super Slice at one of the drow.
Therena shakes her head and quickly drops a haste spell on the party to ensure a quick finish and that none of the drow will be able to escape them.
Therena would have already put her customary Mage armour spells on herself and Latys.
Kreig follows Misha into the fray his twin daggers flashing and one flying as he flanks with the resourceful Pathfinder...
...no sooner than the dagger slams home then it blinks back to his scabbard at his waist. His second dagger plunges for the drow's side, hungering for the sweet spot between the ribs...
...but the drow guard is too wily, turning his attack aside with a scimitar!
"Why you slippery lil varmint..." His hand goes for his short sword like a spiteful magic trick and he slashes for the kill...
The guard falls, much to Kreig's satisfaction.
Kreig watches as his short sword cuts the smuggly-grinning head from the drow's shoulders...
vs DC 18
Telman fires three arrows quickly at the officer, so he can not retreat and warn the others and even though some of the elemental damage is shrugged off, the arrow damage alone is enough to kill the drow. He then holds off his final arrow till he can drop one of the guards that only is wounded. Therena casts a haste spell on the group. Josef casts a slow spell on the drow, and while three of them are not affected the other four are. RIkar moves up to the closest guard and kills it, and wounds one. Latys moved to the wounded one, and kills it as well as damaging another, while Telman fires his last arrow and kills that one also. Misha moves up and sets up a flank on one of the guards, while wounding it slightly, and Kreig finishes it off, and then kills another.
With the officer and five of the guards down, the remaining two flee towards the barracks area, however one of them is moving quite slowly. One of the svirfneblin says, "well that will bring another patrol, and perhaps the captain of the guard. Prepare yourselves."
"Let's get into a position where if, when we fight the others, they retreat, it's easy for them to run into Krieg's trap."
Kreig cleans the blood off his sword and puts it away. "Sounds like bacon on the skillet ta this ol' dwarf."
"Only takes one to get the other patrol coming ...."
With Therena's speed magic still affecting him Telman takes aim at the fleeing drow and lets arrows fly....probably more arrows than are needed to do the job of taking down one of the retreating elves.
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+2 Underground
+6 Underground
As the two remaining drow guards flee, Telman puts two arrows into the closest one, killing him, and then wounds the other one as a reminder of the power of the group.
You regroup, and prepare for the inevitable return of another patrol, however, this time it is not just a patrol that you see rounding the corner, but a full compliment of warriors and officers. A quick count shows that there are about twenty four warriors, and three officers leading the charge.
As they approach, one of the officers, simply says, "For Matron K’lbana! Kill them!" and they charge.
Seeing the approaching force, Rikar calls out, "Same dance as before, folks! Telman, you know what to do with the officers - show 'em they're no safer hanging back from the fight!"
He then strides forward, waiting as always for Latys to bound into position before striking. With a single swing of his fiery scythe, he cuts down the first of the guards, then uses the momentum of his blade to strike the next!
Latys leaps into position behind the front rank of soldiers, then spins and bites at the wounded guard! She doesn't quite kill the man, but she knocks him to the ground!