My players started the first adventure in Jzadirune and were lucky so far. They could quickly overcome the initial two Skulks without raising a general alarm and even succeeded in capturing the one Skulk with the silver key for the rat cage. That one pleaded for his life and told them of the elevator to the Malachite Fortress.
So the group immediately went there, killing the Hobgoblin guards and taking the elevator down. In the fortress they just killed the Stone Guardian and the polymorphed Ogre/Oythug.
Everything went smooth so far. Now my question to you veteran GMs out there.
1. Do you think, that the fight with the Stone Guardian is loud enough to alert the Hobgoblins in the Main Entrance Hall ? And how would you conduct retaliation on the PCs during a general alarm ?
2. Eventually the Dark Creepers and remaining Skulks will find there dead comrades and know that something went wrong. How would you play that out ? Would you let them descend through the elevator ? Setup a trap, when the group comes back ? Or maybe disabling the elevator, to prevent the group from coming back that way ?
Although this last option would force the PCs to take the Underdark passage. And I am not so sure, that I want to get into this.
If you have any thoughts on this or run into some similar situations let me know.
By the way, the group is already 3rd level with 7 PCs, so I think I can give them a hard time anyway. they are a little overpowered, if I play it tame.
My players started the first adventure in Jzadirune and were lucky so far. They could quickly overcome the initial two Skulks without raising a general alarm and even succeeded in capturing the one Skulk with the silver key for the rat cage. That one pleaded for his life and told them of the elevator to the Malachite Fortress.
So the group immediately went there, killing the Hobgoblin guards and taking the elevator down. In the fortress they just killed the Stone Guardian and the polymorphed Ogre/Oythug.
Everything went smooth so far. Now my question to you veteran GMs out there.
1. Do you think, that the fight with the Stone Guardian is loud enough to alert the Hobgoblins in the Main Entrance Hall ? And how would you conduct retaliation on the PCs during a general alarm ?
2. Eventually the Dark Creepers and remaining Skulks will find there dead comrades and know that something went wrong. How would you play that out ? Would you let them descend through the elevator ? Setup a trap, when the group comes back ? Or maybe disabling the elevator, to prevent the group from coming back that way ?
Although this last option would force the PCs to take the Underdark passage. And I am not so sure, that I want to get into this.
If you have any thoughts on this or run into some similar situations let me know.
By the way, the group is already 3rd level with 7 PCs, so I think I can give them a hard time anyway. they are a little overpowered, if I play it tame.
Sounds a lot like my group, only they've just arrived in the Malachite Fortress
1) You mean the hobgoblins in M6 hear a battle in M3? Look at the Listen check skill. To hear a battle is DC -10, +15 for the intervening stone door, +1 for every 10 feet (call it 50). That gives you a listen check DC of 10. Give the hobgoblins a listen check each round to hear the battle. (I'd only do 1 listen check)
2) The 3 options you give have the skulks at the elevator. How would they know that the intruders went down the elevator? If they did know that they went down, I don't think they'd pursue, I'd say they are afraid of Kazmojen. Seems more likely that they would check on Ghelve first. If he's not there or something is wrong, they might watch that exit to see who is causing the trouble. (After searching their complex to make sure not still there)
1) You mean the hobgoblins in M6 hear a battle in M3? Look at the Listen check skill. To hear a battle is DC -10, +15 for the intervening stone door, +1 for every 10 feet (call it 50). That gives you a listen check DC of 10. Give the hobgoblins a listen check each round to hear the battle. (I'd only do 1 listen check)
2) The 3 options you give have the skulks at the elevator. How would they know that the intruders went down the elevator? If they did know that they went down, I don't think they'd pursue, I'd say they are afraid of Kazmojen. Seems more likely that they would check on Ghelve first. If he's not there or something is wrong, they might watch that exit to see who is causing the trouble. (After searching their complex to make sure not still there)
They know that someone went down, because the two Hobgoblin guards are dead and the elevator is down. Seems pretty obvious to me :-))
I think you are right concerning their tactics. the Skulks and Dark Creepers seem rather cowardly. So they will probably first checkout what's going on and deciding then how to proceed.