Maybe a Bloodhound from the Complete Adventurer.
Duergar would be an excellent choice. They could even use standard slaver tactics.
What setting BTW?
|
While Duergar would be an excellent choice, I know MY clan would NEVER stoop to deal with the fallen of our kind. Even to reclaim our treasures we would never trust the Duegar.
However, the Tengu is a race well suited to the art of assassination. There would be little chance of a direct connection back to our people (except for maybe the dwarven coins the soon to be dead assassins carry) and our honor remains untainted.
The Tengu are a GREAT race in my opinion and VERY underused. They would make a great segueway to that part of the game. Essentially giving the evil thieving elves, I mean PCs, a chance to return the dwarven items to their PROPER owners.
The Tengu are a GREAT race in my opinion and VERY underused. They would make a great segueway to that part of the game. Essentially giving the evil thieving elves, I mean PCs, a chance to return the dwarven items to their PROPER owners.
For the second time since the dwarves couldn't figure out that's what the PC's were doing the first time they tried to do so.
May I suggest a Shadow Assassin?
Hyrum.
Super Genius Games
"We err on the side of awesome."
|
|
May I suggest a Shadow Assassin?
Hyrum.
Super Genius Games
"We err on the side of awesome."
lol no self promoting there at all lol
The question is, what would make an interesting type of assassin(s) for dwarves to use?
Short answer (pun intended): Dwarves would never use assassins in the first place.
I quote (with the most relevant bits bolded):
Alignment and Religion: Dwarves are driven by honor and tradition, and while they are often satirized as standoffish, they have a strong sense of friendship and justice, and those who win their trust understand that, while they work hard, they play even harder—especially when good ale is involved. Most dwarves are lawful good.
Assassination is not honorable, and it's defintely not lawful good. Sure, maybe the handful of honorless evil dwarves took it upon themselves to hire the assassins, but that doesn't sound like your description that makes it sound like a clan is trying to regain honor by reclaiming treasured dwarven relics.
No, they would send a war party to honorably confront the elven thieves, maybe give them a chance to negotiate and repent their thieving elven ways, and then take the dwarven stuff by force if negotiation fails. They would try to bring those thieving elves to justice, either swift battlefield justice if no other choice presents itself, or maybe back to their clan for a trial and a suitable period of imprisonment (and since elves can live up to 750 years old, a "suitable period" could be many centuries locked in a dark dwarven dungeon).
That would be the honorable, and LG, way to deal with thieves.
I think Dwarfs would prefer to reclaim the items themselves, but they might use summoned earth elementals and magical constructs like stone golems for support. A team of dwarf rangers and rogues backed up by a cleric and a golem or some earth elementals could be interesting.
Actually, before you send assassins after the PCs, you might have the dwarves try sending a merchant or other emissary.
Since most Dwarves actually do try to be honorable, would they not attempt to negotiate for the items first? (Especially if the Dwarves know that the party did attempt to return them already.)
A smurfne-I mean Svirfneblin!
*Looks around suspiciously*
Hey...pssst...let me tell you a secret. They use...
That way no one suspects a thing.
Zo
Have to agree, the average Dwarven outpost/town/city would be hard-pressed to find assassins. Likely they would send out a search-party to find the 'thieves' in question and bring them back to justice.
This likely includes a mid-level Ranger to track the party, a mid-level Diviner to keep magical track of the PCs and low-to-mid level Fighters, all mounted on prevered Dwarven mounts, Deep-Hounds or Gryphons, set in a logical search pattern and through sendings to allied communities to ensure the PCs have no way to escape without resorting to powerful magic, which could be sensed, and tracked (Assuming you go by the house-ruling that everyone's magic gives off a unique 'aura' of sorts).
Also, don't forget Lawful Good doesn't mean Archon-approved all the time for Mortals. The thefts might very well push the Dwarves over into righteous rage, and the PCs might very well NOT get the chance to plead for mercy or hand back the items if a particularly hot-headed or honor-obessed Dwarf leader decides it's time to sort the pointy-eared dandies and fops out, once and for all.
Other things that the Dwarves might send after the PCs are 'tamed' Earth Elementals (preferably Small Earth Elementals using their earth-glide to track the PCs and keep a close eye on them so the Dwarves can know exactly where they are), Giant Eagles the Dwarven community(communities) have befriended, Goliaths, Human trappers and poachers that depend upon the Dwarves for their needs and would be happy to 'get in good' with the Dwarves by bringing back both treasures and PCs for a bounty.... and of course, the PCs might very well run into a party of Orcs or other Dwarf-hostile creatures following their own goals, who would be happy to further rub salt into the injury the PCs have created by defiling those treasures in the name of the Orcs (or other Dwarf-hostile creatures).
If I wanted to bring a down a particularly tough enemy, I would send inevitables.
|
The problem with 'outsourcing' a task like this is that then you've got professional thieves and killers in possession of the very dwarven items you wished to liberate.
The dwarves would deal with it personally, IMO, and have agents dedicated to 'item recovery' and 'theft prevention' and 'security' (who have levels in Rogue to steal stuff back that rightly belongs to the dwarves, or to silence craftsmen of other races who learn 'dwarven secrets' like how to craft adamantine or mithril and start undercutting 'honest, hard-working dwarves').
Just because the culture is *generally* Lawful and Good, doesn't mean that every dwarf is, or that they don't have 'secret agencies' or 'corporate espionage' or 'holy warriors' willing to kill for the dwarven cause.
Tactics could range from outright theft attempts (unsubtle, prone to getting one's best agents messily killed) to attempting to undermine the group's other financial resources or seize some assets (or *people!*) that the PCs need or care about, and then use those seized assets (perhaps even blackmail-worthy 'assets') as leverage to get the items they really want.
"Yes, hand over the dwarven relics, and we'll let your Cohort / Familiar / Companion / girlfriend / brother go, safe and sound. What? No, I didn't bring them here, but they're safe. Here's a one-use scrying crystal, so that you can see that they are alive. For now. Yes, that is water they are sitting in, and yes, it is rising as we speak... Tick tock."
"Also, I'll throw in this dagger, which, you'll notice, is your dagger. The only person other than you that has touched it was under nondetection, and will not show up to divination magic, and was disguised as you via change self. The guard whose throat he slit was quite popular, being the Holy High Justicator of Iomedae's (Heironeous, Torm, Corean, Paladine, whomever) favorite nephew, and her investigation *will* involve divination magic, and *will* lead straight to you, who were drunk and unconscious in the next room at the same inn, thanks to the prostitute I paid to slip a little spice in your ale. Give us the items, and I'll make this investigation go away, with the dagger being found in the possession of a failed apprentice from the School of Illusion, expelled for using his magic to steal academy property, and now making his living running small cons and swindles in the foreign quarter."
evil DM stuff
I want to party with you, cowboy.
No, they would send a war party to honorably confront the elven thieves, maybe give them a chance to negotiate and repent their thieving elven ways, and then take the dwarven stuff by force if negotiation fails. They would try to bring those thieving elves to justice, either swift battlefield justice if no other choice presents itself, or maybe back to their clan for a trial and a suitable period of imprisonment (and since elves can live up to 750 years old, a "suitable period" could be many centuries locked in a dark dwarven dungeon).That would be the honorable, and LG, way to deal with thieves.
I'm not sure I would necessarily have the dwarves try to negotiate for the items. It's known that they've already ditched out on the task of taking the items to the one clan and sullied them in combat.
I can certainly see an above-board attempt to go through the local authorities, pursuing a suit with the local lord/mayor/council and having the cash to properly "influence" the authorities. I can also see a direct violent confrontation which wouldn't really take them out of the professional assassin category, as it were, even if there were no members of the assassin prestige class present. But I can also see setting up an ambush to beat the tar out of the elves for their affrontery. Dwarves may hold family honor high, but getting the drop on a bunch of thieving elves and retrieving special dwarven items is sure to bring much family honor.
One thing's for sure, dwarves carry grudges - long grudges. I'd set up a number of attempts to retrieve the items over the rest of the PCs' careers if they don't return the items. It wouldn't be constant, but it would be frequent enough to show the dwarves mean deadly business.
Yeah I agree they wouldnt send assassins but would send an Inquisitor whos job is to retrieve "stolen" dwarven items. He would have a retinue of useful characters Ranger for Tracking, Diviner for finding, Rogue for sneaking, Cleric for healing and a group of Dwarven fighters to take and deal damage
I recommend earth elementals to find and watch the party. Then, when the party moves into a wilderness or better yet mountain areaas part of their next adventure griffon born troops harry them. Avenus of retreat are cut off by fire/avalanch/magic/troops and the party is forced to hole up in an old wizards tower. Dwarves lay seige. Offer, once, free passage in return for the items.
On receiving an unsatasfactory answer the tower is uindermined and collapsed on the party. The items are removed from the rubble.
Alternately the dwarven merchant cartells put the word out that anyone who aids, speaks to or trades with the party will no longer be welcome to trade with them. Along with this shunning word will go out to LG and LN groups that the cartells are very interested in the recovery of the stolen items and will grant favorable trading status to the nation or group that returns the items.
In short think long term and indirect.
The dwarves might simply offer to buy the stuff off the PC's. It's simpler and allows you to adjust the pc wealth which is also your goal.
~will
If you are hell bent on Assassins Look at Darkfolf they make great Assassins throw in a level of shadowdancer and they are hiding in plain site running up and killing people
|
Wednesday night is the official first night of my 3.5 campaign converted to pathfinder. The party is 9th level, but only 3 of the 4 players will be there: elf druid, elf rogue and half-elf ranger.
I need a good idea for an assassination attempt. The party came across a dwarven thrower and belt of dwarvenkind, which they were going to deliver to one dwarven clan but another clan tried to kill them for it, so they just left the dwarven lands altogether and have been carrying the stuff around for a while. They made use of it in a big battle recently and word has gotten back to the dwarves where the PCs are, so they are going to try and get their stuff "back".
The question is, what would make an interesting type of assassin(s) for dwarves to use? Who would they hire? Recruit? Send? Against elves, and worse yet elves in possession of and making use of some of their most treasured items?
I could use an NPC party -- mostly or all dwarves -- especially since I need to "drop some loot" on the PCs to get them in the right GP range for 9th level (I do an audit every couple levels and I am way off, both too high and too low depending on the character). But that seems kind of boring. I have never introduced duegar before. Good choice?
For reference: these dwarves are pretty typical D&D dwarves, if a little bit closer to the greedy clannish sorts than normal.
An evil halfling assassin would be my choice. Elves tend to think of halflings as quaint little *watch your purse" buggers. They might be so haughty as it would never enter their head that the halfling was out to kill em. Finding an evil halfling might be more difficult
|
|
Hobgoblin mercenaries.
Dwarves and orcs have racial antipathy. Elves and hobgoblins have racial antipathy.
A secret dwarven/hobgoblin alliance is forming, where a hobgoblin mercenary warlord has been outfitted with dwarven-forged weapons and armor as payment to annhilate the local orcish tribes. The hobgoblins, no matter how cruel, are vastly preferable neighbors (by dwarven standards) than the orcs, as the local feeling goes. (The dwarves, obviously, are taking a short-sighted view here, as the undisciplined orcish tribes would never really be able to organize and be more than the annoyance they've been over the last few centuries, while a structured and expansionistic hobgoblin culture forming right at the dwarven doorstep is an invitation to *disaster,* but certain high-ranking dwarves are playing on the people's loathing of orcs, and characterizing the hobgoblins as a small force of mercenaries that will probably die driving off the orcs anyway, and be easy to mop up afterwards by the rested dwarven forces.)
Some of the dwarves involved in the 'getting back the artifacts' faction are part of the backroom negotiations with the hobgoblin warlord, and arrange for some additional support in return for a hobgoblin hit team to be sent after those froufy honorless elves.
The dwarven plan is to travel behind the hobgoblin team, and take possession of the plundered dwarven artifacts after the hobgoblins kill the elves. (Or, if the elves win, attack the now-weakened elves, hoping to finish them off.)
But the sight of victorious hobgoblins hefting sacred dwarven relics may cause some of the following dwarves to forget the agreement, not trusting to hobgoblin honor, and attack their allies rather than allow these items to spend one second longer in non-dwarven hands, possibly giving some 'not-quite-dead-yet' elves a chance to recover and escape in the confusion!
Lots of great replies. Thanks everyone. Some won't work, simply because they don't jive with the established setting and/or situation.
More details: The party came across the items in a hoard and kept them. later on, a dwarf they knew suggested that the dwarves of his clan would pay a very high price -- double going rate -- for the items. The possession of dwarven relics, it seems, greatly enhances not just the social standing but the political power of a dwarf clan. When the PCs begin the journey to the dwarf city to "return" the items, the captain of the guard of the gate city to the dwarven realm "invites" the PCs to stay in his keep as his "guests" until such time as he can accompany them to the dwarf capital. It turns out that he is from a rival clan and his intent is to kill the party on a mountain trail and take the items (he was informed of what they were carrying through a bribed messenger). The PCs decided that rather than fight, they would flee and made their escape. The evil captain of the guard has been searching for them ever since, as has the original clan to which the items were to be delivered. Since the PCs used the items in a major campaign event, stories of their actions have spread and now the dwarves know where to find them. But the party is not in dwarven lands, and in any case they aren't overly fond of dwarves in general and hate the captain in particular. The captain would prefer to just have them killed and the items brought to him, while the original "buyers" would like the items and the fate of the PCs is irrelevant as long as the thrower and belt end up in their clan hall.
Okay, given that the 'Evil Guard Captain' is working for his Clan, we can assume he has a lot of Gold and Favours to call in, and the 'Buying' Clan just wants the damn items, and hang what happens to the Elves.
An interesting twist to throw to the PCs is 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'. The 'Buyer' Clan has sent one of their most respected members, along with an honor-party, to track down the PCs and hand over the item's agreed-upon price in Platinum Bars, meaning that the payment is easily carried and concealed, but the Evil Captain has, again, bribed a messenger and ambushed the honor-party, slaying all but a handful of Dwarves through mercenaries (preferably exiled Dwarves or some other group that would kill without remorse to 'get in good' with the Evil Captain's Clan) while the PCs are attacked by the Evil Captain's clan-folk disguised with the clan-markings of the 'Buyer' Clan.
The PCs get a chance to discover something isn't quite right when they kill their ambushers, noting with either a perception check, a sense motive check, intimidate check or knowledge (local) check that these Dwarves don't belong to the Clan whose colors they carry. A short while later, they stumble across the 'Buyer' Clan's ambassador and the remains of his Honor Guard and things begin to click into place. The PCs now know that the attacks are coming from one specific party in the Dwarven community, and they are beginning to understand that the attacks and ambushes will never stop until the Items in Question are back in Dwarven hands .... any Dwarven hands.
Do the PCs throw away the gold just to be rid of the aggravation, go in balls out and, with the aid of the ambassador and his remaining honor guard, pin the Captain to the proverbial and political Wall with irrefutable evidence of his deeds and watch the Evil Captain's own Clan disown him rather than risk mass disgrace, or do they stubbornly hold onto the items for the power they bring in battle.
In terms of assassins, you would be looking at profoundly evil folk at best, and a Half-Orc Assassin would be an excellent choice, given that nobody would think to link Dwarves to an Orc-Blooded murderer, and a Half-Orc would hate Elves more than anything for being 'pretty and graceful', everything he (or better yet, she!) could never truly claim to be.
Alternatively, a clandestine order of Lawful Evil Dwarven Monks, cultivated specifically by the Evil Captain's Clan, could be sent out to hunt down the PCs. As I've said before, with a High Reflex Save, they're rarely at risk of poisoning themselves, and given shuriken are treated as throwing weapons, nothing is stopping these Monks-come-Assassins from loading up 10 shuriken each with a variety of different poisons, knowing full well that the PCs can't possibly save against every g!!#&#n throw, at least one of them has got to stick, and with their greater speed and Dwarven toughness, the Monks can run circles around the Elves, destroy the Casters and pick off the Melee.
If the PCs are high enough, You could possibly be an even greater prick to them and have the leader of the Monks run over to their Arcane Caster, hit him/her with a Quivering Palm and then a Stunning Attack, then activate the ability, potentially killing the Arcane Caster outright and potentially crippling the party's chance to either escape via teleportation magic or their ability to deny the Evil Captain's demands if the monks then up and run off with the body!
How about this:
1. "Good" Dwarf ambassador shows up with local officials to complete the deal.
2. Deal goes through.
3. Good Dwarf gets ambushed on way home by 1/2 Elven mercenaries who pin the blame on PCs.
4. PCs are now hunted by Local officials, bounty hunters, and Dwarven Heroes.
5. PC's must track down mercs to clear their name, which includes returning items to good dwarves who have already paid for them.
I would sent a dwarven party after them, as DM_Blake already stated.
One Tracker, one diviner and some muscles to convince the "thief" to surrender without resistance.
As Lawful Good doesn't mean stupid and Dwarves are great tacticians, I will choose a narrow chasm, where the numbers and range of the player didn't count and lay an ambush there.
Some dwarven Archers atop of the chasm, some fighters (maybe barbarianbs, i like the one from the Drizzt books^^) in their back, and a few in front (commander, Cleric and some defender).
First of all I would allow negations, but at a high price (banned forever from all dwarven lands/societies (this means dwarven blacksmiths, too^^) etc.), nobody double-cross a dwarf. ;)
If this fails, then they learn why dwarfs favored class is fighter. :) This will finally lead to the same result, banishment from the dwarven lands.
Later the story could turn that the player need the help of the mountain kings and then we have a nice dilemma... but this is another story.
Summary: No assasins! Dwarfs would do it by themself in a direct confrontation.
Edit:
The idea of HalfOrcHeavyMetal is also very nice. :)