|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Okay, I am asking for opinions, in particular from GMs who are familiar with the material, but anyone can chime in. I am spoilering some of it so its not a wall 'o text. Here is the background:
Staglord's Actions: The Staglord has kidnapped someone important to the party. He also has a witch of Gyronna working with him, equipped with a Hat of disguise. He sent Akiros Ismort out into the middle of the Greenbelt, not far from where the party was last seen, to burn a big signal fire on a hilltop for two days. The party found him, and as they approached, he informed them that "I am Akiros Ismort, lieutenant of the Stag Lord, and your hostage". This sort of freaked my party out since they had not expected this.
When they asked him what he meant, he told the party it was for the hostage exchange set to take place at a river ford not far away in two days. He was quite congenial, giving his word not to harm the party, and even agreed to help defend them against wandering monsters if his weapon was returned to him. He as rather agreeable, taking this opportunity to let the party know he doesn't really like the Stag Lord very much, and he relayed his background story to some extent. He implied he was obligated to see this current situation through to the end. The one thing he refused to tell the party who the hostage was, which in truth he does not know. This was the cliffhanger I left my group with for two weeks... :)
My Plan: Originally, I intended for this to be a straight hostage exchange, as an opportunity for the Stag Lord to see up close and meet who his adversaries were without having to resort to combat. Since re-reading his personality, it doesn't really fit. He seems more of a punish my enemies sort of guy so:
Here are some of my choices:
#1 - Simple 1 for 1 hostage exchange
#2 - The Staglord has three hostages, and makes the players choose which gets freed. These would be Svetlanna, the 11yr old brother and heir to the family of the PC leader, and an traumatized elven woman who was rescued by the party and fixated on by one of the players. My plan was to have Svetlanna be the only true hostage, the elf woman to be the witch in disguise (she wouldnt have to say much, since she hasnt really since her first traumatic experience, and this would not surprise the party), and the boy to be a minor creation illusion. This situation will for sure cause disagreement within the party over who to rescue, and the fact there are 3 hostages will upset them as well.
#3 - Straight up ambush
#4 - Lead the party on a wild goose chase, continuing to move the meeting point by a day and a location one hex further south each time, while taking the majority of his forces and attacking Oleg's.
#5 - Something else??
I would appreciate some suggestions, including maybe some I haven't thought of.
|
Okay, I am asking for opinions, in particular from GMs who are familiar with the material, but anyone can chime in. I am spoilering some of it so its not a wall 'o text. Here is the background:
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
Staglord's Actions: The Staglord has kidnapped someone important to the party. He also has a witch of Gyronna working with him, equipped with a Hat of disguise. He sent Akiros Ismort out into the middle of the Greenbelt, not far from where the party was last seen, to burn a big signal fire on a hilltop for two days. The party found him, and as they approached, he informed them that "I am...
Nice twist! How much does Akiros know? Can they charm him and or befriend him and get some great info, insight into the Stag Lord? Does he know who the woman is? What are the defenses at Olegs? I like # 2 and # 4 combined. I would love for them to argue who to save. Maybe they give themselves up.
|
|
Akiros knows and has told the party that the Stag Lord has agents in Tammerling (the town the party started in, where most of their families and friends in Brevoy live) and at Oleg's**. He doesnt know who they are, just as he doesn't know who the hostage is. A side twist is that three of the PCs were absent from the last game session, so they are absolutely convinced that the hostage is one of them.
I also chose not to have him reveal the undead on the sides of the hill, only to say that the fort is heavily fortified. I did allow the party to find out about the Staglord's temper and personality and who the lieutenants are. I gave them a fair number of details since they took the time to question him pretty thoroughly, most of which they can use to figure out how to take advantage of Dovan and the Stag Lord if they work it right. As far as exact count of people, he only knows a range, since the numbers vary from time to time.
**
|
|
Akiros knows and has told the party that the Stag Lord has agents in Tammerling (the town the party started in, where most of their families and friends in Brevoy live) and at Oleg's**. He doesnt know who they are, just as he doesn't know who the hostage is. A side twist is that three of the PCs were absent from the last game session, so they are absolutely convinced that the hostage is one of them.
I also chose not to have him reveal the undead on the sides of the hill, only to say that the fort is heavily fortified. I did allow the party to find out about the Staglord's temper and personality and who the lieutenants are. I gave them a fair number of details since they took the time to question him pretty thoroughly, most of which they can use to figure out how to take advantage of Dovan and the Stag Lord if they work it right. As far as exact count of people, he only knows a range, since the numbers vary from time to time.
**
The spies I would absolutely use, but why wouldn't Akiros tell them about the undead? Does he want the pcs to be surprised by it? Did it just slip his mind? In mine they ended up almost killing Happs and he literally had a life changing experience. They gave him another chance and he helped them out a lot to where they pretty much walked into the Thorn camp and got the jump on everyone. They charmed the chick I don't have my notes in front of me but she told them the password and they asked for any tricks. It was kinda anticlimactic but they planned well rolled well and the rogue while invisible killed the Staglord in his sleep. After that it was a cake walk.
|
|
The spies I would absolutely use, but why wouldn't Akiros tell them about the undead? Does he want the pcs to be surprised by it? Did it just slip his mind?
If it comes up, Akiros only knows that Dovan and some of the other bandits chuckle evilly when speaking of someone approaching the fort from the hillsides. In other words, he doesn't know specifically why its a bad idea, but he did tell the party it is heavily fortified and even he didn't know all its defenses. I did alter the storyline some but putting Akiros at the disposal of the players, but I still want to maintain a few surprises for them.
I don't expect the undead to pose any real threat to the party outside of messing up a sneak-in type assault. There are 9 of them, 10 if you count the druid's AC, so they should be able to handle the undead without too much difficulty at 3rd-4th lvl.
|
|
The spies I would absolutely use, but why wouldn't Akiros tell them about the undead? Does he want the pcs to be surprised by it? Did it just slip his mind?If it comes up, Akiros only knows that Dovan and some of the other bandits chuckle evilly when speaking of someone approaching the fort from the hillsides. In other words, he doesn't know specifically why its a bad idea, but he did tell the party it is heavily fortified and even he didn't know all its defenses. I did alter the storyline some but putting Akiros at the disposal of the players, but I still want to maintain a few surprises for them.
I don't expect the undead to pose any real threat to the party outside of messing up a sneak-in type assault. There are 9 of them, 10 if you count the druid's AC, so they should be able to handle the undead without too much difficulty at 3rd-4th lvl.
The undead situation could be bad if at the same time they are being shot at.
|
|
My party finished their hostage situation tonight in epic fashion. I went with a combination of the above mentioned options #2 and #4.
After making them go to three different hostage trading places which forced them to cross the Shrike River several times, they finally got to the real hostage exchange 4 days later. They Stag Lord's group had some warning since the witch's raven familiar let them know before the party got there, so they were able to buff for 2 rounds before the party arrived.
The alchemist, who in infatuated with the elf woman asked her a question that only she would know, which caused the witch to spring the trap.
She led off with a glitterdust into the middle of the main melee characters in the party, which left them all blinded, except the cavalier's horse, who charged the Stag Lord. The Stag lord took a couple of small hits before backing up and shooting the horse out from under the cavalier, knocking it very far into the negatives. Cavalier managed to dismount in time to not get trapped under the falling horse, but was prone and blinded still.
Meanwhile the enemy oracle of battle was wading into the party, armed with bull strength and enlarge for a 15' reach with a large guisarme. After a devastating hit on the blinded party rogue and two attacks of opportunity that left two fighters prone, the alchemist starting lobbing smoke bombs at him to give his party a chance to regroup.
The witch and druid got into a hex and spell exchange while she was aloft, which resulted in several rounds of successful saves and a few summoned stirges.
The cavalier meanwhile stood up and stumbled after the Stag Lord, only to get shot down to 1 hp, but finally succeeding in clearing the blindness effect from the Glitterdust spell
The party freed Akiros and told him that now was the time for him to decide where his loyalties lay, and he turned to attack the oracle of battle, who was after all a mercenary hired by the Stag Lord.
Meanwhile, the cavalier stepped up, dual wielding kukris on an at-this-point untouched Stag Lord and confirmed a crit, asking for the third card down in the deck I was currently shuffling(he plays across skype so can't draw his own). The card ended up being the Decapitate effect, which the Stag Lord failed, and the screaming from the entire party was deafeaning for several minutes.
The witch flew away after witnessing a one shot kill on a previously untouched Stag Lord, and will likely harass the party another day.
The oracle of battle ended up using his Surprising Charge tactic on the alchemist when he tried to move back and use his longbow, and after several rounds of fighting, rolled a critical hit with the guisarme for 41 points of damage, which left the alchemist dead.
So it was a fight ruled by critical hits, but the party managed to succeed in killing the Stag Lord and rescuing Svetlana. However, right before we broke up for the night, I handed each of them an NPC character sheet from Oleg's so we can play the "Siege of Oleg's" next week. Because the second night, during a big storm and while the party was playing follow the leader with the Stag Lord, the rest of the bandits attacked the outpost!
Just thought I would share this awesome battle with you all, and thanks for your suggestions PJ!
|
|
My party finished their hostage situation tonight in epic fashion. I went with a combination of the above mentioned options #2 and #4.
After making them go to three different hostage trading places which forced them to cross the Shrike River several times, they finally got to the real hostage exchange 4 days later. They Stag Lord's group had some warning since the witch's raven familiar let them know before the party got there, so they were able to buff for 2 rounds before the party arrived.
The alchemist, who in infatuated with the elf woman asked her a question that only she would know, which caused the witch to spring the trap.
She led off with a glitterdust into the middle of the main melee characters in the party, which left them all blinded, except the cavalier's horse, who charged the Stag Lord. The Stag lord took a couple of small hits before backing up and shooting the horse out from under the cavalier, knocking it very far into the negatives. Cavalier managed to dismount in time to not get trapped under the falling horse, but was prone and blinded still.
Meanwhile the enemy oracle of battle was wading into the party, armed with bull strength and enlarge for a 15' reach with a large guisarme. After a devastating hit on the blinded party rogue and two attacks of opportunity that left two fighters prone, the alchemist starting lobbing smoke bombs at him to give his party a chance to regroup.
The witch and druid got into a hex and spell exchange while she was aloft, which resulted in several rounds of successful saves and a few summoned stirges.
The cavalier meanwhile stood up and stumbled after the Stag Lord, only to get shot down to 1 hp, but finally succeeding in clearing the blindness effect from the Glitterdust spell
The party freed Akiros and told him that now was the time for him to decide where his loyalties lay, and he turned to attack the oracle of battle, who was after all a mercenary hired by the Stag Lord.
Meanwhile, the cavalier stepped up, dual wielding kukris...
nice battle.
Very cool stuff!
|
My guys did very well.
They had taken down the Bandit camp some time before and captured Kressle. They had the passwords and some Stag Lord amulets, so disguised themselves as bandits and marched up to the front door. Akiros came and checked them out, but after they delivered the booze to the Stag Lord and some 'booty from thieving', he left them alone and went back to his room (as did the Stag Lord to get drunk). They hung out with the rest of the bandits then handed around some extra whisky they had brought (they were using it to bribe all the fey they encountered) to befriend their new colleagues and to help them sleep. They ate, drank and chatted into the night. After a few bottles had been consumed and all the bandits were passed out, they snuck into the basement. The bard of the party disguised himself as the Stag Lord but they old man saw through it - "You aren't my son...?!?!" They took him down without too much trouble. The bard, still disguised, then went back up and led a couple of the bandits, one by one, down to the basement for "reward" where they were knocked out and tied up (the bandits were far less perceptive than the Stag Lord's father). During this time Dovan, who wasn't drinking that hard, woke up and became suspicious. He moved towards the Stag Lord's room to check if he was there but was intercepted by Akiros. Akiros had been awake the whole time, worked out what was going on as he hadn't seen the Stag Lord leave his room and decided then and there to switch sides. He loudly woke up the rest of the bandits, telling them to meet the Stag Lord in the basement. The PCs had no idea what to do. The Bard panicked and ditched the disguise. Confronted with the bandit camp, they failed to bluff their way out of trouble and Dovan exclaimed "and so the stink marks the jackal in the wolves den" (I had to use that line). Weapons were drawn and Akiros yelled "you fools, why didn't you keep up the ruse!" to the PCs and joined their side in combat. Most of the party went for higher ground whilst the melee fighters and Akiros started hacking into the bandits. Dovan went and released Beaky then ran around the back of the fort to climb the upper level from the south. Beaky caused mayhem, laying into PCs and bandits alike. After a few rounds, the Stag Lord entered the fray with a sneak attack from below. A little later, Dovan did the same from above with his throwing daggers. Several rounds later, the Stag Lord had sniped a few of the party, Akiros was down, all of the bandits were down, two of the party were close to death, the Summoner's Eidolon had returned to its plane and Dovan had been held and dispatched. With only Beaky and the Stag Lord still going, the Stag Lord decided to urge on his pet. This caused the Owlbear to turn on it's master. The Stag Lord took Beaky down only to see it healed by the party's Cleric. Twice. Beaky finally went down for good and the Stag Lord was distraught. Akiros was healed and directed the melee combatants to close on the Stag Lord so he couldn't use his bow. Three of them surrounded the bandit leader and after a few founds of close combat took him down.
Epic battle, lots of tactics and intrigue. A lot of fun.