Kingmaker: How to kidnap Svetlana

[Wasum]

Hello everyone!

I didnt want to ask on the kingmaker boards as the actual question is "how could low level npcs capture a low level commoner unnoticed"?

The setting: We have a trading post, kinda small, which is repeatedly haressed by bandits. Being an old fort, the trading post offers some degree of protection (10 fert of palisades e.g.). There are some guards (lowlevel warriors) looking for bandits even at night up on the wall.

A group of bandits (as few as possible, if one could do it on his own that would probably be best) wants to capture the owners wife - Svetlana who sleeps inside the building and is guarded as well (by one lowlevel guard).

I want that lowlevel guard to be kidnapped as well as my PCs dont trust right this guard at all and I want them to think he is responsible for Svetlanas disappearing.

So my bandit (or group of bandits) is lowlevel has just some mundane items and several potions. Yeah, thats actually all he got, some potions of first and second level spells - definitely more first level ones. Do you guys have an idea how he could archieve:

- to arrive at the trading post unmoticed, even though his face is well known to the guards?
- to enter the trading post unnoticed?
- to get around that guard
- to make Svetlana follow him silently
- to have a reason to take the guard with him as well
- to find a way to actaully get both Svetlana and the guard out of the trading post
- to get away with those two unnoticed.

My only idea so far is the combination of potions of invisibility, enlarge person and reduce person. But even then I dont know how to get close to the trading post unnoticed as the potions only last for several minutes...

I'd be really glad to find some good advice here - thanks in advance!

Wasum

Edit: getting out unnoticed is not a necessity by the way!

[Ramarren]

Getting in is the easy part. That's a matter of the disguise skill, preferably with some prep time and a kit. He can enter the trading post as a trader. If there is not already a wagon (or even a horse-drawn cart) in the trading post, then he needs one as part of his disguise.

Not knowing how your game is going, I'm assuming that Oleg is alive, but is either not at the trading post, or can be lured out (possibly with a false message of some sort).

Late at night, the trader/bandit, disguises himself as Oleg using the disguise kit, and then downs a potion of Disguise Self for good measure. He then downs a potion of Eagle's Splendor, and convinces the guard that the other guards have been replaced or bought off by bandits.

"Wake Svetlana, let her know what is going on, and get her to come to the wagon, I'll be hiding under a tarp there. Don't let them see you with her. Get Svetlana under the tarp as well, and then you need to convince the others to open the gate, and get us out of here."

(take a second Disguise Self potion as Svetlana arrives so she sees Oleg under the tarp, holding his finger too his lips as an indicator to stay silent).

After the wagon/cart is away from the fort, it can be waylaid by other bandits to complete the snatch. From the point of view of the other guards, some trader arrived near dinner time, the suspicious guard left with his cart late at night, and when they checked in the morning, both the trader and Svetlana were gone.

This is hugely risky for a low-level character, but it's the best I can come up with on short notice.

[Maxxx]

One short note. There are no potions of disguise self as it is a personal range spell.

[Wasum]

Yeah, I'm afraid without potions of disguise that plan will be tough to pull off...

[Kaelan Ashenveil]

NPCs can roll miraculous 20s every once in a while. I've explained to my PCs that So-and-So rolled a 20 and that's why they did something awesome.

[Ramarren]

Disguise Other (2nd Level, from Ultimate Magic) should be legal for Potions. It's the same as Disguise Self, but is a touch spell, which I believe makes it eligible.

[pennywit]

The best way to kidnap Svetlana, IMO, is to lure away those who are protecting her. So ... fake (or real) raid of a merchant caravan coming in. Play it up, just like a Western, with one caravan member making it to the fort and begging the players to save his fellows. Let the PCs file out ... and then the NPCs can move in with their dastardly "kidnap Svetlana" plot.

But even if you don't do that, the best bet is to create a diversion. Nothing stops your bandits from using any (or all) of the following to create a distraction:

* Mites

* Kobolds

* Fey pranksters, such as tooth fairies, sprites, grigs, or a faerie dragon.

* A herd of elk

* A boar

* Herds of predators

All of these are wandering around the Greenbelt, and the bandits could presumably induce one of them through fear, violence, or shiny objects to create some kind of disturbance at Oleg's.

[JohnB]

Just do it - don't justify it and don't explain it. If you need Svetlana kidnapped for a plot line - the let her just be kidnapped :) Then be mysterious and make it sound very, very special. She probably doesn't know the details of it, just she and her guard were knocked unconscious and that is all she can remember.

But chuck in a few of pennywit's distractions just for good measure :)

[Misroi]

I agree with JohnB, but I'll add this: if you don't want the players to affect the outcome of the kidnapping, then have them be busy elsewhere. If the PCs are dealing with one of the many encounter sites in their kingdom, then the brigands can get away with just about anything you want.