way of the wicked thoughts

[Melvin the Mediocre]

My villians are at the Horn of Abbadon and have filled out a number of guards and sentries. In came the moon dogs.

1st night, the tried to slip past two outdoor bugbear sentries but were spotted. One of the bugbears made it to the base of the stairs to level 2 screaming for help, but the moon dogs dropped both bugbears then plane shifted away. Players thought it was a random encounter and did nothing but put 1 bugbear back as sentry.

2nd night, moon dogs got inside to level 2, snooped around, took out 2 minions. PCs found those bodies, realized they were being snooped and assinated, and took up guard duty themselves.

3rd night, moon dogs came up the same path, got spotted by pcs. There was a big battle, 1 villain was killed (saved by hero points), two PCs were feared away, 1 moon dog was at 1 hp, the other couldnot stand up to the remaining pc. Discovering they could not plane shift out of the horn, both dogs fled.

What will the moon dogs do next? I'm thinking they will take a few days to heal, then try exploring on the first floor. Here they will encounter a LOT more minions, and possible some prisoners. They could also go down to the caves where the boggards are. One of the PCs stays down there and has dropped and alarm spell. Should they start trying to kill everything they find? Or should they try to take out the PCs one at a time as they sleep?

[WRoy]

I would recommend they keep trying to fight on their own terms, intelligently, relentlessly and without quarter. That means using improved invisibility and alter self to avoid detection and impersonate generic underlings.

Whenever they can get guards or (especially) leaders/PCs alone, they will eliminate them as quickly and quietly as possible. They now know they can't plane shift within the Horn, so they will not overstay their welcome on a particular sortie unless they have a chance to kill a creature they've identified as a high-priority target. Kill some of the evil, then bug out for the night. The moon dogs may even take a couple nights to do pure recon, gathering information on the Horn's layout and observing its defenses.

Also, have them switch up their entry point. They can't climb, fly or teleport so the third eye entrance is a no-go, but they can check out the other three. If the caverns have any obvious signs of defenses besides a boggard tribe and natural defenses, the moon dogs are smart enough to suspect there is an access point into the Horn proper and look for it.