Encounter needed

[Rylar]

My players have just killed the king and now need to escape the city. I want to come up with a cool session where they are dodging the guards and getting around obstacles. There should probably be some small fights, but nothing big.

The purpose of this is to get from the throne room to the bandit rebels outside of town.

[yukongil]

I highly recommend the chase rules from the Game Mastery Guide.

[VoodistMonk]

Chase rules, for sure.

Make it fun, though. Not just running down cobblestone streets with random bunches of guards appearing from alleyways. Lead the chase through shops, classrooms, church sermons, into the sewers, and across the rooftops.

The fruit stand collapses behind them as they jump through it, the classic wagon full of wine barrels at the top of a hill/staircase, some random people moving church pews across the street, people hoisting a piano up to the third floor of a building and if you happen to bump the people they might let go of the rope and the piano might fall on those behind you...

[Runehacking]

How about instead they see their only way out without having to face the entire army of the king, is using the King's escape tunnel?
The old deserted place hasn't been attended to for ages, and is crawling with all sorts of invasive critters.

It's a fun dungeon to start.

But halfway out, it seems the poorly maintained tunnel has collapsed, and an opening leads surprisingly enough to the streets.

That's where you start the chase. In this case, the player's first challenge would be to try and blend in. I'm sure you can continue from there?

It might lead them to the gates, where a spiteful captain has set up a roadblock. They will have to fight past this "boss", depending on how well they did the chase, reinforcements might come soon from behind?

Just suggestions.

[Mudfoot]

What level are they? If they can all fly or go invisible or polymorph into something else, you'll need something rather different.

Likewise, the guards shouldn't just be a bunch of goons with spears. They'll have scrying wizards, an imp flying overhead, an archer on a hippogriff, another armed with Tanglefoot Bags and so on. There might be a hue and cry - or if the king was unpopular, a riot and general uprising, though this might only be local and quickly suppressed.

Meanwhile behind the scenes, some of the courtiers and royal guards might be less interested in chasing the PCs and more interested in filling their pockets or eliminating rivals, given the sudden power vacuum.

[Quixote]

The Angry GM has a pretty amazing chase scene in one of his articles about how to build/run encounters. I would start there.

[PFRPGrognard]

I agree with the chase suggestion. Take a troop of guards, or a few guards, if you prefer to chase them. Lay out between five to ten Chase Cards from a dungeon or the city or just mix them together. Start the PCs on card two or three and put the guards on the first card. Roll initiative and start the chase. Once the PCs make it to the end, they can escape.

[Mark Hoover 330]

Cue up Mission: Impossible music

Chase leg 1: Escaping the throne room

1. PCs flee the immediate scene, pursued by schmoe guards; a couple minor fights

2. The setting is the castle itself: labyrinthine halls, stairwells, narrow windows, galleries, great rooms. Make sure the PCs have plenty of environmental bits and bobs to play with such as comically enormous furnishings and fireplaces, tapestries or hanging banners, chandeliers, and so on.

3. Some unique challenges to overcome might be scrying wizards, pet hunting dogs/hawks/pseudodragons, fleeing through the kitchens, secret doors, the castle inquisitor, trolls in the dungeon

4. Exit strategies may include (but aren't limited to) going out a window to waiting horses below, diving into the moat, charging off a slowly raising drawbridge, a secret escape through the dungeons/undercroft of the castle, stealing 2 of the castle's hippogriffs from their aerie on top of the keep

Interlude: meeting their rebel contact

PCs can't just get out of the castle and then be done with all of this. They killed the king; there needs to be gravitas. As such, if they just bee-lined right to the rebels outside the city the guards would follow them and the jig is up. To ensure egress without detection there's a clandestine meeting scheduled in the basement of a local tavern sympathetic to the rebel cause.

The PCs make it here without issues and meet their contact. They get some instructions, clothes to blend in, perhaps a magical disguise, and a few good lucks. The characters go back up through the common room or out onto the street through a secret door into a plaza or crowded area. There are guards here but the PCs' disguises seem to be working.

The characters follow a pre-set route, heading for some way out of the city with similar pro-rebellion sentiment. Along the way however it turns out the path is compromised. A duke, either extremely loyal to the former king or gunning to take over the now vacant throne, appears in the party's way and recognizes them. "THERE are the traitors! AFTER THEM!" the noble screams.

The chase continues!

Chase leg 2: through the city

1. More minor fights with guards, but you could up the ante with a couple of elite soldiers (the duke's men)

2. The setting is the entire city. Try to use all parts - crowds, streets and alleyways, stray animals, rooftops and water spouts, open lye pits, corpse carts, vegetable stands, streetlamps, bridges, clothes lines, rat swarms, runaway horses, and so on

3. For extra fun, have the chase go THROUGH buildings. Go in through a door or window, up a stairwell, through private apartments, and back out another door/window. You could have the residents be an obstacle, a boon to the PCs, or just part of the furniture.

4. To get out of the city, you could have the PCs use the sewers, get to their original extraction point, go over the wall in a catapult or whatever. Regardless, a possible climax could be a final showdown with the duke from earlier. This is a good place for a dramatic monologue. "You will be hunted like dogs... nowhere is safe... sleep with one eye open..." and so on as the duke unleashes some guards/minions on the PCs to soften them up. You could either have the noble escape to vex the party in the future or perish as a martyr to the monarchy

Oh yeah, and don't forget a medal ceremony when it's all over. Even the droids should get medals!