Pigkappa
2011-02-05, 06:58 PM
I'm the DM of a D&D 3.5 campaign and the players are level 4 or 5.
Since there have already been a lot of adventures combat-based and a few interesting encounters where roleplaying was important, I wanted to introduce a little adventure based on stealth; the problem is that non-sneaky characters could be useless or even a problem for the party.
The starting idea is this: the (Good) players are guests of a very Evil aristocrat. He has some reasons (related to other adventures) to deal with them peacefully, and he won't harm them as long as they don't attack him or his guards. The PCs have a very good reason to let him live: he's always sorrounded by 10 or more guards, and even if they manage to kill him and run away, the king of that nation will likely hunt them down if they kill one of his most important nobles.
The aristocrat's wife (who is a very beatiful CG villager who was forced to marry him, and can't try to kill him in his sleep because he's wearing a medallion granting a permanent Sanctuary effect) sneaks in the PCs sleeping room and tells them that a few kilometres away there's a prison where her husband sends a lot of good people just because, and asks them to free those people, if possible.
The prison is not heavily guarded, but there are indeed 6 guards (4 outside, near the only entry door, and 2 inside, one at ground floor and one at the first floor). There are 2 barred windows in the ground floor and 2 open windows in the first floor.
If the PCs are seen by the guards while freeing the prisoners, the aristocrat will want to kill them all, unless all of the guards die before they can reach the castle. The guards are just doing their job anyway, so they don't need to be Evil, and I don't expect the PCs to want to kill them if they can avoid it nor to bribe them (there's a Paladin in the party, and bribing sounds even less Paladin-ish than sneaking; also, bribing 4 guards at the same time can be quite difficult).
The best solution would be to sneak in someway (by using the windows, or by trying some trick to distract the guards while invisible, or something like that) and find a way to release the prisoners (the guards will likely surrender if all of the prisoners attack them at the same time); the problem is that I can't really find a way to make this fit for the non-sneaky characters. The party's members are 2 rogues, 1 bard, 1 paladin, 1 warmage and 1 druid (the druid is actually playing only once every 4 sessions so he's not important).
Since there have already been a lot of adventures combat-based and a few interesting encounters where roleplaying was important, I wanted to introduce a little adventure based on stealth; the problem is that non-sneaky characters could be useless or even a problem for the party.
The starting idea is this: the (Good) players are guests of a very Evil aristocrat. He has some reasons (related to other adventures) to deal with them peacefully, and he won't harm them as long as they don't attack him or his guards. The PCs have a very good reason to let him live: he's always sorrounded by 10 or more guards, and even if they manage to kill him and run away, the king of that nation will likely hunt them down if they kill one of his most important nobles.
The aristocrat's wife (who is a very beatiful CG villager who was forced to marry him, and can't try to kill him in his sleep because he's wearing a medallion granting a permanent Sanctuary effect) sneaks in the PCs sleeping room and tells them that a few kilometres away there's a prison where her husband sends a lot of good people just because, and asks them to free those people, if possible.
The prison is not heavily guarded, but there are indeed 6 guards (4 outside, near the only entry door, and 2 inside, one at ground floor and one at the first floor). There are 2 barred windows in the ground floor and 2 open windows in the first floor.
If the PCs are seen by the guards while freeing the prisoners, the aristocrat will want to kill them all, unless all of the guards die before they can reach the castle. The guards are just doing their job anyway, so they don't need to be Evil, and I don't expect the PCs to want to kill them if they can avoid it nor to bribe them (there's a Paladin in the party, and bribing sounds even less Paladin-ish than sneaking; also, bribing 4 guards at the same time can be quite difficult).
The best solution would be to sneak in someway (by using the windows, or by trying some trick to distract the guards while invisible, or something like that) and find a way to release the prisoners (the guards will likely surrender if all of the prisoners attack them at the same time); the problem is that I can't really find a way to make this fit for the non-sneaky characters. The party's members are 2 rogues, 1 bard, 1 paladin, 1 warmage and 1 druid (the druid is actually playing only once every 4 sessions so he's not important).