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View Full Version : Stealth - based adventure.



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).

Greenish
2011-02-05, 07:19 PM
One of the rogues forges a warrant from the lord to release any prisoners the party wants to. The other one uses Aid Another to boost the check. They take 10 or maybe even 20 if the rogue hasn't invested much on Forgery (which can be used without being trained).

The bard marches in with the rest of the party in tow and demands for the named prisoners to be released into his custody, brandishing the fake document. The guards (probably just one or two of them) fail their checks to detect a forgery.

The party sets out with the prisoners.


Now there just have to be some complications for the party. A player does not select a warmage unless he wants to blast, and the whole forged documents might upset the sensibilities of an iron-rod-up-the-derriere paladin, so they should be doing something else, such as making a diversion for the guards coming to check the prison, or the like.

LansXero
2011-02-05, 07:24 PM
Travelling Circus?

Use the paladin as a Strongman, the Warmage does weapon jiggling and other sword tricks, the bard sings and his bear druid dances. The guards have been drafted from the nearby village, so they are much like the wife: unwilling accomplices to the aristocrat's misdeeds. While the 'traveling circus' is performing for the guards, show them that they are mostly a decent bunch.

Meanwhile, the rogues sneak up the back of the prison and break the prisoners free. Of course, such a convoluted plan would revolve around informing those inside and gathering the needed materials (costumes and whatnot) so that could also be part of the adventure.

Pigkappa
2011-02-05, 08:46 PM
One of the rogues forges a warrant from the lord to release any prisoners the party wants to. The other one uses Aid Another to boost the check. They take 10 or maybe even 20 if the rogue hasn't invested much on Forgery (which can be used without being trained).

The bard marches in with the rest of the party in tow and demands for the named prisoners to be released into his custody, brandishing the fake document. The guards (probably just one or two of them) fail their checks to detect a forgery.

The party sets out with the prisoners.

This wouldn't really work in my opinion. The guards can see who the PCs are and the aristocrat will soon discover what happened.



...

This would involve a lot of Disguise checks but this could work. The non-sneaky characters can do something useful then, so I feel free to use this adventure (even if I'm sure they won't come up with this idea and will do something I can't even imagine :smalltongue:).

The guards haven't "been drafted from the nearby village" anyway; there's a caste system and guards are more important than villagers.

Curmudgeon
2011-02-07, 08:21 AM
One of the rogues forges a warrant from the lord to release any prisoners the party wants to. The other one uses Aid Another to boost the check. They take 10 or maybe even 20 if the rogue hasn't invested much on Forgery (which can be used without being trained).
Forgery and Disguise typically don't allow taking either 10 or 20.
As with Disguise, you don’t even need to make a check until someone examines the work. Your Forgery check is opposed by the Forgery check of the person who examines the document to check its authenticity. Since you make those opposed checks right in front of the threatening guards, you've got problems.
Taking 10

When your character is not being threatened or distracted, you may choose to take 10.
...
Taking 20

When you have plenty of time (generally 2 minutes for a skill that can normally be checked in 1 round, one full-round action, or one standard action), you are faced with no threats or distractions, and the skill being attempted carries no penalties for failure, you can take 20.

Pigkappa
2011-02-07, 08:26 AM
Maybe that works by RAW, but it makes no sense.

You use Disguise while nobody else is looking to make another PC difficult to recognize; you are not threatened so there's no reason to be in a hurry. What should matter is what's happening when you use the skill.

Curmudgeon
2011-02-07, 09:05 AM
Maybe that works by RAW, but it makes no sense.
I think maybe it does make some sense. You craft your forgery in one environment (probably an indoor work space), then you've got to carry it to where it's needed and present it for inspection. On the way the lighting and humidity change. Maybe the ink bleeds a bit from the sweat of being carried in your pocket, and the paper wrinkles more than that used in the original you were trying to copy. Maybe it was fine until you smudged it as you were pulling it out for inspection. You wouldn't know about such future events back when you were forging the document. The same goes for applying your disguise some time before it gets examined, not knowing how sudden nervous sweat when under the guard's gaze would affect things.