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Balor01
2011-09-30, 08:21 AM
Hey Playgrounders. I need your master mind-ish help here. I'm setting up my PCs for a nice encounter and would like some decent ideas on this setup and how would you solve this problem. Here is the thing:

- there is a Minotaur cleric, whos' tribe was killed by human settlers 15 years ago, when he was still a baby
- today he is a rather strong cleric with an ability to infect other creatures with powerful disease which, he knows, will in the end kill him too
- so here is what he wants: in a system of caverns near human/settlers Town is the water supply source for the Town. If he was to remain near this source for a week, entire water supply for the Town would be polluted and humans would get sick and die
- the thing is, there is iron ore being mined in these same caverns by humans and there is a substantial militia present in Town, a force (say, 25 guards), our Minotaur can not contend with. He could attack the miners, but militia would track him down in caves/mines and kill him in half a day. Also, he is unable to hide from mines in a rather busy mines.
-there is however nearby a very competent group of kobold mercenaries. Master trappers and ranged fighters could capture miners and make a buffer between Minotaur and militia, while he is doing his work on the spring

The question is, how would our Minotaur pull this off smart way.

So in short:
Our means:
- One infected cleric
- kobold mercenaries

Obstacles:
- constantly "populated" mines with the spring
- rather strong militia in town (stronger then cleric+kobolds combined)

Goal: Entire dead Town by means of the disease (Point is, minotaur is not a master tactician. He wants revenge (and a bloody one at that) and he wants it now. His patron, lady of Fungy Zuggytmoy, gave him the gift of disease, but with limited-time use, since when he dies, so does the disease he carries)

Hopefully I explained this good enough.

the_fencer0
2011-09-30, 09:08 AM
Hey Playgrounders. I need your master mind-ish help here. I'm setting up my PCs for a nice encounter and would like some decent ideas on this setup and how would you solve this problem. Here is the thing:

- there is a Minotaur cleric, whos' tribe was killed by human settlers 15 years ago, when he was still a baby
- today he is a rather strong cleric with an ability to infect other creatures with powerful disease which, he knows, will in the end kill him too
- so here is what he wants: in a system of caverns near human/settlers Town is the water supply source for the Town. If he was to remain near this source for a week, entire water supply for the Town would be polluted and humans would get sick and die
- the thing is, there is iron ore being mined in these same caverns by humans and there is a substantial militia present in Town, a force (say, 25 guards), our Minotaur can not contend with. He could attack the miners, but militia would track him down in caves/mines and kill him in half a day. Also, he is unable to hide from mines in a rather busy mines.
-there is however nearby a very competent group of kobold mercenaries. Master trappers and ranged fighters could capture miners and make a buffer between Minotaur and militia, while he is doing his work on the spring

The question is, how would our Minotaur pull this off smart way.

So in short:
Our means:
- One infected cleric
- kobold mercenaries

Obstacles:
- constantly "populated" mines with the spring
- rather strong militia in town (stronger then cleric+kobolds combined)

Goal: Entire dead Town by means of the disease (Point is, minotaur is not a master tactician. He wants revenge (and a bloody one at that) and he wants it now. His patron, lady of Fungy Zuggytmoy, gave him the gift of disease, but with limited-time use, since when he dies, so does the disease he carries)

Hopefully I explained this good enough.

Hmm. Curious case you have here, sir (assuming you are, in fact, a sir). I'll go about this if I was trying to kill all those pesky, nasty humans.

Using the Kobolds as a distraction, I'd find the fartherst point of the water supply from where the humans are mining, perhaps even an abandonded mineshaft if one is available. If I get trapped in, I'm gonna die anyway, so why the hell not? Might even intentionally cave myself in once I have found a suitable area, to give myself an extra level of protection against the humans. Even if they figure out where I am at and what I am up to (if they capture a Kobold merc alive and get info out of it), they still have a lot of rock to move before they can get to me. Might do it mupltiple times in different areas, just to be safe.

Whether I could get myself sequestered like that or not, I would have the Kobolds set up shop in different parts of the cave and do what Kobolds do best -- make traps. This will help the kololds even the playing field against their larger advesaries, and give me more time to work. Since I really don't care if the kobolds live or die, splitting them up (which reduces their individual combat effectiveness) adds the annoyance to the militia to have to look in every nook and cranny in the mines to clear them all out. This also gives the PCs a hook --the local militia could hire the PCs to help them search for kobolds, so the miners can get back to work faster. The PCs could capture or get info from a particularly cowardly Kobold merc, which would lead them to the true threat -- the water supply being poisoned.

This might be a bit too mastermindy, but it's what makes sense given the available resouces.

Hope it helps!

Kol Korran
2011-09-30, 09:09 AM
how about the following: Kobolds dig to close to the fountain, then they make an avalache that blocks the fountain from the main mines, shortly after dig a way for the minotaur to the spring. kobolds make other ruckus in the mine, occupying the diggers, thinking this is a natural phenomena?

Balor01
2011-09-30, 01:24 PM
Tnx guys.

@the_fencer0
Yes, good sir, I am a sir :smallbiggrin: Homicidal DM, but some really strange reason, some REALLY awesome players keep returning to play my campaigns.

As for your solutions:
- I love the caving-in approach.

The only problem I see here is to persuade kobolds to have themselves stuck in a mine with no exit. The disease also makes undead out of corpses and they can be (if collected in a certain area) a good stopper for that pesky militia.

So lets' say this: Kobolds help the minotaur to cause a cave-in which keeps him stranded/protected. After three days, townspeople realize something is wrong - but they need a few more days to connect the whole thing with water. Heck, what an interesting plot. Almost a horror plot ... our PCs come into a village full of dying people and some zombies, just to be informed that "Its the water ..." Then are informed of the fountain and heh, kobolds could be monitoring the entry - maybe even causing an avalanche to seal them in :) And/or harass them from area, surrounding the mine.

Darkomn
2011-09-30, 01:32 PM
If the kobolds could cause a cave in and trap a significant portion of the miners everybody else would have to focus on getting them free, and if some other tunnels happened to collapse at the same time say the ones that lead to the water source they won't notice as much as long as the water keeps flowing. The town wouldn't even have to know about the kobolds until they tried clearing the area where the Minotaur was.