A Very Hard VIP To Kill

[Zariel]

Hello everyone i have a tough nut to crack or meaby it is a person.

Let start with my team: Two 11 level rouges 1 Thief 1 Assassin. Both observant, sharpshooters and wood elves.
Thief posses every ritual wizard spell up to spell level 5. Assassin have Alert tho. No magical items whatsoever.
We have every poison known in the universe so far. Also 16K of gold(in crystals) to spare.
We see everything with 26 passive Perception and 25 passive Investigation. Also we have a bat familiar.

Let see a problem:

We have to kill 5 nobles. But there is a pickle here. They are guarded by 33 knights [20 AC(full plate and shield), Lance, short sword (just in case) and heavy cross bow] and 1 paladin with CR minimum 11. [20 AC at least(full plate and shield+meaby some bonus), and weapons the same as above].
There are 3 carriages:

1st carriage: 3 knights and 1 noble inside.
2nd carriage 3 knights and 2 nobles inside. This carriage is the most essential one. Because our primary targets are there.
3rd carriage 3 knights and 2 nobles inside.

There are 4 groups 6 knight each. Each knight is riding a warhorse (17AC). Paladin is riding his own stead(18AC at least). Each of carriages is carried by 6 warhorses (because f-you that's why) each with 14 AC.

As far as we know there is no mages there. Meaby one person that can cast Leomund Tiny Hut.

They are riding in order.

6 knights - 1st carriage - 6 knights - Paladin - 2nd carriage - 6 knights - 3rd carriage - 6 knights. As i said there is three knights on every carriage.

Feel free to ask any question. I wonder how you would deal with this kind of problem.

[Stormageddon]

How long is your window to strike? They have to stop sometime, rest set up camp? Sneak in and kill them in there sleep.

[Zariel]

How long is your window to strike? They have to stop sometime, rest set up camp? Sneak in and kill them in there sleep.

Well the time is not really a problem. They will be in road for 40 days probably more. (We on our phantom steads can travel much faster). But when we strike we want to be sure they will die. And can't be revived (not without a great cost). Now they are on the way to the 1st village where they will set camp.
We can't kill them in their sleep. Because of Leomund Tiny Hut. Nobody gets in.

[Yoroichi]

Can you identify the guy with leomund and take him out? Or dispel it somehow?

[Stormageddon]

40 days! They must have some people standing guard in the night. Whittle them down with ambushes. Even if you only kill one a day you still kill them all before they reach where they are going.

[Zariel]

Can you identify the guy with leomund and take him out? Or dispel it somehow?

As far as we know the guy who is casting the Leomund is one if the nobles. Meaby the freakin Paladin.
No dispel mate. But good idea. Meaby hire some druid with pixies to dispel or some mage because druid might not like killing the nobles.


40 days! They must have some people standing guard in the night. Whittle them down with ambushes. Even if you only kill one a day you still kill them all before they reach where they are going.

Yes of course. But that could change everything. But still one of the options. We were even thinking of just killing the horses to slow them down. But we would like them to not know we are following them.

[Kornaki]

Kill someone, disguise yourself as that guy, and infiltrate their hut? It's a pretty longshot but who knows.

You might have success dealing with some of them in town. Kill a couple, and make it look like a random mugging. That could keep suspicions down. Or in the wild, make it look like an animal attack if they split off from the group.

[MaxWilson]

Kill someone, disguise yourself as that guy, and infiltrate their hut? It's a pretty longshot but who knows.

You might have success dealing with some of them in town. Kill a couple, and make it look like a random mugging. That could keep suspicions down. Or in the wild, make it look like an animal attack if they split off from the group.

Presumably they don't keep the supplies and the horses in the tiny hut with them. Putting Torpor in the water supply cold help even the odds.

[Finieous]

With thirty-three knights, this isn't an assassination -- it's guerilla warfare. Sabotage the wagons and poison the horses. The nobles aren't going to hike out of the wilderness, so they'll send some of the knights for help. Ambush and kill them. Pick off stragglers from the main encampment. After a couple weeks when the knights sent for help don't return, they may send out another group. Ambush and kill them. How are they doing on supplies? If they send out hunter/foragers, ambush and kill them.

Repeat as necessary until you've killed enough knights to get to the soft, chewy center. The key is to attack their transportation and supply, and then fight a war of attrition with time and nature on your side.

The wildcard is the spellcaster. If he can send for help, that complicates matters. If he can, you need a way to take him out first (in effect, you're then attacking transportation, supply and communications).

[Felvion]

Dealing with the horses/supplies could definately be a thing. I'd also try to think a bit outside the box and surprise them. I ain't the best on doing that (i've seen some unbelievable ideas in here!) but i'd try to challenge them in a very unpredictable way. Perhaps i'd let them do the whole trip and assassinate them after they reach their destination when probably they let their guards down a bit. Or trying to reach the village first and make the assassin impersonate someone they're going to meet or someone beyond suspicion who could easily gain their trust there.
Getting some local thugs attack the group and see their deefnsive reaction would be helpful too.
I personally believe that in cases like that the best thing you have to do is to impress your DM and make him think "well, i didn't expect that, lets give these guys some credit!" but that's not exactly the ideal way of playing rpgs...

[Freelance GM]

Hello everyone i have a tough nut to crack or meaby it is a person.

Two 11 level rouges 1 Thief 1 Assassin. Both observant, sharpshooters and wood elves.

1st carriage: 3 knights and 1 noble inside.
2nd carriage 3 knights and 2 nobles inside. This carriage is the most essential one. Because our primary targets are there.
3rd carriage 3 knights and 2 nobles inside.

There are 4 groups 6 knight each. Each knight is riding a warhorse (17AC). Paladin is riding his own stead(18AC at least). Each of carriages is carried by 6 warhorses (because f-you that's why) each with 14 AC.


They are riding in order.

6 knights - 1st carriage - 6 knights - Paladin - 2nd carriage - 6 knights - 3rd carriage - 6 knights. As i said there is three knights on every carriage.


My question- Are these open carriages? And if not, how big are the windows?

At Level 11 you're both master archers- you don't have to worry about the Knights- you just need to snipe the Nobles with poisoned arrows.

You're practically guaranteed to surprise the nobles, even if you don't surprise the Knights, so take out your two main targets in the Surprise Round, use your Cunning Actions to dash to new positions, then take out the next two Nobles.

The hard part will be escaping the Knights as they inevitably pursue you. That depends entirely on the terrain. However, with Phantom Steeds, that'll at least be an exciting chase scene.

Have you considered using Feign Death as a last resort, to stage your own suicides? Requires somewhere to hide and prepare the Ritual, but that's what the Tiny Hut is for. All you need is two almost-empty vials of poison in your hands, and you're golden.

If the Paladin's Lawful Good (a safe bet) he probably won't allow the Knights to stick your heads on pikes, or anything. You may be looted before they leave you for dead, though.

[Vogonjeltz]

Hello everyone i have a tough nut to crack or meaby it is a person.

Let start with my team: Two 11 level rouges 1 Thief 1 Assassin. Both observant, sharpshooters and wood elves.
Thief posses every ritual wizard spell up to spell level 5. Assassin have Alert tho. No magical items whatsoever.
We have every poison known in the universe so far. Also 16K of gold(in crystals) to spare.
We see everything with 26 passive Perception and 25 passive Investigation. Also we have a bat familiar.

Let see a problem:

We have to kill 5 nobles. But there is a pickle here. They are guarded by 33 knights [20 AC(full plate and shield), Lance, short sword (just in case) and heavy cross bow] and 1 paladin with CR minimum 11. [20 AC at least(full plate and shield+meaby some bonus), and weapons the same as above].
There are 3 carriages:

1st carriage: 3 knights and 1 noble inside.
2nd carriage 3 knights and 2 nobles inside. This carriage is the most essential one. Because our primary targets are there.
3rd carriage 3 knights and 2 nobles inside.

There are 4 groups 6 knight each. Each knight is riding a warhorse (17AC). Paladin is riding his own stead(18AC at least). Each of carriages is carried by 6 warhorses (because f-you that's why) each with 14 AC.

As far as we know there is no mages there. Meaby one person that can cast Leomund Tiny Hut.

They are riding in order.

6 knights - 1st carriage - 6 knights - Paladin - 2nd carriage - 6 knights - 3rd carriage - 6 knights. As i said there is three knights on every carriage.

Feel free to ask any question. I wonder how you would deal with this kind of problem.

First, I would advise you to replace the beauty product with a Rogue, rouge won't do the assassin any good here.

Second, I'd advise you plan several hit and run ambushes (also, is there any reason you can't hire bandits to target this caravan?). Start by digging holes large enough for horses to stumble into and covering them with illusions and or real branches.

First set of knights (2, possibly 4) goes into the first ditch. If this is in a forest have traps set up, perhaps rolling logs or two logs that come slamming together, or falling rocks. Pick off as many defenders in the confusion as you can, then melt back for the next ambush. If the wagons have been damaged, set fire to the forest.

[Sartharina]

Sit in a tree, snipe the targets.

[Octopusapult]

These are all ideas that'll kill the nobles, but they need to be killed AND hard to revive. They can be sniped, or poisoned, but those are reversible deaths. The bodies need to be practically obliterated.

Fire is probably the way to go.

[Grayson01]

Some options.
Steal the horses at night slow long them down.

Posion there food supplies.

The disquise idea is also a good one.

Is there a specific knoble that must be killed or is it all of them?

How are the setting up their camps at night? Not all of the people, supplies, horses can fit inside the hut.

What weapons do you have?

Have they ready left? Are the carrage drivers knights or highered hands? If so from who, those would be great people to replace.

Set up traps to destroy/hinder their carriages. Downed trees, sink holes to capture wheels avanlances/rock slides near cliff faces.

[Shining Wrath]

To not merely kill the nobles but obliterate them you must get access to their bodies for some time. That means you must get them away from the escort.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained - can you manage to substitute in your two Phantom steeds for the lead horses in the 2nd carriage, and have your steeds take off with the carriage off-road at a signal? One of you swings aboard, and guides the steeds down the only safe path. The rest of the field is sown with calthrops. That will take out at least some of the pursuit. A few well-placed poisoned arrows from the Assassin may take down the rest, and then you burn the carriage with the nobles inside it. Douse it well with oil.

The Paladin, of course, will not give up. They never do. Be prepared for that interruption as you torch the carriage.

[Daishain]

My enemy's enemy...

Bribe+talk the local orc/goblin/kobold/whatever tribe into attacking the group. Give them a false report on just how strong the group is if necessary. While the knights are thus occupied, make your move.

That or just tell an evil dragon about the vast sums of wealth being carried by the group.

[GiantOctopodes]

I have to agree- in this particular case, if you want it done right, and want to completely obliterate the target, you need to do this in a guerrilla warfare style. The tiny hut doesn't cover the horses. Take them out first, taking as many days as needed. Warhorses only have 19 HP, so both of you should be able to kill one in a single blow if you have advantage (and with that passive perception, you should). If any scouts come out looking for you, take them out too. Take out the knights that are not underneath that infernal dome, too, until eventually it's just the nobles and their protection trudging along on foot, at which point I think you know what to do ;-)

It should be noted for the horses that something to keep them from making noise and raising an alarm would be advisable, as you really want to be able to take out more than two per night. If you had some means of casting silence, it would be a game changer, but you indicated it's only Wizard ritual spells you have? You could do it with poison, trying to knock out all horses along a line, but that would get expensive quickly.

[Ghost Nappa]

This is going to be made with the assumption that you can kill any single person who decides to split off from the group to pee or something and narrow them down that way. Dagger across the throat, arrows in the butt, whatever. You should have the mobility and damage to eliminate a single target that splits off from group security.


Step 0: Identify Enemy magic users.

Healers are the biggest concern, we don't want our work undone the moment we finish it. Bribing some smaller
Step 1: Kill the horses.

Leomound's Tiny Hut will protect them all under the cover of night, but it will not protect their horses. Kill them in the middle of the night when they're at the farthest point from geographic help they can be and burn their carriages and food if you can. Any further progression is going to be extremely limited in scope. They have at most 1 or two horses (The Paladin's Find Steed) but they will be leaving a LOT of people behind.


If the Paladin decides to take the Noble solo, you have two options.
If either is the Leomund's tiny hut caster, you will have to ambush them during the day.
If not, kill them in their sleep.

If the Paladin sticks with the group, you begin using Psychological warfare. The Paladin might be incapable of fright, but that doesn't mean that without food or an obvious escape plan that the others won't eventually freak out.


Step 2: Booby Traps

Now that they're bogged down and without supplies, if the group is still functioning, someone level-headed is going to suggest that they restock food. Booby trap the most obvious paths with nets and tripwires. You want to frazzle them until they're freaking out. See if you can get a Mimic onto their carriages as a replacement wheel or get a Doppelganger to help infiltrate the guards.

Step 3: "Open Killing"

Here's the tricky part. You want to make it look like there's a traitor in the group who's killing the others in their sleep. If you can manage to infiltrate and replace 2 of the guards, by all means. But if you can't, you need to kill people with the weapons of the guards without leaving witnesses. That can be hard. You don't want open guerilla warfare JUST yet...unless the guards start it themselves.


Step 4: The Assassination

When you've got enough dead people to create a window for yourself, take the shot. You might be able to do this as soon as the carriages are gone, or whenever you get enough guards out of the way, but terrifying them and breakign their morale is one way to reduce their numbers.

[Octopusapult]

Combine every idea in the thread so far and I'm sure you'll get them dead somehow. Buy some Orcs, poison the food, infiltrate their ranks, burn everything while you're there, replace their horses with yours and then kill the horses...




wait...

[MaxWilson]

These are all ideas that'll kill the nobles, but they need to be killed AND hard to revive. They can be sniped, or poisoned, but those are reversible deaths. The bodies need to be practically obliterated.

I see, you need this done Morganti. I might know a guy who's good with his hands. He's done "work", y'know? (And he's got access to a Great Weapon he calls Lady Teldra, but everyone else calls Godslayer.)