DMfromTheAbyss
2015-01-09, 04:17 AM
Ok so the title looks like it is going down in my campaign. I'm just looking for general ideas, and or anything I might be missing that could be cool becouse the genre of the heist "movie" done with magic, stempunk style magitech and a bit of panache sounds like an opportunity I'd hate to waste.
So For starters some background
So the PC's in the course of adventuring, encountered an NPC king, who happens to be a lower level (spoony) bard romantic. In the course of events the party wizard semi hooks up with him and in a fit of uncertainty does a bit of divination to see if there's any "Princesses" out there with his name on them. To their surprise there is. The wizard and king/spoony bard hook up despite this, but felt bad enough about the princess apparently being held in a bad trope to see about rescueing her anyway.. besides it sounds interesting/loot and xp.
So they set out, find the Kingdom has fallen to a group of Demon/Devil things (actually mortals with demonic grafts and morgaged to the hilt on dark pacts and evil magic) and the princess is archtypically held in the highest tower of the royal palace in the center of the city.
They also find out she's been held there for some 3 years or so, and the Fiendish leader of the bad guys has been using her as a lure to trap and kill/loot various rebel groups/adventurers that have been trying to rescue her.
The party, seeing as this is the case set out to do some more "legwork" and see if there is some way to steal the princess instead of fighting their way into a heavily warded death trap. The words "D&D Oceans 11" were used, and I as a DM felt this should not only be an option, I was encouraged to make this thread to share with them with your ideas, and also if neccessary change up how the defences to this princesses prison are set up for maximum use of heist tropes.
The party has just gotten to the moderately ruined but still habitable capital city, established a base of operations(by killing one of the demonic style overlords of the dock area), and thats about where the session ended.
So the system is a homebrew D&D, little bit of all the editions. I'm the DM obviously, I have not gotten overly detailed with the specifics of the scenario, so there's still wiggle room.
The PC's are high in level and consist of
1) Swashbucling thief with flashy distraction light magic, technically a thief but aside from stealth not much on skills
2)Thief cursed"?" into being a 1/2 Shadow Dragon, not much for combat but a good all round thief skill style thief
3) Fighter leader of men type, nasty in any kind of fight, has a literal boat load of followers, knights etc.
4) Wizard Generally competant but with a highly contingent orbital nuke.
5-7 possibly to be arranged next session from a pool of possible characters depending on who can make it from a bunch of semi-regulars
NPC young bard King of a nation with no real resources to bring to this fight millitarily or monitary. He is about 2/3rds the party level but with some interesting teleportation abilities, fairly brave and bookish but garbage in a fight. (so getting him to the princess room with all involved would make a good win condition, as basically he can act as a ride out even through the teleport warded out the who-ha palace, he just can't get in through said wards. And yes the teleportation involves singing.. so not particularly stealthy.
The setting is a high magic fantasy, with the current area being Steam punk inspired (not unlike a certain comic..;) The party is equiped with a fair assortment of magic items, but can't dependably get access to particular ones if needed (no reliable magic shops). The characters are not High op for the campaign, the demon enhanced baddies are a credible threat in numbers, though the big bad of the area may be a bit beyond them.
What the party has heard of the defences, indicates a combat slog through the palace, magical barriers against scrying, teleportation. Aerial defences built for anti airship/dragon/wizard of both the steampunk variety (quasi firearms/lightning guns/canons) high level aeriel opponents (looked like Balor types) and literal hellfire canons that can pierce any defences the party has.
The party is also good /neutral aligned. So swarming the defenders with undead would not be an option, nor is wholesale destruction in the city due to the downtrodden but still living human natives.
For reference all they know about the princess is she is actually there, and the demons let her sing out over the city from her captivity, both to entice people to try and rescue her and prove they still have her. As she has been slowly losing hope her songs have gotten more and more tragic, which the bad guys figure is further bad for the kingdom's morale (and kinda twisting the knife metaphorically-they are not very nice folks..)
TLDR Need ideas for a High fantasy steampunk heist, where the goal is to steal the princess from her tower.
So For starters some background
So the PC's in the course of adventuring, encountered an NPC king, who happens to be a lower level (spoony) bard romantic. In the course of events the party wizard semi hooks up with him and in a fit of uncertainty does a bit of divination to see if there's any "Princesses" out there with his name on them. To their surprise there is. The wizard and king/spoony bard hook up despite this, but felt bad enough about the princess apparently being held in a bad trope to see about rescueing her anyway.. besides it sounds interesting/loot and xp.
So they set out, find the Kingdom has fallen to a group of Demon/Devil things (actually mortals with demonic grafts and morgaged to the hilt on dark pacts and evil magic) and the princess is archtypically held in the highest tower of the royal palace in the center of the city.
They also find out she's been held there for some 3 years or so, and the Fiendish leader of the bad guys has been using her as a lure to trap and kill/loot various rebel groups/adventurers that have been trying to rescue her.
The party, seeing as this is the case set out to do some more "legwork" and see if there is some way to steal the princess instead of fighting their way into a heavily warded death trap. The words "D&D Oceans 11" were used, and I as a DM felt this should not only be an option, I was encouraged to make this thread to share with them with your ideas, and also if neccessary change up how the defences to this princesses prison are set up for maximum use of heist tropes.
The party has just gotten to the moderately ruined but still habitable capital city, established a base of operations(by killing one of the demonic style overlords of the dock area), and thats about where the session ended.
So the system is a homebrew D&D, little bit of all the editions. I'm the DM obviously, I have not gotten overly detailed with the specifics of the scenario, so there's still wiggle room.
The PC's are high in level and consist of
1) Swashbucling thief with flashy distraction light magic, technically a thief but aside from stealth not much on skills
2)Thief cursed"?" into being a 1/2 Shadow Dragon, not much for combat but a good all round thief skill style thief
3) Fighter leader of men type, nasty in any kind of fight, has a literal boat load of followers, knights etc.
4) Wizard Generally competant but with a highly contingent orbital nuke.
5-7 possibly to be arranged next session from a pool of possible characters depending on who can make it from a bunch of semi-regulars
NPC young bard King of a nation with no real resources to bring to this fight millitarily or monitary. He is about 2/3rds the party level but with some interesting teleportation abilities, fairly brave and bookish but garbage in a fight. (so getting him to the princess room with all involved would make a good win condition, as basically he can act as a ride out even through the teleport warded out the who-ha palace, he just can't get in through said wards. And yes the teleportation involves singing.. so not particularly stealthy.
The setting is a high magic fantasy, with the current area being Steam punk inspired (not unlike a certain comic..;) The party is equiped with a fair assortment of magic items, but can't dependably get access to particular ones if needed (no reliable magic shops). The characters are not High op for the campaign, the demon enhanced baddies are a credible threat in numbers, though the big bad of the area may be a bit beyond them.
What the party has heard of the defences, indicates a combat slog through the palace, magical barriers against scrying, teleportation. Aerial defences built for anti airship/dragon/wizard of both the steampunk variety (quasi firearms/lightning guns/canons) high level aeriel opponents (looked like Balor types) and literal hellfire canons that can pierce any defences the party has.
The party is also good /neutral aligned. So swarming the defenders with undead would not be an option, nor is wholesale destruction in the city due to the downtrodden but still living human natives.
For reference all they know about the princess is she is actually there, and the demons let her sing out over the city from her captivity, both to entice people to try and rescue her and prove they still have her. As she has been slowly losing hope her songs have gotten more and more tragic, which the bad guys figure is further bad for the kingdom's morale (and kinda twisting the knife metaphorically-they are not very nice folks..)
TLDR Need ideas for a High fantasy steampunk heist, where the goal is to steal the princess from her tower.