Mundane solutions to complex problems

[BlackDog918]

Okay, so I find myself in a situation where I have a little time to prepare, and that's just dandy.

The Basics:
Level one, four man party, consisting of a dex based unchained monk, a harbinger from PoW, a ratfolk rogue, and me, a dwarf fighter (axe and shield style)
Low magic game, spell casters are few and far between.

The Job:
Clear out the local bandit hideout. Simple enough, but there's a catch. Individual criminals are worth almost three times as much money alive, so kicking open the door and axing them all to death isn't the optimal solution. There's also over three hundred of them.

The Recon:
The targets are holed up in what looks like an old mansion, seemingly abandoned for years but not too far off the main road. About a hundred yards away is an old tree, and some rocks big enough to hide behind. Our scout reported back that there's a hole in the back fence big enough to get through, and through capturing one of the targets we found out that there's a network of tunnels dug under the manor that lead out to an unspecified location. By accident we also found out that there may be several wild wolf packs in the area that we could potentially use to our advantage if we play our cards right. Oh, I almost forgot, weather conditions are cold, it's the middle of winter and heavy snowfall is fairly frequent.

The Plan:
Plan number one: burn the place down. I don't like this plan, seeing as they're worth more alive, and it doesn't solve for the tunnel network.
Plan number two: smoke them out. Better than plan number one, because it's mostly non lethal, but still no solution for the tunnel problem.
Plan number three: the lure. I say we lure them out a few at a time, ambush patrols, and set traps. That way we have a steady stream of income to rely on, and we don't put all our eggs in one basket. Again, still doesn't solve the tunnel problem and this is the most expensive plan so far, factoring in trap cost, ammo, etc.

Here's where you guys come in. Knowing what we know, how does the playground think we should proceed? I'm interested to hear your thoughts. Also the leader's going to be back in two days game time, and he's worth a pretty penny dead or alive.

Tl;dr
How to bust a fairly well fortified bandit hideout with escape routes, while trying to take most of them alive.

[FocusWolf413]

You have a four man party, which means you can probably capture three at a time. Go up behind a patrol, garrote 'em, repeat a few times. Toss them on a mule and take them back.

Track them to and from the hideout. See if you can determine distinct paths they frequent. Ambush them one by one.

If they seem ready to leave, block off all exits, save one, and smoke them out/set it on fire. Most of them will try to escape. Surround the exit with snipers, caltrops, marbles, etc, and have them surrender as they leave. Remember, they would probably rather go to jail than die. Make sure you taint your arrows so any people who run get infections and die.

You can't take a direct hit (probably) and you need to be very careful. Ranged weapons are good for you.

[Tvtyrant]

Draw them out into an ambush. Spread rumors that an impossibly rich and idiotic merchants son is going to drive a wagon train nearby to deliver gold as a loan payment. Buy or build a few wagons, hire some people to drive them near the fort. If you can't beat them in an open fight than use the distraction to drug their food and booze. When they pass out from the drug capture everyone.

[BlackDog918]

Okay, I'm liking these plans so far. Here's what I'm wondering though, what about the leader? All this stuff takes at least a few days to coordinate, and by the time we've done that he's gone and so is our really big payday. Or do you think the ambushes will draw him out to fight us himself? I don't know how smart he is, we don't really have any information about him.

[FocusWolf413]

Because he's the head of a (probably merit or manipulation based) thieves' guild, you need to assume he's smart. He's not going to fight you. That would be dumb. He's going to find a different way to give you the slip.

If you think there's going to be honorable fighting, you're going to die.

[BlackDog918]

Honestly the rest of the gang isn't really manipulative or terribly intelligent, as far as we can gather they're mostly thugs who beat people up and take their stuff. They've been getting pretty ballsy lately so a local merchant company put a bounty on them. Again, I can't speak for the leader but the rest of his boys seem to be a bunch of brutes without much finesse.

[Platymus Pus]

There's also over three hundred of them.

The Recon:
The targets are holed up in what looks like an old mansion, seemingly abandoned for years but not too far off the main road.
fir-

Plan number one: burn the place down. I don't like this plan, seeing as they're worth more alive, and it doesn't solve for the tunnel network.
:smallyuk:

Honestly the rest of the gang isn't really manipulative or terribly intelligent, as far as we can gather they're mostly thugs who beat people up and take their stuff. They've been getting pretty ballsy lately so a local merchant company put a bounty on them. Again, I can't speak for the leader but the rest of his boys seem to be a bunch of brutes without much finesse.
If the leader is intelligent at all he'll make use of those numbers once you make your presence known with your small acts that cause missing men. 100 men is worth 300 alive, but I highly doubt you can even get 100 normally without eventually falling into some horrible trap.

Get a few alive for income to prepare to genocide, don't get spotted always ambush, no one gets away even if you want them alive for income make do with the dead.
Once you get an amount you feel you can get away with, thinking 10-30. You kill some men, make a statement to the leader. Piss him off, goad him into mistakes, don't make it obvious you want him to go for you, but show disrespect like you are a possible upcoming upstart rival competition for banditry.
Use the income you gained earlier to capture even more men alive. Eventually he's going to get fed up and try to crush you with a couple hundred men, possibly with himself.
Get the military on your side to get rid of them for good and finish them off in one stroke. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNLuq0lW50k)

Least one would hope right?

[PallentisLunam]

Honestly the rest of the gang isn't really manipulative or terribly intelligent, as far as we can gather they're mostly thugs who beat people up and take their stuff. They've been getting pretty ballsy lately so a local merchant company put a bounty on them. Again, I can't speak for the leader but the rest of his boys seem to be a bunch of brutes without much finesse.

Which makes the man that can hold this group together even more worrisome. Bosses are bosses for a reason (in the MMO sense or the crime boss sense) you have to be very careful when going after them and if they show up unexpectedly you need to cut your losses and duck out.

A four man team to kill or capture 300 seems pretty ridiculous. Clearly rules out any brute force methods. You might be able to harry them by taking off their returning patrols. Depending on your party's alignment you can return the loot or keep it for yourselves, either way you get paid for the bandits. The smoke/burn them out plans don't sound like good ideas, there's really no force multiplier that can make four effective against 300 and in D&D there are very few force multipliers at all.

[BlackDog918]

Honestly we didn't know how many of them there were until recently. Come to think of it the guy that said so may have been lying, but I couldn't be sure because I wasn't there. Once the evil members of the party dragged him off to an alley to get information out of him the hard way I decided to take a short break. I found this out secondhand. All in all though it seems like more recon is in order, at least. Any recommendations on equipment?

[PallentisLunam]

Honestly we didn't know how many of them there were until recently. Come to think of it the guy that said so may have been lying, but I couldn't be sure because I wasn't there. Once the evil members of the party dragged him off to an alley to get information out of him the hard way I decided to take a short break. I found this out secondhand. All in all though it seems like more recon is in order, at least. Any recommendations on equipment?

Lots of caltrops, all the rope you can carry, and several of these (panel 10) (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0138.html)

[Inevitability]

Capture a few bandits, earn some money. Perhaps kill a few and leave the bodies where they can be found. Then once the bandits start looking for their foes, challenge the leader to single combat in front of his men. He'll have to accept or be branded a coward. I recommend having the dwarf fight, he seems the most likely to survive a round or two.

Now buy the strongest constitution-damaging poison you can find, as well as some cheap lifestock. Lure the wolves towards the bandits using the animals.

As the fight begins, almost everyone will be watching it. Have the dwarf and two other PC's enter the bandit den for the fight. The dwarf will have to stall things for a bit, keeping the attention focused on himself and the leader. Meanwhile, the remaining PC lures the wolves very close to the bandits.

The two PC's who entered with the dwarf suddenly fling poisoned knives (perhaps the dwarf too, but he's more likely to be checked for such things) and run. Smokesticks are used to escape safely. The final PC opens the doors and lets the wolves come in.

In the confusion, there should be opportunity for you to escape. If you managed to kill the leader, another will probably not arise. At most, the thugs will break up into much easier to handle bands.