Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Cerulean_wings 08-19-07, 12:39 PM	As a cordial warning, if you play in a gestalt campaign where you just met a merchant that sounded very much like Borat, do not read any further. Hi all! :) For my next adventure, I'm planning on an adventure that involves sending the PC's to assasinate the king of, well, a kingdom. The reasons are irrelevant for the purposes of the mission. Now, it's not like I'm new to DMing, but I haven't created this sort of adventure in at least a year, and I'm not 100% confident in creating one all by myself. So... I require the assistance of you, fellow DMs, with recommendations on how to craft the adventure. I'll outline the place where this will happen, followed by the aspects that I need help with. Setting: Typical medieval-fantasy. Will happen mainly at the castle of said king. Characters: (All Gestalt level 6) Beguiler/Warlock, Warblade/Barbarian, Warblade/Swordsage, Dread Necromancer/Shadowcaster, Favoured Soul/Cleric. Main idea of the plot to kill Ze King: characters will infiltrate the castle, accompanied by few allies, somehow, and make their way sneakily towards the throne room. Should they be found, they'll need to fight their way through guards that have Blindsense (no invisibility for you!). What I need help with: - I have the concept/stats for the guards themselves, but now I need a concept/stat for the magic casting-guards. I was thinking of Master Specialists in Abjuration (from Complete Mage), and Warmages (Complete Arcane) :cool: - What kind of traps to use? Since they'll be travelling through the habited area of the castle, I can't just put fireball traps right on the ground where common every-day people walk by, right? :D - How can the PCs, with the help from a guild of assasins, infiltrate the castle, without making it too farfetched, but on the other hand not too easy, making them wonder why this wasn't done before? :confused: - How can I make the scenario in a way that allows for the sneaky ones in the party to contribute to scouting ahead, disarming traps, and so on, so that their value is increased, but not to the point of overshadowing the entire party and making it impossible to travel through the castle without them? :eek: All help appreciated.
shyxander 08-19-07, 01:47 PM	for the traps perhapse sumbols of stunning or sleep or persuasion keyed towards people carrying weapons with out a particular crest on shoulder or helm or what ever. should be fairly specific with out being deadly in case of a mishapse. and maybe a spy with in the castle has revealed to the guild some weakness in it's defenses previously unknown but not necisarily trusted. better to risk adventurers on a long shot than dues paying guild members.
Cartigan 08-19-07, 02:16 PM	Rule of thumb for assassination: The number of people involved in the action is inversely proportional to the chance of success. Shouldn't be too hard to stop a party of people traipsing through a castle for an assassination game.
VulcanStormwrath 08-19-07, 02:25 PM	Perhaps setting up a scenario in which the majority of the party are supposed to get caught and fight their way out, as a distraction, focusing all attention away from the assasin. I can totally see a beguiler playing the "Come with me if you want to live" role BTW there should definitely be anti teleportation magic in the King's chambers
Cerulean_wings 08-19-07, 03:39 PM	Thank you all so far for replying :) VulcanStormwrath, that idea of yours is exactly what I was planning on using! Have you learned the spell Detect Thoughts, by any chance? :D shyxander, I'll check the spells for the "Rune of..." and see if they're viable to use in the castle (and how often!). The idea of "testing" a weakness in the defenses sounds verrrrry good, I'll ponder on that :)
shyxander 08-19-07, 04:27 PM	check out pages 290 and 291 in the phb. they're part of the symbol of ... chain of spells. i'd go with symbol of persuasion becuase of the short duration for stun and the immunities to sleep some races have and i think it's funny that you'd come to kill the guy then bam he's your best freind. i guess there are those that'd be immune to mind effects too, but it's a start. also the dmg talks about traps with spell triggers on page 68 so depending on the kings alignment certain areas can be trapped with detect evil or chaotic spells to detain and alert guards to those that may not have the kings best intentions at heart.
Myzery78 08-19-07, 05:54 PM	Personally I would expect such a mission to be beyond the abilities of a 6th lvl party if the king has even a fraction of the wealth I'd expect a king to possess. His throne room should be a long hall with only his personal quarters behind it, and only one exit. The room should have the spell Energy transformation field on it, set to cast wall of force sealing the only exit. On the opposite side of the exit should be a greater dispel magic trap to ensure anyone whos identity is magically concealed or otherwise enchanted does not remain so upon entering. Typically for royal guards Im a big fan of duskblades. Although they tend to be light on HP they can have just as much AC as a fighter, and even at 6th lvl they put out tremendous damage. Quicken a true strike, Power attack for 6, channel a shocking grasp with a 14 str, and a +1 greatsword gives you +23 (2d6+16+5d6) giving you an average damage of 40. Duskblade: The Final Word in Home Defense
Cartigan 08-19-07, 06:04 PM	I can totally see a beguiler playing the "Come with me if you want to live" role Get to tha choppa'! Sorry, had to be done. His throne room should be a long hall with only his personal quarters behind it, and only one exit. Not if he wanted to live. Secret exits and pathways are practically defining characters of old school castles. I would think the locks and doors should be magically sealed openable only be people with magical keys. Not to mention any number of other magical seals. etc etc
shyxander 08-19-07, 06:05 PM	thats absolutley true. he'll have the best defences money can buy both mundane and magical. you'll have slim chance of killing him on his own ground where he's prepared and well fortified. your best bet is a decoy or some play to take him out of his comfort zone so that you can exploit any weakness in his defences. it might not be such a bad idea as a would be assasin to do a little reconisence before hand... perhapse sending in a party of patsy to test the security or create a distraction.
taradusis 08-19-07, 06:20 PM	1)Consider having a body double for the king?2)Consider having the assassination occur during a royal ball so guests will be searched,this allows a group to wander around the castle as long as they're not to heavily armed?3)Consider hitting the royal carriage,hitting the motorcade is always popular.4)Consider a contigency spell that erects a Shield around the King.RANDOM THOUGHTS.
Myzery78 08-19-07, 06:26 PM	While real world castles might be loaded with secret passages, in a world with as much magic as D&D they are more of a liability than anything. Spells like divination garuntee that your secret passages wont stay that way, and in the end only serve to give your enemies access to you. A panic room on the other hand might have some value, although if the throne room has already been breacked Im not sure how useful it would be.
shyxander 08-19-07, 06:56 PM	then theres transportation spells. whats better than a panic room a hundred miles away.
VulcanStormwrath 08-19-07, 08:37 PM	Room is filled with little holes in the ceiling that ventilate, King wears a gaseous form potion around his neck.
Divokej 08-19-07, 09:42 PM	Trap the walls and the cieling. Do it. Do it right now. I like arrow traps. Buy a dog. Buy TWO dogs. Buy LOTS of dogs. There we go, that's the one we want. Lots of dogs. Lots of well-trained dogs. As for making the group a necessary part of the experience make traps that need to be disarmed by a group. Maybe pushing different buttons that are on opposite sides of the hallway, lifting a granite bar or the like. For the magic using gaurds, it depends what you want them to do. I don't have Complete mage so I'll be no help there. I'm not entirely sure why you want warmages. Yes, in a straight up fight they would kick it, but as for finding the enemy I'm not sure they would be effective. Abjuration makes sense. A hell of a lot of alarms. What level are the gaurds. I'll go with sixth. I'll also assume they're sorcerers. Spells that would be useful: Cantrips- Light and Detect Magic; First level- Alarm, Hold Portal, Obscuring Mist(?), Sleep, Magic Missle; Second level- Arcane Lock, Fog Cloud(?), Glitterdust(?), Web, Detect Thoughts, See Invisibility, Blindness/Deafness; Third level- Dispel Magic, Magic Circle..., Hold Person, Invisibility Sphere. That would be a gaurd more focused on finding things then dealing with the found people. But I particularly like Web. As a preventative measure. If they are high ehough level for the Prismatic spells, that's even better.
Cerulean_wings 08-20-07, 01:16 AM	Wow, that's a LOT of replies in such a short notice! :eek: Thank you for overwhelming me with ideas, the more the merrier ;) Seems like most of the new posters have suggested to go with "expensive does it" in terms of traps/protection; the thing is, he may be a king, but hey, it doesn't has to be impossible for 'em to at least get close to see the guy! They'll have the assistance of an Ogre Mage, a gestalt Wizard/Cleric, and a couple of Xill that will remain ethereal 'till the right time. At the same time, a huge, once-upon-a-lifetime-riot will be happening, right at the front doors of the castle, so most of the outter (and some of the inner) guards will be busy for a couple of minutes. With that being said, how can I protect the castle, to the point that it's tough to get through, but not impossible? I don't want to make them feel like I'm telling them (the players) "Good luck, Jim".
Divokej 08-20-07, 02:09 AM	Well, what can your party do? I'm not familiar at all with four of the seven classes in your group. But let's seegdgdngdnggdkgndkgndkgdkg. Okay, so there's a riot going on out side. A real freaking huge riot. (This will take more than "a couple of minutes" for the gaurds to take care of. The entire night sounds like a better idea.) So all the gaurds left protecting the king are going to be shoot first ask questions if by some chance the subjects of the spell aren't dead. As to the actual king. He'll be in a situation room or an escape route. Giant riot outside? He's doing one of three things. Running and hoping things get better, hiding and hoping things get better or making a speech to the public and hoping things get better. I'm assuming the first one, just because that's easiest for me. So, this room, it has one way in and one way out. It has an everlasting supply of food. It has permament magic protection. Dispel magic, invisibility purge (I think that's what it's called), and whatever else suits your fancy. It will have some way to see what's going on outside. It will be hidden with magical means. It will be hidden with mundane means. The adventure will be finding this place as much as killing the king. I suggest your players only have a general search area. The palace will be in "lockdown" mode. Any and all traps will be activated. If your king is paranoid there will be many. Traps that debilitate rather than kill are good. All the doors will be locked. Everything will be magically reinforced, if at all possible. You need to decide if his gaurds are with him or out patrolling the deserted palace. I suggest both. Trap the walls and cieling. Trap the doors. Trap random pieces of carpet. Have gaurds run into the group so the restof the party has something to do. Have doors that seem to be locked but aren't, so that when they try to unlock them they lock, but appear unlocked. This will drive your players crazy. Have doors that don't open, they're just fancy pieces of wall. The main point is for your characters to be slowed down until the riot subsides and the threat is over. At that time the regular gaurds and find your PCs, making them fail their mission. Well, that's assuming they don't find the king and kill him.
shadow77 08-20-07, 02:45 AM	ok this is a basic idea of how id start it off. First id make their instructions to enter through the roof of a gaurd tower to get past the outer wall (if ther is in fact an outer wall) and have the pcs encounter 2 gaurds sleeping. they can take em out of leave them be. then climb down to the bottom to the tower. once the heavyest one in the group is at the door id have his foot fall though the floor boards. nothing serious hes/shes still standing and all that but if they investagate any further they find out that its a sewage line under the castle. they could try to get into the castle that way but also could still take the straight foward rought thought the courtyard. in the sewars id probly put an ugly baddy in ther, nothing comes to mind as to what but i bet i could figure sumtin out, it would have to be very smelly though. if i think of more past that ill let ya know but thats all i got right now. (edit) didt c ur post bout riot and stuff but ill think about it for a while and get back 2 ya
Cerulean_wings 08-20-07, 12:22 PM	As to the actual king. He'll be in a situation room or an escape route. Giant riot outside? He's doing one of three things. Running and hoping things get better, hiding and hoping things get better or making a speech to the public and hoping things get better. I'm assuming the first one, just because that's easiest for me. Your ideas are good indeed, but the thing is, this king isn't the pragmatic type. At all. He's more like "My people need me!", and thus he won't hide right away at the riot. He won't refuse bodyguards to protect him, but on the other hand he won't be paranoid enough to hide right away. His reaction will be of doubt, initially, pondering if it's wise enough to go out and talk to the riot-of-doom, staying put, or declaring martial law for the rest of the evening. That being said, how would you trap/protect the throne room? What type of bodyguards would the king have?