... you just lost some valuable prisoners. What would you do?
Some background info:
- You're part of a team of Red Wizards who are working on building a portal in the Forlorn Hills north of Daggerford. This portal is partially powered by elemental nodes but also by blood magic.
- Your team has allied with the spirit of a pit fiend that's been flitting around the place. It has agreed to help you access an old elven portal network in exchange for helping him regain his body.
- As part of the plan, the pit fiend has possessed the leaders of a number of monstrous humanoid tribes in the area (gnolls, orcs, and goblinoids) and driven them to raid the nearby settled lands in order to distract from your team's activities and also to acquire slaves.
- Recently, some adventurers had begun killing the monstrous humanoids, putting an end to their depradations.
- More recently, your superiors received word from the pit fiend that your duergar allies had captured these adventurers. The duergar interrogated them and determined that they haven't figured out what the Red Wizards' plan is yet. The pit fiend then secured their survival so that they could be used as sacrifices to help power the portal - because, you know, adventurers' blood is worth so much more than the blood of commoners, right?
- So off you went to collect these adventurers. But on the way back to your secret stronghold, they escaped. You made the mistake of resting, and they took advantage of that to slip their bonds and run away from your dread warriors.
What do you do? Your superiors won't be happy that you let these adventurers get away, especially since they'll probably keep causing mischief. You don't want to lose face, so contacting your superiors for help probably isn't a good idea. Do you try to hunt them down yourself? Do you try to contact some of these allied monstrous humanoid tribes and get them to help?
One last note: You are essentially a mage but with a few changes to account for your speciality in necromancy. You have four Thayan dread warriors (CR 3 armored zombies) and two darkenbeasts (who can't do anything during the day, due to being vulnerable to sunlight) at your disposal. You are currently in the middle of some fairly inhospitable hills - a few days' travel from both the duergar stronghold and the Red Wizards' keep.
So ... what do you do?
~ Jonathan
Desert.
Once you lose the Adventurers, it's all downhill from there. Best to just make yourself scarce...
LupusRegalis wrote:
OrwellianHaggis wrote:
Polymorph into various creatures. Wolf or tracking dog to track the PCs by scent. Hawk to see them from above. Once located call in the minions and capture them!
Zortch wrote:
Assuming I’ve tracked them down (great idea on the polymorph, Zortch), I would get ahead of them and set an ambush for them at nightfall. Preferably in some place where I can take the high ground and avoid engaging in melee with them. Alternately, I’d make them come to me, somehow. Either way, I'd want to control the location and time of the battle.
Does the wizard need to use the rules to find them? It may be more effective to pull a Deus Ex Machina and give him a handy-dandy plot device that just happens to allow him to find the party members. If the wizard and his minions have the ability to just show up when it's most entertaining, that might make for a better story.
(Could the demon be aware that the party has escaped because he was somehow monitoring the situation and given the wizard their location and an ultimatum to bring them back or die trying?)
Use my ring of DM fiat to teleport me and my minions to just in front of the adventurer's escape path. They'll never see me coming. When they do see me, monologue a bit about the superiority of my master's plan, the power if offers (such as just experienced by my unexpected arrivial) and offer to let them join the dark path. This gives them time to roll their eyes and leap into action.
Or
Hey, they are adventurer's. They are going to figure out about the portal and make their way back there to put a stop to it, eventually. Time to set traps using PC background info I gained when we did interrogate them. Something with kidnapped relatives dangling over pools of wild piranha.
Capture three random townsfolk/caravan guards/farmers.
Scuff them up a bit and cut out their tongues so they can't talk.
Take them back to the boss, say "Here are the adventurers!" and let them be sacrificed.
(Bonus DM activity: let the players know their escape and subsequent cowardly flight led to three innocent deaths. Do they feel guilty, swear vengeance, try to recover the bodies and have the innocents resurrected? Roleplaying opportunities abound!)
- If the darkenbeasts have Scent, start tracking soonest. (And hope none of the escapees is a Ranger.)
- Use any Diviniation spells I can (Arcane Eye?) to locate them / their gear.
- Do NOT tell my boss that I was a clumsy oaf. (Red Wizard blood might be potent like adventurers' blood, but I don't want to find out about that personally.)
- Do contact an associate - friend is not likely accurate - who knows Divination and already owes me a favor, to tell him he may repay me now.
- The undead warriors don't need to rest or sleep. They can keep closing on the escapees, who MUST rest sooner or later.
- Are these undead able to follow complex commands? Are they self-motivated? Is their Perception good? If so, order them to track and attack the escapees.
- Do I have an underling who can take the fall? Start drafting a carefully-worded Mission Report.
- Notify the pit fiend to alert the monstrous allies to sweep the area. They can keep any one adventurer they capture, provided they capture more than one.
- If I can contact the monstrous allies on my own, don't involve the pit fiend; he's likely to blab to my boss eventually.
- Get some drow poison or other knockout drops, for use on missiles. I want the PCs alive (but not necessarily awake), not dead.
- I should prepare False Life and Spare the Dying and whatever else I have.
- Probably Command and Suggestion should be withheld unless the escapees are already exhausted. Didn't the duergar have trouble employing these?
- re: Polymorph: +1
Ralif_Redhammer wrote:
BRJN wrote:
pukunui wrote:
Orethalion wrote:
pukunui wrote:
What do you mean "pretend" to be a Red Wizard?
I think the "how to find adventurers" has been covered. Polymorph, divination, bribe the local gnolls, or some combination therein.
But I value life ... well I value my life ... and adventurers are notoriously hard to kill. Much like cocroaches and gnomes, no matter what you do they keep coming back.
Not knowing exactly what your wizard is capable of, I'll make a few suggestions.
If the adventurers are the goody-two-shoes types, can you lure them into a trap using a damsel in distress? Charm a damsel, polymorph yourself or some "willing" ally into a damsel but get the damsel and put her into distress. Have her kid brother in great danger, he went off hunting and never came back or some such. It's probably better if there really is a little brother, try to keep the actual straight out lies to a minimum.
Lure them into a cave or other dark place where all your allies can be effective. Throw in some pits, traps and glyphs of warding if you have them.
If you can have some of your fodder ... I mean valuable allies ... weaken them a little bit before you strike. Have someone else wear them out first if possible.
Whatever you do, do not play fair. Cheat to win and good luck.
Orethalion wrote:
pukunui wrote:
Orethalion wrote:
pukunui wrote: