Assassination, pt 1
Apr. 17th, 2005 11:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothAfter a ridiculously long hiatus, we finally had another session of Tom's D+D game. He's been having random people design parts of the adventure... today he asked me to design a gnoll shaman and his escorts to 'challenge the party'. I made him an 8th level druid, with special druid armor and wild shape and the various animal buffing spells and everything, and a dire wolverine companion, with a bunch of gnollish barbarian guards.
Then Tom had him come at us alone, with us getting surprise, and without him having time to cast anything. Needless to say, he didn't challenge us.
The party decided to scout out the druid camp first, so Silverhawk sent a forester with them to show them the location. The gnolls were dug in in an old, abandoned mine, with a fortress built around the outside, in the side of a cliff. The party decided a frontal assault would be stupid, so they ambushed a gnollish hunting party instead.
Zanzibar shot off an entangle from one of his wands, and that was pretty much game. That is, the gnolls never managed to get a swing off, because the few that weren't entangled were shot down by the party's vast ranged might. One survivor was kept alive, and dragged back to the castle for interrogation (because the party wasn't very good at it).
He sang like a canary, and told them of a secret entrance that looked like it would bypass most of the outer defenses, although it would open up into the central chamber, meaning they'd likely have to fight the whole encampment. They had found the smoky air vents where the bonfires inside the cavern were vented to the outside air, so there was some planning done around plugging those up, waiting until the cavern was smokey enough to provide concealment, and then sneaking in through the passage... so they set out again, this time with two squads of Silverhawk's guards, since they were actually planning to attack this time.
Unfortuantely, when they sent Samuel in to scout out the secret passage (and find where it opened on the outside) ethereally, he found that it didn't lead to the meat locker off the central chamber like the prisoner had told them -- instead it led directly to the main guard post, and they would have come out right into the teeth of the ballistas. Not really a viable option, although it *was* still better than a frontal assault against the main gates (which had *three* ballista trained on them).
However, Rhiannon remembered that there was a library in Silverhawk's castle, that would probably have information about the mines. So they turned around and went back to the castle, and searched the library, and found a map of the mines -- and indeed, there were other exits to the mines that would provide a back way into the gnoll's cavern.
So they set out again, navigated a few winding narrow tunnels, and came upon a pair of elevator shafts that according to their map would lead up into the gnoll area. Zanzibar spider climbed up to scout them, and found that one of them wasn't guarded, so Rhiannon cast silence on a rock, and Zanzibar and Raiina used that cover to lower the elevator and bring up their forces.
They then spent a while creeping about the back tunnels of the gnoll area, avoiding patrols and edging their way around to the temple. The guards were left in a back corridor while the party crept up in the dark to hopefully ambush the priest in his chambers. Zanzibar, as the only one with darkvision, had to solo a gnoll that wandered by.
But the chambers themselves were (a) lit and (b) empty. The party secured them -- killing a chained prisoner (oops!) and a dire badger -- and moved the guards into the back room, while they waited for the priest to finish his sermon.
The plan was to wait for the priest to enter the room, then silence him and stone-shape the door shut behind him (not in that order). If he didn't step through the door, or if he managed to escape back through the door and out into the cavern, they'd pursue and destroy, while the soldiers charged around through an alternate route and started slaughtering the apparently-noncombatant gnolls who were attending the sermon, as a distraction.
But, surprisingly, they managed to take him by surprise! Once he was silenced and trapped in a room with the party, he was doomed -- sure, he was able to turn into a bear and tear into Morgan for a round, but only one round, as he had to spend the first round wild-shaping, and couldn't survive *three* rounds of the party's assault. His guards, who'd been right behind him, saw the stone-shaped wall and immediately rushed to his aid... only to run into the two squads of soldiers, who easily handled them without the party even having to intervene.
Unfortunately, the guards were able to raise the alarm before they went down, so the party had to either start a large running battle or retreat. Or, perhaps, hide out in three rope tricks... they picked option (c), hoping the gnolls wouldn't be able to find them, and they could pop out and finish the job (by killing the chief, the gnolls' other leader) after things quieted down a little.
last session | next session
Then I headed home, and played a bunch of City of Heroes doing missions with small groups with my controller. Not very good xp, but much less chaotic and frustrating than large groups (and loads better xp than soloing).
Then Tom had him come at us alone, with us getting surprise, and without him having time to cast anything. Needless to say, he didn't challenge us.
The party decided to scout out the druid camp first, so Silverhawk sent a forester with them to show them the location. The gnolls were dug in in an old, abandoned mine, with a fortress built around the outside, in the side of a cliff. The party decided a frontal assault would be stupid, so they ambushed a gnollish hunting party instead.
Zanzibar shot off an entangle from one of his wands, and that was pretty much game. That is, the gnolls never managed to get a swing off, because the few that weren't entangled were shot down by the party's vast ranged might. One survivor was kept alive, and dragged back to the castle for interrogation (because the party wasn't very good at it).
He sang like a canary, and told them of a secret entrance that looked like it would bypass most of the outer defenses, although it would open up into the central chamber, meaning they'd likely have to fight the whole encampment. They had found the smoky air vents where the bonfires inside the cavern were vented to the outside air, so there was some planning done around plugging those up, waiting until the cavern was smokey enough to provide concealment, and then sneaking in through the passage... so they set out again, this time with two squads of Silverhawk's guards, since they were actually planning to attack this time.
Unfortuantely, when they sent Samuel in to scout out the secret passage (and find where it opened on the outside) ethereally, he found that it didn't lead to the meat locker off the central chamber like the prisoner had told them -- instead it led directly to the main guard post, and they would have come out right into the teeth of the ballistas. Not really a viable option, although it *was* still better than a frontal assault against the main gates (which had *three* ballista trained on them).
However, Rhiannon remembered that there was a library in Silverhawk's castle, that would probably have information about the mines. So they turned around and went back to the castle, and searched the library, and found a map of the mines -- and indeed, there were other exits to the mines that would provide a back way into the gnoll's cavern.
So they set out again, navigated a few winding narrow tunnels, and came upon a pair of elevator shafts that according to their map would lead up into the gnoll area. Zanzibar spider climbed up to scout them, and found that one of them wasn't guarded, so Rhiannon cast silence on a rock, and Zanzibar and Raiina used that cover to lower the elevator and bring up their forces.
They then spent a while creeping about the back tunnels of the gnoll area, avoiding patrols and edging their way around to the temple. The guards were left in a back corridor while the party crept up in the dark to hopefully ambush the priest in his chambers. Zanzibar, as the only one with darkvision, had to solo a gnoll that wandered by.
But the chambers themselves were (a) lit and (b) empty. The party secured them -- killing a chained prisoner (oops!) and a dire badger -- and moved the guards into the back room, while they waited for the priest to finish his sermon.
The plan was to wait for the priest to enter the room, then silence him and stone-shape the door shut behind him (not in that order). If he didn't step through the door, or if he managed to escape back through the door and out into the cavern, they'd pursue and destroy, while the soldiers charged around through an alternate route and started slaughtering the apparently-noncombatant gnolls who were attending the sermon, as a distraction.
But, surprisingly, they managed to take him by surprise! Once he was silenced and trapped in a room with the party, he was doomed -- sure, he was able to turn into a bear and tear into Morgan for a round, but only one round, as he had to spend the first round wild-shaping, and couldn't survive *three* rounds of the party's assault. His guards, who'd been right behind him, saw the stone-shaped wall and immediately rushed to his aid... only to run into the two squads of soldiers, who easily handled them without the party even having to intervene.
Unfortunately, the guards were able to raise the alarm before they went down, so the party had to either start a large running battle or retreat. Or, perhaps, hide out in three rope tricks... they picked option (c), hoping the gnolls wouldn't be able to find them, and they could pop out and finish the job (by killing the chief, the gnolls' other leader) after things quieted down a little.
last session | next session
Then I headed home, and played a bunch of City of Heroes doing missions with small groups with my controller. Not very good xp, but much less chaotic and frustrating than large groups (and loads better xp than soloing).
