A plan so cunning...
Apr. 25th, 2011 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Yesterday our D&D group actually did something competent!
We'd been tracking down a young lady who'd been kidnapped and sold into slavery, and somehow we managed to resist distraction for long enough to actually find her in a town where 'indentured servitude' was legal. She was being held near the slave markets until the sale, which was due to happen around the full moon.
We considered waiting for somebody to buy her and then kidnapping her away from them later, but none of us were comfortable with just abandoning the other slaves being held for sale, so we decided to run a heist. Slave markets were on an island with one guarded bridge, and a dock for incoming/outgoing ships, both with locks. There were about thirty-odd guards on the island, so with a party of 3 level 4s and 2 level 2s fighting our way in didn't seem like a winning proposition.
However, we noticed that most of the slaves were being held near the dock. There was a sturdy wall between them and the rest of the island, with a gate secured by a bar (to stop the slaves from getting out). Conveniently enough, since it was almost market day, one of the slave ships was tied up at the dock - it wasn't essential to our plans, but it made life easier.
We started out by setting fire to a wool warehouse near the town harbour. In the confusion we stole a boat (owned by the chief slave-trader) and took it well out to sea; when the fire was going well and most of the guards were looking in that direction, we came back near port on the opposite side of the island. Casting Silence on a couple of pebbles meant we were able to land without a sound, and a couple of our guys went over the wall while the rest of us went around to the slave ship to deal with the sentries.
Our druid cast Heat Metal on the bar for the gate that connected to the rest of the island. We'd already thrown a silence-pebble near the gate, so the guards didn't notice when our barbarian gave the gate a hefty kick to bend the bar and jam it.
Perhaps the best part of the plan was a spot of synergy we hadn't anticipated - inevitably the guards tried to open the gate and burnt their fingers, but the silence spell meant the other guards didn't realise what had happened, and promptly made the same mistake. It took them a while to realise they needed to get away from the gate to raise the alarm; when they finally did, an Obscuring Mist added to the confusion and prevented them from shooting at us through the iron wall.
By the time most of the guards realised they were under attack, we were already on our boat and away, and the chief slave-merchant was still asleep in her bed. None of us took a single hit during the encounter.
Unfortunately we didn't get to rescue all the slaves on the island (there were a few kept separate from the others) and we didn't get to loot the strongroom, but we're considering a return visit. In the meantime, the fact that they've lost a couple of dozen of other people's slaves probably won't do their business any good. A couple of ships did eventually give chase, but we managed to lose them with some tricky seamanship and changing course in the dark.
The fact that it was a slave ship helped us with another little issue: a couple of us had been bitten by a werewolf earlier, so on the nights of the full moon Kauri and Hyadis slept in secure quarters. After an altercation with some sea hags we landed in safety.
Al in all, a very successful run. We spent quite a while thrashing out a plan, but it worked beautifully, by dint of sneaky tactics rather than brute force. So unusual for things to go according to plan; I still have painful memories of some of our previous "rescue the prisoners" games.
We'd been tracking down a young lady who'd been kidnapped and sold into slavery, and somehow we managed to resist distraction for long enough to actually find her in a town where 'indentured servitude' was legal. She was being held near the slave markets until the sale, which was due to happen around the full moon.
We considered waiting for somebody to buy her and then kidnapping her away from them later, but none of us were comfortable with just abandoning the other slaves being held for sale, so we decided to run a heist. Slave markets were on an island with one guarded bridge, and a dock for incoming/outgoing ships, both with locks. There were about thirty-odd guards on the island, so with a party of 3 level 4s and 2 level 2s fighting our way in didn't seem like a winning proposition.
However, we noticed that most of the slaves were being held near the dock. There was a sturdy wall between them and the rest of the island, with a gate secured by a bar (to stop the slaves from getting out). Conveniently enough, since it was almost market day, one of the slave ships was tied up at the dock - it wasn't essential to our plans, but it made life easier.
We started out by setting fire to a wool warehouse near the town harbour. In the confusion we stole a boat (owned by the chief slave-trader) and took it well out to sea; when the fire was going well and most of the guards were looking in that direction, we came back near port on the opposite side of the island. Casting Silence on a couple of pebbles meant we were able to land without a sound, and a couple of our guys went over the wall while the rest of us went around to the slave ship to deal with the sentries.
Our druid cast Heat Metal on the bar for the gate that connected to the rest of the island. We'd already thrown a silence-pebble near the gate, so the guards didn't notice when our barbarian gave the gate a hefty kick to bend the bar and jam it.
Perhaps the best part of the plan was a spot of synergy we hadn't anticipated - inevitably the guards tried to open the gate and burnt their fingers, but the silence spell meant the other guards didn't realise what had happened, and promptly made the same mistake. It took them a while to realise they needed to get away from the gate to raise the alarm; when they finally did, an Obscuring Mist added to the confusion and prevented them from shooting at us through the iron wall.
By the time most of the guards realised they were under attack, we were already on our boat and away, and the chief slave-merchant was still asleep in her bed. None of us took a single hit during the encounter.
Unfortunately we didn't get to rescue all the slaves on the island (there were a few kept separate from the others) and we didn't get to loot the strongroom, but we're considering a return visit. In the meantime, the fact that they've lost a couple of dozen of other people's slaves probably won't do their business any good. A couple of ships did eventually give chase, but we managed to lose them with some tricky seamanship and changing course in the dark.
The fact that it was a slave ship helped us with another little issue: a couple of us had been bitten by a werewolf earlier, so on the nights of the full moon Kauri and Hyadis slept in secure quarters. After an altercation with some sea hags we landed in safety.
Al in all, a very successful run. We spent quite a while thrashing out a plan, but it worked beautifully, by dint of sneaky tactics rather than brute force. So unusual for things to go according to plan; I still have painful memories of some of our previous "rescue the prisoners" games.