Ambushing Kaja

Tobold · Feb 18, 2017

My campaign is currently in early adventure 3, Digging for Lies. The Incident took place, and the players sent Simon Langfield to the trinket stand to arrange for a meeting with Kaja Stewart, which we are going to play in the next session. However from what I already heard the players discussing, they don't plan to go in posing as weapon buyers. They aren't the most subtle bunch, and so instead they want to set up an ambush for Kaja by turning up early to the meeting. So the starting setup as written in the adventure will be of not much use to me.

I always try to make the best out of the ideas of my players instead of forcing them to play an encounter as written. So I decided that they can hide at the subrail station, and Kaja will come in from the north accompanied by her bodyguard and the two thugs, carrying cases of arms. Now I'm looking for some ideas for the rest of the setup and the start of the fight:

How about Kaja already having hidden her walking turrets around the site at an earlier date, so once the combat begins the player ambushers are in at least for some surprise? Or would that feel unfair and scripted?
Do you think that once Kaja enters the fenced area, I should make some sort of opposed skill check, her perception (+3) against the stealth of whoever is hiding closest to the north entrance? I could give +2 bonus on the stealth check if the player had described a convincing way to hide, e.g. under a tarp. But as Kaja's perception isn't all that great, I don't want to give too big a bonus and make the check pointless. If Kaja loses the check, the players have a surprise round.
Under 4E rules, once an encounter starts, everybody always knows where everybody else is (which makes ambushes kind of tricky in 4E). But I guess that is only true until either Kaja detects the hidden constables or they move out of hiding.

What do you think? How do I play that ambush so that the players have the feeling they made a clever move, but without making the encounter too much of a pushover?

gideonpepys · Feb 18, 2017

I would judge your response by how early hey intend to turn up. If they say a huge amount of time, like several hours, they would need to 'take 10' on any stealth checks because it is very difficult - physically and mentally - to stay hidden for that length of time. So they add their stealth bonuses to 10 and when Kaja shows up, see if she beats it; she should get a couple of checks depending on how deep into the area they want her to advance before they jump out. If she beats it, decide if she would challenge them verbally, fight or bolt immediately.

If they only turn up an hour in advance, I'd have Kaja arrive pretty much simultaneously, but without having set up her turrets.

But don't be afraid to have them 'ace' the encounter, either. I think a pushover is acceptable every once in a while.

efreund · Feb 20, 2017

My players had a similar idea to begin with (although ultimately chickened out, and went through with things normally). Here was my thought process and execution:

Kaja is a cautious, smart operator, and has probably been ambushed before by some punk looking to steal her wares, and has taken steps to correct.

The autoturrets are preinstalled at three different sites, and Kaja rotates between them. The subrail station isn't her "main" one or anything: it's just next in rotation. Pointedly: Langfield bought the staff from her in a different location. (Though I made sure to emphasize that that location was just two blocks away from the subrail station, so that the PCs could start to get an idea of her operating area.) (Actually, they never did this, but I had a backup plan that if the PCs ever rescheduled the meeting, and thus Kaja rotated to a new meetup point, they could plot the three points on a map to triangulate where her hideout was.)

Anyway, the hired thugs show up about an hour early to the meeting site, and case the joint. In my games, I've always taken strain to differentiate the morale and motives of hired thugs from true believers, so unlike Kaja, *they* don't actually expect an ambush, and their guard is down. They're just doing a job. So I described them walking around the site, casually checking behind and under various hiding places on the north side of the site, and otherwise "taking 5" on a Perception check. (It's like "taking 10", but for lazy people!) Point of order: one of thugs openly checks on one of the autoturrets and makes sure it still looks good. Then he says some line about "this one's good, I bet the rest are fine too" and doesn't bother to check them. This lets the PCs know that other guns are hidden, but not where they are.

Then Kaja shows up slightly late on purpose (only about 10 minutes late; since the guards are there, the PCs should know to stick around). She is cautious and paranoid, and will require the guards to "give the signal" before she'll approach. I ruled the Kaja started off too far away for the PCs to notice, but they were able to notice the guards signalling, so they knew when something was about to happen.

Anyway, hope some of that helps!

Tiggerunner · Mar 13, 2017

This exact thing happened to me when I ran this encounter with my group today. Luckily the ninja rolled a one on a poison touch attack after sneaking up on her. The only thing that ended up being exciting was that Kaja nearly one shotted the ninja with hit from the cannon after making great use of the bonuses from the expeditious retreat buffs, but his poisonous smoke bombs are really getting annoying during the boss battles. Much like the grease wands from the family warf bust was making the battles very samey (grease the big bad, watch him fail reflex saves over and over again). The ninja managed to grapple and handcuff her while the rest of the party fixed the rest of the bad guys. After that, the encounter was cake for them. The Macbannin case had a more climatic battle at the end thanks to the Mayor having the bonds of forced faith spell, which kept a single sneaky contact poison from ending the encounter before the earthquake occurred. I have to be on my toes and maybe evolve some of the boss stats for this group in the future...

RangerWickett · Mar 13, 2017

The boss fight for 3 should catch the party by surprise. By contrast, the party probably gets the drop on the enemies in the final encounter of 4, but then the challenge is getting away from a LOT of enemies. In 5 the enemies are ready for them, and there's a novel challenge in that the colossus breaks free and causes stuff to collapse, so the party has to decide whether to focus on the fight or on escaping.

6 the enemies know you're coming. 7 it's another 'get out of here before they surround us'. 8 is . . . hm, kinda the same thing. I wonder if I'm repeating myself.

9 is 'break into my fortified base and defeat me.' 10 is 'solve a puzzle that's weird but more environmental than enemy-focused.' 11 is three different bosses - 'attack their base,' 'take out the leader,' and 'slay the dragon.'

12 is 'slay the giant god serpent'. 13 is 'decide how you want to win.'