The PCs dillemna - When the monster threatens innocents

In our D&D 3.5 game the party came into a region with very little information about what was going on (they failed to take advantage of several opportunities to gather facts.)

As a result they found themselves facing the Big Bad without preparation. The monster was a Half Fiend Black Dragon, a big one. CR 16 or 17.

They fought him to a near standstill: Their main damage machine was standing at one hit point, with his Rage soon to go down, at which point he'd flat out die. The monster isn't in great shape, but he'll last longer than the PC.

The Dragon had a demand: The party was to find and free his master. If they didn't agree, he'd kill the damage machine. He gave them a month, and he'd hold the damage machine hostage for that time.

The group rejected that, so the Big Bad indicated a nearby town, saying that they would be his hostages. If the party failed to free his master within a month, the Dragon would kill every person in the city. The Dragon then vanished from sight (Ring of Invisibility), and left the field. (Flew away.) No negotiation is currently or easily possible, and the opponent didn't seem to be in a reasonable mood.

The party knows where "the master" is, and how to free him. It entails killing another innocent, one who is actually a part time PC and is married to another PC. She's currently been turned to stone to stop the progress of a curse that would have killed her. He's managed to transfer his spirit/consciousness into her unborn child. When she was turned to stone, so was he, and that's his prison. The PCs don't *know* this with certainty, but they're pretty sure of it. No way to kill the imprisoned bad guy without also killing the PC, and triggering the Dragon's wrath. No way to "free" him without letting the curse run its course, which kills her as well.

Now most of the details above can be changed to suit just about any game system, edition or setting. Whether it's an overpowering Dragon or a powerful crime lord or an alien monster in an orbiting spaceship, the actual choice is the same.

How do you handle this? Do you kill the innocent and free the one bigger threat than the monster making the demand? Or do you try to defend an entire city from a destructive barrage from the sky? Or maybe something else.

Tools available: They may be able to Scry the dragon, but that doesn't give an actual location, just a view of the target and their immediate surroundings. They don't have anyone in the party at the moment who can Teleport, so "Scry and Fry" is probably out. They have divination spells that can ask a higher power for advice, though I doubt that they'll try.

So how would you handle it? PC levels are around 16, but no high level Sorc/Wiz types at the moment.

First, they faced him with little prep and fought him to a near standstill, this is not a good sign for the big bad unless you have a reason to further buff him without it looking like meta prepping. This leads to my second thought.

Second, prep the town and be ready for the attack. Divination should give a decent answer on if he will act on his threat and when. At that point be prepped and win instead of standstill. Odds are they should win given the results of first fight.

So that is what I would do as a player and what I would expect as a DM.

I would send a Paladin^ (or an expendable NPC) in to the dragon to discuss the situation. Do not give enough information that the dragon can figure out where to attack. Do emphasize that his Master has been petrified and will stay so for the foreseeable future. Explain that he and the PCs actually want something very similar*, so he can / should let them do all the heavy lifting for him. They are aware of both the situation and his expectations, and can work out something that will prove acceptable to all involved parties in the end. Because they have motive based on their own best interests and desires, the dragon can lift his threat against the town; blackmail / manipulation is no longer needed.

The PCs meanwhile need to move the statue into some bigger tougher (and allied to them) dragon's territory. And figure out the real state of affairs with the curse and the child. And come up with a plan to deal with that. And come up with a plan to deal with the dragon.

^ because it is second nature for a Paladin to tell truth not lies
* Quote the movie scene with Batman and Mr. Freeze

Fair.

They fought him on the ground. He won't attack from the ground, he'll attack from the air, hit and run style. He won't stop to engage the PCs, since his target is all of the innocents. The Half Fiend package allows him the use of a Blasphemy once per day, which auto-kills every non-evil in the area if they're 10 or more hit dice below him. He's 24 dice, so that's 2/3 of the population (if 1/3 is Evil) that are vulnerable. There is no Save v that attack, and it's an area effect.

So he will, by the very nature of his target, come prepped for them. He's faced them and learned what they can throw. He'd be an idiot not to come buffed or protected, to learn from his most recent experience.

He's faced them before and sent them running for their lives. One didn't run fast enough and died.

The PCs have gained a few levels since then. I figured the Exp he's gotten from facing and defeating them, and that helped fuel his advancement as well. (Hey, juice for the goose is juice for the gander and all of that stuff.)

The PCs get Exp for today's encounter. The party total Exp gets split six ways (six PCs in the party), while he gets Exp for all six of them. If all things were equal he'd earn thirty-six times the Exp that any of them did. He'll take that deal all day long.

I'm not saying they can't do as you suggest, just that it won't be nearly as easy as you make it sound.

Given the people I play with our answer would almost definitely be "Something else".

Sorry I can't be more specific, but all I know about the party is that they're A) lacking a high lv wiz/sorc, B) stupid - they've gotten to 16th lv & likely won't be using their divination options??

How big is the town? Because my first "step one" thought was to evacuate the townsfolk well before the month is up. Is there somewhere they could go for a week or so while the PCs handle the dragon coming to attack the town (and for which hopefully they'd have made attack plans)?

Johnathan

I would be expecting the dragon to be monitoring the town (especially since it's a black dragon). Evacuation and/or defence, will not come as a surprise. I'm sure the dragon would have contingencies. The PCs are in a real dilemma. Playing it as anything less, is wet.

EDIT: Let us not forget the Ring of Invisibility which the dragon would use to scout the targeted area first before attacking. It would slay the innocents during the evacuation, or it would cut off the settlement's water supply or attack the outlying farming communities first, destroy trade routes...seriously a wealth of options.

The Paladin idea has merit. The group, however hasn't got a Paladin available, nor do they know where to send him. The Dragon's lair isn't known, and even if they can manage to Scry him, all that shows is the immediate surroundings. It doesn't give actual location.

Beyond that, the group's goals and the Dragon's aren't exactly aligned. They want the dragon's master (the "Big Bad" of the entire campaign) dead. Imprisoned is a second best solution, but the don't want him free.

The statue is already in the most secure and secret location they know of.

The town in question is called Boward, and it's the largest city in the region. As far as organizing an evacuation, they were specifically barred from entry to the entire region by Lord Ravenhurst, ruler of Boward. They aren't going to get any cooperation from him.

Now if the party were true neutral or Lawful Neutral, or even Chaotic neutral, they could just allow the Dragon to do his worst, and do their best to kill him when he tries. Letting the Big Bad of the campaign run loose when it's possible to actually get rid of him for good would do far damage than anything the Dragon could do to that one city. Big Bad is a threat to the entire world.

But they aren't the hard-nosed evil or neutral types who can make that call. They aren't cold blooded enough.

Law versus Chaos question.

Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one, or do the needs of the few or the one outweigh the needs of the many? Is the big picture just made up of a bunch of small pictures, and those ignoring the small picture is the same as ignoring the big picture, or do you have to look at the big picture and realize that for the sake of the big picture sacrifices have to be made? Do you act on abstract duties or concrete attachments?

And of course, the neutral position in this is usually the pragmatic one. In the recent Avengers movie, Captain America refuses to sacrifice the life of the individual for the sake of the many (staking out a Chaotic Good position). But it is quite reasonable to ask someone, given the fact that Vision died anyway, what did you actually accomplish? Where you just motivated to take actions that would leave you not feeling responsible or guilty, despite the fact that they were illogical and got people killed? Was your decision really motivated by selflessness or benevolence or where you just squeamish?

Personally, I'm a never make deals with terrorists sort.