[mostly D&D 3.5] Help me to plan an assassination

[Jon_Dahl]

Situation in my game is this:
Players are being targeted by an unknown master assassin. They have received a clear and horrifying warning that one of them is get assassinated very soon. Players are pumped up and ready to face the challenge. So this is not an unfair no-warning-TPK, just a strong, deadly challenge which has been accepted by my players in a metagame-level.

At the moment players are at levels 7-8, and there are four of them.

So what to do?
Of course this assassin will use Gather Information to know their weaknesses. NPCs will warn players that there have been "lot of questions" about them. So what is their major weakness? It's the fact that they never sleep in any specific place, only in the middle of desolate plains in some random bush or in a grove with heavy undergrowth. Tracking them is not too hard.

I haven't decided about the assassin. I was thinking about a really decent assassin. Maybe roque 5/assassin 3?

I was thinking about this:
Players are famously rich, so getting a partner in crime should be easy if loot is shared and it's also necessary since players always stay together.

Plan #1: Players' grove is set on fire at night. As the players escape through the fire, assassin uses invisibility and a heavy crossbow to Death Attack one of the players. At this point invisible 5th-level wizard will summon a couple of celestial bisons to fight the players, while assassin cuts off the head of the victim. At this moment assassin and wizard-ally try to escape with the severed head. But I don't know if an evil wizard can summon celestian bisons?

Plan #2: A poor woman comes to tell the adventures that her son has been kidnapped. She takes them to a building, and it's full of traps. The prisoner is the assassin, who tries to attack players one-handed after they have passed the traps.

Players definitely have left themselves very vulnerable to attacks, especially by sleeping in the wilderness every night. I don't know what would be a great style to attack the players. Would great assassin use traps, lots of minions or one "trusted" ally or whatnot to even the odds with the players? I'm looking for a great advice for PC-assassination done in style! Just please note that players really are fully are aware that manure is about to hit the fan, so I don't want to make this attempt on their life look a silly bitch slap.

 

[Gilladian]

So what makes you pick celestial bison? I think any summoned monster (how about a fire elemental?) would work.

Your assassin definitely needs mooks. ONE 8th lvl NPC is nowhere close to being a challenging fight for the whole group. Even seriously injured... a whole party of NPCs of their level is closer to a good fight.

If he has no help, make sure he gets a 1 on 1 situation with a PC for at least a couple rounds. If they like to camp out, maybe one of them sees something interesting/alluring when off at the latrine? Or the guard at night hears something crying in the distance... anything to get one of them off by him or her self.

 

[Hautamaki]

Here's what I did in a similar situation; the PCs also knew they were targeted for assassination.

First off, I let it simmer for a session and a half, with a few mundane encounters between their warning and the actual assassination attempt. One of the mundane encounters was set up by the assassin by having some street thugs ambush them in a dark alley while the assassin spied on them from afar.

For the encounter itself, the assassin disguised himself as a local lord's man-at-arms. The PCs were being escorted by 10 of the lord's men-at-arms and 2 mounted knights across town to arrest another local lord. The assassin secretly insinuated himself into this party and bribed the knights to attack the party along with their men-at-arms as they passed through a wooded park in the city. So the PCs were suddenly attacked by 2 knights and 10 men-at-arms (one of them secretly the assassin in disguise). This encounter was difficult enough for the party even though they were of 5th level, at full HP, and with good equipment. The assassin was also 5th level but fought them as a regular man-at-arms until he was able to get a really good back attack off and put one of the PCs down. The PCs won the fight with 2 people unconscious but none dead; a thoroughly successful encounter.

 

[amerigoV]

Use a Greater Dopplerganger - they get the memories (some abilties?) victims if they eat their brain. Then, you just need to pick one off when they are alone, then coup de gras the rest in their sleep.

 

[zac]

in an old campaign that i ran, one of the pc's attempted to assassinate another pc(long story). he used a coup de grace(with some awesome crit weapon), death attack, and some heinous poison that had a death primary effect. that was 3 fort saves or die all from one attack.

this is assuming that you want to kill the pc. don't forget to the pc w/ the worst fort saves. and don't forget to have an escape plan. minions/distractions also help.

zac

 

[Neonchameleon]

Situation in my game is this:
Players are being targeted by an unknown master assassin.

Title: "Help me plan an assassination". Players are being targetted... I've heard of killer DMs, but this is getting ridiculous.

I haven't decided about the assassin. I was thinking about a really decent assassin. Maybe roque 5/assassin 3?

That's not going to cut it against an 8th level party unless it gets the coup de grace. I'd use a 12th level bard, a scroll to allow him to carry a dozen low level (3 or 4) minions through with him and a scry and fry. With the mooks hitting hard due to bardic music + message - but going down easily. And go for the wizard; two mooks grab him and unveil a Silence around him. (And around the cleric and druid).

Edit: Unveilling a silence: Silence works on an emination from whatever it is cast on. Therefore if you cast it on an a ring and then wrap the hand in cloth, it will do nothing - until you drop the cloth when it will suddenly appear.

Would great assassin use traps, lots of minions or one "trusted" ally or whatnot to even the odds with the players?

Scry and fry, and team up. Also one bard and the rest warriors should be entertaining... Catch the PCs unarmoured and half asleep and even a dozen generic orcs backed by Bardic Music* are going to make the whole thing a bitch to survive for the non-targets.

+4 to hit and damage from their generic falchions, +3 from the music (+2 default with a further +1 from a buff to Inspire Courage), and +1 from a wand of Lesser Magic Weapon. The orcs lose the music after five rounds. +8 to hit and an average of 13 damage per hit vs mostly unarmoured PCs is going to be ... unpleasant. Especially from ordinary CR 1/2 monsters.

And if the bard isn't part of the incoming teleport, this is going to be a scary fight - and the PCs know that it can be done again the next night and the next...