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Message: <blockquote data-quote="General Barron" data-source="post: 2781092" data-attributes="member: 32468">Thanks for the great feedback. Let me clarify a bit.The PC's don't really know the duke, his bodyguard, or anyone else. They are just hired help--the duke is essentially pulling a publicity stunt, so by hiring outside help, he hopes that word of his exploits will travel across the land.This is essentially an opening encounter which will springboard the PC's into a much larger plot. At this point, the intention isn't to spotlight the players, just to shock and surprise them. A whole lot of stuff is going on around them which they don't understand yet. The bodyguard is meant to survive the encounter, although the PC's will think he is as good as dead. He will reappear near the climax of the story to help the PC's, only at that point it will be the PC's in the spotlight.The encounter will be a complete surprise to them. Once they figure out who is on what side, I'm assuming the PC's will want to protect the duke. The book is supposed to hold some powerful magic, so they should also want to get that away from the wizard. However, no matter what, the duke will die, and the wizard will escape with the book, simply because that is what the rest of the adventure/campaign is designed around (the PC's proving their innocence, and later reclaiming the book). After the wizard teleports, and the guardians move in, it should become quite clear that the only option left to the PC's is to escape (they don't even really have to kill the guards, since the guardians can do the job for them).Btw the shield guardians are a great suggestion; I'll definately use them. It is a very force-fed encounter, but again this is the 'hook' for an adventure, not the climax.</blockquote>

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