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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 2782506" data-attributes="member: 386">Since you want the duke dead, why not start the game off right there?"You head into the tower with the duke, the wizard, and their bodyguards.  The wizard picks up the book and laughs evilly, then spins around and casts a terrible spell on the duke!  He screams in terror and falls to the ground, dead!Roll for initiative..."Before the game begins, however, tell the players that you're going to use some railroading to get them into a interesting situation.  They should be okay with it, since it's usually more fun to start off with a combat than pinking around town looking for adventure for 30 minutes to an hour.The wizard casts Phantasmal Killer as his first action, and the duke fails his save.  No surprise round here, so the PCs get a chance to respond.  His next action is a Dimension Door to get away.  (This could fail, especially if the PCs pen him in with Silence and he has to move into a threatened space in order to cast and blows his Concentration check.)The only problem with the encounter that I see is that the PCs don't really have much to win.  They can get out with their lives, but that still smells like defeat.  It's more fun to start off with victory.  I can't see how they can grab a victory out of this, other than killing the wizard, and you don't want that to happen.</blockquote>