All PC dead, what to do?

[Agamemnon]

Having someone eavesdrop on you is a whole degree of magnitude from that person being a vicious assassin. I'd say them not considering her a serious threat was quite justified under the circumstances.

 

[Wolfwood2]

They have mithral chain shirts, amulets with glimmering fireflies, inteligent talking extremly-fancy-crafted scimitars (weapons of legacy, feuding genies forced by ritual to not fight among themselves), signet rings with heraldic seals (all PCS are lord knights and some are inquisitors).

Whoa, whoa, whoa!

Why didn't the intelligent talking weapons raise the alarm or something?

It's not like a scimitar sleeps.

 

[Eli-kun]

Sometimes thats just the way the dice roll. See it as a chance to try a new race or class.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Having now had a quick look at the PDF I think that Ari got the DC's for the locks way too low. A simple lock is DC 20 yet all the locks on the doors in the inn are DC 10! Even still that may not have made a difference. I think the other thing you should have done Thomas is give the PC's (and anyone else nearby) a listen check each time one of them was attacked by the rogue in addition to the ones that you already gave them. Not that this makes a difference though since the encounter has already happened.

I would either go with the captured option or the raised option that Ari suggested.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Mouseferatu]

Having now had a quick look at the PDF I think that Ari got the DC's for the locks way too low. A simple lock is DC 20 yet all the locks on the doors in the inn are DC 10!

*blink*

*Goes to look up that entry in Doom*

Ah, well, you see, my intent was... That is, what I meant...

Crap. You're right. I offer no defense here. I just screwed up the DCs. And I'm usually pretty good about doublechecking my numbers in the books, too.

 

[Crothian]

Crap. You're right. I offer no defense here. I just screwed up the DCs. And I'm usually pretty good about doublechecking my numbers in the books, too.

Maybe it wasn't so much of a lock as it was piece of string

 

[Imagicka]

Greetings...

I saw it like that:

She smears the lock and the hinges with oil, then silently opens the lock.
Then she waits and listens, the target is still sleeping.
If yes (eg. he's snoring), she comes into the room <- in this moment I made opposite checks for PC Listen and her Move Silently.
Then she set shes short sword to the eye of sleeping victim and made coup de grace.

I think I made a mistake, because of made not enough Listen checks.

All my players are veterans with circa 5 years of playing rpg. Their characters survived 31 game sessions to this day.

So. we are confused, and don't know what to do.

Well, there are a few ways to view his...

1) You can assume that the DM made some mistake. -- Which I seriously doubt; it sounds like the entire thing was above board. Perhaps too few listen rolls were involved. But still, no use crying over spilt blood now.

2) Your NPC got lucky. -- Hey, it happens. That's why they invented fudging... mmm... fudge!

Hey, it's a chance to run Ghostwalk!

Tactics such as smearing oil on the locks and hinges is something that I usually roll an INT check for. To see if the NPC remembered to do it. Because sometimes I like to give my players a bit of a chance if they aren't smart enough to protect themselves during the evening. -- Lord knows that my characters always do the beer-bottle on the door handle trick whenever he's staying anywhere he can't lay trip-wires all around the campsite. -- Only then, I'd have the oil give a +2 circumstance bonus.

As for the killing blow, when it comes to an eye-shot. I'd probably roll something like a CON or a FORT save against a particular DC. Because I would think that someone who's just been stabbed in the eye would at least get the chance to wake up screaming, only to find themself dying... Did she take any precaution to silence her victims?

But considering your party was 7th level, they should have known better. So, let me get this straight... your a party of 7th level adventurers who've gone into an inn, knowing full well that you have enemies, and you didn't care that there was no security at the inn, and you didn't bother to set watch, or traps or anything else? -- Don't whine to me because pissant thief snuck into your room and taught you all a very harsh lesson about the need to plan.

As for what you do from here on out... well... what do you want to do? What do your players want to do?

Do they want to reroll characters, and hunt down their killers? Do they want to consider it divine intervention, and have it all dreamed away?

I agree with Gold Roger that said that every bad situation in the game can be turned into a plothook. If it was my game, I might be considering divine intervention... a god made you collectively dream all this. Or run an afterlife short-sidetracking adventure... Or someone rich and powerful had the party raised, and are now indebted to that person.... Or perhaps in your world, the powers that be... the government... the crown... the wizard's guild... the church... whoever raised the party for their own nafarious purposes.

but what to do with magic and mundane items?
Situation is like this.
The killer is little evil cowardly girl from some thorp. She has no equipement, no spellcraft etc., but she know - of course - mithral and magic items are expensive.
She killed all my 7th-level party, and she's shocked by her success no less than my players and me .
She done it in the inn. The inn is in the middle of hamlet surrounded with palisade with the gate closed at night. She knows there are guards near the gates, and at the top of tower nearby (they have commanding view).
She will try to sneak out of this hamlet as soon as possible - until down, and she can't get a horse.
So, imagine you are this killer, and suggest me please which items she can steal her victims and bring them away hidden with her?

Well, question is... is she more fearful than she is greedy? Is it worth trying to sneak one or two objects out of the city with her? Is she going to try and hide the items and come back for them later? Is she going to try and find a fence in the city?

If I were the killer, the first thing I'd be doing is taking everything small and valuable from the PCs. Anything magical? Well, if I had the means to be able to determine what is valuable because it's magical, I would also be concerned with some way to smuggle things. Bags of Holding... or spells to be able to disguise my booty. Failing that, I would be hiding it somewhere in the city so I can come back for it later, or looking for a fence. If it's REALLY valuable, I would be hiding them in multiple locations. After a job such as that, as soon as I got away from the location, I would stash the stash... and then send a coded message to my boss, asking 'Is that good enough?' or something equally pithy. Then I would see if there is a way to get out of the city. Have they caught on to the crime yet? -- If the alarm hasn't been raised (and I don't think it would be because they don't know who commited the crime, otherwise they would be looking for me)... then I would think it was safe enough to leave the city with one or two items. Once I know I could leave, I'd turn right around and go back for the rest of the stuff, telling the gate-guard that you had forgotten something. Or bribe him to let you through the gate a little quicker next time. Being the greedy little thief that I am.

They have mithral chain shirts, amulets with glimmering fireflies, inteligent talking extremly-fancy-crafted scimitars (weapons of legacy, feuding genies forced by ritual to not fight among themselves), signet rings with heraldic seals (all PCS are lord knights and some are inquisitors).

Oh yeah. If I could get out of the inn with all that stuff. I would. If I couldn't, I'd be grabbing the weapons for sure.

This seems like an unreasonable degree of paranoia to me. In the classic fantasy literature I can't think of any occasions where someone took pains to barricade themselves into a room in an inn apart from situations where they knew danger was imminent (e.g. being hunted by someone, in the vampires village etc).

I wouldn't want to either run or play in a game where such a level of paranoia was required all the time. Do they have to go to the bathroom in pairs too?

Well, how much classic fantasy literature do you know where the heroes were killed senselessly, because the writer rolled poorly with their dice? Or threw in a random encouter just for the heck of it? How hard is it for the players to say, [i["Every campsite we make, I lay traps around the camp."[/i] or "I get the wizard to cast alarm on the door, if he hasn't already.", and letting the DM know that you attempt to do this every time you camp. Or if the GM allows, say "These are our standing orders for everytime we camp… here's our standard marching order… here's what we do every night, and every morning."

Private Room in the Inn for the Night: 2gp
Bottle of Oil: 1sp
Lock Picking Tools: 30gp
Swort Sword: 10gp
The Look on the Players' Faces when their 7th level Party has been Totally Smoked by a 4th lvl Rogue: Priceless!

 

[werk]

DC 10 lock

 

[Agamemnon]

Private Room in the Inn for the Night: 2gp
Bottle of Oil: 1sp
Lock Picking Tools: 30gp
Swort Sword: 10gp
The Look on the Players' Faces when their 7th level Party has been Totally Smoked by a 4th lvl Rogue: Priceless!

This is a pretty anachronistic sentiment, it sounds like something from back when Grimtooth's Traps was in print and the name of the game appeared to be much more "DM vs PCs" than it is today. The days of "Save or die" instant death traps, when the Tomb of Horrors was considered the greates roleplaying experience of all time.

Stuff like this will influence the nature of the game, and quite probably any future games as well. Players who've lost a character like this will most likely in the future employ as many preventative measures as they're able to, regardless of how badly the game will be bogged down. Nobody likes to be the chump twice. Way I see it, it's a Catch-22 for everybody.

 

[Rhun]

I think the other thing you should have done Thomas is give the PC's (and anyone else nearby) a listen check each time one of them was attacked by the rogue in addition to the ones that you already gave them. Not that this makes a difference though since the encounter has already happened.

I say no way on the listen check each time a PC dies. The PCs were in seperate rooms, with their doors shut and locked. How much noise does it take to slit a person's throat?