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Message: <blockquote data-quote="UniversalMonster" data-source="post: 5113144" data-attributes="member: 1034">In my Tuesday night game (which is one group playing through the Drow Campaign), the PCs have intercepted and decoded a treacherous message from a drow priestess of their own household (selling them out to a rival drow house on the verge of a crucial vote to take part in a major sacrifice). It was being delivered to a male drow slaver from the rival house, House Veltran. The PCs decided to forge a new note (advising the enemy drow to walk into an ambush) and deliver it. Then they turned over the original to the house Matron. Now I'm writing out the follow up adventure, because last time it ended with this situation that seemed kind of crucial. I want the matron to give them this assassination mission, not of the offending priestess from their own house (that I am going to save until later), but rather the target will be the drow priestess in the other house that is coordinating the treachery in a spy vs spy mode. Rather than have it be combat, it's actually just a skill challenge. (A combat wouldn't work- she's going to be a level 10 controler, and the pcs are low level- so they'll be hard pressed to take her down with open combat). What I am looking for here is ideas to flesh out the situation. This is what I have so far: Challenge Part 1: The initial note was delivered to a male drow slaver who is one of the love/rivals of one of the PCs. The initial part of the skill challenge (maybe a scene or two) involves investigating to see who pulls his strings. In this case they could find out by streetwise, with maybe insight to understand that Veltran would never allow a lowly male to coordinate this kind of activity alone. 2nd Part: once they figure out that the real villian is another drow priestess named Oriana T'zaud, they should also get some background information on her: (I am going to pass out different advice on streetwise or history checks)1. She is frequently seen at an expensive drow drug den in the city- situated in a soaring tower. 1a. She is addicted to ________. (some kind of Faerun based drug). (maybe a sub-skill challenge series of scenes here where the PCs have to descend into the Underdark Underworld... ) 2. She is related to her own house matron by blood. (this would be history)3. She frequently makes use of the lower ranking male drow for her own transient purposes.. and then drops them when they are no longer useful. (This is also a setup for having the initial contact possibly turn up dead somewhere and getting the PCs blamed for it..) 4. I was going to have some information here about a heresy that ties her back to another villian in the campaign. 5. Something about Yochlols.. maybe a false rumor that she is one or is related to one, or has the protection of one. I dunno. Yochlol's are cool, and it might be cool to get that bit of Drow-lore out in the campaign early. Just these first two parts might be their own skill challenge. Ok, Part III is surveillance of possible vectors to the assassination. They could try to infiltrate House Veltran itself (which might be suicidal, but I don't want to leave it off the table). I will definitely have a couple of combat encounters with Veltran guards prepared in any case. If that's the case, I had a thought about the PCs surprising T'Zaud in her own boudoir (perhaps with a pair of half-orc guards). Or poisoning her. Or something.  I was also considering Tzaud's "public" appearances early in the evening- carousing and dancing at a decadent drow wine-lounge. In this case, she'd be with a retinue of guards. Assassination in public might be a good option.. or a very bad one. I was thinking of having a meeting take place at one of these that if the players chose to, might be able to overhear new information at. And then finally- at night, she's at the drug den (isolated and private) where she indulges her addictions. You can tell I've kind of set up a best possible place, but I'd like players to have a choice. But I am thinking the players might come up with anything. They might try poisoning her, killing her outright.. catching her incapacitated or whatever else.  This is the part where I am thinking of other pieces. For example, an Athletics check might be required to scale the outer walls of the drug-den's tower in order to catch her incapacitated. Or stealth might be used to sneak past guards.. but there has to be a bigger picture for things. In the end, I'm just going to wing it, I guess. It's all going down on Tuesday. So I am looking for possibilities. Any thoughts?</blockquote>

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