awkward situation

[Ralif Redhammer]

I’ve been there, definitely. The PCs have taken a long rest when they probably shouldn’t have, or should have only done a short rest. I think the trick is to have consequences for their actions without punishing them for not marching off to certain death.


There are a couple of things you can do. You could just throw some of the duergar at them – not enough for a TPK, but enough to make it feel like maybe this wasn’t the best tactical idea. The rest can be off somewhere else – they probably do have other things they need to do, other places to guard.


Another option is to have events unfold without them. My one group once took a long rest in the middle of a siege – I had the demons besieging the city break through the walls while they slept. Maybe if they’re there to rescue the slaves, while they rest the slaves are indeed taken elsewhere – the PCs now would need to track them and try to catch up, or maybe be faced with some sort of new creature guarding them.


Or maybe the duergar just barricade the other side of the door, trapping the PCs inside, until they can figure out how to get out.

The trouble is that I know that if the PCs don't get a long rest, they're looking at a TPK. Now, yes, I should be impartial and just let the chips fall where they may ... but, my wife and daughter are among the players, and I'd rather that they have a fun experience than a demoralizing one, so I tend to go a little easy on them, which is partly why I had the orcs just leave.

 

[Eltab]

A couple of duergar are manning a well-built blockade and have warning signals (bell, whistle?). They will raise the alarm and snipe at the PCs when the group comes out. These particular duergar were picked to watch the room because they are not candidates to take over leadership.

The rest of the duergar are arguing about exactly that somewhere a comfortable distance away. Along with picking a new leader is choosing The Plan: one wants to storm the murderers for revenge (may be a blood relative of the dead boss); one wants to pack up and leave this two-legged-pest-filled place; one wants to capture the intruders, teach them a lesson, kick them out the front door on their ears, and get serious about fortifying the joint - to stop this from happening again.

I like having an interpreter. A slave or some previous adventurer caught and held captive would work, if one is available. He might get into a side conversation (with both sides!) while translating difficult concepts like "Can you guarantee safe passage?" or "Can you bust us out of here too?"
If you have seen The Hunt for Red October, the scene where two submarines are using Morse Code through the periscopes - and what the Captains tell their respective crews - could serve as inspiration.

 

[Eltab]

FWIW, My Tiamat campaign ended while the PCs were in the Green Dragon's lair, and had cleaned out everybody but him. The group decided to take a long rest.
My employer changed my work schedule on very short notice, so I had to drop out.

They are still in that room, and I still haven't decided what the dragon is going to do about it.

 

[Lidgar]

If you are running the duegar as traditional lawful evil, they will almost certainly have a command structure for these situations, down to the lowest servant. Assuming a large portion of their forces are intact, I would have them regroup for a counterattack to drive out the intruders. Having them negotiate, leave or sit idly by for 8 hours seems out of character for them. But that’s just how I would run it.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

If this becomes a habit you will have to gently give them a swatting. Nothing horrible but something that tells them either they plan to fight to the end or retreat to more than the room across the hall.

As for the Duergar, half of them are dead and they have no leader. Being clannish by nature there is now going to be infighting. Different family heads are going to be vying for leadership. This in fact could result in some very exciting play. Different potential leaders may be inclined to try and take advantage of the parties presence and use them to eliminate rivals.

 

[GMMichael]

I am currently running Scourge of the Sword Coast, and my players have put themselves in an awkward situation for the second time. In both cases, they have stumbled across an enemy group's leader and killed him, then retreated to a well-defended location for a long rest before emerging to deal with the remaining enemies.

In the first case, I decided to have the remaining enemies withdraw while the PCs were resting, but I'm not sure if I should do that in the second case as well. . . .

This time, however, the PCs have assaulted a dwarven fortress that was taken over by duergar. They defeated all the duergar on the upper level, then ended up going straight to the duergar leader on the lower level. They killed the leader and his guards but it was a hard fight, so they decided to barricade themselves in his room (which only has one exit) to get a long rest.
. . .
Anyone have any suggestions?

Why do these leaders have garrisons that provide no resistance to enemies?

If the PCs mow enemies down like grass, everyone, including the leader, should flee.

If the PCs just get lucky and get to the boss, he should still have some troops to rally for support.

If the PCs are amazingly lucky, killing the boss when they shouldn't, and escaping when they shouldn't, I would expect the enemies to give chase - not to allow the PCs to recover.

Also, any obstacle is worthless if it's not protected. I don't see how the PCs are safe enough for a Long Rest, even if they're behind a stone wall. Didn't you say they are surrounded by enemy dwarves?

 

[Shiroiken]

The drugar are fairly intelligent and organized, unlike the orcs. Very likely they already have a chain of command, so there would be someone who could organize them. Rather than swarm their defended position, I would think the drugar would try to organize a defense where the party has to come out.

Ideally, they'd want a spot where they'd have to come into a decent sized room (parties are usually stronger in passageways, since it limits the attacks of the numerous enemies). A series of barricades or even tunnel collapses could be used to funnel the PCs to a specific attack point. A good defense would be behind 3/4 cover, where they can use crossbows to shoot at the PCs (who lack cover), with the ability to bring a swarm against the party if they attempt to storm the crossbowmen. Depending on the power level of the group, and the player skill, this will be a very deadly encounter, but it's no less than they deserve for their decision to rest in the enemy's lair.

Smart players may attempt to negotiate when they realize they're poor position, and I'd suggest you simply RP the drugar based on their wants and needs (which I don't know). If you don't want to TPK, you could have the enemy attempt to capture, but don't forget you can only subdue with melee weapon attacks, so some PCs may still die.

 

[lonelynoose]

If you are running the duegar as traditional lawful evil, they will almost certainly have a command structure for these situations, down to the lowest servant. Assuming a large portion of their forces are intact, I would have them regroup for a counterattack to drive out the intruders. Having them negotiate, leave or sit idly by for 8 hours seems out of character for them. But that’s just how I would run it.

I have to agree with ^^^. The party is f'd. Negotiating or waiting is way out of character for Duergar. The Duergar would immediately have formed ranks and started to dismantle the blockade. Hell, I'm surprised the clerics and wizards haven't already started manipulating the stone to create another entrance or sent in earth elementals.

You might have to go with the secret door idea mentioned earlier or let the party die off. Deaths of my old characters has really shaped the way I play now. It'll make your players play more tactical and paranoid. I bet they'll never get into that situation again.

 

[EvilGeniusPrime]

Ok, I think there are a bunch of good ideas here but I'd like to support the 'don't go for the tpk, especially since your wife and daughter are in the party'. And I don't think you have to have the enemy retreat, either. I like the secret door/dwarf prisoner idea, especially if the dwarf really thought he had finally found the way out, only to emerge in the room while a huge troop of duergar are actively breaking through the barrier.

Then the very worried PCs can escape back through the secret door with the dwarf and navigate through hidden tunnels to a different location where they can really, actually rest.

 

[Sleepy Walker]

I would think the duegar could do a couple things, I think all of them were listed already. (in no particular order of significance)

1.) Form an assault unit and try to storm the king's chambers
1.b.) use clerics to shape stone to make easy entry and retreat for the assault unit
1.c.) Assault unit uses invisibility and poison (what I understand to be somewhat common for duegar to use)

2.) barricade the single entrance with rock and just wait a week or so before re-entering the room
3.) make a hole and feed slave-grade chemicals or vapors into the room to subdue inhabitance.
4.) Set up ambush on other side of door (7-8 hours can be enough time for a dozen duegar to make quite the tactical puzzle and might put the PC's right back in the room afterwards)

With these scenarios there are a lot of ways for the party to succeed and fail. There are also opportunities for the DM to intervene with some plot based way to save the PCs. I would suggest that if you go for the assault option, that you take inspiration from Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, when they are under the mountain and end up fighting a slew of goblins after finding out all the dwarfs had fallen after holding out in a room with one entrance.