awkward situation

[Satyrn]

I think I'd find it more fun as a player if you had some equivalent of a corporal take over - not a leader, just some random duegar - who does a halfway decent job of mounting a counter attack, but is flawed and terribly in control of the troops.

So the players get threatened, but show them that they could defeat them by devastating their morale instead of just slaughtering them.

 

[Hjorimir]

My first response is what do you think would be the most fun for you and the players at your table. For me, I'd hit them hard and there'd be no long rest inside the dungeon with duergar at the doors. If you think that's too harsh for your table, go a different direction!

 

[pukunui]

Thanks for all the responses, everyone! I’ve gone back through the adventure and counted up just how many duergar are left. There are only nine, and most of them are just grunts. There are two kavalrachni with three steeder spiders in their care, and two overseers who are more heavily armored than the others. Those two could potentially fall to arguing over which of them gets to become clan leader.

As you can see, the duergar have no magical firepower. Both their clerics are dead, and their leader was the only arcane spellcaster among them.

I would say that 8 hours isn’t enough time for them to get reinforcements from the Underdark either.


I do like the idea of an interpreter, as that would enable me to reveal the truth about the slaves: they are the survivors from a village that was attacked by hobgoblins that the PCs investigated earlier in the adventure. A friendly dryad had told them she’d seen the villagers being taken away but the trail was cold and the PCs didn’t think the villagers would ever be seen again.

 

[Ath-kethin]

Let's see, you have a couple of logical options.

The duergar blockade the door and it can't be opened. Everyone is going to die until a secret door opens up and an old dwarf pokes his head out and says something along the lines of "Come with me if you want to live". He's an escapee who's been looking for a way of rescuing the rest of the hostages. He knows the secret passageways, but the secret exit is blocked and the normal entrance was always guarded.

The duergar knock politely, and bring a hostage as an interpreter. Through the interpreter they explain that by killing their leader they are now leaders of the clan. This isn't really a good thing which will be obvious fairly soon as the duergar expect things like human sacrifice as part of the coronation, etc. But it lets you set up another set of encounters.

The duergar pretend to leave but set up ambushes to harass the group as they leave.

They leave a note explaining that they have made a new, powerful enemy. While the duergar don't fight them now, assassins and surprise attacks continue to plague the group for a while.

I like this general idea/approach, but I'd do iot this way:

Instead of having some deus ex DMPCina save the PCs' bacon, have the Duergar block the door then rig the ceiling to collapse from above (a process that takes a few days).

Provides some tension as the party can't get out, provides a comeuppance for using some ill-advised tactics, provides some concern when the ceiling collapses, and provides an relatively easily-survivable method to free the group.

As others have mentioned, duergar are lawful and not dumb. They have tactics to use in a case like this.

 

[pukunui]

Rigging the ceiling to collapse sounds good. There’s a convenient corridor between the leader’s room and the larger common room. The duergar could easily trap the corridor, then wait to ambush anyone who makes it out.

As you say, though, they’re not dumb, or even impulsive, and I think they’d be able to see that an assault on the room would be unnecessary when they can more easily just trap the invaders inside and wait them out without any great risk. Clearly the invaders are capable warriors, since they’ve already slaughtered most of the duergar clan, as well as their leader, so an assault might be suicidal. The remaining duergar have the upper hand and can afford to be patient.

 

[Ath-kethin]

Rigging the ceiling to collapse sounds good. There’s a convenient corridor between the leader’s room and the larger common room. The duergar could easily trap the corridor, then wait to ambush anyone who makes it out.

As you say, though, they’re not dumb, or even impulsive, and I think they’d be able to see that an assault on the room would be unnecessary when they can more easily just trap the invaders inside and wait them out without any great risk. Clearly the invaders are capable warriors, since they’ve already slaughtered most of the duergar clan, as well as their leader, so an assault might be suicidal. The remaining duergar have the upper hand and can afford to be patient.

You're not wrong, of course, but as a DM having the enemies do the smartest thing is rarely the best idea unless you want to kill everybody in the PC group.

And you can explain away anything; perhaps some corporal in the duergar force, angry at their lack of promotion or trying to impress their superiors with their ingenuity, grows impatient and destabilizes the ceiling. Or maybe the order comes from higher up - a commanding supervisor overconfident in the duergar force's capabilities and/or unwilling to accept that the trapped outsiders could really be THAT powerful, orders the action.

 

[pukunui]

Having them collapse the ceiling makes the most sense. They’re dwarves, they can always excavate it later, when they feel more confident that the intruders will have starved to death. That seems more logical than a potentially suicidal rush on the room.

FWIW I think having the remaining duergar assault the room without giving the PCs a chance to rest will *not* necessarily be all that suicidal. In fact, it’s more likely to result in a TPK. But from a strategic viewpoint, I can see the remaining duergar deciding not to take that risk. They don’t know how many intruders there are or how close to death they are either.

Having the duergar wait gives the PCs a better chance of surviving.

 

[Ath-kethin]

Having them collapse the ceiling makes the most sense. They’re dwarves, they can always excavate it later, when they feel more confident that the intruders will have starved to death. That seems more logical than a potentially suicidal rush on the room.

I live but to serve. I'm glad I could help.

 

[pukunui]

Cheers.

So I think what I’ll do is ultimately allow the PCs a long rest, but during that time they will hear the duergar testing the barricade and then sending in an interpreter to talk through the door. I won’t have the duergar negotiate, I don’t think. They’ll just use the interpreter to warn the PCs that they’re going to be buried alive for their transgressions.

The interpreter will also tell them about the villagers’ situation.

It will then be up to the PCs to decide if they want to rest and have to dig their way out or try to bust out before the duergar bring the corridor ceiling down.

For the record, there are four PCs plus a badly injured dwarf NPC (he is the one they were sent to find, and he was being tortured by the duergar leader, so is low on hp and has some exhaustion levels). The PCs just hit 5th level and consist of a forest gnome life cleric, a sun elf eldritch knight, a half-sun elf hunter ranger, and a tiefling dragon sorcerer.

 

[Dax Doomslayer]

If I remember correctly, there are a bunch of slaves from Julkoun there. I would do the whole Mexican stand off where if they don't come out and give themselves up, the slaves start being killed. If a good aligned party, it would add to the tension of them trying to take the rest and how are they going to save the slaves etc.