dead end?

[Coldaan]

hi folks!

so yesterday i continued DMing my home made adventure that will eventually lead to KotS. Now I have a huge problem. The group consists of a Paladin, a Fighter, a Wizard, a Rogue & a Warlock.

My players fought bravely through the catacombs of Fallcrest, unluckily stumbling over every avoidable encouter i included and now...

they are about 1 tough encounter away from finishing the dungeon,
they have no healing surges left,
they have no health pots, (which wouldn't help them as well if I remeber the rules correctly)
they cannot take an extenden rest, (their last one was about 2 hours ago)
and they are far from being fully healed.

As far as I see it this is pretty much a dead end because according to the rules there is no way for them to heal up and regain surges.

So yeah, what can I do (or what can they do)?

 

[Ziana]

Head back to town & rest up at an inn?

Find a safe place to camp overnight?

 

[Coldaan]

yeah according to the rules they would have to wait 10 more hours to take an extended rest. it just feels strange to allow them in the middle of a dungeon to "wait" for 10 hours twiddling their thumbs and then go to bed. ;-)

oh and the way back to town is blocked.

 

[Nytmare]

Sounds like it's almost time to roll up some new characters.

 

[Quickleaf]

Skill challenge to find a secret way out before the tough encounter? Success = avoid tough encounter; failure = a cave-in is triggered, pinning 1 PC in place (leading to another skill challenge to free them, and possibly alerting monsters from tough encounter area)

 

[Coldaan]

Skill challenge to find a secret way out before the tough encounter? Success = avoid tough encounter; failure = a cave-in is triggered, pinning 1 PC in place (leading to another skill challenge to free them, and possibly alerting monsters from tough encounter area)

actually this is a great idea, thanks a ton!

 

[ObsidianCrane]

So you started the module and they went into the dungeon? What straight after breakfast? Even so the simple thing is not to count their normal night's sleep as an extended rest.

If they took an extended rest in the dungeon, that fully healed them and gave all their surges back. So since then they have gone on until everything is gone?

Given this scenario they need a way out, so give them one.

You don't have to force them through the adventure. Its one of the advantages of having a DM.

 

[Coldaan]

well what i did was i started the day a little different than the "usual" day in the lifes of adventurers. you know, usually they wake up at an inn, have breakfast & chat, then go shopping and finally find something to do... *yawn*

so now i let them wake up noticing that the inn is in fact on fire and they have to hurry to find a way out (skill challenge).
the only way that was not blocked by burning stuff was the way to the basement, where they were greeted by an ambush of doppelganger-assassins, and after that they entered the catacombs through a secret door, looking for a) the reason why someone wants them dead and b) a way out of course.

in the catacombs there was a series of possible encounters i planned, and it would've been easily possible to avoid every single one of them (except for the final encounter of course). but what my players (who play evil and power-greedy characters) did was they were in fact looking for every possible encounter.
you know, if there's a door with the symbol of the necromantic deity Vecna on it, and your party is far from "fully healed" and you still enter the room to face the zombie encounter and so on...

yeah well, so the situation is very dangerous, but i guess i will use that somehow to the advantage of the "dramatic flavour" of the adventure. nothing is more satisfying than overcoming obstacles while being at the brink of dying.

and that's also why i am still not favouring the idea of letting them rest, but instead i could just grant them not only action points for the encounters but maybe also additional healing surges for "cleansing" the tombs of the undead, right?

 

[frankthedm]

FINISH THEM!

Or if you don't want to deliver a grisly chain of fatalities to the party, do remember that the ruleset allows for the last blow to K.O. someone at the attacker's choice. They might wind up IN the keep with an additional goal of getting their stuff back!

Edit:

but what my players (who play evil and power-greedy characters) did was they were in fact looking for every possible encounter.

Kill em. No mercy for dumb sociopaths.

you know, if there's a door with the symbol of the necromantic deity Vecna on it, and your party is far from "fully healed" and you still enter the room to face the zombie encounter and so on...

Vecna does NOT advertise. Obviously those are Orcus followers trying to put the blame on the Esoteric Order of the Hand and Eye.

 

[Coldaan]

i won't kill them just because they played the way they did, but the odds are against them, and although i might grant them a little help, it will definitely not be a walk in the park to find the exit.

i will somehow let them know that if they want to get out alive they'll have to play a lot smarter from now on.