Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Viktyr Gehrig" data-source="post: 650280" data-attributes="member: 9249">When the party starts up the stairs, have the kobolds, wearing gloves, pour a cauldron of boiling oil down the stairs. It's slippery and scalding, and will slow the party considerably.If you're feeling less vicious, or can't figure out a way to put the cauldron there, have them dump hundreds of marbles or small grapeshot down the stairs.For added effect, have archers move to the top of the stairs and start firing after the party has fallen down the stairs, only to withdraw once they're on their feet. Depending on the kobolds' resources, they could also lob tanglefoot bags and/or alchemist's fire, both before and after the party tries the treacherous stairs.For more archer fun, have the kobolds pile stacks of oiled lumber on either side of the T-intersection. When they hear the party approaching, have them light the lumber and start firing as many arrows as they can into the kill zone between the piles. Give them a penalty for firing blind, since the flames and smoke will obscure their vision as much as the party's-- but a few arrows should find a home by sheer chance.At all of these encounters, have one or two runners break off from the group of kobolds that are attacking the party to warn the others and get the next set ready for the assault.Behind the doors, have kobolds readying an action with  crossbows (are heavy crossbows Medium or Large? They'll use the largest ones they can) loaded to fire on the party members when they come through. The runners should come through and warn them, and be amoung the archers-- sending off their next runners. After they've fired one crossbow bolt each, they can either charge with daggers or scatter, depending on their escape options. If they charge, have any Rogues amoung them tumble and try for Sneak Attacks.Kobolds are small. Fit as many as you can into each space that can fire on the door. Remember, you can fire a crossbow from a prone position, and it would be kobold-like for one sniper to lie prone while another fired from a standing position, either behind him or straddling him. If the kobolds abandon a position in advance of the party arriving, have them leave the door an inch or two open and leave something nasty balanced on the doorframe. It's a classic practical joke when it's water or flour; it's sadistic when it's acid or alchemist's fire (it'd have to be a weakned flask to break, though). Plain lamp oil would be even better, if you make sure that the next snipers use flaming bolts, or have grenadiers lob alchemist's fire at them in a hit-and-run later.If the kobolds have been in residence for a decent amount of time (say, a couple weeks) they could have tunneled through some of the walls. These tunnels would be kobold-sized, so that players would have to crawl through them-- or they'd be small enough that the kobolds would have to crawl through them. If they're crawling, they'd have to use lighter crossbows, but this would be a perfect way to introduce flaming bolts to oil-soaked PCs.In the mess-hall area, they could try to stack furniture in front of the doors for a barricade before retreating. If the building's layout would allow them, they could circle around to ambush the party while it tries to break open the door.They could also sprinkle caltrops for a considerable distance along a hallway as they ran-- and then turn around with missile weapons.edit: On a tangent, I'd strip the Paladin's status. "Not worth it" to rescue prisoners of an evil cult? To rescue children? And then to leave his comrades behind when they go to do what he should have... At the very least, he needs a serious warning and the loss of some abilities until he atones.</blockquote>

Verification