Here comes a TPK by assassination (SCAP spoiler)

[xnosipjpqmhd]

Good point about a Listen check to notice the unusual silence. I like it.

I believe the spellcaster has Silent Spell, so there would be no (audible) tip off that he/she is casting silence. However, a patron could notice the odd somatic gestures and alert the innkeeper.

I figured the tip off would be an anonymous note from the likes of Artus Shemwick or some other quasi-villain who might be sympathetic to the PCs, or who might want to see the assassination fail for a different reason...

It's also possible that the Striders of Farlanghan have been watching the assassin(s), and when they realize that the hit is going down, they move in to try to prevent it. (If so, I'd probably scale back up to the full trio of bad guys.) Imagine the confusion as the PCs wake up and don't know which group to help!

 

[Flynn]

In fact..if we're talking about realism the spell has a 20' radius. I'd give a percentage of a chance that someone in another room notices the change in conditions and comes out to investigate. If suddenly everything went silent i would be curious.

Doesn't a spell like that require line of effect, which the walls of the room block? If so, then the other rooms wouldn't notice unless Bob the Lumberjack over there stopped sawing logs in his room all of the sudden...

With Regards,
Flynn

 

[Nareau]

I would turn this into a scenario where the PCs exceptional abilities give them the upper hand. When bad guys are going to assassinate good guys, there are a million things that can go wrong (no matter how smart they are). Here are some clues you can drop to give the PCs the upper hand:

- The bad guys pay off the tavern keeper. But he's kind of an idiot. So he goes out and buys some expensive bling that very day. A quick spot/sense motive check later, and the PCs notice his new duds, his fidgeting, and his inability to maintain his poker face when they're around. Make it obvious enough that they decide to question him.

- The bad guys don't plan for something to go horribly wrong. Maybe a drunkard is walking down the street just outside the inn, singing a drinking song, moments before the assassins enter the room. Maybe (as has been suggested) a PC gets up to use the outdoor facilities in the middle of the night, and they see the assassins sneaking in the back.

There are many plausible ways the PCs could be alerted to the attack, no matter how brilliant and skilled the assassins are. For some inspiration on how badly an assassination can go, I heartily recommend Blood Simple.

Nareau

 

[Quartz]

Can I be cruel and inventive? Let the dice fall as they may. Let the assassins kill them in their rooms. The assassins are interrupted before they can remove the bodies. Then you have the local cleric Raise them - because she's been told to but the PCs don't have to know that - and use this as the hook for the next adventure.

Or you could remember that the PCs have a guardian angel and have her do something suitable but subtle.

 

[Zaruthustran]

I doubt that my players are paranoid enough to take any magical (or even mundane) precautions at night in an inn. They almost certainly would be out of their armour.

This is why you need to ask your players for Standard Operating Procedures. I guarantee that your assumptions don't match your players' expectations. Especially if they get attacked.

So: ask them what their "normal" precautions are for sleeping at an inn, sleeping on the road, and so on. You need to know (and they need to consider) issues like grouping up (single rooms? Everyone in one room? Sort by gender?), watches, armor (do the plate guys have chainmail nightshirts?), warding spells, and so on.

Ask them over email so everyone has time to really think about this, and come to consensus on what is realistic/reasonable. Once you get your answers, from that point forward you won't have to deal with issues like "well, of COURSE my character would not only lock the door, but spike it shut--and place empty bottles in front of each shutter and entryway into the room! Oh, and stuff the sheets with my cloak while I actually sleep *under* the bed."

z, fan of S.O.Ps

 

[Frozen DM]

Thanks for all the feedback guys!

Schmoe, specific responses:
1. Under cover of silence and in a closed private room, the attack would be pretty much undetectable, I would think.
2. The PCs almost certainly won't be sleeping in armour, making them a lot more vulnerable. Granted, if the PCs have some sort of fortified 'home base,' then we're back to the taproom attack probably.
3. Point taken, but the risk of someone identifying the assassins increases with mob hit tactics. By attacking the PCs rooms, the bad guys are less likely to be identified (or captured by the town guard).
4. I'm trying to keep metagame thinking out of the NPC decisions.

A few points that I dealt with while running this encounter.

First off, whether the PC's are in the bar or their room, they are likely to be caught unawares. This means no armour, possibly lacking certain key items. This depends entirely if your players have their characters wandering around from dawn to dusk in full-battle dress. In my campaign, the characters would actually take off armour and weapons while not adventuring.

Second, this is a public assassination attempt. There is a message being sent to the party that not only are their lives at risk, but those of people around them. When I ran this encounter the group survived (barely) but several NPC bystandards went down. And as for the assassins, the PC's are essentially the only people in Cauldron with the ability to actually harm the Assassins. The town guard would be almost incapable of actually capturing them.

Third, the way the encounter is presented, it seemed to me like Ike is panicking. He hires the assassins and sends them after the NPC's because he's been threatened. The way I ran this was, the hit was planned, just not perfectly. There wasn't time to wait for the PCs to go to sleep or be in a perfect ambush situation. Ike had to hit them ASAP and the tavern is the first good opportunity he gets.

And like others mentioned, if a truly cunning NPC wanted to kill the entire party, it would be a trivial matter to do so. That's not the goal of the encounter. the goal of the encounter is to shake up the PCs and get them going on the next adventure, not kill them.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Good point about a Listen check to notice the unusual silence. I like it.

I believe the spellcaster has Silent Spell, so there would be no (audible) tip off that he/she is casting silence. However, a patron could notice the odd somatic gestures and alert the innkeeper.

I figured the tip off would be an anonymous note from the likes of Artus Shemwick or some other quasi-villain who might be sympathetic to the PCs, or who might want to see the assassination fail for a different reason...

It's also possible that the Striders of Farlanghan have been watching the assassin(s), and when they realize that the hit is going down, they move in to try to prevent it. (If so, I'd probably scale back up to the full trio of bad guys.) Imagine the confusion as the PCs wake up and don't know which group to help!

Don't forget that the spell goes down as well as around - folks on the floor below will notice when they cannot talk....

The Auld Grump

 

[xnosipjpqmhd]

Awesome feedback. I think I have plenty to go on now. When we get to that point, I'll write it up in the story hour (see link in my sig) so you can see what happened. We're only in Flood Season right now, and the heroes are already making quite a shambles of the established storyline (and I'm perfectly content to let them).

Thanks!

 

[Sejs]

So.. wait, the assassins try to jump the PCs en masse? They don't even try to seperate someone from the party before whackin' em?

...man, these are some really crappy assassins.

Maybe they're trainees or something.