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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7827956" data-attributes="member: 20323">Thanks, Imaculata. I gave a bit more thought to your points...My players are reconnaissance fiends, so I suspect they will readily devise ways to learn all that with little to no risk. Arcane eye, scrying, bird familiar fly-bys, scouting forays by stealthiest PCs benefiting from pass without trace, etc.What's interesting is the sheer number of approaches available to them. They have a crystal ball and the Hand of Vecna, enabling scry+teleport tactics. They also have two magic items capable of casting dimension door (i.e. teleport 4 characters), and druid has tree stride for shorter-range teleporting. They have a magical flight ritual they can use to approach aerially. There is a flooded stream they can use with combo of water breathing, grung PC being amphibious, and lizardfolk PC being able to hold his breath. And then there's the overland approach.If the PCs approach by foot/water/air, I'm thinking of having them make a group Stealth check, with the average result determining how many of the “concentric rings of defense” they bypass, which are differentiated as DC 10 (lizardfolk patrols), DC 20 (kobold traps & archaeopteryx flocks) and DC 30 (??). Not sure what that third one is yet...For the lizardfolk patrols, these are my notes:Up to 2 miles away from camp are six roving patrols, each consisting of 10 lizardfolk mounted on giant lizards (with Hold Breath) led by a lizardfolk scaleshield mounted on an allosaurus. Each leader is equipped with a gourd full of demon blood (transmutation magic) which can be dashed on the ground as a bonus action, creating the smoky claw symbol of Sess’innek in the sky over their position (skywrite); immersing the gourd in water makes the blood ineffective, and dispel magic negates the effect.   An aerial patrol intercepts flyers or speeds to the aid of a skywrite; it consists of a lizardfolk scaleshield mounted on a quetzalcoatlus, and 4 lizardfolk blowgunners mounted on Large pteranodons.Yes, totally. There was an article, I believe it was the AngryGM, which described a way of running traps where, once the trap was triggered, the DM would say "click" (or something to that effect, obvious more specific language directed at the nature of the specific trap), and then the DM would shotgun around the table and each player would get a few real-world seconds in which to react.I think translating this to a PC getting noticed / about to be noticed during a stealth-mission could really help it run smooth.One thing I'm realizing as I look over my notes on how this camp's defended is that all stealth failures (and I don't mean just Stealth checks) are not equal. Some failures heighten alertness without setting off the alarm. A few points of failure, however, carry more serious consequences. For instance, if the PCs tangle with a patrol which successfully releases the demon blood skywrite, that could potentially alarm the whole camp.For me, striking the right balance on failure conditions is the hardest part of creating a stealth mission for the players.That sounds perfect. One thing I've been prepping is a random table of lizardfolk conversation snippets. Here's what I have so far - be warned there's a fair dose of humor!<table style='width: 100%'><tr><td>d10</td><td>Snippets of Draconic conversation</td></tr><tr><td>1</td><td>“Softskins can’t even hold their breath for a few minutes before going on to Kearackinin.”     “Pitiful! Can you imagine eating three times a day?” “And their names! The worst! ‘I am G’atsha.’ ‘I am E’kama.’ Such ambiguously punny punctuation!”</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>“The druids of this place were not able to keep it. Clearly, they were weak and deserving of death.”     “Shh, they say this used to be sacred grounds of Kecuala. Druids live many lives in many forms. They might even be watching us now.” [both grow quiet]</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>“Bone weapons are clearly superior to metal because they never rust. Look at my new bone spear.”    “Is that howler bone? Fancy. I still have the same crap spear from subjugating the Zopchik. What ever became of that crafter we captured?”     “They sent him to the crocodile god’s labyrinth…”</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>“Is it my eyes, or has the Emperor been behaving strangely, as if he were ill?”     “Sick? Palm wine, more likely. I rarely see him without kobold cupbearers scurrying underfoot and the old one Arashk whispering in his ear.”</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>“How much longer must we hold this post? Game is growing scarce; soon we’ll be eating velociraptors!”    “Don’t you see? The Emperor seeks to provoke the tribes into attacking first. That will be all the justification he needs to seize the Birthing Stones.”     “That was… smart. Are you sure we’re related?”</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>“Did you hear? These lesser tribes once had a seer who had visions of the future.”    “Guess he didn’t see my spear coming!” “You killed the seer?!?”     “No, I was saying that I would, you know, surprise him and…” [stabbing gesture]    “Ooooo… I still don’t get it. Push-ups?” [push-ups]</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>“I once ate a werelizard spellcaster.”    “How’d it taste? Wait, would that make you a…?” “Lizardfolk werelizard wizard? No. It tasted kind of like kobold. Oh hi, Snivel.” [nervous kobold passes]</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>“Serving our Emperor is the best. Conquering, subjugating, pillaging, feasting…”     “Being brutally beaten for disobedience or failure?” [superior passes] “All hail the Emperor! Glory to Sess’innek!”</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>“How do you really feel about ritually imbibing demon blood and allying with the undead?”    [pause] “We’ll cross that bridge when we burn it.”</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>“I overheard Nataxl speaking with the softskin witch about the handprint scar on the Emperor’s shoulder.”    “Wait, the Emperor has no such scar!” “Exactly, Chakalt. Exactly.”</td></tr></table>Yes, one of the most perceptive "guards" are the flocks of blood hawks (reskinned as archaeopteryx) which have Perception +4 and Keen Sight, so their passive Perception when it comes to vision is actually more like 19. However, they're no smarter than a dog. So I interpreted them as being set loose over a defensive perimeter festooned with kobold traps, and the blood hawks only swoop in when there's an injured creature. The idea being that they're drawn to blood / displays of weakness and attack en masse with loud shrieks. This creates tension because traps that would ordinarily be a nuisance become much more significant.</blockquote>

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