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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hautamaki" data-source="post: 5803108" data-attributes="member: 42219">I don't 'want' the PCs to act in any particular way.  I want the PCs to do whatever they think is best in order to get the treasure out of the caves.  And at the same time, I will be considering what the monsters believe and desire and having them act according to whatever best defends their lives and their treasure, both from the PCs and from potentially dangerous inhabitants of other lairs.What actually happened in my games:The PCs went to the west Orc cave first and killed a few guards, tried to break in further to the cave, but bad rolls and bad tactics resulted in a dead PC so the others retreated.  The next day, they left the orcs alone (wisely, as I had prepared an ambush for the PCs with reinforcements from the other orc cave).  Instead, they wiped out the kobolds and went home.  The goblinoids across the valley took note of the PCs and sent out a group of emissaries to meet them on the road the next day.  However, before words could be exchanged the PCs suddenly attacked the group of 6 hobgoblins, killing 5 and interrogating the last one.  Another PC was killed in this confrontation and the PCs learned they had to be careful around hobgoblins.  (PC group was all first time players)  They went back to keep after this, much more damaged than anticipated.The PCs decided to go back to the Orc cave again, this is now the 4th day, 2 days after the initial PC attack, so the Orcs were not 100% on their guard any more.  The PCs were able to break into the Orc cave again and killed many, this time with much better tactics.  Orc reinforcements from the other orc cave attempted to surround the PCs by attacking both within and without, but the PCs advanced through the caves faster than anticipated and were able to wipe them out piecemeal, though not without suffering another PC death in the end.Day 5, the PCs encounter a wandering gnoll hunting party of 3, are able to ambush them, but still suffer 1 casualty.  They now have a very healthy respect for gnolls.Day 6, the PCs decide to attack the hobgoblins.  They had learned about the hobgoblins' prisoners 3 days ago (by now the prisoners are all dead, the PCs acted too late to save them).  They decide to lure the hobgoblins out of their cave by throwing hobgoblin heads into the cave entrance (they looted these from the orc cave entrance).  A war party of 8 hobgoblins come out to investigate and the PCs are able to ambush and kill a few of them before the rest retreat back into the cave and lock the door.  The PCs can't easily break down the hobgoblin's heavy door so they go to the goblin cave not realizing the goblins are the hobgoblin's underlings (lol big mistake).  The PCs attack the goblin's front door, but the goblins have hired the ogre and put up a stern fight.  The PCs take them down and break into the goblin's main living area.  By now, the hobgoblin war party has tracked them down, and the main goblin forces rally for a pincher attack.  The PCs come to within an inch of TPK but 2 PCs make it out barely.... and so on.  You get the idea.  It ultimately took them maybe 20 days to finish clearing the caves of chaos and the surrounding bandit camps, lizardmen, and traitor in the keep.  They suffered 20 total PC deaths too.  But hey, they were all newbies and they learned a lot.  They haven't suffered any deaths in the next two adventures.</blockquote>

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