I had a bit of fun last night when the PCs screwed up a bit of plot I had planned. I was going to harrass them on their journeys through the mountains for days. They had the choice to either teleport (and pay a hefty price to the wizard who'd teleport them), or take a dangerous road, knowing they were being followed by a dangerous foe. They decided to go on foot, and I thought it'd be nice to let them have a hard trip and be scared the whole time.
So the party is 8th level, and there's this 16th level rogue I have following them. The party's trying to find a hidden artifact, and the rogue wants it too, but she wants to take out a few PCs ahead of time so that when the PCs finally do get the artifact, it'll be easier for her to handle them. I also have planned that she's just trying to harrass and weaken them, not kill them off entirely. Once they find the artifact, she'll make her big appearance. The 16th level rogue is working for the bad guys, and the party is low on information right now about why the bad guys want the artifact, so I figure that either on the road, or when they get the artifact, if they defeat her, they can question her.
I'm not too worried about them killing her early, because it should be easy for her to get away. She has the ability to gaseous form once per day.
They make camp the first night, in total wilderness. She sneaks up and tries to coup de grace a sleeping PC, but gets spotted (despite a hide check of 32). The PCs on guard get to her just after she slits her victim's throat, and a desperate fight ensues to try to heal their bleeding comrade while the bad guy rogue disrupts them. She's dodging most of their attacks, saving against their attack spells, and after she takes a few hits, she turns to mist so she can flee and fight another day.
One of the PCs
dazes her so she can't flee that round, and though they can't hurt her since she's gaseous, they have a round to think of ideas. And boy do they get a good one. The party's druid casts
false bravado, from Masters of the Wild, which puts the bad guy rogue into a berserker rage. This lowers her AC, and makes her want to keep fighting, so as soon as the
daze wears off, she turns solid and gets back into the fight.
Now that the PCs are organized and no longer surprised, they slaughter her. Worse, the PC barbarian is very protective of her friend whose throat was slit, and so she beats the rogue to death even after she goes down. Scratch one chance to get information.
