My players ran away from a murder of kenku assassins behind them after killing their cult leader.
What are some good assassination plot lines which avoid "you wake up with a dagger in your chest"
Someone push a knife through your rib while you slept.
You wake up with the village on fire.
>>44039467
''You hear a rustling in the night and the sound of fabric being cut.'' If they do nothing, they wake up with a kenku over them about to stab downwards and can respond. If they respond earlier then play from there
>>44039481
Most of the assassins are too low level to kill the PCs in one sneak attack.
>someone slits your throat. Take seven damage. You're fine though. Roll for initiative
>>44039467
The PC with the killing blow is the new cult leader. Extrapolate.
Have them spy on your players to learn their vices.
Once one of them goes to a brothel, have their vaginas stuffed full of explosive.
>>44039467
Players walking down a road to next objective. They see a woman screaming about her baby that feel in the river. As they go to the rescue, turns out the Kenkus were disguising themselves as the river. Ambush.
Later the players decide to rest after a fight. They find a friendly tavern. They sit down for drinks. The chairs feel unconfortable. Because they are actually Kenku assassins.
Players finally gave up and decide to camp. They pitch their tents and beging cooking dinner. Suddenly a strange noise comes from the woods, as they turn out to check, they are attack from behind.
Turns out the horses they were riding were two kenkus in a horse costume.
>>44039540
The tavern wench the Bard bedded? Kenku. She left her scrying pool number though.
>>44039540
>illusion magic makes all of these except the horse viable
>they were in a vecna cult so it's not unreasonable for them have access to minor image
Depending on the feel you're going for...
The kenku know the PCs are too tough/elusive/etc to be attacked directly. They aim for revenge for going after the players loved ones, allies, or even random people that helped them in minor ways or are simply nearby.
This could go so far as having the PCs arrive at an inn to find all the occupants have been killed in the way the kenku leader was killed. The PCs are pursued for killing someone by the local paladin, having been framed by the kenku.
Kenku can imitate sounds extremely well. Have them capture someone important to the PCs, or someone important generally that they would be called to rescue. The kenku send the PCs an ear...and follow it up by mimicing the sounds of that person being tortured, pleading for mercy, etc. Probably be hard to sleep, hearing that outside your window at night.
Signs of tracking.
Assassin can't magically jump the player, they need to stalk them and plan ambushes.
>>44039531
This is also a good one.
Make it an Aliens ripoff where the players are in a closed off locations and the kenkus are moving inside the walls, pulling people out of open windows with grapling hooks, and otherwise doing scary as shit things. Make the players split up in their quest to kill the assassins and/or flee, and have a bunch of npcs with them so there can be a few gruesome kills and damsels in distress. One of the npcs is naturally a disguised kenku.
False Machine did a nice thing
http://falsemachine.blogspot.de/2013/09/you-are-being-followed-by-assassins.html
though that's more about how good the generic assassins are than their plot.
>>44039467
you wake up with TWO daggers in your BACK
>>44039502
>Not knowing what coup de grace is
>>44039467
>You wake up with a dick in your ass.
>>44039502
>not bypassing HP in fluff murder
>>44039467
>a murder of assassins
I hope you did this on purpose you magnificent bastard.
>>44039540
The King asks the PCs to take care of a group of bandits who stole some pretty good treasure from the kingdom. The Treasure of course, is Kenku Assassins in disguise.
Depending on how good aligned a party you have, you could probably have them set up an ambush by mimicking the screams of children or the like. So something like 20 kenku goons in trees surrounding a clearing with quivers of poison tipped arrows and bags of poisoned caltrops to drop everywhere, some hired muscle that could be whatever you felt like, a few antimagic devices about to remove any buffs and lower personal danger to the kenku.
>>44039540
Players apprehend one of the kenku assassins only to realize it's wearing a kenku mask.
They remove the mask.
Underneath the kenku assassin mask is a kenku assassin.
Pull a Peter Abelard and have them cut the players penis' off while they sleep.
Put the paladin's mount's head in his bed while he sleeps!
>>44040515
The mask is also a kenku assassin.
>>44040562
>>44040515
>>44040362
>>44039667
HAAAAAA
does that make you happy
>>44039467
You could make them bumbling henchmen, like their leader was the only competent one telling them all how to be good assassin's and now that he's dead they just have to guess.
Some of the suggestions in this thread I want to steal so bad. Where can I learn more about Kenkus, if this thread is literally my first exposure to them?
>>44039488
Thread over, folks.
>>44040914
...wikipedia?
>>44040914
Kenku are raven-folk with the ability to mimic sounds. They've got a natural propensity towards thieving and bladework, many end up as assassins. They don't have natural illusion magic, but silent image is a level one spell. The ability to mimic sound and create silent illusions is a good low level encounter.
>>44039467
Have the assassins stalk them. Doesn't have to target them themselves.
For instance; they killed the kenku's leader, the kenku should kill their leader. Maybe that's a single party member, or maybe they have some wizened old mentor/employer or king they work for.
Maybe the assassins just murder everyone who hires them before they can be paid. (Bet you that would clamp down on future job prospects.)
Maybe you now have an excuse to go around targeting player's families and loved ones.
>>44040914
Just read about corvid behaviour and intelligence (ravens and magpies in particular) and mix that with a lowlife ninja.
>>44042545
>>>to mimic sounds, kenku ritually split their tongues in half
>>44039467
They're all hilariously incompetent, use this video as an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMlu7ZleclI
>>44044087
What? That's stupid. Birds can mimic sounds well because they have a syrinx rather than vocal chords.
That ought to mean a kenku could make a fantastic opera singer able to sing chords and harmonies with itself.
>>44039467
Since they don't have the ability to take out a tuff party with knives or flat out toxic poison they should do things that endanger the party and make their lives harder ultimatley leading to their deaths indirectly with more invasive poisons.
One night at the inn the party eats a big meal secretly laced with laxatives, the next day at the dungeon they constantly have to make will/constitution saves to not shit their pants while fighting a dragon
There are constant bombs placed along the roads the adventurers travel along, not enough to kill or even damage anything more than what a healing spell can cover
They sneak a sort of magic whistle that has a constant supply of air into one of the players pockets that severely pisses off the wildlife that can hear it.
If the world isn't racist against them they travel ahead and cry out about the awful group of marauders that robbed and murdered the members of their peaceful mountain top community making everyone pissed at the group before they even meat them.
>>44044456
These are great. Easily the best part about the game. All they're missing is the Wilhelm scream
>>44039500
>If they do nothing
DM makes mention of something out of the ordinary and the players are going to do nothing? I can't think of a single player that would do nothing with bait that huge.
>>44041651
Also note that Kenku are flightless but it wasn't always that way. Their ability of flight was stolen but their lesser god that they scorned. This leads some Kenku to flock arround a strange "cult of flight" and covet magic items that grant flight. Ritual punishment and execution often takes the form of being tossed from a great height.
most of this lore comes from Ebberon I think.
>>44040307
>omitting kenku
That's the whole point. A group of crows is called a murder.
have the assassin's target loved ones as a form of revenge. PCs have investment, you get to run an assassination prevention plot, and the PCs don't auto die.
Pfft, everyone's missing out on the best "worried about assassins" plotline, which is introducing a bunch of suspicious but friendly npcs, one or two of which are assassins waiting for the right moment, but most of which will still be suspected.
>>44039998
Big Kenku?
Kenku assassins aren't deadly enough? Make them allAlpha Legionnairesin disguise
Frame jobs so they don't have to get their hands dirty. They killed the cult leader, they don't deserve a quick, clean death
>>44039467
After some internal affairs being sorted within the assassin cult, they send the PCs a simple message. Stay out of their business, or they will make the PCs their business.
Might be cool.
Honestly, it's hard for me to see GMs use assassins against the party without using them badly, which cheapens the entire point of even having a cult of assassins, or using them like assassins and the party getting absolutely hammered without a chance to fight back because they rolled a low perception and the players feeling like the GM meme'd on them.
>>44040515
>>44046447
The GM could send assassins after npcs on the players side in whatever plot they're involved in, but have them actively avoid the players themselves (since they're obviously crazy dangerous in a head-on fight)
