The PCs, lured into a dining area in what they thought was a friendly locale, are ambushed by a group of guards bribed to perform the assassination. The exit doors are shut and barred, alerting the PCs to the ambush but preventing escape. That makes this likely a battle to the death, though perhaps the guards are bribed to capture rather than kill the PCs.

The battlefield is a well-lit dining area flanked by a balcony. The main exit is barred, though you might add secondary exits behind the guards to allow the PCs to flee if they lose.

The balcony borders are Height 2 above the dining area. A staircase section on the west side of the room («) grants access between the balcony and ground floor. The balcony does not extend down the east side of the room.

Because the balcony juts outward over the wall, and the walls themselves are quite smooth, it's not possible to climb from the ground floor to the balcony without the aid of specific tools. The Grappling Hook can be used to enable climbing upward, and either the Grappling Hook or Hemp Rope can enable climbing downward. Jumping down without the aid of an appropriate tool results in 2d6 falling damage.

Mounts are not permitted inside. The Petty Officer lacks the Riding Horse.

If this is a battle to the death, defeated PCs may spend 1 Karma at the start of their turns to recover 2d8 lost HP (and take their full turn).

    2       2

2  <<   0       0

    2       2

• Archer Cadet
• Rookie Guard x3
• Rookie Sniper

• Petty Officer
• Archer Cadet
• Rookie Guard
• Rookie Sniper

• Petty Officer
• Archer Cadet
• Foot Soldier
• Rookie Guard
• Rookie Sniper

• The PCs begin in the east side of the dining room (ground level)
• The Archer Cadet begins in the NE balcony section
• The Rookie Sniper begins in the SE balcony section
• The Petty Officer begins in the staircase; if not present, two Rookie Guards begin here
• Other Rookie Guards begin in the west dining room section
• The Foot Soldier begins in the west dining room section

The Petty Officer prefers to hang back and grant ally attacks until it is the only melee guard left, at which point it will engage with its Winged Spear. It will grant whichever attack will be the most devastating, which will often be adding more ranged attacks on low-defense PCs.

Rookie Guards will block section borders to prevent the PCs from passing through, unless the Foot Soldier is present, in which case they'll try to hang behind the Foot Soldier and take advantage of their Reach. The Foot Soldier will block borders whenever possible to protect the artillery.

The Sniper will focus on any PC with Defense that doesn't ignore Piercing since it's the best source of damage against that PC. The Archer prefers to fire at casters or Healers.

The guards surrender. The PCs are able to interrogate them to find out who paid them. Note that the guards' weapons and armor belong to the host, so the PCs could get into some trouble if they try to take possession of them. The host, likely apologetic, should offer the PCs some reward as compensation; this could be additional help toward the PCs' goals, services (such as Disease / Injury healing), or direct Wealth or even Treasure.

If this is a battle to the death, the PCs are killed, ending the adventure. Otherwise, you might have the guards capture the PCs and take them to whoever paid them. You may give the PCs a chance to escape while en route with a chase scenario, or you could take advantage of the opportunity to have a face-to-face with your story's villain.

The guards are using a bunch of standard Gear available to PCs, but for simplicity's sake only one option from each piece of Gear is typically placed into their entry. You might look over the Gear and see if you want to let them use additional entries; for instance, the Winged Spear's Spear Fencing Action could be potent against a PC that relies heavily on high Miss dice, such as a Swashbuckler or (probably) a Healer.

This scenario is ripe for including some acrobatic options, especially if you have PCs that are built for it. Acrobatics checks to swing on a chandelier from one side of the balcony to the other would be appropriate, and you might allow for Acrobatics to reduce or even avoid falling damage when intentionally leaping from above. You can explain the latter with tricks like hanging from the balcony and swinging for the higher dining table to reduce fall distance, or using a knife or similar edged weapon to slow descent by cutting long decorative curtains or banners on the way down. Such tricks should require Acrobatics vs. anywhere from a d6 to a d12, depending on how available you want such stunts to be to both the PCs and the guards (the Archer Cadet's d10 is notable).

If your group loves improvising, make stunts like those possible, but don't reveal them as options when you describe the setup. Let the players come up with their own ideas, then set the Acrobatics roll and have at it!

For a bit of steampunk flair, the Clockwork Sentry could make an interesting replacement, especially against 5 or more PCs. It's level 3, so it's worth 0.75 PCs; you'll need to either include 2 of them or add a level 1 mook, such as a Vigil, to even things out. But, it's fine to go a mere 0.25 over, especially when dealing with 5+ PCs.

If you want to turn this into a major fight, make it a boss battle against a Guard Captain. Include a pair of Rookie Snipers against 4 PCs, and add a couple Rookie Guards or a Foot Soldier against 5 PCs; the Captain is assumed to have a few helpers around, and they're not counted against the total enemies to set up in a scenario. You'll need a doorway, probably on the balcony, that additional guards can arrive from when the Captain reinforces. That allows you to run the battle as not being to the death if you want a route the PCs could potentially escape through if they fail.

More level 2 combat scenarios