This story is again from my friend's Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Second Edition campaigns set in his own realm. Our party consisted of three player characters: a male ninja (my character), a female paladin, and a dwarf warrior. We were exploring an area known as the Shattered Lands, which we had learned were cursed by the undead forces known as the Nockmare. During our explorations, we found a group of knights herding a group of helpless prisoners toward some kind of fortification.

Well, we were all of good alignment, and being interfering types, it was pretty clear that we weren't going to allow this to stand. Still, that didn't mean I wanted to simply rush in. My character was a ninja, after all, so direct confrontation wasn't generally his first choice, and I simply wanted to be more creative as well. Direct combat gets boring after a while; I was hoping to add some spice to the game. The player playing the paladin was thinking roughly along the same lines; it was better to attempt something creative.

All I could really think of was some sort of diversion or ambush, though, and I was trying to decide how best to do that. As it turned out, there would be an immediate answer to my dilemma, because the dwarf made his own independent decision about how to handle the matter.

Yes, he proudly stepped forward and yelled, "You cowards! Come over here and pick on someone who can defend themselves!" (This may not be an exact quote, but it's close enough.)

Well, the dwarf had unintentionally volunteered to be the diversion or bait for my plan, so I immediately rolled my Move Silently and Hide in Shadows actions. Frankly, those two skills are pretty much sure things for my ninja, and this case was no exception. I was gone. The paladin may have lacked those skills, but she managed an adequately impressive disappearing act of her own.

So, the dwarf, thoroughly pleased with himself, waved us forward when the knights turned and approached, accepting his challenge. "Come on, guys! Let's take them!" he yelled. He then noticed that something was wrong and looked around. "Huh? Where did you go?"

We can only imagine what those knights were thinking at this point. It was probably something to the effect of "What manner of insane dwarf are we facing?" Naturally, we'd ask them, but they didn't survive our impromptu ambush.

There's something to be said for spontaneous planning.