DMing advice please?

[NeoTiamat]

Okay, before I begin my plea, let me explain that I'm moderately new to D&D and Ravenloft in general (Been a player for a bit, two modestly successful adventures as a DM under my belt). However, I have the following problem:

The PCs arrive at an inn for the purposes of investigating a small cult there that's been killing anchorites recently (they've been dispatched by the local Sentire). They arrive at the inn, and after investigating the town, rather inconclusively, retire to aforementioned inn. Now, the trick is that the inn is actually the headquarters for local cult branch. In theory at least, the innkeep poisons the drinks of the PCs with a mild slow-acting sopoforic, so that they sleep particularly soundly. At midnight, any PCs not drugged by will be awakened by some people knocking down the door to their chambers. A few of the local cultists have been dispatched to collect the (presumably) unconscious PCs and bring them down to the main cult chambers, in a cave system below the inn. Unfortunately, the PCs aren't all dead asleep, and should handily defeat the cultists (who are mostly first level commoners and experts. The real fighting comes later).

Here comes my issue: I need to get the PCs down into the caverns where they can observe the ceremony, WITHOUT having them start any fights along the way that would disrupt the ceremony and result in them not getting valuable information they would gather by observing said ceremony. After they see the important part, they'd be discovered, and then we get to the actual fighting, with the cult leader making a get away (reccuring Villain, and anyway about seven levels higher then the PCs at the moment), and his lower level followers blocking his retreat. When the cultists are all dead, they find Kargatane symbols on a few of the cult leader's bodyguards, and end of this specific adventure.

Ideally, they'd take the cultists disguises (thick iron grey robes with heavy hoods), and mingle with the cultists to observe the ceremony. However, I'm not sure if just having robed cultists lieing around will be enough to give them the idea.

WHen all is said and done, I don't care how the PCs observe the ceremony, so long as they do.

How should I work this? Also note that my PCs aren't always the brightest of people (usually well enough, but sometimes.....), and I don't want to make it too deus ex machina. (Hard, I know).

Advice?

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Perhaps, after fighting off the cultists in their room at the inn, one of them could look out the window and see some other victims (NPCs they met in the inn's dining hall earlier) being dragged down the street by some other cult members. These NPCs were also drugged by the innkeeper, and are being taken to the cult's hideout, having failed to put up so much of a fight.

The PCs will have to hurry -- you could have one of the captive NPCs wake up and start squirming, only to get beaten into submission in full view of the window, if the players seem slow about rushing to the rescue -- and they won't be able to catch up with the kidnappers in the street. However, they should succeed in following them to the secret entrance to the cult's ceremonial chamber, either by seeing them go in (if there's no ranger in the party) or by tracking them to it. Note that this version of events would place the cult's lair somewhere a short distance from the inn, not right under it.

If you're lucky, the players will come up with the idea of disgusing their PCs on their own. If not, you can always have the first room they enter as they sneak into the cult's lair be a robing-room, complete with suitable outfits hanging on pegs. In any case, make it clear to the PCs that they can't afford to alert the cultists to their presence prematurely, or else the NPCs they came to rescue will be killed immediately; one of the cultists that attacked them in their room could warn them of this outright, before they head off to the rescue, just to be on the safe side. ("You can't save them, fools! Try, and they'll only die for nothing, not for the glory of [fill in the blank]!")

[Igor the Henchman]

You're in a pickle. My personal instinct in such a situation would be to put my carefully-prepared adventure plan aside, and let the PCs reach the caverns however they choose. If they don't get to spy on the ceremony, make sure all the vital clues are written down in the head cultist's private journal or something.

[CorvusCornix]

What kind of information is it that you want to give your players when they watch the ceremony? So far I guess your players don't have any motivation, why they should NOT stop it as soon as possible. To get them interested in witnessing it, you have to manage two things: first, like Rotipher already mentioned, hint at something BIG behind the ceremony, something they really need to learn more about and can only do so during the ceremony. Second, you have to make sure that your players believe the NPCs are in no immediate danger - if they have to consider the possibility that the NPCs are to be sacrificed during the rite, they'll certainly try to disrupt it as soon as possible. Maybe on their way to the cult's headquarter the PCs somehow find out that the missing anchorites are still alive, or at least were only killed well after the ceremony was over? If all else fails, you could try to slow them down so much that the ceremony already is at the crucial point when the players arrive and you can try to catch their interest with a few well-chosen words the PCs hear your villain utter in the ceremony, while the PCs are still OUTSIDE the headquarter, so they might reconsider bullrushing the stage and instead listen first...

[Jasper]

Now if all else fails use the good ole Deus Ex Machina. Have the drug the cultists used on the PCs be strong hallucinigenic. Dispite defeating the first batch of cultists who woke them up the PCs now have to deal wih seeing shapes and colors and as many imaginary monsters as you want to throw at them. The point is to have the PCs be "defeated" by these imaginary monsters and wake up tied up just in time to see the start of the ceremony. A conveniantly placed sharp rock (to cut the ropes) and a qucik scrable for some cerimonial weapons later and the cultist fight can begin.

[wolfgang_fener]

First throw them off guard by picturing the inn as a nice confortable and enjoyable place well known for its exceptional beer or wine or roasted chicken or anything. Include various sensorial conforting descriptions. Prepare a small encounter with cute females NPCs, prepare a joke for the bartender and maybe a minor event in the evening. Anything to distract the pcs will be fine. Something involving something to do next morning would be fine so your players will focus on tomorrow and not on what may happen in the next few hours. Your female npcs must have a little story of their own (true or false) or else the players may be suspicious. Maybe they are all daughter of a merchant who just moved in town and thy are so sick of moving every years because they hope to finally find husbans and such... This is just an exemple. Adjust their personalities to make sure they will be attractive to your particular players.

Then, once your players feels you're not about to throw something at them, they should probably play their pcs accordingly and forget about various precautions usually done in a more dangerous environnement (like guard duty during the night and other similar tricks). You want them to all go asleep, possibly with said cutes female npc (secretely cultists) and have a good long and deep sleep due to the poisoned drink/food/anything.

Then you'r pcs wake up with a huge headache already down there in the underground dungeon exactly where you want them to be. End of story.

[NeoTiamat]

I hadn't been expecting nearly as much response or as many good (and different ideas).

I'd say that of all the ideas presented, I'll use Wolfgang's primarily, but I'll include Igor's fail safe as well (I should've thought of it myself... >_<).

I can't thank all of you enough. I hope no one minds if I occasionally ask for other advice here on the boards? I'll try to do it rarely, but there is a wealth of knowledge here to be had.

[Luke Fleeman]

I don't know if this comes too late, but:

You could have their weapons stolen during the poisonings, and the cult takes them into the caverns. Wizards lose spelbooks, etc. On the way to recover them, they will not want to fight, presumably, and can see what happens before they get the items.

Just a thought.