My characters are students at what is essentially a military training school. They are conducting an exercise in which their class must manage a convoy together without external help and travel from their academy to a nearby base. Along the way, they go off course and the classmate in charge of the convoy refuses to reroute; along with other various issues he refuses to fix or listen to others about. My main cast must depose him in order to get their class's convoy back on route and arrive at the base on time. How can they do this without injuring anyone? There are 4 of my main cast, and 4 of their classmate's personal cronies they'd have to deal with as well (so, 5 total against them).
Some element of cleverness or surprise would be really interesting, I think - I'm thinking it starts with a distraction, but I need help with the details. For reference, it's fantasy with a tech level roughly akin to Renaissance era.
Discredit the classmate in charge so that he and his cronies fight amongst themselves?That way they can cause "injuries" among themselves without you causing any?
1. Separate the group in the middle of the night while him and his cronies sleep so he can't fight the split. 2. Use sleeping chemicals and carry them the right direction. 3. Create a threat in front that means he has to reroute (lure a dragon to the area). Anything sort of works if you understand it like an equation: Redirection - conflict = desirable outcome. Your redirection can be "the plan" but each plan has a cost of conflict attached to it. You need to gauge how much conflict cost the story can tolerate. 1. Has moderate outcome of rage and animosity from the head honcho. He will feel jealousy of the protagonist being right and him failing. 2. Max rage. He would feel humiliated. 3. None the wiser depending on how it is handled. So you'd have to gauge what type of relationship is within the acceptable range for that moment. Or other metrics like whether you need the whole squad to succeed (including the head honcho who is wrong). In which case you'd be restricted into making them successful as well.
Are they in different vehicles? One person per vehicle, all in one lead vehicle, or on foot walking alongside a convoy? Different options present themselves for each. Me to. But enough about our private lives, lets keep it on topic.
Ooh, I do like this! Maybe not "discredit", so much as "start conflict with" - make things personal, hurl the right remarks at the right people to really set them off at each other. That's an angle I hadn't considered. The convoy consists of six horse-drawn carriages; two personnel carriages and four cargo carriages. The personnel carriages seat 10, so of their class of about 40, about half are walking at any given time. My main cast are presently walking alongside the convoy, while the "leader" commands things from atop a lone horse at the front. Combining my own thoughts with what I quoted above, he can probably be lured off his horse by some well-placed personal remarks, which would provide a moment for my cast to enact their coup. (got a good laugh at that last part btw lol) I'm thinking, if his cronies could be separated from him, like if they were lured away or to the rear of the convoy for some reason, they could be kept from intervening? I should probably reduce his cronies to make an even 4v4 as well, just to make this easier on myself... EDIT: Mm, I missed this part... Between 1 and 2 is what I'm going for; a later plot point involves him and his cronies attempting to retake the convoy, only for their attempt to be quelled by my cast. About a 1.5 on your scale, then.
