So I could use some advice again and this place has offered some useful advice before so here I am again.The heroes (10th level) are on a quest in the underdark to procure an artefact owned by an influencial drow house to help out an NPC they know and so they can loot the rest of the vault. One of the players is playing a duargar who has a history with the drow and carries one of their religious objects. Another NPC friend of one of the PC's has also been captured by the drow and that PC is very motivated to rescue her.During the last session the party came into contact with a drow who overheard them and offered to get them into the city if they helped him out by publicly murdering the drow high priestess, who happens to belong to the house they are going to steal from. Unsure if they should trust this guy (spoiler: they shouldn't) they agreed to come with him for now to at least get past the giant webbed gate and figure it out from there.In what is surely not my best DM move I had this drow stash them in a warehouse in a suburb of the city while he arranged entry further into the city to give them an opportunity to figure out their plan in private both IC and OC. I then proceeded to bait them, in an otherwise rather boring session, by having someone enter the basement during the night with one character still awake and sneak out a back door. Naturally he woke two other PC's (why he didn't get the whole party is another issue) and followed to find three prisoners suspended over the town square seemingly guarded by only three guards. The PC's banished two and killed the third, rushed to the prisoners and attempted to cut them free. Then the earth elemental came up out of the ground and shit went sideways, resulting in a whole bunch of guards coming out along with this high-level drow mage. The party flip-flopped a few times between fighting and hiding or running away and a few PC's kept doing stuff that ruined the current "plan". It ended with the entire party downed except for the druid/barbarian, who had been running around the building as a tiny spider trying to see what was going on, and the bard and cleric whose characters are elsewhere in the underdark recovering from the mother-of-all-hangovers as their players were absent.The final bit of the puzzle is that the drow who got them in is actually a member of the house they are trying to rob and is setting up the party to attempt (and fail!) to murder his sister (the high-priestess) so he can blame a rival house, and the mage that defeated the party happens to be one of his other sisters.Now I feel conflicted about how to continue. If they are taken captive the drow will surely take all their stuff (which I'm sort of ok with) and attempt to sacrifice them during the festival. I don't see how I could make a scenario where the missing PC's can save the rest of the party without making it feel like the only reason they got out is because the DM helped them, and even if they do they would be seriously behind enemy lines and the house they are supposed to rob knows them and that they are coming. Alternatively if their drow "buddy" helps them out of the joint to get them to finish the mission. I don't see how he would realistically put them in a position where they have any chance of success without making him seem like a complete moron, and even if they succeed with the murder I don't think they can get out, let alone rob the house.Some further notes: 1) the duergar player doesn't like his character anymore and wants to play a new character (which in general I am fine with), 2) the player's couldn't agree on whether to first save their friend NPC, kill the priestess (if at all) and rob the hosue, 3) we had a similar situation a few sessions back during which a part of the party was captured and the rest had to interrupt the sacrificial ritual to stop them. This was cool but I would prefer not to repeat myself. 4) the PC's are aware of the politics in the situation (this arc is an attempt to work that into my game) but they don't know their drow "buddy" and the mage who just owned them are related to the house they have to rob.I'm not sure how to continue and how I can make the party have a chance without making the scenario vastly unrealistic. Also I think there should be consequences to their defeat but I also baited them into it so I don't want to screw them over too bad. What would you guys suggest I do next?TL;DR, I baited my party in doing something stupid and now I need a realistic way to put them in a less desperate position.
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