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Greetings All,
My intrepid band of heroes has just liberated the three Black Arrows from their imprisonment, and have returned to Turtleback Ferry to recoup and make plans for retaking Fort Rannick.
In frantically skimming through PF#3, I can't seem to find the exact number of Black Arrows that manned the Fort (and my players asked, of course). Does anybody know what the original complement was? (I told my players 36, but I think that may be too low, though the Barracks shown on the map don't look like they could hold many people unless they rotated out when the patrols were being run).
As always, thanks in advance for the help!
Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"
I would factor in one third of the total contigent being out on patrol at any given time, meaning whatever number you assess as manning the fort regularly, add 30% or so to. This may be a little high for most forts, but given that they are in a very hostile area and have to run fairly large patrols vs the ogres, etc. I think that number is reasonable.
This isn't official, but someone's player laid out detailed plans for renovating the Fort once it's under PC control. Perhaps you can use
his figures. (Click the Hidden Content/Spoiler button in the first post.)
This isn't official, but someone's player laid out detailed plans for renovating the Fort once it's under PC control. Perhaps you can use
his figures. (Click the Hidden Content/Spoiler button in the first post.)
I would wager that those figures are for a fully-operational, manned, and staffed fort; IIRC Fort Rannick had been operating at sub-optimal capacity for some time. (Not that those figures aren't helpful, they're probably just inflated beyond Rannick's contingent at the time of the attack.)
This isn't official, but someone's player laid out detailed plans for renovating the Fort once it's under PC control. Perhaps you can use
his figures. (Click the Hidden Content/Spoiler button in the first post.)
I have seen and snatched up those wonderful plans (and that player listed 51 full time troops I believe, plus auxillaries). As others have said, though, I also had concerns that Rannick wasn't running at full capacity prior to the Massacre. The fact that they abandoned the 'new' barracks and still had room for everybody in the old one is ample testament to that, now that I think about it.
I guess I can believably stick with 36 for the pre-Massacre complement, and bolster it to 51 if the PCs decide to rebuild the 'new' barracks. It will lend credence to the fact that Magnimar didn't supply the fort adequately to do its job, and be grim testament to how well the Black Arrows did their job in spite of that.
Thanks folks - please keep posting other info or insights if you have them! :)
Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"
It sounds like the Black Arrows are far more elite then the average garrison. I don't really see the normal 20-30 level 1 warriors that would normally make up the bulk of the troop strength. I also doubt that there would be the usual number of non-combat types at a place like Fort Rannick.
20 Non-combat types - Experts, family members, wounded, visitors, pledges, etc.
10 Recruits - Level 3 Rangers
10 Regulars - Level 4 Rangers
5 Officers - Level 6 Rangers
Jakardos - Level 8
Lamatar - Level ?
I see this number as able to defend the fort, and keep the surrounding areas contested, but unable to totally liquidate the ogres at The Hook.
I think all of the above are grosse overestimates of the Black Arrow's numbers.
My approach on this question is looking at the map of Ft. Rannick
Ft. Rannick has 3 types of rooms suited for habitation. B20 guest quarters, B24 barracks and B30 the commanders quarter.
To start off the barracks are depicted as having 8 bunks, probably 2 man each, i.e. 16 men.
Then there are five gust roomd with one bed/bunk each. These where amongst other things used for trainees. That is 10 trainees at the most, but probably less.
The last is the commanders quarters for Lamatar.
No other rooms or exterior buildings where habitated. So there where probably no civilians at all at Ft. Rannick.
That leaves us with:
10 - Trainees
16 - Black Arrow initiates (incl. Jakandros, Kaven, Vale)
1 - Commander, Lamatar (8th lvl according to the HMM sticky)
However, Ft. Rannick was probably very uncommon in its number of experienced characters.
Most trainees probably had anywhere from 3 to 5 levels in an average/good BAB class.
Black Arrow initiates probably had 1 to 2 ranger levels in addition to whatever skills they had when first admitted at the fort.
That makes it:
10 - Trainees (level 3-5)
15 - Black Arrows initiates (level 4-7)
Second in command, Jakandros (level 8)
Black Arrows Commander, Lamatar (level 8)
All in all the maximum number of Black Arrows was probably 27, though they all where probably seasoned warriors.
If this were a typical garrison, I'd agree with those numbers. However, this was a frontier fort, where substantial numbers were on constant patrol. I'd say Grandfather's numbers are about 2/3 of a full compliment, with "hot bunking" being the norm (one bed is used by more than one soldier, just not at once). I'd say "full capacity" (without the firetrap "new barracks") would be around 36 combatants, but if the fort were understaffed (as it was described, IIRC) then two dozen sounds about right. We know what happened to Lamatar, Jakardros, Kaven, the other guy, and there are about a half dozen accounted for corpses, so it's not out of the question to think there were 24-27 rangers stationed there.
Well, I actually sat down and read through each area's description, and here's the official body count according to the text:
.
.
.
.
.
Area#..........Black Arrow Body Count
B2..........1
B6..........9
B7..........1
B9..........Just listed as 'several' (my best guess would be 5)
B18.........1
B23.........1
B29.........Listed as 'at least half a dozen' (I'd say 7)
B31.........3
If we ignore B9 entirely and assume just 6 bodies in B29, that still leaves a body count of 22, not counting Lamatar, Jakardros, Vale and Kavin.
I think a low number of experinced characters works well with 2 facts.
1. they were able to hold the fort against ogres and worse for nearly 50 years.
2. they where all wiped out in the end.
I agree that is rebuilt the fort could house a substantially larger number of Black Arrows, but to recruit a company with the experience the BA had would take many many years.
Also new quarters would have to be built for new recruits and civilian auxileries. The larger the number of BA the greater the need for support functions will be.