That lol moment [Book 4? Spoilers]


Rise of the Runelords


Just a story as a player that other players or DMs would probably find amusing.

So, in the last game we just got to Sandpoint knowing that an attack by giants and a dragon is imminent. We get there in the afternoon, briefly talk to Father Zantus and the Mayor and that night have a counsel meeting at the Rusty Dragon with important people (Ameiko, the Mayor, Zantus etc.) and that's where we leave off.

The next day (IRL) after the session I take 5 minutes to come up with a tactical assessment of our situation (some things changed for posting). Keep in mind our group is very under-optimized and under-equipped (by WBL) so I know this is going to be ugly:

Quote:

0) Call a town meeting and let the town know in a calm manner - last thing need is it to be a complete surprise and total chaos - need a good public speaker. Need to basically declare martial law and a state of emergency to defend the town until the raid occurs..the other hamlets learned the hard way

-Mobilize any and all available resources - any character with levels and useful skills to contribute. Spellcasters/Healers/Fighters/Weapon makers/laborers/town elders etc
-Need to mobilize as much scroll/wand/potion s+&$ as possible as well as wood/metal/shovels etc anything for defense. Whatever magic items and things we can have or buy with our $..a fund or whatever
-Headband of Wisdom +2 will give me a 3rd level spell to make the Dragon a Favored Enemy a +6 to hit and +6 damage to each arrow
-Dragonbane arrows - somehow need to make or get these ASAP (CL 8th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, summon monster I; Price +1 bonus.)
-Create Water (0 level spell) need to start generating a f%** ton of water in jugs/buckets/whatever to be dispersed around the town at any and all opportunities cast this spell going through town - local militia can help put out fires that could spread and destroy everything if dragon has a fire breath weapon

1) Intel Problem - Going into this blind with really no information. Need to find out as much as possible..when the raid will take place, how many men, attacking/coming from where what type of dragon. Learn anything and everything about dragons (powers, weaknesses, defenses etc.)
-Need to know what they're looking for. Either intel from other people (keep in constant contact with Magnimar) or scout and get a hostage giant for information. Get in contact with Fort Rannick - see if Shelalu/Bart/someone can find a giant to get information out of
Know the enemy - (Cleric/inq/pala/ranger 1) +10 on k-knowledge check on monster. Eagle Eye (see 760 ft in the air in all directions 1 min/lvl. Alarm (bard/ranger/wiz 1). Fly

2) Very difficult area to defend. Large perimeter to try to surveilance and protect with limited resources. Perimeter defenses are very weak - very little to slow them so would leave little time to react and enact defense/counter offensive before being breached. Trying to fortify the limited walls will be time consuming and likely be ineffective & dragon will just fly over. Very limited visability from outside forest cover - enemy will be very close when spotted
Scouts/Lookouts:
Commune with birds. Charm Animal. Summon Minor Ally for scouts. summon minor monster (bard/cler/wiz 1)
Scouts/patrols outside walls for as much advanced notice of attack as possible to prepare town

Things to slow them down to fight them outside the gates and give time for mobilization: Spiked Pit (wiz 3rd), Spike Growth (ranger 2) - 20ft sq/lvl (20*9), Entangle (druid 1/ranger 1), Explosive Ruins?, Fake walls/diversions etc w/ Illusion spells i.e. silent image/minor, image/major image, Bridges: Need to either rig them with traps/explosives or use magic to make them unfindable/unpassable

3) Limited Communication
Alarms/Bells/Shouting signals and plans
Alarm spell, Whispering Wind, Need to test how far we can yell/communicate in the town - need to learn the landmarks

4) Inferior mobility - faster giants and flying fast dragon. they can move fast and large area for us to move to and intercept the enemy wherever they enter. they could likely get to their target before we can cut them off and engage: Haste (wiz3), Exp Retreat (wiz1), Mounts for mobility of us and higher level personel

5) Currently, gaurantee of massive civillian casualties
-Evac (fire drill) plan that everyone immediately evacuates to the church (or very sturdy structure (barracks/bank etc). Have them practice this drill for increased preparedness and area captains to facilitate it

5a) Fortify the s*** out of the church. move stone and rocks from the lighthouse rubble. Ant haul/ant haul communal (alchemist/ cleric 1/druid/ ranger/wiz 1)
5b) Plan B Escape plan dig tunnel from church and other escape routes out of town (such as to the beach): expeditious evacuation, mount/mount communical to get people out quickly
5c) Contingencies if people get cut off and can't go to church: Things like Rope Trick Scrolls for the wizard to hide the children if they are stranded, vanish potions to get people to safety

Other Offense?
Wizard has fireball/lightning bolt, Alchemist or others have useful spells etc.

6) Possible Counter-Intel (Trap/Ambush)
6a) Find out what they want then hide it w/ nondetection OR create a ruse we have it and won't give it up then a spell to give off a magic aura. Have diversion defenses to pretend to defend the spot with the fake object
6b) Other counter intel and diversions once they're in with illusion spells to draw them away from areas or into certain areas such as a choke point. They may be tempted by "food" (volunteer civilians as bait)

7) Enemy
We know they're somewhat intelligent but not that much, they run and don't fight to the death. will likely attack from easiest direction of least resistance (like across river at the South) and not concerned about defenders, most will likely pillage and kill and melee individually without group tactics (possible object throwing), possibly a leader that will go for their objective. Dealing with enemy with likely superior fire power/distance ability/mobility and numbers
dragon will be highly mobile with distance? Spells and probably fly and loop then swoop and breath weapon. Have darkvision to attack at night against us. We'll need to set up torches all over town

8) Group tactics
Likely to get dispersed and split up - dragon is the priority
<PC Barbarian> is melee - >Kill the giants, can take the hits and kill them effectively
<PC Inquisitor> xbow has limited range - See if we can get him a magic longbow (he's proficient) for extra range to help with the dragon <I found out he took something to way increase his xbow range>
<PC Rogue/Alchemist/Ranger> - use bow vs. dragon
<PC Cleric> - nonranged and spells may be limited by range other than readying for swoop attacks. Help with dragon if has distance spells, or ready for swoops and be highly mobile for healing (fly spell flying low?)
<ME Ranger> - ranged weapon for dragon
I can cast Protection of Energy and taunt the dragon into attacking me to divert it from hurting others
Utilize ranged superiority on giants (like at the inn) such as high ground they can't get to easily to kill giants and not let them distract from main target (dragon)
8a) Buffs for people
Bull's Strenght on <PC Barbarian>, Owl's Wisdom <PC Cleric>, Cat's Grace on ranged people
Haste on anyone
Battlemind Link on <PC Inquisitor> and <ME Ranger>
Protection from Energy vs. breath weapon (cleric/druidwiz 3, ranger 2)
Protection from Energy Communal (cleric/druid/inq/wiz/sum 4, ranger 3)
Draconic Reservoir for <PC Barbarian>

So that night we prioritize a little and do some of the initial things we can do that night. We set up guards to have overlapping fields of vision to be able to report since they'll be speed bumps and set up 2 man patrols to try to get advanced warning (trying to put low-light vision people spread out across these night patrols. We do our own watch rotation acting as kind of like captains of the guard to the men and keeping a lookout. The next day our DM is like "Oh ya, by the way it's like New Year's Eve so people are partying and stuff that night"

I facepalm realizing well derr they're probably going to attack in the morning now! and we laugh as I'm like "That would have been useful information to have before, <DM>!" and surprise surprise in the early morning horns blare and things don't go well from there...


That morning pretty much everything..and I mean everything that I had thought out as what might happen and would be important happened. That planning went to s*** as we were now having to figure it out as we go.

First, our patrol people got a 2 and 3 on perception so couldn't give advanced knowledge of the attack. That left people at the north gate to sound an alarm which meant it was just 2-3 of them and 2 of our guys to fend off the wall as they charged and climbed and the rest of us had to wake up and take a while to get to the gate. The alchemist had only one potion and used it to get the melee barbarian exp. retreat to the gate. As we fend them off and these giants run there's more horns blaring from the south and its obvious they're attacking from various locations and we hear the flap of dragon wings.

The group ofc gets split up all over and is struggling like hell to kill the giants and dire bears. I end up using Protection from Energy and taunt the dragon to at least use breath attack on me which doesn't hurt me but he's all over burning stuff. When I taunt him to come to me he knocks me pretty good (had to use a hero point) but the dragon runs like a b**** when I start pelting it with arrows and begins flying low between buildings away from me to try to avoid my attacks. Our Barbarian ends up K.O.ed in a duffle bag and has to use a hero point to get out and get back into the fray.

I see in the distance some giants digging at the ruins (no shock there OOC that this is where they were looking for something) and pelt them with some arrows tagging their leader for 90 something damage...however I roll TWO F***ING 1's on my 2nd iterative and my bow string breaks. YAY! Of all times to happen I have Fate slap me right now. The giants return in kind by hurling rocks at me that most miss, but got a few good hits and now I'm at 2 HP (with one hero point left). The barbarian charges the dragon and manages to deal a good chunk of damage in addition to what I did and it looks like the dragon might flee. We'll see if the giants do as well.

So then what occurred during this game? 0) Yep, the town panicked and people running all over to get burned, smashed, and grabbed and deaten. Check.

1) No intel so we didn't know when they'd attack and caught with our pants down with unknown numbers and a dragon we know nothing about? Turned out to be a red dragon that we REALLY needed those water buckets? Check.

2) Attacked from all over and they came in easily as did the dragon and didn't have time to prepare by the time we saw them? Check.

3) Throughout the combat yelling out for companions in vain to not be heard because of distance and the noise of combat? Check.

4) They moved through quickly and it took us way too long to get to them, we wasted rounds maneuvering to get to the dragon and they got to their target before we could engage them? Check.

5) Mass civilian casualties? Check.

7) Ran when injured, came through mostly easiest way (bridges), not overly concerned about defenders, melee'd and threw stuff, the dragon swooped and blew fire then swooped away from us dealing with overwhelming numbers, better firepower and better mobility, dragon attempted to use a spell on me (failed) etc.? Check.

8) Group ended up split up all to hell and got way too distracted by giants in their face to be able to focus on the dragon? Protection from Energy at least somewhat effective in keeping at least SOME civilians from dying on one breath use? REEALLY needing battlemind link to hit the dragon on every hit? (The Inquisitor got caught up in a horde of giants) Check.

It became pretty comical how everything I mentioned was happening and I must've said at least 3 times something to the effect of, "If only we had like a few days to prepare for this!"

Just remember Players, all that smart planning can go out the window before you know it!


LOL. OK. I read it, and it's amazing how much mobility affects the fight. Looking at your group, I definitely see it as the nightmare it was.

And it's definitely informative because many GMs ask about running this fight because of concerns for the party makeup.

The long and the short of it: The group I GM'ed for had a sorcerer with Dimension Door. That was the ultimate difference-maker. The party could stay together as a group and hit each group of giants/bears/what-have-you the moment they arrived.

The battle's all about mobility.

And sorry about the church! My party chose to hide everyone in the theater, which happens to NOT be on any of the attack vectors, so they didn't have to deal with civilian chaos.

It just sounds like yet again, bad luck overcame good planning.


Nothing has happened to the Church yet, that was just the place I was planning to heavily fortify since it seemed like big enough and strong enough to be defensible against an assault (and isn't wooden to get burned down by a dragon) and is also near the edge of town to build an underground tunnel to get people to the beach or another escape route if they broke through.

Ya, we don't have an arcane caster (Just like a 2nd spell level alchemist). We knew there was a Wizard in town so the plan to get a lot of expeditious retreat, mounts, and or fly potions/scrolls seemed like a good way to handle the situation...if the fight hadn't started in the morning at which point the wizard decided to cast a fireball to injure some then got hacked down almost instantly. I also tried to emphasize not to split the party and to focus on the dragon, but ofc that failed to happen as people ran off to go intercept the giants.


My party is currently on round 10 of the siege. The party defeated the initial assault on the north gate easily, then ended up splitting up when the alarm came from Tanner's Bridge to the east, as they decided it was more important to get there quickly than in force. The wizard, oracle and alchemist all took to the skies to intercept that giants at the bridge (boy, are dire bears useless when all their opponents can fly), with the barbarian running a couple rounds behind and then the fighter and rogue a couple rounds behind that.

Of course, once the runners got halfway there, the dragon announced its presence by attacking the garrison, so there was lots of swearing as the ground-pounders turned around to try to deal with the dragon and then more swearing when they realized the dragon wasn't staying put at the Garrison and was much faster than them. Of course, the fact that their only attempts to get the dragon's attention involved little more than yelling and waving their arms (which didn't do much to distinguish themselves from the panicking townfolk) didn't help. The barbarian finally got the bright idea to try to shoot the dragon with Bayden's icy burst bow, but she missed.

Realizing the groundlings were going to need help, the casters were about to fly over to aid them, leaving one of them behind to mop up the dire bears, when big T and his crew made their way across the river. Insert more swearing.

Then the oracle promptly flew over and hit him with Feeblemind. Which didn't take him out of the fight, but definitely demoted him from leading it. We had to call it a night there and are going to pick up next week.

The martial players were a little miffed about spending the fight up to this point running about willy-nilly like the Keystone Cops while the casters were kicking giant butt and the dragon ignored them, but I gently reminded them that they all had long bows, which have ridiculous ranges, and just because the Barbarian missed her first shot, didn't mean it was a bad idea.


I think our group is benefiting from a long, cruel line of GMs. Every player's first considerations are:
- A weapon
- A missile weapon
- Something for mobility
- Armor, if there's any money left.

Far, far too many encounters on the open plains of Prax with mounted barbarians raining arrows on us from afar and then riding away when we tried to close.

So I believe for just this battle the group had Dimension Door, Phantom Steeds, Teleport, and Fly available. And everyone (even the sorcerer and the bard) had bows.

Made a HUGE difference.


Well my group struggled just with the 3 at the North gate then got pummeled by dire bears at the next bridge. We are currently on IIRC round 20 of combat and that isn't even unusual for us. Most combats, even minor ones, go at least 10-15 rounds with it resulting in a lot of resources burned (spells/rage etc.). I think some have gone 30+ and taken all game.

The group is 5 PCs and is very unoptimized…as in we have an inquisitor with a heavy repeating xbow as his main weapon with an eh dex, no precise shot and no rapid reload..and an average strength with a great axe..and no share judgement…and still spell and silent spell.

we also have a rogue 5?/ Ranger 2?/ Alchemist 3? where there isn't really any cohesiveness to these different classes.

I could go on but you get the idea. Its more of an old school group where character choices are motivated by quirky ideas and char concepts than mechanical reasons. I initially made a silly character until I realized that PF APs don't mess around and aren't forgiving when run by the book. Oh, and I'd guestimate the average wealth of the party members is about 25k and we had to roll to see if items like a headband of wisdom +2 or dragon bane arrows were in Magnimar.

As you can guess, this is and will continue to be a steep uphill battle.


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The party all has ranged weapons (except the oracle, who doesn't carry any weapons at all) and the martials all used them during the fight at the North Gate, they just decided that trying to chase a flying dragon on foot rather than shooting at it was a worthwhile endeavor, for some reason.

I will say I'm glad I'm running this scene in a VTT rather than at a real table. Being able to easily switch back and forth between a map of the town (I set each square to 30' since that's the base speed of most of the party) and zoomed in maps of the battle locations is really useful, especially when you have a situation like I described where half the party is in battle and the other half is running around after the dragon.


Ya, our DM had certain maps already drawn out on a few sheets of large expendable grid paper. He also had the map of the town out and we tried to guestimate movement distances with the map scale. The AP didn't exactly make this encounter easy by having it occur all over town and not have a gridded out map of the town.

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