So I'm playing in a homebrew game and we've run into something of a problem. Earlier in our adventure (We're in an evil campaign) one of our party members released a plague into the well water of a city of somewhere around 10,000 or so. The plague took off after we left the city, and around 4,000 or so of those afflicted ended up rising again as Ghouls and taking the city. As a party we managed to take the castle of the city (thanks to some excellent mobility) but we're having trouble figuring out how to deal with the ghoul problem.
Things to consider:
Party:
-Strix Ranger (Archer with human hatred Level 7)
-Drow Noble Magus (Normal Magus with a bit of Spellslinger Level 7)
--Leadership Cohort (Gorthek Rider Cavalier. Level 5)
-Half-Elf Witch (With a touch of dragon blood Level 7)
-Damphir Cleric of Zon Kuthon (Negative energy Channeler Level 7)
-Catfolk Ninja (With a spy network at his disposal Level 7)
Publicly we are an official Mercenary Company
We would like the city to be as intact as possible. Three of us can fly, and the Magus has been casting Levitate (At will SLA) in order to tow the non-flying members around (At significant speed reductions)
City is based heavily on the city of Lamasara in Golarion, including location. So city is on a river, and otherwise surrounded by desert.
Fairly ample resources at our disposal, as much of the treasury in the castle was untouched, including the armory and many shops in the city.
We can easily take down quite a few ghouls on our own, but we don't have the manpower at the moment to hold a city block while we clear the next. A problem that will only get worse as we clear more of the city.
Hiring mercenaries has the chance of simply adding to the Ghoul population.
Current plan is to put the word out that in a weeks time as a company we are going to hold a recruitment. We'll open the city gates, and allow anyone who wants to attempt to reach the castle by going through the city to do so. In payment we'll allow them to keep whatever they find. If they make it, we'll offer them employment (ensuring a strong force) Every evening we'll go out and burn the bodies of the fallen to ensure they don't rise as Ghouls. Once we have enough people, we'll start clearing blocks and station men to keep them clear of Ghouls until the city is clean.
Does anyone have any suggestions of a better/faster/more efficient way of doing this? Anyone see any holes in our plan? Any suggestions to make things easier?
Are they all CR 1 ghouls? If so, then it seems like they would be pretty easy to slaughter en masse. Just have the cleric prepare Abundant Ammunition a bunch, possibly with extend spell, along with other anti-undead spells. The fighter will have a great day, I promise you that (probably along with the magus).
I wouldn't advise rolling for each and every one, but slaughtering ghouls should be easy enough to handwave after a couple rolls. If the fighter DOES run out of ammo, just give 'em a reach weapon and let them murder things from 15 feet above the ground all day (bonus points if the reach weapon is a whip, allowing attacks from hilariously far away). Everyone else can hide in the castle while this happens, if they desire.
If there are stronger ghouls, then that's when the spellcasters come in with a hefty dose of fireball (or whatever ever damage spell they desire).
As a side note, levitate can only push creatures up and down. You would have to be pushing against a wall or using some other mode of transport to move horizontally.
Enjoy your murder spree!
I see quite a few holes, most of which stem from the fact that Ghouls are intelligent and communicative. They're likely to figure out what you're up to within the first couple weeks and organize a defense of their city. It's even possible they might mount an offensive, and that you might have a bad case of World War Z when it comes to your walls.
Moreover, you're in a desert. Even if the ghouls simply feast upon the fallen first, you've got about a little over fortnight before they run out of food. This means they'll likely start scrounging about, and a determined ghoul has enough intelligence to find a grappling hook and rope, and scale the castle walls (or crawl up through the sewage, or work around the clock to sap the walls if they KNOW they've seen someone go in there.)
As for your strong force: you said it yourself, you're evil. Let's look at the possible recruits for this mission:
1. Altruistic - they want to end the ghoul occupation of the city. But by the same token, they aren't going to let you take over if they can help it.
2. Desperate Mercs - Looters, scavengers, etc: you're best chance at some real allies that won't necessarily screw you over.
3. The Ambitious - Evil characters that have the same goals as you. The issue is that the sensible thing for a band of 2 dozen 4th - 6th level recruits to do in this situation is to conspire against you, and form an oligarchy once they've succeeded at a sudden but inevitable betrayal. Moreover, this group will undoubtedly include a necromancer in their somewhere, and he'll keep a half-dozen ghouls in the wings to help as well.
My point: more than half your recruits are likely to be opposed to your success in taking the city. You might be able to kill off the Altruistic characters, but once the Mercs and Ambitious see that you're willing to do that, they'll likely consider you too dangerous an employer, and will either eliminate you or simply bounce.
IDK, maybe you can pull this off with some really good roleplay. But it wouldn't take much to find yourself with enemies before you and behind you.
Are they all CR 1 ghouls? If so, then it seems like they would be pretty easy to slaughter en masse. Just have the cleric prepare Abundant Ammunition a bunch, possibly with extend spell, along with other anti-undead spells. The fighter will have a great day, I promise you that (probably along with the magus).
I wouldn't advise rolling for each and every one, but slaughtering ghouls should be easy enough to handwave after a couple rolls. If the fighter DOES run out of ammo, just give 'em a reach weapon and let them murder things from 15 feet above the ground all day (bonus points if the reach weapon is a whip, allowing attacks from hilariously far away). Everyone else can hide in the castle while this happens, if they desire.
If there are stronger ghouls, then that's when the spellcasters come in with a hefty dose of fireball (or whatever ever damage spell they desire).
As a side note, levitate can only push creatures up and down. You would have to be pushing against a wall or using some other mode of transport to move horizontally.
Enjoy your murder spree!
I feel you might be greatly underestimating what 4,000 creatures with and Intelligence of 13 are capable of killing. Even if you levitate out of reach and cast AoE spells en-masse, you MIGHT kill a hundred before you're out of spells. And this assumes that they don't jump on you from the roofs, or chunk rocks at you from below, or figure out that non-proficiency with a crossbow still gives them a 1/20 chance of hitting for damage. Figure 200/20 * 1d6 = 10d6 dmg. per a round if you attract enough ghouls that 200 can attack you.
Ultimately, resource heavy area filled with ghouls hungry for giblets. Expect intelligent tactics.
As far as we know all the Ghouls are CR 1. The issue we're having is the sheer amount of area to cover and hold. With just the six of us, yes we could just slaughter them all, but it would be a very long and slow process of clearing each building on a block for every block in the city. Add to it that each block of the city we clear of ghouls would just be repopulated with ghouls as soon as we leave the area to clear the next. Doing it alone could take weeks ir more when you factor in Ghoul Fever possibly knocking some of us out of commission for a while due to repeated exposure.
We're looking for something more efficient if possible. Maybe a way to lure all the Ghouls to one place? Or a method to target only the Ghouls without having to bother with combat?
As far as levitation, those with fly speeds are pulling the levitating party members. It's a little goofy, but it has worked so far.
Anonymous Warrior, You raise some great points. We'll take it into consideration. But we've already gained a fair amount of notoriety via tournaments and open battle in the legit service of nobles. We've made some fairly public alliances, and we're using the Ninjas spy network to grind the rumor mill as it were. Altogether it's hopefully a recipe for mercs who want to join rather than the random looters who have likely already been through the city before we came back. Any level appropriate necromancers wouldn't have an easy time handling our Cleric, (Who has got his own undead contingent)
As far as the loyalty goes however, Any suggestions on good ways to ensure loyalty among the recruits?
The Ghoul's disease requires them to actually hit you in order to be affected by it. The Save DC for it is also fairly easy to make as a 7th level PC, assuming Cloaks of Resistance, having the good Fortitude Save progression, and not completely dumping your Constitution. Its AC, HP, and to-hit are absolutely weak. Though, if you come across guards that were wearing armor that were turned to Ghouls, they will have the increased AC from that armor.
There's also the factor that if certain powerful citizens were to succumb to the Ghoul Fever, they would instead rise as Ghasts, which are significantly more powerful and deadly to your party, since Paralysis is the Supernatural equivalent of Hold Person, a very common Save or Die spell. Their HP and to-hit aren't that much better, but their AC and Save DCs for both the Disease and the Paralysis go up significantly, which makes them a bigger threat if not taken down as soon as possible.
All I can say is, this is basically the beginning of World War G. (Get it? Because it's not Zombies, it's Ghouls and Ghasts?) Use range to your advantage, set up a Tactical Operations Center at the heart of the Ghoul Swarm, make sure it's secure so they don't end up sandwiching you guys, and be sure to be able to make as many attacks as possible; with the proper damage bonuses and buffs, a lot of your party members should be able to kill a Ghoul for each attack you make, and probably a Ghast for every Full Attack against them.
Bows, Crossbows, Alchemical Supplies (like Alchemist's Fire and Alchemist's Acid, great wave-clear for the Ghoul trash), Reach Weapons, all of these are going to be vital to reducing the amount of damage and set-backs you'll be taking.
**EDIT**
Also remember that Ghouls and Ghasts, unlike Zombies, are very smart; possibly smarter than a lot of your party members, as they have 13 (or more) Intelligence. They'll know how to use tactics, can probably understand what you're saying, etc. Plan for that accordingly by denying them any use of effective tactics.
Why do you even want to get rid of the ghouls? They seam to be tactically to your advantage. They are an effective barrier to most of your possible rivals, and their presence makes your castle less interesting to the "Big Kids" in the neighborhood. Yes, the Big Kids can take your castle away from you, but then they would have to go through the tiresome process of cleaning out the town. Much more efficient for them to wait until you do that, then take away your toys.
@Darksol, That's an excellent point on the Ghast's, but so far we haven't encountered any of them. Likely they're holed up in the areas they inhabited before the plague hit. We're hoping for a solution that doesn't involve us having to kill every ghoul/ghast in the city personally. While doable, it would end up overtaking the campaign in a spectacular fashion.
@Daw, The kingdom's nobility has ceded the city and its holdings to us assuming we can clear it, along with titles of nobility should we manage to succeed at reviving the city's trade(it's an important port along the river). Very little danger of someone trying to take it from us as it's a story point (a little metagaming I know, but still)
To be honest, I don't see how you can just "lead them away." They are smart, they aren't some mindless, animal-like Undead that you can just lure away with a piece of fresh meat (AKA Zombies). Although Ghouls and Zombies share a similar food palette, Ghouls aren't stupid. They might know that they're being baited, and not go for it.
This is very similar to a case of having outrageous high AC, but otherwise not being a threat. In the case of stupid enemies, they'll hit the first thing they see, even if it's highly inoptimal. In the case of smart enemies, they might go after him for a couple rounds, but will eventually realize they're vainly fighting the wrong target, and switch.
Except, in the case of baiting them outside the city (or into a trap you guys create), the Ghouls may or may not see through it, in which case you're either wasting man power (and time) for a gambit that may or may not pay off as well as simply going to exterminate them.
If your Cleric has the Command Undead feat, you might be able to simply make them leave the city, or to fight against their brethren, though to be honest, if you try to make them leave, they may simply come back. Killing them, while time-consuming, is also the most safe option for your city, because simply leading them away, or commanding them to leave, is only a temporary benefit, one that can make your ownership of the city backfire.
OK, simple things, install an Alchemist. Anti-Plague giving that alchemical (thus stacking) boost to your disease saves will be a big help. Any way you can divide up playing field into more manageable sections is to the good. Are scrolls of Wall of Stone available? Have you identified food sources for the ghouls? Cemeteries are important here. Control and trap them. Ghouls are tunellers, don't forget this. Control and trap the sewers.
Did you have a counter-contagion prepared when you released the original plague?
For paranoid contingency plans, how far can you trust the power players in the kingdom? Have they got divinations available to expose your part in propagating the plague? If so, prepare an escape plan, subborn spies, and do anything else to help keep you from being surprised. Playing potential rivals off of each other is always good, especially if you can work it so that your success is not anyone else's worst case scenario.
Wall of stone is an excellent idea. With the resources at hand in the treasury (Which the gm has limited to use only for retaking the city) we should be able to procure enough to wall off sections bit by bit.
Can Ghouls tunnel through the Wall of Stone effects?
An alchemist will be brought in, (Likely more than one.) Thanks for that suggestion. :)
The food sources haven't been identified yet, but they will be next session. The sewers are a good point, we haven't seized control of them yet.
Unfortunately, the plague was released without us knowing what it was. Our Cleric was directed by an agent of Zon Kuthon to empty a vial into a well. That was all he knew. The power players in the kingdom are mostly concerned with keeping the Ghoul population from moving out of the city in a massive horde for new sources of food. They're thus far convinced the entire thing was divine punishment. (Thanks to unseen forces we've yet to uncover.)
As a devious group, the best way to deal with a problem isn't just to get rid of it, but to turn it into an advantage.
Ghouls are relatively smart. Ghasts are even smarter.
So rather than trying to destroy them all (which, I agree, if going to be a heck of a long slog process), why not make an alliance with them? Though not without its risks, you could potentially seek out the ghasts amongst the horde, and perhaps even assist them with taking charge of their brethren for the purposes of leading the horde away from the city and against an enemy or rival.
You'll need to stay somewhat "in the shadows" on your dealings with the ghast/ghoul horde for the purposes of what your noble benefactors know about it, but if you can convince them that their best interests lie elsewhere (rather than staying in the city, where you will continue to mercilessly destroy them... ghast leaders first), you might have a shot at not only ridding the city of the ghouls, but also unleashing them against an unexpectant enemy/rival.
Perhaps even the noble benefactors would be pleased to know that the "gods have intervened" and redirected the ghoul horde at a neighbouring kingdom...
You have Leadership in the Evil party. Why not recruit some as followers? They can be a buffer to the other ones, as well as be a communication channel to making the rest of the ghouls.
Massive armies love those who provide for them. If you can supply that food, they will support you.
/cevah