Help me run my players ragged

[pennywit]

In my combined book 5/book 6 finale, sometime in the next few sessions, I'd like to run my players ragged as Nyrissa sends her immediate henchmen to give my players headaches.

I'm using a sort of "Places of Power" set-up: Nyrissa wants to claim several places of power in the Stolen Lands so she can turn them into her curio. IMO, these places are the Temple of the Elk, Lake Hooktongue, the ruins of Vordekai's Tomb, Candlemere, the Dancing Lady's CAstle, and my players' capital.

Currently, my players' kingdom encompasses Candlemere (which they will reclaim at next kingdom-building turn), their capital, the Dancing Lady's place, and the Temple of the Elk.

Lake Hooktongue is under the dominion of a trio of black dragons called the Scions of Ithuliak, and Irovetti (an ally to the players) is trying to retake his capital from D'Kara, the Marquis of the Stolen Leaves (who has his own armies and is sworn to Nyrissa for personal reasons).

So, I'm thinking that sometime in the next session, the Scions of Ithuliak are going to make a move on the Dancing Lady's old digs. Dragons, with the Tiger Lord Barbarians, and a boggard army as backups. I'm thinking this might also be a good time to divide my players' attention.

This is a mythic campaign, and the Dancing Lady is a Cursed Lord unable to leave her realm. When a bloom is established, its area becomes part of her realm.

Other tools available:

* A bloom, maybe the frost giants.

* The Wriggling Man, reconfigured in my campaign as a powerful Transmuter. My players tangled with him once already. He impressed his power on my players with Power Word Kill, Chain Lightning, and an assortment of quickened spells.

* The Knurly Witch, reconfigured in my campaign as a hag witch with a penchant for hexes.

* Phomandala, not upgraded yet.

* Ithuliak (though I am saving her for later)

* The Black Prince, a vilderavn currently meddling in Brevoy politics.

The Horned Hunter has been slain in a somewhat less than epic battle.

What are some things I can do to make this really, really stressful for my players? I'm thinking of having the Knurly Witch and the Wriggling Man teleport between several of their communities, laying down destruction in their wake. The players run themselves ragged at the same time the Scions of Ithuliak make their move. Any ideas to make this extra nervewrackign and extra special?

[pennywit]

My current idea is to have Knurly and Wriggles teleport into the players' settlements, leave good-sized critters there, then teleport out. I would then treat the critters as one-creature armies that rampage and destroy things in the settlements, opposed by the local military, unless my players move in and attack the creatures themselves.

The idea is to stretch out my players as much as possible and deplete their resources while the Scions of Ithuliak, backed by the Tiger Lord Barbarians and some boggards, make their move. Meanwhile, a bloom is going to open at Vordekai's old place, which is manifestly NOT part of the players' kingdom, and start spreading ...

[The Mad Comrade]

If the players have established some means of near-instant communications, this will definitely run 'em ragged. If they don't, they'll only hear about the horrible carnage afterwards....

[pennywit]

another idea is that I could prepare significant NPCs (Caspar Morgarrion, etc.) as "temporary player characters" to deal with the menaces as they pop up.

[The Mad Comrade]

One thing you might do is make the bad guys' appearances throughout their kingdom in a pattern with the triangulation point being where the main baddies themselves are planning to make their big entrance.

"Wait, so they hit here, here, here ... and here. Which leaves ... here ... oh crapnuggets! "

[pennywit]

The Mad Comrade wrote:

One thing you might do is make the bad guys' appearances throughout their kingdom in a pattern with the triangulation point being where the main baddies themselves are planning to make their big entrance.

"Wait, so they hit here, here, here ... and here. Which leaves ... here ... oh crapnuggets! "

That's a possibility, too. I'm thinking of having Nyrissa's forces go for multiple goals in this one sweep -- if they lose in one place, they can still win in another place.

I don't know if this makes me a good GM or a bad GM, but I legitimately want to knock my players on their asses a little bit. They've spent a long time building this kingdom, and now there's a HUGE FAIRY QUEEN who wants to take them down, and take them down hard. I want them to hurt. I want them to feel battered. I want to tax every single resource in their arsenal, and in their kingdom's arsenal. I want them to feel an existential threat.

I want them to earn their happy ending.

[The Mad Comrade]

Don't be afraid to pull a punch if they're about to go from earning the happy ending to getting utterly annihilated. Don't hand it to 'em, don't coddle 'em ... but don't guarantee failure either. 'tis a delicate thread to weave.

[pennywit]

I think I've settled on a couple ideas.

First, I've decided that for a bloom to occur, one of Nyrissa's spellcasting henchmen has to make it happen. Those henchfolk are the Wriggling Man, the Knurly Witch, Ithuliak, and Phomandala. My players have met the Knurly Witch and Wriggles. They haven't met Ithuliak or Phomandala.

Second, Nyrissa is a cursed lord (or maybe dread lord) in my game. She is confined to the Fable by her curse. When a bloom is in place, it allows Nyrissa to walk free for a time as the hex with the bloom is considered part of the Fable.

Third, I'm going to prepare a set of NPCs in each location, some ordinary, some not, for my players to play in the encounters. When they want to alert their real characters, they have to decide how to do that.

* The Scions of Ithuliak (the black dragon trio), allied with boggards and some hill giants, will assault one of my players' towns and try to conquer it. Their reserve army will likely be some bandits and the Tiger Lords remaining in Fort Drelev.

* The Wriggling Man -- a powerful (mythic) transmuter in my game -- is going to teleport to several towns in the players' kingdom with beasts that can cause chaos. I'm going to give these guys templates or additional HD, as necessary, to make them challenging, but I'm leaning toward this breakdown: Town A: Two catoblepas. Town B (preferably someplace cold): Frost worm. Town C: A troop of leveled tooth fairies. In Town D, he releases a fearsome Bandersnatch (not sure which variant I'll use) For each hour that any of these threats is active, it levels one improvement in the town.

* The Knurly Witch will open a bloom on top of Vordekai's old headquarters, letting the Jabberwock through. The Jabberwock will nest here. As he hunts, the bloom will slowly grow.

* Phomandala will open a bloom in the middle of the players farmland. This bloom will contain a locust plague storm. When this bloom expands, farmland within will be destroyed. IN addition to paying the 5 BP to reclaim that hex, the players will have to pay full price to rebuild the farms therein.

At the same time this is happening, Irovetti (my players' ally) will make his move to retake the capital of Pitax from fey invaders. Leading up to this event, he will have asked my players to help him by sending an army or three to assist.

Yes, this is a crapton of stuff to throw at my players. But I really, REALLY want them to hate Nyrissa and her allies, and I want them to feel like their kingdom is up against a truly formidable, world-shaking enemy.

[MannyGoblin]

pennywit wrote:

The Mad Comrade wrote:

I want them to earn their happy ending.

You fool! You've doomed us to The Eternal Maze!

[TheHumungus]

Could you send me or post your re-worked Knurly Witch?

It's funny to me all the "witches" in past adventure paths that had to be statted into some other class because the witch class wasn't out.