I'll be at my girlfriend's graduation ball so I'll be back Sunday evening.
Outsider! Get him!
:-) Welcome aboard.
Thanks, Cali. :)
As per HoO's 2nd post on page 2, aren't we supposed to get written orders? Or are they just 'secure the area'?
You will get written orders, but the lieutenant has so far only said to secure the perimeter.
Sorry if I seem like the fly in the ointment here but at least from Seilas perspective we know several important thigns that beg caution.
1. The tower is apparently made of stone and pretty well fortified.
2. There are ~600 well equipped human soldiers either parked outside or marching past.
3. They can call in air support with at least some measure of speed if they managed.
4. BEyond that we don't really know anything of their capabilites unless someone wants to start rocking those knowledge rolls I certainly do not have.
It's not th I don't want to start smacking faces. IT's that I'm thinking from the perspective of someone whose part of an elite military group who doesn't view charging the tower on high alert in broad daylight with 28 guys who barely know one another as a good idea. :P
I might feel foolish later if we just jump in and it turns out they're all chumps who apparently can't roll a 20 to save their lives. But, for now, I want to assume the guys who essentially conquered the world and likely have a large number of hardened veterans on their side didn't just send their greenest recruits to head off an invasion at the heart of their territory.
Also I don't think Calithilon can fit all of us in his invisibility sphere. Maybe I'm wrong.
Oh you are fine and quite correct. But in character, Rose would not see it that way. Between low wis, LG, and relatively small-scale/optimistic outlook on life. It's a halfling thing I suppose. So I feel compelled to disagree IC as it is the direction the character would go.
Calithilon doesn't plan to take the troops. Just the PC strike force.
Calithilon doesn't plan to take the troops. Just the PC strike force.
Yeah but that's 8 characters plus four large companions. OF those Xon is the only one I can think of we can simply teleport in after us depending on distance. Can you fit all that in there? If not we'll have to work seomthing out or do some creative space management.
Couldn't the eidolons be recalled at the tower?
B'auw
Arau (large)
Rose
Durin (Large)
Thak
Seila
Nawarld
Schahrizade
Shaelathar
Phynn
I think that's everyone while removing eidelons. This is still 11 bodies to teleport (not including yourself), two of which are Large.
So for each casting of Teleport, you can transport yourself and 3 medium/small others. That's 3 castings to get everyone except the mounts… 6 castings round-trip. And I really don't like the idea of fighting without Arau (though I'll do it if we need to).
Im thinking 6 of you rhighest level spell is a bit steep for this tactic. I'm open to disagreements, though.
or am i missing something about teleport?
Couldn't the eidolons be recalled at the tower?
They can be but Shaelathar rides hers. IT's better if she can be on it or she'll end up blowing a round to Call+mount.
ALso they'll have to be maximum 800ft. away for that to work. (honestly that's easy to do).
Even with everyone mounted and Xon hanging back that's still 3 large spaces and 5 medium ones plus a small one.
B'auw
Arau (large)
Rose
Durin (Large)
Thak
Seila
Nawarld
Schahrizade
Shaelathar
PhynnI think that's everyone while removing eidelons. This is still 11 bodies to teleport (not including yourself), two of which are Large.
So for each casting of Teleport, you can transport yourself and 3 medium/small others. That's 3 castings to get everyone except the mounts… 6 castings round-trip. And I really don't like the idea of fighting without Arau (though I'll do it if we need to).
Im thinking 6 of you rhighest level spell is a bit steep for this tactic. I'm open to disagreements, though.
or am i missing something about teleport?
Your jsut missing' Rose's Gryphon. :)
Plus any potential familars we have but they can probably be stuffed in a bag. Being a familiar is suffering.
DM, can we have a bit more information on the enemy positions, please? How far away is the tower? Are the troops on the move or are they bivouacked there? If the former, how long do we estimate until they've passed by? Are they in a big mass or in smaller groups?
Might be a little Deus Ex Machina, but if the NPC wizards were able to teleport in 20 troops, couldn't they teleport us into the tower? Assuming we had a scout to give them a destination like B'auw's plan to head over there.
Just a pre-emptive heads up. I'm headed out of town this thursday morning through sunday evening. I'll pop in if I can, but I may have no internet in that time. If B'auw holds anything up, feel free to play/NPC him.
... though i should have my normal posting up until then. :)
@MacFetus: Distance is 300 ft. 600 troops are currently stationed within sight of the tower but they don't seem like permanents. They've been there as long as you have been at the cave.
They are in three formations of 200 or so men at various points around the tower. Enough space is there to sneak through.
So they're standing in formation? Not in tents and what-not?
So – unless someone has a way of dealing with 600 Regulars – I'd think we need a way of bypassing that force and hitting the tower before those 600 men can be rallied to crush us into paste. But using their own tower as a way to smash such a large force sounds doable.
So the teleporting idea may actually work, if we can figure a way to get in quckly and quietly using it.. even if it does take up a billion of Cali's highest spell slot. Can Snack – i mean Phynn – detect and ID magical auras? That's going to be important as B'auw scouts the tower. Any magical defenses need to be identified so we can easily trick/bypass them.
Secondarily, could Calithilon get your familiar in there (while invisible) and Scry on it? Use it as a drone of sorts?
If I was at all confident about our stealth abilities I'd hazard to say we could sneak in at night and kill the officiers in the camps as well. Bonus points if we steal uniforms and sew chaos. In fact that's an option worth considering in the future.
Xon almost has the bluff check to pull it off. :P
Secondarily, could Calithilon get your familiar in there (while invisible) and Scry on it? Use it as a drone of sorts?
Actually that's an amazing idea. If ten minutes isn't enough time maybe Calithilon can ask to borrow someones extend rod. I think i have one daily charge left. Also think Shaelethar has one that's been used thus far. Don't know about the others.
Also if we knew we were barely a football field's length away from the place I doubt anyone would have gone hunting. Or really camped anywhere near that cave.
Actually that's an amazing idea.
Don't sound so surprised... I only play a savage gnoll on TV.
Now someone whose character has a better grasp on the workings of magic should suggest it in character. :D
:-)
I'd actually considered it. She's not exactly a combat chassis (only CR 2), but it may be our best bet.
Unfortunately, guys, I'm going to have intermittent net access for the next week. It's not usual for me - normally I'm online most of the day - but I'm moving house and a week is the earliest they can connect us. (I know, what am I going to do for a whole seven days?!!)
I should be able to get online at some point but don't imagine I'll be posting too much. Have Phynn look after camp for now - if given a chance, you'll find out that she's actually a decent cook. :) That said, she is prepared to do any sneaking and snooping you may require.
Apologies in advance.
Don't take nawarlds comments to hard, he kinda views it as an soldier. And he does not expect that they would actually have to fight all 600 men when attacking, just charge in as quickly as possible and kill the commanding officers/some of the soldiers.
IF we can manage to kill, say 20 or 30 men, preferably officers, in the first few round, every "normal" army unit would probably rout pretty hard.
Rank and File soldiers, even well trained ones, usually don't fight to the last man. Even less so when they don't expect a small, sudden and brutal assault. Shock and Awe.
At least that's his reasoning (which does not mean that it is right) and it's the only way he sees at all to beat that much manpower. If they are prepared and can muster a defense, 600 men could suffocate our small force with the weight of their dead bodies alone...
And while he doesn't like the risk of being spotted that comes with it, he is not against some "quick scouting". What he is strongly against is waiting a few hours/days. That's just something one does not do as part of a large scale operation to get a foothold. At least not once the main attack has started.
Either get your s*@$ together and do your job or report back that there are to many enemies and ask for reinforcements/relocate to a different position.
Either get your s+#@ together and do your job or report back that there are to many enemies and ask for reinforcements/relocate to a different position.
I prefer option 3; call in air/artillery support and annihilate the location from the face of the earth.
AFter all, this is a small army parked outside a fortified area. We're 8 guys who don't know or seem to particularly like one another. Not really soldiers. Narwald excepted at least.
I'll be posting tomorrow night. Paizo wasn't loading all night and I just got back from a long day of work. Rest easy friends.
Just figured I'd move this to discussion so we didn't clog up the other thread.
Just what is expected of us here?
Parking 600 troops around a watch tower with caster and siege weapon support suggests to me that the best approach would be a careful one. You know, like how an elite special forces group might approach taking a fortification where they're outnumbered.
BUT
Some have expressed just tossing ourselves at them in broad daylight with our ten or so bodies and let the AoE's fly. In which case the melee characters might as well hang back and block arrows.
More than that the GM has hinted that it would just be better for us to do exactly that despite being outnumbered 60 to 1 (again wiht siege and caster suport on their side as well). HE also hinted that we could have single handedly taken and destroyed the airship from earlier.
Either way I'm fine (Seila will still b~*## and complain about doing it unprofessionally, sorry). But I'd rather not feel like the GM is playing "gotcha" when we run in and the tower turns out to be a tower shaped golem who subsequently squishes us because we didn't consider the controller waiting inside the top of the tower. Or seomthing like that.
SO I kind of have to ask just what does the GM want from us in this campaign? Does he just want us to be an army? Or the small elite forces unit that I thought we were supposed to be?
You are a small elite force. I'm just letting you know that your characters would know by now that infantry is essentially just fodder for any AoE spell you have.
Stealth is still the best, but I just wanted to showcase an option. Don't want to railroad or hold up game.
You are a small elite force. I'm just letting you know that your characters would know by now that infantry is essentially just fodder for any AoE spell you have.
Stealth is still the best, but I just wanted to showcase an option. Don't want to railroad or hold up game.
Okay as long as that's understood.
I fully understand we could just blow up the infantry. Heck I'm willing to bet money that our wizard could destroy them all by himself. BEyond that I feel like we just don't know enough about the enemy to make that kind of option entirely feasible.
But, if we're in the well defended tower shooting their own ballista at them, in the dark, while the AoE's fly. Well, doesn't that just sound more fun?
Hmm- GM, I remember reading of a Barbarian who charged 100 level one soldiers, arguing that only 8 could be adjacent and attack him at one time and they'd need natural 20s to hit him. The GM in that case just ruled that the Barbarian automatically died.
If it comes to a similar situation, are you going to make a similar ruling?
The way he's talking, I don't think he is. I've never heard a DM suggest a course of action to the party that would result in automatic death.
I agree that's pretty doubtful.
Sooooo I admit I like B'auw's idea.
How do we want to split groups up for this?
We have three mounted guys which are ideal for attacking the army.
The GM in that case just ruled that the Barbarian automatically died.
That's one serious a!+~%!# ruling right there.
A high level Barb with pumped DR is all but untouchable by low level soldiers. He might need some time killing them though....
A high level Barb with pumped DR is all but untouchable by low level soldiers.
Assuming they're not equipped in a way to deal with that.
A bunch of low level soldiers could take apart an ancient dragon if equipped right.
Doesn't make the ruling less dickish however.
Yeah, I mean just run of the mill level 1 warriors with longswords, shields and bows.
If I offer suggestions it's to move the game along or provide helpful advice, never to hinder my players.
You've got an idea of the number of officers (and even they're not much of a threat). The real threat is probably inside the tower itself.
I'm back. Will post later.
Can Snack – i mean Phynn – detect and ID magical auras?
Nope. :P
: blows a dust bunny :
soooooo.... everyone doing alright?
I'm good, thanks. :)
Just waitin' for...actually, what are we waitin' for? :S
PS Had to look up 'dust bunny'. :D
I'm still here, just had a crazy week with over 400 campers so I've had very little time. Expect a full post either tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for being patient!
400 campers?! You crazy?! :)
Sorry everyone, I lost internet connection at home, and can only post from the library until it's fixed. I can get there once a week. I may have to drop out of this campaign... :(
Yeah 400 campers, 50 of which were in Dungeons & Dragons this week. Was madness I tell you.
I'm ready for the siege if anyone wants to give me a "We jump now and where".
Those going for the Diversion can also roll a d20 each using their highest stat as their modifier.
More than 10% of campers who play DnD? That actually sounds quite awesome.^^
I would give the signal, but Nawarlds dislike for teleportation kinda stops him doing that right now...
Go for it, Herald. I think we've done all our planning.