Last time, my group cleared out all of the goblins on the first level of Thistletop, including Ripnugget and his commandos.
They were out of spells and badly, badly wounded...so they returned to Sandpoint to heal up and sell their loot. By the time they return, I'm thinking at least one day will have passed. Now, I want to be as "realistic" as possible, but I also don't want a TPK. Here is how I think the bad guys might prepare:
I start with the assumption that the bad guys will notice that something is amiss and will learn of the massive slaughter that occurred above.
They cut the rope bridge, making access much more difficult.
Bruthazmus (the Bugbear Ranger) and the four goblin wives (from D2), Orik Vancaskerkin (human fighter) (from D4b), and Lyrie Akenja (human wizard) (from D15) will all move to the top floor.
Orik and Lyrie will take up watch in one of the towers, Bruthazmus will take up watch in another tower and the remaining four goblins will stand guard just inside the gate. The gate will be barred and nailed shut. Bruthazmus and Orik will fire upon any enemies with their bows and Lyrie will cast magic missiles from her wand. Once the PCs break through, the bugbear and the Orik will rush to the entrance to engage in melee with Lyrie as backup. This is the part that worries me. Bruthazmus and Orik are not what I'd call overpowered, but they're no slouches either. I'm afraid that all of this combined might be too much. On the other hand, I want the NPCs to react with some semblance of logic. And seeing how the PCs completely destroyed a more sizeable force, it seems like an appropriate response.
The PCs consist of:
A human fighter who favors the longspear (but also carries a shield and the sword he took from Koruvus, the mutated goblin)
A Dwarven Cleric of Sarenrae
An Elven Wizard
A Half-Elven Scout (with a masterwork composite longbow)
We're using the Pathfinder RPG rules, and I started them with double maximum hitpoints (which has really helped on more than one occasion).
They are currently only second level (which is probably my fault for not leveling them fast enough). My friend who plays the fighter has remarked several times that he has never had so many hitpoints...but he has also been brought down to exactly 1 hitpoint on two occasions now.
So...any advice on whether my plan is too deadly? I want it to be a challenging fight, but I don't want to kill any PCs if I can help it. I have considered having Father Zantus donate a few potions to help them--like Shield of Faith and Bull's Strength.
If it is too deadly, any alternate suggestions for a realistic, though less deadly, reaction by the remaining denizens of Thistletop?
Any advice is appreciated!
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My players did a similar thing. They cleared all the superior fort before down to the first dungeon level. They kill Lyrie but then went to the Temple, where they were soundly defeated by the Yeth Hounds and ran for they lifes out from Thistletop to Sandpoint.
Later, after healing, the goblin druid, captured by Shalelu, told them about the Tentamort lair. They went through the lair by night after casting a sleep spell to the nearly tower guard. I dm the dungeon as they was write without comeback to the fort and, "evading the reinforces" on it. reinforces that I didn't prepare.
You could do samething similar saying that they are "a lot of goblins" in the fort and is easier to infiltrate in the dungeon by the tentamor lair than fight them.
Cheers!
I think you're plan is reasonable.
I'm not sure the goblin wives would stick around and fight. I guess they're sweet on Bruthazmus, so he could probably easily bully them into picking up some dogslicers and mix it up.
Nualia would probably want to find some reinforcements, but she probably won't have time if the party heads back right away. Maybe some of the goblin wives could be sent to other tribes to try and get some help. Not sure if a party of goblins could easily get back to the fort before the PCs showed up. I'd have to look up the distances on the map. But the fort is such a great location, other tribes would probably be eager for the chance to take it over.
The most straightforward plan is to sack up, take the hits and hack through the doors. Not sure how likely that is or what sort of difficulty you'll assign to getting through the doors.
If the party spends a really long time standing near the blocked front door getting pelted by arrows and magic missiles, it may go badly for them. But it sounds like they have a lot of hit points, so they will probably last long enough to come up with a better plan if they have trouble busting down the doors. I would hope your party won't stand around getting pelted very long if they aren't able to effectively shoot back. But even with the bad guys having cover and a height advantage, the PCs should still be able to do a bit of damage from range before they go toe to toe.
If they start looking for alternatives to the front door, anything could happen. Maybe they try to climb the walls. Maybe they start a fire. Maybe they try to punch through at the back of the fort, where there are no towers or windows to defend from. Stupid goblin architects! Maybe they just explore the island a bit.
Last time, my group cleared out all of the goblins on the first level of Thistletop, including Ripnugget and his commandos.
They were out of spells and badly, badly wounded...so they returned to Sandpoint to heal up and sell their loot. By the time they return, I'm thinking at least one day will have passed. Now, I want to be as "realistic" as possible, but I also don't want a TPK. Here is how I think the bad guys might prepare:
I start with the assumption that the bad guys will notice that something is amiss and will learn of the massive slaughter that occurred above.
They cut the rope bridge, making access much more difficult.
Bruthazmus (the Bugbear Ranger) and the four goblin wives (from D2), Orik Vancaskerkin (human fighter) (from D4b), and Lyrie Akenja (human wizard) (from D15) will all move to the top floor.
Orik and Lyrie will take up watch in one of the towers, Bruthazmus will take up watch in another tower and the remaining four goblins will stand guard just inside the gate. The gate will be barred and nailed shut. Bruthazmus and Orik will fire upon any enemies with their bows and Lyrie will cast magic missiles from her wand. Once the PCs break through, the bugbear and the Orik will rush to the entrance to engage in melee with Lyrie as backup. This is the part that worries me. Bruthazmus and Orik are not what I'd call overpowered, but they're no slouches either. I'm afraid that all of this combined might be too much. On the other hand, I want the NPCs to react with some semblance of logic. And seeing how the PCs completely destroyed a more sizeable force, it seems like an appropriate response.The PCs consist of:
A human fighter who favors the longspear (but also carries a shield and the sword he took from Koruvus, the mutated goblin)
A Dwarven Cleric of Sarenrae
An Elven Wizard
A Half-Elven Scout (with a masterwork composite longbow)We're using the Pathfinder RPG rules, and I started them with double maximum hitpoints (which has really helped on more than one...
Well, if you are worried about it, you might consider having Orik "bug out" at this point - as far as he would be concerned, Nualia has failed.
Since he is not a worshiper of Lamashtu, he would have less of a motivation to stick arround - so he could take the openning provided by the PCs to flee..
Well, if you are worried about it, you might consider having Orik "bug out" at this point - as far as he would be concerned, Nualia has failed.
Since he is not a worshiper of Lamashtu, he would have less of a motivation to stick arround - so he could take the openning provided by the PCs to flee..
That's a good point. The PCs could even run into him on his way out. If they play it right, they could recruit him or at least get information. If they don't, could be tough for Orik, but he's a tragic sort, anyway.
My party went through a similar situation, they cleared out the top level but had used up a lot of resources. They rested upstairs but blocked the stairs to the next level, figuring there was stuff down there that might investigate.
I grouped up Bruthazmus, the yeth hounds and Lyrie in the chapel, with Orik downstairs with Nualia and her hound. The goblin wives were a non-factor. The party had been pretty much walking through everything, and figured that whatever was downstairs was going to be brutal anyways, and this way seemed to make more sense if the bottom floors were alerted in any way. It made for some nice fights, with the party ~3rd level I believe when they attempted it. It gave them a feeling of being hard without being quite overwhelming, as the biggest ally the party has over the mobs in there is usually their numerical superiority.
The only party member I recall getting dropped was the rogue after he'd gotten stuck in the trap on the bottom level on the far side from the party, and Orik got a round on him free from the rest of the party..he got dropped low enough that when Nualia showed up he didn't quite have enough hps to stay awake too long. (Nualia hadn't arrived from her investigations just yet, arrived a few rounds later once Orik and the trap alerted her and the party had gotten through the trap).