I haven't found anything like this in the messageboards here (but if I've missed it, please feel free to direct me to the appropriate thread :)
My question: Mokmurian's army has mobilised and is heading for Sandpoint. Has anyone done this in their game (or thought about it)?
I'm wondering what tactics Mokmurian would use: e.g. would he take his entire force and head directly to Sandpoint, or would he let his army spread out and pillage the small villages in between? And so on.
If you're interested in how this happened in my game:
A day later the PCs returned to Jorgenfist and met much less resistance. All was well until they faced off against Mokmurian in his chambers, and it turned out that it was actually Galenmir disguised as Mokmurian. Needless to say, Galenmir had killed the monk before the rest of the party managed to take him down...
Meanwhile, Mokmurian had decided to mobilise his army after the PCs' first intrusion, leaving Galenmir behind to slow them down. Having resurrected the monk, the PCs are ready to go after Mokmurian and hopefully save the innocent people in his path.
sounds like a needless complication to be honest, are you certain this is the right path to go down?
Sorry Captain Yesterday, but I have to disagree. The party failed, got discovered, and now there are consequences, earth shaking consequences.
here is my thoughts.
Not sure if you are playing the AE or the original, but in the opening section for book 4 in the AE, it talks about how Mokmurian knows his giants are just soul fodder for Karzoug, but he can also use them to weaken resistance when Karzoug rises. So he is going to want to hit some hard targets. Plus he can use the runeslave cauldron to basically get a second use out of his troops.
So to directly answer your question, I think he would spread out a bit, but then take the bulk of his forces for Sandpoint/Magnimar. The long answer for what I might do is below.
So Magnimar and Korvosa have the 2 strongest armies around. Janderoff and Kear Maga would both be difficult to take, and Riddleport could also be a problem, but as a number of the are pirates, they might just run. So strategically I would want to take the fight to Magnimar or Korvosa, but only one of them. They don't really seem to like each other a lot, so if you only make it the problem of say Magnimar (since the players have been there) Korvosa might not directly get involved. Using a city with an army also means your players won't feel like they have to kill every single giant themselves.
Mokmurian moves his troops down the stoval stair, leaving a contingency to hold it, and fans out his army to take everyting from Rodric's cove to Ravenmoore, putting Magnimar and Riddleport on alert, and leaving small groups behind to raid the smaller villages and disrupt trade. Magnimar deploys the army, and they meet at Wolf's Ear.
Assuming you want a fight of your players vs Mokmurian you could do it there with the battle raging around them, or he could take a group of giants including Cronna the wise, and go through the Malgorian mountains, and down the river, through the lake, and try and surprise Magnimar while the army is deployed. Your party is there to fight them, Cronna and her giants turn on Mokmurian, massive battle ensues.
When they win the party can head to the main battle site with his head, and once they know he is dead, the giant army breaks apart.
That's what I would probably do, I would have to consult a map for better strategy options, plus I don't remember exactly how big his army is, or how strong Magnimar's is.
Mokmurian knows that the PCs are out to kill him, and that they are very probably entirely capable of doing so. So he's not really going to want to go wandering off into strange territory and getting too distracted by needless battles when there's a personal threat to him. He might well try to lay a trap for them, and he might well send a few marauding bands out, but he has little to gain by leaving Jorgenfist personally.
Thank you Mark_Twain - those are exactly the kind of strategy ideas I was looking for :)
Captain Yesterday - yes, it certainly is a lot more complicated than it could have been, but as a GM I was really itching to do something different. Plus, the party was getting complacent (what with them easily slaughtering everything in their path), so I decided it was time to introduce consequences for their actions.
Option 1 Korvosa Campaign.
Leave a garrison at Kaer Maga (perhaps he has enlisted Orcs from the east to help as well just to make the threat even bigger. Have his army move across the plains in the south of varia taking sirathu, the abken and janderhoff. Have refugees fleeing south to Korvosa. (since its closest). Perhaps have the PC part of a scout mission of a field army after the first few cities fall. The refugees get trapped against the banks of the falcon river trying to cross near Harse and a large battle ensues there killing many. He crosses and marches south to Korvosa and have the battle for the city there.
Option 2 ( the one I prefer but would take longer)
Starts the same way but after capture the smaller cities he lets the refugees flee to Korvosa and turns his eye west to wards Magnimar (as he knows perhaps the PC have ties there). He takes Biston and then Ilsurian, whistledown and finally Wartle.
Now rather than march on the town directly he damns up the Yondabakari river cutting off the cities fresh water source and lays siege. He uses timber and stone from the Sanos forest and nearby Malgoian mountains to do this. Perhaps now he recruits any of the surviving goblins from the mushfens to his army. He will build a giant fort behind the river and for a base and builds siege weapons as well. Now he has giants, (and maybe the orcs from the west as well from earlier and goblins as well).
With the river stopped he leaves a force to guard the fort. (you could have an adventure where the PC’s have to destroy the damn and possibly flooding the fort he built like in the Two Towers)
And/or this forces Magnimar and the other cities to rally field armies to come and fight as well. Here you can have a massive open field army which could be very deadly to either side, of course you would need to work out the army sizes but it would be fun (Pelanor fields).
Or perhaps Magnimar holds out and the attackers move in with siege weapons, towers, trebuchets rams and assault the city like Minas Tirith Lord of the rings style. You could also do this after the field battle if the heroes lose and the remnants of Magnimars army retreat back to the city for a last ditch effort.
An idea to add onto this is perhaps the PC’s found some ancient knowledge of how to reactivate the “light house” in sandpoint by Brodert Quint (maybe a trip to hollow mountain or they found a ‘fire ruby”charged with energy from an destroyed tower of ancient Thassilion. Once the take the ruby hear (maybe after the devastating defeat in the field battle) they must resort to the use of the ancient magical tower to spew flames of fire and large meteor swarm spells against the enemy as they make their final assault against magnimar.
If you go this route what implications would activating the ancient tower have for regional power in the future? What does it do to the Runelords? Does Karzoug know about it? Do the PC’s destroy ( or attempt to destroy the tower) after the battle? Maybe if they go this route give them a level of Mythic as they stopped a massive change in regional power.
Hope this helps.
Dynas - wow! Thank you for the great ideas; I never even would have thought of reactivating the lighthouse in Sandpoint :)
Shining Fool - thanks, I will check it out :)
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Glad i could help i hope my Party messes up so I can run this side quest now :D
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Mokmurians army is
Mokmurian
The dragon Longtoorh
General Galanmir 4th level fighter
33 hill giants
46 Ogres
71 Stone Giants
12 Dire Bears
Magnimar has a population of 16,500 including a 15th level wizard and his Golems, a 13th level cleric and numerous other characters of 8th to 11th level, a garrison of a few hundred soldiers and can probably manage about another 1000 or so as militia (probably more).
Firing from defensive positions on a wall these are a serious threat to the giants massed archery will get about 10% hits , so around 170 soldiers will drop a hill giant, 400 for a stone giant more at long range so they can potentially drop every giant in about 25 rounds. Not allowing for Siege engines or Spellcasters.
The giants will do better than that as their thrown stones will kill and demoralise defenders, Mokmurian cannot really contribute much as if he reveals himself then the high level defenders cut loose at him.
The Giants are probably best off rampaging through the country side in smaller bands destroying small towns etc and crippling Magnimars economy then when they send the army out to defend the towns use their magic to communicate and bring all the giants together wipe out the standing army and those characters accompanying them , then attack the city if they still have the strength.
Unless everyone in Turtelback ferry had the tattoo removed then that is a good first target a massacre there captures a lot of souls , then a mass attack on Sandpoint hoping to pin the pc's in place and overwhelm them with giants
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Xanaphia - Ooh going after Turtleback Ferry is a great idea too! Thank you :)
It also occurred to me that Karzoug probably does not want Magnimar destroyed, it is the only really useful city in his new empire.
Korvosa is scary for him, there is a very good chance that Sorshen is sleeping under it, the last thing he wants to do is mess around in Korvosa until he can sort out how to deal with her (actually stopping the other Rune Lords rising is probably top of his to do list).
Riddleport is a mess full of pirates and so on, he can make things of it but that will take effort.
Generally terrifying the populace about how dangerous giants can be until Karzoug arrives and can control the giants should help his takeover.
I believe This is a good opportunity to emphazise mormukain ruse. After all, he's pretendono to be the runelord, right?
For me he should move to kaer maga and take control of the city while keeping a small holding at jorgenfist. This allows him to enslave the dense troll population there present and to you to use all the materials around about This city.
I, personally, would do so:
1) mormukain conquers kaer maga thanks to some inside help (a pro karzoug or pro lissala faction)
2) mormukain star ts gathering new subjects and Resources (he might dig up something from the dungeons of karzoug beneath the city or ally himself with other powers (orcs, evil blue dragons, drow). He might start creating other "runelords" (basically, offering other spellcasters greater understanding of sin magic in change of service and such)
3) meanwhile, the ufficials of his armi continue to pillaging lesser villages
Now is Pcs choice. Either continue with the assassination tactics or try to unite the principal cities in varisia to conduct an united attack against This growing menace.
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I have been thinking and seeing as how Sandpoint region is lower levels. I am working on building an adventure on the island of grubbers hermitage. The book mentions circling carrion over the island. To tie into the use of the lighthouse i have thought of the following.
A Sea Hag (the one from the story of hags plummet) will lead a group of Shaugin into the thorp to raid it. They have killed all but a dozen or so of the towns folk and are frantically searching for a mysterious ancient Thassillion artifact.
The artifact was once at the bottom of the gulf from the dreaded towers that shot fire. A fisherman accidently pulled one from the ocean floor with his catch of the day. The hag sends her shaugin whom whorship her to raid the village and find it.
The shaugin have not been able to find it and the hag has come to supervise torturing the last dozen survivors.
Our PC's investigate the island and also have learned of the hag story by now. They arrive and dispatch the Hag and shaugin just as they find the artifact. The PC's return with the few survivors to sandpoint whom take refuge in the town.
The only person who will buy the artifact because no one knows what it is is Bodrick Quint. Im thinking like 1500 gold which is about CL 4 (this is the treasure for the encounter). He feigns ignorance in its true power and worth. He will then secretly begin to learn the artifacts power and comissions the town mayor to rebuild the lighthouse. The refugees are glad to help and take up the task as do many towns people now that the church is done. Once the lighthouse is rebuilt Quint will then reactivate the tower.
From here 1 of 2 things.
1.) Quint becomes power hungry mad and the artifact corrupts him filling him with wrath and the PC's must fight him and either kill him or save him from the curruption (like the palantir in LoTR).
2.) The tower is used in the invasion/battle of sandpoint. After which perhaps news spreads of the power the lighthouse holds and the regional city states send representatives to ally with Sandpoint potentially causing more problems.
The key is, at least for me, incorporating the recovery of the item early in the AP, like chapter 1. Mainly because it fits with the CR of the creatures in the plot, hag CR 4, shaugin CR 2 and the Pc's are low level. Also this gives the plot time to develop as the town rebuilds the lighthouse and the PC's can see its construction over the course of the next few chapters. Only later to learn it will be critical in the defense of the city. A good way to tie stuff from many chapters earlier in.
I'm really enjoying the different ideas that everyone is contributing here :) Thank you!