Advice on Drezen

[Tulty]

Hi.

My players have looked at a map of Drezen and decided that instead of taking the city first, they're going to sneak along the gorge, climb up the Ahari bridge, sneak into the citadel and then signal the army AFTER they've activated the Sword of Valor...

Now, my instincts tell me this approach will likely get them killed, but I don't want to be the sort of GM who punishes players for creative thinking...

Any advice on how to approach this one?

Tulty.

[captain yesterday]

Oh dear,
Things aren't going to go well at the bridge....

But yes your instincts are correct in a sense, it is right to reward creativity, however it's even more fun to punish recklessness, and it gets the old imagination going:-D

Let them try it, ask yourself "how would Drezen's invaders react" if they're super stealthy and s@#$ goes their way *yay* if not and s*!! goes sideways, it never hurts to let them retreat and try another way:-)

Keep in mind the turncoat (you know who that is) will most likely tell Staunton Vhane, so he can lay out an elaborate trap somewhere:-D

Have fun, sounds like a blast :-)

[captain yesterday]

Bonus points if you can somehow have someone (Barrid Issen gets my vote) say the line the Emperor tells Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi, the exact wording escapes me now, will work on that later maybe...

[Tulty]

Thanks. I think the plan has come about because the AP is REALLY sketchy about how the army's meant to approach drezen. Do they come up from inside the gorge? Can they skirt around it? (They've currently got the army picking their way along the northern edge of the gorge, rather than travelling along it)

[JohnHawkins]

The ting to look at is that the defenses of Dreznan listed are those after the main army has been defeated. Without the army being destroyed there are a whole bunch of cultists and lesser demons occupying bits of the castle.
The players will be able to slaughter them but not quietly and so bring down upon themselves lots of other mooks and some of the elites and that will get them killed.
Also if your group is anything like min at least some of them are as stealthy as a marching band. Paladins in Full plate do not have good stealth scores. I would to avoid a massacre allow them to be spotted by some of the outer camps of mooks (or realise they can't sneak past) and so be able to turn back and join up with their armuy. If they are really stealthy they may be able to sneak into the citedal and try to assasinate the leaders but that will be very risky as escape through an alerted garrison will not be easy and they can't teleport at that level

[isaic16]

I agree with others that the big problem is that the main bulk of the opposing army is in the Citadel. While that final battle takes place in the courtyard, you can easily imagine them responding to any attack in the Citadel. And while the characters are absurdly powerful, I don't think even they could handle that big of a numbers-disadvantage.