GM seeking advice- siege battle by the whispering way.

[Zionus55]

I'm running carrion crown, and have a slight problem, I'm hopping so e more experianced GMs might have some thoughts on how I could proceed. I allowed the PC's to ask the Gods 1 question each at the stairs of the moon. They were able to learn what the carrion crown is and what it's ingredients are and have placed the Count inside an extremely well defended fortress city.

I'm looking for some interesting ways ( or scenes to go about a large scale battle (I haven't decided if I'll be having the PC's controlling their characters or armies in mass combat; but I feel the former would be more memorable for them).

At this point in time I'm planning on having the whispering way attack this stronghold (which I will detail below); as a distraction while some infiltrators try to sneak in and take the count, in addition to the other parts of the Carrion crown potion- which the PCs have been successful in obtaining before they reached Caliphas.

The people who live within this city are long time enemies of the whispering way, and have agents in nearly every city throughout the inner sea. In fact one of the lesser seals of Gallowspire is hidden deep below the city; I haven't decided if this would have been stolen but I do know that the Guardian Order had a large, but secretive role in the Shining Crusade. Petros Lorrinor was a member of this group but kept it secret from his daughter.

Information on the fortress city of Kestrilleth itself:
Name: Kestrilleth
Population: 75,000 (May feed up to 100,000 for 11 months if they are cut off from their food sources)
Races: Varied
Alignment: Lawful good. (Although this is bent slightly for agents performing a mission- such as their spy / assassin arm)
Allies: Kyonin, Five Kings mountains
Location: Northern peaks of the Five Kings Mountains a short ways inside Kyonin's boarders

-The entire place (including the walls) are hidden behind a massive invisibility sphere
-The city proper is built inside a dug out section at the top of the mountain, and has a massive magical forge area where planar portals are carefully maintained and golems are contructed in massive numbers.

Outer wall
The first line of defense is the massive ring of 40 foot thick wall manned by Iorn golems and arcane archers, along with a large contingent of Magus' and warriors.

Forest
Moving inward is a forested region containing rangers, druids, treants, and mostly tame animals. I doubt that the floating farms above this area will play a large role in the battle but I may have one or two fall from the sky.

Primary Walls
Reaching the peak of the mountain the city is surrounded at the lip of the ridge above by a 85 foot thick wall of stone that has been built to merge with the natural rock. The masonry is coated by an outer layer of adamantite bricks for extra protection and resistance to magic.
Just behind this structure on the lip of the rock-face is a small wall from which archers or mages can fire with one last bit of elevation.

All in all the total distance from this point into the city itself would be nearly nearly 1000 feet (including the primary walls and the doors.

Special Defenses:
Magical shield above the city itself (not the walls), negates hostile teleportation inside

2500 Golems
- 350 Adamantite golems
- 950 Mithril Golems
- 1000 Iorn Golems
- 200 Stone golems
2 Young Silver Dragons (Twins with 8 levels of Paladin each)

Roughly 64,000 of the cities population is able to take up arms in it's defence with the apprentices for example being minimum of fifth level. (These aren't your average common towns people)
These would consist of nearly every class except for gunslingers.

The leader of the city, Sivara Mournraven is a Mythic 7, Wizard 20 Human (with a personal grudge against Tar Baphon for destroying her civilization, when he was still alive) who hasn't aged in nearly 8,000 years, and also knows how to destroy the whispering Tyrant's phylacrtary... Due to a miscast spell this person went backwards in time a few months from when the siege would probably be happening while on a quest to destroy the tyrants phylactary, having used this time to build this city and do everything in their power to preserve the timeline. In addition to locating their past self and having agents ensure their quest succeeds.

This city is something only the insane or desperate would think of attacking essentially. As I mentioned, it's also where the parts of the Carrion Crown are held.

The throne of Kyonin was recently usurped by the Queen's head wizard- I'm thinking that he could have been promised power or lichdom by the Whispering Way in exchange for getting their armies through Kyonin undetected.
-----

I know for sure that the Whispering way will make use of a Colossal sized Ravener (AKA Dracolich), Bone Golems, and I hope to have a more powerful Auren Vrood make a reappearance as some kind of General, as he was very quickly butchered by the PC Dragon-shaman.

I want to set this up so that either side can win the battle, although the Way's primary goal is to obtain what they need and capture the count for the carrion crown elixir, destroying the headquarters of the order that has been fighting them in the shadows for centuries would be high on their priorities if possible.

Advidion himself was (until recently) an uncle figure to one of the PCs, and recently murdered Kendra Lorrinior so things could get intresting in that regard.

[Zionus55]

A current thought I've had would be to run all the arm combat aead of time and then set up several scene for the player characters to be involved in... Depending on if certain objectives are met it will effect the previous roll I'll have made.

Thoughts?

[Voomer]

This isn't really your question, but if I were in your shoes I would have the Whispering Way find a different Way.

Spoiler:

I frankly don't think the WW has enough resources to mount the kind of attack you are describing. But why does Count Galdana have to be the only descendant of the Tyrant available? I would have the PC's intervention slow the Way's plans, but, after a little time, I would give hints to the PCs that the Whispering Way appears to have found another way. Maybe Adivion discovers Kendra is also a descendant, as many other GMs have done. A nice unintended consequence to the PCs grabbing Galdana and storing him away is the WW grabs someone the PCs actually care about. Or maybe Adivion decides to pursue consuming the elixir himself as a Plan A, instead of as a last ditch effort as the AP contemplates. Unless you actually really want to do the siege route, I would not let the PCs finding out more than they should have derail the whole AP.

[Voomer]

I missed your note about Kendra in your game, which kind of forecloses one of my suggestions! I guess I also missed that the PCs acquired other Carrion Crown components -- does that mean they actually were ahead of the Way? That does complicate matters.

Given all that, if I were in your position I would probably imagine the WW attack and describe the various combatants, but really focus on figuring out how the Way could get inside (Adivion's and the Grey Friar's magic should do the trick -- for example, Planar Ally spells create lots of possibilities). And then I would focus on the actual encounters comprised of the effort for the Way's sneaky force to try to take the components from the PCs. I would, if I wanted to run the rest of the AP, be tempted to basically set it up so the Way would succeed, but if you're happy to end the AP already then you could just let the chips fall where they may.

Like I said, I can't imagine the Way being able to mount a meaningful direct attack on the type of fortress you describe.