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Erpa's descriptions are handy for my own planning about Camp Red Jaw.
I adapted Trail of the Hunted to Pathfinder 2nd Edition rules, so my party definitely won't attack at night. PF2 darkvision has unlimited range, so the hobgoblins can see fine at night and probably sleep in shifts.
As for poor defense design, I play The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Elder Scrolls Online and the designers in those computer games think that building a camp or city at the base of a cliff is a great defense. Visually, a cliff looks like a wall. However, the player characters are free to jump down the cliff, cast a heal spell (more like a cantrip), and attack the camp. For Camp Red Jaw, the PCs might tie a rope to descend without damage, but it still looks easy.
And visually, running across an open field toward a palisade wall seems like setting oneself up as a moving archery target. The minefield is merely an extra incentive to avoid that hazardous approach. I will follow Erpa's suggestion and put some alarm bombs on the upper perimeter, too.
How did the conversion go? I’m trying to do the same thing right now. Do the 2e monsters translate well? Without a lot of work? Obviously named characters would require work. Curious as to any tips you may have.
How did the conversion go? I’m trying to do the same thing right now. Do the 2e monsters translate well? Without a lot of work? Obviously named characters would require work. Curious as to any tips you may have.Erpa's descriptions are handy for my own planning about Camp Red Jaw.
I adapted Trail of the Hunted to Pathfinder 2nd Edition rules, so my party definitely won't attack at night. PF2 darkvision has unlimited range, so the hobgoblins can see fine at night and probably sleep in shifts.
As for poor defense design, I play The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Elder Scrolls Online and the designers in those computer games think that building a camp or city at the base of a cliff is a great defense. Visually, a cliff looks like a wall. However, the player characters are free to jump down the cliff, cast a heal spell (more like a cantrip), and attack the camp. For Camp Red Jaw, the PCs might tie a rope to descend without damage, but it still looks easy.
And visually, running across an open field toward a palisade wall seems like setting oneself up as a moving archery target. The minefield is merely an extra incentive to avoid that hazardous approach. I will follow Erpa's suggestion and put some alarm bombs on the upper perimeter, too.
Now that I have switched my game to Roll20, I used my Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP 2) skills to alter the map of Camp Redjaw to be atop a bluff rather than down in a ravine.
And I have not used it yet. I have at least two more game sessions (we play once a week on Fridays) before the players consider tackling Camp Redjaw. And I might dismantle the camp before then, due to the impact of the PCs on the Ironfang Legion's plans--and to prevent the PCs from gaining exessive experience points before the next module.
I have been substituting creatures out of PF2 Bestiary 1 for the creatures in Trail of the Hunted. For example, in the troglodyte caves, sections K and L, I substituted Xulgath Warriors for the Troglodytes (PF2 renamed the troglodytes to xulgath), Giant Monitor Lizard for the monitor lizard, Spike Snare for the spear trap. Slurks for the cave fishers, Gelatinous Cube for gelatinous cube, and Skeleton Guards for the derro skeletons. Tonaxian had converted the Stone-Blooded Acolytes, Handiss, and the Crysmal to PF2 (Trail of the Hunted 2e Conversion comment #19) and I used those, except that I leveled Handiss up to 4th level for extra challenge. I dropped the poisonous frogs (they were there, but non-combative) and the darkmantles. I used the PF1 version of shrieker mushrooms rather than the PF2 version, since the PF2 version does not work well as a door alarm. Tonaxian had not converted Ighiz because the oracle class is not yet released in PF2, so I made Ighiz a cleric by converting the Zealot of Asmodeus from the PF2 Gamemastery Guide (page 213) to xulgath species and Stone God worship and Ighiz's spell list.
The one part I could not convert well was the treasure in the Vault of the Excavator. Thus, I just grabbed some treasure from the PF2 Core Rulebook that seemed thematic for that vault.
I need more advance warning to make maps in Roll20 than I previously needed for marker drawings on a playmat. Thus, after the caves, I asked my players where they would go the next week. They assured me that they would go to section I, All-Eyes' Wood, to contact the Chernesardo rangers as Aubrin the Green wanted. Then in that game session two weeks ago, while planning their route to the wood, they said, "We should swing east to Polebridge first."
Polebridge does not exist in the module. When Edran the bard was trying to persuade the party to go east to Tamran, I tried to make his dialog sound realistic. He said, "It is only a day to Polebridge and another day to Minnowville." On the front inside cover of Trail of the Hunted, a creek merges from the north with the Marideth River just half an inch from the right (eastern) edge of the map. I imagined Polebridge to be there, founded around a bridge over that creek.
I quickly pulled a map of a Coastal Town off of 2minutetabletop.com, twice as big as I imagined Polebridge but it had a nice pier-supported bridge. I set up the village as already conquered (the party encountered a family hiding one mile from town), with a hobgoblin roadblock as the bridge. The garrison had at least 11 Hobgoblin Soldiers, 4 Hobgoblin Heavy Troopers (I had adapted those during the invasion of Phaendar), 2 Hobgoblin Archers. Later I added Lieutenant Mean, a 5th-level spriggan based on the spriggans from PF2 Bestiary 2, keeping in the Ironfang Invasion tradition of non-hobgoblin commanders.
My players have been having a ball inventing tactics to defeat a force more powerful than them. They killed off Lieutenant Mean and half the hobgoblins already. They pulled a lot of surprises. For example, when Lieutenant Mean used his spriggan's Blur spell, the party's goblin champion pulled out the Dust of Appearance from L6, Oracle's Lair, page 47-48 of Trail of the Hunted to cancel the blur. I had forgotten about that treasure, but the player hadn't, and it made the treasure seem important.
Strategically, after Lieutenant Scabvistin in Phaendar learns that the garrison in Polebridge has been wiped out by the mysterious group of Chernesardo rangers plaguing his invasion (Aubrin dubbed every party member except the new goblin champion as Chernesardo rangers), he should order Scarvinious’s Camp Red Jaw forces to take over the roadblock until he can set up a new garrison. Thus, I might never use the Camp Red Jaw map.
Honestly, I'd probably just intentionally assume what I did accidentally: the gulley is actually a hillside. Elevating the camp does a lot to increase it's defensibility, and the Ironfang Legion should be competent enough to know that. It still leaves plenty of options for players. Mine knocked out the sentry with the sleep arrows, shelled the camp with AoE spells, and then used the scroll of stone shape to mold a ramp so the cavalier could charge up the western cliff face directly at Scarvinious.
I was always fine with the party's first of many assaults on fortifications having the strategic advantage. My take was that Scarvinious and his followers are cast as fish out water in the forest, reckless and arrogant. Still, I found that the defenses as written are fairly decent, especially if you realistically do patrols fully utilizing scent and darkvision. The sentry tower is the main point of failure in their defenses. My players used a silence spell and 2 climbed up and took out the guards before the spell wore off and they could sound the alarm.
The corollary of this encounter is the assault on Trevalay in Book 2. Here the hobs have exceedingly great defenses, and should know the PCs are coming thanks to Jang's animals. This time they have the forest and terrain on their side, and the PCs face a much tougher challenge and a more true representation of the Legion's power.
This is my first time running a campaign, having played several previously, and it's going pretty good so far. But my players just made an interesting decision I want to capitalize on.
After clearing out the trog caves, they slept outside (and leveled up) and were awoken by Fahrak calling for the troglodytes. They handily defeated him and knocked him unconscious so they could interrogate him. The book says he is more willing to negotiate than the average hobgoblin but I guess I played him a little too likable, because the PCs decided not to kill him after pumping him for info. Obviously they couldn't just let him go, so they decided to keep him locked up in the xiomorn tomb. They left him a week of food (although I doubt they'll be gone a whole week) and used the feather token from Ighiz to tell Aubrin to bring the refugees to the caves while they clear out Camp Red Jaw. They've also bribed Clilassh with some gems to "guard" Fahrak but he doesn't really care.
I figure being stuck in the tomb of a CR 20/Mythic 8 creature for several days to a week might have some long-lasting effects so I'm thinking about applying a template to Fahrak for a surprise when the PCs get back. Just a quick glance over the PFSRD gave me this, but it is third party. I'd be okay using it but was just curious if anyone could think of a more fitting, Paizo-sourced template or a different option. Chthonic or Elemental-Infused (Earth) seem appropriate but not very exciting.
This is my first time running a campaign, having played several previously, and it's going pretty good so far. But my players just made an interesting decision I want to capitalize on.
After clearing out the trog caves, they slept outside (and leveled up) and were awoken by Fahrak calling for the troglodytes. They handily defeated him and knocked him unconscious so they could interrogate him. The book says he is more willing to negotiate than the average hobgoblin but I guess I played him a little too likable, because the PCs decided not to kill him after pumping him for info. Obviously they couldn't just let him go, so they decided to keep him locked up in the xiomorn tomb. They left him a week of food (although I doubt they'll be gone a whole week) and used the feather token from Ighiz to tell Aubrin to bring the refugees to the caves while they clear out Camp Red Jaw. They've also bribed Clilassh with some gems to "guard" Fahrak but he doesn't really care.
I figure being stuck in the tomb of a CR 20/Mythic 8 creature for several days to a week might have some long-lasting effects so I'm thinking about applying a template to Fahrak for a surprise when the PCs get back. Just a quick glance over the PFSRD gave me this, but it is third party. I'd be okay using it but was just curious if anyone could think of a more fitting, Paizo-sourced template or a different option. Chthonic or Elemental-Infused (Earth) seem appropriate but not very exciting.
You certainly could do something like that, but ask yourself: should you? Your players came up with a pretty humane solution instead of being murder hobos. The lesson you're teaching them with this is that doing so is bad and they should just execute every enemy they capture. Maybe you want to run the sort of grimdark, morally imaciating campaign where that is the case. But I'm guessing your players don't, since they didn't just execute the guy.
This is especially important to figure out because this campaign has a lot of opportunities to turn potential opponents into allies, and even has a peaceful negotiation as the "canon" finale.
You certainly could do something like that, but ask yourself: should you? Your players came up with a pretty humane solution instead of being murder hobos. The lesson you're teaching them with this is that doing so is bad and they should just execute every enemy they capture....This is my first time running a campaign, having played several previously, and it's going pretty good so far. But my players just made an interesting decision I want to capitalize on.
After clearing out the trog caves, they slept outside (and leveled up) and were awoken by Fahrak calling for the troglodytes. They handily defeated him and knocked him unconscious so they could interrogate him. The book says he is more willing to negotiate than the average hobgoblin but I guess I played him a little too likable, because the PCs decided not to kill him after pumping him for info. Obviously they couldn't just let him go, so they decided to keep him locked up in the xiomorn tomb. They left him a week of food (although I doubt they'll be gone a whole week) and used the feather token from Ighiz to tell Aubrin to bring the refugees to the caves while they clear out Camp Red Jaw. They've also bribed Clilassh with some gems to "guard" Fahrak but he doesn't really care.
I figure being stuck in the tomb of a CR 20/Mythic 8 creature for several days to a week might have some long-lasting effects so I'm thinking about applying a template to Fahrak for a surprise when the PCs get back. Just a quick glance over the PFSRD gave me this, but it is third party. I'd be okay using it but was just curious if anyone could think of a more fitting, Paizo-sourced template or a different option. Chthonic or Elemental-Infused (Earth) seem appropriate but not very exciting.
That's a fair point. I'm absolutely okay with PCs not murdering everyone they meet and I'm actually very happy things turned out this way. I was thinking Aubrin and the refugees might not be as welcoming towards a member of the group that just destroyed their town. So the options for the PCs are to keep Fahrak hidden somehow or sneak him out and let him go (potentially allowing him to reveal their location to the Ironfang Legion). If the exposure to the Vault Builder transformed him into some crystal creature or something, it would be a lot easier for the PCs to pass him off as some kind of elemental who just happens to look like a hobgoblin and keep him around. Whether he'll be happy about this transformation is another story.
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What if the transformation just turns Fahrak into an immobile but talkative crystal statue? This lets them keep him around as a cloak rack, neutralizes him as a threat, can be concealed from the refugees, and doesn't present the players with a route to a power up. Because if it turns out you can get cool elemental powers by spending a week in that vault, I guarantee at least one PC will try it.
Or you could have him go with Novvi. He should know the punishment that waits for him back in the Legion and may decide that the most expedient action is to help her carry equipment and act as bodyguard as she returns to the Underdark.
You could even have him reappear down the line in book 4 when Novvi pops up again.
Or you could have him go with Novvi. He should know the punishment that waits for him back in the Legion and may decide that the most expedient action is to help her carry equipment and act as bodyguard as she returns to the Underdark.
You could even have him reappear down the line in book 4 when Novvi pops up again.
I like this. Just punish Farhrak by forcing him to be Novvi's pack mule and assistant through her Darklands adventures. They can even meet him again in Book 4 when they take the Long Road. They can see it eating him up inside giving his direct enemy the very tools they will use to take down the Legion. If they get magic armor from Novvi, make sure she orders Fahrak to help the PC don it.
Ended up sending Fahrak off with Novvi. Fahrak seems pretty canny so he would know going back to the Legion after his commanding officer was killed would probably implicate him. Running for Molthune is probably his best bet, but he knows going overland would probably get him caught by the Legion. When Novvi mentioned traveling underground he and the PCs both decided that was his best option - the PCs so the hobgoblin they liked could get out alive, and Fahrak so he could get to Molthune and sell out the location of the PCs. Obviously Novvi isn't guiding him for free so he'll be packmuling for her for a little bit but eventually he'll make it south. Having looked ahead a bit it seems like Molthune makes an appearance later and maybe their favorite goblinoid might show up with them.
... Having looked ahead a bit it seems like Molthune makes an appearance later and maybe their favorite goblinoid might show up with them.
Also looking ahead, 2 main scenarios directly involving Molthune that I can see and I don't think either of them is going to be worried about knowing the PCs' location.
The siege of Kraggodan in Book 4. Molthune are focused on the dwarves and would rather deal with that annoyance quickly due to the growing distraction of the Ironfang moving south and east.
Beginning of Book 6, now that Molthune see Azaersi as a bigger threat, the PCs are more likely to be welcomed (particularly if they have assisted with brokering a solution in Book 4).
If Fahrak is with Molthune and validates the identity of the PCs then I would expect Molthune to thank him, and then lock him up or remove him so that he doesn't complicate things. Quite different from what Fahrak was expecting IMHO.
Is there a typo on the random encounter table, on page 10, should there be an option for a die roll of 6?
That is definitely a typo. My guess is that the table ought to say that the random encounter with an Ironfang scout comes on the rolls of 5-6. The scouts feel more common than bugbears, the roll of 7. Or the 6 could go in a missing entry for encountering an Ironfang heavy trooper, use Kergri’s stats on page 19 like the table on page 12 says.
I didn't use that random encounter table myself. I had organized the spread of the hobgoblin soldiers in a military fashion.
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Greetings,
I have been waiting to run this AP since it came out and finally after numerous delays, I have finally begun. It's been the first one that I could really sink my teeth into.
Someone earlier in the thread commented that they had 6 players, I am currently running with 8 players and me.
Starting classes included:
1) Human Maestro - Interjection Games
2) Oread Protean Scribe - LPJ Design
3) Fetchling Riven Mage - Rogue Genius Games
4) Human Fighter
5) Human Cleric
6) Halfling Druid
7) Dwarf Cleric
8) Human Spell-Less Ranger - Kobold Press
Gave them 1 full day to wander around the festival and the town. Several have connections to the town. Got the players to create a bunch of NPC's and establish their connections. Played up Aubrin to start them in the Inn for when the attack came. Starting them at Spring Equinox and the dark of the moon. When the attack came, they split into two parties to rescue as many as they could. Only one they didn't was Vane Oreld. Since they were split in two groups of four, pretty much ran the encounters as listed. Plus random ones in town. One of the groups made the bridge before the other, and I started the encounter In Media Res, where they had lost a few NPC's totally random selection. A couple of the death's hit the characters hard. Upped the difficulty at the bridge since all 8 were present. They did manage to collapse it with some difficulty, since nothing to blow up the bridge. I had two player's on their last legs after the encounter.
Fled to the forest, they pushed hard and made it fair way into the forest. Overall they escaped with just over 30 refugees. For the forest, I used the hex map that someone made that I found further up the thread and they are using a modified Hexploration rules for this first section. They've found Veld and a few other encounters. They are getting close to the Trog caves so probably next session. They are liking the resource management for the care and feeding of refugees and so far so good. It is going to start to get tight if they don't find the trog caves, but they are getting closer. Hexploration has been a mix of the planned encounters and then I am using Raging Swan's Wilderness Dressing tables to add depth to the forest. That has generated a couple of random encounters as well, a couple of which resulted in a run away and nearly dead result for a couple of the PC's. They are splitting the group into two groups of 4 to fully explore each hex, which has been working pretty well. They are now dealing with the Rogue Hobgoblin slaying an NPC, and we ended with that discovery, last time. About to encounter Orlu. When all 8 PC's are present I have been adding additional creatures to encounters and upping their hit points to max to accommodate the larger party.
Working on planning out the Caves and Camp Red Jaw which I saw folks had posted about above. Going to be reading those for ideas and advice.
Sounds really cool, Sethvir! I really thought that book 1 was a really solid starter for an AP!
8 PCs are definitely going to heavily weigh encounters in the PCs' favour, particularly with 2 clerics, and a fighter, ranger, and druid for melee.
I'm not familiar with the scribe, maestro or riven mage, but any group that can operate as a group rather than just a collection of individuals is likely to do very well.
Use terrain and if enemies escape, have them learn from past encounters, changing up tactics, magical items available, and the like.
This AP can be tailored in many ways depending on gaming style and what your players like. There are heaps of RP and non-violent solutions to encounters available, as well as accommodating more beer & pretzels gamers, or those just looking to hit things.
I'd encourage seeding future things for a better long term playoff.
The way the Ironfang run in book 1 has payoffs at the end of book 2 and through book 3. - and if you want Jang at the end of book 2 to be a bigger player, then have the "forest" spying on the PCs, especially after Camp Redjaw. The odd bit of descriptive text where the forest goes quiet, or someone's high perception role seeing a bird or animal in the distance that looks familiar can definitely pay off (for the right group).
The blight in the Fangwood (first encountered in book 2) gets ramped up in book 5.
Novvi (trog caves in Book 1 and can be off camera in book 2) features in Book 4.
etc.
I would suggest keeping a journal (or maybe giving the scribe that job) as it will be very useful when hitting Kraggodan in Book 4 (and to a smaller extent in Longshadow in Book 3).
Have fun!
Greetings,
I have been waiting to run this AP since it came out and finally after numerous delays, I have finally begun. It's been the first one that I could really sink my teeth into.
Someone earlier in the thread commented that they had 6 players, I am currently running with 8 players and me...
I concur that the nature of this part of the adventure means a party of 8 is going to find the encounters less than trivial. And I mean many of them might find themselves rarely even getting a turn in combat. Until the trog caves, it's wilderness adventure with only one or two encounters each day. My own party of 5 at the time, absolutely demolished these without breaking a sweat. With a party of 8, adventuring days with a handful of encounters will barely scratch their daily resources.
A couple recommendations: First, max out your monster HP for the rest of the adventure. Don't take the recommended average or roll it, just max it. I did this shortly into my run and haven't looked back. My party still mostly crushes encounters, but I at least can get an extra turn in here or there to add a little drama.
Second, use the back of the book bestiary table or even dip into the generic forest ones in the GM tables and bestiaries (can't remember where these are all located). Pad out the adventuring day and tax their resources a bit with 'random' encounters. I pre-roll mine, so I can weave them into the narrative a bit better, so not really random I guess. I used a couple as narrative encounters with skill checks and RP instead of combat. The sunflower leshies and Molthuni scouts in particular.
Final hail mary suggestion: Split them up and run two parties of 4 as god intended. XD
Hey thanks all for the feedback. I have virtually always maxed out hit points just by the nature of the group in general. As noted Hexploration has been in groups of 4 so that has been working well there. I actually had one encounter that went 8 rounds and did tax all 8 players to their fullest. I'll look at the forest encounters a bit more, but the players have been enjoying the Raging Swan descriptive happenings quite a bit and it has generated some good roleplay as well. I need to go reread about Novvi because I don't remember her from Books 2 & 4 at all, but been a while.
I have run some skill checks as well. Will look at maybe some more of those as well.
I appreciate all the suggestions.
Novvi isn't in book 2, but if the refugees are still in Misthome and the encounter with Novvi ended up with her being the source of trading, then the assumption is that she is still trading through book 2 and possibly book 3 until the party gets to Longshadow (just because there aren't really any other alternatives).
Book 4 she is encountered on the Long Walk to Kraggodan.
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Latest update from my campaign, they've cleared a bunch of the Forest encounters, and just last session discovered the Trog Caves. Sunday they will be tackling that. I expect the clearing of the caves to be two or three sessions. Then planning on Fahrak coming after they have taken the caves to lead them into Camp Red Jaw.
So I do have a question and am looking for some suggestions. They found All-Eyes Wood and found the half-burned note. Aubrin was the one that suggested going to look at that location. As I understand it, Aubrin has been to Fort Ristin but doesn't exactly know where it is. In Trail of the Hunted, she directs them to the All-Eyes Wood location then in Fangs of War she admits to knowing about the other forts. How did folks handle this and directing them towards Ristin and Nunder and Trevalay.
Looking at this post it should probably have gone in Fangs of War, but thought I'd ask here to start that prep work for that book.
Thanks.
How did folks handle this and directing them towards Ristin and Nunder and Trevalay.
Aubrin lost her vision well after her days as a Chernasardo Ranger, so likely would have been using woodsigns, ranger markings, and landmarks to find the Forts. Something she is unable to do now.
Our party cleric cured Aubrin's blindness on hitting level 5 (and able to cast the 3rd level spell Remove Blindness). Once she could see again she was able to provide better directions and recognise the signs and markings used by other rangers.I only had her knowing about Ristin. The party rescued Cirieo who knew about the other forts.
I told my players that Aubrin had never visited Forts Ristin, Nunder, and Trevaley. She knew the general direction but worried they would encounter hostile fey if they searched for the forts. She did know the location of the Ranger Outpost in the swamp--I had her call it that since she didn't know about All-Eyes. I guess she visited it once. She hoped that a Chernasardo Ranger there could guide the refugees to a fort.
In retrospect, Fort Ristin is so close to Misthome (future name of the troglodyte caves) that Aubrin knowing where Misthome was located but not knowing that Fort Ristin was nearby was implausible. Fortunately, my players never commented on that.
After the villagers were safely settled in Misthome and the Ironfang Camp Red Jaw defeated, the PCs could afford to search for Fort Ristin. They were strong enough to handle hostiles if they did not have villagers to protect. Aubrin had the direction slightly wrong, so the party found Section E, the Burnt Blind (page 9 of Fangs of War), instead. The wood giant Herge gave them lodging for the night and directed them correctly toward Fort Ristin.
Cirieo Thessadin guided them from Fort Ristin to Fort Nunder. He would have guided them to Fort Trevalay, too, but the party acquired a 7th PC, a leshy sorcerer native to the Chernasardo area, who knew the forest even better than Cirieo.
Alright so latest update from my campaign, is that they have cleared the Trog Caves and have the refugees starting to settle in. I finally figured out how I was going to get them to Fort Ristin after Camp Red Jaw. They encountered a Monthuni patrol, that they also wiped out as on of the players is a former Foxclaw. What they didn't find is the mapping booklet of the patrol that details them following a group of Chernsardo Rangers to Fort Ristin, before the invasion began. They will encounter a second Molthune patrol that retrieved the first parties journal and probably wipe them out as well, and that will lead them to Fort Ristin.
There has been some discussion about restoring Aubrin's vision as well. They also have come up with the idea of the banner on their own, which should come into play this week as well.
I anticipate that we will be starting with the milita's this week as well. All told things are going well. As noted above I have increased the encounter difficulties because I generally have 7 or 8 players each week. For the Oracle's lair, I added two additional regular trogs and maxed hit points on all and added a second Acolyte. We went 7 rounds, that lasted for the better part of two hours last week. Dropped two players to unconsciousness, and a couple more to within 5 or 6 of that state. Not a TPK but a tough fight for them nonetheless.
Encounter with Fahrak is this week and some missed wilderness encounters, and probably scouting Red Jaw for assault next week.
Looks like the Ironfang has been a little slow the last couple of months. We've actually been on a hiatus for 5 weeks due to a number of factors. Anticipate starting back this Sunday again.
However I did run into a question about the militia and teams that I am hoping that someone can give me some insight into what they did.
Specifically my question is how large or small are militia teams supposed to be? Is there an optimal size. If NPC's are assigned to a team then are they not always present at the camp? And for the Igral's Axe group that the PC's may acquire in Fangs of War I think, how large a team is that or how did you decide how many individuals were assigned to the group?
From a game perspective, the group took out Fahrak and acquired the mpa have have had the two stealthiest start to scout the area around the ravine. Great stealth checks moving through the area. Avoided patrols and avoided being seen by the watchtower. They are planning to try to charm the watchtower denizens and learn more about the camp and the troop disbursement, which of course they are lowly hobgoblins so they don't know much. I expect that overcoming Camp Red Jaw is probably going to take the next two 4-hour sessions. Since I generally have 8 players, I have upgraded the numbers, the hit points and advanced some of the residents of the camp in preparation. Should be a good fight I hope.
Looking forward to some input on my questions above. Thanks in advance.
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Looks like the Ironfang has been a little slow the last couple of months. We've actually been on a hiatus for 5 weeks due to a number of factors. Anticipate starting back this Sunday again.
However I did run into a question about the militia and teams that I am hoping that someone can give me some insight into what they did.
...
Looking forward to some input on my questions above. Thanks in advance.
depends how much you like bookkeeping.
I handwaved the militia subsystem. Really didn't need it.
After my players worked out the survival tasks for the refugees when they first hit Fangwood they showed little interest in ongoing management tasks.
When we got to whether or not to introduce the militia system I gave the players the choice, as they would be required to do the paperwork.
It was essentially delegated to Aubrin and Cireo and later included Cobb.
If something was needed it was handled off camera.
For the attack on Camp Red Jaw I had a group of refugees providing missile coverage and attacking some returning patrols while the PCs did the main encounters. Same for Fort Trevalay, with a support group staying outside the fort and covering the paths in and providing warnings if they saw anything.
Thanks Erusbo.
There are several folks in the group that like the resource management aspect of the game. They've been managing the resource allocation for keeping everyone fed and figuring out how many provisions they have. I gave them the choice about using the system or not before we started the campaign and those folks were up for it.
For the campaign management, I am using a campaign manager which should stream line a lot of the team and militia management. Once they get through Fangs of War, the players will probably move out of the officer roles and replace them with NPC's.
Thanks for the ideas for the Camp Red Jaw as well.
Edit: Regarding team size it is specified in the Teams info in Lands of Conflict. Apparently I can't read. Sigh.
However I did run into a question about the militia and teams that I am hoping that someone can give me some insight into what they did.
Specifically my question is how large or small are militia teams supposed to be? Is there an optimal size. If NPC's are assigned to a team then are they not always present at the camp? And for the Igral's Axe group that the PC's may acquire in Fangs of War I think, how large a team is that or how did you decide how many individuals were assigned to the group?
The footprint size of a troop is on page 76 of Trail of the Hunted:
A single troop occupies a 20-foot-by-20-foot square, equal in size to a Gargantuan creature, though the actual size category of the troop is the same as that of the component creatures. The area occupied by a troop is completely shapable (as per a similar spell effect), though the troop must remain in contiguous squares to accurately reflect the teamwork of trained military units. A troop has a reach equal to that of the component creatures given their size and armament. A troop can move through squares occupied by enemies and vice versa without impediment, although the troop provokes attacks of opportunity if it does so. A troop can move through any area large enough for its component creatures.
If by size Sethvir means the number of individuals in the troop, the CR of a militia is more important. Thus, the breakdown of an Ironfang Legion Hobgoblin Troop, CR 6, page 77 of Trail of the Hunted, should consist of individual hobgoblin soliders whose CR adds up to 6, such as twelve Ironfang Recruits, CR 1/2, or three Hobgoblin Sergeants, CR 2. Though three sergents filling a 16-square space would be weird, but even a dozen Ironfang Recruts don't fill that space, either.
James Jacobs, creative director of Paizo, has explained that any encounter with enemies is only a snapshot of the enemies' life. The militia all together and the militia broken down are two different snapshots and would be prepared as two different encounters that are alternatives to each other. Thus, the abilities or even the species don't have to match perfectly. The players will see only one snapshot.
I have been using troops in my campaign, but I converted Ironfang Invasion to Pathfinder 2nd Edition, so I had to create my own custom units. I grouped 4 1st-level Hobgoblin Soldiers into a 10-foot-by-10-foot 5th-level unit named Hobgoblin Troop and later grouped 16 Hobgoblin Soldiers into a 20-foot-by-20-foot unit 9th-level Hobgoblin Formation. The challenge rating (called Encounter Budget in Pathfinder 2nd Edition) system becomes inaccurate at more than 4 levels below the level of the party, so I stopped using 1st-level Hobgoblin Soldiers when the party reached 6th level. But I wanted to give the impression that the Ironfang Legion's army still consisted mostly of 1st-level soldiers rather than high-level elite forces, so I used troops that I pretended were made of 1st-level soldiers. They never broke down into their individuals. I also made a high-speed militia of goblins riding wolves and a high-damage militia of minotaurs for the assault on Longshadow, which happened at 10th level.
I don't recognize the reference to "Igral's Axe group." My players skipped some content, so I won't have the skipped material memorized. A word search on "Igral" and on "Axe" in my PDFs of Trail of the Hunted and Fangs of War did not find anything that seemed relevant. Could you provide a page number?