Is food a problem at this point? Can't Novvi bring in enough food every week to feed 30-forty people for 7 days or so? The party can definitely afford it.
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I'm pretty much handwaving the provision point stuff going in to Book 2. You collect more than enough provisions during the course of Book 1. Supplementing it with livestock, hunting/foraging had my group breaking even on provision points, and more often than not, building up a surplus.
After moving into the Trog caves, the group has unlimited fresh water and the mushrooms provide a significant buffer for your provisions. The people of Phaendar are industrious and inventive. It's what they're known for and the reason the market festival happens there in the first place - they are the most skilled craftspeople in the region.
Keeping that in mind, every time my PCs leave the caves to explore and adventure in the forest, the villagers are building up the settlement "offscreen". So when my party returned from raiding Camp Red Jaw, they found the villagers had tilled a section of the clearing outside and planted a garden, set up racks for curing meat and drying mushrooms, set traps (the PCs had disarmed and recovered the bear traps at Keloch's cabin) in the nearby woods, and so on.
I'm also going to start using the Militia rules in Book 2 and see how that goes. This could allow the PCs to use the militia to trade with local settlements for non-perishables and luxury goods (among other things) from places like Crystalhurst and beyond.
My group is now officially, fully in to Book 2 content. Got our militia up and running. The PCs are now officers in their rank 2 militia: The Gobstoppers.
After a good amount of logistics, including buying and selling with Novvi and the other NPCs, the PCs finally set out for some adventuring. Their main goals are keeping the area around Misthome secure and making contact with the Rangers. All they know now is the limited info Aubrin has to share: she briefly trained at Ristin, but like all new recruits, she was blindfolded to keep the location secret. All she can tell them is it's "somewhere north of here, I think".
The PCs come across the first pair of owlbears about a day's journey from Misthome harassing who else but our porcine hero Gashmaw. The PCs manage to literally wrassle and hog tie the pig before making short work of the owlbears. After managing to recover the ring from Gashmaw's tusk, and calming the enraged animal, they discover the owlbears' trail leading in an oddly straight line leading back to the north.
We'll pick up there next time, most likely leading to the trapped logger encounter.
My group is now officially, fully in to Book 2 content. ...
There can be a big gobbo-gap in Book 2 with focus on the fey then trolls (except for encounter C) before getting back to the Ironfang Legion at Trevalay. I seeded a lot of patrol trails that the party could follow, until they hit rocky ground or another encounter to help lead them to other areas. Damage to the forest caused by the hobgoblins helped make encounter E not look like an isolated act and also tied in to encounter G. If I had my time again I might have added more signs of fungus and pre-blight as a foreshadow to book 5.
Treating it more as a hunting exercise - flipped from Book 1 - with the party now hunting the hobgoblins helped ramp up the excitement for Trevalay, especially after arriving too late to deal with hobgoblins at Ristin and Nunder. The party felt they now finally had the chance to do a major strike back for Fangwood, not just for the Phaenderites (as they got at Camp Red Jaw).
The hobgoblins throughout Book 2 are also going to be noticeably more comfortable in the Fangwood thanks to Jang's forest wisdom and knowledge of the terrain (despite the notable exception at Ristin). Vardalel the elven logger will tell the PCs how he had a bird's eye view of the Ironfang forest prowlers expertly ambushing a group of rangers near his tree.
My plan is to have astute PCs notice animals watching them throughout Book 2, increasing in frequency as they near Trevalay. Animal servants/messengers of Parthuk and Jang.
So, while the PCs have a big chance to strike a serious blow to the Legion, they are also finally getting noticed in a more significant way by Ironfang leadership. The failure of Scarvinious and Red Jaw could be written off as a bungled operation by a single officer, embarrassing but not strategically significant. I suspect taking down Trevalay, Jang, and the dragon would put the PCs on Azaersi's radar for the first time.
(And that's where the medium and gunslinger from the back of the book come in... >:D)
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PCs arrived at Fort Ristin and made their entrance to the Revel. After a failed diplomacy, a decent intimidate, and an incredible bluff check, they managed to convince the two korred guards stationed at the hole in the wall that they had been personally invited (they knew Halk's name from a previous encounter with korreds in the Fangwood).
They enter and see the debauched scene in the courtyard. Before they can decide what to do next, the doors to the balcony bust open and Halk himself staggers drunkenly to the railing and blows a horn. He declares a new cask opened up along with a new hobgoblin to raucous cheering. A few moments later, the door to the northwest tower opens and several redcaps drag out a hobgoblin and toss him onto the packed dirt where he starts to feebly crawl away. The korreds swarm him like sharks, bashing him with their clubs. Moments later, the hapless hob is strung upside down with his throat slit, dousing a boulder with its lifeblood. Halk gives a hearty guffaw and orders the revel to continue.
At this point he notices the PCs standing near the wine cart. He squints at them blearily from the upper balcony, saying he doesn't remember inviting them, but concedes that he doesn't remember a lot of things since the Revel began. He mutters to himself, confused and staggers back inside, slamming the door.
... They enter and see the debauched scene in the courtyard. ...
love the set piece. well done.
I'm mentally going to have a hard time with the fey captured fort. We REALLY recently played council of thieves, which also has a bunch of red cap fey and attackers. Feels real... Boring to repeat. Not sure what I'll do once this becomes my party's objective. Maybe just a complete overhaul of the fey there. My PCs will be about...5-6 level when they get to this one,I believe.
Ristin seems like a great opportunity to really create distinctions between the different Fey. Redcaps vs. korreds vs. leprechaun. None of them trust each other, but they all want to keep the party going for one reason or another. I'm planning to lean in to the weirdness and try to foster an unsettling vibe in the fort. Besides all the bloodthirsty Fey, you also have a spooky ghost and Billie's bizarre experiments.
It also kinda hammers home the point of how important the rangers are to the Chernasardo region even without the Ironfang Legion bearing down. Even in the best of times,the rangers are the last line of defense between the civilized world and debauched fey madness.
I think it also helps to view Ristin as a powder keg ready to blow and the PCs are the spark.
The redcaps are panicking because they killed all the hobgoblins, and their leader is ready to enact a coup on Halk at her first chance.
Other Fey are lurking around hoping to curry favor with the First Drinker.
The leprechauns are even more motivated by liquor than the korreds, and only want to drink. But they are too cowardly to openly defy Halk, and enlist the PCs to do their dirty work.
Bristle Billie is apparently too unpredictable and dangerous even for other Fey, and his obscene experiments have the less severely inebriated fey on edge.
And most of them think Halk will reward them in one way or another for killing or capturing the PCs.
... Anyone have any thoughts?
Answered in the How are your APs doing? thread. :-)
Party is approaching Fort Nunder this session. They've been making quite a bit of noise in the Fangwood, and now Jang's animals have started spying on the PCs.
To that end, Nunder will have a heads up they are coming. Ibzairiak and Jang had learned that Nunder was all but destroyed by the trolls, and issued an ultimatum: "the Legion's enemies are coming, hold the fort at any cost. If you are unable, they will surely save us the trouble of killing you ourselves!"
Taking it a step further, and to add a bit more challenge as my 5-man party is stomping most encounters. After defeating the trolls and exploring the vault, I think I will have a hobgoblin patrol be waiting in ambush when the PCs reemerge from the vault.
I'll use the Ironfang forest patrol from the B2 bestiary, with a twist. Jang herself will be there. Been trying to find a way to have Jang and Ibzairiak appear somehow and make an impression on the PCs. Cirieo's retelling of the Siege of Ristin did a lot to impress how dangerous the dragon is, but the dragon and the trolls kind of overshadowed the mention of forest animals during the siege.
Anyway, to this end, Jang will show up with Ruanni + other random animals. The PCs will see Jang and pets not getting along particularly well with the rest of the hobgoblins, and if they're smart, exploit this division. Hob patrol will attack with Jang supporting with her magic from further away. I'll let the team deal with the hobgoblin patrol, but once the tide turns against the enemies, Jang will immediately wildshape and flee while taunting the party, daring them to find Trevalay and face the Legion at the heart of their power in the Fangwood.
... my 5-man party is stomping most encounters.
my 4-person party has been doing the same, but I have found that the encounters they struggle most with are those where environment control limits their mobility (especially if the same restrictions don't apply to the opposition) or where enchantments or some other effect takes some of the characters out of the fight (fear, confusion, paralysis). While it sucks for the player(s) of the affected PC(s) at the time, as long as it doesn't happen all the time it makes for a nice curve-ball to throw at the party. Swarms or other creatures that are immune or hard to damage with their favourite attacks are also a nice challenge.
Been adding monsters at max HP as a rule since the Trog caves. Often I'll combine written encounters with the back-of-book bestiary encounters to up the CR and/or add more interest.
Changed the layout of Fort Nunder just a bit. Per the book the Nunder Scarp rises another measly 10 feet over the roof of the fort. When my players arrived at the east side of the hill I described a steep rise going up due west and troll tracks leading around to the south. The party opted to scale the hill, so at the top, I had the hill actually overhang the fort and they repelled down with the 4-armed eidolon holding the rope. I made it a 30 foot drop from the ledge to the walltop of the fort.
Most of them made it down safe and sound when one of the trolls in the courtyard got a high enough perception roll and noticed the little rats scurrying along the walls. They downed 2 of the trolls, and we ended on a cliffhanger with Nashgra emerging from her chamber, drawing a wand. There is also a conspicuous pile of fetid pink goo in one corner of the courtyard: Nashgra's melted dad.
Going into Trevalay, here's some random thoughts to flesh out the sequence.
- Firstly, a sisterhood of anhanas thank the party for killing Kallikros the chimera by using their Speak with Water ability to inform the PCs of the defunct well shaft, as well as the deadly predators who stalk the bottom of the gorge.
- I've decided that Parthuk shall be henceforth known as "Pretty" Parthuk. He was bullied and teased by his fellow trolls for his feminine features (will show his portrait to the party for emphasis at this point). It wasn't until he found the headband of charisma that things changed for him. He essentially took over his tribe before growing bored leading the stupid brutes around. He soon became friends with Jang, and when the Ironfang Legion entered the Fangwood and put Jang in charge, she brought Pretty Parthuk along for the ride.
- Ibzairiak's jaw injury was inflicted by a lucky shot from Cirieo's sling staff during the Siege of Ristin, rather than the mercenary group described in Ibz's background. So he might try to end Cirieo right in front of the party.
- The monk twins fight in the tower will be augmented with the return of Fethi Ken-Shakkas, hobgoblin monk from the Fangwood Keep module.
-Having already killed Ruanni the cougar, the party has the bereaved druid Jang on their radar. She will have another cougar companion ready for their encounter, but she won't forget their "crime against the beasts of the Fangwood". Presumably, by the time the PCs face Jang, they will have had to defeat a number of animals (roc, dire weasel, cougar), and she'll try and guilt trip them for animal cruelty.
-Once the PCs enter the tower, a siege will commence in the outer courtyard/surrounding forest involving allies of the PCs and the scattered Chernasardo rangers vs. hobgoblins and other monsters.
-Looking for ways to make Salokut and Eygara more distinct and memorable, so any suggestions welcome!
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Refining a few of these points. I had Ruanni the cougar actually resurrected. Jang is powerful enough to cast Reincarnate, and it made sense for her to return to the scene of the crime some days later to bring back her "sister". I also used this as another wedge between Jang and the Ironfang hobgoblins since she had to raid the hobgoblin payroll to pay for the components.
While the main party is engaged with Jang and the dragon, there will be a B combat in the courtyard below. Cobb Greenleaf, Cirieo, and Aubrin will be present plus a couple of druids from Crystalhurst (Archdruid Aspen Zora and Protector Orada from the Crystalhurst section in Lands of Conflict). This courtyard battle will involve another group of Forest Soldiers and Lieutenants led by Fethi Ken-Shakkas.
I'm hoping for a memorable yet chaotic set piece battle to cap off Book 2. Wish me luck!
[...] Wish me luck!
good luck!
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Ended on our wildest cliffhanger yet, round 7 of combat in the Dragon's Garden. Jang has fallen, the lizards are dead, but Ibzairiak has joined the battle and things have taken a dire turn. The rogue is unconscious, the eidolon is on his last legs, the kineticist can't get through the dragon's spell resistance, and Ibz has a full attack on his next turn. I'm nervous, is this the TPK I've always dreamed of?? >:D
So uh. Is it just me or do the Chernasardo Rangers just kinda suck? Like they got a lot of hype but the things that they have apparently been taken out by in this book just dont really paint the best picture of them. Not to mention how weak the survivors are. Like first part of book 2 has you find bodies of them that were slaughtered for sport by anything from like CR3 hobs to freakin oversized vermin. They're supposed to be an elite guerilla fighting force fighting on their own turf.
So uh. Is it just me or do the Chernasardo Rangers just kinda suck? Like they got a lot of hype but the things that they have apparently been taken out by in this book just dont really paint the best picture of them. Not to mention how weak the survivors are. Like first part of book 2 has you find bodies of them that were slaughtered for sport by anything from like CR3 hobs to freakin oversized vermin. They're supposed to be an elite guerilla fighting force fighting on their own turf.
When my players rescued the prisoners in Fort Trevalay on page 49, they found Cobb Greenleaf (CR 6 Chernasardo archer), 4 Chernasardo rangers (CR 2 each), and 9 Chernasardo recruits (CR 1/2 each). The text says that the higher-level Chernasardo rangers were killed off. Nevertheless, that is a high ratio of raw recruits that survived.
Thus, I decided in my headcanon that Fort Trevalay was a training camp that consisted mostly of fresh-off-the-farm recruits.
Also, the location of the three forts was odd. They were hidden in the Fangwood where Molthune did not attack. These locations might have been important for the civil war that split Nirmathis off from Molthune 62 years ago, but now the forts are too far from the border.
Those forts are obsolete. Fort Trevalay was repurposed for training. Fort Nunder was merely a guardhouse for an armory. Since Fort Ristin had the ghost of a wine merchant, I decided that it had been repurposed as a supply depot.
In my new view of Nirmathis, none of those forts were active bases for elite Chernasardo guards. They were not up to fighting a CR 10 dragon backed up by Ironfang military. They could have saved Phaendar or Redburrow from a small invasion army, but would have been little compared to the upcoming assault on Longshadow.
My players are in the midst of Fort Ristin and are taking a slightly different route than the book suggests. They cleared out the leprechaun tower and coerced them at swordpoint convinced them to convert the cold iron horseshoes from the stable, the cold iron scraps from the trap downstairs, and some other cold iron from earlier in the AP into weapons they can use. They then entered the keep and decided to investigate the one-legged halfling they heard about in the dungeon. They killed Linder Largehands and freed Cirieo. After he gave them the infodump about Ibzariak and the anti-dragon gear at Fort Nunder, my PCs were anxious to clear out Fort Ristin so they could go kill a dragon. For some reason, they decided that korreds considered their hair sacred, so they shaved Linder's body and are planning to display him from the balcony to scare off the remaining fey. (Side note - I'm sure this will work. If someone dangled a naked man from a balcony at a party, I would leave that party.) They headed upstairs and overheard Halk and the spriggans and decided to fight him. They've downed one of the spriggans and I'm pretty sure they're going to kill Halk. So, my question - what happens if they kill Halk and tell everyone else "party's over"? Obviously the korreds in the courtyard clear out but I don't want to just empty out the fort. The ghost and Bristle Billie will remain probably and I don't think the atomies were going to be very intimidating anyway. I do really want to run the redcaps though but I'm not sure whether they would stick around if the Revel is over. Dearga basically wants to replace Halk as Head Reveler but if there's no Revel she doesn't really have a reason to stick around. If Halk manages to not die in the next round I'm thinking about having him run upstairs, head for the balcony (and rope in the ohancanu along the way) before calling for help and feather-falling to safety. Dearga could swoop in with her potion of fly and then all hell breaks loose. I don't want a TPK though and I'm worried about throwing too much at my players. Of course, it's pretty likely they kill Halk and can clear the fort at their own pace, but then the question of who stays and who goes remains. Thoughts?
...Thoughts?.
As you said, Dearga is looking for an excuse to take over the Revel. The Revel can continue as long as there is alcohol and blood. Most of the fey will just watch the fighting as long as they can keep drinking. The redcaps could see that Halk is in trouble and come and help the PCs take out Halk, before turning on the PCs.
If it is looking like a TPK then a sense motive check could determine that shouting out where the booze is would direct attention from the PCs to a race for the bottles (even if the party bluffs the wrong location). This could be the time needed for the PCs to regroup.If you can seed in negotiation and diplomacy as valid options, then it will set things up nicely for Book 5 and Book 6 (as well as numerous parts of Book 3 and 4).
They have a CL of the minimum CL needed to cast the spell.
Acid Arrow (cl-3)
Burning Hands (cl-1)
Magic Weapon (cl-1)
Reduce Animal (cl-3)
Stinking Cloud (cl-5)
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Any wand / potion / scroll listed as treasure that has been crafted at a higher caster level will have the CL specified. Otherwise as Grumpus said it is always the minimum required.
You are free to change it if you want.
I'm confused about what the militia is supposed to be doing during this book. Whether or not you're using the subsystem, the PCs are still working with a group of warriors wanting to defend their homeland. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to bring their militia to attack the keeps, rather than doing everything themselves?
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I'm confused about what the militia is supposed to be doing during this book. Whether or not you're using the subsystem, the PCs are still working with a group of warriors wanting to defend their homeland. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to bring their militia to attack the keeps, rather than doing everything themselves?
They aren't warriors wanting to defend their homeland. They are displaced villagers trying to stay alive and make a living (which sometimes means taking up arms to defend / protect themselves or harry an enemy in the hope that they go away).
Bringing the refugees along to fights that aren't directly involving them will likely get many of them killed - which wouldn't help the PCs' reputation.
If you want to keep them involved then use them as scouts and messengers.
But, it's your game, so if the players want to build their own army rather than be the strikeforce themselves then go ahead.
pi4t, I see three possible meanings for the word 'militia" in your question, and your similar question on October 3, 2021 does not narrow down the meaning. Therefore, I will answer the question three times, each time for a different meaning of militia.
1. Militia could mean the defenses of an individual town such as Phaendar or Radya's Hollow. For example, when the Ironfang Legion invaded Phaendar at the beginning of Trail of the Hunted, the villagers needed to defend themselves from the invaders.
Trail of the Hunted presents the villagers of Phaendar as surprised and incompetent, so only a few individuals, such as the party members, put up a defense. This can be partially excused because Phaendar was sufficiently far from the Molthune border that any Molthune raids on them would be a small fast unit designed to harass Phaendar rather than conquer it.
However, my players hate rescuing clueless idiots, so I rewrote the defenses of Phaendar. They immediately organized themselves into defensive groups of armed villagers fighting for their village. As part of their civil defense plan, villagers too young, elderly, or sich to fight, mothers of young children, and visitors such as traders and messengers would be evacuated over the north bridge to hide in goat pastures. The party members were mostly visitors, but the elf ranger Zinfandel was a ranger trainee studying under Aubrin the Green. Aubrin asked Zinfandel to help evacuate the helpless, and when Aubrin realized that the Ironfang army was too big to stop, asked him to blow up the bridge and protect the refugees.
2. Militia could mean the national defenses of Nirmathas. The YouTube video Pathfinder Regional Deepdive: Molthune and Nirmathas by Mythkeeper has a great line: "The government of Nirmathas is best described as a lack thereof." Nirmathas is a loosely united anarchy. Its national militias are independent groups of volunteers: the Chernasardo Rangers, Irgal's Axes, and the Foxgloves. The Chernasardo Rangers are the defenders of the region covered in Trail of the Hunted and Fangs of War. The main plot of Fangs of War is discovering why the Chernasardo Rangers never showed up to defend Phaendar. The answer is that the Ironfang Legion took them out first. The legion had discovered the locations of the secret Chernasardo forts and attacked them beforehand. Since the forts were secret, no-one learned that in time to inform Irgal's Axes and the Foxgloves.
When my party freed some Chernasardo recruits held prisoner in Fort Trevalay, they left those recruits to hold the fort. However, they later send a message to them to ask them come to Longshadow to help defend that city. Thus, those militia did serve to defend against the Ironfang Legion.
3. Militia could mean the militia units described in the section IRONFANG LEGION TROOPS on pages 76-79 in the Ironfang Legion Toolbox article in Trail of the Hunted. Those militia units work for the Ironfang Legion and are barely used in the Ironfang Invasion adventure path. I remember one Hobgoblin Troop in Sergeant Dargg's army on page 18, a Grenadier Troop at the river crossing on page 39, and a Hobgoblin Phalanx Troop in Ecru on page 41 of Assault on Longshadow. More Hobgoblin Phalanxes and a Warmaze Disciple Troop were besieging the city of Longshadow on pages 47 and 52.
I'm confused about what the militia is supposed to be doing during this book. Whether or not you're using the subsystem, the PCs are still working with a group of warriors wanting to defend their homeland. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to bring their militia to attack the keeps, rather than doing everything themselves?They aren't warriors wanting to defend their homeland. They are displaced villagers trying to stay alive and make a living (which sometimes means taking up arms to defend / protect themselves or harry an enemy in the hope that they go away).
Sigh, I was confused by three possible meanings of "militia," and erucsbo finds a fourth meaning, that pi4t might think that the refugees evacuated from Phaendar are a militia. I didn't even think of that one, because I had made clear in my campaign that the refugees were the people who could not fight. Nevertheless, some of the children in their young teens did pick up swords and armor from defeated Ironfang patrols and start to train with them. They did not have time to become good with those weapons.
Sigh, I was confused by three possible meanings of "militia," and erucsbo finds a fourth meaning, that pi4t might think that the refugees evacuated from Phaendar are a militia. ...I'm confused about what the militia is supposed to be doing during this book. Whether or not you're using the subsystem, the PCs are still working with a group of warriors wanting to defend their homeland. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to bring their militia to attack the keeps, rather than doing everything themselves?They aren't warriors wanting to defend their homeland. They are displaced villagers trying to stay alive and make a living (which sometimes means taking up arms to defend / protect themselves or harry an enemy in the hope that they go away).
<grin>
Having a look back through Fangs of War, particularly p54, IMHO the PCs have a choice. Spend time training up the Misthome refugees into a militia (and supplementing with the other recruits mentions (most of whom are not available until after the forts have been liberated)), or move quickly before the Ironfang further strengthens their position.
Thanks for the detailed response. Mathmuse has guessed the interpretation I meant. I was referring to the "tiny, scrappy band of farmers-turned-warriors" (player's guide) living in Misthome (later Fort Trevalay) who are commanded by the PCs, and who may optionally be represented by the "militia" system.
These aren't described in the text of the adventures as helpless refugees who need protecting. They're described as "farmers-turned-warriors", as "soldiers in a young militia" (Trail of the Hunted); they think of themselves as "adventurers" or "freedom fighters" rather than "survivors of a violent attack", and they are "a military force to be reckoned with" by the end of Fangs of War. The official campaign description says that the "small band of refugees [will] grow into champions and push back against Azaersi's horde".
You certainly could run things saying that they're all helpless refugees and the campaign is about keeping them alive. In many ways, that would actually fit the adventures in the campaign better. And obviously, there will be some people like that - children, the elderly, and so on. But the writers seem to expect there to also be a core of competent characters who are actually going out and fighting back in various ways.
More importantly, that's how I ended up pitching the campaign to my group - leading a band of freedom fighters hiding in the wood, not babysitting a bunch of helpless survivors. So I kind of have to include that element in the story somehow. And if they are a bunch of freedom fighters, then they need to be doing some actual, erm, freedom fighting. Which leads to the question of whether the PCs should keep going out alone to attack entire fortresses and suchlike, or whether the militia should be involved; and if so, how to handle that.
...
These aren't described in the text of the adventures as helpless refugees who need protecting.
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Don't get me wrong, they aren't helpless nor need protecting. Nirmathi pride themselves on being self-sufficient and capable of defending themselves, but there is a difference between guerilla tactics that they are used to using against Molthuni - cutting supply lines and generally making things uncomfortable to invaders until they leave - versus acting as an organised force against superior defences set up by invaders who are intent on staying.
The shift from that to an organised fighting force starts in Fangs of War.
Thanks for the detailed response. Mathmuse has guessed the interpretation I meant. I was referring to the "tiny, scrappy band of farmers-turned-warriors" (player's guide) living in Misthome (later Fort Trevalay) who are commanded by the PCs, and who may optionally be represented by the "militia" system.
That was more erucsbo's guess than mine. I have not looked at the Ironfang Invasion Player's Guide since character creation, so I had forgotten it contained a few pages on the militia system.
However, in Assault on Longshadow the PCs had to convince the city government of Longshadow (hm, Longshadow is more organized than the rest of Nirmathas) that the Ironfang Invasion is a serious threat. After they succeeded, Mayor Thom Crawbert gave them a line of credit for 2,000 gp (er, that's PF2 gold pieces, so more like 10,000 gp in PF1 currency) for city improvements. In addition to repairing the city wall, hiring smiths to replace the wooden gates of the city with iron gates, and eliminating the haunts in Cerisum Manor to use the place as refugee housing, the PCs also recruited citizens to train as militia. I created a militia unit called Longshadow Archers. Each player got to run a Longshadow Archers unit in addition to their regular player character. Assault on Longshadow was written so that most of the Longshadow battle occurred off-scene, but my players prefer to be more involved, so I ran the entire gigantic battle. Each round of battle took 2 hours.
When the players left Longshadow for the next module, the militias remained to defend Longshadow and named themselves the Iron Gates in honor of the battle against the Ironfang Legion. The players would have been unhappy about leaving Longshadow without defenses; instead, they were proud that they had prepared Longshadow to defend itself.
Don't get me wrong, they aren't helpless nor need protecting. Nirmathi pride themselves on being self-sufficient and capable of defending themselves, but there is a difference between guerilla tactics that they are used to using against Molthuni - cutting supply lines and generally making things uncomfortable to invaders until they leave - versus acting as an organised force against superior defences set up by invaders who are intent on staying.These aren't described in the text of the adventures as helpless refugees who need protecting.
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Likewise, the children, mothers, and elderly in my refugee band could not fight, but they could march through the forest, set up camp, prepare food, and keep watch at night so that the PCs could sleep. I could have played the game differently, so that the PCs needed to babysit them, but that would have slowed down the exciting parts of the campaign. The PCs had also rescued Aubrin the Green and the temple assistant Rhyna (whom I made a 1st-level oracle), so they had two people who could fight and would protect the refugees at a well-hidden camp while the party scounted ahead. Whenever the PCs have a dramatic success--for example, the rescue of Aubrin whom I expected to die defending the bridge when it blew up--I reward them by making life easier on them.
Thinking further, I realized that what my players did after Longshadow provides the answer to pi4t's question, "Wouldn't it make more sense for them to bring their militia to attack the keeps, rather than doing everything themselves?"
Imagine that the Phaendar refugees had some able-bodied adults that the PCs trained into a militia unit at Phaendar. The militia system provides a way for those barely-trained villagers to operate at the same level as the PCs, for easier encounter design for the GM. Great so far.
Does the GM leave the encounters in Fangs of War at the same difficulty? If the GM does, then combat will be a little less thrilling due to the reduced risk. My players love to invent clever tactics to beat the odds. On the other hand, if the GM raises the difficulty to compensate for the extra unit, then the combat has the same risk and thrill, but will take longer.
Also, who runs the militia? I find battle between a friendly NPC and a hostile NPC to be boring to run. I presume the battle is boring to watch, too. Friendly NPCs are more fun for the players in a support or healer role, but a militia equipped with weapons looted from an Ironfang patrol will be equipped for combat rather than support. Perhaps a player could take over the militia as a second character, but a player who wanted to play a wizard or a rogue might not be interested in taking on a martial character. And level progression of a militia unit will be weird.
The PCs would love safe and boring battles, but the players themselves want excitement. Thus, we end up with what my players did: the PCs trained the NPCs, the NPCs demonstrated their good training to make the players proud, and then the party left the NPCs behind (to protect the town or some other excuse) to avoid slowing down the game.
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The PCs would love safe and boring battles, but the players themselves want excitement. Thus, we end up with what my players did: the PCs trained the NPCs, the NPCs demonstrated their good training to make the players proud, and then the party left the NPCs behind (to protect the town or some other excuse) to avoid slowing down the game.
Similar here though I think my players just want to kill and loot so will take any opportunity to have their characters do it (though surprisingly they have managed a few encounters recently through diplomacy - not with the Ironfang though).
At the end of Trail and Fangs while some of the PCs were doing crafting, the fighter and rogue helped train up refugees (as warriors and scouts).Aubrin and then Cirieo were pretty much left as the militia leaders for off-camera stuff while Cobb rebuilt the Rangers.
In Assault on Longshadow I had a contingent of Rangers and militia leave Fangwood to come to Longshadow while the rest continued to look after the forts and Misthome. Those that came were put in charge of the Longshadow recruits that had been trained up by the fighter and rogue while the other PCs were doing other defense work. When it got to the actual battle my players weren't as interested in leading groups like Mathmuse's, but more acting as the strike force for the big events.
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My game is currently 2/3 of the way through Fangs of War; most has gone according to the book - though during the assault on Fort Ristin, one of the PCs was killed during the fight with Halk. They'd left the refugees behind in Misthome, so not only were they not able to raise the PC, but finding a new level-appropriate random non-hobgoblin in the area was a bit of a stretch. That PC was a druid from Crystalhurst originally - who hadn't told the others about Crystalhurst, but we handwaved it a bit that they found mention of Crystalhurst in his diary, so they made a beeline for the town, and got him Reincarnated (as a half-orc, instead of a dwarf) - which was the only option in town with a 7th level Druid and no appropriate Clerics. It also gave them an opportunity to do a bit of shopping (though they'd left the majority of their collected loot behind in Misthome).
Since they hadn't dealt with most of the Redcaps before they left Ristin, I had them take over the Fort since the korred faction was wiped out, but to make it slightly more interesting, they leveled up, and I gave the main Redcap whose name I'm totally blanking on at the moment the Blighted Fey template - and relayed the info through encountering the Werebear clan on the way home that the Redcaps had taken over, led by one that had some weird corruption since returning from the north.
Thankfully, no scythe crits and that fight went very well for the PCs - I of course didn't give the redcap the extra rejuvenation since they were far from the Darkblight, but it gave the PCs a bit more of a hook into things that should happen later on - also, said Druid that was ressurected made battling the Darkblight a strong part of their backstory.
Fort Nunder went swimmingly for them, and now they are at Fort Trevalay, having picked off most of the bridge guards through guerilla tactics and disgusing one of them as an injured hobgoblin patrol member to lure the guards away from their posts and ambush them. But now the missing guards are being noticed, as well as the overdue patrol that the PCs waylayed in the forest, so the hobgoblins in the courtyard are a bit more wary.
I've also enjoyed remaking the maps - I'm hoping to organize them all so others can use them shortly -
Here's the initial map of Fort Nunder
Since the hilltop is described as a whole 10' higher than the rest of the fort, I decided to draw it in - but make it so thick with brush and trees that I hoped it would convey the idea that it was basically impassable (and our druid doesn't have Woodland Stride)
I had a replacement occur in Ristin as well.