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View Full Version : DM Help Fleshing out an "Orcs are attacking village"



Pinjata
2014-12-18, 09:24 AM
Hey guys,

I'm thinking of involving my PCs in a "Orcs are attacking a village" scenario. I just want to flesh it out a bit and see if I am forgetting something - I'd appreciate if you guys would point out any flaws.

The general plot: After a few years monsters and servants of Evil cults have grown strong again. Hundreds of Orc tribes have gathered under leadership of mighty red and green dragons that lead their armies toward the outskirts of the Empire. The Empire responds by tasking the Mages guild to kill leaders/strongest monsters/dragons, while all good adventurers are asked to help defend the rural areas. Some villages are vacated and others fortified and filled with low-lvl adventurers - in this case - my PCs.

The adventure will involve PCs accompanying a small village refugees to a fortified village(will be attacked twice during the night), where they will realise THEY are about all the firepower that was provided to the village. (along with local militia, that is pretty much composed of once-shot-its-dead peasants). An orc tribe will try to sack it.

On the first night villagers will see fires from the direction of a village they have abandoned. For two following nights village will be attacked by small groups of Orc-scouts and performance will be calculated solely on the basis of sucess of PCs. The more orcs they kill, the less casualties will villagers suffer. On a third night last attack will come and if they defend it, they will wait for another day, when a column of Kings men will garrison the fortified village.

what do you guys think?

Mastikator
2014-12-18, 09:42 AM
A few ideas:

The orcs will attempt to kidnap villagers, not just outright kill them. But they will kill any villager they are unable to kidnap.

The orcs will want to destroy anything they can't pillage, such as houses, wells, lanters, barns.

What is the main goal of the orcs sacking the village? Resources? Need a base of operation? Clearing out potential hostiles? Instilling fear?

Here's a few ideas that might occur to the PCs:

Preemptive strikes against the orc base of operation.

Taking the orc scouts hostage and make them return with false information (either by deception or coercion).

Making traps around the village.

Gathering the villages in a fortified position along with everything valuable, potentially outside the village where it's safer.

falloutimperial
2014-12-18, 10:18 AM
Ideas:

Orcs are attempting to collect all the metal they can to melt down for weapons, possibly including a large super-weapon or golem.

Orcs are attempting to capture villages rather than pillage them to work the farms until the next harvest, when they can capture the food and carry on.

Orcs are attempting to gather enough blood for a dark ritual and are therefore either capturing all people, only the most innocent, or most blood-heavy animals, like livestock.

Orcs are searching for a certain magical item and have reason to think it's in a village like this one.

This will hopefully inform how the orcs assault your players' village and clue them into what's going on.

LibraryOgre
2014-12-18, 11:31 AM
Think about the orc tactics, as well. The humans will likely be moving at a slower-than-normal rate... while normal human speed may be 12, a column of refugees will be moving at 9 or 6, at best... the rate of slow people and heavily laden wagons. While you might buy a little speed by convincing people to abandon their goods, you can't really abandon food and other necessary supplies... your column will be slow, and surrounded by only a thin film of ablative meat (aka those militiamen).

The orcs, conversely, will be moving faster. Their base rate is probably closer to the human norm, and you may have some who are faster (if this is a 3e game, you might have orc barbarians moving at 40, for example, compared to the column's 20 or 15). That group could get ahead of the column, or easily smash and fade... come in, steal a few people, set a few fires, and you're suddenly dealing with panicked humans and livestock, and burning wagons. Hello, further slowdown. And this just assumes relatively standard orcs, not things like goblins riding wargs or gnoll packs... while the orcs may be the core of the army, there's going to be others who either work with the army, or take advantage of the chaos to loot and plunder.

Consider divisions within the villagers... some people are going to say "Forget the old and the sick, we need to make time to get the young (and ME) to safety!" Some old folk will agree with them. Others will refuse to leave grandma/Bob the sick guy/favorite possession, and insist that the column stay together "for safety".

Once you get to the fortified village, there's going to be a LOT of people in a SMALL space... some people will be able to stay with relatives, but a lot of others are going to be on the village green or simply trying to camp under wagons and in alleys. It's going to be tight, the locals are going to be resentful and the refugees will be desperate. Your timetable is short, but consider that disease is a BIG threat in something like this. Maybe the destination village won't let Bob the Sick Guy in, lest he bring a plague.

You might also want to have some ideas about ameliorative actions the PCs might take. If a wizard has a familiar, that familiar might scope out the armies and tell the wizard about it. If you've got a rogue or a ranger, they might want to do the same... and then do they solo adventure, or do you do something else? (For situations like this, I'd have some NPCs that other players can run during this... Robby the Rogue is off sneaking about with the local brigands who have decided to throw in with the kingdom against the Orcs, and look, all of these brigands have skills that make them reasonable woodsmen, so the players aren't stuck twiddling their thumbs while Robby does his thing). You have a LARGE pool of NPCs to draw on, and PCs in nominal command positions. Whip up some NPCs, maybe with a few things undefined (like a feat you didn't bother to pick, or a few skill points to spread around), and let the other players take them, make them a bit their own, and use them while their PCs are doing useful things that don't require supervision (while Robby's Rogues do the tense scouting mission, Fred the Fighter is leading the effort to better fortify the village, Matt the Mage is helping brew potions, and Clancy the Cleric is getting a field hospital set up).

DireSickFish
2014-12-18, 11:50 AM
What is to stop the PC's from continuing to move the column once they see that the town has almost no defenses? My first thought when reading this would be to run from the army even further into friendly territory. I get they could "surround the village" but that is only if we stop, and if they can surround the village why couldn't they send there full force to bear when we were on the road?

Not saying your PC's -will- do this, it's just my first though when being presented with it.

veti
2014-12-18, 11:18 PM
Think about the orc tactics, as well. The humans will likely be moving at a slower-than-normal rate... while normal human speed may be 12, a column of refugees will be moving at 9 or 6, at best... the rate of slow people and heavily laden wagons. While you might buy a little speed by convincing people to abandon their goods, you can't really abandon food and other necessary supplies... your column will be slow, and surrounded by only a thin film of ablative meat (aka those militiamen).

Thinking about it in those terms... the mission is doomed, unless (a) there are really only a handful of orcs - a couple of dozen at the most, or (b) the villagers can get to their fortified point before the main group of orcs catches up with them. If there are any more than that in a position to manoeuvre ahead of them - they could simply stake out an ambush on the road and wipe out the refugees, PCs and all, before they get to the fortified village.

So the initial encounters, before the siege, must be limited to small scouting parties, who would probably not try to attack at all, unless the caravan is quite ill-disciplined with stragglers strung out behind. (The PCs may try to attack the orcs, but of course that would mean relaxing their guard on the rest of the caravan for a while. And this right here is why everyone hates escort missions.)

If you want to inject a bit more violence/drama into the journey, the caravan could split up for reasons beyond the party's control (unless someone can make a serious Diplomacy check). Maybe some of the impatient ones run on ahead of the rest, and a little while later you come across their bodies. Unless, of course, the party runs ahead with them... then it's the portion left behind that gets attacked. (If the refugees are foolhardy enough to split up, assume the orcs are bright enough to attack the portion that's not defended by PCs. Of course if the PCs themselves are stupid enough to split up, then there's probably no helping them...)

goto124
2014-12-19, 03:18 AM
And this right here is why everyone hates escort missions.)

I thought this applies only to computer games, where NPCs are dumb AIs, as opposed to a human GM who knows not to frustrate the players needlessly?

Nagash
2014-12-19, 05:47 AM
I'd say the trick to this is to humanize the villagers so that the players dont just view them as numbers on a sheet they need to tick down as casualties mount.

Create small moments, Children who need help, people who help injured members of the caravan, arguing over posessions/food because some packed better then others. Moments where a PC can either do something or just by witnessing goes further to imagine these refugees as people. They have to care about how many casualties they suffer, not just winning the mission.

Bear tactics in mind too.

This is a perfect opportunity for orcs to use their advantage at night to come in, fire a few arrows, inflict some death and wounds and move on. Break morale down a night at a time. Dont be afraid to create casualties that will tug on the heartstrings or create scenes that personalize it for that PC's.

A worg tugging on a screaming child as its pulled into the woods while the PC's cant help (screening flankers, too far away, other civvies, etc) or players having to choose between saving a woman being dragged off or an old person. Force choices where no matter what they do it brings forward a consequence. In a situation like this there is no "winning" there is only losing less.

Show that, but dont hammer it on them. Let them see it for themselves and create their own horror by asking questions that you can answer to draw them further along whatever path their questions originally pointed to.

Players in a situation like this will decide for themselves just how dark it can be and how deeply they want to invest in it. You just need to show them the rabbit hole, they'll decide how far they are comfortable going down it.

Aedilred
2014-12-19, 07:03 AM
I thought this applies only to computer games, where NPCs are dumb AIs, as opposed to a human GM who knows not to frustrate the players needlessly?

I think people generally hate escort missions in real life, too. But crappy AI certainly doesn't help (Oh, Natalya, how many years did you take off my life?)

LibraryOgre
2014-12-19, 11:50 AM
Thinking about it in those terms... the mission is doomed, unless (a) there are really only a handful of orcs - a couple of dozen at the most, or (b) the villagers can get to their fortified point before the main group of orcs catches up with them. If there are any more than that in a position to manoeuvre ahead of them - they could simply stake out an ambush on the road and wipe out the refugees, PCs and all, before they get to the fortified village.

It's outriders v. the main body of the army. The scouts can move quickly and in small groups; the larger body (whether it be orcish hordes or human civilians) is going to be limited by the speed of its slowest people and heaviest gear. So, the orcs likely WILL catch up... but if they can manage 9, while the humans manage 6, it's going to take them time.

How much time? Well, a group of refugees begins moving east at a rate of 6 miles per day, and an orcish horde follows them two days later at a rate of 9 miles per day. If the safe zone is 20 miles away, will the humans reach the safe zone before the orcs arrive? Show your work, there will be a quiz after lunch. :smallbiggrin:


I thought this applies only to computer games, where NPCs are dumb AIs, as opposed to a human GM who knows not to frustrate the players needlessly?

Keep in mind, Chess is an escort mission. :smallsmile:

oudeis
2014-12-19, 03:11 PM
How set are you on the scenario you laid out in the OP? What if the Orcs were more interested in tribute and subjugation than slashing and burning (to misuse a phrase)? Armies march on their stomach, and killing the people who can feed- and grow- your army is a waste of resources. Present the PCs with a scenario where the locals made the pragmatic decision to submit to Orcish rule rather than being slaughtered. They're phlegmatic about the whole situation, and have even managed to wheedle a few concessions out of the Orcs to make life more bearable, and as a consequence are reluctant to upset the apple cart, as it were. Now the players have to switch from playing an assault squad to an insurgency/counter-insurgency team: not only do they have to defeat the Orcs, but they have to convince the villagers to rally to the resistance as well or they'll fail in their mission.

Coidzor
2014-12-19, 06:34 PM
What is to stop the PC's from continuing to move the column once they see that the town has almost no defenses? My first thought when reading this would be to run from the army even further into friendly territory. I get they could "surround the village" but that is only if we stop, and if they can surround the village why couldn't they send there full force to bear when we were on the road?

Not saying your PC's -will- do this, it's just my first though when being presented with it.

My suggestion is that it's in a strategically valuable position or would be a good staging area for the orcs to prepare an assault on a vital pass, bridge, or trade center. It may be a place with really good fortifications or naturally defensible terrain, but some clerical error or sabotage lead to insufficient defenders garrisoned there or the garrison was redeployed elsehwere without being relieved or even that the other people who were supposed to be running the place were assassinated or turned coat.

Armies and bands of refugees don't move quickly, so the main body or vanguard of an army might be moving as slowly or more slowly than the refugees so they'd only catch up with the refugees after they were either slowed down enough for them to be overtaken or the refugees stopped somewhere. Raiding paties, on the other hand, move more quickly, especially mounted ones.

So dealing with a few attempts at harassing the refugee column or getting people to flee and leave the goods they're carrying with them so that the Orcs can score some loot while on the road might make sense, yeah, but not necessarily having the entire enemy army show up to massacre the refugees during the day's march.

Scipio_77
2014-12-19, 06:50 PM
Put in some plots inside the orc army as well, to make it more living and less of "anonymous haze". You can make it simple... they can carry different banners, the players can find signs of infighting between the different clans and so forth. Put in a few orc antagonists that stand out from the crowd and perhaps a few weak links. An ogre lieutenant or two will keep pulses racing as well.