requesting help designing a major encounter

[flamewolf393]

The party is an evil group and Im trying to figure out what kind of forces the local king would send in this situation.

The setting is a fairly idylic human-centric good aligned kingdom in a low power, low knowledge world. What we consider legendary figures might be level 10 at most, and your average person has never heard the term demon or celestial or plane. The party is basically going to be the very first BBEGs this material plane has ever known.

The king sent a small investigative party (consisting of a healer and a knight of the royal order, a court mage, and an outsider that tells tales of strange powers) to find out what happened to a farming village (the evil party enslaved the people and destroyed the homes). A couple weeks later only the outsider and the wizard return in a panic. They tell reports of a man skilled in almost every aspect of tricky combat, a huge golem like the dwarves make, and two creatures never seen before in the land (devils specifically).

As the king, what kind of forces would you send to take on this threat, taking into account this land does not even have legends of things this strange, and you may not necessarily believe about the powers and abilities, but you do know they took out a village, as well as the beloved Sir Penwood (the knight) and must be destroyed?

Oh and the party is ECL 6-ish. Though the king would have no real measure for how powerful they actually are other than the tricky fighter took out the knight with barely a fight.

[Kol Korran]

Well, that depends on what sort of abilities did the devils and the others have shown, but supposed they just now how they look. As king I would:
- Summon a combined force from the leading temple, mage guild, and any kind of elite combat unit I had. The levels are up to you, but from each of the specialties I'd put 1 person in charge, 2 lieutenants, and about 5-20 fairly skilled underlings (Depending on their rarity in your setting). Also a small force of scouts/ rangers to both gather info at first, and later maybe track down in hiding.

I'd then supply them with 30-50 more regular troops, to help deal with lesser dangers, and as a show of race (1st-2nd level warriors or such).

If I know any skilled and knowledgeable dwarves, I would call upon them to accompany the group and assess what danger the golem poses, and how it can be dealt with.

The force will travel with the stealthiest and most observant characters way in the front, who's first job is just to observe, assess, and gather as much information as possible. Then the main force might prepare and deal with the threat, now with better knowledge.

[Inevitability]

First scout. Send a few stealthy halflings, whisper gnomes and whatnot, then try to determine if the invaders have any obvious weaknesses. Maybe take a dwarf of two to study the golem.

Meanwhile, consult royal libraries for anything on the fighting style of the warrior, or the strange unknown devils.

Maybe look for similarities with known creatures. Golems, for example, are immune to magic and possess great physical strength, but have little ability to fight at range and are vulnerable to adamantine. An ambush of elves with bows and adamantine arrows striking from a high spot might be a likely way to handle this.

[Mizr]

50 Heavy Cavalry (Knights and such) and 300 Light cavalry. Archer and infantry support. Bring them back in chains to the capital so that justice may be brought upon them.

[ace rooster]

The first priority is information. The king knows of the existance of a few very powerful enemies, but there is no evidence that this is the extent of the problem. There have been no reports of a larger force, but I would be reluctant to believe that 4 characters were able to destroy a village on their own (in a low power setting). Scouts would be sent with orders to track, observe and not to engage, and assess if there is a larger force. In the meantime a force would be assembled, consisting of whatever is available, and trained in the use of versatile weapons like flails. Emissaries would be sent to nearby kingdoms with the task of seeking any information that might be relevant. Priority would go to enemies of the dwarves, as experts in anti-golem tactics, and kingdoms known for their knowledge. The Dwarves would be informed, but even if they have nothing to do with it they are unlikely to divulge weaknesses of their creations.

The response would probably be "burn them with fire", and use high damage weapons. The entire force would have oil flasks and instructions to use them, as even iron golems have no resistance to fire (though they are immune to magical fire). Depending on whether anyone knows about devils this might not be helpful, but best case scenario somebody knows that fire does not work well against devils. The Force should also contain a few cart mounted ballistae, with warriors trained in their use (ballista proficient). The skilled warrior should be turned into a pincusion, with a large number of crossbows aimed preferentially at them (remembering to be prone if the PCs are returning fire for +4 AC), but they would realise fairly rapidly that their weapons are having limited effect on the devils, and should have been informed that the golem is pretty much immune to their weapons. Characters who are engaging the devils and have realised that they are having little damaging effect should fight defensively and attempt to disarm, trip, grapple, and assist each other, relying on weight on numbers to attempt to lock the devils down. If that doesn't work they should withdraw, and come up with a new plan. At this point the priorities would be getting a report back, followed by surviving.

How big are the devils? fighting an imp sized creature is always going to ask for different tactics to fighting a giant sized creature, and it is the one piece of solid information they will have. In the small case expect anti-caster type tactics to be prepared, and in the other anti giant tactics. The other question is whether they have been recognised as foul abominations, which holy water might work against even if you they not know specifically what they were. Did any of the initial force have ranks in knowledge religion? If they did there is a chance that it might be suggested, and the response force would be carrying some (though as a long shot not a lot. It is expensive).

Just a few thoughts. :smallsmile:

[ericgrau]

I agree with a scouting party and/or a small army. Anything that can take out a village of a few hundred commoners must be as strong as around 50 troops, so something that can overwhelm that at least. I might send in my champions if I got more information first. Otherwise we're talking an army of level 1 to 3 soldiers, maybe with 2-3 stronger captains. Scouting party would be a small number of level 2-3 experts, rogues, rangers, or etc. They would try not to be seen nor engage the enemy. Their goal would be to watch the party fight and see what they do, taking notes. Perhaps a scholar artist as well to sketch the party and to know if there are any comparable legends: expert with craft(drawing), knowledge (local, arcana, nature, religion and/or planes). Plus misc. skills appropriate to such a scholar since his only job isn't hunting evil PCs.

If the kingdom has access to 7th level casters, the scouting party may attempt to obtain a possession in the night for scrying purposes. Or a sketch helps a little too. Or wait until the party stops in a town for a month to take a lock of hair from the barber. Be careful how you describe this. If you say "Do you want to get a haircut" the players will look at you cross-eyed and get extremely suspicious. Maybe you can ask "Where do you want to stay, do you want to get yourself cleaned up, do you take any security precautions?" If they say they want to get cleaned up and security precautions don't include some way to watch everything they own, then I'd say their hair gets taken. If they protect their stuff then ask how paranoid they are, if it's fairly paranoid then you can assume they collect their hair clippings without asking them, or at least give them a spellcraft check DC 19 to know to do so if they're paranoid.

If the kingdom has a legendary 9th level caster, then anything that helps with scry also helps with nightmare. That could be fun.

[HyperDunkBarkly]

one idea is to have the local church consult their god to some extent or another.

at the very least, they could confirm such a creature as a devil. knowing so might increase or decrease the soldiers' zeal or morale, depending on circumstances.

[Brendanicus]

The suggestions for a dwarven-backed scouting unit are great ideas, however, the main battle should be a cooler experience for your party than having to fight through a ton of mooks.

My suggestion is that the local king has assembled a small-ish task force to covertly destroy the PC's wirthout raising too much alarm. A sort of rival adventuring party, backed by some goons.

Since there is a dishonorable warrior in the party, have the leader of the opposition be a Paladin (on horseback for extra fun), Cleric, very or Young Gold/Silver Dragon. Through in a Wizard, 3-4 Skilled Elven Archers, some kind of Dwarf (Fighter? Cleric?), and a Rogue or Bard, maybe more mooks, and you are off to good start, some. Maybe throw in a druid or even a summoned Celestial, who decided to intervene in the conflict because your party brought a devil into the world. (The celestial doesn't have to be formally in an alliance with the king; she could just show up mid-battle to kick ass.)