Story help!

[BalkanDS]

I'm currently DMing a campaign with 4 PCS, a cleric, fighter, rogue and bard. The setting of the campaign is early-mid renaissance where magic has replaced technology in the form of artificing, ie. magical elevators, one-way radios/broadcasters etc.

THE STORY SO FAR: has the PCs escaping from their home city after a shadowy daemonicaly influenced cult surfaced and plunged the city in a a bonafide orgy of blood, tentacles, sacrifice and general chaosy shenanigans. The players escaped with a guard sgt. who had a communicator used for broadcasting orders that was directing all survivors to the refugee camps based in the towns surrounding the city. After going past a checkpoint designed to ferret out possessed refugees and having to kill a poor old possessed couple they reached the refugee camp. They were soon sent for by the response force commander who needs reliable volunteers with a knowledge of the city layout to infiltrate the city. It seems that the cult has been almost successful in jamming any attempt at communication and teleportation in or out of the city. The best they can do is receive horribly garbled messages from surviving guards and civilians and inaccurately teleport at most a few dozen people into the city(any more and the cultists would notice and interfere with the spell in such a way that they might arrive 100 feet in the air, only half of the person would arrive, they'll get there 10 years later etc. The job of PCs and 4 other teams composed of NPCs are to plant teleportation/communication jammer jammers throughout the city.

THE STORY TO COME(this is what i need help with):

I'm going to have the PC's materialize pretty far from their target destination and while fighting there way across the city to where they are supposed to go they see one of the other teams get ambushed in the distance. During the fight a magic blast hits one of the jammer jammers and it explodes in a spectacular fashion utterly flattening anything within 1000 feet. Hopefully my PCs will make the leap that the jammer jammers are actually magically activated bombs! They then would attempt to locate the other teams and convince them of what they saw. The other teams might believe them or assume that they've been possessed or traded sides in some way depending on how the PCs attempt to convince them. Regardless if the PC's are successful I hope they connect the dots and realize that the garrison commander knew that they were bombs and not jammer jammers. They would then confront him and learn that either A) The response force commander saw retaking the city as a lost cause and the bombs were to destroy the city so that the cultists wouldnt have it and damn the surviving guards/civilians trapped inside OR B) The response force commander has actually been possessed and used his position to smuggle bombs in the city to fufill cults quest of causing as much general wanton destruction and chaos as possible even if they die in the process...cause you know more death=more fun

WoW! That was a long read, if you did read all that comments and criticism of the story would be much appreciated!

[Shining Wrath]

The scattered on arrival thing sounds like airborne troops during D-Day.

It's going to be hard to have the party close enough to know *what* exploded and took out everything within 1000 feet, and yet not taken out by being within 1000 feet.

[BalkanDS]

I felt like that was a weak point to, though the only solution I see is to reduce the damage of the bomb which i don't really want to do otherwise its not as scary. I just can't think of any other way my PCs can learn that the jammer jammers are actually bombs.

[GiantOctopodes]

I felt like that was a weak point to, though the only solution I see is to reduce the damage of the bomb which i don't really want to do otherwise its not as scary. I just can't think of any other way my PCs can learn that the jammer jammers are actually bombs.

In terms of having it explode and them not get caught in it, just have that occur relatively close to them, but with a big wind up time and fair warning (you hear an ominous noise emanating from the jammer jammer. It's somewhere between a hum and a whine, and is growing in frequency and volume with each passing second. Make an intelligence check. (Regardless of results) You suspect something terrible is about to occur, though you don't have enough details to know exactly what. It occurs to you that it may be advisable to be very far away from this thing. We're going to keep this in combat time, because seconds matter. Going from the top of the initiative order, what do you do?) and have anyone who gets caught in the blast instantly reduced to 0 HP, but not outright slain, so they can be picked back up as long as at least 1 person escapes the blast.

If they haven't left already, make sure the commander stresses the importance of having them "no more than X distance apart" (let's say 1500 meters) so it quickly becomes clear that at that distance from each other, the whole city would be flattened.

[BalkanDS]

In terms of having it explode and them not get caught in it, just have that occur relatively close to them, but with a big wind up time and fair warning (you hear an ominous noise emanating from the jammer jammer. It's somewhere between a hum and a whine, and is growing in frequency and volume with each passing second. Make an intelligence check. (Regardless of results) You suspect something terrible is about to occur, though you don't have enough details to know exactly what. It occurs to you that it may be advisable to be very far away from this thing. We're going to keep this in combat time, because seconds matter. Going from the top of the initiative order, what do you do?) and have anyone who gets caught in the blast instantly reduced to 0 HP, but not outright slain, so they can be picked back up as long as at least 1 person escapes the blast.

If they haven't left already, make sure the commander stresses the importance of having them "no more than X distance apart" (let's say 1500 meters) so it quickly becomes clear that at that distance from each other, the whole city would be flattened.

Thats a good way of resolving it thanks for the input. On a related note do people think it would be better for the motivation of the commander to be A) The response force commander saw retaking the city as a lost cause and the bombs were to destroy the city so that the cultists wouldnt have it and damn the surviving guards/civilians trapped inside OR B) The response force commander has actually been possessed and used his position to smuggle bombs in the city to fufill cults quest of causing as much general wanton destruction and chaos as possible even if they die in the process.

[GiantOctopodes]

Thats a good way of resolving it thanks for the input. On a related note do people think it would be better for the motivation of the commander to be A) The response force commander saw retaking the city as a lost cause and the bombs were to destroy the city so that the cultists wouldnt have it and damn the surviving guards/civilians trapped inside OR B) The response force commander has actually been possessed and used his position to smuggle bombs in the city to fufill cults quest of causing as much general wanton destruction and chaos as possible even if they die in the process.

Why not both? If he's possessed or dominated, it stands to reason he doesn't know it, and he could think that he's doing it because the city's a lost cause, a regrettable but necessary action, without realizing he's a pawn. Only those who think to use detect magic and sort out the minor aura of enchantment hidden amongst the auras of his magic items, or who unwittingly break the enchantment by wiping out the source of his domination or possession would realize the truth, otherwise it would only be apparent on slaying him as a shimmering aura emerges from him (if possessing, then trying to possess the nearest target). Drop hints that his actions of late have been uncharacteristic, that people are worried that perhaps the stress of this campaign is driving him to madness, and and if players figure it out, great, they have someone who owes them and a voice in their corner. If they don't, you leave them with a "well darn" style moment, and possibly set the stage for a greater threat should the possessing or dominating force escape.

[BalkanDS]

Wow, I'd never have thought about playing it that way. I like it a lot, thanks for the idea!