So my players hired dragons to assault the Big Bad's fortress

[Taejang]

EDIT: scroll down and read how the game session turned out. Teaser:
paratroopers.

Let's not go into how they managed it, but my players secured the assistance of eight dragons in assaulting a major fortress in Thay. Rather than contrive a reason for the dragons to not help the players, I'm redesigning the encounter to make best use of their ingenuity, and I'm open to fun suggestions.

First, background details:
1) There are two ancient dragons, five adults, and one young dragon. They are based off of Temeraire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temeraire_%28series%29), meaning the dragons' breath weapon is actually a sort of sonic wave, doing thunder damage. For game balance, this attack will not be as powerful as the books, but is still quite potent. Other stats for the dragons are mostly pulled from the MM entry for black dragons, with minor alterations to resistances, and I have styled them as neutral or chaotic neutral in alignment. They cannot cast spells of any kind.

2) The fort has a substantial presence of Red Wizards and soldiers. The party's target is Tharchion Dimon (this is a 5th edition game, but the campaign is in the 3rd edition timeline). The fort is built of stone, located a few miles north of Tyraturos, and large. There are spires, walls, a moat, etc. The players plan to attack just before dawn (like 5AM) in the early winter. The guards are not expecting the attack.

What are some neat events you guys can envision happening? Are there specific enemies that would be fun for the party to encounter? What spells would you imagine a dozen or more Red Wizards employing to fend off eight dragons?

My current plans, subject to change, are for the majority of the fort's occupants to focus on the dragons, giving the party the chance to get in without fighting hundreds of Thayans. (previously, it was to be a stealth mission.) The dragons will periodically collapse part of the fort, destroying spires or the like. At some point, the dragons will pull back, either due to injuries, exhaustion, or the presence of incoming hostiles (undead dragons, perhaps? Maybe demons summoned by Dimon, as a priest of Bane?). The party could hang back, but knowing them they'll charge into the chaos and be inside the fort as the dragons continue attacking. Naturally the party will get their shot at Dimon, but it would be far too unbalancing to allow them free access to loot the entire fort, so something will have to drive them off after they deal with (or die to) Dimon.

It's going to be a fun, rather unique game session. Looking forward to your awesome suggestions!

[Douche]

Sounds rather lore heavy, I don't know what arsenal this bad guy would have that would make sense... but if I had an evil fortress and I saw dragons coming, I'd probably hope I had some kind of artifact that granted me dominance over dragons... Like an orb of dragon dominance. I totally just made that up. Also your PCs would feel really cheated if you did that, probably. Maybe it's only powerful enough to take control of the younger dragons, and then they start attacking the older ones, who are then emotionally torn at seeing their loved ones attack them, and are wracked by indecision of how to subdue them without killing them.

Then if I was the villain I would cackle and say to the dragons "You need not fight your brethren! Join me in slaying these foolish adventurers and I will return them to you unharmed!" but ultimately I'd screw them over (prematurely, of course, cuz I'm stupid and evil) and net those dragons and start draining their life force to turn them into zombie dragons, all before I actually got through with killing the PCs (obviously I'm leaving them alive to witness me bend these noble creatures to my malevolent will), who will of course find a way to free themselves and slay me before I complete my dark ritual, thereby saving the dragons and putting an end to my dark reign.

Edit: Turns out there is such an item as an orb of dragon mastery, which does exactly what I have outlined above, so I wasn't far off.

[Envyus]

Lots of Undead. Thay likes to use Undead.

[Temperjoke]

Ballista weapons on the walls wouldn't be out of the ordinary for a castle. I'd imagine various wind spells to push back and interfere with aerial enemies and attacks. Several of the wizards could probably combine to activate a defensive shield over the top of the walls. The castle could have Gargoyles on the walls to take flight against the dragons directly as well. I'd imagine alarm spells going off, which the castle occupants assume are the dragons, but then when the dragons are driven off, the castle occupants begin searching for intruders.

[adonis53]

Maybe a skeletal dragon ridden by a high level paladin of bane...?

[Shining Wrath]

Fending off 8 dragons? Summons. Start pulling as many fiends as you can and throwing them at the dragons. Walls of force to keep the breath weapons at bay.

Research uber-strength high level Web spells.

[krugaan]

Coughearthbindcough.

[gameogre]

Things that would be fun.

A= Swarms of demons! Love that idea!

B= Wizards with Dragon Orbs that take control of some of the dragons and turn them on the rest.

C= Thayan Wizards that turn themselves into Dragons or that really were dragons to begin with!

D= Hordes and Hordes of Undead! Vampires and Undead beholders friggin EVERYWHERE!

E= Something totally Crazy and different. What if the Dragons showed up to attack and it wasn't even Thayans but someone masking themselves as Thayans? Like a fortress of Githyanki!

[p_johnston]

It might be fun to do a sort of Indiana Jones style "the fortress is collapsing behind us" sort of final scene. Have the roof collapsing and the dragons obviously destroying the building on the way in, then at the end of the final fight the collapse starts and the party has to hustle out or be crushed. Bonus points if the villain triggers the collapse while saying something along the lines of "I'm taking you with me." (although that does preclude looting him or anything else so it might be a little cruel).

[RazDelacroix]

As partial as I am to summoning, here's what I can imagine...

"Ah-Ha! Go forth my demons! Bwuahahahahaaaaahahhh...ahhh....ahhhhhhh... AHCHOO!" As the first waves of demons begins to close in on the dragons, the summoner's miscast of magic tears open an unexpected rift and introduces a third front into this conflict. A conflagration of vile powers, mismatched limbs, and aberrant tentacles pour forth from the rift attacking EVERYTHING without discrimination beyond immediate reachability.

[Pex]

This is about an approach to the adventure to keep in mind rather than the crunch of what to do.

Even though it was originally supposed to be a stealth mission, if the dragons lose for whatever reason, lots of summoning, hordes of undead, the players might think the adventure was impossible to begin with or despite saying you want to reward their ingenuity for getting the help of dragons you're negating the help. Besides which, this is 5E. Summonings galore and hordes of undead aren't so common a thing.

It's ok to say the dragons will win by fiat, even with a casualty or two. That's just background flavor text and the reward of succeeding in getting their help. The adventure is whatever it the PCs are to do. The dragons attacking is that distraction needed to occupy the guards and allow the party to get into the BBEG's complex and take care of the problem of how to destroy it. It's the excuse of why the PC don't have to fight mook after mook, just the occasional they happen to run into when they were heading towards the dragons. How the bad guys fight the dragons is irrelevant. Make something up later. You don't need to know the details right now. Create your adventure for the PCs, not the dragon battle.

Personal pet peeve. It has been always the case that when the party comes across a Great Treasure during a dungeon crawl/castle siege that for whatever reason they can't take with them at that moment, they always says they'll come back later to get when they're done. The PCs never do. They either have to run because the complex is collapsing, they're teleported away, or they must otherwise exit and cannot go back for that Great Treasure. I hate this trope. The only purpose of the Great Treasure to exist is just to tease the PCs. They were never meant to get it. It's just there to give the players a sense of loss and humiliation because the DM provided for the treasure but they weren't smart enough to figure how to get it, not realizing they were never meant to get it at all.

Don't do that. If the BBEG is supposed to have something the PCs aren't supposed to get, then don't dangle the possibility they could have gotten it. They still get the Good Enough Treasure you always had planned for them, but there's no lament of a treasure lost they never could have had. If the BBEG must, must have that item with him, figure out a way to stress it's flavor text and is never meant to be party treasure. The BBEG can still use the item if applicable, but it's obvious the PCs are not meant to get it, at least not at that time.

[AeonsShadow]

One thing you could do is set up Enemy undead with classes, (being failed adventurers trying to stop the BBEG) and add some retooled levels from the Libris Mortis (http://forum.nwnights.ru/uploads/rulebooks/Libris_Mortis.pdf), starting on page 53. Give an undead assasin the Lurking terror class and watch him go~ And if you set up "Automated control nodes" (some magic crystal or symbol) controlling the undead, then the BBEG doesn't have to waste his spells on them!


ANOTHER thing you could do is terrorize them with the most EVIL creatures alive: KOBOLDS. (see Roger E. Moore (http://www.tuckerskobolds.com/)for story)

Set this place up with evil traps both magical and benign! set up a "Hidden portal" that is an Orb of disintegration! There is all SORTS of fun you could have! Don't be afraid to make rooms where they have to THINK thier way out rather than fight.

[Taejang]

Great ideas! I love these kinds of discussions; I somehow forgot about Earth Bind, never would have thought of Githyanki or Kobolds (either could be present merely as slaves, even if I don't want to make the whole fort full of them), all kinds of neat nuggets here to consider.


A conflagration of vile powers, mismatched limbs, and aberrant tentacles pour forth from the rift attacking EVERYTHING without discrimination beyond immediate reachability.
This is a neat idea, though I probably won't go with Cthulhu-style invasion. But if I was a wizard and eight dragons showed up to fight, summoning something else to take the hits makes sense. In such a pitched battle, it isn't impossible for one of the wizards' spells to go awry, or for him to summon the wrong thing. A third front could be fun, and may help keep the pressure on the Thayans if the dragons are forced to retreat (because Earth Bind, Wall of Force, Disintegrate, etc).


<goodness>
You make some good points; I need to keep my excitement for the novelty of the dragon attack within the realm of doability. After all, the PCs won't be with the dragons for most of the encounter.

Also, the BBEG does have things that need looting. My OP's reference to not letting them loot the fort was more about the nature of a major Thayan fortification- there should be magical items in far greater numbers than we want the party to have for balance reasons. As the party won't have time to even see most of these, they'll never know what precisely they missed out on, but if they had time to search the whole fort... well, we'd need eight dragons to attack them before they were in any danger again!

[Vogonjeltz]

Let's not go into how they managed it, but my players secured the assistance of eight dragons in assaulting a major fortress in Thay. Rather than contrive a reason for the dragons to not help the players, I'm redesigning the encounter to make best use of their ingenuity, and I'm open to fun suggestions.

If you are one of my players (looking at you, Eltoran), stop reading now or you'll ruin the fun!

First, background details:
1) There are two ancient dragons, five adults, and one young dragon. They are based off of Temeraire, meaning the dragons' breath weapon is actually a sort of sonic wave, doing thunder damage. For game balance, this attack will not be as powerful as the books, but is still quite potent. Other stats for the dragons are mostly pulled from the MM entry for black dragons, with minor alterations to resistances, and I have styled them as neutral or chaotic neutral in alignment. They cannot cast spells of any kind.

2) The fort has a substantial presence of Red Wizards and soldiers. The party's target is Tharchion Dimon (this is a 5th edition game, but the campaign is in the 3rd edition timeline). The fort is built of stone, located a few miles north of Tyraturos, and large. There are spires, walls, a moat, etc. The players plan to attack just before dawn (like 5AM) in the early winter. The guards are not expecting the attack.

What are some neat events you guys can envision happening? Are there specific enemies that would be fun for the party to encounter? What spells would you imagine a dozen or more Red Wizards employing to fend off eight dragons?

My current plans, subject to change, are for the majority of the fort's occupants to focus on the dragons, giving the party the chance to get in without fighting hundreds of Thayans. (previously, it was to be a stealth mission.) The dragons will periodically collapse part of the fort, destroying spires or the like. At some point, the dragons will pull back, either due to injuries, exhaustion, or the presence of incoming hostiles (undead dragons, perhaps? Maybe demons summoned by Dimon, as a priest of Bane?). The party could hang back, but knowing them they'll charge into the chaos and be inside the fort as the dragons continue attacking. Naturally the party will get their shot at Dimon, but it would be far too unbalancing to allow them free access to loot the entire fort, so something will have to drive them off after they deal with (or die to) Dimon.

It's going to be a fun, rather unique game session. Looking forward to your awesome suggestions!

Possibilities:
1) Dragon sonic weapons are going to do alot of damage to things, maybe most of the complex is blocked off because of collapsed walls, etc, so you can limit the treasure to the things the players fought. Or you could say: Well, the players defeated the challenge I would have presented by clever use of hiring dragons, so they probably get the same horde/rewards they would have.

2) If there were a treasure horde, assuming the dragon's are still standing...would they dispute who gets it? Were the dragons promised a share/all of any treasures found? How the dragons were hired might actually be relevant to the outcome.

I'm thinking that it's highly unlikely the guards or wizards will have any a small chance of victory against even 1 ancient dragon, let alone 2 and 6 more friends. This looks like an easy lop-sided surprise attack.

[Taejang]

I'm thinking that it's highly unlikely the guards or wizards will have any a small chance of victory against even 1 ancient dragon, let alone 2 and 6 more friends. This looks like an easy lop-sided surprise attack.
Normally, I'd agree. However, this is Tyraturos Fortress, seat of Tharchion Dimon, not a little watchtower. Since my original post I've adjusted the stealth mission I'd planned into something more fitting (though keeping the stealth details in case they get used).

The walls have been enchanted with defensive runes, there are seven different floors, 14 ballistas, several hundred soldiers, dozens of Red Wizards, undead, and a few fiends. They may be surprised, but these are professional soldiers, not militia men. The fortress is only seven miles from Tyraturos and its garrison, and is even within air support distance of Thay Mount, should the battle stretch to hours in length (don't take too many short rests!). And nobody in the party can block magical communication between the fort and the rest of Thay.

The dragons' sonic attack will do significant damage, but even they can't do much to the basement levels. Without help from the party, the dragons will eventually be driven off, though the fort itself will be uninhabitable by then. With the dragons and PCs working together, they could probably wipe out the fort, though PCs may die. I'm dropping hints to the players that completing their objectives with the dragons providing a distraction is probably a wiser course of action.

[Nifft]

Who are the usual enemies of each of these dragons?

In the Realms, I think the normal balance of power is that there are a ton of high-level NPCs but they're all watching each other closely and nobody wants to make the first move.

If the dragons are evil, then I'd expect a concerted show of power by the forces of good to ensure that the dragons don't consolidate power in Thay in the aftermath of your assault.

If the dragons are good, then I'd expect a bunch of disconcerted sneak-attacks by evil forces, possibly incorporating whatever fleeing Thayan Red Wizards were able to escape. These attacks would have full knowledge of the secret passages and teleport circles of the fortress.

[Belac93]

Things immune to fear, that have ranged attacks or flying. Maybe skeletons or zombie beholders.

[Taejang]

I thought some folks may be curious how the battle went down.

Party: shadow monk, assassin rogue, wizard, fighter, average level 12
Time: mission began at 5AM in mid-winter

After a brief scouting mission (wizard's familiar in owl form), the monk went invisible and climbed + shadow stepped his way onto the walls to disable ballistas, like a boss ninja. When he finished, the rest of the party went skydiving, paratrooper style: a dragon flew them high over the fort, they jumped off, and the wizard cast Feather Fall to land on the keep's rooftop.

The dragons attacked and the whole fort woke up to the sound of collapsing fortifications under sonic dragon roars.

Finding a way inside, the party hid in an alcove to let a few senior officers go past. When three Red Wizards tried to pass, the party jumped them. These were senior Red Wizards (read: archmages, CR12 each), and the party downed them before they could cast a single spell. (Ball bearings, an assassin rogue sneak attack critical, the fighter's Action Surge and at least one critical... these murdering hobos know how to murder!) One was wrestled to the ground and gagged for the wizard to read his mind.

Mind Blank wasn't active (the poor dude had just woken up to dragons attacking his home), and the wizard let slip the command word to the fort's portal network- a system of teleport pads that functioned like an elevator system. The party immediately jumped to the most secure tower in the fort and found Tharchion Dimon as the wizard was on his way down. Despite Dimon being prepared for them (Alarm spell), and using Time Stop and other high-level spells, the party smashed him to bits with only one character taking much damage.

By this point the dragons had wrecked huge swaths of the fort, including part of the tower the party was in. Hearing demonic screams coming from somewhere else, the wizard turned some blocking wreckage and part of the ceiling to mud, allowing the party to drop back down to the keep's rooftop and from there jump off the northern walls to escape.

Because the party disabled most of the ballistas and took out three archmages + Dimon, all the dragons survived, though with injuries (and one had a wing disintegrated). The party didn't even explore one whole floor, only fought four enemies in a fortress with literally hundreds of them, and escaped with nary a scratch. The dragons wrecked much of the fortress and only left because somebody summoned a pit fiend that got out of control and started summoning an army of devils (which then wrecked the fort even more).

The game session felt a little like a SEAL team infiltrating a bunker, hitting their target, and peacing out. If any SEAL team could paratroop off dragons, that is.

[Daishain]

Red Wizards huh? They've been known to solicit support from servants and spawn of Tiamat.

With that in mind, you could have the fort's guardians include a small squad of Bluespawn Godslayers. They're mutated blue dragons that have been bred and trained expressly for the purpose of killing dragons and celestial beings. I imported one to serve as a boss in a 5E campaign I ran last summer, it went rather well. A group of them could counter the dragons quite handily.

[Taejang]

Red Wizards huh? They've been known to solicit support from servants and spawn of Tiamat.

With that in mind, you could have the fort's guardians include a small squad of Bluespawn Godslayers. They're mutated blue dragons that have been bred and trained expressly for the purpose of killing dragons and celestial beings. I imported one to serve as a boss in a 5E campaign I ran last summer, it went rather well. A group of them could counter the dragons quite handily.
Sounds fun. Mind PMing the port you made? I have a feeling I may need some way to counter these dragons in the future.

[Daishain]

Sounds fun. Mind PMing the port you made? I have a feeling I may need some way to counter these dragons in the future.
Took a bit to find it, but sent. Be careful if the players engage them, they are nasty in a fight.

[eastmabl]

If someone hires dragons, it's kind of a big deal. It's the kind of thing that the BBEG and his spies hear about long before the dragons are brought to fore.

So, if I'm BBEG, I think that I have two options.

1. I hire all sorts of big bruisers to counteract the dragons that are coming my way. There's no guarantee of victory, and the hired help might flee when they've been proper whupped. I'm going to avoid this.

2. I move the MacGuffin that the party is after away.

If it's my fortress, that's a little harder to move --- but I have smaller fortresses. I move a large chunk of my forces elsewhere and leave a token force to fight off the mighty dragon army. If the contract for assistance is written poorly (and I'm guessing that it's a handshake agreement to destroy the force at BBEG fortress), the dragons go away at the end of the siege unless the party pays for another round of dragon army.

This is a little crummy, so make sure that the victory is not completely empty.

3. I set a trap (option 1). I'm a Thay wizard, so magic is well within my reach. When the fortress has been penetrated, I have a gem at the center of the fortress. I defend this room, and before I die I discharge the gem against the party. It takes my life, but destroys the fortress and most of the people therein. Anyone who's in that room is teleported/plane shifted to safety to Plottwistopolis and the next section of the campaign begins.

4. I set a trap (option 2). Using a bit of parts 1 and 2, I hire the big bruisers and I move my army into hiding. Once the assault commences, I spring my other troops and bruisers, catching the dragon army by surprise and evening the odds.

[Taejang]

If someone hires dragons, it's kind of a big deal. It's the kind of thing that the BBEG and his spies hear about long before the dragons are brought to fore.

<good suggestions>
However, the BBEG didn't have time to discover the party's alliance; it happened about 36 hours before their assault began. As part of the deal, the dragons flew the party straight there (at night to avoid detection). The deal was only possible because the dragons had a beef with Thay already and were out for revenge; I could have decided that problem meant the BBEG might have anticipated an issue with the dragons, but the grievance was caused by a different group of Red Wizards and only a few days prior to the party's first accidental meeting with the dragons. I don't think I'm selling him short to say he just didn't have enough time.

That said, your suggestions are good.