Infiltrating and toppling a fortress at low level

[Coidzor]

(This is all for Way of the Wicked, so I'm sure that a way will present itself, but I'm also curious what methods we have to create our own way)

So it looks like we'll be going to sneak into a fortress some way or another in order to secure the gates being open and do as much as we can to limit the defenders attacking the army that's going to be coming before the army is inside the gates.

Currently, we have a gunslinger, antipaladin, unsworn shaman, and unchained rogue. Each with a hat of disguise. We're all level 3 now, though we should hit level 4 before it's show time with the fortress. Since I am an Unsworn Shaman, I can get access to a floating pool of sorcerer/wizard spells in addition to my Shaman spells.

I currently have 3 triton and 4 bugbear corpses that I can make into skeletons or zombies as well, and one of the triton corpses was a boss with, I believe, Paladin levels so he should have better than average ability scores.

We have about a month to get there and signal the army before it starts to suffer from desertion and disease. 2 weeks of which the army isn't going to be in position to attack.

So far my preliminary thoughts have centered around my newfound ability to animate the dead, though since I only have access to Lesser Animate Dead, it's only one that I can make at a time, though Command Undead lets me expand the pool I have under my control.

Specifically I've thought of making it look like a local graveyard is haunted and producing undead and drawing off forces from the fortress to deal with the threat in a completely opposite direction from the way that the army is coming. I've also considered having undead attack some farmsteads on the outskirts, killing as many as possible, and then animating them and sending them towards other farmsteads, making it look like either a necromancer is on the loose or there's a nascent naturally increasing undead problem threatening to become a horde, and thus getting troops from the fortress off on a wild goose chase.

Of course, I also see potential for this heightening the fortress's alertness and yielding a net detriment to our goal. Or just taking too long.

Our Rogue has poisonmaking and I have Survival, so we could try tracking down a large quantity of poisonous material and use it to poison the fortress's food, too.

Edit: I forgot to mention last night, the fortress is guarding a bridge across a ravine and the bridge is the only way for our forces to reach the fortress, but we'll be approaching from the non-ravine side.

Additionally, we have fairly good Bluff and our Rogue has a kit and Linguistics for Forgery, so we could forge orders. We've already created a rumor that a famous witch hunting knight is laying the ground work for an invasion of the savage north, so we could potentially deplete the fortress's troop complement by reassigning them on a top secret mission, but I'm not sure about the chance of success there. I'm confident it would allow us to meet the fortress commander, though, which could still be useful for a decapitation strike.

Edit 2: They just brought up how we have a source of leprosy and filth fever is easy to get. Our Antipaladin is immune to diseases but is capable of being a carrier for them, basically acting as a Typhoid Mary.

I also saw some mention of drugs as being a potentially cheaper way to create some chaos and debuff the troops compared to poison. Any thoughts on that front?

Edit 3: There is, in fact, a farming town of unknown size near to the fortress on the side we are that is the far side from our army. This may offer another venue to deplete troops from the fort by having them tied up by unleashing disease on the town.

[Cwymbran-San]

You have Hats of Disguise? Pose as commoners, delivering foodstuffs to the castle. Find and eliminate servants (no one takes note of them), take up their roles and arrange for "accidents" to happen to guardsmen and people who get too close.
Secure your own water supply while in the castle, then poison the well. A few dead rats will do.
Take up the roles of kitchen hands, cooks and the like. Gain access to the food supply. Poison whatever foods go to the soldiers, the commanders and the like. Then assume a different cover.
It's a little like snoiping: find a spot, settle down, hit your target(s) and relocate, before they can zone in on you.
The hats will be a major advantage in this endeavour.

[Manyasone]

Considering I'm planning to play WotW in the near future...it won't be as easy as you hope, but if you have a competent DM, a lot will be clearer then.

[Eisfalken]

Um, why not just animate a few strong humanoids (orcs and such), and just put them to work digging a tunnel? I mean... that's Siege Tactics 101, mixed with a dose of Practical Necromancy 201.

Seriously, they don't get tired, if there's a collapse you aren't exactly losing much, and nobody living gets endangered. Once tunnel is dug, bring in regular troops and send in the undead first.

This actually was a tactic used in the Alphatian-Thyatian War in BECMI D&D: Thothians successfully attacked some heavy fort/keep this sort of way and successfully won without wasting resources.

[Barstro]

Find and eliminate servants (no one takes note of them), take up their roles and arrange for "accidents" to happen to guardsmen and people who get too close. ...
Take up the roles of kitchen hands, cooks and the like. Gain access to the food supply.

A fortress doesn't simply have servants who run around like ants. Actually, I guess they do; servants are an organized system where all but the very lowest are certainly known by their superior servant and all superior servants known by the head servant. Only the very lowest of servants are so untrained that their bosses would not know the person was replaced simply by the change in work performance. (the women at Makers Mark know which one of them dipped the bottles simple by the way the wax drips.)

Random guardsman is the better option, but even that will last only as long as the first shift.

[Barstro]

Um, why not just animate a few strong humanoids (orcs and such), and just put them to work digging a tunnel? I mean... that's Siege Tactics 101,

If you don't need the fortress intact, then Siege Tactics 102 is to dig a tunnel under an entire wall of the fortress and have it braced with wood as you go (to prevent a collapse). When the siege is a few hours away, you set the tunnel on fire so the wood gets too weak and the entire wall collapses. 75% of a fortress is not 75% safe.

[Coidzor]

If you don't need the fortress intact, then Siege Tactics 102 is to dig a tunnel under an entire wall of the fortress and have it braced with wood as you go (to prevent a collapse). When the siege is a few hours away, you set the tunnel on fire so the wood gets too weak and the entire wall collapses. 75% of a fortress is not 75% safe.

Tunnel might work from the side we're not having our horde attack from, but I think the ravine rules that out, since I'm not high enough level to make our own bridge to reach a lower tunnel, and if I could, I'd just bypass the fortresses entirely.

Sorry, should have mentioned that in the OP.


Um, why not just animate a few strong humanoids (orcs and such), and just put them to work digging a tunnel? I mean... that's Siege Tactics 101, mixed with a dose of Practical Necromancy 201.

Seriously, they don't get tired, if there's a collapse you aren't exactly losing much, and nobody living gets endangered. Once tunnel is dug, bring in regular troops and send in the undead first.

This actually was a tactic used in the Alphatian-Thyatian War in BECMI D&D: Thothians successfully attacked some heavy fort/keep this sort of way and successfully won without wasting resources.

My control pool of undead is limited to, IIRC, 2 * 3 + 1 right now, and another 2 after my CL increases for Command Undead plus Animate Dead, Lesser. I'll see what kind of terrain the fortress is on, but I believe it's on a foundation of rock. I'm not sure if even arming them with metal picks would allow skeletal sappers to undermine their gate wall and do so in a way that safely preserves the bridge across a ravine that our army has to cross in order to take the fortress. And that keeps to our timeframe. Unless someone has some numbers to estimate the digging time?


You have Hats of Disguise? Pose as commoners, delivering foodstuffs to the castle. Find and eliminate servants (no one takes note of them), take up their roles and arrange for "accidents" to happen to guardsmen and people who get too close.
Secure your own water supply while in the castle, then poison the well. A few dead rats will do.
Take up the roles of kitchen hands, cooks and the like. Gain access to the food supply. Poison whatever foods go to the soldiers, the commanders and the like. Then assume a different cover.
It's a little like snoiping: find a spot, settle down, hit your target(s) and relocate, before they can zone in on you.
The hats will be a major advantage in this endeavour.

Does anyone have any suggestions about either a very deadly poison or one that will be less noticeable and cripple them over time. Preferably that's relatively cheap or that's something plant-based that can be found in the wild?

I doubt that even in the couple of weeks of sea travel we've had that I've milked enough sea krait venom from my spirit animal.

I think dead rats might be too obvious and would give Filth Fever anyway.

[Coidzor]

Considering I'm planning to play WotW in the near future...it won't be as easy as you hope, but if you have a competent DM, a lot will be clearer then.

So you're saying that there won't be a clear path forward supplied by scouting and gathering information, eh?

Good thing I'm trying to leverage my character's high Int by crowdsourcing for general ideas while we're sailing there, then. :smallamused:

[Barstro]

Tunnel might work from the side we're not having our horde attack from, but I think the ravine rules that out, since I'm not high enough level to make our own bridge to reach a lower tunnel, and if I could, I'd just bypass the fortresses entirely.

Just to make my advice clear; my tunnel is not to allow access for anyone, it is destroying the foundation below a wall so the wall topples when the wood beams are burned away.

Four weeks should be enough time to do this, but the removal of that much soil (and transporting that much timber) would certainly be noticed. But even that depends on having soil you can work with. You'd need magic to do anything with stone in that amount of time.

You don't really need a bad poison (depending on their magic healing abilities). Disguising raw chicken with Prestidigitation should be enough to incapacitate an army for 12-24 hours*. Just need to serve it at the correct time.

*that relies on real-world bacteria; I do not know if there is any RAW on that sort of thing.

[Eisfalken]

Tunnel might work from the side we're not having our horde attack from, but I think the ravine rules that out, since I'm not high enough level to make our own bridge to reach a lower tunnel, and if I could, I'd just bypass the fortresses entirely.

I'll see what kind of terrain the fortress is on, but I believe it's on a foundation of rock. I'm not sure if even arming them with metal picks would allow skeletal sappers to undermine their gate wall and do so in a way that safely preserves the bridge across a ravine that our army has to cross in order to take the fortress. And that keeps to our timeframe. Unless someone has some numbers to estimate the digging time?

Okay. I got it. This is mostly foolproof.

1. Wall of force on main bridge, angled upwards towards top of gatehouse where enemy fort gate is. Wall is basically indestructible to almost any means.

2. Transmute rock to mud on front wall of gatehouse. You should be able to melt almost the entire front section; be wary of a building collapse if the gatehouse is really tall/big.

3. FLOOD that breech. They are at a huge disadvantage due to small area they are fighting in. All you really need is to get the wizard close enough to hit the gatehouse door chains with shatter or shout.

4. If possible, throw down a wall of stone ramp the same way; this is a permanent ramp into the fort now, and the enemy can't even use the front door now.

5. If possible, do another stone ramp on the other side the same way. Now you can get cavalry into the fortress. Otherwise, just lead teams to take out wall towers bit by bit, take control of the outer ring of the fort.

6. Wash, rinse, repeat next day for the inner keep, if you can't breach it the first day. Don't waste too many troops or materials trying to force entry; be patient and dismantle it with magic.

Hopefully this helps...

[Coidzor]

Okay. I got it. This is mostly foolproof.

1. Wall of force on main bridge, angled upwards towards top of gatehouse where enemy fort gate is. Wall is basically indestructible to almost any means.

2. Transmute rock to mud on front wall of gatehouse. You should be able to melt almost the entire front section; be wary of a building collapse if the gatehouse is really tall/big.

3. FLOOD that breech. They are at a huge disadvantage due to small area they are fighting in. All you really need is to get the wizard close enough to hit the gatehouse door chains with shatter or shout.

4. If possible, throw down a wall of stone ramp the same way; this is a permanent ramp into the fort now, and the enemy can't even use the front door now.

5. If possible, do another stone ramp on the other side the same way. Now you can get cavalry into the fortress. Otherwise, just lead teams to take out wall towers bit by bit, take control of the outer ring of the fort.

6. Wash, rinse, repeat next day for the inner keep, if you can't breach it the first day. Don't waste too many troops or materials trying to force entry; be patient and dismantle it with magic.

Hopefully this helps...

I don't think that I can get a wall of force scroll and reliably use it at this level with the party's current wealth. Though we did acquire 2200 gp worth of ivory which I believe is a trade good sort of item.

Using one is still a bit of an issue as none of us are big into UMD.


Just to make my advice clear; my tunnel is not to allow access for anyone, it is destroying the foundation below a wall so the wall topples when the wood beams are burned away.

Four weeks should be enough time to do this, but the removal of that much soil (and transporting that much timber) would certainly be noticed. But even that depends on having soil you can work with. You'd need magic to do anything with stone in that amount of time.

You don't really need a bad poison (depending on their magic healing abilities). Disguising raw chicken with Prestidigitation should be enough to incapacitate an army for 12-24 hours*. Just need to serve it at the correct time.

*that relies on real-world bacteria; I do not know if there is any RAW on that sort of thing.

I'm not exactly sure, and I'll confirm it when we get there in two weeks time IRL, but the whole ravine thing has me strongly suspect that there's stone and the bridge placement may also preclude such things even if I could go through the stone, since the bridge I need intact and with a place for the army to get through once across.

Oh, Prestidigitation would last that long? Excellent!

[FocusWolf413]

All of those spells are decently high level. They're level 3-4 right now.

[Elkad]

The sound of sappers digging tunnels through rock is audible through a couple hundred feet of rock. So if it's solid rock all the way to the fortress basement, some servant is going to notice the noise when he goes down to the wine cellar, even if the guards don't specifically go listen for that several times a day as part of their patrols. (which would give more warning).

Sappers leads to counter-sappers, and terrible underground fights. Except in a land of magic you'd just send a burrowing creature to kill the skeletons (who are busy digging, so probably won't defend themselves). Or with enough area just cast rock-to-mud over the tunnel and drown the miners in mud. Etc.

I wouldn't count on that as a means of assault.

[Barstro]

thing has me strongly suspect that there's stone and the bridge placement may also preclude such things even if I could go through the stone, since the bridge I need intact and with a place for the army to get through once across.

Oh, Prestidigitation would last that long? Excellent!

Bridge/tunnel: From how I now picture the fortress, I think my idea cannot work.

Prestidigitation: it lasts for an hour. This would be enough to flavor a stew so that people do not know it contains poison or raw chicken. You would have to feed the army quickly and/or cast it again.

[bean illus]

You folks are working too hard at this. Spellcasters always think there needs to be a big complex deal made of everything.

Why don't you get some fighters? Maybe you can charge the gate? lol

No really; This is a simple skill monkey job, and it's easy. Just walk in the front door and join the guardsmen. Do your best to rise quickly, don't worry your chance to shine will come when half the crew gets sick (the beer, and then the flu). After a few weeks you will be on the drawbridge crew, and if you aren't you will at least know the routine.
Then, if you're not on shift the night in question the guards will get the flu, and you'll be called in (or just kill the guard and disguise as them).

Then lower and disable the drawbridge. Presto.

Of course, once the army is at the gates there's no limit to the amount of havok that can be caused inside the castle with those hats of disguise. Walking the battlements for two minutes and re-assigning men to certain distractions is all it would take ("You there! Sargent, take these two men below and find the Captain and tell him Lieutenant Suave' needs him immediately").

Of course, then the spellcasters and the zombies can do their job.

[Calthropstu]

Toppling a fortress at low levels is no easy task, and might be out of your league.

I'd suggest warming up on a threetress first.

(useless post is useless.)

[Coidzor]

You folks are working too hard at this. Spellcasters always think there needs to be a big complex deal made of everything.

Why don't you get some fighters? Maybe you can charge the gate? lol

Our boss has about 20,000 bugbears, a tribe of hill giants, and about 20-40K goblins. Numbers of meatshields is not an issue. He also believes that it will not work to get through the gate in a timely manner. Or they'd stop the army long enough for reinforcements to show up or the alarm to reach other forces and then they'd be intercepted too soon by an enemy army before sacking enough towns and villages.


No really; This is a simple skill monkey job, and it's easy. Just walk in the front door and join the guardsmen. Do your best to rise quickly, don't worry your chance to shine will come when half the crew gets sick (the beer, and then the flu). After a few weeks you will be on the drawbridge crew, and if you aren't you will at least know the routine.
Then, if you're not on shift the night in question the guards will get the flu, and you'll be called in (or just kill the guard and disguise as them).

Then lower and disable the drawbridge. Presto.

Of course, once the army is at the gates there's no limit to the amount of havok that can be caused inside the castle with those hats of disguise. Walking the battlements for two minutes and re-assigning men to certain distractions is all it would take ("You there! Sargent, take these two men below and find the Captain and tell him Lieutenant Suave' needs him immediately").

Of course, then the spellcasters and the zombies can do their job.

Well, I'm brainstorming in case it's a bit more complicated than opening the gates while it's our shift or breaking them so they're stuck open after arranging for a patrol to get sent out.

[Eisfalken]

Our boss has about 20,000 bugbears, a tribe of hill giants, and about 20-40K goblins. Numbers of meatshields is not an issue. He also believes that it will not work to get through the gate in a timely manner. Or they'd stop the army long enough for reinforcements to show up or the alarm to reach other forces and then they'd be intercepted too soon by an enemy army before sacking enough towns and villages.

Sigh. This is the kind of info that would have been good to have beforehand.

Just send in a line of giants with tower shields sized for them, have them take total cover behind them. Now have a couple of goblins come in through the giants with knotted ropes and grappling hooks; have one giant toss it to nearest open window, parapet, or tower top. Now bugbears come up and start swarming up every available rope; you may want to even do grappling ladders from Dungeonscape, make that much easier.

Bugbears have two missions: clear the gate house so they can open the front door, and destroy any archers so the goblins can take their place and shoot into the courtyard.

Goblins go in alternating groups with bugbears (I'd send up 10 bugbears and 10 goblins in that order, keep doing it until you either don't have any left or there's no room in the fortress for them to stand). Alternately, the PCs can go first to ensure stuff is getting done.

At this point, regardless of if bugbears are clearing gate house, giants can start slamming door with greatclubs until it breaks.

After that... it's just about done. You won't likely be in control at this point; these creatures ain't known for mercy or dealing, especially once the blood gets going. Anyone not in the fortress for the final push should be on patrol all over the area looking for escape routes and catching stragglers. If you want live prisoners, better have reward for them up front.

That's the "siege" option. If you can get in by stealth, then yeah, Fall of Troy situation.

[Manyasone]

While in theory all good plans, this fortress stands at a natural chasm. They have to raise a drawbridge and nothing will get over it... While they have the weapons to fire on 'besiegers' also messages will be sent to other borderforts. They have to smart about it. WotW is all about being smart evil against the odds. Pc's should be around lvl 4 here

[Calthropstu]

While in theory all good plans, this fortress stands at a natural chasm. They have to raise a drawbridge and nothing will get over it... While they have the weapons to fire on 'besiegers' also messages will be sent to other borderforts. They have to smart about it. WotW is all about being smart evil against the odds. Pc's should be around lvl 4 here

Disabling the raising mechanism should be enough to get the army in. Though if the defenders destroy the bridge altogether, it's all over for the attack so disabling the ballista and catapults as well would be prudent. If it's impossible to do that and lower the bridge, go for the bridge.

Killing the officers would also give a huge advantage. If it comes down to a siege, you can go the kefka approach and poison their water or food.

[gtwucla]

What do you think about sneaking in, waiting till night when there are fewer guards, then working in teams to barricade the gate mechanism (or hallways leading to the main gate, or both) and taking out the guards (as quitely as possible at first). Set a time for the troops to storm the gates instead of a signal for a greater element of surprise. Anyway, that's the skeleton plan of how I'd go about it, but I'm a fan of high risk, high reward.

I'd be wary of trying to do everything. I think the key of getting the army to the gates before they know its coming is better than trying to take everything out beforehand (so however you can better facilitate that). Since you don't otherwise have immediate backup there's a really good chance you'll get in over your head and your DM won't be able to fudge the numbers if you and your team are surrounded by 20,000 hobgoblins. Once the army storms the gates then I'd go for snipering the captains and destroying the ballista.

Creating a scenario where the castle is lost should be your main goal. If you can take it you can defend it and think about the next step (provided you don't get the opportunity to route them right then and there).

[Galacktic]

Jeez Louise, some of these 'just do...' plans are pretty out there. While I'm sure they are easily possible, what do you think about sneaking in, waiting till night when there are fewer guards, then working in teams to barricade the gate mechanism (or hallways leading to the main gate, or both) and taking out the guards (as quitely as possible at first). Set a time for the troops to storm the gates instead of a signal for a greater element of surprise. Anyway, that's the skeleton plan of how I'd go about it, but I'm a fan of high risk, high reward.

Speaking as someone who's been a player in this AP, once they get there they'll have no contact with the army until they fire the signal. Maybe they can go out and talk to them after the two weeks are up, but in general, the monsters do not like you. Their leader does. But, getting them to do anything for you guys is going to be like pulling teeth - let alone something specific like that.

The army still needs to be fresh enough after this battle to keep going on and causing a big ruckus in the rest of the lands (this is basically a border/lock for the rest of the country) so expending them all in this is bad.

What we ended up doing was a combination of stealth and disguise. I'll spoiler it just in case.

So, we had three people and Grumblejack/Timeon. Our Antipaladin used his disguise self ability from the hat to look like that demon hunter that you fought earlier in the AP, which was helped by Timeon being with us and having been steadily corrupted over time. The other two characters were disguised as a noble he was escorting and a new recruit that he had. Using that, we were able to get into the keep which let the non-Antipaladin parts of the party stealth around and do stuff.

My Soulknife managed to get her hands on some poison and used it, while the one disguised as a noble was playing the social game and keeping things distracted. And we found a secret path into the keep, which we used during the night to assassinate as many of the top people as we could. There were several other complications in this but those are fairly big spoilers, so I won't go into them. Just keep in mind that this is not going to go that smoothly.

Good luck and have fun! This AP is fantastic.

[Calthropstu]

Jeez Louise, some of these 'just do...' plans are pretty out there. While I'm sure they are easily possible, what do you think about sneaking in, waiting till night when there are fewer guards, then working in teams to barricade the gate mechanism (or hallways leading to the main gate, or both) and taking out the guards (as quitely as possible at first). Set a time for the troops to storm the gates instead of a signal for a greater element of surprise. Anyway, that's the skeleton plan of how I'd go about it, but I'm a fan of high risk, high reward.

Again, it is completely lost if they decide to destroy the bridge before the army can cross. Worse yet, with the army ON the bridge. A bridge can always be rebuilt after all. You have to do a bit more than just make sure the bridge is lowered.

Killing the commanders who would think to give an order like that, or disabling their means to do so before destroying the raising mechanism is an absolute necessity. Doing both is best.

[Barstro]

Jeez Louise, some of these 'just do...' plans are pretty out there. While I'm sure they are easily possible, what do you think about sneaking in, waiting till night when there are fewer guards, then working in teams to barricade the gate mechanism (or hallways leading to the main gate, or both) and taking out the guards (as quitely as possible at first). Set a time for the troops to storm the gates instead of a signal for a greater element of surprise. Anyway, that's the skeleton plan of how I'd go about it, but I'm a fan of high risk, high reward.

The main problem is that this is a very linear plan.

1) Sneak in (note: cannot break in, since there's one door. Could go in as peasants as mentioned above)
2) Then work as teams (now we're sneaking in a lot of people) to barricade the gate mechanism.
3) While doing that, take out guards.

Step 1 is already difficult, but at least immediate failure would lead one to come up with a new plan.

Step 2 would have to be done the day of the attack. Doing it sooner would lead to its detection. There is no way to alter the plan if this does not work.

Also, this is the only entrance to the fort. That means it's the most important thing to guard. Barricading it is not something one just sneaks in and does.

Step 3 just seems impossible. Even if you completed Step 2 enough to get to step 3, this is a fortress; guards do not just go missing and people fail to notice for hours. When guards are not when/where they are supposed to be, investigation begins.

Without having a legitimate reason to be at the gate mechanism, this will never work. Even with a legitimate reason, there should be a Plan B for when a more intelligent guard wonders why the mechanism is being broken.

Possible solution;
Since we are dealing with weeks, there might be enough time to slightly damage the mechanism enough that the stationed guards need help to repair it. (Rust, broken gear, bee infestation, damaged chain).

The PCs would have an easier time "replacing" the incoming work crew so they have access to the mechanism.

THEN, real repairs can be made, while sabotaging a slightly different area. (Mechanism is broken? Fix that, but weaken the bolts holding the chain to the drawbridge).

Meanwhile (this is a repair that will take days (you're in a union)) damage the food stores, etc. Import some strong booze or some nudie mags so the guards are busy doing other things and are a bit delayed in coming to the fight when the attack happens.

Another thought; as part of the repairs, the fortress will be on high alert. Strengthen that. Request that all available guard the gate while it is down. Make sure it stays down for repairs. Keep it stuck closed if half the army is stranded outside. THEN open it to let the hoard in.

[Barstro]

Again, it is completely lost if they decide to destroy the bridge before the army can cross.

It would take quite a while to burn a bridge like that if it's open. Fire doesn't really want to spread horizontally.

But, this is a very good point.

[gtwucla]

The main problem is that this is a very linear plan.

1) Sneak in (note: cannot break in, since there's one door. Could go in as peasants as mentioned above)
2) Then work as teams (now we're sneaking in a lot of people) to barricade the gate mechanism.
3) While doing that, take out guards.

Step 1 is already difficult, but at least immediate failure would lead one to come up with a new plan.

Step 2 would have to be done the day of the attack. Doing it sooner would lead to its detection. There is no way to alter the plan if this does not work.

Also, this is the only entrance to the fort. That means it's the most important thing to guard. Barricading it is not something one just sneaks in and does.

Step 3 just seems impossible. Even if you completed Step 2 enough to get to step 3, this is a fortress; guards do not just go missing and people fail to notice for hours. When guards are not when/where they are supposed to be, investigation begins.

Without having a legitimate reason to be at the gate mechanism, this will never work. Even with a legitimate reason, there should be a Plan B for when a more intelligent guard wonders why the mechanism is being broken.

Possible solution;
Since we are dealing with weeks, there might be enough time to slightly damage the mechanism enough that the stationed guards need help to repair it. (Rust, broken gear, bee infestation, damaged chain).

The PCs would have an easier time "replacing" the incoming work crew so they have access to the mechanism.

THEN, real repairs can be made, while sabotaging a slightly different area. (Mechanism is broken? Fix that, but weaken the bolts holding the chain to the drawbridge).

Meanwhile (this is a repair that will take days (you're in a union)) damage the food stores, etc. Import some strong booze or some nudie mags so the guards are busy doing other things and are a bit delayed in coming to the fight when the attack happens.

Another thought; as part of the repairs, the fortress will be on high alert. Strengthen that. Request that all available guard the gate while it is down. Make sure it stays down for repairs. Keep it stuck closed if half the army is stranded outside. THEN open it to let the hoard in.

Hm, I guess I'm coming at this with the assumption that all parties only have access to low level spells. What's the lowest level spell that can destroy a bridge? Maybe some intel gathering would be prudent first.

Step 2,3 though I was thinking do step 3, and then use spells/prepared items to destroy ways into the main entrance (thinking that can be done fairly quickly). That way you've narrowed the way in, making it more defensible.

[Barstro]

Hm, I guess I'm coming at this with the assumption that all parties only have access to low level spells. What's the lowest level spell that can destroy a bridge? Maybe some intel gathering would be prudent first.

Step 2,3 though I was thinking do step 3, and then use spells/prepared items to destroy ways into the main entrance (thinking that can be done fairly quickly). That way you've narrowed the way in, making it more defensible.

My issue isn't so much with your plan itself, more with the fact that a single failure along the way ruins it all and that failure cannot be known until it's too late to come up with a new plan.

I'm still bothered by this "destroy the bridge" thing. What exactly does this entrance look like? Anything with "destroy the bridge" as a defense makes me think that such a structure is built so that it's not just an option of last resort, but a well known option. In fact, the bridge would be built in such a way that it could easily be destroyed from inside the fortress. Even making it so the bridge could be rebuilt in just a couple days would be a sound tactic to delay a siege long enough for reinforcements to arrive. IF that's the case, then even the lowest of soldiers would know to destroy the bridge at the sight of 20,000 non-friendlies.

[gtwucla]

My issue isn't so much with your plan itself, more with the fact that a single failure along the way ruins it all and that failure cannot be known until it's too late to come up with a new plan.

I'm still bothered by this "destroy the bridge" thing. What exactly does this entrance look like? Anything with "destroy the bridge" as a defense makes me think that such a structure is built so that it's not just an option of last resort, but a well known option. In fact, the bridge would be built in such a way that it could easily be destroyed from inside the fortress. Even making it so the bridge could be rebuilt in just a couple days would be a sound tactic to delay a siege long enough for reinforcements to arrive. IF that's the case, then even the lowest of soldiers would know to destroy the bridge at the sight of 20,000 non-friendlies.

I'll give you that, it's definitely a no guts no glory plan. It'd be a hell of a fun session though.

How about this, you go to your boss, convince him to get this meat head of an army to commit most of the force to moving one mile up river (just within sight of the fortress) and begin building rafts to ford the river. Make a big show of it in an attempt to goad a large force from the fortress. Meanwhile, you sneak into the castle however way you can (or maybe you've already snuck in? dug in?) and when/if the force is goaded out, attack the gate, throw it open, signal, and the small force of a few thousand hidden troops storms the castle and takes it. Leaves you a little wiggle room.

[Barstro]

How about this, you go to your boss, convince him to get this meat head of an army to commit most of the force to moving one mile up river (just within sight of the fortress) etc.

False movement is a very valid and often used tactic. The trick will be doing something that is so imminently dangerous to the fortress that they send out forces. If they know they cannot be successfully attacked from the river, then there is no reason to leave the fortress in the first place.

[Calthropstu]

It would take quite a while to burn a bridge like that if it's open. Fire doesn't really want to spread horizontally.

But, this is a very good point.

Catapults generally destroy things without needing to set them on fire. Large rock meet bridge...

Edit:
Of course, a well prepared attacker would have a makeshift bridge to replace it with. Which means the primary thing here is to require that they destroy the bridge so it can't be used to block the way...

Also to prevent any form of portcullis to be lowered, and to raise said portcullis if it IS lowered.

Armies have a huge amount of resources, and both armies need to have counters upon counters ready for any eventuality.

[Barstro]

Catapults generally destroy things without needing to set them on fire. Large rock meet bridge...

Edit:
Of course, a well prepared attacker would have a makeshift bridge to replace it with. Which means the primary thing here is to require that they destroy the bridge so it can't be used to block the way...

Also to prevent any form of portcullis to be lowered, and to raise said portcullis if it IS lowered.

Armies have a huge amount of resources, and both armies need to have counters upon counters ready for any eventuality.

1) Catapults are not the best for aiming at vertical surfaces.
2) Even if aimed correctly, hitting the middle of a surface does very little to topple it. You generally start at the top and work your way down.
3) I've heard nothing about this army actually having siege engines (they are NOT easy to transport)
3) A makeshift bridge works only for small spans. I have not seen the actual layout, but if I were designing something like this, the drawbridge would be 15-20 feet high/long, and there would be the REST of a bridge from the end of the drawbridge to the mainland that is at least another 30 feet. That main bridge would have weak spots that can be easily broken in case of emergency. Invading armies, even if they have 50-foot makeshift bridges, would have a lot of trouble spanning that gap just to run into a closed drawbridge.

You really need an inside man for this to work.

[Coidzor]

So I was going through spells I have access to, and found Raiment of Command and Vocal Alteration.

It seems like combining those with my Hat(crown) of Disguise would give a hefty bonus to Disguise to impersonate officers. Really wish I could cast Raiment of Command on our antipaladin and rogue, though, but personal only. :/

[Cwymbran-San]

Really wish I could cast Raiment of Command on our antipaladin and rogue, though, but personal only. :/

If you have the time to spare, why nor research the spell you need/want? As a DM, i would find the idea reasonable if a spellcaster tried to alter an existing spell to suit his/her needs.

[Coidzor]

If you have the time to spare, why nor research the spell you need/want? As a DM, i would find the idea reasonable if a spellcaster tried to alter an existing spell to suit his/her needs.

Point. I'm not quite sure if I have enough time to research it, I'll have to *find* those rules.

I'm also not quite sure how researching it would work since I'm a Shaman who is using Lore Spirit to access a spell on the Wizard/Sorcerer spell list. :smallconfused:

[Fayd]

You have a gunslinger and someone who can conjure elementals. What I propose is not exactly infiltration, but it worked for me. Your mileage may vary.

You have access to a theoretically infinite supply of gunpowder because you can make it. Someone who can work metal can help you make some shaped charges. You can light them with conjured fire elementals.

This isn't exactly a tactic so much as a weaponized concept for you to include like pepper in the dish that is your plan.

[Galacktic]

Point. I'm not quite sure if I have enough time to research it, I'll have to *find* those rules.

I'm also not quite sure how researching it would work since I'm a Shaman who is using Lore Spirit to access a spell on the Wizard/Sorcerer spell list. :smallconfused:

Throwing it out there, even if your character -could- do that, you seriously don't have enough time to do so. Either on the trip there or once you get there.

[Calthropstu]

1) Catapults are not the best for aiming at vertical surfaces.
2) Even if aimed correctly, hitting the middle of a surface does very little to topple it. You generally start at the top and work your way down.
3) I've heard nothing about this army actually having siege engines (they are NOT easy to transport)
3) A makeshift bridge works only for small spans. I have not seen the actual layout, but if I were designing something like this, the drawbridge would be 15-20 feet high/long, and there would be the REST of a bridge from the end of the drawbridge to the mainland that is at least another 30 feet. That main bridge would have weak spots that can be easily broken in case of emergency. Invading armies, even if they have 50-foot makeshift bridges, would have a lot of trouble spanning that gap just to run into a closed drawbridge.

You really need an inside man for this to work.

You misunderstood the proposed scenario.

The PCs succeed in disabling the drawbridge, it can no longer be pulled up. In order to save the fortress, the defenders launch catapult fire and other attempts at the bridge in order to destroy it so it can't be crossed. Ideally, the PCs will already have disabled this. Alternatively, they will have incapacitated the decision makers who would think of or authorize such a plan.

[Endarire]

Can you just launch some disease carrier things (corpses, food, etc.) into the fortress from afar or have them snuck in?

[Coidzor]

Had an idea the other day to distribute some tracts of the fortress's religion and have Incendiary or Explosive Runes included, say, near the middle of the end.

Now if only there were a way to coordinate a bunch of them being read simultaneously....
Can you just launch some disease carrier things (corpses, food, etc.) into the fortress from afar or have them snuck in?

We're looking into what kinds of diseases we can pick up for our antipaladin to pick up and go all Typhoid Mary on the kitchen and water supply of the fortress or directly communicate to people around town and in the fortress proper.

Any suggestions for how to get access to diseases would be appreciated. So far one that stuck out to me was Lesser Cursed Terrain which allows one to basically have a bunch of mosquitos and flies that give one of a variety of low power diseases. Individually not that powerful, but I think that infecting people with multiple different diseases would have a multiplicative effect. Or at least require more saves which means more chances of rolling 1.


You misunderstood the proposed scenario.

The PCs succeed in disabling the drawbridge, it can no longer be pulled up. In order to save the fortress, the defenders launch catapult fire and other attempts at the bridge in order to destroy it so it can't be crossed. Ideally, the PCs will already have disabled this. Alternatively, they will have incapacitated the decision makers who would think of or authorize such a plan.

Good point. Any suggestions for how to subtly disable them without it being obvious, or should I look into covering them with Incendiary Runes if I find out that they don't do drills with them regularly or something? I need to see how good our rogue would be at replacing a key commander or subcommander.


Throwing it out there, even if your character -could- do that, you seriously don't have enough time to do so. Either on the trip there or once you get there.

I had a feeling that was probably the case. Takes something like months per spell level, right?


You have a gunslinger and someone who can conjure elementals. What I propose is not exactly infiltration, but it worked for me. Your mileage may vary.

You have access to a theoretically infinite supply of gunpowder because you can make it. Someone who can work metal can help you make some shaped charges. You can light them with conjured fire elementals.

This isn't exactly a tactic so much as a weaponized concept for you to include like pepper in the dish that is your plan.

Hmm. Any rules for gunpowder-based explosives or is all there is the 5d6 fire damage of igniting a keg of gunpowder? It seems unlikely that 30 max, 17.5 average damage is going to do much to a room unless made of wood. Hmm. Are there rules for fire damage setting flammable objects on fire generally or does an effect that deals fire damage have to call out that it can spread fires?

Hmm. I just had an idea for a use of Incendiary Runes as a trigger for a barrel of gunpowder. 1d6 no save in a small area, then 5d6, reflex half(?), in a wider one. Heh. Envelopes sealed with "in event of attack, open these orders," right by the gunpowder barrels for the catapults to attack the drawbridge or approaching army. Now there's an idea for forged orders, an order from high command to try out gunpowder barrels flung from catapults and sealed orders for each catapult crew. Or some way to arrange for them to remove the barrel lid which has incendiary runes on it...

[killem2]

Remember that your job is to ruin this fortress. This doesn't mean you have to kill anyone. Never forget the setting you are in. This is a country that is secluded from the rest of the world, or at least secluded enough to be it's own little social ecosystem.

People are skittish, and devout followers of Mitra. Either by choice or force, regardless it's the one thing you can count on.

Also, do not give up the lush resources that may be available in Aldencross. (book 7 has a map of this). Sure it's not exactly close to the fortress but before you go guns blazing or going mission impossible you should gather intel!

[Coidzor]

Remember that your job is to ruin this fortress. This doesn't mean you have to kill anyone. Never forget the setting you are in. This is a country that is secluded from the rest of the world, or at least secluded enough to be it's own little social ecosystem.

People are skittish, and devout followers of Mitra. Either by choice or force, regardless it's the one thing you can count on.

Also, do not give up the lush resources that may be available in Aldencross. (book 7 has a map of this). Sure it's not exactly close to the fortress but before you go guns blazing or going mission impossible you should gather intel!

Hmm, true. I hadn't considered that social ecosystem aspect enough. We do want to get some murder on, though, or otherwise do something to acquire enough XP to get up to 5th level and have 3rd level spells to play with.

Yeah, we didn't skip Aldencross, we're currently trying to learn as much information as we can as quickly as we can because there's apparently a play coming up and we want to have some idea of what to do or look for when we're there for that.

We also finally learned that there's apparently 100 men stationed at the fortress, which was good since we kinda got rushed through asking our boss about the details of the mission with Balentyne before leaving in the first place. :smallredface:

Currently we're trying to find an angle to take advantage of Captain Varning and his patrols on this side of the river (after spending two entire sessions thinking that he went out into the savage north and patrolled along that side of the river due to a miscommunication) and figuring out how to take advantage of the love triangle(?) between Captain Edderly and Captain Mott and Mott's Wife.

Found out the Commander only leaves Balentyne for Aldencross if it's a dire emergency, haven't yet been able to figure out what has gotten him to leave in the past or what would constitute a dire enough emergency. Also found out that he bans alcohol in the fortress, but that the innkeeper knows of a secret tunnel in and out of the fortress and sometimes filches things from the fortress and last night stole a bottle of fine elven wine from the fortress which he then tried to sell to us which we bought, though I don't think we have access to any spells that would let us know who the proper owner would be.

We're currently probably way too invested in preparing for the Aldencross market, to be honest, with my character making some flint knives to fob off as curiosities from the Yutak or the forest people from Caer Bryr that the Talingardians don't normally interact with and our rogue wanting to make a bunch of arsenic flavored candies to cover up buying out the local alchemist's entire stock of arsenic while in her primary disguise. Since apparently our main cover identity at the moment is as traveling traders, currently dealing in curiosities.

We're also spending some time going out and infecting our Antipaladin with Filth Fever and as many (tropical) diseases from Lesser Curse Terrain as we can in order to try to take advantage of this opportunity to contaminate this Mama Giuseppe character's beef stew that apparently *everyone* in the fortress is going to eat with a bunch of his infected bodily fluids and the like. Our GM also mentioned that if we tried to use something like Arsenic to poison a large quantity of food or it was cooked into food it would probably just make the people that ate it sick instead of having its normal effect unless we used a huge number of doses. Which lead to an inconclusive discussion of finding out whether Hemlock or Poison Oak/Ivy/Sumac or Stinging Nettles grew in the area so we could take advantage of Survival checks to gather it and maybe use alchemy or poison-making to concentrate it into an oil or something.

Even started a thread about lead poisoning (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?505912-Any-rules-for-lead-or-metal-poisoning) since I remembered they really like a very sweet mead in this area and a comment about lead reminded me that sugar of lead can be used as a sweetener and was used to adulterate wine going back to the Romans. If Tears to Wine works like I think it does, then that means I can basically make 16 gallons of mead, or a rundlet or kilderkin size cask each time I cast it, or two firkin-sized casks.

Got a deal with a local wizard to make us a wand... once we think of a wand of a wizard spell that we would like, either now or for the future. So any suggestions on that front would be appreciated. His default stock only covers 1st and 2nd level spells, but you have to be able to cast 3rd level spells as a wizard to even make a wand, so I'm thinking Wizard 1 to 3 spells are what's what there.

We're also fascinated by this long-abandoned warehouse and a vacant mansion that we're probably going to rent, though at least having *a* room in the inn would be good for the access to the tunnel.

And here I am trying to work out who to cast Discern Next of Kin on.

[FreddyNoNose]

You could build a large wooden badger.

[Coidzor]

Well, I suppose I do have a bunch of undead for labor, but being mindless that's a -5(?) to their Aid Another for Craft, so I don't think we'd get a Balentynian Badger together in time.

So right now I'm currently brainstorming 1. how to acquire Poison Oak in quantity, 2. how to mundanely give a person dysentery and other diseases(do they just have to drink water that has human/animal waste in it?), 3. how to contaminate food prior to cooking and during cooking so that it at least gives food poisoning if not an actual disease of some sort, 4. what I can do with a whole bunch of rotten boar, human, and triton meat, and 5. what kind of emergency we can create or engineer that would draw out the soldiers/commander of the fortress into town without having them signal to other fortresses to come to their aid.

Also, I suppose, what sort of steps to take to investigate who created this flesh golem we found after investigating an abandoned warehouse, other than just posting a watch. Also, how to discretely investigate whom the flesh golem might be made out of, since the head appeared to be that of a nobleman.

[killem2]

Well, I suppose I do have a bunch of undead for labor, but being mindless that's a -5(?) to their Aid Another for Craft, so I don't think we'd get a Balentynian Badger together in time.

So right now I'm currently brainstorming 1. how to acquire Poison Oak in quantity.

Have you actually checked with the local shops that sell poison? Not all poison has to be black lotus :P. People still need to kill rodents and bugs and such I assume.

[Coidzor]

Any thoughts on a low level wand to have made for us by the local hedge wizard? We'd be getting it at a discount due to our supply of ivory, and we plan to murder/rob him anyway to get back our costs and the wand he's planning to make for himself with what we're paying him, since he detects as good.


Have you actually checked with the local shops that sell poison? Not all poison has to be black lotus :P. People still need to kill rodents and bugs and such I assume.

We've bought out most of the local alchemist shop's supply of Arsenic under various identities, though we may end up not buying the last one, depending, since there's some chance we can use Sow Thought and arrange for one of the captains of the fortress to poison one of the other captains, which would conveniently eliminate two sub-commanders of Balentyne in one go, so long as we made sure he was caught or able to be fingered.

Hadn't thought about looking into generic rat poison and the like, though. I suppose since the goal is more "contaminate a bunch of food and make dudes sick" and less "poison a dude to death," we might not have to think as rigidly inside the box of the poison system. Contaminated blood and fecal matter from our typhoid mary antipaladin seems fairly promising for that purpose, too. Especially since I think Prestidigitation can make a few phials of his blood look like water or even a "cleaning agent" if the fortress turns out to have a well instead of drawing directly from the nearby river. Definitely going to take advantage of the secret tunnel under the inn and smuggle some contaminated booze into the joint, especially since we know that someone is already smuggling alcohol into the fort since the innkeeper is stealing booze from there. Wanna try to cut down on the amount of contaminated booze that the innkeeper would steal and sell to regular customers, though, I think, in order to maximize the effect on the soldiers. Then again, I suppose having some cases of the illness crop up in town would help put concerns about it being a deliberate attack at ease. Or maybe getting a bunch of townsfolk sick would lure the fortresses's resident cleric into town.

Kinda sad that I haven't been able to think of an angle for corrupting anyone yet. The reeve who is actually running Aldencross definitely seems greedy and is connected to the seediness going on with the abandoned warehouse which connects to an abandoned house which connects to a laboratory where a flesh golem was made. Which seems a bit strange for the patsy of the Lord Commander of Balentyne, since it seems like he's supposed to be a better judge of character than that from the way everyone keeps talking about him.

Need to double check with the Knowledge Local/History people and DM what the expected response would be if we engaged in some minor sabotage and framed someone else that was prominent as a secret Asmodean, to see whether that line of thinking is worthwhile. I really like that idea, on the whole.

Another thing I've been thinking about has been how to make sure we're able to keep ahold of all of our stuff, since some of it is a bit bulky and even if we liquidate the treasurey stuff, the gold is a bit bulky at 6000gp that we're supposed to cart back to our boss without extradimensional storage and having had to burn the ship that took us here. I guess I'll check out what kind of boats the villagers have next session and see if I should steal one before we initiate Code Boom and hide it outside of town and away from the projected path of bugbears. OTOH, we may just bury some stuff in the basement of the mansion we've taken over, or hide our cart out in the woods, guarded by some undead.

[killem2]

Any thoughts on a low level wand to have made for us by the local hedge wizard? We'd be getting it at a discount due to our supply of ivory, and we plan to murder/rob him anyway to get back our costs and the wand he's planning to make for himself with what we're paying him, since he detects as good.



We've bought out most of the local alchemist shop's supply of Arsenic under various identities, though we may end up not buying the last one, depending, since there's some chance we can use Sow Thought and arrange for one of the captains of the fortress to poison one of the other captains, which would conveniently eliminate two sub-commanders of Balentyne in one go, so long as we made sure he was caught or able to be fingered.

Hadn't thought about looking into generic rat poison and the like, though. I suppose since the goal is more "contaminate a bunch of food and make dudes sick" and less "poison a dude to death," we might not have to think as rigidly inside the box of the poison system. Contaminated blood and fecal matter from our typhoid mary antipaladin seems fairly promising for that purpose, too. Especially since I think Prestidigitation can make a few phials of his blood look like water or even a "cleaning agent" if the fortress turns out to have a well instead of drawing directly from the nearby river. Definitely going to take advantage of the secret tunnel under the inn and smuggle some contaminated booze into the joint, especially since we know that someone is already smuggling alcohol into the fort since the innkeeper is stealing booze from there. Wanna try to cut down on the amount of contaminated booze that the innkeeper would steal and sell to regular customers, though, I think, in order to maximize the effect on the soldiers. Then again, I suppose having some cases of the illness crop up in town would help put concerns about it being a deliberate attack at ease. Or maybe getting a bunch of townsfolk sick would lure the fortresses's resident cleric into town.

Kinda sad that I haven't been able to think of an angle for corrupting anyone yet. The reeve who is actually running Aldencross definitely seems greedy and is connected to the seediness going on with the abandoned warehouse which connects to an abandoned house which connects to a laboratory where a flesh golem was made. Which seems a bit strange for the patsy of the Lord Commander of Balentyne, since it seems like he's supposed to be a better judge of character than that from the way everyone keeps talking about him.

Need to double check with the Knowledge Local/History people and DM what the expected response would be if we engaged in some minor sabotage and framed someone else that was prominent as a secret Asmodean, to see whether that line of thinking is worthwhile. I really like that idea, on the whole.

Another thing I've been thinking about has been how to make sure we're able to keep ahold of all of our stuff, since some of it is a bit bulky and even if we liquidate the treasurey stuff, the gold is a bit bulky at 6000gp that we're supposed to cart back to our boss without extradimensional storage and having had to burn the ship that took us here. I guess I'll check out what kind of boats the villagers have next session and see if I should steal one before we initiate Code Boom and hide it outside of town and away from the projected path of bugbears. OTOH, we may just bury some stuff in the basement of the mansion we've taken over, or hide our cart out in the woods, guarded by some undead.

Can you advise me of what you have discovered this far in this new city?

I was the DM of this AP (almost done with book two) so before I speak about suggestions, I just want to make sure I'm not giving something away :)

[Coidzor]

Can you advise me of what you have discovered this far in this new city?

I was the DM of this AP (almost done with book two) so before I speak about suggestions, I just want to make sure I'm not giving something away :)

So far we've discovered there's a Reeve who likes to put on airs of being a noble and is keen on making money and handles the day to day administration of the town, or at least is in charge of the Talireanian governmental clerks at the town hall and has a small force of guards.

There's a tavern and inn, The Lord's Dalliance, which is a strange name for an inn, but we forgot to ask about the weird name. The innkeeper there is called Barholde, and he's a thief, and he uses a tunnel between his basement and Balentyne which is of dwarven construction and leads to one of the towers of Balentyne where there's storage in a basement and then above it is an armory/smithy type area and above that is stairs that lead up to a watch post. He wanted to sell us some genuine fine elven wine that he stole from the fortress, somewhere. Our rogue neglected to scope out where the stash of booze actually was. The innkeeper does not detect as Good, but also does not detect as an Asmodean.

There's a smithy, the guy there will do commissions on masterwork arms and armor, and has a small stock of standard Talireanian soldier gear surplus and also supplies the fortress with arms and armor. When asking him about what things he's interested in, all he revealed was high quality iron.

There's a church, where a lesser clergyman tends to it because the actual priest is almost always at the fortress and we just missed the last Mittran Feast Day or holy day and the next one isn't scheduled until after our time window expires. The priest is often either tending to the spiritual matters of the soldiers or trying to cheer up the depressed, dour lord commander who is married to his work.

There's an abandoned warehouse and someone was using it to store goods. The Reeve himself is in charge of it, rather than the town itself. There's a path behind it leading to a house full of empty crates with a hidden trap door leading to an alchemical laboratory with a flesh golem that seemed more curious than hostile but our rogue ran away from it anyway. The golem has a black dude's arm, a white dude's arm, and what appears to be a middle-aged nobleman's head. We figure that if we lured it out into the town, it might cause enough of a ruckus to lead to the Lord Commander coming down from the fortress.

The lord commander is dour, even by dwarven standards. He apparently has a son that he never sees that people think is stationed elsewhere and part of the army of Talingarde. He forbids alcohol in the fortress, even weak beer and even for the officers, due to being a hard-line Mittran Teetotaler.

It seems like around 6-10 soldiers from Balentyne maximum are allowed down from the fortress every night to have dinner and drink at the inn. There are reputedly 100 soldiers in Balentyne, but we think that this doesn't count the officers.

There is a wizard at Balentyne, we know his name but I forgot it offhand, probably something like Tyberius. The local hedgewizard resents him and his boasting about his wand of fireballs that he apparently will show to anyone who wants to see it so he can brag about it, and the wizard apparently loves to use it every chance he can get, so he may be a pyromaniac.

The local hedgewizard has some 1st and 2nd level scrolls and a smattering of potions. He's *very* interested in our ivory and will make us a 1st or 2nd level wand in exchange for the necessary ivory and enough ivory to make his own wand. We forgot to ask what his full selection of spells for the wand would be, so we're kinda assuming he doesn't have 3rd level spells due to not offering any for sale in scroll form.

The local alchemist stocks a small quantity of Arsenic. Due to Skype difficulties, I never asked him about what he was interested in or his full stock of wares or else I just didn't hear the GM describe it.

There's a general store where we bought a cart, run by an old man.

There's a meadery which has Timon's Black, which is what everyone at Balentyne loves, though the dwarves think it's a bit sweet.

There's a team of dwarves doing maintenance work on the fortress.

There's a play in a couple of days being put on by this universe's hybrid of Shakespeare, Marlow, and one of the other famous playwrights of that time period. There's a bit of scandal because they have actresses instead of just actors. We're going to go attend the play in order to find out about the

Mama Giuseppe is a local goodwife whose son was stationed at Balentyne for a while but moved on a few months ago. She still feeds the entire fortress once a week. We plan on taking advantage of that to poison the fortress and make them all sick before the bugbear attack or as part of framing someone else for sabotage in order to remove a sub-commander. When the market happens in Aldencross, she always sells out of her cooking and almost always has a booth herself.

Captain Varning likes to go on camping trips to scout along the coastline on the Talingarde side of the river border between it and the North. He didn't stumble upon where we hid our loot and skeletons for the few days we left them outside of town before we rented the mansion. We have a rough idea of how long his camping trips are, so we're probably going to attempt to find him and ambush him the next time he goes out, since we're not sure if we even could try to set up an ambush for him now while he's out this time, with no clear idea which direction he went.

Captain Mott, if not a noble himself, is from a well-connected and well-to-do commoner family and has his own house in town, something that only one or two other people at Balentyne have. We're not sure whether it's because he has a wife that he's allowed to do this or just a money thing, though. He has a wife, Kathryn, who is apparently signfiicantly younger than him. He's also supposed to be a workaholic and may be a cuckold, staying out late working on something or taking nights watches and leaving her home alone.

Captain Zak Eddarly hates Mott and would duel him, either to the death or just to get his marriage annulled or divorced or something so that he can marry Kathryn. We're currently considering either A. manipulating him into killing Mott or B. framing him for killing Mott. He may be having sex with Kathryn behind Mott's back. We want to confirm if this is the case before we proceed with either plan, so we can account for her, and whether we need to kill her too or do something unpleasant to her or can just leave her alive as the witness to finger Eddarly.

There is an abandoned mansion that used to be a church. There's a soundproofed basement and ample storage and workshop space. We decided to rent it. The Baron who lived there, Osterman, basically gave it to the Reeve to deal with when he moved to Gaston Hall or Gastenhall or something. Our Antipaladin decided to make a small shrine to Asmodeus in the furthest part of the basement.

There's a market space. As part of our cover, we're opening up a stall there and selling off some of our curiosities, hopefully, or at least displaying our curiosities and keeping up appearances of being traders. Since the Talingardians or Taliraneans or whatever are supposed to be xenophobic, I've been having trouble deciding what sort of stuff to bluff up as artifacts of interest to them as opposed to things they'll just hate because they're different.

There's a watchtower in town, from which you can see Balentyne easily.

There's a dock north of town with fishing boats and the like. Currently I'm thinking of stealing one in order to keep our loot safe from the bugbear horde, since I don't have any other good ideas for where to stash loot.

As far as we're aware, the standing operating procedure is for the Antipaladin to scan everyone we meet, and I think only the innkeeper and his wife and maybe the Reeve haven't pinged as Good to his Detect Good.

We know that Belladonna and Hemlock grow wild in Talingarde and have found some in the surrounding wilderness, of which some of it doesn't seem to be used even by hunters, though we know there are hunters.

[killem2]

So far we've discovered there's a Reeve who likes to put on airs of being a noble and is keen on making money and handles the day to day administration of the town, or at least is in charge of the Talireanian governmental clerks at the town hall and has a small force of guards.

There's a tavern and inn, The Lord's Dalliance, which is a strange name for an inn, but we forgot to ask about the weird name. The innkeeper there is called Barholde, and he's a thief, and he uses a tunnel between his basement and Balentyne which is of dwarven construction and leads to one of the towers of Balentyne where there's storage in a basement and then above it is an armory/smithy type area and above that is stairs that lead up to a watch post. He wanted to sell us some genuine fine elven wine that he stole from the fortress, somewhere. Our rogue neglected to scope out where the stash of booze actually was. The innkeeper does not detect as Good, but also does not detect as an Asmodean.

There's a smithy, the guy there will do commissions on masterwork arms and armor, and has a small stock of standard Talireanian soldier gear surplus and also supplies the fortress with arms and armor. When asking him about what things he's interested in, all he revealed was high quality iron.

There's a church, where a lesser clergyman tends to it because the actual priest is almost always at the fortress and we just missed the last Mittran Feast Day or holy day and the next one isn't scheduled until after our time window expires. The priest is often either tending to the spiritual matters of the soldiers or trying to cheer up the depressed, dour lord commander who is married to his work.

There's an abandoned warehouse and someone was using it to store goods. The Reeve himself is in charge of it, rather than the town itself. There's a path behind it leading to a house full of empty crates with a hidden trap door leading to an alchemical laboratory with a flesh golem that seemed more curious than hostile but our rogue ran away from it anyway. The golem has a black dude's arm, a white dude's arm, and what appears to be a middle-aged nobleman's head. We figure that if we lured it out into the town, it might cause enough of a ruckus to lead to the Lord Commander coming down from the fortress.

The lord commander is dour, even by dwarven standards. He apparently has a son that he never sees that people think is stationed elsewhere and part of the army of Talingarde. He forbids alcohol in the fortress, even weak beer and even for the officers, due to being a hard-line Mittran Teetotaler.

It seems like around 6-10 soldiers from Balentyne maximum are allowed down from the fortress every night to have dinner and drink at the inn. There are reputedly 100 soldiers in Balentyne, but we think that this doesn't count the officers.

There is a wizard at Balentyne, we know his name but I forgot it offhand, probably something like Tyberius. The local hedgewizard resents him and his boasting about his wand of fireballs that he apparently will show to anyone who wants to see it so he can brag about it, and the wizard apparently loves to use it every chance he can get, so he may be a pyromaniac.

The local hedgewizard has some 1st and 2nd level scrolls and a smattering of potions. He's *very* interested in our ivory and will make us a 1st or 2nd level wand in exchange for the necessary ivory and enough ivory to make his own wand. We forgot to ask what his full selection of spells for the wand would be, so we're kinda assuming he doesn't have 3rd level spells due to not offering any for sale in scroll form.

The local alchemist stocks a small quantity of Arsenic. Due to Skype difficulties, I never asked him about what he was interested in or his full stock of wares or else I just didn't hear the GM describe it.

There's a general store where we bought a cart, run by an old man.

There's a meadery which has Timon's Black, which is what everyone at Balentyne loves, though the dwarves think it's a bit sweet.

There's a team of dwarves doing maintenance work on the fortress.

There's a play in a couple of days being put on by this universe's hybrid of Shakespeare, Marlow, and one of the other famous playwrights of that time period. There's a bit of scandal because they have actresses instead of just actors. We're going to go attend the play in order to find out about the

Mama Giuseppe is a local goodwife whose son was stationed at Balentyne for a while but moved on a few months ago. She still feeds the entire fortress once a week. We plan on taking advantage of that to poison the fortress and make them all sick before the bugbear attack or as part of framing someone else for sabotage in order to remove a sub-commander. When the market happens in Aldencross, she always sells out of her cooking and almost always has a booth herself.

Captain Varning likes to go on camping trips to scout along the coastline on the Talingarde side of the river border between it and the North. He didn't stumble upon where we hid our loot and skeletons for the few days we left them outside of town before we rented the mansion. We have a rough idea of how long his camping trips are, so we're probably going to attempt to find him and ambush him the next time he goes out, since we're not sure if we even could try to set up an ambush for him now while he's out this time, with no clear idea which direction he went.

Captain Mott, if not a noble himself, is from a well-connected and well-to-do commoner family and has his own house in town, something that only one or two other people at Balentyne have. We're not sure whether it's because he has a wife that he's allowed to do this or just a money thing, though. He has a wife, Kathryn, who is apparently signfiicantly younger than him. He's also supposed to be a workaholic and may be a cuckold, staying out late working on something or taking nights watches and leaving her home alone.

Captain Zak Eddarly hates Mott and would duel him, either to the death or just to get his marriage annulled or divorced or something so that he can marry Kathryn. We're currently considering either A. manipulating him into killing Mott or B. framing him for killing Mott. He may be having sex with Kathryn behind Mott's back. We want to confirm if this is the case before we proceed with either plan, so we can account for her, and whether we need to kill her too or do something unpleasant to her or can just leave her alive as the witness to finger Eddarly.

There is an abandoned mansion that used to be a church. There's a soundproofed basement and ample storage and workshop space. We decided to rent it. The Baron who lived there, Osterman, basically gave it to the Reeve to deal with when he moved to Gaston Hall or Gastenhall or something. Our Antipaladin decided to make a small shrine to Asmodeus in the furthest part of the basement.

There's a market space. As part of our cover, we're opening up a stall there and selling off some of our curiosities, hopefully, or at least displaying our curiosities and keeping up appearances of being traders. Since the Talingardians or Taliraneans or whatever are supposed to be xenophobic, I've been having trouble deciding what sort of stuff to bluff up as artifacts of interest to them as opposed to things they'll just hate because they're different.

There's a watchtower in town, from which you can see Balentyne easily.

There's a dock north of town with fishing boats and the like. Currently I'm thinking of stealing one in order to keep our loot safe from the bugbear horde, since I don't have any other good ideas for where to stash loot.

As far as we're aware, the standing operating procedure is for the Antipaladin to scan everyone we meet, and I think only the innkeeper and his wife and maybe the Reeve haven't pinged as Good to his Detect Good.

We know that Belladonna and Hemlock grow wild in Talingarde and have found some in the surrounding wilderness, of which some of it doesn't seem to be used even by hunters, though we know there are hunters.





is anyone high enough yet to know stone shape? Perhaps masonsmithing? I' thinking that tunnel could be used for storage if you know of a way to remove a stone and put it back again. Sure such a long tunnel isn't lit the entire way either.

Any qualms about murdering the inn keeper and taking his inn? you do have hats of disguise.

Maybe the keep watch spell? Some would could guard it with magic.

As far as keeping the bug bear horde from your treasure, aren't they commanded by fire axe who is thus commanded by thorn? Surely they would not be foolish enough to go against the pact!

Mama Giuseppe is a local goodwife, ahh yes she sounds like a peach. She also seems like an elderly fool who could use a good dose of illusions and megrims! Using poison in her food. Very vile.

Ambushing the rangers. Clever, what happens when someone goes looking for them though?

I would re ask, by text or email about Arsenic. If there is a chance even a small one to get legal poison that might makes things easier. I don't know how powerful arsenic is, but regardless, it's not going to be good for anyone to eat.

[Calthropstu]

Some thoughts:

A standard old time rotisserie has two sets for the oven. A fortress is not one to waste meat, so rigging the setting of one side to always overcook and the other to undercook should cause many cases of indegestion at the very least.

Do NOT cause a plague outbreak in the fortress, that would cause a quarantine and put the whole fortress on complete lockdown and a high alert status.

Find out if theres a person of import coming to or going from the fortress. Pass that info to a nearby group of bandits. After the bandits waylay the person and rob him, the fortress will send out a sizable patrol to try and capture them.

In fact, you could have said bandits ambush the supply caravan going to the fortress if you can get the details to them.

Another fun trick would be animating the dead in their graveyard, and having them lay dormant until the attack. Nothing screws over defenders of a keep quite like being attacked from inside the keep.

Another fun little trick, use some of that poison oak, dry it, crush it, and stash it in their tobacco supply.

Heres something even more evil: When that sub commander kills the other guy with the poison, get his body, grind it up, and put it into their meat supply. No sense in letting poisoned meat go to waste right? You can even put the blame on the guy who did the poisoning.

[Coidzor]

is anyone high enough yet to know stone shape? Perhaps masonsmithing? I' thinking that tunnel could be used for storage if you know of a way to remove a stone and put it back again. Sure such a long tunnel isn't lit the entire way either.

Any qualms about murdering the inn keeper and taking his inn? you do have hats of disguise.

Maybe the keep watch spell? Some would could guard it with magic.

As far as keeping the bug bear horde from your treasure, aren't they commanded by fire axe who is thus commanded by thorn? Surely they would not be foolish enough to go against the pact!

Mama Giuseppe is a local goodwife, ahh yes she sounds like a peach. She also seems like an elderly fool who could use a good dose of illusions and megrims! Using poison in her food. Very vile.

Ambushing the rangers. Clever, what happens when someone goes looking for them though?

I would re ask, by text or email about Arsenic. If there is a chance even a small one to get legal poison that might makes things easier. I don't know how powerful arsenic is, but regardless, it's not going to be good for anyone to eat.


We're currently 4th level. We're all getting itchy trigger fingers from not having killed anyone in 3 or 4 sessions, so we're looking to start getting at least *some* murder on without shooting ourselves in the foot. So in one level I can get access to stone shape, and that is a very nifty idea for that time.

It's less qualms that have kept us from murdering the innkeeper, and more not wanting to get bogged down with running the inn for now, since we're in information gathering mode and want to remain flexible before we commit to permanent actions or heavy investment. We'll probably off him or maybe cut a deal with him to turn the actual thieving portion of his robbing of the fortress over to us in order to have free reign of that tunnel and all. There was a bit of a harebrained idea to take his wife hostage to ensure he cooperated, but I think that'd just result in things escalating to a big conflagration.

What are you thinking of guarding with the Keep Watch spell, again? :smallconfused:

The Fire Axe seems to be unquestioned... when he's present. We've already had issues with the bugbears "not expecting" us when Fire Axe knew to expect us and we even were exactly on schedule based upon Thorn's estimate of our travel time. We were able to talk our way through it, by being scary enough that they decided that just attacking us wasn't smart in comparison with seeing what their boss wanted. So I want some insurance or at least some preparation. I suppose the secret tunnel is something that the bugbears won't find on their own, in all likelihood. So I'll pitch that as a possible place, since it makes sense to use it as a staging area for our final move on the fort, depending upon our final plan.

megrims? :smallconfused: Definitely going to size her up when we get a chance. Which we probably will, tomorrow!

The fact that people would notice and go on alert and/or go looking for them is part of why I wanna wait on doing that until closer to go time. And after finding out whether they use ravens or crows or pigeons or doves or just dudes on horses to communicate. My thought right now is, if I can, find out what they'd do if the rangers didn't come back on time, make sure they can't send word out, and then kill the rangers before enacting our final phase of the plan to call the army. I believe we still have 12-16 days before the bugbears even get into position. Ideally they'll send out another patrol and that patrol will either be small enough to be ambushed by us or be large enough that it depletes the fort's strength significantly and will basically just be rolled over when the bugbears spill out of the fortress into the country proper.

We currently have 3 or 4 standard doses of it, and the GM stated in text that, basically, if we add it to food, especially during cooking, it'll basically weaken in strength so that it makes people sick instead of doing the standard save against poison and then doing ability damage. IIRC Arsenic is a Constitution damaging poison.


Some thoughts:

A standard old time rotisserie has two sets for the oven. A fortress is not one to waste meat, so rigging the setting of one side to always overcook and the other to undercook should cause many cases of indegestion at the very least.

Do NOT cause a plague outbreak in the fortress, that would cause a quarantine and put the whole fortress on complete lockdown and a high alert status.

Find out if theres a person of import coming to or going from the fortress. Pass that info to a nearby group of bandits. After the bandits waylay the person and rob him, the fortress will send out a sizable patrol to try and capture them.

In fact, you could have said bandits ambush the supply caravan going to the fortress if you can get the details to them.

Another fun trick would be animating the dead in their graveyard, and having them lay dormant until the attack. Nothing screws over defenders of a keep quite like being attacked from inside the keep.

Another fun little trick, use some of that poison oak, dry it, crush it, and stash it in their tobacco supply.

Heres something even more evil: When that sub commander kills the other guy with the poison, get his body, grind it up, and put it into their meat supply. No sense in letting poisoned meat go to waste right? You can even put the blame on the guy who did the poisoning.

Hmm, tricksy! I like it. :smallamused:

That's a good point. That's why I want to do it either with a fall-guy to finger, so they go off of alert, thinking it's taken care of and then BAM, Bugbears! Or do it right before the bugbears, so enough of them are sick that they're under-strength for their night watch and we can take 'em out more easily.

There's a famous playwright on his way, but I think it's probably too late to arrange an ambush since they arrive either in the next day or the day after that, in game. It's also been made such a big deal of that the local bandits would already know without us needing to tell them. If they exist.

Bandits... I meant to look into whether there were any in the area. Thanks for the reminder! I get the feeling that they're probably not going to be too common, what with the nearby fortress and the active patrolling. Then again, there might be an understanding between the captain of the rangers and a bandit lord to look the other way as long as they operate past a certain distance, but that feels unlikely given the tone so far.

I don't think they have one in the fortress proper, but I could probably do something similar depending upon whether the local priest keeps the graveyard consecrated. I'd just have to do it while everyone in town was distracted by something, like maybe that Flesh Golem going on a RAMPAGE. Or something.

I don't know if they smoke tobacco, but that's pretty hilarious.

Heh. Putting rotten, poisoned meat in their food supply, eh? I like the cut of your jib.

[killem2]

We're currently 4th level. We're all getting itchy trigger fingers from not having killed anyone in 3 or 4 sessions, so we're looking to start getting at least *some* murder on without shooting ourselves in the foot. So in one level I can get access to stone shape, and that is a very nifty idea for that time.


Fair enough, sometimes you just need to kill people lol.


It's less qualms that have kept us from murdering the innkeeper, and more not wanting to get bogged down with running the inn for now, since we're in information gathering mode and want to remain flexible before we commit to permanent actions or heavy investment. We'll probably off him or maybe cut a deal with him to turn the actual thieving portion of his robbing of the fortress over to us in order to have free reign of that tunnel and all. There was a bit of a harebrained idea to take his wife hostage to ensure he cooperated, but I think that'd just result in things escalating to a big conflagration.

It is interesting how groups play this ap SO SO SO differently lol. after you are done with the area I will let you know how my group handled it haha.


What are you thinking of guarding with the Keep Watch spell, again? :smallconfused:

That would let someone stand gaurd in the tunnel to make sure everything says hidden and safe.


The Fire Axe seems to be unquestioned... when he's present. We've already had issues with the bugbears "not expecting" us when Fire Axe knew to expect us and we even were exactly on schedule based upon Thorn's estimate of our travel time. We were able to talk our way through it, by being scary enough that they decided that just attacking us wasn't smart in comparison with seeing what their boss wanted. So I want some insurance or at least some preparation. I suppose the secret tunnel is something that the bugbears won't find on their own, in all likelihood. So I'll pitch that as a possible place, since it makes sense to use it as a staging area for our final move on the fort, depending upon our final plan.

I personally think the tunnel is a great idea. Besides, how long do you plan on staying after you take down the garrison?


megrims? :smallconfused: Definitely going to size her up when we get a chance. Which we probably will, tomorrow!

Just being silly. Another after you are done explanation lol.


The fact that people would notice and go on alert and/or go looking for them is part of why I wanna wait on doing that until closer to go time. And after finding out whether they use ravens or crows or pigeons or doves or just dudes on horses to communicate. My thought right now is, if I can, find out what they'd do if the rangers didn't come back on time, make sure they can't send word out, and then kill the rangers before enacting our final phase of the plan to call the army. I believe we still have 12-16 days before the bugbears even get into position. Ideally they'll send out another patrol and that patrol will either be small enough to be ambushed by us or be large enough that it depletes the fort's strength significantly and will basically just be rolled over when the bugbears spill out of the fortress into the country proper.

Like a distraction tactic? Very cool.



We currently have 3 or 4 standard doses of it, and the GM stated in text that, basically, if we add it to food, especially during cooking, it'll basically weaken in strength so that it makes people sick instead of doing the standard save against poison and then doing ability damage. IIRC Arsenic is a Constitution damaging poison.

Ahh ok, that works well then.

[/QUOTE]

[Coidzor]

Well, found out a few things last night.

Use of birds to send messages confirmed, as well as their primary location and sole caretaker at that location.

Found the perfect ambush spot for the rangers, and one where their bodies will definitely be found eventually.

Found out who made the Flesh Golem, although it seems a bit *too* obvious, like what someone would do to frame the supposed creator. Will be asking about the alchemist.

Found out that the wizard at the fort is considered creepy and is easily bored by plays. So we've got a creepy wizard, a jealous and a little crazy hedgewizard, and a very quiet, bookish, and straight-laced alchemist.

Also found out that the wizard at the fort is supposedly obsessed with something that was found in the North by adventurers or a Taliranean expedition up there. Which seems odd, since aside from a few people who were interested in our cover story when impersonating a knight of preparing for an incursion to push into Northern territory and liberate it for civilized folk.

There's a few layabouts that our antipaladin found that like to grift out-of-towners and have now been recruited as minions because our Antipaladin was getting a bit bored by the crafting and rumor-mongering side of things and wanted to take some more proactive steps. It just reminds me of how I want to look into finding any Asmodeans that might be out here, or see what I can do to convert some. I'll just have to bring it up with the GM directly. We just realized that since we're getting a hold on them and getting them to peddle some drugs around town, low-key-like, that they probably know who works in the fortress as servants, and maybe even *where*. Also they pointed out that since the locals who moonlight as prostitutes can just go to the Captains themselves if the soldiers are too violent or what have you, trying to take over the prostitution here since it went underground would be basically impossible, at least without tipping off the fort that someone was doing it. That lead to one of us having the thought of kidnapping key servants to get an idea of their work areas, and lead to me thinking of having our Rogue put that Linguistics to good use and forge us up some documents to help us Bluff some servants into thinking we work for the government or the Taliranean Inquisition and are ferreting out information related to the rumors about bugbears or possibly secret Asmodean cultists colluding with bugbears in the north to Threaten The Safety Of Talingarde, so that we can question them or even replace them for the day without having to kill them.

Broke into Mama Giuseppe's house after finding out where she lives. She looks about what we'd suspect and has some nice annotations in her cookbook that our Rogue now wants.

We now know that there's 4 main sub-commanders beyond the Lord Commander, Priest, and Mage of the fort, having learned of a 4th captain or the like who looks eerily like the innkeeper, and who is probably related in some capacity, we'll probably ask Barholde about that at dinner.

[Braininthejar2]

Ok, so from the looks of it so far...

1 There are 4 sub-commanders? One you can ambush, and two in a love triangle you could exploit?

Of the things you suggested, arranging a duel seems like the most asmodean thing to do, especially if you could subtly help one of them to make sure someone gets killed - that's one dead, one in jail, and you free of suspicion - just the kind of an elegant solution a devil would appreciate.

2 The Mama's food and the play - which one do you intend to use for your plans? Because it looks like it would be hard to do both - a quarantine in the fortress would probably get the play cancelled.

3 If you still want to gather disease samples for your antipaladin, pose as healers. You should have enough powers to actually help, and the sick will come to you with stuff common herbalism can't handle.

4 By the way you described him, the wizard absolutely has to go - if you are to storm a castle with hordes of low level troops, the last thing you need is an evoker spamming fireballs at them.

5 Dwarves doing maintenance? Do they have any notes about the stuff they're fixing? No drinking allowed in the fortress, but who has heard of teetotaller dwarves...

6 I wonder if you could trick the caretaker into poisoning his birds. A pidgeon is unlikely to have a high fortitude save...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhuMLpdnOjY

7 And you say there is a priest too... it is imperative to learn more about him. Is he a healer? A buffer? Is he competent enough to tell a food poisoning from an actual poisoning? All of this will dictate what you want to do with him - if he's primarily a healer, take him into account in your poison/disease plans. If he's a buffer, make sure to isolate him from any mid-level people he could turn into a boss encounter. (especially the commander - this just screams "boss encounter") If he's some kind of warrior priest powerhouse, you'll probably have to take a risk and try to kill him in his sleep or something.

8 Speaking of killing people in their sleep - impersonating an officer for an extended period would likely fail. But impersonating one during the battle itself is a great way to misdirect the defense efforts.

9 Finally, consider the war advices of Sun Tzu - "Attack your enemy's alliances, then his plans, only then his army." You've already taken the first step, learning of how the fortress would call for help. Now, what is their defense plan? Are there any traps defending the bridge? What is their plan for when the enemy gets through? Do they have a secondary gate? cauldrons of boiling oil? war machines? Find what their "plan B" is, and spoil it.

[Braininthejar2]

Oh, if you want some direct killing moments before the attack, to delay the alarm, try impersonating the priest.

Coming to people with cryptic warnings and then having them kneel before you and bow their heads in prayer so you can bless them is a trick that never gets old :smallbiggrin:

[Braininthejar2]

So, how is it going? Will there be a campaign journal or something, so we could hear how it went?

[FocusWolf413]

So, how is it going? Will there be a campaign journal or something, so we could hear how it went?

I second this. I want to hear what happened!! It'll be fun!

[Coidzor]

I second this. I want to hear what happened!! It'll be fun!

Well, we'll see how many times Yakkety Sax ends up playing, I suppose.


So, how is it going? Will there be a campaign journal or something, so we could hear how it went?

Real life, mostly. Might do a writeup at some point, probably won't be until January that we finish this up enough to do a writeup, given the slow pace we've been doing it so far.

Our last session was this past monday, and we're still in information gathering mode at present, though we're close to putting a real plan together instead of just brainstorming and taking inventory of our capabilities.

I was hoping to be able to do something to earn some XP last session, but nothing really occurred to me and while I may be overly cautious, I want to make sure anyone and anything I kill serves a purpose and is unlikely to bite me in the ass.


Oh, if you want some direct killing moments before the attack, to delay the alarm, try impersonating the priest.

Coming to people with cryptic warnings and then having them kneel before you and bow their heads in prayer so you can bless them is a trick that never gets old :smallbiggrin:

Part of the rough idea right now is to find out what the mage is studying, finger him as a cultist that was killing people and researching making them into a flesh golem, and get him sent to prison. At some point, one of us will have replaced the priest and have started lacing the commander's food with some drugs to make him sick or cursed him with Feast of Ash and be tending to his well-being, getting him on bed rest and then essentially running the fort through forged orders from him while he's weak and bedridden. Then after a few days, get the junior priests at the fort to gather together for a prayer retreat or a mission to purify the source of the evil that's plaguing the fort and have them eliminated, possibly turning their bodies into undead that will ambush the ranger captain at his favorite camping ground.

Alternatively, have the ranger captain just sent on a patrol to confirm the rumors of the bugbears to the north, sending him and his contingent of troops into an ambush laid by the bugbears.


Ok, so from the looks of it so far...

1 There are 4 sub-commanders? One you can ambush, and two in a love triangle you could exploit?

Of the things you suggested, arranging a duel seems like the most asmodean thing to do, especially if you could subtly help one of them to make sure someone gets killed - that's one dead, one in jail, and you free of suspicion - just the kind of an elegant solution a devil would appreciate.

2 The Mama's food and the play - which one do you intend to use for your plans? Because it looks like it would be hard to do both - a quarantine in the fortress would probably get the play cancelled.

3 If you still want to gather disease samples for your antipaladin, pose as healers. You should have enough powers to actually help, and the sick will come to you with stuff common herbalism can't handle.

4 By the way you described him, the wizard absolutely has to go - if you are to storm a castle with hordes of low level troops, the last thing you need is an evoker spamming fireballs at them.

5 Dwarves doing maintenance? Do they have any notes about the stuff they're fixing? No drinking allowed in the fortress, but who has heard of teetotaller dwarves...

6 I wonder if you could trick the caretaker into poisoning his birds. A pidgeon is unlikely to have a high fortitude save...

7 And you say there is a priest too... it is imperative to learn more about him. Is he a healer? A buffer? Is he competent enough to tell a food poisoning from an actual poisoning? All of this will dictate what you want to do with him - if he's primarily a healer, take him into account in your poison/disease plans. If he's a buffer, make sure to isolate him from any mid-level people he could turn into a boss encounter. (especially the commander - this just screams "boss encounter") If he's some kind of warrior priest powerhouse, you'll probably have to take a risk and try to kill him in his sleep or something.

8 Speaking of killing people in their sleep - impersonating an officer for an extended period would likely fail. But impersonating one during the battle itself is a great way to misdirect the defense efforts.

9 Finally, consider the war advices of Sun Tzu - "Attack your enemy's alliances, then his plans, only then his army." You've already taken the first step, learning of how the fortress would call for help. Now, what is their defense plan? Are there any traps defending the bridge? What is their plan for when the enemy gets through? Do they have a secondary gate? cauldrons of boiling oil? war machines? Find what their "plan B" is, and spoil it.

1. That's about what we've been thinking, impersonating one and murdering him with some witnesses is our backup plan.

2. We used the play as an opportunity to see how the fortress looked during daylight hours and to clarify a few things on the dwarven floor plan that we copied off of the team of stone masons. Right now the idea is to impersonate her, give her some contaminated blood to use as a secret ingredient with her food and have her somehow compelled to usse it, or find out what she uses, make sure she has to buy some more of some of it, and then make sure we're the only source she can go to in order to get more and have *that* be contaminated. And then she'd basically give everyone food poisoning and in the wee hours of that night/morning, we'd strike.

3. That's a good idea, thank you.

4. Indeed. So far other than just assassinating him in his quarters with something like a Silence spell up or inviting him over for dinner at our mansion as a VIP, the only other thought has been to paint him as a murderer/grave-robber and flesh golem creator.

5. We already copied the plans they kept in their rooms at the inn, and there's a potential exploit to replace one of them by getting them really, really, really drunk, or even get them all to drink themselves under the table. I've had the idle thought of taking a group of expert stone masons like them as a form of loot, depending upon where we're going next and what we're doing.

6. Maybe, but I think there's more value in sending the birds off with false messages. We can eliminate the caretaker and his birds if we can get access to them easily enough, I think, without needing to use poison.

7. Seems to mostly be an advisor, so I'm getting the healer/buffer vibe from him. Will check into that insofar as I can. I'm hoping that he won't be too tricky to take out and replace, maybe a little bit of a tough fight, but nothing to bring attention to us. Hmm. I wonder if we might be able to lure him into our basement by saying that we found some asmodean symbols down there and want them confiscated and the area cleansed of their taint...

8. That's one of the reasons why I'm most leery of the replace the priest idea I've had. Definitely don't want to try to replace any of the officers for longer than a momentary encounter. Good idea about misdirecting them in the initial moments of when things go code BOOM. Best case scenario, though, we'll take out everyone in the fortress except for the guards on the wall and then take them out as we "relieve" them. Good to have in mind for contingencies. Like if we have to say screw it, open the gates, jam them, and then cover the bugbears until they've got a beachhead inside of the fortress.

9. Going to find that out next session, I believe. Getting some of the dwarves schnockered and loose-lipped with fine whiskey in all likelihood.

[Braininthejar2]

5 A replaced dwarf will likely fool any humans. But will he fool other dwarves? Can you speak dwarven without an accent?

6 False messages? what is the exact story you intend to sell here?

7 You guys were all given hats of disguise. That implies you're to hide your presence. If you create a diversion plan that ends up creating rumors of asmodean involvement, won't your boss get angry?

8 The "impersonate the priest and get the commander sick" plan is... both brilliant and horrible.

If it works, it will accomplish more than all the rest of your scheming combined - which makes me think the authors of the module didn't anticipate this. If it works, it will be legendary.

If it fails, it will likely fail so hard, your whole scheme will be revealed, which might even end the campaign.

And if you pretend to be a priest for an extended period, it becomes harder than the usual "go through a day without breaking character, or showing that you don't know people's names or the daily schedule." A priest has his duties. Can you give people guidance like he would, without the junior priests noticing something amiss? Can you quote the scripture? Get through the daily prayers without stuttering (perhaps even conduct a mass - does the priest do that?) Do you have any devil-related features that would make it tricky to handle holy water? (I don't know what exactly your class does)

[Coidzor]

5 A replaced dwarf will likely fool any humans. But will he fool other dwarves? Can you speak dwarven without an accent?

6 False messages? what is the exact story you intend to sell here?

7 You guys were all given hats of disguise. That implies you're to hide your presence. If you create a diversion plan that ends up creating rumors of asmodean involvement, won't your boss get angry?

8 The "impersonate the priest and get the commander sick" plan is... both brilliant and horrible.

If it works, it will accomplish more than all the rest of your scheming combined - which makes me think the authors of the module didn't anticipate this. If it works, it will be legendary.

If it fails, it will likely fail so hard, your whole scheme will be revealed, which might even end the campaign.

And if you pretend to be a priest for an extended period, it becomes harder than the usual "go through a day without breaking character, or showing that you don't know people's names or the daily schedule." A priest has his duties. Can you give people guidance like he would, without the junior priests noticing something amiss? Can you quote the scripture? Get through the daily prayers without stuttering (perhaps even conduct a mass - does the priest do that?) Do you have any devil-related features that would make it tricky to handle holy water? (I don't know what exactly your class does)

5. If we prepare for it, impersonate an entire shift of dwarves, stash them somewhere the other dwarfs won't notice and they won't wake up for a day, and then switch them back after the other dwarfs pass out again. One of us could probably impersonate one of the more taciturn dwarves for a day, especially the Rogue.

6. Well, at the very least, having the option to send a message that isn't a request for aid but have them think that reinforcements are coming instead of them wondering why no birds took off and then eventually working up the gumption to go personally check on the rookery themselves. Possibly a note dispelling the rumor of bugbears massing in the north, at least near this fort. Maybe something to stoke paranoia or distract the other forts that has to do with our real identities who are wanted fugitives being seen going their way, or, even less likely, stoking paranoia about corruptive influences on the soldiers, depending upon how our efforts to send some of the notables of the fort to prison go and whether we want news of that to get out.

7. Maybe, that's something that I have to check on, some stuff just came up so it's got to wait until next session when hopefully less of us are sick and we have the full notes, or at least the full notes minus the ones that got destroyed in the house fire. Mostly I believe it's that we're not supposed to be caught and have to succeed, for obvious reasons, but I'm checking on that one.

8. Yeah, there's a lot of potential pitfalls, though in its current tentative state, my plan is to have half a day or less where it'd be impersonation under normal conditions, and then capitalize on his (apparent) habit of delegation, since he barely does any of his duties in town due to being preoccupied with the lord commander as it is. My current understanding is that if the lord commander got sick, it'd be all but expected for him to drop just about everything else and minister to the lord commander's needs.

[Braininthejar2]

Sounds like some serious real life getting in the way of the session :smalleek: Please poke the thread when things straighten out.


5. If we prepare for it, impersonate an entire shift of dwarves, stash them somewhere the other dwarfs won't notice and they won't wake up for a day, and then switch them back after the other dwarfs pass out again. One of us could probably impersonate one of the more taciturn dwarves for a day, especially the Rogue. or just get them drunk and kill them all on the night before the attack, hide the bodies, walk in as the tech crew and spend the last day sabotaging what you can. Then, once ready to call the attack, switch faces to whatever's appropriate and start taking the lookouts off the walls.

I'm sorry. I find myself jumping mental hoops, trying to find the optimal way to inflict maximum damage without raising the alarm. That's also why I suggested poisoning the rookery - this way the communication system would die at feeding time, without you having to physically be there, allowing you to take out something else simultaneously.


7. Maybe, that's something that I have to check on, That boils down to a simple question. Is the bugbear attack supposed to look like a "generic barbarian invasion" or as an attack by the asmodeans. If it's the former, avoid anything that would indicate otherwise (and confusing bird messages could be "a detail that doesn't fit the picture".) If it's the latter, scheme away - the truth will be revealed soon enough anyway, so no harm done.

[Coidzor]

Hmm. I wonder if a Tree Feather Token would work to jam a gate open so it couldn't be closed. Or even what it would do if planted there. I've been reviewing what magic items I can make and discovered Tree Feather Tokens and Catapult Feather Tokens both cost 400 gp, 200 to make. Since my idea of using shrink item + wood shape to block off parts of the ramparts/courtyard is a bit of a bust(but might work in a doorway or hallway), I was looking to alternatives to funnel troops away from us/delay them from reaching the walls. Possibly even force them to take on the brunt of the horde essentially in the open when it pours into the fortress.


Sounds like some serious real life getting in the way of the session :smalleek: Please poke the thread when things straighten out.

or just get them drunk and kill them all on the night before the attack, hide the bodies, walk in as the tech crew and spend the last day sabotaging what you can. Then, once ready to call the attack, switch faces to whatever's appropriate and start taking the lookouts off the walls.

I'm sorry. I find myself jumping mental hoops, trying to find the optimal way to inflict maximum damage without raising the alarm. That's also why I suggested poisoning the rookery - this way the communication system would die at feeding time, without you having to physically be there, allowing you to take out something else simultaneously.

That boils down to a simple question. Is the bugbear attack supposed to look like a "generic barbarian invasion" or as an attack by the asmodeans. If it's the former, avoid anything that would indicate otherwise (and confusing bird messages could be "a detail that doesn't fit the picture".) If it's the latter, scheme away - the truth will be revealed soon enough anyway, so no harm done.

The fire was a bit ago, it just took a while to get a new place to move into afterward and replace my destroyed computer, and unpacking is a tortuous process. Some of the information we received around the beginning of this questline was shared over Skype instead of roll20 and since I'm the primary note-taker due to my typing speed, well, some things the DM can't even remember what exactly we knew when.

That'd probably work, yeah.

That certainly makes sense, I agree.

Indeed! The session this monday got postponed, so I'll probably see the DM on tuesday or wednesday if he isn't sick and ask then. I've got a few questions that he's ruminating on already, regarding to gear and whether we're using the Downtime system at all, so I don't wanna just bombard him with too many questions in his queue at once.

[Braininthejar2]

So, how did it go in the end?

[Coidzor]

So, how did it go in the end?

We're in the Holidays now, alas, so our next session is going to be January 2nd or 9th.

We ended up saying screw it and murdered the patrol that went out to one place.

My main conclusion here is that our group is bad at planning together, since while I was using the restroom we apparently decided to just attack them as soon as they arrived instead of at least attempting to take them out after they'd stopped and made camp.

Rolled with that, but as a result, two of them almost escaped and there's now several horses loose in the countryside which might hoist us by our own petard.

Given the situation of the other players, it seems like advance planning is basically pointless, unless I can cook up something that will be easily adjustable once we learn the last bits of information in-game, all on my own, and then pitch it to them.

I give it... maybe one or two more sessions at our newly accelerated rate.

[Crake]

My group is actually also running way of the wicked, and we are up to the exact same place as you! :smallbiggrin:

We've opted to take a different approach though. What we've done is use contagion (we're only a 3 man party, so we were level 5 when we got to the town, not level 4) to infect the town with blinding sickness, to stir up a frenzy, and blamed it on the town wizard, which we convinced a town guard to come investigate with us. And of course, when all the wizard's traps went off, he had a murder charge added on top of suspicion of infecting the town, so he's being brought in for questioning.

The rogue got into a little bit of trouble, because in our official story, he wasn't there, but then my character, Denny Crane, Asmodean Advocate and Attorney at Law, came in and got him off with a plea bargain, saying he was there to steal flowers for his girlfriend, and saw the whole thing, and was willing to testify in court in exchange for his charge of petty theft being waived.

So, while the town is suffering from people going blind every day, keeping the local clerics wasting their spells on remove disease and remove blindness/deafness, we also snuck in some contagion into Momma Giuseppe's food, so the guards in the fort will also be blinded. Once practically half the guard were disabled from that, as well as the wizard being back in town, being questioned, that's when we began our assault on the fort itself. We just snuck in at night, and have already murdered one of the level 10 (my dm informs me this is a hyperbole, but he was high level :smalltongue:) captains in his sleep, and are using him as a disguise to lure unsuspecting guards in for a quick and silent kill :smalltongue:

Update: With a mix of stealth, guile, deception, and very liberal usage of our hats of disguise, in addition to very good disguise, bluff and diplomacy checks (I'm actually an asmodean advocate cleric, so I substitute bluff and diplomacy for a Profession (Barrister) check), we managed to lure and kill all the important people one by one, before wiping out the last of the guard by pretending to be the lord of the keep, asking them to line up for a role check so that we could "seed out the root of this corruption" and then just lightning bolting them all to death :smalltongue: All in all, start to finish of our assault on the keep: Everyone dead within 2 hours. Not a single signal horn blown. Nobody any the wiser. When the patrol came back that day, we trapped them in the gate house and poured hot sand on them while our assassin pot shotted them from the murder holes. One of them wasn't inside the gatehouse when we locked it (not enough room with their horses), but a well aimed ballista shot and he wasn't an issue any longer :smallamused:

[Coidzor]

Through a stroke of serendipity, our half-assed ambush of the rangers went off well, with the only survivors being some horses that got hopelessly lost in the woods, and that didn't come back to bite us in the butt over the next three days when we laid groundwork for framing the dwarves for being cultists and preparing a thieving and possibly murdering ritual to gain favor for their stonework in repairing the keep.

Our attentions turned to getting Mott and Eddarly to kill one another. Through some creative bluffing, we used the scene Mott and Caitlyn had at the market day as the seed of a rumor to make it back to Eddarly and used Sow Thoughts to put the thought in his head to buy the dress for her and to fight Mott for her. Turned out the next day when we opened up the mansion's front room as a storefront that we didn't need to bother to do anything with Eddarly when a soldier from Balentyne came with a bag of gold pre-measured to pay for the female courtier's outfit in the latest fashion before we got thrown in Branderscar. With embellishments and accepts of the finest seal pelt from our voyage with the vikings.

We also found out that, yeah, he was already having an affair with Caitlyn, so we sent a letter to Mott about looking for something hidden as a sign of his wife's straying, which lead to a huge scene in public with him storming back to the castle with his hand on his blade and a crying wife in his wake.

Followed him to the keep to see if we could do anything to make sure that the proper course of action was followed, but we were foiled by our lack of knowledge of the keep's layout. Ended up getting diverted to the kitchen and its pantry. Where we poisoned the beef we figured would be used for Mama Giuseppe's stew and then beat feet due to having a critical brainfart and being unable to think of any reason to go elsewhere in the keep.

In order to make sure that the two of them fought, though, we then went and staged a suicide by having our beefy antipaladin pretend to be Eddarly and cruelly stab her in the heart and our rogue fake it as if she had stabbed herself with her kitchen knife after writing a suicide note.

The day after that, it turned out that Mott had actually challeneged Eddarly to a duel, so our first plan had fallen through but our backup succeeded. Mott ended up dead, and Eddarly was being court-martialed that day. Otherwise spent a sleepy day using up spell slots to prepare various things.

Our Antipaladin also continued to train and inculcate LE values in his three disciples off and on over the course of all this.

The evening after Mott died, though, the rogueish types were sneaking over to the church to steal the stuff from there and possibly the lesser priest who maintains it when they noticed that someone was visiting the Reeve and they listened in and found that the last remaining captain, Captain Barholde(the innkeeper's brother who killed an ogre in single combat) and the keep's priest, Father Donavan had given orders to the Reeve to raise a militia to bolster the guards who aren't sick and under quarantine under suspicion of cholera(almost certainly our poisoning of the beef with a mixture of arsenic and belladonna[?]).

Reacting very, very quickly with frenzied speed, the pair rushed back to our mansion to let the rest of us know and that we needed to get out, now, to ambush them on their way back to the castle, as this was too good of an opportunity to kill that damned priest to pass up, especially after he snubbed us earlier when we were putting out feelers towards him about his efforts to cheer up the Lord Commander.

So our most recent session ended with us deciding which undead to take with us to make sure that neither of the two VIPs escaped our ambush and heading off to try to head them off before they leave the Reeve's mansion. Our tentative plan is to look like dwarfs in case one of them does escape, and then take advantage of the confusion over their disappearance and strike in the next day or so to make the fortress fall or frame the stone masons for the murder, set a bunch of fires, maybe kill the mage in the confusion, and open the gates for the buggabears while the fortress is consumed with fire-fighting efforts.

Oh, right, on the day we killed Caitlyn, we also dropped off a blackmail letter with the Alchemist who'd made a Flesh Golem. That night he went and checked on his flesh golem that he called his son and that he was almost ready for the golem to be properly introduced to the town and that it would make the Lord Commander so happy. Our Rogue wondered if perhaps the Flesh Golem's head looked like the LC, but it was not so. The Alchemist also was acting more nervous like a kid caught doing something naughty than a man who could be put to death for a crime by the state, too.

And he told the Mittran version of Little Red Riding Hood, where Little Red is a Gnome with fiery red hair and the big bad wolf is a werewolf who made a pact with Asmodeus and is really a parable about how leaving behind the heresy of Garl Glittergold and embracing the Light and Love of Mittras saved her and her grandma.

So, we're progressively getting more reckless, I think as a result of getting exasperated by our delays and previous tendency to talk ourselves out of action.

So close to level 5, though.

[Coidzor]

When we last left off, the party was rushing to set up an ambush, unable to pass up the opportunity to kill two VIPs from the fortress, even though it surely meant that our hand would be well and truly tipped.

Our Shaman ended up taking along his whole complement of undead, wanting to make sure that none of the VIPs or their escort escaped. 4 bugbears, 2 owlbears, and a boar waited by the side of the road, positioned to cut off possible escape routes while a pair of trip-wires and caltrops were scattered to delay anyone trying to break through to get to Balentyne.

Unable to think of a better plan, the party decided to disguise several of themselves as Captain Varning and a pair of his rangers, planning to give a story about having encountered a necromancer in the wilderness. However, due to a tactical miscalculation, one of the owlbear skeletons was slightly too close to the road and when the light of the escorts' magically lit halberds touched it, the bones reflected just a bit too much light, raising a shout of alarm and battlestations so that the apparently wounded soldiers in the road ahead of them were immediately forgotten and several of the soldiers rushed the owlbear.

Trying to salvage the situation, the bugbear skellies repositioned themselves to fire upon the soldiers, but the upgraded breastplates these soldiers were wearing meant that most of their attacks were deflected.

In the confusion, the disguised members of the party were able to draw closer, however, after Father Donnagin was able to move up without exposing himself and turn half of the undead force into dust with a single channel, our Gunslinger threw aside the pretense and took the shot to try to take out the most dangerous foe in the battle. Our Rogue managed to get in and dance with Father Donnagin while the sole remaining owlbear skeleton occupied Captain Barholde's attention to keep him from being able to link up with the cleric.

Our Antipaladin, alas, was unable to join the battle for another round due to having brought up the rear, but once he reached the Cleric after the escort had already branched off to try to mop up the remaining bugbear skeletons, he made short work of the Father working with our Rogue, and the two of them shifted to focus on Captain Barholde while the remaining soldiers, finding that it was a mutual contest in missing with the undead abominations, shifted their focus to attack our Shaman, disguised as he was as a Dwarven Necromancer, and our Gunslinger for apparently leading the treacherous attack.

This lead to a bit of Yakkety Sax playing as the soldiers chased our Gunslinger and Shaman and the bugbear skeletons chased the soldiers until finally a pair of lucky crits and a Slumber Hex working eliminated the soldiers, leaving the Antipaladin to finish off the Captain after our Rogue retreated to lick their wounds.

Due to running late, we couldn't think of a good thing to do, since there were slightly too many of them for us to impersonate them all and we didn't have a good explanation for the missing person or two. So we broke session after cleaning up the scene and disappearing into the woods with the bodies and their gear, added into the corpse crate while we discussed how to link this in with plot to frame the dwarfs as making human sacrifices to power their masonry work.

The next session, having come to no consensus, we went to the next morning as we took breakfast at the inn. Soldiers came in, essentially announced martial law and that the militia is to be mustered ASAP and that the fortress be alerted to any suspicious characters or anyone who is new in town. We all noticed our innkeeper pointedly look at us. We all kicked ourselves for not enacting the plan of replacing some of the town's citizens or using the Taliranean Inquisition as a cover.

The soldiers then proceeded to go up to the dwarfs' rooms and collect the dwarves who were currently off-duty as well as their personal effects. For better or worse, the semi-hidden journal of manufactured and damning evidence of the dwarves being cultists didn't seem to have been found.

After that announcement, basically everyone made themselves scarce from the inn after a brief flurry of gossip and we did likewise, figuring it was only a matter of time before our mansion was searched, so we promptly set about hiding our Asmodean paraphenalia and, having leveled up to Level 5 from the fight the night before, used Shrink Item to reduce everything but the Owlbear and what we had already stashed outside of town into an easily portable form. We'd just gotten the Owlbear skeleton to strike up a pose, ready to make it look like we had made a trophy out of one of our kills that had caused quite a stir with our last hunting trip as soon as anyone showed up.

We were right on the money, as the Reeve showed up and regretted to inform us that our place was to be searched and us placed under house arrest until we were to be escorted to the Fortress that evening to be interviewed by the Lord Commander. Due to either being lax or because we had gained his trust, the Reeve neglected to post guards *behind* the house, so we were able to easily steal away and enact Code Boom.

We promptly converted the abandoned warehouse into a firebomb factory and our Rogue collected our Antipaladin's group of recruits to work on that while our Shaman, Antipaladin, and Gunslinger went to check on the Fleshgolem, deciding that since we didn't really properly sync up with the man to blackmail or recruit him, it was time to sacrifice him as a distraction away from ourselves, especially since he was fool enough to write his name in the golem's flesh.

After a surprise revelation that the Golem could speak and seemed to have a child-like intellect, there was a brief philosophical inquiry as to whether the town's alchemist had just messed up when making the Flesh Golem or if he'd messed up so hard that he had created a golem with a soul and an actual intellect.

It was determined though, that the Alchemist had just botched the job and that we did not actually have a child's soul in a golem's body to corrupt to become a more useful tool later on, and so after several careful explanations and use of illusions, our Gunslinger set the golem to lumber into the town's center and to give the Reeve a nice, big, friendly hug. It set out at a surprisingly fast pace, and we had barely made it back to the warehouse when the screams started as the few townsfolk out on the streets and the patrols going along the main streets of the town noticed the creature.

Taking that as our cue, we lit the fire that had been built up in the warehouse, hoping for it to spread to the buildings on each side of itself, and taking the other firebombs to circle around the outer edge of the town, well out of sight of anyone, even spotting one of the soldiers from the watchtower in town go running up to the keep for reinforcements against the foul monster that had taken the town center and was heading towards the Reeve's mansion.

By the time we made it to the north end of town(having started in the southeast), there was a flood of people running out of town for the docks to the north or to the town church, one of the more fortified, stone buildings in the town's northwest, and snuck through the distracted townsfolk to plant more firebombs at the now-abandoned home of the Motts as well as in Timon's Meadery, the local brewer of mead.

Though it turned out the decision to target this was as much born out of the fact that there was no granary *in* town to target as it was born out of a misunderstanding of how flammable alcohol below a certain proof is. The building itself caught fire just fine, of course, and the stores of barrel-making supplies certainly helped. After that, we decided to sneak into the inn and make the innkeeper and his wife disappear in the confusion so that no one who knew of the secret passage could rat us out. Deciding that the owlbear skeleton was too bulky to sneak into the inn for this plot, our Shaman regrettably sent it south on a suicide mission to kill any and all armed humans it saw, as a crowd of the reeve's men and the remaining Balentyne soldiers from the watchtower were trying to keep the golem contained while waiting for the Lord Commander to come and dispatch it.

Fortunately for them, unfortunately for us, Barholde the innkeeper and his wife had already fled the town, and the inn was completely abandoned.

So, shrugging and hoping that we accomplished our mission before the Lord Commander finished off the Golem and either talked to Barholde or returned to the keep, we went down into the tunnels, breaking session right before penetrating the depths of the fortress.

When we last left off, our group was about to emerge from the secret passage into Balentyne proper.

First thing we did was disguise ourselves as Balentyne soldiers with our Rogue, having the best Bluff, wearing the guise of Captain Varning, the Ranger Captain. Although given that he wore fullplate when we fought him, we figured he probably didn't actually have levels in Ranger, especially since his horse didn't try to murder us.

Our first stop turned out to be the rooms of the various captains, and while we found some valuable clothing in Eddarly's now-vacated quarters, we only actually took the stack of love letters that somehow hadn't been confiscated when they searched his room after the duel and a silver and sapphire award from the Order of Alerion or Valarian or The Alerion or possibly just the kingdom of Talingarde from the wall of Captain Barholde's room.

Hearing voices at the end of the hallway, we elected to climb up the tower and eliminate the ravens before any more messages were sent.

We managed to successfully bluff our way past the first set of guards on the keep level of the tower when they noticed that one of our disguises was slightly off due to not selecting specific enough soldiers to impersonate. So we slaughtered that set of guards and took their identities, quickly cleaning up the area and hiding the bodies in Mott's bedroom, reasoning that no one was going to be going in there any time soon.

Upon reaching the top of the tower, we successfully talked our way past the guards, but then realized that neither they nor we had the key to the rookery. So another pair of guards fell before a combined assault of our Antipaladin's sword and our Shaman's Slumber hex.

Unfortunately we weren't quite quiet enough, and Mad Martin heard us through the door and was ready for us when we picked the lock.

Our rogue was quickly beset by several swarms of Ravens as Martin decried us as devil-worshipers and saboteurs and blew his signal horn. Fortunately our Gunslinger and Rogue were able to dispatch him quickly and the death of the man caused the ravens to instantly stop swarming and return to their roosts, cawing uneasily.

Technical difficulties lead to the session breaking at that point, right as a quartet of guards crested the stairs and saw the carnage before them, making it clear that there was no talking our way out of this one.

When we last left off, we'd just killed Mad Martin and had a quartet of soldiers respond to the alarm he raised.

Our Antipaladin showed what we kept him around for, though, when he quickly slaughtered two of them with a single blow, while our Rogue made the third become estranged from his kidneys and saw the final one off peacefully to his final rest after he succumbed to the Slumber hex.

Debating quickly, it was decided that we'd just have to kill the ravens the slow and individual way to make sure none of them were alive and unpoisoned if any soldiers should sneak by us and try to send a raven off to tell Gaston Hall that Balentyne had fallen.

Deciding that, similarly, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to set fire to the rookery and the vast supply of arrows in the level beneath it, we were caught in the act of arson by the next wave of guards responding to the alarm, who took slightly longer to dispatch than their fellows. By this time the level above had caught fire and we spotted several guards running towards the wall of Balentyne facing the town proper and sounding their horns for all they were worth.

Seeing that, our Shaman decided that it was time to call for reinforcements and used his necromantic blessings to raise a squadron of the guards we killed as Bloody Skeletons.

We reached the level of the keep and after accidentally shooting a fleeing servant with a readied action, met the leader of the dwarves in battle along with a handful of guards and his dwarves. Our Shaman lamented the waste of what could have been a useful resource after our Gunslinger blew his skull up with a massive critical, and the guards buckled and fell before us, some retreating up the stairs to the curtain wall, forcing the party to split in two and chase them while archers on top of the keep and in the gatehouse took pot shots at us.

Our Shaman took his bone squad along the south wall, taking almost a whole minute to chase down and eliminate their share of the archers on the wall and keep, while our Antipaladin, Gunslinger, and Rogue went north along the east wall, having a showdown with a knot of guards at the controls for upper gate's portcullis and chasing the sole survivor to the lower gate's controls and dispatching him there.

After it seemed no one wanted to leave the gatehouse to pursue us or shoot as us from the keep, we decided that we had only moments before the Lord Commander would appear on the path to Balentyne, riding hell for leather, so we quickly dropped the portcullis and disabled the controls for the upper gate and found that rather than a portcullis, the lower gate was actually sealed off with a massive, almost air-tight stone seal.

Just as we congratulated ourselves on that, our Shaman, Antipaladin, Gunslinger, and bloody skeletons were all fireballed from above. It seemed that the wizard had managed to return without our noticing him, possibly due to teleportation magic or the use of invisibility.

Our bloody skeletons collapsed into piles of scorched and bloody bones, and the rest of us began to panic as we were very badly hurt after having just healed up from the last string of fights. In a stroke of serendipity, however, our gunslinger did the unthinkable and managed to roll and confirm a critical for maximum damage, causing the wizard's wand to backfire and explode spectacularly, cratering the roof of the keep.

Healing ourselves back up and making a note to make sure we secured the fortress's supply of clerics and holy water before anyone who understood the ways of undeath could put our bloody skeletons permanently out of commission, we began to explore the area around the keep, finding the keep's doors locked and barred against us by the fleeing servants, the stables empty, and the church full of celestials who told us to get out or they'd fight us.

Electing to not deal with a fight now that they could have at their leisure after securing the fortress, our Shaman, Rogue, and even Antipaladin gritted their teeth and left the church. Our Gunslinger, on the other hand, in a fit of pique, scrawled the symbol of Asmodeus on the doors of the church after we shut them and went back to trying to deal with the gate of the fortress, since our Gunslinger had also elected to set fire to the empty stables instead of taking the ready fire-making materials for use in burning our way through the gate of the keep itself, or at least weaken them enough that our Antipaladin could just shoulder check his way through them.

Our deliberation was cut short by bright flashes of light and holy choral music erupting from the windows of the church as they shattered outward and an otherworldly, angelic figure flung the doors of the church open wide and proclaimed that for our heresy and desecration of holy ground, we would be cleansed.

Not even our Shaman could identify what this creature could possibly be, so in desperation, we just shot it, a lot, before having our Antipaladin try to cut it in half and our Rogue look to see if it had kidneys with their daggers.

It turned out that despite looking like a statue and being some kind of angelic force, it really didn't like having its stone kidneys carved out of its body, so it exploded into light and was no more, though it did almost take our Rogue into the next world with it.

At that point, we'd gone over time and broke session, again, about to explore our way through the church, since we were sure we'd seen a trap door in there and figured that there might be another way to get into the keep from the fortress below us.

When we last left off, our party had secured the above ground portion of the fortress, save for the gatehouse and the keep, but figured we had time to take it at our leisure, since even if the Lord Commander sent one of his men on horseback to Gaston Hall, they'd never make it back in time with reinforcements before the Bugbear horde had spread too wide to be contained at any chokepoints.

So we relaxed a bit and decided to explore the church, though curiously, we found no holy water anywhere in the church, but decided that if we needed to, the pews of the church looked solid enough to be used as makeshift battering rams.

Our Antipaladin stopped just long enough to destroy the main holy symbol on the altar, and then we descended into the level below the church, finding Father Donnagin's quarters and those of his under-priests and looting them, though there was so much sacremental silver for various religious rites that we decided we'd just have to make time to come and loot all that before summoning the bugbears but after taking the fortress.

Since we had keys to the priests' rooms, and the underpriests' cells were very small, our Shaman proposed that we could store those who we didn't want dead or that we might be able to use as hostages in them for now, as since we had the priest's keys, as long as we made sure to kill or capture all the underpriests, the only person with a key to them would have to just be the Lord Commander himself.

Going through the hallway to the next room, we saw just how successful our poisoning of Mama Giuseppe's beef stew had been, with 5 clerics tending to 22 men in various states of distress in a quarantined barracks.

Noting that the Taliraneans had a soft spot for their womenfolk, our Shaman urged the rest of us to not kill the women, since we could use them as a potential bargaining chip with the soldiers in the gatehouse.

The sick men and the male clerics, however, were slaughtered in an orgy of destruction as our Antipaladin cleaved through man and bunkbed alike, a whirlwind of death, leaving all but 4 of the sick men and their beds well and truly dispatched by the time guards responded to the commotion and broke through the locked and sealed door connected to the rest of the under-fortress.

Our Antipaladin's blendering effects continued un-abated and after switching place with our Rogue who was surrounded and badly hurt in the guards' inital attack, he killed all but one of the armed men with a single great swing, cutting through them until he finally lost enough momentum that the final soldier's shield could withstand his awesome blow.

At that point we had the entire under-fortress at our mercy and bound and gagged the two surviving priestesses and locked them in cells far apart from one another after confiscating their keys, though our Shaman was teased for having darker appetites and not being able to resist mixing business and pleasure despite his advanced age and cold-blooded, reptilian nature.

To which he responded that if they really wanted to start breeding half-fiends by the bushel, they'd probably need to run that large of a scheme by their master, but he suspected that waiting fifteen years for the first batch to be ready for battle would only help if this current scheme with the bugbears failed.

Searching the rest of the floor, they found a pair of servants hiding in the main storeroom of the fortress, being that they were not soldiers and were used to a servile existence, our Antipaladin and our Shaman offered them a deal, their lives would be spared if they surrendered to us and showed proper obedience.

Not being zelaots, armed, or competent fighters, they had no choice and cooperated with being bound and locked up. At that point we also recovered our Antipaladin's recruits, having left them to guard our escape route with the bugbear skeletons while the party proper used our Crowns of Disguise to at least attempt some subterfuge before everything went pear-shaped.

Quickly going over the resources at our disposal, we decided to build a massive fire in the kitchens below the great hall of the keep proper, so that it'd fill up with smoke. We underestimated the amount of time that this would take, however, and our Shaman was concerned about the fire spreading too far out of control and consuming the spoils of war or cutting off our access to our escape tunnel where we planned to stash the loot we didn't want the bugbears to know we had.

In the end, though, we set the fire and allowed Asmodeus to decide what the fire would do, while we went upstairs to collect our Shaman's bloody skeletons, the fire-building and waiting for the smoke to build up having eaten enough time for them to rise from their nap.

After a short rousing speech from our Antipaladin, his recruits were finally deemed ready and willing to prove their new conversion to obedience to their true lord and master, Asmodeus, by fighting with us against whatever waited for us in the keep.

With a great shout, our bugbear skeletons and Antipaladin broke through the main gate of the keep using one of the church's pews and found the Lord Commander himself waiting for us, with a squad of sergeants arrayed beside him.

He took up a battle stance and called for us to surrender, for we had no hope of beating him, and would only further damn ourselves in the attempt. Our Shaman told him that the time for words had long since passed, our lord's strength would be demonstrated here today for him.

Having learned from the previous encounter with the cleric, our Shaman wanted to maximize his skeletons' chance for survival by making the Lord Commander weigh his choices between healing his troops or channeling positive energy to destroy the undead, so a volley of arrows preceded our Antipaladin charging into combat and smiting the Lord Commander who, as we suspected, was a Paladin.

Badly wounded, the Lord Commander gave as good as he got, until it was clear that there was simply more blood in his body than in our Antipaladin's, even as the bugbears rushed in to support him and our bloody skeletons tied up the lion's share of his troops before dispatching them with the help of the bows of our Antipaladin's recruits.

In moments, however, the Lord Commander had reduced all of our undead minions to dust, save for the toughest of the Bugbear skeletons, while our Rogue used our wand of healing to stabilize our antipaladin before having to flee the wrath of the Lord Commander, only being saved from further pursuit by the infernal crack of our Gunslinger's pistol, the leering devil's face embellishing the barrel enraging the Lord Commander and almost causing our gunslinger to be disemboweled.

With a mighty crash, our bugbear skeleton smashed through the remaining Balentyne soldier, allowing our Rogue to shank the Lord Commander in the kidney before our Gunsinger managed to press his gun right between the Lord Commander's helmet and gorget and mostly decapitated him with another massive critical.

Our Antipaladin, upon being revived, went and completed the job, taking the Lord Commander's head and tying it to his belt, reverting to his actual form. Upon touching the Lord Commander's armor that initially burned him with purity, our group watched in amazement as utter blackness formed on the armor where our Antipaladin had touched it, and then spread, turning the once-gleaming armor into an utterly gothic, spiked horror in what could only be a miracle of Asmodeus, showing his favor to his faithful servant.

Meanwhile, our Gunslinger took up Ballinger, the ancestral sword of the Havelyns who had been instrumental in his family's defeat during the Civil War, and after a test of will against the blade's residual holiness where it seared his skin with utter pain, mastered it, driving out its goodness.

About that time that we had collected ourselves and our Shaman realized that without the Lord Commander's head, his collection of defenders of Balentyne to present to their master wouldn't be nearly complete enough, we were interrupted from heading up the stairs by the screams of servants who seemed to be burning to death beneath us. This prompted us to realize that we had never searched the pantry, having concluded that the servants who had fled before us had all gone into the keep proper.

Slightly embarrassed at our carelessness costing us what could have been another 3 or 4 slaves, we ascended the stairs to see just what the Wizard had been preoccupied with that rumor said had been found beyond the Watch Wall and brought here for him to study and to see if we could find out where Eddarly had been stashed, for our Gunslinger greatly desired to bear him the news of his paramour's death and use his grief to turn Eddarly to our cause, having been inspired by our Antipaladin's success and still mourning his failure to deliver Grumblejack the Ogre to our master for conversion from a beast of chaos into a powerful servant of Asmodeus.

What we found utterly perplexed us, for it was a pair of soldiers guarding a door. Our Shaman was chomping at the bit to get into that door after our Antipaladin, re-disguised as the Lord Commander and hiding the true Lord Commander's severed head under his illusion, and our Rogue sneakily dispatched the men. Just what could be important enough to leave men to guard while he fought not only for his life but Balentyne's very soul?

As it turned out, it was our Gunslinger's prize, Eddarly. Unfortunately for our Gunslinger, despite his philandering and not being a model church-goer, Eddarly's dedication to Talingarde was rock-solid, and refused to be swayed by a Barca Loyalist, even one who had survived the inquisition. Especially not after slaughtering our way through the men he had loved and served with.

Lamenting the waste of Eddarly's life, our Gunslinger promised him some time to contemplate his coming death before we came back for him.

After that, we discovered a mysteriously empty room and wondered what it could have been, before spotting a blood stain and holes where torture equipment had been, and our Gunslinger related that the Taliranean Inquisition used to have these at every military base or fortress in Talingarde, but with the current king being less zealous and most people figuring that the Inquisition had completed its task, a lot of the knights and commanders wanted to bury that past and pretend it had never happened, focusing instead on notions of chivalry and honor dug up and sanitized from the pre-Markadian era of Talingarde and the rule of the first Markadian.

We also found a loose stone, scrawled with a prayer to Asmodeus to strike down their enemies and signed with Asmodeus's symbol written in blood.

Going up, we found the Wizard's quarters and laboratory, and broke session after melting his pet Ice Golem into a rapidly evaporating puddle of water, just on the cusp of searching his lab for valuables, flush with greed after discovering a spare wand of fireball and his spellbook hidden under his bed.

Whew. And there we go.

We should finally topple Balentyne tomorrow, as we have one or two levels of the keep left to go through, the roof of the keep where the wizard's body is, and then the gatehouse itself.

If we do well enough, we plan to get all of the loot and our loyal servants on the road to our next destination well ahead of the bugbears before we finally deign to summon them, since we have several days left before the bugbears start to break up or word can even reach Gaston Hall to hurry up the relief force and Inquisitors that were going to arrive in three weeks.

Some of us want to really spook the bugbears by taking all of the bodies, so all they find is an empty keep where some fires have happened.

Our Shaman is also tentatively planning on using Stone Shape to open several holes in the wall of the fortress so that it can't be used as a fortress again without repair or another person that can cast Stone Shape.

[Braininthejar2]

Not the most perfect execution of this scenario I've read. Which makes it all the more fun to read.

Does your gunslinger have some feats for that, or does he just naturally crit on demand?

[Coidzor]

Not the most perfect execution of this scenario I've read. Which makes it all the more fun to read.

Does your gunslinger have some feats for that, or does he just naturally crit on demand?

Yeah, it's been kind of a comedy of errors with the violence of MacBeth. :smallredface:

He was just very, very swingy with his dice rolling. He kept rolling either really low or really high once we got into the fortress.

[Peregrine_Caged]

Does your gunslinger have some feats for that, or does he just naturally crit on demand?

Calyx, party gunslinger, loyal worshiper of Asmodeus, future ruler of a reclaimed Talingarde, here.

I love this line, heh.

While I don't fully recall that last critical against the LC, I was pretty on fire for a few sessions there (as well as the 5E game I DM for this group, to my players' frustration, heh). That wizard crit, though, that was pretty glorious. I was taking a range increment penalty, mostly just firing as we all ran to find a way to the roof to do something, not expecting it to work at all, then ended up critting him for something like 70-ish damage.

So the DM asks, How do you kill him? I think about it for a second and a thought pops in: "Now, I want to make it perfectly clear, I am specifically not doing this. BUT. If this were like an action movie or something, I'm just imagining Calyx shoots the wand in his hand and it explodes, killing him." DM, "Y'know what. That's exactly what happens!"

Damn me for breaking rule 0, but if it wasn't bloody well worth it in the end!

[Coidzor]

BALENTYNE HAS FALLEN.

So, in other words, that's all folks!

Having just melted the Ice Golem, we proceeded to search the Wizard's laboratory. We found notes detailing his investigations into the Ice Golem, which was what was found in the north by adventurers encased in a bigger block of ice that they brought back with them and left with the wizard due to not having the time, interest, inclination, or laboratory to study it.

Our Shaman's curiosity was momentarily piqued by who these adventurers might be before realizing that the weirdness that the Wizard had been studying was significantly less interesting than he had hoped. Though it did seem like there was another wasted opportunity to put someone else's golem to good use for a moment when the journal reported promise in being able to get it to accept orders, though this again proved shortlived when the passage went on to elaborate that *all* the Wizard had managed to get out of it was to guard an area.

We also noticed that there was a *very* finely made cauldron in the laboratory, which our Gunslinger promptly claimed.

From there, we readied to ascend to the roof, before remembering that there was another floor above us to go through, seeing as how we hadn't actually found the Lord Commander's chambers. First, though, we found the fortress's council chamber, with a banner of Mittras's sun crossed with a sword and a key that our Gunslinger rushed to tear down. Our Rogue, on the other hand, was immediately drawn to the large chest in the far corner, and even more intrigued when they found a magical trap on it. Swiftly disabling the trap, the Lord Commander's master key was inserted and opened the chest, revealing the fortress's payroll and petty cash all in one convenient location.

Flush with new riches, we went on and found the Lord Commander's quarters, which were, fittingly, spartan and sparse. Strangely, one wall was a shrine to some woman named Brownyn of Havalek, though the Havaland family bible quickly revealed details, sharing that this Bronwyn was the deceased wife of the Lord Commander, whose actual name was Thomas Havaland and who both had a son who had become another knight of the Alerion or Valarian or something along those lines and a brother named Samuel a Cardinal of Mittras and apparently disowned by the family for his name was all but completely blotted out in the family geneaology and the accompanying records.

Being curiously fascinated with the painting and noting our Gunslinger's personal animosity towards the Havalands based upon events that happened a few decades before even our Shaman was born, our Shaman decided to take the portrait of the Lord Commander's dead wife "for later use," though others did note that it was high quality enough and the lady pretty enough that it'd probably be of interest to art collectors as well for coin.

We also found a curiously well appointed chamber and couldn't make heads or tails of what it was for or why it was cleaned if no one lived there or used it, until it was brought up that sometimes dignitaries do visit the Watchwall to assess its strength and the like, even if the current king hasn't paid enough attention to it himself. Shrugging and moving on, we turned towards the trapdoor leading to the roof.

Finding it curiously unbudging, even before the brute strength of our mighty Antipaladin, we shrugged and started chopping through it, revealing that a huge block of stone had been placed on top of it. After some banter about whether the Wizard had done that or if the batch of archers we had dispatched had sealed themselves up there in the time between when the alarm was raised and they met us in battle, our Rogue and Gunslinger led the way to see if there was anything of use left on the wizard's corpse after the giant explosion that had claimed his life.

So we went outside, finding the amount of smoke from the fire below had grown significantly, and headed to the rear of the keep where the chimney provided a pair of surfaces to brace against and easily attached a grappel hook to the roof and promptly receive an arrow in reply as a pair of dwarfs and a trio of human Balentyne soldiers looked over the side of the roof and unleashed a volley of fire at us.

The token gesture proved useless, however, and our Rogue demonstrated their ability to sweet talk the arcane and promptly roasted four of them, while our Gunslinger and our sole remaining Bugbear Skeleton felled the odd man out.

The fireball apparently set something on fire up there, so everyone but our Shaman clambered up the rope and our Shaman sent his skeleton up to the roof to push the block out of the way. They discovered quite a few goodies surviving on the wizard and a great catapult which had quickly had hungry flame spread across it, clearly urged along by our Lord's dominion over the domain of Fire.

Full of swagger at having completely conquered the keep and opened up all the passages that had been denied to us, we turned our attention to the sole remaining source of opposition, the Gatehouse. As the smoke became horrible in the keep's ground level, we left our Antipaladin's disciples to lurk out of the way in the church, looting the sacramental silver and our last bugbear skeleton in the thickness of the smoke in the great hall of the keep while our Antipaladin adopted the guise of the Lord Commander and the rest of us took the faces of the men who had breathed their last at his side.

With the massive column of smoke rising from the keep and the doors leading to the lower bridge from the under-fortress, it was an easy enough matter to convince the gatehouse's defenders that time was of the essence if we were to save the keep from being unusable from the fire damage.

Asmodeus smiled even more upon us when we discovered that the defenders had graciously heated up vast cauldrons of sand and opened up murder holes for us, and even ran underneath them for us, allowing us to kill the last 9 of Balentyne with their own defenses, before we burned the last of the fortress's anti-siege weaponry, a pair of stone throwers and ballistae facing from the gatehouse out into the savage north.

Then, while our Shaman surveyed the extent to which the flames and smoke had spread beyond our expectations and rescued our captives from the smoke, the rest of us debated whether to summon the bugbears or break our clay seal first, before finally remembering that we were to break the seal once we had prepared the way and deeming that the fortress, devoid of life save for ourselves and those in our power, was amply prepared for the bugbears.

So we broke the seal, opened the gates, lit up the now night-time sky with the rocket's red glare, and gathered up the spoils we had taken for ourselves instead of leaving for the bugbears and the flames.

As if on cue, as we turned to bid the fortress adieu and beat feet before the bugbears finally arrived, our Dread Master's personal Deviless appeared out of nowhere behind us and congratulated us on going above and beyond the call of duty, seeming to actually demonstrate something approaching emotion and pleasure at the sight of the corpses and fires we had left in our wake, relaying that she had especially enjoyed our zeal in seeing Aldencross put to the flame. Though she did hope that our new pets were housebroken.

Our next task, she relayed to us, was to accompany her via barge far to the west to the City of Farholde, and that our Master would relay our next mission to us after we had rested.

So we did, enjoying our new shiny bars of platinum and the fact that our new slaves were almost terrified into unconsciousness at sacrificing the two surviving priestesses of Mittras, although our Shaman wasn't quite sure if letting the Deviless sacrifice the priestesses was supposed to be him doing her a favor or her doing him a favor.

Our Shaman was sure that it wouldn't come back to bite him in the tail, though, after all, his soul was already spoken for.

Our Rogue took the opportunity to finally reveal their name to us, too, telling us that they were a one Ichtaca, which our Antipaladin's disciples promptly revealed they were absolutely incapable of saying properly.