[3.5E] Heretic's Bane Icewind Dale

[Toliudar]

Johannes

Thanks, Mike!

Johannes bends over the map, hands tucked into small pockets in his brocade vest. He rocks up and down on the balls of his feet for a moment, deep in thought.

"Well, if the frontal assault doesn't work, then as long as we hold that tunnel, this place should be easy to starve out. They might be able to pull a few fish out of the river, but otherwise, they're getting all their food from somewhere else."

He turns to the others.

"So, am I reading this right? The invasion force will be going in by that tunnel off to the right, and we're expected to close off the tunnel to the left? With maybe a mile in between?"

[mshady]

Velma

Bending over the map, she squints at it and reaches for a pair of reading glasses so she can see it better. The first signs of deep wrinkles around her eyes and a life time of dimly lit reading had clearly taken a toll on her vision. She looks for a key or a some sort of scale and does not find any.

"Could be a mile. Feels like it. Doubt it's more. The invasion force will be coming from the right, or east side, of the map yes. They could be besieged, but that is only if we permanently block the other tunnel. Remember they probably have access to the same mushroom farms the Goldhammers did in the played out mines, terraced farming of the chasm and of course water? These are orcs and they'll have no qualms eating their own dead if it came to it, and even they are smart enough to keep enough supplies for a bad winter. No, we're not going to starve them out faster than the tunnel can be cleared or an overland army will arrive and run off the Tethyamar. They stand a chance defending a fortification, but in open ground they'd be enormously outnumbered. We're lucky we won the Battle of Icewind Pass last season with the losses we had.

The only way a siege works is if the water is poisoned, and we would just be spiting ourselves after the siege unless it can suddenly be unpoisoned, otherwise we end up with da same problem the orcs had. Even if we have the sense to boil water. Regardless, we do have to close off the western tunnel which will put a fortification to our rear and whatever comes down the road to our front. Which means we probably need to take the fort too. That will just be lovely, don't you think?" she says with a grim smile.

Taking the fort would mean they would not be pinned on the open ground of the tunnels, but taking the old dwarf gatehouse fortress would be stiff fighting. While reinforcements from the tunnel may be blocked, reinforcements from the Goldhammer Halls themselves could be overwhelming as they would represent the only enemy an entire kingdom of greenskins could come to grips with.

"So our job is to block the tunnel, yes? Where do we want to do that? Do we want to take the fort, go into the shadow of the fortress and block it or do we do it somewhere else?" she asks.

[Grodech]

"We need ta find out how high the ceiling is in da tunnels." Grathalmor says "If'n it varies, we may wanna find a spot where it's lower. It'll be less space we hafta fill wit rock."

[Gryndel]

Magnum

Once the map arrived, Magnum joined the others to peruse it thoroughly.

"Woulda been nice ta know how far dis west tunnel continues on before da next structure or change. Hard ta tell from an old map, no tellin' what might've changed, but dat looks like da best choke point ta cut off reinforcements. Perhaps we can add ta da cut off by doin' more in da gate fort, or even on da bridge. As ta scryin', if'n I knew somebody inside I might catch a glimpse of 'em. Otherwise, perhaps I can Commune wid Clangeddin ta gain some useful knowledge, if we organize some thoughtful questions designed fer a yes or no answer. As ta yer suggestion Johannes, tis a grand idea lad, alas I'm not yet powerful enough ta enact such a ward. I could also make the area Hallow, which could include an additional spell such a dimensional anchor, but dat takes 24 hours ta cast."

I have no access to other books at the moment, so there may be other cleric spells he could cast that would help. I'll research it later, and if I find anything I'll edit them in.

[Grodech]

A plan begins to form in Grathalmor's mind - at least one for blocking the tunnels. "I t'ink beyond da fort would be best." He points to the road leading out to the left. "We get beyond where dey'd be able ta see us from da fort - mebbe three or four hunnerd feet, have Magnum or Buna put up a stone wall - mebbe even both, or even put a wall o iron between. 'Den, ta keep any o dem nasties from gettin' trough, we put a tombstone behind it. 'Dey'd hafta dig ta get trough. We go back ta de other end and ta keep any from gettin' at da tombstone, we put up another wall or collapse the tunnel on top of it." He pauses, glancing at the others to see if they had anything to add. He knew he wasn't a mage, so his idea of using magic could have been totally hairbrained, but he'd seen his companions do a lot of things over the years. He was sure they could do this. "O'course da problem'd be if dey have a heavy guard assigned ta dat side o'da fort. An' I'm not sure how we'd collapse the tunnel wit'out magic. Mebbe da prince's have some minin' experts."

[mshady]

Buna

"A good I nay think the Princes have much in the way of miners, let alone mining experts in this kind o'thing. We do have Duervar though, and he's done that kind o'thing before. Even he might need a small crew though. Problem with dat is it takes significant time. Hours, even. After that, what about him and his crew?

Goin' way beyond the fort though is a good idea. That road probably does miles. If we collapse some of the tunnel, erect the walls, leave behind a golem or an elemental - are we still doing that?, and drop off a tomb stone, I nay want to have to run towards the fort afterwards with them alert and with all of our magic suppressed? That's going to be a tough run.

So I think we need to figure out how we're collapsing some of that tunnel and work our way out from there first. Or can we just avoid doing it all together?"

She gets up for a moment and walks to the door to see the steward sitting outside, just like he is supposed to be, in case he was needed.

"Lad, can you ask for a map of Tethyamar itself? We need to see what's around the area too" she says and waves to the young dwarf. After that, she returns to her seat.

"With Valina here, I think its safe to say we can get whatever scrolls we need to do this. Within reason"

"Of course. We have unlimited resources. Anything you can possibly want, and more, just sitting around in case we need it" Valina says and snorts, but she seems amused. She even spares a moment to give Magnum a friendly nudge.

[Grodech]

"What if we used a golem between the walls instead o' a collapse?" Grathalmor says. He thinks back to the golem with tombstone from just before the horrible blast... "Mebbe make it hollow and put da tombstone inside it."

[thorgrim29]

Thordrek

Thordrek looks at Valina with a "would that work" look at Grath's suggestion

[Toliudar]

Johannes grinned up at his colleagues. Ah, the cut and thrust of ideas. It was almost fun.

"I wouldn't have thought we'd have time to assemble a golem in time for the assault. But if we can...an iron golem with a tombstone inside would be a force to reckon with indeed."

[LibraryOgre]

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