Rasilak
2007-10-25, 04:43 PM
Hi!
I'm facing the following situation in one of our gaming sessions:
(we're not playing any particular system, the DM just decides what's possible/plausible - so no rules lawyering in here, just common sense; however, I'll try to translate the circumstances in d20-terms to the best of my knowledge)
1. The World
We play in a low magic setting (in theory everyone can learn magic, but it takes lots of time to master and has - by D&D standards - only mediocre effects, so it's not very widespread, and probably no solution to the situation). We play at a tech level around 100 b.c. (think roman republic with some early medieval tech - like ok quality steel, or crossbows - mixed in) on an volcanic island about the size of Rhodos. The island has fertile soil, roughly mediterran climate - maybe a little more humid - and some parts are covered with thick, nearly jungle-like forest, others with grassy plains. The higher parts tend to be rockier, and with less vegetation (this part might be somewhat inaccurate, if it's important I can inquire the gamemaster on details.)
2. Our Position
We lead a group of roughly 1500 settlers (commoners, mostly) to build a new colony on this island. So far we found an uninhabitated, destroyed city, built a palisade around it, and repaired/reconstructed some of the houses. We found a quarry about 3 miles from the city and an abandoned iron mine. The city itself is about 1-2 miles in diameter, and surrounded by thick forest for at least half a dozen miles (except to the coastline, which is about one mile from the city). The city's underground is riddled with tunnels, some of them ending in the forest (we assume they were built for ventilation, but frankly we don't have a clue). A lot of these tunnels are collapsed.
We're going to clear a patch of the forest (about 10 square kilometers - or 2500 acres for the Americans) for farming. Since we'll need at least some kind of river, it will be some distance form the city and need a small village for the farmers. We're also going to reopen the mine and building a small castle at the outskirts of the city once we have taken care of the most basic things.
There are some other cities on the island, but we don't know much of them, and did not contact them by now. However, they seem to have sent some "diplomats" (spies?) to our city - they did not return yet, so we could still stop them if we feel like it.
Note, however, that to our knowing there is absolutely no tradition of warfare on this island (the people we lead don't know anything about it either). But that's not the matter anyway, our problem has another source.
And there are absolutely no large animals on the island (IIRC the biggest are goats, so no horses or cows)
3. The Problem
One member of the city council got expelled (mainly for constant trying to establish his personal tyranny in the city), taking with him the "blueprints" of some quite useful magical artifacts, which "coicidentally disappeared" afterwards (he did'nt take them - at least not all of them - with him, since he left by foot, so they're probably still somewhere in the city). The most important artifacts (I remember) are:
- a full plate that absorbs some of the impact energy and turns it into a blinding flash of light (imagine an adamantine full plate with the blinding effect on every hit)
- a helmet that slightly deflects strikes and projectiles headed in its direction (it's probably around +2 in d20-terms)
- a greataxe that is exceptionally easy to use, without actually reducing its mass (hard to tell, maybe around +3)
- a throwing dagger that is homing on the nearest target (not that useful, since it lacks IFF)
- a ring that constantly increases the wearers strength when worn (like some kind of magic steroids)
However, with the blueprints he is capable to reproduce these effects on pretty much any object, and can add some other nice tricks. (I know that he is able to protect artifacts from unauthorised use, so that some badass combat spells are set off when someone other than a person named during the artifacts creation picks them up).
And, as far as I know this guy, he is coming back. He is good friends with a king in an other world he could open a gate to, and I suppose that's where he'll go first. The other world is technologically more advanced (at least high-medieval standard, think 15th century, but without gunpowder of sufficient quality, or the ability to produce larger quantities of it - however the alchemists might know how to do it). In this world horses (and other large animals) are availible, and magic is more common (though still not by D&D standards).
He might be able to earn a lot of money by selling artifacts in this place, or he could even tip the king off that there are cheap extraplanar colonies to be conquered (however, I'd deem the latter rather unlikely, since that'd hamper his ambitions of total domination). Then he will be hiring mercenaries (if we're really unlucky even some battlemages, but that would be difficult since the local mage guilds don't like him very much), equipping them with the artifacts he made, and gate back to our world.
Due to the nature of his gate spells he won't be able to transport much more than 100 people in reasonable time (I'd deem 120 the maximum that's practicabe). Plus the gates are a quite dangerous thing, he might lose about 5% of his troops during the travel. Animals are even harder to transport - you have to keep your hands inside during the ride :) - so there he'd lose at least half of them. Probably too much hassle for him to try, warhorses are friggin expensive.
Due to these limits he is probably going to hire the best soldiers money can buy, an equip them with the maximum that's possible (and still reasonable to carry).
Though it's entirely speculative, I expect him to put the armors effects on large shields instead, use the helmets effect un both helmets and armor (probably a good full plate), completely forget about the dagger (just too frickin' dangerous), use the rings to train his guys to a bunch of bodybuilders Silvester Stallone would envy, use the effect on the greataxe for a weapon of choice (probably bastard sword or franziska, he loves these things), and put his anti-thief-trick on every item, just in case.
The artifacts are not strong enough to make his guys entierely invincible, but I highly doubt that anything we can train in reasonable time is able to stand a melee combat with these guys, unless we can isolate single guys and swarm them. So that basically leaves skirmishing, artillery, traps and fire (or something I did'nt think of yet).
4. Our Resources
I expect him to be back in about 2 years, give or take a few months. We have (as mentioned above) access to iron, stones and lots of wood.
The city has 1500 people who don't know jack about on which end to hold a sword, and 40-odd guys our hobby-dictator tried to train to his private army to pull off a coup. He didn't have much time though, and his guys had severe problems with discipline, so I doubt they'd be of much use. However, they know how to hold a pike and can (more or less) stay in formation, so that's at least better than nothing. Right now we have about 40 pikes, 20 (somewhat rusty) swords, 20 bows and a few crossbows. We could possibly find some guys who know how to hunt, but that doesn't make an army.
We're not expecting to get any help from the outside, so we'll have to stick with what we have and what we can produce.
As a wildcard, there is a "mini-god" who sometimes aids our city - he usually appears in the shape of a giant tiger - but I'd rather not rely on him, and he doesn't seem that awful dangerous either. The mercenaries are probably going to chop him up if he interferes, chances are, at minimal losses.
I'm facing the following situation in one of our gaming sessions:
(we're not playing any particular system, the DM just decides what's possible/plausible - so no rules lawyering in here, just common sense; however, I'll try to translate the circumstances in d20-terms to the best of my knowledge)
1. The World
We play in a low magic setting (in theory everyone can learn magic, but it takes lots of time to master and has - by D&D standards - only mediocre effects, so it's not very widespread, and probably no solution to the situation). We play at a tech level around 100 b.c. (think roman republic with some early medieval tech - like ok quality steel, or crossbows - mixed in) on an volcanic island about the size of Rhodos. The island has fertile soil, roughly mediterran climate - maybe a little more humid - and some parts are covered with thick, nearly jungle-like forest, others with grassy plains. The higher parts tend to be rockier, and with less vegetation (this part might be somewhat inaccurate, if it's important I can inquire the gamemaster on details.)
2. Our Position
We lead a group of roughly 1500 settlers (commoners, mostly) to build a new colony on this island. So far we found an uninhabitated, destroyed city, built a palisade around it, and repaired/reconstructed some of the houses. We found a quarry about 3 miles from the city and an abandoned iron mine. The city itself is about 1-2 miles in diameter, and surrounded by thick forest for at least half a dozen miles (except to the coastline, which is about one mile from the city). The city's underground is riddled with tunnels, some of them ending in the forest (we assume they were built for ventilation, but frankly we don't have a clue). A lot of these tunnels are collapsed.
We're going to clear a patch of the forest (about 10 square kilometers - or 2500 acres for the Americans) for farming. Since we'll need at least some kind of river, it will be some distance form the city and need a small village for the farmers. We're also going to reopen the mine and building a small castle at the outskirts of the city once we have taken care of the most basic things.
There are some other cities on the island, but we don't know much of them, and did not contact them by now. However, they seem to have sent some "diplomats" (spies?) to our city - they did not return yet, so we could still stop them if we feel like it.
Note, however, that to our knowing there is absolutely no tradition of warfare on this island (the people we lead don't know anything about it either). But that's not the matter anyway, our problem has another source.
And there are absolutely no large animals on the island (IIRC the biggest are goats, so no horses or cows)
3. The Problem
One member of the city council got expelled (mainly for constant trying to establish his personal tyranny in the city), taking with him the "blueprints" of some quite useful magical artifacts, which "coicidentally disappeared" afterwards (he did'nt take them - at least not all of them - with him, since he left by foot, so they're probably still somewhere in the city). The most important artifacts (I remember) are:
- a full plate that absorbs some of the impact energy and turns it into a blinding flash of light (imagine an adamantine full plate with the blinding effect on every hit)
- a helmet that slightly deflects strikes and projectiles headed in its direction (it's probably around +2 in d20-terms)
- a greataxe that is exceptionally easy to use, without actually reducing its mass (hard to tell, maybe around +3)
- a throwing dagger that is homing on the nearest target (not that useful, since it lacks IFF)
- a ring that constantly increases the wearers strength when worn (like some kind of magic steroids)
However, with the blueprints he is capable to reproduce these effects on pretty much any object, and can add some other nice tricks. (I know that he is able to protect artifacts from unauthorised use, so that some badass combat spells are set off when someone other than a person named during the artifacts creation picks them up).
And, as far as I know this guy, he is coming back. He is good friends with a king in an other world he could open a gate to, and I suppose that's where he'll go first. The other world is technologically more advanced (at least high-medieval standard, think 15th century, but without gunpowder of sufficient quality, or the ability to produce larger quantities of it - however the alchemists might know how to do it). In this world horses (and other large animals) are availible, and magic is more common (though still not by D&D standards).
He might be able to earn a lot of money by selling artifacts in this place, or he could even tip the king off that there are cheap extraplanar colonies to be conquered (however, I'd deem the latter rather unlikely, since that'd hamper his ambitions of total domination). Then he will be hiring mercenaries (if we're really unlucky even some battlemages, but that would be difficult since the local mage guilds don't like him very much), equipping them with the artifacts he made, and gate back to our world.
Due to the nature of his gate spells he won't be able to transport much more than 100 people in reasonable time (I'd deem 120 the maximum that's practicabe). Plus the gates are a quite dangerous thing, he might lose about 5% of his troops during the travel. Animals are even harder to transport - you have to keep your hands inside during the ride :) - so there he'd lose at least half of them. Probably too much hassle for him to try, warhorses are friggin expensive.
Due to these limits he is probably going to hire the best soldiers money can buy, an equip them with the maximum that's possible (and still reasonable to carry).
Though it's entirely speculative, I expect him to put the armors effects on large shields instead, use the helmets effect un both helmets and armor (probably a good full plate), completely forget about the dagger (just too frickin' dangerous), use the rings to train his guys to a bunch of bodybuilders Silvester Stallone would envy, use the effect on the greataxe for a weapon of choice (probably bastard sword or franziska, he loves these things), and put his anti-thief-trick on every item, just in case.
The artifacts are not strong enough to make his guys entierely invincible, but I highly doubt that anything we can train in reasonable time is able to stand a melee combat with these guys, unless we can isolate single guys and swarm them. So that basically leaves skirmishing, artillery, traps and fire (or something I did'nt think of yet).
4. Our Resources
I expect him to be back in about 2 years, give or take a few months. We have (as mentioned above) access to iron, stones and lots of wood.
The city has 1500 people who don't know jack about on which end to hold a sword, and 40-odd guys our hobby-dictator tried to train to his private army to pull off a coup. He didn't have much time though, and his guys had severe problems with discipline, so I doubt they'd be of much use. However, they know how to hold a pike and can (more or less) stay in formation, so that's at least better than nothing. Right now we have about 40 pikes, 20 (somewhat rusty) swords, 20 bows and a few crossbows. We could possibly find some guys who know how to hunt, but that doesn't make an army.
We're not expecting to get any help from the outside, so we'll have to stick with what we have and what we can produce.
As a wildcard, there is a "mini-god" who sometimes aids our city - he usually appears in the shape of a giant tiger - but I'd rather not rely on him, and he doesn't seem that awful dangerous either. The mercenaries are probably going to chop him up if he interferes, chances are, at minimal losses.