Help Design the Epic Retaking of a City

Trit One-Ear · Feb 5, 2013

I've abused my players enough lately, and it's time for some pay off. They've spent the last chunk of sessions unearthing a cult's plot to gain control of the main trade city in the kingdom. Having replaced a member of the Duke's council with a succubus, and enthralling him under her control, the cult is finally revealing itself.

Meanwhile, the heroes have been helping organize a resistance. Utilizing their connections with the church of Erathis, the thieves' guild, and a group of guerrilla warriors in the forests nearby, they have amassed a force strong enough to challenge the cult's far-reaching influence and their devilish allies.

So. How to make this awesome? I'd love some help designing encounters and challenges to make this play out as epically as my players deserve. I have some ideas:

The city is built in three rings/districts, with the wealthier areas closer and closer to the center. Reaching each district should become increasingly more challenging or dangerous.

I plan on having a aerial mounted combat to reach the keep at the center of the city, passing over the final wall. Mounted on gargoyles(?) from the city library's roof.

As the heroes progress inwards, they'll begin to encounter more devils and fewer humanoid cultists (duergar as well), and they finally will have to confront the succubus and the charmed Duke in a cinematic show down.

That's a very rough outline of events as I see them, but I'd love to hear any ideas you have on how to make this a session (or two) my players won't soon forget. They've been working towards this hard enough, they deserve a payoff on a grand scale.

Thanks in advance for the awesome ideas and advice I know you lot are capable of giving!

Trit

Evilhalfling · Feb 5, 2013

I recently had my group take drive an orc tribe out of their city: I did it as a 3 part skill challange to represent the mass combat -
Rallying the troops (social skill or history) (success gave +2 to that PC in part 3)
Finding the weakness (stealth, streewise, perception, athletics)
Into the breech (intimidate to lead troops, endurance or attack rolls)

But I think one of the big keys is that one of the generals on their side was a rival. Lots of RP as one of his captains tipped of the PCs, they got a chance to convince his troops that that they were needed elsewhere, and 2 PCs had to steal an item from his herald. There was only one small normal combat, most of the session was RP, skill rolls and vivid descriptions.

Combat takes so long in 4e that sometimes it better to underplay it in order to concentrate on the whole picture.

sabrinathecat · Feb 6, 2013

One of the good parts of Scales of War was just this sort of situation. Several encounters in different locations. The players have to run from battle to battle, with only 1 short rest available between encounters. Have each encounter involve different members of each group of supporters off to the side, or being in need of rescue. Maybe if the party takes too long getting somewhere (more than 1 short rest), a major NPC friend will be bloodied with only 1/2 the forces there vs full-power enemies. Have a general that they've heard of (and maybe fought before) return with his personal taskforce/pets to provide a nice penultimate encounter. Have scenes of devastation in the town as the battle rages on. Go for broke. Maybe a giant hurling a tree through a building/tower.

Trit One-Ear · Feb 7, 2013

I'm a little reluctant to have the players run all over the city too much; their goal for the past few sessions has been to eliminate the succubus behind this all. They're thinking more like a strike force whose mission is to cut off the head of the snake. Of course, in order to do this, they'll need to get through the swarms of cultists, and assist their allies in battle.

Rescuing or tipping the side of a battle would feel pretty heroic, so I definitely want them to experience that. They have a friend in the library they could also rescue... Or help him deal with a particularly nasty devil he's managed to trap in one wing of the library. Maneuvering the streets (some form of skill challenge) also would be exciting. Going for broke, as [MENTION=89838]sabrinathecat[/MENTION] suggests, to me means having something destroy a part of town the heroes are familiar with (ooh or part of the keep while they're in it...)

This is all great brainstorming, thank you guys so much. Let's keep it going!

Now I need to decide if I can fit this into one session, or make it two...

Trit

sabrinathecat · Feb 7, 2013

OK, build a couple of other random characters who are with the resistance (or make the players do it for you). Hand those characters to the players(or if the players built them, each player hands the character to the player on the left). Now they are playing these guys in cut scenes while the regular party is advancing on the battle. (this will also give the players a chance to become familiar with other character classes.) let these characters be about the same--maybe a level below--as the main party. Obviously, give the players the choice (who want's to play the archer ranger? The storm sorceror? The brutal rogue?--unless the players made the pcs. Then tough--they got what they got). Switching back and forth can allow the party to continue advancing, while showing the full scope of the chaos going on in the city. In the final B-team cut scene, have a massive explosion go off where the Party's final battle takes place. Cue suspense. Start the final battle with the main PCs.

Help Design the Epic Retaking of a City

Trit One-Ear

Explorer

Evilhalfling

Adventurer

sabrinathecat

Explorer

Trit One-Ear

Explorer

sabrinathecat

Explorer

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