How Would You Defend A Mountain Fortress?

[Broken Fang]

600 vampires = 60 groups of ten each of levels 6-12

1. Teleport to 60 different small/large towns in DISGUISE
2. Use Domination
3. Create Spawn
4. Release spawn to inflict as much damage as possible as you leave
5. Repeat at 60 different towns/villages...continue

Summon Marilith (demon...not the highest CR) who can Animate Dead and Cloudkill at will, he can also summon other demons

1. Appear in town
2. Cast Cloudkill...lots of dead people
3. Cast Animate Dead...lots of undead slaves
4. Repeat till strike team shows...teleport elsewhere and repeat

Are these possible options? Again how many high level defenders do they have? The vampire teams are pretty much self-sufficient. If they have to they can always return to their fortress lairs. Don't have them hit the big cities go after the samller communities where death would be closer to home (I knew Joe the farmer...what a way to go...die then be raised to kill your own family). Use them to infililtrate, then cause damage, then leave before the calvary appears...repeat.

 

[Broken Fang]

You might even start with the smaller villages. It could be possible that you could wipe them out before any alarm was sound...assuming they too have magical communication gear. Ten vampires in Hommlet would be nasty! Even if you don't wipe the village out you could do some serious damage. Then work your way up to bigger towns.

 

[mmadsen]

600 vampires = 60 groups of ten each of levels 6-12

Do we want them in groups of 10? It seems that either they meet no resistance, in which case they don't need numbers, or they do meet resistance, in which case they do need numbers, but they'll never have large enough numbers, and they'll all die anyway.

1. Teleport to 60 different small/large towns in DISGUISE

Does disguise help? In a small town, it's not like the pale stranger with an aquiline nose won't stand out...

2. Use Domination

Naturally.

3. Create Spawn

The spawn need to be buried, and they need days to transform. If the countryfolk understand Vampires -- and I assume the Vallorean folk do -- then the assault teams need safe crypts prepared. They need those anyway, if they don't plan on returning to the main stronghold; their coffins need to go somewhere.

4. Release spawn to inflict as much damage as possible as you leave

Always fun.

5. Repeat at 60 different towns/villages...continue

Lather, rinse, repeat.

 

[Crowe9107]

It occurs to me, that one of the main strengths of our enemies are their highly professional legions. We need something to counter-this...How about getting an Epic Spell Origin of Species: Half-Dragon (Blue)/Bullette or Triceratops (call it a Siege Beast or somesuch), something big, mean, and heavily armored to pierce phalanx formations (essentially, a tank). The half-dragon portion would make it pretty smart for a beast (Int 4 vs a horse's 2), and the Lawful Evil makes it fairly trainable and well behaved. Adding Half-Fiend would make it even more formidable, but it would crank the DC of the Spell WAY up. Slap some spiked barding on this puppy and THAT'S Heavy Cavalry. Oh, and it flys....

Re,

Carl Rowe

 

[Ace]

It occurs to me, that one of the main strengths of our enemies are their highly professional legions. We need something to counter-this...How about getting an Epic Spell Origin of Species: Half-Dragon (Blue)/Bullette or Triceratops (call it a Siege Beast or somesuch), something big, mean, and heavily armored to pierce phalanx formations (essentially, a tank). The half-dragon portion would make it pretty smart for a beast (Int 4 vs a horse's 2), and the Lawful Evil makes it fairly trainable and well behaved. Adding Half-Fiend would make it even more formidable, but it would crank the DC of the Spell WAY up. Slap some spiked barding on this puppy and THAT'S Heavy Cavalry. Oh, and it flys....

Re,

Carl Rowe

Whee!!! I want one of those for the next time some jerk in an SUV cust me off in traffic

Malagoth! SUV--- EAT

Crunch....

 

[Broken Fang]

I would use things like Alter Self or Change Self as disguise...not makeup or trying to act like the new goth crowd that has moved into town.

I would plan on teleporting back to the fortress...I mean why not everyone else is teleporting. No need to make two places you would have to defend.

Didn't read up on Spawn so maybe just do as much damage and leave when help arrives. I would think 10 semi-inelligent disguised vampires of levels 6-12 could kill at least a few people before sounding any alarms. Maybe stick around in town and try to start a mini-killing spree with the attacks looking like wild beasts or something. If help shows bug out. Repeat the next day in 60 others places.

I would think this is the best way to use the Vampires from what I'm reading of SHARKS world. If you have them around when the legions hit they are going to get whacked by the anti-vampire teams. I'd use them elsewhere. I think it would sure suck to be a townfolk who just heard about what happened in the next village over when you could be next.

 

[Crowe9107]

I would use things like Alter Self or Change Self as disguise...not makeup or trying to act like the new goth crowd that has moved into town.

I would plan on teleporting back to the fortress...I mean why not everyone else is teleporting. No need to make two places you would have to defend.

Didn't read up on Spawn so maybe just do as much damage and leave when help arrives. I would think 10 semi-inelligent disguised vampires of levels 6-12 could kill at least a few people before sounding any alarms. Maybe stick around in town and try to start a mini-killing spree with the attacks looking like wild beasts or something. If help shows bug out. Repeat the next day in 60 others places.

I would think this is the best way to use the Vampires from what I'm reading of SHARKS world. If you have them around when the legions hit they are going to get whacked by the anti-vampire teams. I'd use them elsewhere. I think it would sure suck to be a townfolk who just heard about what happened in the next village over when you could be next.

One thing you have to be careful on is the load limits of Teleport, a teleporting mage can only bring along an additional 50lbs/level of gear and people. Assuming a 10th Level caster (need at least 2 ports, 1 insertion, and 1 extraction), that is only 500lbs, at 150lbs per person, that is 3 peeps and 50lbs of gear (more likely 2 peeps and 200lbs of gear). Teleportation Circle is much more attractive, but a ninth level spell, not so common.

For a higher level strike force, depending on the prevalence of this magic commo gear, I would suggest careful scrying to determine the location of this stuff, Porting in (or sneaking in if porting impossible), opening up with an anti-magic field to block transmission (preferably quickened), turning the commo man and his gear to pasty goo (these OA trolls seem like they would be good in a scrap without magic), and then dropping the field and letting the festivities commence.

Re,

Carl Rowe

 

[SHARK]

Greetings!

Damn! Gotta love the blue armoured Triceratops/Bulette things! That's thinking just like me! I love it!

This is all some excellent discussion! I'll post some more notes soon, too.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[Leopold]

summon some half fiendish giant spiders with monster summoning and cast fly on them. Have them coast over the enemy and drop web on them from above. Snare the enemy down and then have creatures that are immune to being held, stuck, prone, etc. wade in and massacre them.


Send in insect plauges to help keep the valoreans awake at night. Give them lack of sleep and cause them to become fatigued.

Summon dopelgangers or pay some of the vampires to take over as leaders in change shape form. When battle ensues issue counter manding orders that would weaken the formation and placement of the troops. Use lots of non-detection spells to ward off those good priests and their fould know alignment spells.


Cast spells such as earthquake, lava burst, flood, avalanche on them. With hundreds of thousands of troops traveling in a straight line a few of those will seperate the ranks and kill them off. Send in your half dragon/half fiendish/bullete and start mowing down the enemy. Enlist Grey Reavers or those 3 armed ogre creatures to help cause terror when attacking.



The easiest part about this is that the valoreans are on flat ground easily targeted and easily messed with by nature spells. Any evil druids out there?

 

[Numion]

You could try to entrap a vallorean teleport strike team. Gather your high-level casters to await them. When they arrive, cast a few Mordys disjunctions on them, followed by Twinned Feeblemind spells by competent casters on their mages. Now the team might be trapped inside some devilish(ym) trap, where you have gathered your most powerful servants. Have a couple of good archers to knock out their ioun stones, in case they've got teleports stored.

For extra effect you might want to be there yourself, to really lay the smack on them.

The draw back is that they'll think twice before sending another team if this succeeds, but then again you'll have more freedom for your own actions.

Another cheesy tactic: Have a beholder wizard waiting them in a permanent Forcecage, with Hide Life cast on it. AM cone doesn't affect force, so they can't shut the beholder down, kill it or turn it away. Stuck.