RangerWickett
Legend
I never expected when my 'mid-to-low-magic' game started last Spring that the PCs would set about collecting all the most powerful artifacts in the world to use them to fight all the other badguys. Well, now my group is 12th level, and they're attacking Pilus, Demon Daoist of the West Wind, lich air elementalist archmage, master biomancer, and lord of the Stormbringer Airship.
Pilus's airship is a one-mile long living entity which Pilus created over several years of magical alterations and engineering. As far as the visuals of the ship, imagine a cross between a shark and a sailing ship, with a giant eye peering down. It channels the magic of the four members of the elementalist circle, for a total package of great destruction. It can fly with Pilus's air magic, create earthquakes with the earth mage's power, raise tidal waves through water magic, and fire bolts of lightning with the power from the fire elementalist. The fire elementalist is the sister of one of the PCs, and she's somewhat unwilling to help Pilus.
The party, in the other corner of the ring, has tracked down and reactivated the Torch of the Burning Sky, a grand magical artifact that has the power to teleport armies. When you either kill a person or crack a soul gem with the demon-thighbone torch, the torch ignites, and its bearer can teleport anyone within view of the torch's flame to anywhere on the daylit side of the world. The Torch had been stolen and hidden, and its power nullified. When the Torch wasn't working, the world began to slowly freeze, since the Torch drew upon fire magic. The party had to go through several nasty ordeals to get the Torch back, and to fix it, and now they're using it.
Pilus is a bit psychotic. He's got his giant doomsday device, and he's read the Evil Overlord's Handbook, and he wants to destroy things. He's got a trusted lieutenant lackey who idolizes him (in sort of a 'Norman Bates idolizing his mother' kinda way), and the lackey has an army at his disposal, so there are a few thousand soldiers on boards this giant living airship.
Desiring to destroy the airship before Pilus blows up any more cities, the party took the Torch, bluffed their way to talk to a commander of an army that was marching to war, and basically convinced the guy to help them save the world. Gathering 12,000 soldiers into close ranks, they activated the Torch, were picked up into the heavens by a pillar of flame, and then ended last session with the flame striking downward at the airship, where they will land and do battle.
So, I need to decide a few things as a GM. I want Pilus to be appropriately cunning, and I want this to be a challenge, and I'd kinda like to not have to deal with 12,000 NPCs in an epic battle. But, it's working up toward a climax, and an epic battle would be kinda cool. Plus, they went to all this trouble to get the Torch working; I'd hate to have it go to waste with them not being able to use the army they got.
Here's some of the ideas I was thinking of. Pilus is a truly tough Big Bad Evil Guy, and so his ship will have a lot of strong defenses. Pilus specializes in wind magic and in creating monsters, so I figure he'll have some strange monsters guarding the ship. Now, the PCs are teleporting this huge group onto the deck of the airship, which I actually figured out is just about big enough for some reasonable fighting to occur between the two armies, albeit in close quarters.
But, running an army on army battle would be a huge pain. Instead, I figure most of the army is belowdecks, because the airship flies along in a giant thunderstorm. The first wave of attack will be Pilus's high end magical monsters, things that should wipe out most of a foot army (sure, the army has some mages and some mid-level warriors, but nothing above 8th).
The first monster is the lightning dragon that circles the ship, flying in the storm. I've statted it out like a blue dragon, with DR high enough that even with thousands of crossbows being shot at it, it'll probably only take a few points of damage per round from the army (remember, AC 30+). It will basically circle the ship, flying over and blasting its breathweapon to kill off 30 or so warriors, then flying under to hide until its breath recharges. I'm really not sure if the PCs can take this on alone, but they've surprised me in the past, and they can always teleport the army away if things go south.
The second monster is nastier, though unfinished (Pilus needs some extra plot-relevant stuff to finish powering it). Basically, it's a beholder with a prismatic sphere around it. It'll pretty much just mow through warriors, killing them with the sphere while it uses its eyebeams against bigger threats.
Of course, while all this is going on, the party could try to get the army belowdecks so they can try to reach Pilus and either kill him or seize control of the ship from him. It's when they start doing that that I pull out the grand rat bastard card. I turn the ship upside down. It'll rise steeply for a minute or so, then corkscrew into a dive, basically trying to shake off the army, so they fall thousands of feet to their deaths.
Is that too evil? Or should I do it at the beginning of the battle? How should I balance the need to let the PCs use the artifact they got with smart villainy?
Pilus's airship is a one-mile long living entity which Pilus created over several years of magical alterations and engineering. As far as the visuals of the ship, imagine a cross between a shark and a sailing ship, with a giant eye peering down. It channels the magic of the four members of the elementalist circle, for a total package of great destruction. It can fly with Pilus's air magic, create earthquakes with the earth mage's power, raise tidal waves through water magic, and fire bolts of lightning with the power from the fire elementalist. The fire elementalist is the sister of one of the PCs, and she's somewhat unwilling to help Pilus.
The party, in the other corner of the ring, has tracked down and reactivated the Torch of the Burning Sky, a grand magical artifact that has the power to teleport armies. When you either kill a person or crack a soul gem with the demon-thighbone torch, the torch ignites, and its bearer can teleport anyone within view of the torch's flame to anywhere on the daylit side of the world. The Torch had been stolen and hidden, and its power nullified. When the Torch wasn't working, the world began to slowly freeze, since the Torch drew upon fire magic. The party had to go through several nasty ordeals to get the Torch back, and to fix it, and now they're using it.
Pilus is a bit psychotic. He's got his giant doomsday device, and he's read the Evil Overlord's Handbook, and he wants to destroy things. He's got a trusted lieutenant lackey who idolizes him (in sort of a 'Norman Bates idolizing his mother' kinda way), and the lackey has an army at his disposal, so there are a few thousand soldiers on boards this giant living airship.
Desiring to destroy the airship before Pilus blows up any more cities, the party took the Torch, bluffed their way to talk to a commander of an army that was marching to war, and basically convinced the guy to help them save the world. Gathering 12,000 soldiers into close ranks, they activated the Torch, were picked up into the heavens by a pillar of flame, and then ended last session with the flame striking downward at the airship, where they will land and do battle.
So, I need to decide a few things as a GM. I want Pilus to be appropriately cunning, and I want this to be a challenge, and I'd kinda like to not have to deal with 12,000 NPCs in an epic battle. But, it's working up toward a climax, and an epic battle would be kinda cool. Plus, they went to all this trouble to get the Torch working; I'd hate to have it go to waste with them not being able to use the army they got.
Here's some of the ideas I was thinking of. Pilus is a truly tough Big Bad Evil Guy, and so his ship will have a lot of strong defenses. Pilus specializes in wind magic and in creating monsters, so I figure he'll have some strange monsters guarding the ship. Now, the PCs are teleporting this huge group onto the deck of the airship, which I actually figured out is just about big enough for some reasonable fighting to occur between the two armies, albeit in close quarters.
But, running an army on army battle would be a huge pain. Instead, I figure most of the army is belowdecks, because the airship flies along in a giant thunderstorm. The first wave of attack will be Pilus's high end magical monsters, things that should wipe out most of a foot army (sure, the army has some mages and some mid-level warriors, but nothing above 8th).
The first monster is the lightning dragon that circles the ship, flying in the storm. I've statted it out like a blue dragon, with DR high enough that even with thousands of crossbows being shot at it, it'll probably only take a few points of damage per round from the army (remember, AC 30+). It will basically circle the ship, flying over and blasting its breathweapon to kill off 30 or so warriors, then flying under to hide until its breath recharges. I'm really not sure if the PCs can take this on alone, but they've surprised me in the past, and they can always teleport the army away if things go south.
The second monster is nastier, though unfinished (Pilus needs some extra plot-relevant stuff to finish powering it). Basically, it's a beholder with a prismatic sphere around it. It'll pretty much just mow through warriors, killing them with the sphere while it uses its eyebeams against bigger threats.
Of course, while all this is going on, the party could try to get the army belowdecks so they can try to reach Pilus and either kill him or seize control of the ship from him. It's when they start doing that that I pull out the grand rat bastard card. I turn the ship upside down. It'll rise steeply for a minute or so, then corkscrew into a dive, basically trying to shake off the army, so they fall thousands of feet to their deaths.
Is that too evil? Or should I do it at the beginning of the battle? How should I balance the need to let the PCs use the artifact they got with smart villainy?
