LostSoul
Adventurer
In that case I'd have him try to talk to the PCs and negotiate a deal. A good opportunity to run a skill challenge.
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What would the Bandit King do here?
- Thread starter NewJeffCT
- Start date
In that case I'd have him try to talk to the PCs and negotiate a deal. A good opportunity to run a skill challenge.
Odds are he may not miss a late wagon for a day or two but should start wondering about, two in a row would make me send out a group of at least twice the size of the supply train.
Does the BK have any wizards with scrying or other spells that could be used to contact members of the supply trains? Failure to scry them would alert the BK. Other things to think about are eyes in the sky, what can BK call on to check the area?
There are two controllers in the fort that function as wizard/magical support, plus a druid/shaman type that is a bit crazy. The players know that there is at least one of these controllers.
The BK also has a dark raven that functions sort of like a familiar - he can see through its eyes when needed. That might be his first choice, so if the raven sees a ruined wagon just beyond sight of the fort, the BK sends out a larger force to investigate. If the players hide the ruined wagon & dead bodies, he may send out a still larger force, thinking it could be trouble with the farmers.
A simple Sending ritual (level 6) would tell him that the BK is trying to contact is either dead or on another plane.
A Status ritual (level 8) would tell him the status of up to 8 companions for up to 24 hours - if it was cast upon the men before they left.
Trying to figure out anything else that is level 15/16 or lower.
NewJeffCT said:
Don't forget any treasure he has.
Quickleaf
Legend
Level? The soldiers are 7th and later down you say the bandit's shaman can use rituals of up to 15th/16th level. That's a big spread.
Anyhow the whole point, as you know, to a hilltop fort is defensibility and visibility.
That's a lot of men! Any nearby forces the Bandit King needs to worry about sacking his fort if he sends out half his men?
Why? What's changed?
I see my supply wagon attacked by a dozen trained warriors with magic? I could send 2 or 3 dozen. I know my fastest horsemen could mobilize and gallop out there in about 10 minutes, but do I have 24 to 36 horses? I rage a bit an am on the verge of ridin out myself when I realize there's a reason they're attacking within sight of my fort: they want to show me I'm not boss! The bastards!
I send my #2 with a handful of archers on horseback to intercept in a straight line - their job is to annoy the PCs with long-range fire and lure them toward one of my traps until... I send my #3 with two dozen men in a circuitous route so they can't be seen by the PCs to approach from their flank. I give both #2 and #3 strict orders to withdraw (and prepare to be berated) if the PCs prove overwhelming.
I'm with [MENTION=6683506]Niccodaemus[/MENTION] - I style myself a king so it's time to put the smack down on my rebellious subjects.
I also need to find out who this group of PCs are, whether they're rival bandits poaching on my lands (in which an accord may be possible if they agree to pay me a hefty tax on their stealings), mercenaries hired by one of the rich townsfolk (in which case there's some threatening that needs to be done), or self-right do-gooders (which will be hard for the bandit King to swallow).
Remember, I may be a Bandit KING now but I started off as just a bandit, so there's no way I'm letting these upstarts beat me at my own game. Some nasty tricks I might employ...
A counter-ambush: load a wagon full of poison gas and flammables and have it pass thru a great ambush spot. Have a small team of crack archers follow on a rise above - they fire flaming arrows at the wagon when the PCs get close.
Innocents imperiled: Take hostages on the next wagon and threaten to kill them when PCs attack. Or better yet bind the hostages, ride by a river/lake, and toss hostages in - let the "heroes" decide which is more important. Or even better yet, abduct/hire on orphan boys to act as "caravan guards" (that should give the PCs pause!).
Decoys: Send wagons out along with 2 decoys, and vary up which one heads directly for the hilltop fort and which ones take circuitous routes. He might even send a decoy "Bandit King" on one of these wagons to see what the PCs intentions are toward him.
Traps: I may eschew traps in favor of force now, but by all that's evil, I know about traps. Maybe it's time to set some. A particularly vindictive Bandit King may smear a wagon with sovereign glue and have its wagoneer charge toward a ravine (the wagoneer may be a dupe, have a universal solvent, or be willing to die for the bandit king). PC jumps on the wagon: "Haha, give us your gold!" Wagoneer sneers and drives horses at a mad gallop toward the ravine. PC realizes they're stuck to the wagon. "Nuts."
The Bandit King should realize that right off the bat. After all be used to use guerilla tactics in his rise to power. His best bet is to play into that - give the PCs targets too perfect to pass up and then ambush/trap.
It would add to the tension if the players know about this potential union in the works.
The BBC aired a version of Robin Hood in 2006 that has lots of ideas for this type of adventure.
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A large force is just silly to do, and the Bandit King used to rob caravans. Heck, he may even have some experience in protection of caravans from his days as a mercenary before taking up his banditry.
You have wizards and thugs who know how to sneak? How quick could the Wizard cast a couple of Invisibility, have two toughs jump quietly out of the cart and begin creeping to the sides just around the location there have been attacks?
Personally I would go with the Duck Duck Goose setup.
-------------Guards--------------------------------------
[Duck Cart] [Duck Cart] [Goose Cart] [Duck Cart][Lead Cart]
-------------Guards--------------------------------------
Group of heavies hidden in that center cart ready to jump out and blow away any PCs who came through. Pretty common in the days of highwaymen, and could easily surprise the PCs. You have two animal/creature scouts (Druid can shapeshift right?) to run point, along with anyone who has some sort of concealment spell. Rogues also have UMD; do you have additional combat/obfuscation/travel items that these guys can handle?
After seeing Quickleaf's minute-long sniping of my post I think I need a bit more motivation to go further. What exactly is this guy's background? What skills does he have and who does he have on his side? He knows his way around or else he wouldn't survive this long... But we should know his skills.
EDIT: QUICKLEAF!!! Making me work more
.Slainte,
-Loonook.
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To be honest, I had initially thought one mile out from the fort was beyond the normal range of sight and I had played it as such at the start of the encounter. However, when later researching if/what the PCs could see with a spyglass, I found out that 1 mile is easily visible from the hilltop fort.
So, I told the group that information, and said that their initial ambush was in the rain, so was unseen from the fort... but, that going forward, they would need to come up with another plan to remain hidden (and, they were fine with that explanation, as they liked being able to spy the fortress from a mile out...get guard rotations on the walls, see if anybody else comes & goes, etc)
The players are level 10, and the allied cleric is also level 10 (and, has an actual sheet drawn up through the Character Builder) - the 5 soldiers are from Adventure Tools and are Gray Company soldiers with good alignment, instead of unaligned, and some renamed powers, but are otherwise the same. I had discussed options for the 5 with the players and they're going to mostly be "off camera" - which involves scouting the fortress from the lake side.
I would expect the BK to have patrols going around his keep regularly anyway. Seems like 1 mile out isn't that far out to notice something happened there.
Plus, the spell casters and familiar should be doing arial and magical looking out.
These practices should alert him to trouble (like finding the scene of a fight along the road).
From there, the BK has 2 choices, act like a King or act like a Bandit.
As a king, he'd send out 25% of his men as a show of force to stop "banditry" along the road. He'd also TRY to be nice to the locals, because he's all legit and has roots in the community. At least until that fails...
As a bandit, he'll be setting up a trap to snare these guys, because he's played this game.
As the Bandit King, he'll deploy both methods. A large force is NOT likely to be targeted by the party, and in fact is likely to miss finding the party (because bandits hide from large armed forces).
So the show of force will go through unmolested. That'll really be a ruse to get them out into the field so they can go "stealthy" and circle back to the suspected target zone.
after the proscribed time has gone by, the decoy will head out, and get to the suspected target zone so the PCs can attack. Remember, the show of force is moving into position to flank and thus destroy the PCs.
Alternates to the plan. The show of force can head into town, past the target zone, and prepare in town a decoy wagon to head on in. Thus, the decoy returns to the keep AS disguised members of the show of force.
since the BK has casters, he really needs to scry and recon as much as possible to get a sense of what strength these bandits are. He will then send twice as much power as the enemy to ensure victory.
Plus, the spell casters and familiar should be doing arial and magical looking out.
These practices should alert him to trouble (like finding the scene of a fight along the road).
From there, the BK has 2 choices, act like a King or act like a Bandit.
As a king, he'd send out 25% of his men as a show of force to stop "banditry" along the road. He'd also TRY to be nice to the locals, because he's all legit and has roots in the community. At least until that fails...
As a bandit, he'll be setting up a trap to snare these guys, because he's played this game.
As the Bandit King, he'll deploy both methods. A large force is NOT likely to be targeted by the party, and in fact is likely to miss finding the party (because bandits hide from large armed forces).
So the show of force will go through unmolested. That'll really be a ruse to get them out into the field so they can go "stealthy" and circle back to the suspected target zone.
after the proscribed time has gone by, the decoy will head out, and get to the suspected target zone so the PCs can attack. Remember, the show of force is moving into position to flank and thus destroy the PCs.
Alternates to the plan. The show of force can head into town, past the target zone, and prepare in town a decoy wagon to head on in. Thus, the decoy returns to the keep AS disguised members of the show of force.
since the BK has casters, he really needs to scry and recon as much as possible to get a sense of what strength these bandits are. He will then send twice as much power as the enemy to ensure victory.
