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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sir Whiskers" data-source="post: 854892" data-attributes="member: 6941">First, congrats to your players - you built one solution into the situation, so they naturally try to find another...<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f644.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes    :rolleyes:"  data-smilie="11"data-shortname=":rolleyes:" /> For the military campaign, I'd suggest something along these lines (just my two cents'):1. Determine exactly who the army leaders are (you've probably already done this). 2. Determine what resources they have to recruit high-level help. Don't limit yourself to npc's. Maybe one of them can use Planar Ally to bring in a demon or three. Maybe another can animate powerful undead. Regardless, these recruits are the counter to the party.3. Assuming the bad guys are smart enough to know that any normal army can be trashed by high-level heroes, given enough time, they'll place their counterforce where it can attack the pc's, if they get involved. Then plan the rest of the assault on the town, using the main army and its generals.4. Ask the players to give you - in advance - their general plan of defense. Determine ahead of time how long the pc's can remain hidden and unopposed, before the counterforce engages, based on the plan and contingencies the players have given you. Definitely ask for contingincies - this allows you to determine what happens before the game starts without being too arbitrary.5. Begin the game with a short explanation of what actions the characters took, what effects they had, and how things appear at this point. Then start play with the counterforce appearing. If the party has split up, require that those not around the counterforce act as previously specified, unless the party is smart enough to have come up with a communications system. (If some players are going to be sitting for a long time, let them play some of the counterforce - my experience is most players will be even more ruthless than a DM in this situation).6. If the counterforce fails to drive off the party, ask the players what actions they want to take to try and deflect the army (which has continued to mass against the town during the fight). If the party's resources have been seriously depeleted, it's possible they won't be able to seriously affect the army, and the town will be sacked. If the party retains the capability to seriously damage the army, consider having the army's generals pull back until they can recruit more forces to block the party. (Congratulations! The party wins, at least temporarily.)7. If the counterforce succeeds in driving off the party, simply tell them how the town falls. I wouldn't even try to play this out, unless the town has sufficient regular forces to stop the army on its own (which, from your intro, it doesn't seem to).Keep in mind that characters of the levels you're talking of *can* trash a normal army, if left unopposed. Improved invisibility, fireball, cloudkill, fog cloud, etc. can split up, kill, demoralize, and generally render hors d'combat any amount of normal troops. Presumably its generals know this and will take appropriate steps. If the party has been harassing the army before now, the generals should really understand what needs to be done.Another consideration is time. Generally DnD combat is very quick and deadly. Though it may take hours of real time, the fight with the counterforce will likely be over quickly in game time. So the army should not be able to suddenly sack the town in the few minutes that the party is engaged by the counterforce. This is why I recommend that the army withdraw temporarily, if it fails to neutralize the party.Hope this helps.</blockquote>

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