Castelleon

[Chris the Bigger]

Now that the party has the mercury to fly Castelleon, what next? Compete the negotiations with the mercenaries for flying mounts? full asult on Lyko?....

To help I'll recap the high points of the last session:
The party spotted some dragons following Mythgaurd on the way to Castelleon so they decided not to lead the Mottul FF directly to Castelleon and sent a message to Fina telling her the situation.

Fina advised the party to land outside of Oxtar and they were met by a stout force of arial troops. The party met Trox (old silver dragon), Deal and Blade (adult bronze dragons) and 6 griffon riders.

Fina invited Thrackly and the party to a stat dinner that night. Tha party went shopping and attended the dinner where Leonus demanded and recieved an entire pig (one half at a time) to be brought to the table. None was left.

Fina held her meeting with Thrackly and other political guests after the dinner but inthe feast hall. She sent word thta she woudl met the party in the morning.

the party met Fina and discussed the situation with Mottul. Fina sugessted that Castelleon needed to be made operationa quickly and the the only way to defeat the Mottul firces was to cut off their reinforcements by disablying their portal. She was also pretty clear that Eidos coudl not wage an extended war against Mottul if they could keep reinforcing their ranks while the forces of Eidos where depleted.

The party took Fina's advice and made haste to Castelleon, onlt yo find the Mottul forces assulting the FF. The party attacked with Trox drawing away the aerial troops. The party found the surface overrun and the FF gaurd defending the entrances to the interior.

Draeca, lead the way turing many of the Mottul forces to dust. the undead proved no match for her divine power and she also saved the party some trouble with a well placed daylight spell. The party made quick work of the Mottul forces andthose that did not fall retreated with a wave of undead fodder covering their escape.

Castelleon needs some repair but nothing that will take too long to complete. Most of the damage was superficial.

 

[Haltherrion]

We should check Castelleon over for any remaining spies, traps, "bugs", or location devices.

After that, it looks like this is a war for flying castles. There are others in Eidos (and the world). We should convey our concerns to Fina and ask her (again since we did this before) to make sure the others are being looked after.

Draeca will also spend a sending every few days to check on Mithguard to make sure it hasn't been lost to the enemy. If there is someone on the castle that she hit it off with, she will communicate with that person.

As to our immediate goals, I think we should find out where the Mottul fortress is and then see if we can take it. Seems like that might be a rather tall order so we may need to explore other options.

I'd also like to find out if Mottul has other fortresses. Seems like the dragons that followed us from Cinnibar were based on a fortress that we never saw. This isn't necessarily the main fortress. I would think that unless the war was going extremely well for them, they would leave the main fortress (or a fortress) at Lyko so that they could convey troops from Mottul to the fortress to Lyko and through the Lyko portals to other parts of Eidos. If Mottul is using more than one fortress, surveying some of the recent battlefield survivors or checking with spies in Lyko might reveal that.

If Mottul does have multiple fortresses now, might be worth trying to pick some off. Of course, they will likely do the same to us.

Anyway, seems like we need to learn more. Fina has some spies, she might be able to tell us if other fortresses have been seen as well as what is going on in Lyko and in Mottul.

Also, something to keep in mind: if we ever do want to do something like take out the enemy fortress or take the war to Mottul or some other major battle requiring an army rather than just the party, we might want to revisit Trasutha. She seems to be working portal magic. Maybe we can get her to change one of our flying castle portals so that its portal is connected to Fina rather than Lyko. Then we could use the castle as a bridgehead and pour our supporters through once we had the castle in the right place.

 

[SuperBeast]

Nice write up Chris. Sorry I missed it in person.

It sounds like Marc has some good plans. Thusly, I concur with those plans.

However, I am not too sure about taking the battle to Mottul right now. Do we really
know enough about our enemy to go after them?

 

[Haltherrion]

However, I am not too sure about taking the battle to Mottul right now. Do we really
know enough about our enemy to go after them?

I think we should scout before we try any assaults. The reason to go to Mottul is to shutdown reinforcements through their fortress. Then you could try to root out the enemy forces in Eidos.

You could do the same thing by taking their flying fortress but Mottul may, ironically, be less heavily guarded.

It is just a thought.

In the long run, unless we want a war of attrition (and fighting a war of attrition against undead forces seems like a poor idea), we need to choke off their connection between Eidos and Mottul. We have three options:

1. Seize the flying fortress
2. Seize the portal in Mottul connected to the flying fortress
3. Shoo the flying fortress away from Eidos

Just like they used the fortress as a beachhead through whose portal they could pour troops, we could try to do the same with our fortresses. Unfortunately, without reworking the portal magic, we can only do that from Lyko (in enemy hands) to Castelleon since they are connected by portal.

However, we know that Trasutha has the power to effect portals. Maybe she would move a portal connection for us for a price. (Not sure if she can or would do or what the cost would be.)

Anyway, I think the first order of business is to learn more about our enemy.

 

[SuperBeast]

Since this Trasutha person has some power over portals, perhaps she knows of a way to shut down or disable portals permanatly, for a long period of time or even one that is hard to fix? If this is true, maybe we can just try to disable the Mottul portal as a first step, and then, as you say, just root out the forces that are here.

 

[Haltherrion]

Since this Trasutha person has some power over portals, perhaps she knows of a way to shut down or disable portals permanatly, for a long period of time or even one that is hard to fix? If this is true, maybe we can just try to disable the Mottul portal as a first step, and then, as you say, just root out the forces that are here.

That could work. For an initial test of feasibility we could check the pathfinders to see if they have any knowledge of such anti-portal magic used in the past.

We could go straight to Trasutha but it still might be worth learning more about our enemy. We should check with Fina to see what is known about the enemy, then depending on what we learn, we could consider a scouting mission to learn more.

There is all sorts of basic stuff to learn like:

• Are there mottul armies on the march? How many? Where? How have they been operating (raiding, seizing land, etc)?
• What is the state of Lyko?
• Where are the Mottul leaders? (Decapitation strike)
• What is going on in Mottul?
• How many fortresses do they have?
• How are they using these fortresses?
• Are there any mottul generals we might capture and get to talk? (Maybe one of the demons? Don't forget two PCs are half fiend. A demon isnt necessarily all bad. Maybe someone's portfolio friend is working on the otherside- who knows?).
• Are they using the mottul to castle portal to bring in troops? Or are all the troops already here?
• Are there any Eidos bastions about to fall that we should really prevent from falling? (If so, we could try to defend in the hopes of drawing out the enemy fortress.)

We should try to answer as much as possible through Fina and her intel then consider scouting to learn the rest.

Any other plan might be premature unless Fina already has something in mind already for us to do.

 

[sivousplay]

I agree with the plans Marc has suggested about checking out Castelleon.

As far as Pathfinder specific portal knowledge, there's no specific test for knowing "stuff" about portals, but knowing stuff about lost portals is a DC 30 check which would seem to be a roughly comparable obscure check. I have a 50/50 chance to make a DC 30 check on portal knowledge checks ... Leonus is 20/80 to make a check.

If that fails, working w/ Trasuthra is a good plan ... however if you recall the last time we "got" something from her, it required a fairly involved "favor." We may not have time to do that this time.

I also agree that scouting the Mottul FF is a good idea ... we must try to disable the fortress and it's portals ... we can not fight a war of attrition against an army of undead.

Princep

 

[cc22153]

If that fails, working w/ Trasuthra is a good plan ... however if you recall the last time we "got" something from her, it required a fairly involved "favor." We may not have time to do that this time.

I also agree that scouting the Mottul FF is a good idea ... we must try to disable the fortress and it's portals ... we can not fight a war of attrition against an army of undead.

Princep

I agree with Princep that Trasuthra exacted quite a bit from us in exchange for her aid and I don't think we should go that route again unless we absolutely have to.

I think we should scout the Mottul FF and try and learn everything we can about the Mottul troops, how they are reinforcing and how many FF they actually have under their control.

Gelydda

 

[Haltherrion]

Chris,

How much can we learn out of game by talking to Fina and her minions? That might determine what we try to do in game.

If we can't learn much from Fina, then we'll have to start from scratch. In that case I guess we could either take Castelleon towards Lyko and see what turns up or we could take a small group overland.

Unless Fina has something she wants us to do.

Marc

 

[Chris the Bigger]

In reply to your sending Fina sends you a dispatch by griffon with the following:

• Mottul forces are gathering out side of Lyko in what looks like preparation for a concentrated strike but it is not clear where.
• Lyko is currently in heavy cloud cover so very little can be gained from aerial recon. The winds are constantly gusting and lighting chaotically appears in vicious storms.
• No additional Mottul flying fortresses (FFM) have been spotted but if we can get two to work we should assume they can too.
• I have been in contact with Orena and she will keep her end of the bargain you struck concerning a joint strike against the MMF or another target of mutual interest.
• My advisors believe that the FFM will accompany the army to provide quick reinforcements or an escape route if needs be. I tend to agree though that would leave Lyko relatively unguarded. I don’t think that anyone will stand against a concentrated assault.
• There are rumors that Mottul employs several very old dragons. The reports are sketchy and conflicting. Some say 3 reds some 3 greens and others a red, green and a black. I have no doubt that Mottul has gone to great lengths to make this a successful and quick campaign.

• 
  • I believe that getting FFC operational has put a bit of urgency in there plans. They might even have moved up their attack without receiving all their forces.
  • Several families have been making noises about claiming the throne now that the king is dead. The leader of the Mottul forces was smart to take him first.
  • Most disturbing of all, I am receiving enough information now to be certain that Mottul employs a much larger spy force than I anticipated. It seems that they arrived at Lyko relatively unhindered and with no one to shut off the portals. Apparently there was several very large disturbances that required all the towns guards to quell.
  • The portal here is almost ready to reopen. I have not shut it off for a longer durations as I thought we might need it to assault Lyko.
  
  
  There is no word on the leaders of this army yet they have kept themself hidden so far.
  
  
  on a meta note I am going to publish the rules i have develped on flying and flying combat soon.