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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bibliophile" data-source="post: 1441185" data-attributes="member: 9742">Nature's Warriors - Strategy and OrganizationORGANIZATION:1st Tier—Isten, Nature’s Voice, Battlelord and Hunter, animal companion2nd Tier—Tian, Arsos, Nature’s Sentinels3rd Tier—Liselle, Amarante, Nature’s Protectors    2x Honor Guard (10 Wood Elf, Druid 1 and animal companions)4th Tier—100x Pixie, Nature’s Wings5th Tier—210x Wood Elf, Druid 1 and animal companions1st Tier: Isten is the Battlelord of Nature’s Warriors, and, as such, she has absolute command of the army.  In combat, she usually rides her animal compainion, and mount, Hunter, into the fray.2nd Tier: Tian and Arsos, the Lupinals, serve as coordinators of the army.  Directly beneath Isten in the chain of command, they are responsible for turning Isten’s orders into battlefield strategies.  They usually open battles by ethereal jaunting into the enemy’s ranks, then returning to the Prime, howling (activating their fear auras) and, once the enemy is affected by the auras, returning to the front ranks of Nature’s Warriors via ethereal jaunt again and unleashing their damage dealing spell-like abilities (cone of cold, magic missile) on spellcasters or other particularly powerful seeming enemy creatures.  Should the situation require it, they also make use of their fly and cure light wounds spells (even their lay on hands ability finds powerful use against undead if not for healing allied soldiers).  Each morning, they are responsible for using Nature’s Power (GMW at command, 8th caster level) and Nature’s Shield (Mage Armor at command, 6th caster level) on each member of the army.3rd Tier: Liselle and Amarante, and their honor guard (10 Wood Elf, Druid 1, and animal companions each) comprise the 3rd Tier.  Liselle and Amarante serve as advisors to the Lupinals, and as the primary spellcasters of the battlefield (besides Isten).  They are responsible for overseeing the battles, and keeping enemy spellcasters in check.  On the field, they usually travel with a larger group of Druids than merely their honor guard (an extra 30 Druid 1 Wood Elf and animal companions each), using this group to strike at enemy mages from long range with bows.  Additionally, Liselle and Amarante each keep one of the Acorns of Health (goodberry on command, caster level 2).  Each morning, they replenish the supply of eight goodberries that each member of the army carries (half the army each day, as the spell lasts two days).  They are also responsible for keeping the Decanter of Endless Water, the army’s water supply when away from Athko.4th Tier: The Pixies serve as the special forces of Nature’s Warriors.  Capable of flight, and natural invisibility, they have potent stealth abilities.  Combine these with dispel magic, and they can quash magic effects brought into being by enemy casters.  Entangle and Permanent Image give them excellent control over battlefield conditions.  Detect Thoughts and Lesser Confusion give them powerful spying abilities in addition to their normal powers.  A myriad of other detect spells, including the invisibility-detecting Detect Magic, let them serve as scouts, or even trackers (in the case of lingering auras).  Finally, Polymorph gives them access to different forms, should they be necessary.  DR 10/cold-iron keeps them from harm’s reach, and their longbows allow them to inflict damage right back to the enemy.  Yet, the pixies have two more powerful weapons: specialized arrows.  Any creature alive is nigh guaranteed to succumb to a large volley of their memory loss or sleep arrows.  They normally have orders to seek out and target spellcasters with their memory-loss arrows first.  Then turning to strong melee fighters with remaining memory-loss arrows, and the lesser sleep arrows, if necessary or useful.  If the enemy sports no such targets, they serve as flying skirmishers, controlling the skies (using sleep arrows against enemy flying units) and raining down hailstorms of normal arrows from above.5th Tier: The Druid 1 Wood Elves and animal companions serve a multitude of roles.  With their Elvish training, they serve as front line fighters, archers, skirmishers, and magical support equally well.  Combined with their wolf animal companions, they are deadly.  Each is trained in battlefield tactics for the strategic use of Entangle spells (immediately preceding arrow bombardments).  Against enemies that require it (e.g., undead) they have prepared Magic Stone or Shillelagh spells.  Their Create Water and Flare spells, used in mass, can often provide significant battlefield advantages.  Also, their wolf animal companions’ scent ability serves as invisibility warning (as invisible creatures can still be detected via scent), safeguarding the army from that manner of attacks.  Once warned, they can even use Create Water to drench an area suspected of harboring an invisible creature, and by the presence of footsteps, they can detect and attack said creatures.6 Druids & Wolves – 1 Pack5 Packs – 1 Hunt5 Hunts – 1 Troop5 Pixies – 1 Flight2 Flights – 1 Squadron5 Squadrons – 1 WingThus, Nature’s Warriors is divided up into—Roving Command Units:    Isten & Hunter    TianArsos    Amarante    10 Druid 1 Wood Elves w/ Wolves (Honor Guard)Liselle        10 Druid 1 Wood Elves w/ Wolves (Honor Guard)1st Wing:    50 Pixies2nd Wing:    50 Pixies1st Archery Hunt (Under Amarante during combat):    30 Druid 1 Wood Elves w/ Wolves2nd Archery Hunt (Under Lisells during combat):    30 Druid 1 Wood Elves w/ Wolves1st Troop:    1st Combat Hunt:        30 Druid 1 Wood Elves w/ Wolves    2nd Combat Hunt:    30 Druid 1 Wood Elves w/ Wolves3rd Combat Hunt:    30 Druid 1 Wood Elves w/ Wolves4th Combat Hunt:    30 Druid 1 Wood Elves w/ Wolves5th Combat Hunt:    30 Druid 1 Wood Elves w/ WolvesFORTRESS: Athko, the Eternal TreeThere are those who say that the forest is eternal.  Yet, there are some who contend that it first started some time long past, near in age to the creation of the world.  Whether they are right or not, only the forest itself can tell.  But, if the forest truly had a beginning, then Athko was the first tree.  Athko rises more than 400ft into the sky, with an average trunk diameter of nearly 80ft and a branch spread of almost 280ft crowning the giant.  Dwarfing every other living thing on the Green Isle (a small 10 mile diameter island in the center of Feather Lake) and possibly any other living thing in the world, it stands watch, like some sort of enormous sentinel, over the forest.Some time ago, the fey known as Nature’s Voice came upon the Green Isle.  When she did, Athko was already ancient, and the Isle welcomed her.  Long did she talk with Athko, and the tree revealed to her the secrets of the land.  After ages past, she became the Fey-Queen of the Green Isle, exhibiting great powers over nature, and providing guidance for the villages of forest creatures that started there.  All was in peace, until evil rose from the lands of the north.  Armies of fiends and undead set upon the good lands of the South, and fearing for the Green Isle, the Fey Queen put plans into motion and the forest prepared for war.When the armies of evil first set upon the Isle, they found the center shrouded in storms.  As they approached, they fell under attack from the denizens of the forest, now trained for war.  When finally they reached Athko, they found they could not penetrate its walls, for where they struck, the wood regenerated within minutes, and where they breached the wood, they found hewn stone walls feet thick.  All the while, they were under attack from three armored tiers on the side of the tree, facing both arrows and ballistae.  Once they breached one of the mighty gates, their charge turned to disaster.  As soon as their army began charging up the 15ft wide uphill corridor, summoned creatures began appearing, wrecking havoc in the ranks.  If that wasn’t enough, halfway up the incline, what they thought were small footholds in the steep floor began disgorging a veritable river of water, sweeping the feet out from under the soldiers; meanwhile, arrows shot out from murder holes in the ceiling, finding vulnerable cracks in armor.  Yet, some still fought through this and reached the inside of the fortress.  What lay in wait there was unimaginable, at least, until they saw it.Those few that breached the corridor found themselves in a round room, perhaps 60ft across.  There was only a narrow 5ft walkway around the edge of the room, the entire center being filled with water like some sort of miniature lake.  In the center of the ‘lake’ was a small, circular island, about 15ft wide.  On this island grew an oak tree, of regular size (5ft diameter trunk, 60ft height, 40ft branch spread).  Next to the oak was a wooden throne, of vines and branches, appearing to grow from the island.  Upon that throne sat a hawk.While some readied bows to fire at the bird, others scanned the remainder of the room and the walls, trying to decide where to go next.  They found not a single stair throughout the entire room, but they did find doors.  Each door seemed to be made of the same piece of wood as the walls, barring a barely noticeable crack outlining it.  Yet, there was something strange about the doors.  They were each located 60ft up the walls, with no visible method of reaching them.  As they pondered their next move, a voice filled the room.“Begone intruders!  Begone or face death.”They froze.Those watching the strange bird on the throne were affected first.  The bird shimmered, and from that light a figure appeared, clad in naught but a simple robe, the Fey Queen appeared.  Those watching were witness to the vengeful beauty of nature, and that sight was the last of their lives.  Stricken blind, they panicked, and stumbled about, running into their fellow soldiers, or into the lake, drowning in their armor.  Yet, some did not face blindness at the Fey Queen’s figure, those who cast their gaze aside caught only images of arrows beginning to rain down from previously unseen slits or of the oak in the center of the room, now moving towards them as they realized it was alive.None who entered Athko as enemies that day survived to speak of its secrets.  The armies of evil were repelled, and peace again returned to the Green Isle.Yet, time passes, and so to does peace.  Now the armies of the North rally again, preparing to make war upon the good lands of the south.  And, as before, the forest is waiting and ready.--------------------Statistics:<a href="http://www.geocities.com/provostcheckmate/Athko03.txt" target="_blank">Exterior View</a> <a href="http://www.geocities.com/provostcheckmate/Athko-Interior.txt" target="_blank">Interior Highlights</a> Athko is a tree-fortress, with the rooms built inside it, and along its trunk through use of druidic magic so as not to harm the tree.  The outer six inches of the doors, and battlements is made of living wood (as normal wood, but regenerates 1hp/round, 10,000gp).  Inside the living (or normal) wood is 2 feet of hewn stone (Wall of Stone made; free).There are three entrances located equidistant around its base.  Each entrance consists of double layered doors (1 foot living wood, outside, 2 feet of hewn stone inside).  The doors make a 60 degree angle with the ground, so that gravity naturally keeps them shut, and battering ram force is partially directed away.  Each set of doors leads to a hallway 15ft wide x 40ft long.  This hallway slants upward at a 45 degree angle.  The latter half of its ceiling is littered with murder holes (with a room above it for archers), and the floor under the murder holes has what appear to be small foot holds, but in actuality connect to the pool in the main room, allowing water to flood the hallway when pipes are opened in a secret room beneath the pool.  Inlaid in the floor, at the exit of each corridor is a Summoning Stone (Type V, keyed to Medium Earth Elementals, 13,500gp), which summons up to 3 Medium Earth Elementals a day whenever someone comes within 30ft of it without speaking the pass phrase “Ioxylion Magnus.”The hallways lead to a large, cylindrical room, 60ft wide and 60ft tall.  This room is under a Hallow effect that casts Dispel Magic (17th caster level) on all creatures entering of non-good alignment (5,000gp).  Along the walls is a 5ft walkway.  This walkway acts as a Chamber of Climbing (anyone on in, or the walls acts as if under the affects of a Spider Climb spell, 1,500gp).  In the center of the room is a small lake acting as a Decanter of Endless Water (permanently set on Geyser mode, 9,000gp) with excess water being absorbed by Athko itself.  In the center of this ‘lake’ is a 15ft diameter ‘island’ with a throne of wood, and an Oak tree with Liveoak cast on it.  Also, three tunnels lead from underneath the throne to hidden rooms, where the flow of water into the hallways can be controlled.  Patrolling the ‘lake’ are 8 Shambling mounds (11HD each, created with use of the Shambler spell cast twice, 3.5 months separated from each other).  42 archery holes on the inside walls of the lower battlement allow archers there to fire into the main room.Doorways on the ceiling and upper walls lead to rooms above and the lowest battlement, respectively.  The upper rooms include barracks, eating areas, training areas, a private tactics room (protected by the Vacancy enchantment as the Skylance, 22,500gp), a food growing area, and private chambers for the Ranking officers (Isten, the Lupinals, and the other Nymphs).  In Isten’s private quarters is a Cloudgathering Orb (keeps the weather nasty in a 2 mile radius—thunderstorms in spring, torrential rain in the summer, sleet in autumn, and blizzards in the winter, 33,000gp).  Also, access to the upper two battlements is through the upper rooms.The lower battlement has 42 archery holes, and 12 Ballistae (6,000gp), and is accessible from both the main room, and the upper rooms.  The middle battlement has 36 archery holes and 10 Ballistae (5,000gp).  The upper battlement has 54 archery holes.  Each Ballista also has 20 Illuminating Ballista Bolts (as normal, plus ignites like a sunrod when loaded into the Ballista, and burns for 6 hours; 8,800gp) and 10 Greenroot Ballista bolts (as normal, plus Entangle as 1st level Cleric when it impacts, 40ft radius, 13,200gp), along with a host of normal Ballista bolts.  Forbiddance is cast upon the entire stronghold, except for the Room of Vacancy (est- 2,250gp).Light is channeled into the stronghold through crystals set in the top portion of Athko that refract light downward into the separate rooms, providing a soft glow from moonlight/starlight at night, and a bright sunlight during the day (even during storms).  Athko is self-sufficient, being capable of growing sufficient food, and providing enough water for all inside it indefinately.Total costs (150,000gp):Living Wood (10,000gp)3x Summoning Stone, Type V (40,500gp)Chamber of Climbing (1,500gp)Decanter of Endless Water Effect (2,250gp)Room of Vacancy (22,500gp)Cloudgathering Orb (33,000gp)Ballistas (11,000gp)440 Illuminating Ballista Bolts (8,800gp)220 Greenroot Ballista bolts (13,200gp)Forbiddance (2,250gp)Hallow (5,000gp)</blockquote>

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