Defending a Keep?

[Synthetik Fish]

In this game we're playing we have to design a colony, and the whole world's at war. I have 10000 dwarves, and 300 gnomes. And there's their keep… its at the top of these kinda tri-peaks. Imagine 3 mountains that grew really close together. At the top, in between the 3 peaks is like a 100 foot deep valley. They have a wall around the peaks, its like 200' tall at the top of each peak and remains level, so its about 300' tall at the deepest edge of a valley. The gate is located level with the peaks, but its located in one of the valleys, so its like 100 feet in the air. The gnomes helped create a solid rock ramp that lowers completely flat into the ground, and the area around the ramp and gates is dug out. Like, a flat floor, 100x100, then a wall, and 100 feet up the wall is the gate and the ramp lowers to where its completely in line with the floor
The keep is basically impenetrable to ground attacks (in combinations with their numerous weapons and traps and such.) Their main hold is IN the mountain, and the only way into it is inside the keep.

Their BIGGEST concern is an attack from the sky. I figure if worst comes to worst, they press the panic button and have the whole keep collapse on top of the mountain, so they are sealed inside their caves.

HOWEVER…I wanted to know if anyone has any suggestions on how to defend against attacks from above… my worry is a group of wizards who travel in their floating tower, or a horde of chromatic dragons.

 

[LGodamus]

Maybe have someone with a scroll of mord disjunction for the flying castle guys......and between dwarves and gnomes you should have masterwork ballistae and possibly cannons.....those should do nicely to complement your legions of dwarven repeating crossbow battalions....

 

[Synthetik Fish]

well, i have cannons and things... but im worried that with certain things...ie. wizards over 20th level, that mere physical attacks wont suffice.

i was thinking of trying to create some sort of giant bubble that blocks incoming projectiles and certain magic attacks like fireball, but im not sure if im ALLOWED to make something like that.

 

[Nifft]

What level characters are we talking about? Is the world low or high magic? Do they have to do things by manual labor, or is magic viable?

-- Nifft

 

[Synthetik Fish]

oh, something that is also a concern are packs of dragons. im not sure if the cannons will even be able to HIT dragons, let alone damage or kill them.

 

[Synthetik Fish]

the keep is an auctualy self-contained community- on a realistic level. out of the 10,000 dwarves about 3,000 (maybe up to 5) are fighters/soldiers. The rest concentrate on making weapons, fortifying the keep, and raising food and children. The 300 gnomes are all males of age who can work and build...there are about 350 women and children. For about every 10 dwarven fighters, there is one 3rd level, for every 10 or so 3rd level, there is a 5th level, and so on. The gnomes are primarily commoners and experts (DMG) who have metal- and alchemy-related skills...and their levels range too. there are several 20th level characters of gnomes and dwarves.

All in all, this is supposed to be a very realistic establishment.

 

[-Warlord-]

Hmm...if groups of dragons, flying fortresses and attacking level 20 wizards seem to be a realistic threat in your world, I'd say it's pretty high magic.

Lots of archers, maybe equipped with magical bows and brilliant energy arrows, should be able to deal with the dragons. Arrows go a lot further than breathweapons.
To foil strafingruns by firebreathing dragons, use giants nets hung over the archertowers and battlements. Or just large iron poles in between which the archers stand to shoor their arrows.
Giant hot air balloons make draconic approached more difficult too. Add baskets with gunpowder to the balloons for an unexpected surprise.
And of course the fortress should use flying guards of it's own. Why have an open roof when you don't have any flyers? Maybe you can "rent out" some of the lower chambers to gold dragons to use as treasury, in exchange for their help in protecting the fortress.

Guarding the top of the fortress against highlevel wizards is not all that useful if you don't foil their other means of entry.
A wizard using scrying and clairvoyance in combination with teleport can get in, do damage and get out. Delayed blast fireball in the powder room maybe? Or maybe a lone mage can find that "panic button"....why kill something if you can bury it so it's no longer a threat?

 

[Gunslinger]

Why don't you just get rid of all the surface stuff and just leave yourself with the drawbridge and some thick doors. Then orbital bombardment and dragons can't do much.

 

[Kyramus]

ballista with pivoting mount. one side gets damaged, pull back, swing to other side, restring, continue firing.

Against flying towers. Ballista arrows can be outfitted withr od of cancellations. If there is no wizard or cleric, then go with hollow insides, line with metal, then insert alchemist fire before sealing the metal then send the thing aloft. it'll hurt both dragons and towers.

archers are a definite. have greater magic weapon on them.

if we can have a high level wizard, we can make a ballista of true strike. wouldn't that be nice to punch holes in their wings with little chance of missing.

 

[Synthetik Fish]

one thing i was thinking, thanks to -Warlord-, is possibly warding the whole mountain from scrying. i'd also like to possibly ward from teleport...but i don't know how that would work.

one of the inventions that the gnomes have brought the dwarves is Rapid Repeating Crossbows. These are essentially heavy repeating crossbows that have a clip of 10 bolts, only when you fire them, it automaticially reloads itself. This allows the user the benefits of a repeating crossbow, plus, because of the reloading mechanism, anyone firing one can use it as though they had rapid shot. In essence these are machine-gun crossbows.