Dwarven Siege

[Maudlin]

I'm a bit stuck...

My players will be trying to lift a dwarven siege of an underground Drow waystation (it's an evil/black ops type campaign). A Drow house they're seeking is holed up there after the party's antagonists tipped off the dwarves, who have a major bloodfeud with that house.

Thing is, I don't have a clue how a dwarven army would look like when they decide to dig in aboveground. They'll have collapsed all the tunnels allowing escape from the main complex, and the Drow in turn barricaded the surface entrances, which the dwarves are now camped around.

When dwarves make camp, what sort of features would it have? I was thinking tents, but that's exceedingly undwarven. Pallisades too, probably. What structures would they raise?

What preparations would they likely be making to break through the drow reinforcements? Planar Allying Earth Elementals seems a good idea, and I've got a couple more tricks, but I'd be very grateful for any nastiness you can come up with.

The Dwarven chief will be leading the assault personally, and he will serve as one of the characters' entry-quest to the assassin prestige class... What sort of security measures would be taken to protect him in such a semi-permanent camp? (aside from having several dozen warriors camped nearby.

The party is about 6th-level. I'd be really happy with anything you could suggest.

 

[Gilladian]

Depending on how long the dwarves have been/will be in the location, they might build sod houses. I think they WOULD start with tents at first.

Dwarves should be very good at mining. They might be able to undermine the walls and use explosives to bring them down. Of course, the drow may countermine.

Dwarves are also quite mechanically oriented and would be good at building seige equipment. Battering rams, catapults and other basics should be easy for them to assemble.

Sounds like your dwarf leader needs a personal dwarven defender. Or I seem to remember seeing some other prestige classes out there directed at defending a particular person. The dwarves, knowing they were up against such evil, assassination-oriented creatures as drow, would be sure to take lots of precautions. Magical wards, a nearby cleric to give healing, etc... would be minimum.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Gilladian

 

[Paka]

sights and sounds of a Dwarven Siege

the smell of earth and blood's everyhwere.

Everyone moves with a purpose, except for those who watch the Drow, they seem to be statues, still, on watch, checking for the Dark Elve's inevitable sneak attack.

the buildings hastily built by Dwarven Siegemasters seem to be permanent to human eyes. soldiers off-duty make up impromptu models of the seige with sticks and rocks and mud, even the lowliest foot-soldier gives his opinion on how HE'd break the seige.

the Slayers are given wide berth. You can tell its them from their tunics, made of a green so dark it might as well be black. Slayers are Dwarven Fighter/Rogues. They aren't warriors, they are killers. It is their job to get into and among the Drow before the Seige, kill their primary priests, leaders and spellcasters, cause havoc.

They are respected more than feared.

The Dwarven leader is in a bunker, built into the eath, almost indistinguishable from the others. the kill-holes are subtle, almost invisible with crossbowmen waiting on the other side, bolts trained on you. A door closes and pipe-smoke pours out, one the other side of the door, just before a dowr Dwarven elder scowls at you, you can see an exact model of the Waystation and the siege around it.

The Lord will see you now, but just for a moment, he has Drow to bury.