EN World City Project: Protecting the City (Guard Submissions)

[jdavis]

If they are going to try and control the lake then you have to go a lot farther than one day out. Silk Fish poachers could set up anywhere on the lake. If you are going to have one or two guys out there taking on these poachers then they have to have some skill. If they are just trying to spot sneaky goblins before they attack the town then a couple of watch towers with 10 or so guards and a spy glass could do that. It's the rooting out of the goblin tribes that infest the swamp that is hard. A first level ranger in the woods tracking a goblin warparty would be dead the moment he shot off his warning stick. The Goblins will have skilled trackers too.

If they are not going to have some skill then they don't need to exist at all. If they have too much skill then there will be no threats left to the city. A prestige class would only be for those who lead the Rangers anyway the level to gain it wouldn't affect them as a group.

 

[Ruavel]

Perhaps the best way to avoid too much more debate on the make-up of the character classes involved in the Outland Rangers maybe it should be left up to the people writing NPC's (ie make it an NPC contest to create low level characters that perform the duties requied) or let DM's produce their own Rangers with guidelines that go something like:

Membership
The Outland Rangers is a group comprised of a dozen or so individuals of varying races, classes, and philosophies, unified by the common purpose of protecting the people and environs of the rural lands surrounding Mor’s End. All prospective members are rigorously screened and tested in order to be found suitable for the respected, powerful but somewhat thankless position. They are also required to swear the Oath of Loyalty to Lady Kelvin, the Council of Warders and the realm of Enheim before being accepted into the enclave of protectors.
The Rangers are currently led by Outland Chief Silanthe Kalatos, a tall and imposing half-elven woman with a number of small scars on her hard and weathered face. Silanthe’s commitment to her position was best displayed when she spent several months studying in a small druidic order to augment her skills as a tracker and warrior before applying to a former Outland Chief to join the Rangers. Her second-in-command is Marcus Fleetfoot, who has given up working in the field to act as the Outland Rangers’ representative to the Council of Warders.
The rest of the group includes druids, rangers, and a few multiclass characters incorporating levels of the bard, fighter and rogue classes.
Current Outland Chief: Silanthe Kalatos (female half-elf drd3/rgr6)
Current Outland Representative: Marcus Fleetfoot (male human brd4/rgr1)

Something like this allows a DM to create the rest of the group that will work with an established leader and structure, and in the way they think it will function best (rather than what we think)... I've left the suggested Outland Chief and Outland Rep is this little spiel because they tie in with the description of the operation on the Rangers (see earlier submission)...

thoughts...?

 

[Krug]

Throwing up ideas:

How about compulsory military service for all male human citizens of Mor's End? Once they reach 16, or if you're a new citizen, you get enlisted for a month. In that time you train to fight with a weapon; either sword, spear (most common) or bow.

Military service for females is optional, and they're only trained to fight with a bow.

Every year you get returned to the army for a refresher course of a week.

The military pays a stipend for this, of course.

Promising recruits are recruited for the Rangers or to join the ranks of the army proper.

Dwarves are spared from this because of the 40 guards provided.

 

[jdavis]

Throwing up ideas:

How about compulsory military service for all male human citizens of Mor's End? Once they reach 16, or if you're a new citizen, you get enlisted for a month. In that time you train to fight with a weapon; either sword, spear (most common) or bow.

Military service for females is optional, and they're only trained to fight with a bow.

Every year you get returned to the army for a refresher course of a week.

The military pays a stipend for this, of course.

Promising recruits are recruited for the Rangers or to join the ranks of the army proper.

Dwarves are spared from this because of the 40 guards provided.

Could be worked in with having to be on the roll for The Muster. They were 1500 citizens who had their name on a roll to be called up to serve in dire circumstances. The names were only on the roll for a certain amount of time and it was manditory for citizens to serve on the Roll of the Muster. Basically it was a emergency draft (that wealthy people could buy their way out of).

 

[Ruavel]

Throwing up ideas:

interesting image...

compulsary service is certainly an interesting idea...

 

[Conaill]

If they are going to try and control the lake then you have to go a lot farther than one day out. Silk Fish poachers could set up anywhere on the lake.

As I someone pointed out much earlier - Buttercup I think - the lake is too large to police all of it. If we wanted to do that, forget about the Rangers - we'd need a Navy! If we want Mor's End to have a monopoly on the silk, we'll need a different mechanism.

Perhaps the silk "fish" are only found on the downstream end of the lake. Something to do with the algae they feed on flowing downstream, towards Mor's End. In that case, there's no need for the rangers to "control the lake" and you can indeed just have a lookout tower to protect the silkfishers.

A first level ranger in the woods tracking a goblin warparty would be dead the moment he shot off his warning stick. The Goblins will have skilled trackers too.

The warning stick will at least need some sort of silent alarm as well. And/or some sort of "dead man's switch". Besides, a lone Ranger (heh ) should not be tracking an entire warparty. He's a scout! As soon as he finds signs of a warparty, he should call in reinforcements.

 

[jdavis]

The warning stick will at least need some sort of silent alarm as well. And/or some sort of "dead man's switch". Besides, a lone Ranger (heh ) should not be tracking an entire warparty. He's a scout! As soon as he finds signs of a warparty, he should call in reinforcements.

The problem being that there are no reinforcements to call.

 

[Lalato]

My thinking on the "alarm stick" was that it would be similar to a flare gun. However, it could be fired in such a way that the position of the person firing the wand wouldn't be apparent to someone unless they were actually watching the firing of the wand.

I think the alarm stick isn't designed so reinforcements will come to the aid of the person firing it. It's more like an early warning system for the city so it can prepare for the coming warparty.

Anyway... it's just a thought.

Someone else suggested that the Outland Rangers might have Druids in their ranks that could use Whispering Wind to warn the city. That's another possibility... If the Outland Rangers are to be low level... perhaps instead of "alarm sticks" they have "whisper rings" that allow them to warn the city or other Rangers.

Or we could develop our own simple spell that allows the Rangers to trigger an alarm in the city as long as they're within a certain distance of the city.

--sam

 

[Krug]

I'd prefer we stretch things a little and come up with something non-magical as far as possible. Alchemy? High pitched whistle? Bird call? The Rangers have druids but not mages, so perhaps something more 'natural' would be much more fitting. Perhaps an extension of the message spell, or as suggested, whispering woodwind.

 

[Conaill]

I do think we need more than just a dozen rangers. With only a dozen they should have NO other duties than scouting.

With 20-30 Rangers, it becomes much easier to cover the terrain, we can have a few doing peacekeeping duty, and if needed they could mount some sort of defense against raiding parties.

For the alarm stick... I agree, let's keep it as low-powered as possible. Alchemy for the flare (I've seen some flare arrows in several d20 books). Perhaps some sort of trained bird to deliver messages back to the watchtower or the city (pigeon, raven, whatever).

We could also make a cheap magical item based on the Alarm spell (see Stone of Alarm, 1000 gp). For example an amulet with a silent alarm that alerts anyone within one mile that carries the same amulet. Could lead to some interesting scenarios: the goblins catch one of the amulets, figure out how it works and use it to set up an ambush. The city finds out they have one of the amulets and sets up a counter-ambush for the goblins...