The party had been engaging in several activities throughout the campaign as they not only acted as troubleshooters for various problems, but they also became ambassadors gathering together the various races to unite against the growing threat of returning Sahuagin. By the time the group had located the Sahuagin's impenetrable fortress, they had allied the locals of Saltmarsh, Burle and Seaton as well as the local Tritons, Merfolk, Locathah and Koalinth (but failed to save the Sea Elves). They had managed to get word to the capital, who sent a small regiment of soldiers and knights to help at Saltmarsh. They'd also managed to get on the "good" side of a Green Dragon named Valdosra (Greenleaf) and her Kobold minions, and the elves of Silverstand and the Dwarves of the Seacliff Mines. They'd even made friends with a Treant named Whisperleaf (saving him from giant wasps in the marshes) and after their first (semi-successful) recon of the fortress, they'd also managed to make an impression on some Orc & Hobgoblin forces under the guidance of Granny Nightshade. They'd basically built a sizable force to face down the Sahaugin - and a Kraken under their (seeming) control.
The plan was that the group would pre-infiltrate the fortress a second time (they had cleared the top level and one barrack on the 2nd), opening a way for the land forces to get in and disrupt the forces inside while the seaborne forces attacked from below (the Tritons had tried earlier, and had been smashed in the attempt; the king of the Tritons had perished in the last battle and one of the player's replacement characters was the up-and-coming prince).
With this three-way battle, I had visions of
Return of the Jedi swimming in my head, and while I didn't want to get too bogged into the details of the other two battles, I wanted the players to feel like they had control over what was going on and some leeway on tactics. Most of all, I wanted to impress on them just how powerful of an enemy they were really fighting!
I decided to use the Mob rules out of the DMG to handle the land battle and sea battle, and created a spreadsheet to handle the math. Unfortunately, it took so long to make the sea map (using Dungeon Fog) and set up the initial forces (& spreadsheet), that I didn't really get to test out a mock battle beforehand to get a feel for how long it'd take to do.
So, the session commenced with the party breaking into the upper level, finding it deserted and signalling for the land/sea forces to begin their assault. Along with the PCs the Triton prince had an NPC named Serenade who we'd set up as a sidekick courtesan/assassin. She was assigned the task to find the Sahuagin's Kraken Priest and getting rid of her to take the Kraken out of the fight. We then switched into semi-round-by-round, moving between the PC's scouting through the second level as the other two forces moved in. I tried to time it dramatically, and it worked well at first - for the PC's & the sea force.
So, the sea force slowly moved in from the south of the seabed map shown below, only for the Merfolk flank to be ambushed by Shell Sharks hiding in the rift in the lower left. At nearly the same time, the party inside the fortress found the main temple to Sekolah, and the Maw of Sekolah that was awaiting within. Both the shell sharks and the Maw caused a lot of damage and it was a hard-fought battle. Meanwhile, the land forces pulled up to within arrow range of the narrow land bridge to the fortress, and waited, rather than pushing towards the land bridge.
Back in the fortress, the party finished off the Maw as the Merfolk & Triton Cavaliers (astride Hippocampii) managed to destroy the Shell sharks. However, the tritons found themselves out of position as Baron Kepmak and his shell-shark riding Champions moved forward to crush the Tritons for once and for all.
As Kepmak's forces crashed into the Triton soldiers, the Baron blew his seafoam horn. On land, Baroness Seklaz's waiting forces moved up to seize the end of the land bridge as her supporting forces rose from the sea to produce a solid wall designed to keep the land forces at bay. Whisperleaf the Treant responded by tossing a boulder amid the Sahuagin forces aimed at the Baroness, but her bodyguards hurled themselves in the way to save their mistress's life. The rest of the land forces prepared to pivot for an encircling maneuver, hoping to draw the Sahaugin into their trap. However, flanking Sahuagin champions and Coral Smashers began their move towards the land forces, attempting to do the same.
Back inside the fortress, as the party finished their battle with the Maw and began to inspect the ritual they'd interrupted, Serenade found the Kraken Priestess in the nearby throne room. Invisible, she snuck past the priest's guards and with a single hit (3 Nat 20's, followed with a Nat 19), she killed the Priestess with one blow - and then used
Fog Cloud to evade the Priestess's bodyguards. At about the same time, the party in the temple discovered that the ritual they'd interrupted was powering the spell that was raising the Sahuagin fortress from the deep depths it had been consigned to a hundred years ago. Destroying the altar, would, in effect, collapse the fortress back to the depths - along with everyone still inside. So, the party's necromancer "sacrificed" his skeleton minions as a deadman's switch - the Warlock player cast a spell with a 10 minute duration in view of the skeletons, and the Necromancer ordered the skeletons to destroy the altar when the spell ended. The group (who had already lost several minutes wandering the 2nd level previously) set off to delve into the 3rd level and join the forces to tip the undersea battle.
Luckily, the undersea battle was beginning to turn in the allies favor. The triton cavaliers had feinted a withdrawl, drawing off 2/3rds of Baron Kempak's mounted forces where the Locathah and Koalinth were able to encircle and blunt the mounted forces. Suddenly, Kempak found his initial push into the triton end with himself and his honor guard surrounded by Merfolk and Triton soldiers. Only now, the reserve Sahuagin forces began to realize the peril of their leader and began to move forward from their defensive positions to aid their leader.
Outside, on the land side, the allies attempt to encircle the Sahuagin was not going well as the flanking Sahuagin began to rip through the ally flanks, catching the Keoland General Arish by surprise. Only the sacrifice of his loyal knights kept the general from falling to the Coral Smasher's blistering assault, and the entire allied force had to pivot to try and save the general. As the land forces moved in disarray, Baron Seklaz ordered her forces to take advantage of the chaos, and Sahuagin began to wade onto the beach, ignoring the singular stone being thrown by Whisperleaf.
Until a bombard blast from fortess-side blasted into the back ranks, sending stony land bridge debris and Sahuagin flying. The Sea Princes, with their 45-gun ship,
The Devil's Maiden, had arrived to the battle, armed with cannons and depth charges! (Yes, normally guns don't work in Greyhawk - this particular former PC/NPC from another campaign had made a deal with Myrlund for access to gunpowder weapons - this was a once-in-a-lifetime relic they were risking in this fight).
Back inside the fortress, time was spiralling down when the group finally found themselves in the great arena at the heart of the fortress and an augmented (i.e., given Legendary Actions & Saves) Blademaster Makaht and his elite squad awaiting the party. A grand melee broke out as the Blademaster moved forward, but the group quickly whittled down his support forces with a combined casting of Hunger of Hadar and Control Water (whirlpool) - now it was the Blademaster himself against the entire group, with a devouring whirlpool at their backs!
In the undersea battle, as the allies realized they had surrounded the enemy general, the forces did their best to whittle him down, hoping to break the army before the supporting enemy forces could advance to aid and overwhelm the allied force. Waveshapers were moving into position to create devastating whirlpools to save their beleagured Baron but the question was if they would arrive in time - which was answered as depth charges from the
Devil's Maiden abruptly halted their advance by blowing the closest to smitheens!
On land, the allies breathed a sigh of relief as they were able to reorganize their forces to protect General Arish as the Sahuagin regathered from the shock of the initial bombard from
The Devil's Maiden. Still, if something wasn't done soon, it was clear there were not enough troops to withstand the assault from the Sahaugin, and the enemy's assault had decimated the only archery unit the allies had beyond the furious Whisperleaf, who could only take out a single Sahaugin at a time with powerful rocks.
Inside the fortress, the intense battle with Makaht continued. The sahaugin fought like a beast, focusing his attacks on the young triton prince - the blademaster bore the trident he had taken from the young prince's dead father and the two were intent on killing one another. As the fight raged on, Makaht savaged the young prince, driving the Triton to one knee with a ferocious series of blows, and then turned to skewer the nearby cleric to ensure she could not raise the triton when he would deliver his final, gleeful blow. But he underestimated the group's warlock, who used
Thunderous Step to grab the cleric and step away, simultaneously unbalancing the sahuagin to falter and slip perilously close to the hurricane of dark water nearby. As the Blademaster staggered for balance, the triton regained his own footing and smashed the relic
Wave into the Blademaster's weapon arm, disarming him. In the moments that the triton reclaimed his father's weapon before the consuming whirlpool dragged it away, the group's Necromancer lunged forward with
Black Razor and ended the Blademaster's life. As the life visibly left the Blademaster's eyes, his body was lifted up by the churning waters and dragged into the black abyss to be swallowed with the remains of his elite guard.
With little time left to spare, the group then raced through the remainder of the abandoned third level, emerging only moments before the spell on the second level ended. With the precision only afforded to the dead, the Necromancer's three skeletons smote the altar, destroying it. With an animalistic howl of a thousand denied sharks, the entire fortress began to collapse. On land, the forces of Baron Seklaz found themselves buried by the crumbling landbridge, and the remaining Sahuagin immediately fled. Undersea, the Sahuagin who had lagged behind their defenses found themselves dragged down as the great fortress burrowed itself back into the deep sea. Without support, Baron Kepmak quickly fell as their own sharks turned on them and devoured the remaining Sahuagin, before they themselves swam away, released from their cursed state.
The allies had won, and it was time for celebration back at Saltmarsh!
Screenshot from the Undersea Battle
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Screenshot from the Land Battle
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