It's WAR!! Help me design a goblin siege!

kiznit · Jun 15, 2004

Okay, here's the set-up:

The PCs are currently in the small mountain village of Goblinrock Gulch along the western pass into the Valley of Amberhaven. Fairly isolated area in typical "Keep on the Borderlands" frontier setting. Goblinrock Gulch lies nestled against the rocky valley edge with a river running along the other side. The valley is sporadicly forested as it descends into Hill country, the road is not so safe as east of the hill-lands lie the Savage steppe, populated by monstrous tribes and worse.

The party is almost third level, they've just completed their first (somewhat small) dungeon crawl, where they've discovered that gnollish mercenaries are inciting the local goblins into organized attacks against the settlements. Much of this incursion is due to the lands far to the east being encroached upon by a malevolent necromantic army, but that's to be faced 7 or 8 levels down the road

.

The players have just run through a somewhat modified version of "The Witch of Serpent's Bridge" from Dungeon Magazine #95. I've been dropping hints that will hopefully lead them to the dwarven stronghold of Kundrakhar from "The Forge of Fury". But as to right now, they know that Goblinrock is due to be attacked in force within the next several days. Several of the PCs have even reconnaissanced a little bit and seen some of the Goblin Attack camps.

I picture the army being made up of this:

Maybe about a eighty to a hundred goblins
A dozen or so wolf-riding goblins
Several hobgoblin commanders (just larger goblins with Warrior levels)
At least one hobgoblin drum-bard riding a dire wolf
A few wargs
Some crack gnoll commandos
A gnollish cleric of Erythnul
A few orcs along for the mayhem

Naturally, I don't expect the PCs to take this on alone (especially at second level).

Here's what we have for defenses:

Pits and wooden palisades
A half-built stone temple of Kord
About forty humbly trained militia-men
One 5th-level priest of Kord that has been frantically preparing healing potions and scrolls
About half-a-dozen trained village fighters
And a unit or two of dwarven fighters that has yet to arrive, ready to pull the fat out of the fire if things turn too ugly.

So what I'm looking for are some suggestions on how to run this, ideas on how to present and describe the goblin encroachment, order of attack, and so on. I'm especially looking for "moments of drama," situations that allow the PCs their chance to shine. Ideas?

kiznit · Jun 15, 2004

As an example of a moment of drama, I had the idea that the defenders had filled a line of oil along the southern perimeter (where the goblins would be attacking). They station a man in hiding to light it once the first wave of goblins has attacked, but for some reason or another he gets taken out before he can do it, forcing the PCs either to fight their way to the oil-line to light it themselves, or fire a flaming arrow or throw an alchemist's fire. What do you think?

Other ideas... What sort of "rain of chaos" would occur? Imagine Goblin wolf-riders leaping the sharpened stake perimeter and wreaking havoc in the village itself, or maybe shamanistic weather manipulation, stuff like that. Feel free to help me think up more bad guys to add to the mix, along with an idea or two on how the PCs could handle them.

For more specific background information, you can check out my under-updated story hour.

Breakstone · Jun 15, 2004

Will the Characters be leading the villagers into battle? Or will they just be part of the fight?

I think you could run the battle two ways, depending on the above decision.

If the characters are not leading the battle, I wouldn't worry too much about the overall battle and instead concentrate on their personal fights, describing the chaos of the battlefield around them but only rolling for them and the few goblins/worg riders or whatever that they're fighting at the moment.

However, if the characters are leading the battle, I'd describe the battle in two senses- the above mentioned way for the characters themselves, and an overview, in which the units of goblins and villagers and such are grouped together and given a single stat block (with a whole lot of hit points) for each unit.

Either way, remember that describing the chaos of the battle can have a much larger effect on the players rather than simply rolling dice!

Micar Sin · Jun 15, 2004

As far as moments of drama go, have your players started plotting yet? If they come up with clever defensive ideas, have some of them succceed in trruly spectacular fashion, such as hidden barrels of oil exploding under the goblin front lines and sending flaming goblins high into the air, or have them fail in a similar vein, such as the militia men who are supposed to trigger a rock slide panic and abandon their posts, leaving them goblins free to storm the hole left in the defenses...unlesss the pcs can get there in time... Listen to your players planning and plan some of the drama around those plans.

With the elements you mentioned, there are also various lesser moments that would fit..I.e. the leader of the orcs, a huge barbarian single handedly forces a side gate open and is laying waste to the militia that are trying to push him back, shrugging off arrow shots like they are insects, that sort of thing...

kiznit · Jun 15, 2004

Aaaand...Action!

This is definitely what I'm talking about... Defensive and offensive ideas, and ways to play it.

The players, as yet, have not taken an active role in leading the villagers...after all, the characters are only second level, and the players are all fairly new to roleplaying. So far, the roles that they have played are as the impromptu "scouts" that were hired by the local authorities to figure out local disturbances (goblin rogues trying to weaken the defensive perimeter), and so they are respected (they are the ones who discovered and warned of the attack), and they have been members of the "war council".

I forsee the coming session as being run with the first half discussing the defences, then roleplay the army's approach, and then combat with the battle in the background as the heroes take on various of the bigger nasties, which is why I need ideas for both what's going on in the background and what can draw their attention.

So...
What sort of defensive ideas can you guys think up?
How would you describe the army's approach (goblin wolfriders first, then the commanders leading infantry)?
But best of all,
What sort of dramatic situations can arise during the chaos of battle to challenge the heroes?

You guys rock. ENworld is the best.

Mark · Jun 15, 2004

cignus_pfaccari · Jun 15, 2004

kiznit said:
So...
What sort of defensive ideas can you guys think up?

So, there's a palisaded village and a half-built stone temple? Hrm.

Effectively, the goblin hordette will attack by escalade (i.e. climbing walls in teeth of opposition). It's unlikely that the villagers will be able to fight them at all decently man-to-goblin, so they'll want to use missiles from the palisades as much as possible.

Barbed wire would be ideal, but it's so far beyond the tech level it's not funny. So, you'll look for cheap and effective obstacles to slow the Green Tide. I'm thinking a dry moat around the palisade, along with vast quantities of punji pits and other annoying pit traps to slow and disable the goblin advance.

How would you describe the army's approach (goblin wolfriders first, then the commanders leading infantry)?

Depends on the commander. A brutally clever warlord will hurl his commoner infantry at one point and lead a decisive stroke elsewhere with his elite troops, at a point in the walls that's been stripped of defenders. Keeping the perimeter small enough will help prevent this, and it may require them to keep the defense around the temple.

What sort of dramatic situations can arise during the chaos of battle to challenge the heroes?

Elite forces breaking through the perimeter and wreaking havoc in the noncombatants, forcing the PCs to defend the screaming women and children.

Sending a runner out to contact the dwarven relief forces, convincing them that the village is still holding out to be rescued. (If they think the village is overrun, they may fall back to the next village in line. Ergo, make sure and convince them it's not!)

Sneaking out and assassinating the enemy general would be nice, especially if the successor is an ineffective hothead.

Brad

Sigurd · Jun 15, 2004

Don't be too eager to start the seige

Don't be too eager to start the seige

If the characters can get a sense of the goblin plan there is a lot they can do to hamper the seige.

Food: Goblins will eat anything, even their own dead I think.... but the characters shouldn't make it easy for them. Animals, food stores, etc... should all be collected for the town. The goblins might bring captured humanoids as food. The Gnolls will certainly have slaves. Rescuing and arming these could be a good adventure.

The gnolls will probably coordinate the goblins with some sort of horn or noise and a simple code. That code could be broken and perhaps the horn blowers silenced.

A capturred or turncoat goblin might inform the PC's what the goblin's biggest fears are.

Create a hidden exit to allow the characters to leave the city and you might enjoy some guerilla activities against the larger force. The characters would properly feel like real heroes if they even up the odds a bit. Their best chance to do this will be before the gnolls can organize the goblins.

Sigurd

francisca · Jun 15, 2004

From the goblin perspective, the first thing that needs to happen is to breech the palisade. Since you don't have any big rock chuckers, like Hill Giants, that means you either sap it or burn it. Either way, you need a quick charge to the palisade with cover for the torchbearers and/or sappers, and continued cover once the work gets going.

So, maybe the a bunch of the rank and vile storm the other side of the palisade with the wolf riders to draw attention, meanwhile, a team hits the weakest looking spot of the palisade and gets to work on breaching it. Perhaps cover could be provided by slave holding large shield over their heads. The goblins tell them to keep the shields up, or they will surely die, either from missle fire from inside the palisade, or from the goblins themselves.

Once breeched, enough force will need to be brought in to hold the opening while the main body sweeps around to flood in. Use the Orcs and crack Gnoll squad for this purpose.

It's WAR!! Help me design a goblin siege!

kiznit

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