King Obould Many-Arrows Invades!

[Oni]

Ok here is the deal. I'm going to be running a game set in the Forgotten Realms in about 6 weeks, specifically in and around the Silver Marches area. Over the course of things, I'd like the threat of King Obould's invasion to loom more and more over the region.

So if you where King Obould Many-Arrows, how would you go about invading the Silver Marches? What would have to be done, and what resources would be needed to present a truly credible threat to the region, beyond wiping a few outlying farmsteads out of existance. What would be your biggest obstacles?

 

[Nightfall]

I'd send in the Herald of Vangal to kick around those wimpy Chosen of Mystra.

Plus infect the North with Slacerian Language virus.

 

[John Crichton]

Ok here is the deal. I'm going to be running a game set in the Forgotten Realms in about 6 weeks, specifically in and around the Silver Marches area. Over the course of things, I'd like the threat of King Obould's invasion to loom more and more over the region.

So if you where King Obould Many-Arrows, how would you go about invading the Silver Marches? What would have to be done, and what resources would be needed to present a truly credible threat to the region, beyond wiping a few outlying farmsteads out of existance. What would be your biggest obstacles?

Minor spoiler warning for The Lone Drow...

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Want to use FR canon?

Spoiler

Pick up RAS The Lone Drow. It'll show you how he actually does it. I'll post more if you like but I don't want to ruin the book as it is the best Drizzt book in quite some time. It has a ton of details about what you are planning to do.

I'd like to add that I'm running a campaign in the exact same area right now. Fun stuff and I'll probably be using a little bit of what is in the books to spice things up.

 

[hunter1828]

Check out A Thousand Orcs in addition to Lone Drow.




minor spoilers below (highlight to read)


















The first book of the trilogy details

Spoiler

the setup for the war and the alliances the orc king makes.

hunter1828

 

[John Crichton]

Check out A Thousand Orcs in addition to Lone Drow.

Good call. I should have mentioned that. Excellent setup that could easily be adapted to a different group of adventurers or even a region if need be.

 

[Oni]

I'm not a huge Salvatore fan, but I may take a look at the books since they deal so directly with the topic, and i've got plenty of prep time. But if I do get around to reading it it'll be from a strictly research standpoint, so feel free to spoil away.

I'm not all that worried about sticking to canon though, just whatever works, so if you any of you have your own ideas that would be great too.

 

[ConnorSB]

its always good to CUT OF THE SUPPLIES! specifically start harrassing and burning every single trade caravan going into the marches. You can keep the stuff for your own troops, and since a whole bunch of the FR has that whole interdependant nations thing going, you can severly screw over the people living there. Especially the PCs.

"We need swords!"

"5000 gp please."

"What! We wont pay that, we'd sooner kill you with... uhh... weapons that are no longer available..."


Oh, and another good tactic: send your troops to harry wandering monsters, forcing them in towards the regions towns and cities. The SM's army can hardly deal with an invasion when it's having enough trouble just keeping its people alive. Plus it gives you a good excuse to make the PCs kill stuff.

Orcs have druids right? they are tied to the land, or at least not very civilized?

So have the druids defile all the places they invade. Turn the plants dangerous and alive (assassin vines everywhere). Make all the water just foul enough that it hurts humans, but orcs think it tastes fine.

On that note, have orc scouts bring along druids and clerics, and cast contagion spells on water sources. Its a good way to kill the populace, and really piss the PCs off b/c they cant do anything.

No army is a good one without strong and specialized leaders. Have the majority of the invasion force be regular grunts, but also include a variety of special, really really dangerous leaders. So dangerous in fact that the grunts can't help but follow orders, and will not run. Nothing says freaked out PCs like enemies that will not comprimise.

Use animals to your advantage. They arn't just evil soldiers, they are evil soldiers riding scary dire boar and wyvern mounts.

Above all, if you are going to have a big invasion, keep the invasion force varied. Fighting "orcs" sucks. Fighting mounted enemies with spears and coordinated attack patterns one day, and then getting stalked by a lone but freaky orc the next day, then routing an unorganized orc camp the next day, only to be ambushed by extremly proficicient "orcs with crossbows and magic critters" the next... now that is exiting.

 

[Dark Jezter]

Orcs have druids right? they are tied to the land, or at least not very civilized?

So have the druids defile all the places they invade. Turn the plants dangerous and alive (assassin vines everywhere). Make all the water just foul enough that it hurts humans, but orcs think it tastes fine.

On that note, have orc scouts bring along druids and clerics, and cast contagion spells on water sources. Its a good way to kill the populace, and really piss the PCs off b/c they cant do anything.

There are no nature deities in the orc pantheon, so I'd imagine that orc druids would be extremely rare. There may be a few orc druids who worship Malar, though.

Orc clerics can be found among orc communities, though.

No army is a good one without strong and specialized leaders. Have the majority of the invasion force be regular grunts, but also include a variety of special, really really dangerous leaders. So dangerous in fact that the grunts can't help but follow orders, and will not run. Nothing says freaked out PCs like enemies that will not comprimise.

Races of Faerun has a prestige class that is perfect for this role: The Orc Warlord.

 

[Mystery Man]

Is Obould going to be directly involved with a the players or sort of an anreachable MacGuffin type?

Don't forget he has plenty of sons to kick around as well. If you kill one will he come after your players personally? Or send your players a chest of gold? =)

 

[Marimmar]

Here's what I would do in the chieftains position:

1) Get some powerful allies, the trolls from the troll moors, giants from the Spine of the World, tanarukka from hellgate keep, maybe some of the barbarian tribes living in the north.

2) Do not attack the human/dwarven strong points, attack them where they can't defend themselves properly, raid caravans, burn crops, destroy the roads leading to Silverymoon. The populace will soon start having hunger and empty money pouches. They will demand action on part of the militia.

3) Avoid open conflict and try to lure the human/dwarves into traps/ambushes.

4) Send human ambassadors (clerics of evil deities will do it) to human settlements to sow distrust, reporting to the common men that they are left to their own devices by their 'former' allies.

5) Be everywhere at once, a citystate is less likely to provide/send reinforcements to another city when it's own farms are under attack. By threatening multiple targets your antagonists have to spread out their forces, trying to defend them all. Then you can bring your forces to bear on a single target. Key to this is a strong mobile force so...

6) Try to acquire as many horses as you can get (raiding caravans cames in handy here). Even horses not trained for war can be used to quickly relocate infantry units, they just have to dismount before combat. And remind your troops, 'Horses are helpful, not food.'

The only drawback would be that orc warriors would demand all-out attacks and fast successes against their foes but that's where you - the DM - comes in.

~Marimmar