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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Olgar Shiverstone" data-source="post: 1765632" data-attributes="member: 5868">Depsing on how well paid the mercenaries are, this might well not cover it.  Figure a line soldier might want 1 gp a week, and you've got about 90 of those, plus about 10 sergeants, who are making double that, 5 file closers, making double that again, maybe three lieutenants, making 10 times the soldier salary, plus the captain, who'd probably make twice what his lieutenants do (do some research on how naval privateers divided their loot to give you an idea -- upwards of 50% of the loot could go to the captain).  That totals 200 gp right there, and you haven't fed or watered the soldiers, provided ale rations (essential for morale), paid for armor, weapons, arrows, etc.  Oh, yeah, and then there's fodder for the horses, which will cost more to transport to your location than it costs to buy.  How many of their mercenaries are quartermasters and wagoneers?  None, you say?  Then they've got to pay more to have their supplies transported out, plus guards for the caravan, etc.  You're probably not living off the land in the Stonelands.So at 200gp a week, if it includes all the logistics, the troops are just barely getting paid (and if subsistence for a commoner is 1 sp a week, how much more do you need to pay a man to fight and die for his Cormyran Lion?).  What that adds up to, to me, is that they really hired some pretty shoddy mercenaries.  Good ones, with all the logistics included, might be worth 5 to 10 times the price.At the pay rate they've offered, it might become clear that their mercs aren't particularly motivated to seek out danger (patrols are just going out a little ways, lying up for the day, then returning).  Or perhaps they're suffering a high desertion rate.  Not to mention, if they aren't treated well by their employers, there's always the temptation to rob the paymaster ... they may not be great warriors, but at 110 to 5, their odds are pretty good.Medieval armies were expensive to raise and maintain, which is why they weren't particularly professional by today's standards -- the vast majority were peasants pressed into service for that season's campaigning.  You could hires mercs to raise the standards of your army, but you might go broke paying for them.A company that size will vanish in a fifty-mile radius of land.  During the Indian Wars, the US Army did a lot of troop patrolling and got led on a lot of wild goose chases across the west; even actions in regimental strength.  And since I doubt the PCs are guarding the stronghold themselves, you're probably putting 1/3 of the force on patrol at a time at max (1/3 manning the stronghold, and 1/3 resting, refitting, and training).  So a platoon-sized patrol of 30 men on horseback is out at a given time, in 7800 square miles of area -- it's going to take a long time to make a dent in the local monster population even if the monsters are tame as rabbits.Figure that much of their time might be in section-sized reconnaissance or "presence" patrols.  When they make contact, they'll retreat back to base (unless they've got a wizard with sending or some other means of communication).  They've probably taken casualties, so it might be up to the PCs to respond to the threat.You needed run massive combats.  Basically, for a given week you can have multiple "situation reports" come in, with varying results: Patrol X defeats small goblin band, Patrol Y kills owlbear, Patrol Z retreats from large orc band, Patrol A reports wyverns massing a some hilltop, etc.  Then let the PCs decide how to handle events.  Some you'll just handle off stage -- and their merc commander will let them know when the PCs need to get invovled (unless he's actually shady, doing nothing and just banking the money, which historically a lot of mercenaries were).  If the PCs force the mercs out against something over their head, they'll take heavy casualties.Heh, my own group didn't take up the "Baron of the Stonelands" hook.  I've provided a lot of advice, here's one more: the PCs are the heroes.  Mercenaries aren't there to make things easy and gather wealth for the PCs while they sit on their duffs.  Let the mercenaries handle routine "off stage" stuff -- guarding caravans, manning outposts, routine patrols.  The PC actions determine the real outcome.  If patrols are encountering more and more goblins, for example, and the PCs don't realize the goblins are massing for a strike against their stronghold (expecting the merc to handle it), let them find themselves beseiged.Some events that might occur:- Raids on supply caravans- Establishing treaties with local monster tribes (think back to the Indian Wars: you have this huge indigenous population, who has no particular reason or desire to adopt to your way of life.  Are you going to kill them all, displace them, settle them into reservations, "civilize" them, what?)- Competing merc groups out to earn the title for themselves- Someone tries (even succeeds!) in bribing the PCs mercenaries to "look the other way"- A large force beseiges their stronghold- Forces fight over magic from Netherese ruins ... etc.Yep.  Lots of new War 1s (if lucky, commoners if not) regularly coming in -- and going again due to death, wounds, desertion, disease.  Figure for every death you'll lose 2-3 soldiers permanently incapacitated to wounds or disease (unless there's an overabundance of high-level clerics or healing magic).  Heck, you could run a whole session on solving a recruiting probelm for more mercenaries once word gets out that working for your PCs isn't soft garrison duty.That's a lot of goblin clerics!  Picture this: you're a superstitous mecenary, hired to kill off monsters in the Stonelands.  Your employer now tells you that your medical and religous support will be these great goblins they've just hired.  What would you do?If I were the passive type, I'd desert; the aggressive types might pick fights with the goblin "allies", all of which would detract from the mission at hand.  Doesn't matter that they worship Lathander ... they're still bleeding gobbos.Take a lesson from history ... it took over a hundred years to "conquer" the indigenous tribes of the American west, which though significantly larger than the Stonelands, was relatively depopulated and the invaders had the benefit of spreading diseases which took down populations without a shot being fired.  Lots of great ideas to support your campaign to be found in the history books!</blockquote>

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