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Message: <blockquote data-quote="haakon1" data-source="post: 6230007" data-attributes="member: 25619">Nod, I guess that makes sense.  A ballista being capable of firing on a ballistic trajectory makes sense.  But I don't think it could easily do full plunging fire like a mortar, so if they are close enough to the building, they are safely out of the arc of possible fire.Two story stone stable with a tile roof.  The battle won't last enough for the ballista to do more than set the roof on fire, because the PC's are going to storm the door of the donjon.  So it will be only a few rounds before it's hand-to-hand in the tower.  The PC's victory is already a known conclusion from where I sit, but the PC's don't realize the enemy leaders have already escaped after doing what they came to do, and the guys left behind are just a covering force.It's late in the battle.  The forces left for a last stand/to look to the PC's like they won are:Dungeon: 2 Owlbears (CR4) running loose, to slow down the recovery of POWs in the cells.  The enemy left the POW's alive only because one is a mole who will provide false information if the PC's believe them, but the enemy doesn't know the PC's already suspect him.Donjon roof:-- Warrior 3 Lieutenant, 5x Warrior 2 Ballista crew.  All veteran fanatics for the cause (The Horned Society).-- 2 Ogre Mages (CR8) currently invisible.  Mercenaries, will kill for fun and flee if threatened, possibly "choppering out" remaining a Warrior or 2 each.-- 2 Erinyes (CR8) acting as snipers.  Fanatical devils, will flee once the battle is lost, carrying the most useful Warriors left alive.First floor, behind a barricaded door and additional overturned trestle tables for cover:-- 8x Warrior 2 with Alchemist's Fire, Light Crossbows, and Halberds, dressed as the castle guards though they know the jig is up on that ruse.  Fanatics, will likely fight to the last man to make the PC's pay.  These folks are refugees who have been running away for 1000 miles from Iuz's hordes, and will no longer run away from death.  Think of Soviet Red Guards whose villages had been destroyed by the Nazis . . . no surrender, no retreat, no quarter.  The fact that PC's also don't like Iuz matters nothing to them -- they or their appointed enemy must die, there is no other way for them.The PC's are a group of 8, mostly 5th-7th level.  The survivors of their force are about 100 men, mostly militia light crossbowmen and some mercenary longbowmen (all Warrior 1), with the rest spearmen (Warrior 1) or sappers (Expert 1).Later today, the PC's and their forces will face the ACTUAL attack on the city that taking its small and not terribly well-designed castle was just a diversion for . . . well, let's just say I read this and modified: <a href="http://paizo.com/products/btpy80hm?Pathfinder-4-Rise-of-the-Runelords-Chapter-4-Fortress-of-the-Stone-Giants" target="_blank">http://paizo.com/products/btpy80hm?Pathfinder-4-Rise-of-the-Runelords-Chapter-4-Fortress-of-the-Stone-Giants</a>Ah, and since I'm doing this slowly over email in a very long-running campaign, I actually do roll every single shot of a crossbow, using real normal 3.5e rules.  Lucky matters more than you'd think.  The opening volley of 80 crossbowmen included 13 19's or 20's rolled, so they did well against the enemy who were standing up from the battlements to pour fire on the battering ram party.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":eek:" title="Eek!    :eek:"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":eek:" /></blockquote>

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