Orc Horde Invasion: help/advice needed!

[Beretta]

Greetings all,

I am planning on running a campaign in the Silver Marches of FR, against the backdrop of an impending invasion by King Obould Many-Arrows.

As described in the supplement, day-by-day his throne is less solid beneath him, and soon it will be time for a bold stroke, horde or no. Soon he will have to be seen to do something decisive, or murmurings of his cowardice and weakness will arise around every Dark Arrow campfire.

I wanted hints of this to be dropped by increased raiding activity on northern towns (such a Winter Edge, Rivermoot, Nesme, High Hold and Beorunna's Well), that eventually culminates in Obould's Horde blazing it's way eastward from Nesme to Beorunna's Well and perhaps beyond.

I don't anticipate any trouble getting the players on board to help in stopping the onslaught - it's the execution I'm having difficulty coming to grips with.

The early stages (1st - 4th level) are simple enough, with the PC's perhaps having to assist a merchant caravan in repelling an Orc raid. Later on, as Oboald begins to test the defenses of the towns he has targeted in his attacks, the PCs may be involved in repelling a raid in force mounted against one of the aforementioned towns (5th - 8th level).

I am at a loss though when it comes to the crunch (9th+ level). The players may choose to assist by offering to take command of League troops.

I like this approach, as it allows the group to be the linchpin of a decisive spectacle. After fighting several smaller battles, the story arc culminates with them hacking their way through to King Oboald and taking both him and his retinue on in a decisive battle. Once King Oboald falls, the heart goes out of the remaining Horde and they begin to quit the battlefield.

As usual, the devil is in the details. I was hoping that there might be a published adventure/accessory that deals with this very thing that somebody might point me towards (the Horde Campaign?). Or else somebody who has already gone ahead and executed a similar event in their own campaign (a horde of warriors - not necessarily orcs - invading a kingdom) could pass on their wisdom (and/or campaign notes!) and other insights gained from running such a story arc. If anybody could chime in as well with any ideas, such as other possible ways of drawing the PCs in, or else what scenario's I might present to get them involved then that would be great!

I suppose the key thing is getting the PCs interested and perhaps have a personal stake in the events. Making it interesting (as opposed to just session after session of bashing orc warriors) is what I'm having the most difficulty envisioning. Not every adventure from levels 1 - 10 (or so) will involve the impending invasion, but I'd like to do it in such a way that it is in the back of their minds when if they decide to raid the ruins of Hellgate Keep or else seek to put an end to the People of the Black Blood that dwell within the Moonwood.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

 

[Thanee]

A pretty easy way to get them involved would be to have them live in one of the northern villages which get raided constantly and have it overrun by an orc horde. The PCs amongst other villagers have to flee while relatives fall to the aggressors. This should at least set the mood for fighting back against them, once given a chance to do so.

Their retreat could mark the first stage of your adventure (levels 1-4) before they meet up with someone (an army or whatever), where they can apply their skills more offensively until they reach the levels in which they can be sent on a mission to strike against the head as a culmination of the campaign.

One big problem with the invasion approach is, that you have to keep the uber NPCs (like Alustriel) at a very low profile. Seriously, if the orcs become a threat for the Silver Marches, the big lady could just snip her fingers and let the king fall over dead. There's not much hindering her to do so, right?

But that's a very generic problem with adventures in the realms, which involve a threat like this.

Anyways I would definitely try to get some differing sidestories into the campaign, because fighting orcs all day long will get repetitive pretty fast. The Silver Marches have many perils waiting for travelers and the PCs might as well encounter some of them during their journey, which have no direct connection with the orc invasion.

Bye
Thanee

P.S. I believe there was a novel which had the orc invasion in the Silver Marches as theme, but I don't recall which it was. Maybe someone else can.

 

[Hammerhead]

The Thousand Orcs (vs. Drizzt)

The problem with Obould's "horde" is that according to the books it's only like a few thousand guys. The Silver Marches is more than capable of mustering a trained, experienced army to match this, and with magical backup the fight would turn into a route. This is in addition to the problems presented by Taern and Alustriel.

Maybe Obould could suddenly gain in power, either from increased levels or a powerful artifact (I'd recommend the Black Grail from BoEM2). Or, he could use a distraction by messing with the wards on Hellgate Keep or something similar.

 

[Thanee]

Yeah, if you look at the standing armies of the major cities, this orc horde cannot be seen as much more than a nuisance, considering what other threats are present (trolls, giants and whatnot).

The threat could be very present to a limited part of the Silver Marches, but once a sizeable force musters to oppose the orcs, they have a very hard time for sure.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Wolffenjugend]

If I can make a suggestion, why not eliminate the raiding parties element and just make one big surprise attack that overwhelms the frontier defenses due to the lack of warning. That would heighten the sense of urgency as there wouldn't be an army on standby and it would take time to muster the necessary forces. It would also address the fact that the orcs will soon be heavily outnumbered so they launched a lightning strike in hopes of capturing their objectives before aid arrives.

The P could be a stopgap measure, perhaps to assassinate the leaders of the invasion or to help a beleagured garrison hold out until reinforcements arrive.

 

[kengar]

I don't know enough about the Forgotten Realms or the Silver Marches to get into a lot of setting-specific detail (despite having run a Silverymoon-based campaign a few years ago). I would make a couple of general suggestions, though:

Have Obould use clever tactics. Hit & run, ambush, tunnel under the walls, drive monsters out of the wilds into the enemy camps, poisons, plagues, summoning demons, mercenary/slave troops of goblins, gnolls, bugbears, etc. Weres from Moonwood have allied with the orcs and are infecting the defenders with lycanthropy. Maybe a dragon or two has joined Obould's cause with a promise of plunder and elf-flesh. Or the shamans summon demons and undead to fight. Crops and food are burned making famine as much the enemy as the orcs. In other words, don't just line the orcs up in tight ranks on an open field and let the Wiz drop Fireballs on them.

 

[TwilightKing]

I, too, am starting a Silver Marches campaign.

Keep in mind that part of Obould's strategy is waiting for the massive Orc horde (100,000 or so) to burst forth from the Spine of the World and lay waste to everything in its path. Obould's army of Dark Arrow Orcs will come in afterwards, after the Silver Marches forces are weakened. At least, that is his plan.

Also, I don't think that the fight would go out of the Orcs, should Obould be slain. His 8(?) sons will surely see this as an opportunity to increase their own power, so if anything the Orcs may war upon each other.

 

[allenw]

You might want to check out Steve Jackson Games' Munchkin Monster Manual 2.5. It includes a d20 conversion of the Munchkin "3,872 Orcs" card... using the Swarm rules.

 

[The Forsaken One]

I'm a player in a 5 person FR game. We're all about 9th 10th level and we just went over to Obould and killed him along with a couple of thousand orcs during day or 3 campaign by 5 adventurers. As writtin it's a sad sad bunch.

 

[Kalen_Darkstar]

The Thousand Orcs (vs. Drizzt)

The problem with Obould's "horde" is that according to the books it's only like a few thousand guys. The Silver Marches is more than capable of mustering a trained, experienced army to match this, and with magical backup the fight would turn into a route. This is in addition to the problems presented by Taern and Alustriel.

Maybe Obould could suddenly gain in power, either from increased levels or a powerful artifact (I'd recommend the Black Grail from BoEM2). Or, he could use a distraction by messing with the wards on Hellgate Keep or something similar.

The books took the before mentioned approach in the lone drow obould becomes the focuse of a religious ceremony that grants him great powers.