Retaking a City - Help designing events or encounters

[Trit One-Ear]

I posted this a week or two ago in the 4E form, but thought I could appeal to the D&D masses on a whole for ideas. I know it's a long post, so thanks to those who bear with me enough to give their ideas.
My players have been battling a cult who has, with the help of a succubus, taken control of the duke and his council, effectively taking control of the city. After replacing key members in the city, including the majority of the city guards, they have out the city into lockdown, and are preparing... something called The Grand Tribute. The heroes have yet to discover that this is a large ritual sacrifice of the souls of the city's residents to Glasya, Asmodeus' daughter.
The heroes, meanwhile, have been organizing a resistance with the help of the local thieves' guild and the church of Erathis. They are now returning from the countryside, having just recruited a strong force of defected city guard still loyal to the "good guys" who had been fighting corruption using guerrilla tactics.

Now the true question: how to make this assault on the cultist-controlled city as epic as my players deserve. Here are my current ideas.

• The city is broken into three ringed districts (poor district, merchant district, noble's district [including the duke's citadel]). They must aid their forces to control each district, or at least slip through themselves.
• They must begin by opening the gates for their ranger army outside. Thinking the stealthy players (ranger and monk) could scale the walls and sneak to the gatehouse. Meanwhile, the wizard, cleric and paladin would battle cultist agents hidden within the ranks of the rangers, who try to give warning to their allies in the city.
• Once the gates are open, the resistance comes out in full force. Some battle or encounter here where the players lead the charge against the cultist forces (very cinematic). Any advice how to run or design this event much appreciated.
• The heroes have an ally within the library in the merchant's district who has been studying a ritual to help protect them against the succubus. They'll have to reach him... But is he under attack? Or perhaps they have to hold off his assailants while he completes the ritual. Either way, I think they'll be overrun and have to escape up to the library roof, while their ally holds off the cultists (dramatically).
• Once on the roof, they find the library's enchanted gargoyles (surprise!) have come to life to protect the library. Using them as "mounts" they can fly over the walls and fighting to the citadel itself (fending off some flying devils in the process).
• Once they hit the citadel... Who knows. Dramatic confrontation with the succubus (who still holds the duke and many of his guards under her thrall) is a must. But then there's also the corrupted captain of the guard, who has captured and tortured many npcs the players know. Do they find him in the dungeons, assisted by some sadistic devils? And what will help make the succubus fight feel satisfyingly dramatic after... almost three months of facing her agents and thrills?

Players are just about to hit level 8 if that helps define threats. We are playing 4E for any who want to give edition-specific advice. It may sound like I have a good framework, but I feel underprepared. I also want to avoid railroading the players into a battle plan (something the last few sessions has come dangerously close to). I figure the more I have planned, the more I can adapt to their moves.
Thanks for having read this far, and thanks for any advice you see fit to give!

Trit

 

[Grogg of the North]

Give the players a city of the map and have a few NPC allies, such as from the good guards, give them information about the city and who is guarding the citadel. Have the NPCs state that they are willing and able to support the PCs but have the NPCs differ to the PCs for all battle plans. Most players will leap at the chance to be a general. The good side is that your PCs will be in charge, their victory or defeat is clearly in their hands, and the fate of thousands. The downside is that you're more or less reacting to the PCs so it's best to have a few generic encounters ready: demonic patrols; brainwashed citizens; cultists looking for resistance fighters.

One thing I would do is force the PCs to make decisions. Do you go protect your wizard friend and his research or do you go help a group of guards that are having trouble with taking a gate to the next level of the city? Do you help the church of Erathis retake their temple or do you go with some of the thieves through the sewer and bypass part of the city? You can't do both.

I wouldn't have any choice be "wrong" but each will influence the battle in different ways. Helping the wizard gets you some sort magical aid when fighting the succubus but if you help the guards, they'll get you access to watch's armory or take on the smaller demons when you reach the citadel itself.

As for the Captain of the Guard, I'd go for the cliche and make him fighting against his mind control. Every couple of rounds while fighting the PCs he realizes what's happening and begs the PCs for assistance before going back to fighting them. Then the PCs have to face the decision of "Do we kill him if he wasn't in control of his actions?" Which can lead to some interesting moral / alignment debates. Don't let things stall there though. If they spend a long time arguing over what to do with the Captain have a runner show up begging for aid in another part of the town.

I don't know how Succubi work in 4E so I can't give you too much advice there. However, from my experience in 3.5 they tend not to be straight up fighters. I would give her a bunch of guards, preferably the NPCs the group is found of, and if the Succubus is hurt have the damage, or at least some of it, get shunted to her guards instead. Finally, if the battle goes against her, have her flee.

 

[Trit One-Ear]

I'm on the fence about making the players the generals in this scene. It is a very cool idea/trope and one I'd love to use at another time, but... just doesn't feel quite right here. Maybe it doesn't play into the bedlam I want them to experience in the streets.

100% agree with making PC's make decisions. That's great advice. I'll come up with some choices and their repercussions, maybe even come up with 8 or so different "paths" they could take (first choice sends them towards a choice they wouldn't have encountered otherwise, and so on). A bit more prep work, but could be fun. I could also reuse some events/choices, as this design doesn't have to have a replay value like computer RPG's

I'm going to safe the mind control moral debate for the Duke who, while generally a nice guy, has some less than savory characteristics that might motivate the heroes to use this opportunity to remove him from power... one way or another. The Captain of the Guard is a cultist agent himself, and legitimately evil, so he'll most likely be a straightforward brawl (with some creepy sadistic themed abilities etc).

I agree directly with your set up for the Succubus fight. The entire duke's council will most likely be mind controlled at this point, along with more human guards, and some devil shocktroops. I just need to make sure she's able to get away from the ranger and monk long enough to make the fight interesting.

Please, to those who haven't posted, I'm still completely open to new thoughts! If I'm missing some great ideas for events or moments, even images, or if you just think I'm totally off base, I'd love to hear what you're thinking. Let me know!

Trit

 

[Grogg of the North]

The Captain of the Guard is a cultist agent himself, and legitimately evil, so he'll most likely be a straightforward brawl (with some creepy sadistic themed abilities etc).

What you could with the Captain then is after he takes or gives (or both!) X damage he gets a cumulative bonus to hit/damage/saves/whatever. Have him comment on how the pain is good or something along those lines. As long you're sure your group is okay with something like that, not everyone's may be.

The Book of Vile Darkness in 3E had some rules on Sadism. I don't know if you could use any of that as a starting point for the captain.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=6678017]Trit One-Ear[/MENTION]
That's an interesting trio of forces (thieves, ex-guards, clergy) the PCs have assembled. Might be some friction between them? I've run a similar scenario as the capstone to a heroic campaign where the PCs had recruited allies - these allies were represented by unique power cards (eg. trebuchets, archers' volley) which the PCs could expend during the siege. With your "lead the charge" scene I would have the guards/soldiers in the background fighting the rank-and-file while the PCs take on the command unit, but allow the PCs to make skill checks to gain their aid (in the 4e game sense of "Aid") momentarily, or have tense moments where the guards/soldiers need the PCs' aid (killing an AoE caster or destroying burning oil-pouters being good goals).

For pure cinematic awesomeness I suggest watching the opening siege from Prince of Persia for ideas.

Some questions to better assist you...

What are your PCs?

Am I correct in assuming the PCs are *not* acting in a command capacity of any of the three forces?

Have they discussed their tactics at all? Anyone mention sapping?

How many encounters (or game sessions) do you envision laying siege to the city taking?

 

[Will Doyle]

Sounds like you've got a pretty good foundation there.

My advice for running battles is to give your players a choice of encounters at every step, each of which presents a dilemma (e.g. "The library's under attack, but you've just heard a report that General Armitage is fighting a losing battle on the market square! What do you do?"). Create a flowchart before the battle with one or two branches between each key encounter, with quick fights/skill challenges off each branch. This makes it feel like the battle is shifting around them. Each branch can have an effect on later key encounters; e.g. if they defended the tower earlier on, the tower guards are on hand to help them sally forth from the gates.

Also (as your playing 4e) - minions. Hundreds of them. I've run a couple of fantastic "hold the gate!" scenarios where PCs have to last 10 rounds with minions running onto the map at the start of every round. I'd definitely advise including one or two of those!

One minor quibble - If your PCs haven't already encountered traitors in their army, including them in this battle may not be the best idea, in my opinion (especially right at the start). If this was my group, they'd be distrustful of pretty much every ally they meet, which would sour the heroism of the battle.