WotBS WotBS advice needed (SPOILERS galore)

[RangerWickett]

Leska is motivated by a loathing of pretty much everyone, which turned into a desire to have power over everyone. Her personal goal is conquest for the sake of conquest, and she's just using Coaltongue's death as a justification to rally her people into 'finding the ones responsible.' Also a bit of 'make a show of force so no one thinks we're weak.'

Since there's not a ton of long-distance communication, she's able to deploy armies in multiple countries at once, without them really questioning why she is apparently trying to conquer the whole world.

 

[trencher7]

Really short update:
The Saga continues...
We started with the players returning from the outermost watchpost in the Alydi Pass and ended when Steepengard´s army arrived at Gallo´s Fend. In between the group was able to convince Lord Dashgoban as well as Lady Timor to send troops in order to fight agaist the King´s army. They also convinced the inhabitants of Pitchwood Burg to melt the river and delay Steppengard´s army.
So all in all everything went according to plan, extremely smooth and we all had a lot of fun during the session. 2 players were absent so everyone agrred that calling it a day the moment when Steppengard´s soldiers make camp and prepare for the attack was the right decision so that everyone has the chance to attend next time.

But I won´t end this short update without a couple questions:
- My group was able to capture Inquisitor Crona alive and they want to get information about the Scourge (I mean the Order to capture magicians not the weapon itself). So what does the average Inquisitor know about the order?
- My group tries really hard to translate/ decipher the letter written by Kreven concerning the Scourge (this time the weapon). they made a copy (not an 100% accurate one due to some bad die rolls) before handing it over in Seaquen. I want them to succeed sooner or later. they really deserve that, so I will prepare the handout for them to work with it. What apart from what is stated in chapter 8 would you say are the information this handout absolutely must contain?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Tormyr]

Crona is a fairly low-level inquisitor. She will not know anything beyond her orders --- as will be the case with most Ragesians. There are precious few who know the whole picture: Leska and Kreven would be two of them. Hence why the journal is so important. Crona will just know to gather up spellcasters and send them back up the chain. The other scourge is several steps removed from her, Boreus, and the other inquisitors the heroes have met up to this point.

As for the other scourge and the journal, it will be hard to decipher anything with a bad copy, but the heroes could always request to see the original. The easiest place to place clues would be in the visions in adventure 7.

 

[Mrpereira]

Maybe let them decipher the name Koren from the journal; the name of both the Obelisk and Kreven's wife. Due to the bad rolls, they miss out the obelisk part initially. When they interrogate people about Koren, they will learn that it is Kreven's wife, a former wayfarer. It will give them some info to follow, but not quite spot on.

 

[trencher7]

Maybe let them decipher the name Koren from the journal; the name of both the Obelisk and Kreven's wife. Due to the bad rolls, they miss out the obelisk part initially. When they interrogate people about Koren, they will learn that it is Kreven's wife, a former wayfarer. It will give them some info to follow, but not quite spot on.

Brilliant idea!!!

 

[Tormyr]

Maybe let them decipher the name Koren from the journal; the name of both the Obelisk and Kreven's wife. Due to the bad rolls, they miss out the obelisk part initially. When they interrogate people about Koren, they will learn that it is Kreven's wife, a former wayfarer. It will give them some info to follow, but not quite spot on.

Then Koren is the scourge. Sheena Larkins would agree with that.

 

[trencher7]

So next session will be more or less the battle for Gallo´s Fend. I will start with sending the PCs out to eliminate the war magician Kelkin the night before the battle starts. I decided against sending them to sabotage the war engines because I think that two black ops missions in one night might be a bit too much. Over the course of the day they will, if they decide to join the battle directly, be attacked by three waves of enemies. That´s the plan at least.
First wave will be Steppengard Knights and Troll(s), second wave will be Brakken, Soldiers and Commander and third wave will be Soldiers, Knights and Bowmen (in order to lure them out of the battleline). In the night Gallo will send them on the mission to attack Königsmarschall Malkan and to turn the tides of the otherwise lost battle.

Now I am looking for ideas to spice up the three waves during the battle with some objectives the PCs have to achieve á la Red Hand of Doom. Something like "secure a portion of the wood to prevent the enemy to come through", etc. You see, I am not very creative at the moment. Do you have some ideas for objectives during the battle?
Thanks in advance!

 

[Mrpereira]

I did it the other way around. I sent mine out to handle the war machines, and those machines that survived blasted the field once in a while. Leaving the mage alive made it possible to add some randomness to the fight. Honestly though, the fight was mostly something unassuming. It wasn't really memorable other than for its long build up in my campaign. My players aren't really into the big army battles in RPG, and of course that influenced the way it ended up being played out. Not much help from me I guess.

 

[trencher7]

Thanks nonetheless!
We aren´t into mass combat either but I see this as an opportunity to get out of my and my players` comfort zone and try something new and maybe create something memorable. But in order to do so I would like their actions to have some sort of goal instead of just holding the line I guess.

 

[trencher7]

So maybe something like this:
First of all the PCs are assigned as second wave troops. They see the first wave break and step in to defend a certain place (Wave #1) and make sure that the beaten first wave is brought to safety. Then they see that commander Hertiage is cought by enemy troops and shall be brought into the enemy camp. They have to get to him (Wave #2) and rescue him. This could work, couldn´t it?

Now I just need an objective for Wave #3.