Summer 669 Planning

[scarik]

The outstanding concerns that matter to me are:
1) How to handle all those kobolds?
2) What about Dragonborn?

1: Kobolds are the very worst warriors around. Their traps are the only way they can resist your attack, and their morale will break quickly. Shock tactics are your friend.
2: Dragonborn are human-scale threats. They can theoretically be PCs or henches. Anything that can kill humans works just fine on them. Your dragon research tells you they scale like the dragon so you can expect that they are at most as dangerous as your Fighters.

[scarik]

Entering the Dragon's Den

Your goal is to safely get the assault team to the dragon in Chamber 1.

You have two main paths:
1) SE Entrance. 120' from opening to the first door. Then you cross 40' of Chamber 2 to get to the door to Chamber 1.
2) SW Entrance. 100' from the entrance to the first corridor, then 30' to the right turn south and 30 more to the door. Then 30' over the north wall of Chamber 2 to the door of Chamber 1.

Path 1 is more direct so I assume you will take it.

My current reading of the plan is thus:
Hodlar takes point along Path 1. Bardin and Earnan follow. This trio is focused on pathfinding and handling traps and ambushes.
The half the main warriors come next. They will rush to cover the rogues in case of attack.
Then the clerics and mages. You can expect threats on all sides.
The other half of the warriors form a rearguard. They watch the rear and cover the casters.

Alternatively you can split your entry. The main body minus Bardin then makes directly for the dragon while reserve forces enter on path 2 lead by Bardin as a diversion. Normally soldiers will not enter dungeons, but Dawi consider this a normal battlefield. The Soldiers of Jing have exceptional morale and can treat this like an assault on a fortress but will suffer -2 to any morale checks for being outside their core competency. The Goblin riders won't go inside. They are comfortable underground, but their battle tactics require open space. Also neither Goblin nor Dwarf will fight side by side with the other. When they work their way through the sentries they needed space and Humans as a buffer to work.

If you split then you have two reasonable options:
1a) Diversion force goes in first and goes loud to draw attention.
2a) Assault force goes in quiet and once they are in place the Diversion goes loud and attacks.

Communicating would normally require you to have scouts to relay messages but you also have two magic items that can work here.
Ji-ho's sword can transform and carry a message and then return to him.
Morwen has crafted a figurine that can transform just like Ji-ho's sword, or it can turn into a giant raven capable of carrying a person.

[Leitz]

Path 1 is the best choice. It allows kobolds, etc, to flee outside and then get killed by the troops.

If we can clear the path and Room 2, then secure the door between Rooms 2 and 3, then any number of kobolds won't bother us.

I have updated the Master Plan with the following:
Groups:
- Added the "First Assault" group, those protecting the rogues and dealing with kobolds and dragonborn.
- Rolton will shift from First Assault to Dragon Assault as soon as the kobolds and dragonborn are resolved.

Phases:
- Modified Phase 3, our current phase, based on posts we've made.
- Modified Phase 4 slightly, since we're not there yet.

We are now in Phase 3 Entry, PREP sub-phase.
If there's no issue with the PREP sub-phase, we can move into the ACTION sub-phase.

As always, open for comment.

[CarrieVS]

I’ve just realised that 1 of the 3 guys who were going to get sharpness-affected ammunition (Bardin) has a gun for his missile weapon.

Does Sharpness actually apply to bullets?
(If yes, no further questions.)
If not,
a) is it still worth bringing him on team dragon, and
b) does it seem likely that the other 2 will use 10 bolts each, or should we cut someone else in on the Sharpness scroll?

[Leitz]

I’ve just realised that 1 of the 3 guys who were going to get sharpness-affected ammunition (Bardin) has a gun for his missile weapon.

Does Sharpness actually apply to bullets?
(If yes, no further questions.)
If not,
a) is it still worth bringing him on team dragon, and
b) does it seem likely that the other 2 will use 10 bolts each, or should we cut someone else in on the Sharpness scroll?

Great idea to spread the count out! Si-woo is mostly an archer and can join in. I'm not sure if it works on bullets, and I doubt anyone will get more than four or five shots in.

[CarrieVS]

Great idea to spread the count out! Si-woo is mostly an archer and can join in. I'm not sure if it works on bullets, and I doubt anyone will get more than four or five shots in.

ACKS specifies Sharpness affects "edged or pointed" weapons which bullets are not, they're just very fast blunt objects, so I suspect not, but they do make holes in you, so I shall wait for Scarik to confirm on that.

So, do we think 5 pieces of ammunition each for:

• Hodlar
• Drotik
• Si-Woo
• Bardin if it works with his weapon, and if not then Earnan?

Including Earnan because I believe he's the only other person who's likely to be shooting at the dragon with an applicable weapon. He does have access to some permanently magical arrows (as far as I'm aware he's still the only shortbow user in the party) but those are worth saving so if 1/4 of the scroll is unlikely to be used otherwise it makes sense. Sadly all of those use different weapons so ammunition won't be interchangeable (though I'm not certain whether an arbalest and a heavy crossbow need different bolts or not.)

[scarik]

Bullets are not affected by Sharpness. The gun thunderer propels them quite quickly but they are still as blunt as a sling bullet. So it ends up being piercing damage, but only after fired and at the target's end. Thus an unfired bullet is not affected. On the other hand a thunderer is more damaging at close range than a heavy crossbow so it works out the same in many cases.

Bardin does have some runed bullets though which are magical at close range.

[Leitz]

I would include Earnan anyway, can't hurt to take every advantage we can get! Even if that reduces everyone to 4 shots each, we do one shot with all dice, so it's a win. And I think an arbalest and a heavy crossbow are the same thing. However, a Dawi and a Human may use different sized weapons, and thus different bolts. Drotik's is Dawi built for human sized.

[scarik]

I would include Earnan anyway, can't hurt to take every advantage we can get! Even if that reduces everyone to 4 shots each, we do one shot with all dice, so it's a win. And I think an arbalest and a heavy crossbow are the same thing. However, a Dawi and a Human may use different sized weapons, and thus different bolts. Drotik's is Dawi built for human sized.

Dawi are shorter in stature but on average more massive than a Man with proportionally longer arms and greater depth in the chest. Their crossbows are often of heavier construction but are interchangeable with an arbalest.

[CarrieVS]

I would include Earnan anyway, can't hurt to take every advantage we can get! Even if that reduces everyone to 4 shots each, we do one shot with all dice, so it's a win.

Well, Scarik's confirmed Bardin's not applicable so it's 5 shots each, unless you want to include Rolton (or Ji-ho, but I strongly suspect he isn't going to come out of melee unless he's out of action.)

Nobody else who's going to be facing the dragon has a bow or crossbow of any kind.

[Leitz]

Rolton won't get to the dragon until the melee is already going, I think, and you're right about JJh. He has a bow, and once in a great while actually uses it.

[scarik]

For those doing math at home the Dragon has had 4 rolls to awaken at 6+, 6+, 5+ and 4+. The chance to fail all of them, which it has, is 23.15%.

Fortune really is favoring the bold here.