Siege - extreme

Started by Healergirl, August 15, 2012, 05:55:44 PM

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Healergirl

The setup:

Captain of a tower.  An honorary title, a meaningless duty given out to children of the plutocrats  Children playing at war, most of them.  Not her, not this Guildmaster's daughter.  She took it seriously, had armed and trained the garrison out of her own pocket.  It had shown.

Of course no one was playing now, the horde camped outside the city walls had stripped away all pretense, all play.  The field battle of the week before - if that frantic addled chaotic mess could be dignified with that term - had driven home the reality of war to all within the city.

But the enemy was outside, and she was one of the people charged with keeping them out.  She glanced to her left as she stood at the tower top, another tower could be seen down the wall.  To her right, much closer, a gatehouse.  The gate most vulnerable to assault, as it happened.  A gate she was tasked to support, to protect.  And she would.  The men (and a few women) of her company were very well equipped, well trained, and reliable.  Their families were safe, spirited out of the city and safe - she had seen to that.  It had been easy, the city was a port and the enemy had no real navy, just a flock of fishing and trading vessels.  Their numbers made them dangerous, but real warships and blockade runners could push them aside, get past them.

At a cost.

Just like the land force, dangerous in numbers, not quality.  But quantity made a quality of it's own, and there were just so so many of them.  Their cookfires made the night glow, and they were building so many siege engines, they'd get some of them built right, even by accident.

Siege took time, and tlme... the enemy really didn't have it, not really.  By land, the cordon was secure.  At sea, the net had gaping holes.  Supplies could get in, noncombatants could get out.  For now.

So that left assault.  That took numbers, a willingness to die, and the enemy had both.

But the city had time and money.  Time to find allies, and money to buy them.

If the besiegers gave them the time.

If soldiers like the Tower Captain could buy that time with blood and horror drawn from the enemy.

Movement in the enemy lines, a small party was riding forward, dangerously forward.  Stupidly forward.  No flag of truth, bravado in the face of the enemy.  Well.  The captain almost smiled, her dark eyes as cold and pitiless as the chips of obsidian they resembled.  She picked up her crossbow, made sure the quarrel was seated properly, sighted, sighted.  She doubted she could hit a rider, but a horse?  One horse caught her eye, a beautiful animal, well cared for and pampered.  Loved by the rider.  Now she did smile and her fingers tightened about the stock, on the trigger bar, and the crossbow kicked, a quarrel sped downrange and sank deep into a horse's neck, right where a big artery ran.  A lucky hit, a gratifying hit, all along the wall cheers rang out as the horse dropped like a stone.

Screams from the rider.  Man, woman, she couldn't tell, distance and grief and rage all distorted the voice.  She waved her weapon over her head, made sure the rider got a good look at her.  Her armor was distinctive, it had to be to give her troops a rally point, a person to look to for orders in the chaos of battle.

End of setup.

I will be Gamemaster for this, as well as running the Tower Captain, but never fear. You will get inside the walls, you will get the Tower Captain in your power... but you are really really going to grow to hate her before you do.  Oh, a working knowledge of medieval siege warfare is a bonus, but not required. 

I'm thinking of doing this one on one, but if interest is overwhelming, I may do it as a small group.

Freeform or system lite, using Pathfinder as a base if there is interest in that, but I do mean system lite, any rolling will be done by me, and I would resolve multiple rounds of combat to keep things moving.  Don't worry about me cheating, like any good DM I cheated all the time when I had time for running tabletop games... cheated in favor of my players.

One more thing:  No player mages, magic is very scarce in this setting.  Human's only.  Nonhuman races exist, but the members encountered are rare and very dangerous.  As are mythical beasts.  Clerics... we can talk.

Terian

I'm interested in giving this a shot, what do you need?

Healergirl

Hi Terian!  thank you for your interest.

I have one other person interested, he's planning to run a Cleric - the besiegers have a religion motivating and directing their energy.  What do you want to run?  Some sort of layman specialist working with the cleric comes to mind.  I don't want to run a mob - especially since my viewpoint Tower Captain will be the principal on-screen victim.

caelcormac

Hi Terian,

I'm the player of the cleric and Healergirl and I have been working on the enemy army and their religion, here is what we've got so far.

The enemy army are the displaced worshipers of a snake god. They are a cult that is well on its way to being an established state religion and is trying to establish a major foothold in order to thrive. There style is classic snake cult: tattoos, ritual brands, and snake shaped jewelry and decorations are the norm among the clergy and highly encouraged among the lay people. The god promises power, wisdom, and justice to its followers and imparts knowledge to oracles who drink snake venom in order to receive visions. Justice is big to the followers of the snake, and his laws are very harsh but ultimately fair: the snake does not strike without warning or reason, but when he does he strikes to kill. They see the plutocrats who run the city as an abomination, as the rich and powerful can effectively ignore the law by buying their way out of just punishment.

My character is a young but ambitious priest who has been given command of a group of zealous converts in order to prove his devotion to the god. He is charismatic and power hungry, and has whipped up his group of followers into dedicated fanatics willing to die at his command for their god.

A layman officer or specialist would be a good pair up for him. While the priests and the zealots are there, the war isn’t going to be won by berzerkers hopped up on snake venom alone and so somebody ready to employ actual strategy and tactics would be a good foil.

Terian

I don't mind playing an officer, but I'm a little confused, is this basically a rampaging horde here with nothing more complicated then a few axes and maybe some heavy clothes that basically sprung out of nowhere?  Or is it something a little more eclectic then that?

Also, your wording's a bit confusing with regards to the usage.  You're using"The Enemy Army", are you referring to us?  Or the defenders here?

Healergirl

He is referring to the besiegers, Terrian,  the players, in this case.  And not quite sprung out of nowhere, they are on the move, yes, driven out of their homeland by natural disaster.  they are not quite as bad off as you describe, but are by no means well equipped or physically supported.  Which will change once they have a base of operations.  Like, um, the city they are besieging.

Terian

#6
Alright then, so I can get an idea of what I'm going with, what kind of gear would be actually reasonable on said "Lay Officer?" then?

Trying to figure out what kind of character I should write up, at least visually speaking.

Healergirl

#7
This link leads to the IC thread:  A New God Rising:  The Siege

https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=149304.0

My first post recapped the setup, and I added a bit at the end.

Terian, I think light infantry gear.  leather armor, a light shield, short bow perhaps.  And a good blade, maybe a helmet looted from a dead city militiaman.  Better armor is possible, chain perhaps, but it would slow you down.  If you are attacking the wall, though, more armor would be better.

Your subordinates likely have no body armor at al for the bulk of them, all have  helmets - mostly leather and badly made.  Some light shields.  Weapons, they'd have real weapons and not re-purposed agricultural tools.  You and your lads  (and some lasses) are a rather successful and resourceful group.  You wouldn't have gotten your present assignment otherwise.

And yes, you and your unit are much better equipped than most of their fellow holy warriors

Terian

O_o;;;

I'd have hoped for at least plate for my own character, yikes, I had a picture I wanted to use too :(

Healergirl

Plate?  Oh, that's why the City is under attack, all sorts of goodies like that are inside, and facilities for making them.  But plate can be obtained, spoils of battle and all that.  As an immediate goal for your character, acquiring plate for the hell-on-Earth final assault is a good short term goal.

Terian

Fair enough then, how much detail do you want for my character?

Healergirl

Terian

As much as you feel comfortable with.  War is certainly a life-changing experience.  It does things to people so you won't necessarily be locked in by anything you write now.

Terian

Alright, here's what I've got then.

Astra Vianei

Well educated, well trained, and before things suddenly went to pot, a good shoe-in for a reasonably high-up career in government, even if her mostly agnostic view in the world would have kept her from going as far as she might have liked.  When disaster struck though, like any decently patriotic young woman, she signed on to put those two abilities to the test.  In spite of her general lack of piety though, her squad has been rather successful, being the closest thing to regulars that the attackers have in this siege.

Brown hair, bespectacled, and a decently athletic build, she's often found wearing full chain armor, tailored as best as she could, under the circumstances.  Unable to find a great helmet at this time, but she makes do with a coif.

Healergirl

This will work on several levels.  A member of what was the upperl classes, now scrambling for a new position in a new order that has avery Leveller-esque  View of the world.  Her lack of piety will cause problems with tTane, the cleric, but that's no problem for me, adds dramatic tension.

The spectacles, doable.  Rare, she will be suspected of having gotten them from Dwarves - and she may well have.  Hm.  I can work with this.

Dwarves and elves do exist, but are rare, keep to themselves.  Any individuals encountered will be in small groups whose members are very dangerous to cross.

Terian

Works for me, going with a "Knight Commander" sort of theme here--dangerous in battle, but more feared for their intelligence and strategy.

Now I just need to get the plate armor.

Here's the picture I mentioned when I said I had something I wanted to use, at the least, it should give you an idea of what I had in mind for the character design.


Healergirl

Very nice picture.  Heavy plate, late middle ages or early renaissance.  Getting a rig like that will be a challenge, but everyone needs a hobby.  I'm definitely feeling a character connection to the Dwarves here.  And yes, I'm thinking longer term.  The game doesn't have to end with the fall of the city, after all.

Terian

Eh, I Don't mind challenges.

Anyway, I'm ready to begin when I have an opening.

Healergirl

Oh, jump in anytime, a reaction post to Captain Jana's long range shot will be fine.

caelcormac

That's a cool picture. It looks kinda familiar, a little bit Final Fantasy Tactics-ish.

Healergirl

Very nice entry posts.  I am planning my response, have it up later toad.y.  Real Life is erupting this morning, however.

This is going to be a debacle for the besiegers, just so you know.  But the Chosen of Kolyat will learn some important lessons.  I'll create an OOC thread for the game when I finish my real life duties.  Well done, both of you!