Quote from VitusW >>

8 * 30 ft. of road they're able to obstruct and turn into rough terrain. 
the hill, the town garrison devotes 75% of its scouts toward the hill and 75% of its guards

 [[ keeping these for posterity, will get a couple possible first missions going soon (got evening plans) ]]

With the opening moves being made, two things stand out as the modrons begin assembling themselves from a marching order to battle lines. First, you're able to notice a probing force of a triangular-shaped modron leading three modronized humans on the edge of the woods and fields. Second, while the bulk of the forces are still organizing, you can see a boxy modron leading as they begin to drag a pair of ballistas over the rough terrain of the torn up road. A covering force of modronized humans with arms turned into crossbows engages with the defending scouts from a distance, but there's a sense that if you could get past them, perhaps the ballistas and their crews would be vulnerable.

Current Mission Options

1. Take on advance force.
2. Take on ballistas.
3. Any ideas you can think of.

Carrow takes all this action in and announces to the group 'I say we take on the ballistas first. If we defeat them, we can take the weapons for ourselves. I shall be riding and fighting in the form of the elk. I will also gladly carry all those that can fit whilst we fight. That way you may have some height.'

"Agreed, we need to get their heavy hitters off the table. I'll ride with you if you'll have me"

Boigo will cast Protection from Good and Evil on himself when they get close enough to engage

Hamma takes a puff of his pipe, "Problem is, to get to the ballistics, you must travel through the forces. You be the focus of their forces if you ride out there, unless you have a way to slip by unnoticed... perhaps an Elk is too big to pull that feat off. Is there any Catapult or the like that the town has, perhaps that can hold a few people? I can slow down folks that are flung, and even let an object thrown continue at full speed (Feather Fall). Perhaps we fly out after their main forces on their way here and pin them against the towns walls with their own batista power."

Carrow nods and thinks for any other strategies, then there’s a sudden spark in his usually dark eyes as he blurts ‘Giant Badger. I can burrow beneath. You can follow behind and form a tunnel with supports. We then appear behind them and catch them off guard.’ 

[DM: Assuming the soil is firm enough to form a tunnel in, could the party follow close behind Carrow in his Giant Badger form, and as they travel spend their actions to prop up supports behind them?]

(Also if the drone come within 240' Hamma can start sending some eldritch blast at them, not sure others ranges)

"I don't have any real range spells available, except perhaps [spell]Minor Illusion[/spells] for some trickery. I'll have to be within 30 feet of the illusion, and it can't move" Expos says.

 "Perhaps we advance on the forward troops, and then move quickly to the Ballista?"

"If we have to fight through the front lines then so be it, but as a small strike team we have the best chance of hitting a slow moving target like the ballista"

"Perhaps we combine ideas, run out toward the horde, burrows a trench, and illusion it covered, or perhaps burrow a hole  some can fit in and illusion a cover for a suprise strike, after they pass perhaps. Could give us a look at what we are up against." Hamma paces a bit as he talks, motioning with his hand hold the pipe still.

Quote from Rylentlar >>

Boigo will cast Protection from Good and Evil on himself when they get close enough to engage

[[ As a heads up, modrons are constructs. For the drones, going to consider them humanoid. (I figure if warforged are humanoid, then augmented humanoids would likely fall in the same category.) ]]

Quote from Engineered_Beard >>

Is there any Catapult or the like that the town has, perhaps that can hold a few people? I can slow down folks that are flung, and even let an object thrown continue at full speed (Feather Fall).

The eyes of one of the townsmen open wide at the suggestion of such a thing. "As much as that is an intriguing idea, unfortunately no." he responds. Though you get a sense a part of him is now fantasizing about soaring through the skies in such a way.

[[ That said, the mental image of the party flying through the air that way is awesome. And if there's ideas on how to jerry-rig something, certainly open to that. (I just figure such a strong trebuchet's existence would be a significant addition to Chesterfeld's combat resources.) And can assume things like tall buildings or possible counterweights for use like tables/large rocks. ]]

Quote from Shiverquill >>

[DM: Assuming the soil is firm enough to form a tunnel in, could the party follow close behind Carrow in his Giant Badger form, and as they travel spend their actions to prop up supports behind them?]

[[ Tunneling like that sounds perfectly reasonable to me. (Not to mention it'd be hypocrytical of me, considering my own druid in another campaign just did a bunch of badger-burrowing during a combat.) For the tunnel, I'm guessing even a giant badger would be of lesser height than most humanoids. So probably medium-sized creatures would need to crawl in the tunnel. So the tunneling is certainly feasible. ]]

"can anyone enlarge the badger? "

Quote from CalaQuendi_Silverwand >>

"can anyone enlarge the badger? "

 

[ Fun idea! But I can't, sorry.]

[Not yet!]

[Boigo is small and can defend the crawlers]

"Are there any explosive materials about? Those always are fun for little traps. Burrow a tunnel or two, leave some explosives about. Or even burrow a week spot under ground, I create a disk that can hold the weight of those marching over it but not a heaby ballistic tire. Crashes into our hole and out of range of the town. Perhaps we shoukd choose an option and start putting into action." Hamma tales a long pull of his pipe.

"I think we may have a few explosives back in the keep from time past." says one of the guards to Hama, scratching his head as he tries to remember.

[[
bombs, would roll a d6 for number of them

for time to go back to keep and return, would be enough for the situation to progress a bit (some general moves made, and also a die rolled for possible complications/boons)
or option to have someone else sent there and seems like they could follow through the created tunnel
]]

(For creative thinking: Hamma can cast Unseen Servant or Tenser's Floating Disk. Servant might be good for setting off bombs in a tunnel, disk could be used to partially block an entrance to a hole or perhaps can be used to support weight under shallow dirt so they can March acrossed and end when ballistic start to cross over it.  Open to ideas, love the burrowing badger opportunities!)

[[
With the unseen servant it's a bit of a grey area due to those semantics of not being able to attack, but I'm inclined to see how it goes.

And I don't see any RAW that would prevent Tenser's being able to hold that weight. Although I did have do research on how ballistas weigh. Saw one source saying 30-100kg for Roman Ballistas, Which is ~220 lbs on the high end. And 1 cubic foot of soil is apparently ~140 lbs. With the intent of being close to the surface, that should comfortably stay within the 500 lbs limit of Tenser's.
]]

Also, here's an overview of positioning/etc for the road now. For the Town Guard, Skirmish Force, Modron Main Force, and Modron Secondary Force interpret those less as strict 100% accuracy of exactly how many tokens and where they are and more as a "this is where this force is."

The reddish section of road is representing that 240ft of rough terrain from the plowing. Current the Ballistas are ~270ft. away.

Carrow sniffs as he says 'I am usually against technology like bombs. Though sometimes you need to fight fire with fire, and I see they are a useful tool. Therefore, I think we should use whatever we have to hand against them. However, I still recommend we keep the plan simple. We should not waste magical energy which could be spent on direct spellcasting offensives on traps that could be avoided. I say that we simply burrow towards the ballistas, plant a bomb and blow it up ourselves to make sure the weapon is stationary. Then we strike from below and face remaining crew in direct combat, before progressing to the larger attack force.'