Thought I would post the results of the Siege of Leilon here in the OP.
First, conditions and assumptions:
My PCs were level 12 when the siege started. They've played all the way through the trillogy, plus Phandelver mixed with Icespire so that's just where they were.
Party composition: Fighter/ PDK (party face) Vhuman; Paladin/ Devotion (Siamorphe) Vhuman; Fighter/ Champion Shield Dwarf; Cleric/ War (Red Knight) Vhuman; Wizard/ War Magic Shield Dwarf; Rogue/ Arcane Trickster Vhuman
Militia: Commoners (4 hp), but profiecient with light crossbow, spear, dagger and equipped with heavy leather (hide) and shield. Some equipped with crossbows issued from the tower. The milita levy's additional ability and protection over stadard commoners weigh heavily in the defender's favor. The party's PDK had been apointed commandant of the militia, each household and licensed business was required to provide one able bodied person for militia service equipped with spear and dagger, the militia issued heavy leather and a shield. Each trained for 1 month initially, then one day per tenday, and one month of service per year.
Averaging damage:
1. I assumed all "horde" monsters had half hitpoints when encountered, except the initial ghasts as that is a suprise and the tower ballista aren't up and running yet, as they had to advance thru a hail of crossbow bolts and ballista canister fire.
2. Against the dragon: there are at least 200 light crossbows and 16 ballista in the town, plus the two on the keelboats in the harbor (I misremembered in my earlier post, there were 18 ballistas in Axeholm). Two on each gate tower (12), 4 on centeral tower, 2 on keelboats. The ballistas weren't mounted to hit airborne targets, however they can hit things on the ground, and at their level and lower... so the central tower ballistae can hit the dragon even in the air sometimes. So, dragon AC of 21, guard and commoner proficiency +2 gives a 10% hit rate, firing every other round, with an average damage of 5 means the dragon is taking 50 points from crossbows every round. +6 to hit with the balistas with damage 16, firing every round with a crew of 3 gives a 25% hit rate for about 64 damage each round the dragon is on the ground. The dragon is 32-64 feet long or tall, meaning it can't even completely hide behind most buildings in town. Assuming most of the crossbowmen and ballista are functional, the dragon can be killed in 4 rounds by the townsfolk themselves.
3. Keelboats. The weather and darkness kept the keelboats from playing a signifigant part in the defense.
4. The ruin stone: the PDK bound his soul to the stone, and kept it in his pocket (it's his life, right?) so it wasn't where the dragon expected it to be.
The battle:
The alarm bell in the tower sent militia members and soldiers scrambling, and civilans headed to basements to hide or temples to help with wounded.
1. The party held the south gate against the ghasts handily, but expended a large amount of resources. I don't think they realized this was an extended engagement. The palisaide was breached but the towers and gate held and the breach was closed with wagons turned on their side, per the party's civil defense planning. The clerics of Tyr and Lathander reinforced the south gate and quay against the undead there while the party moved to the north gate.
2. The party helped defend the north gate, as they saw magic being used there. Some damage was done by lightning cast by the Talos worshipers, but lightning bolts can't target the ballistas themselves, the rain made them hard to burn, and they were recrewed quickly once the wizard started tossing his own fireballs, suppressing the lightning casters. Canister rounds fired into the barbarian mass crowded in front of the gate had devastating effect, as did the cleric's Sacred Flame (tough to make a Dex save in a mosh pit). The north gates held. Again, lavish use of resources.
3. The party organized a sally from the unengaged west gate by mounted knights and veterans to clear some of the undead still trying to assault the south gate.
3. The party reinforced the town square. The paladin weilded the dragon blade from the barrow, and the two fighters each had magic weapons from other quests. The ballistas from the south and north gates were busy, but the unengaged west gate and the centeral tower each contributed an average of 16 points of damage per round (6 ballistas, 4 able to range the dragon du to some being on a side of the tower away from the dragon, averaging 1 hit per round) and the crossbows averaging 50. There were no civilians in the way due to the party's civil defense plans. The dragon was hit once by lighting, and the wizard once, but Absorb Elements mitigated that. The dragon stayed two rounds, then retreated having lost more than half it's HP. This was the most damage the party took, but nobody died and some healing fixed everybody up. The party's earlier use of their best spells was telling here, with the wizard using mostly cantrips at this point.
4. I threw in the cowardly sergeant, putting him at the south gate. The cleric cast Hold Person on him and told the soldiers to get back to their %&^%$ posts... and left the sergeant standing there, paralyzed,. to go fight the dragon again.
5. There was no "exodous", since no walls had been permanently breached and no signifigant enemy forces had entered the town, but the party found troops retreating from the dragon near the centeral tower. They joined the Swords of Leilon in defeating the dragon a second time, dropping her to 50 HP in two more rounds.
6. The party saw the two war priests and their entourages fighting. This is when the brass dragon finally showed up and assisted the heavily depleated party in finishing them both off.
The party won a decisive victory, largely due to their efforts preparing beforehand.
The PDK was elected Lord Protector by the city council.
The dwarves are planning to resettle Axholm, inviting other clanless dwarves to join them.
The paladin is planning to build a fort/ shrine to Siamorphe using the ruins of the manor in Phandelver.
The cleric wants to rebuild the shrine of Savras into a fort/ shrine of the Red Knight (since Savras is dead).
...all of this with the intent of getting Triboar to cooperate in patrolling the Triboar Trail and bringing stability to the area.
My group started playing a combination of Icespire and Phandelver, then continued thru the trilogy.
We’re about to get to the three way battle in Leilon.
The characters are mostly of martial bent, a combination of veteran mercenaries / sailor/ soldier backgrounds.
Even the Cleric is a priest of the Red Knight. This makes sense as the players are all current or former military.
As soon as it became apparent that Leilon was going to be attacked one way or another, the characters began bolstering it’s defenses: convincing the town council to use a Swiss militia system, spending downtime “working” training the militia, arranging an alarm and civil defense system for non-combatants (an alarm bell in the tower, cellars to hide in, etc) deployment of priests to casualty collection points, etc.
They also convinced the bronze dragon to help the town if it was in dire need, and left one of the sending stones with her. Flight time from her cave to town is about 30 minutes.
They convinced the town council to take advantage of the cliff between the quay and town, improving the defenses for an attack from the sea.
Lastly, they remembered all the ballistas sitting in Axeholm and took wagons back and got all 14. The modules descriptions all are very careful to describe when things are rotted and unusable, and Axeholm’s descriptions made it seem as if they were functional… and even if not, ropes, cables and timbers can be replaced. Now there are two on each gate tower (12) and one on each of two keelboats they converted to coastal patrol vessels. They even came up with a “canister “ round containing sling bullets for anti-infantry use.
So. The attack on Leilon is run abstractly. How big of an advantage is the town’s preparedness?
I don’t want to just run it as if the module took all of their preparation into account.
Well, as a recently retired military person myself (20 years Infantry, 3 Military Police), this question appealed to me. The military people I've played with over the years were always fairly detailed in their defenses of a towns.
Since you didn't go into specifics of the defense plan, I am assuming you want general advice. First, assume the Order of Events as a baseline, so if the characters did nothing, this is what would happen. Essentially 200 militia and conscript defenders get overrun by undead and worshippers of Talos, and the town is destroyed; only the degree of destruction is tempered by the characters presence. The module even supports this by stating that the characters goal is to "survive the battle" not win the battle or even save the town.
There is one thing listed in the module that the characters can do in preparation that would drastically alter the outcome and was not mentioned by Tanksoldier. Did the characters succeed in securing the additional 300 reinforcements from Neverwinter in the "Icingdeath and Twinkle" quest? This more than doubles the defensive efforts with trained military personnel that provides calvary (knights) and early warning if the scouts are deployed outside of Leilon. I would point out that Leilon may not be able to adequately house some of these additional forces especially if they have horses, supply wagons, etc., and would possibly have to take up positions outside the walls anyway.
The module really under-estimates how much of an advantage these troops are in a defense only providing a 3 round reduction in how long the characters have to hold out in Event 1 and Event 3. Conventional military wisdom dictates that to win an assault you need 3:1 odds, and the opposition has that with 1200 combined forces to 200 defenders and would easily over-run Leilon; however, the odds are slightly better with 500 defenders although the enemy has the advantage as 2/3s of their forces are undead, but it should still be difficult maybe for a full over-run of the town to occur and maybe just a breach. If the characters secure these forces, I would consider giving them a pre-emptive victory for the battle to follow.
Alright, rant out of the way, on to general advice:
I would simply look at their specific defense plan, and pick two of the events to be auto-victories due to their preparations and the populace's boosted confidence in their leadership whether the characters are present at the event or not. This way the characters still have to secure one more victory to achieve a Pyrrhic Victory result at the very least, but still provides the possibility of failure. The module actually supports this in several locations as one of the clever tactics benefits is "If the players fail this objective, their allies still triumph," and under Use of Magic, it states "If a spell creates a powerful effect that sways the course of battle, consider granting the caster's side an additional victory."
Based on the stated preparations, Event 1 should be an auto-victory, and you could describe the battle as going according to plan despite the torrential downpour. The alarm, scouts, and early warning system provide enough time for the reserves and characters to man the walls and ballistas and non-combatants to get to shelters. As the horde of ghouls ravenously assualts the gate and forms human pyramids to scale the walls, the characters are already there giving rousing speeches and fending off the tougher ghasts... or not. Maybe they are at the tower with a viewpoint on the entire battle and are directing the battle efforts. They can see the gate is holding, because the characters don't have to fend of the breach as the allied reinforcements are already there to secure the palisade and drive back the undead which is the stated victory condition. Either way, still describe the torches being extinguished as more defenders are needed to repel the ghouls off the wall. It's a great opportunity for light spells (similar to modern flares or search lights), and characters should still feel like they are contributing to the defense.
I would then pick one of the next two events to be an auto-victory. It still provides the choice and allows the players will feel clever if they chose to defend the potential loss, and received a duel victory. Also, minor peeve here, have Jack Torvor deliver his message and pass out in the mud "Trolls in the dungeon" style. If the characters have good conscience and drag him to safety (perhaps a nearby shed) or the common decency to flip him over before he drowns in the mud, then they discover that he's hoarding a bandoleer with the potions of healing on him.
Personally, I would make the other gate an auto-victory. Describe how the lightening bolts are targeting the ballistas and their crews and not so much individual defenders (those ballistas were going to run out of ammo anyway), so the battering ram can still be assualted from above. It's a good time to describe the deployment of those cannister rounds against the living opponents. Maybe the calvary deploys from the woodline and sweeps into their flank. If you don't like an auto-victory here, grant them additional planning time before the gate is sundered. Perhaps instead of 1 minute (10 rounds), they have 2, 3, or more minutes with planning done in real-time and the remaining time counted in rounds to enact whatever plan they devise. Maybe the reserves weren't split into multiple teams, and the allied reinforcements are all at the South Gate. Event 2 could just as easily be an auto-loss if there are no reinforcements to support them. I do find it hard to believe that the gate is burning in a torrential downpour, so maybe it's only smoldering from repeated lightening strikes. Plus the rain has to be effecting that battering ram team.
Are the defenses at the quay really sufficient enough to defend against the water-logged zombies? Those bad-boys may be slow but they just don't burn. The keel boats won't be much good in the mud-flats and they'd be firing at the town if the crews utilize the ballistas. It would be great if the characters defended the gate first and then arrived at the quay just in time to see the boneclaw rend Counsilor Estapaar in half. What was she doing there? Why wasn't she at her post?
Some other specific examples that may require timing on the DM or players part:
Has the priest of the Red Knight utilized any divination spells in preparation for the coming battle? Perhaps during prayers or divinations, the cleric hears Sergeant Hazz Yorrum shout in distress, "Retreat! Save yourselves! Leilon is lost!" without seeing the surrounding events like an echo of the future and has to decide how to act on this information. Maybe the Cleric approaches the wizard Gallio Elibro or the other councilors makes a persuasive arguement to have Sergeant Yorrum relieved of command so Event 5 never happens, or maybe the priest just prepares a spell to bolster the Sergeant's resolve during his moment of cowardice, and Sergeant Yorrum rally's the troops after all instead making opposed persuasion checks making Event 5 considerably easier.
Finally, that bronze dragon could be an auto-victory if the characters call for her at the start of the battle... 30 minutes is a long time to wait in a seige. If they wait until later, the dragon shows up after the battle or during the final scene. Otherwise, have the bronze dragon show up during Event 7. Let the green dragon arrive on scene and perform one strafing run with her necrotic breath weapon. As it descends for it's second strafe, have the bronze dragon fly out of the clouds and slam into the green dragons flank. Maybe even landing in the town. If the characters pursued the drummers, have them witness the dragon fight from a distance through the wind and the rain and the flashes of lightening. Otherwise, they get to experience it. Either way, the bronze dragon and possibly the characters drive the green dragon away into the clouds. Before the bronze dragon flies off to perform her own strafing runs, she could say something quippy or maybe a call back to an earlier conversation or maybe she's apologetic: "Sorry, I'm late to the party, but I bet, she didn't see that coming." I don't know; I'm not that witty.
Finally, tool down random encounter table by eliminating any encounter that no longer makes sense due to the characters preparations. How about encounters 2, 5, 8, and 10 are eliminated as the ghouls didn't breach, the desserters and looters are now confident well-trained militia, and why is everything cathing on fire in a normal torrential downpour and a later magical storm?
All this comes down to is grant two victories due to their pre-battle actions and let them earn the rest. The victories don't matter as the characters are going to go off script after the inciting event anyways. If it seems a little too easy, well it is. As we often say in the Army, Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance (the 6 P's), but also no plan survives first contact with the enemy. If the characters suspect something during the battle and it's plausible, maybe it happens to be true and they feel clever.
One caveat, how come noone assaults the measely side gate from the east? This would be a good spot to introduce an elite infiltration team that only the characters can confront or even notice, maybe a team of half-blue dragon gladiators led by a blackguard or even Fheralai Stormsworn herself, not that any of those are stealthy.
One missed opportunity, the magic that brings the Swords of Leilon back could also possibly bring back the Lances of Leilon, a ghost calvary of those who died defending Leilon or maybe it's divine intervention from from Tyr or the Red Knight or just an answer to a prayer or spell. They shouldn't save the day, but possibly help turn the tide.
It's a bit verbose, but hopefully this helps to generate a few ideas.
One last thought: Give the ballistae a target and the characters are the first to see it. Maybe the Giant Skeleton from the Appendix emerges throught the fog and the rain in one last desperate attempt to smash the gate house (or that dinky east door) and the ballistae need to focus fire on it. Although, you may want there to be one last bolt or stone (not sure which type you have) to fire at the green dragon in a Bard of Lake-town fashion.
The ballistae is a neat feature of your specific campaign, so I would make an effort to show-case it. "See, I told you hauling those machines back here would be worth it."
The east gate has towers like the north and south gates, one of the first things they talked to the town council about.
they did secure the road patrols from never winter, at some cost.
offense is to defense as 3 is to 1, but that’s in an unprepared unplanned defense. With proper planning and preparation the ratio can go much higher.
there is a palisade with gates on the cliff top between the quay and town. No dedicated towers, but one tower from the north and south gates also covers each of the quay gates. There is also a postern gate in the middle, that might be a weak point.
I think the canister rounds of sling bullets for the ballistas will be a game changer, and the keelboats will be able to fire into the backs of any zombies assaulting the sea wall palisades assuming they aren’t taken out.
in “testing” we decided that the canister has half the range of a ballista bolt, and is a “half cone” area of effect: the cone is half as wide as the range… so at 60 feet the cone is 30 feet wide. Roll to hit the AC of each potential target, hit causing half normal ballista damage (8).
They even have a communication system using semaphore and the central tower to relay messages from the gates and to give orders to units. That may be hampered by the weather.
One tactic they’ve discussed is to cofferdam behind a potential breach. If the gates or a section of wall looks like it’s going to fail or be over run, squads of non-combatants will build a u shaped wall behind the breach location, and it will be manned by reserves. The enemy will find themselves in a killing ground surrounded by a makeshift wall and enemies armed with crossbows.
Weaknesses I see so far: ballistas are on turn tables but not mounted to shoot flying targets, communication system hard to use in bad weather, postern gate may be a weak spot in the sea wall defense, command post is in the main tower giving better view of the battlefield but also an obvious target to suppress.
Lol, sounds like only one player made their persuasion roll... probably the least charasmatic of them.
Very few defenses are unprepared or unplanned. Even hasty defenses have quickly dug battle positions. So the ratio won't go much higher and should be off-set by a largely undead force. Regardless, based off the additional information, the town shouldn't get overrun as described, and limit it to a breach that the heroes have a chance to contain. The key events that drive the conclusion of the narrative battle will be the Dragon Events, so Event 7, Possibly 9, Event 13, and then either Event 14 or Event 15 depending on victory status. The walls won't save them from an aerial assault, so the breach could be described anywhere using the same resolution as the two gate events which is basically hold off the invaders for 5 rounds until reinforcements show up or maybe shorter if the characters use magic to repair the breach.
The cofferdam is a neat idea. The trick would be to make the breach sudden. My pick would be the quayside; there is a mudslide along the cliff wiping out a section of the palisade possibly covering one of the buildings below and taking out a portion of the invading force, and now the heroes and the reserve have to hold off the Boneclaw and zombies for a longer period of time as the cofferdam is built. Ironically, the postern gate still stands, so the characters still have the option of sending a reserve out to flank the breaching force. Perhaps, the squads of non-combatants loss their nerve when face-to-face with the undead and the heroes have to simultaneously fend of the horde and boost their morale. The players will feel clever if they developed a contingency and then it was required to save the town. Just shooting ideas.
My general impression is that this battle takes place in the rain about an hour before dawn, so semaphore by flags would be mitigated and semaphore by light would be hampered. Although, the rain ends and the skys clear-up if the war drums are silenced leading to Event 9 which would allow signaling again and could be a narrative turning point in the battle. Using the tower as a relay was clever, but then if Event 9 occurs, you could describe how the dragon flings the signal team from the tower.
Finally, the ballista! After reading the description in the Axeholm adventure and doing a little internet research, it seems like the ballista are a later variety similar to the Roman Scorpion which may have had a ball joint which would allow changes in elevation and were capable of point targets, and the rules seem to support this as it takes one action to aim; however, how they were employed in Axeholm seems to indicate that elevation adjustments were not required. Basically, whatever you told your players works. But apparently the torsion springs were pretty sensitive to temperature and moisture and would have been carried covered in the baggage train, so it could be interesting if the characters didn't account for building shelter over the ballista. You could narrate about how half of the ballista misfire with torsion springs snapping or swelling to unusability, and then lightening targeting the functional ones at least on the Talos side.
I still like the idea of having one last bolt left to attempt that shot on the dragon with maybe a higher Wisdom ability check on the aiming action to essentially track the dragon's flight path and determine where she will be when the bolt hits.
Cannister round stats are neat, but only usable if a character tries to employ them as you'll be narrating their effect on the battlefield. Interesting that you went cone over burst. Cone seems more like a shot-gun where a burst seems more like an artillery round. Essentially the shot bursts on impact, correct or is there magic that allows it to detonate early?
My previous advice still stands: Grant two victories ahead of time on the Event chart, cause a breach at an appropriate time in the narrative, and force the characters to get at least one victory to get a pyrhic victory, and the better resolution to the battle.
Also, an errant shot from the keel boat could create the breach possibly taking out the postern gate. It is pretty hard to aim on a boat in limited visiblity.
Canister round stats are neat, but only usable if a character tries to employ them as you'll be narrating their effect on the battlefield. Interesting that you went cone over burst. Cone seems more like a shot-gun where a burst seems more like an artillery round. Essentially the shot bursts on impact, correct or is there magic that allows it to detonate early?
Historically, canister rounds were simply thin walled metal canisters, sometimes just burlap sacks, that held musket balls for loading into smooth bore cannon and were shredded by the force of firing…. A large shotgun. Shrapnel rounds were thicker walled projectiles with a bursting charge…. Large hand grenades.
The canister rounds for the ballistas are leather reinforced burlap sacks. Strong enough to hold the sling bullets and get them moving, weak enough to tear and release the sling bullets thru the force of firing.
I may roll a 1 for the keelboat crews so they cause something to collapse and a breach in the sea palisade.
The ballistas from Axeholm only do 16 damage, while a ghoul or zombie has 22 hp…. So they really are huge crossbows more than true siege weapons. Their main effect will likely be that many of the rank-and-file baddies will be at half HP by the time they reach the walls.
I did note in the Axeholm description that each ballista only had 5 bolts. I am assuming the PC's were able to make more using the originals as templates.
Anyway, you'll have to touchbase post battle, and let us know how the Players fared, and any unexpected outcomes that you needed to navigate. I personally am running my wife and son through the Starter and Essentials Kits and was looking ahead to see if there were any NPC's I could introduce in advance.
Thought I would post the results of the Siege of Leilon here in the OP.
First, conditions and assumptions:
My PCs were level 12 when the siege started. They've played all the way through the trillogy, plus Phandelver mixed with Icespire so that's just where they were.
Party composition: Fighter/ PDK (party face) Vhuman; Paladin/ Devotion (Siamorphe) Vhuman; Fighter/ Champion Shield Dwarf; Cleric/ War (Red Knight) Vhuman; Wizard/ War Magic Shield Dwarf; Rogue/ Arcane Trickster Vhuman
Militia: Commoners (4 hp), but profiecient with light crossbow, spear, dagger and equipped with heavy leather (hide) and shield. Some equipped with crossbows issued from the tower. The milita levy's additional ability and protection over stadard commoners weigh heavily in the defender's favor. The party's PDK had been apointed commandant of the militia, each household and licensed business was required to provide one able bodied person for militia service equipped with spear and dagger, the militia issued heavy leather and a shield. Each trained for 1 month initially, then one day per tenday, and one month of service per year.
Averaging damage:
1. I assumed all "horde" monsters had half hitpoints when encountered, except the initial ghasts as that is a suprise and the tower ballista aren't up and running yet, as they had to advance thru a hail of crossbow bolts and ballista canister fire.
2. Against the dragon: there are at least 200 light crossbows and 16 ballista in the town, plus the two on the keelboats in the harbor (I misremembered in my earlier post, there were 18 ballistas in Axeholm). Two on each gate tower (12), 4 on centeral tower, 2 on keelboats. The ballistas weren't mounted to hit airborne targets, however they can hit things on the ground, and at their level and lower... so the central tower ballistae can hit the dragon even in the air sometimes. So, dragon AC of 21, guard and commoner proficiency +2 gives a 10% hit rate, firing every other round, with an average damage of 5 means the dragon is taking 50 points from crossbows every round. +6 to hit with the balistas with damage 16, firing every round with a crew of 3 gives a 25% hit rate for about 64 damage each round the dragon is on the ground. The dragon is 32-64 feet long or tall, meaning it can't even completely hide behind most buildings in town. Assuming most of the crossbowmen and ballista are functional, the dragon can be killed in 4 rounds by the townsfolk themselves.
3. Keelboats. The weather and darkness kept the keelboats from playing a signifigant part in the defense.
4. The ruin stone: the PDK bound his soul to the stone, and kept it in his pocket (it's his life, right?) so it wasn't where the dragon expected it to be.
The battle:
The alarm bell in the tower sent militia members and soldiers scrambling, and civilans headed to basements to hide or temples to help with wounded.
1. The party held the south gate against the ghasts handily, but expended a large amount of resources. I don't think they realized this was an extended engagement. The palisaide was breached but the towers and gate held and the breach was closed with wagons turned on their side, per the party's civil defense planning. The clerics of Tyr and Lathander reinforced the south gate and quay against the undead there while the party moved to the north gate.
2. The party helped defend the north gate, as they saw magic being used there. Some damage was done by lightning cast by the Talos worshipers, but lightning bolts can't target the ballistas themselves, the rain made them hard to burn, and they were recrewed quickly once the wizard started tossing his own fireballs, suppressing the lightning casters. Canister rounds fired into the barbarian mass crowded in front of the gate had devastating effect, as did the cleric's Sacred Flame (tough to make a Dex save in a mosh pit). The north gates held. Again, lavish use of resources.
3. The party organized a sally from the unengaged west gate by mounted knights and veterans to clear some of the undead still trying to assault the south gate.
3. The party reinforced the town square. The paladin weilded the dragon blade from the barrow, and the two fighters each had magic weapons from other quests. The ballistas from the south and north gates were busy, but the unengaged west gate and the centeral tower each contributed an average of 16 points of damage per round (6 ballistas, 4 able to range the dragon du to some being on a side of the tower away from the dragon, averaging 1 hit per round) and the crossbows averaging 50. There were no civilians in the way due to the party's civil defense plans. The dragon was hit once by lighting, and the wizard once, but Absorb Elements mitigated that. The dragon stayed two rounds, then retreated having lost more than half it's HP. This was the most damage the party took, but nobody died and some healing fixed everybody up. The party's earlier use of their best spells was telling here, with the wizard using mostly cantrips at this point.
4. I threw in the cowardly sergeant, putting him at the south gate. The cleric cast Hold Person on him and told the soldiers to get back to their %&^%$ posts... and left the sergeant standing there, paralyzed,. to go fight the dragon again.
5. There was no "exodous", since no walls had been permanently breached and no signifigant enemy forces had entered the town, but the party found troops retreating from the dragon near the centeral tower. They joined the Swords of Leilon in defeating the dragon a second time, dropping her to 50 HP in two more rounds.
6. The party saw the two war priests and their entourages fighting. This is when the brass dragon finally showed up and assisted the heavily depleated party in finishing them both off.
The party won a decisive victory, largely due to their efforts preparing beforehand.
The PDK was elected Lord Protector by the city council.
The dwarves are planning to resettle Axholm, inviting other clanless dwarves to join them.
The paladin is planning to build a fort/ shrine to Siamorphe using the ruins of the manor in Phandelver.
The cleric wants to rebuild the shrine of Savras into a fort/ shrine of the Red Knight (since Savras is dead).
...all of this with the intent of getting Triboar to cooperate in patrolling the Triboar Trail and bringing stability to the area.
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My group started playing a combination of Icespire and Phandelver, then continued thru the trilogy.
We’re about to get to the three way battle in Leilon.
The characters are mostly of martial bent, a combination of veteran mercenaries / sailor/ soldier backgrounds.
Even the Cleric is a priest of the Red Knight. This makes sense as the players are all current or former military.
As soon as it became apparent that Leilon was going to be attacked one way or another, the characters began bolstering it’s defenses: convincing the town council to use a Swiss militia system, spending downtime “working” training the militia, arranging an alarm and civil defense system for non-combatants (an alarm bell in the tower, cellars to hide in, etc) deployment of priests to casualty collection points, etc.
They also convinced the bronze dragon to help the town if it was in dire need, and left one of the sending stones with her. Flight time from her cave to town is about 30 minutes.
They convinced the town council to take advantage of the cliff between the quay and town, improving the defenses for an attack from the sea.
Lastly, they remembered all the ballistas sitting in Axeholm and took wagons back and got all 14. The modules descriptions all are very careful to describe when things are rotted and unusable, and Axeholm’s descriptions made it seem as if they were functional… and even if not, ropes, cables and timbers can be replaced. Now there are two on each gate tower (12) and one on each of two keelboats they converted to coastal patrol vessels. They even came up with a “canister “ round containing sling bullets for anti-infantry use.
So. The attack on Leilon is run abstractly. How big of an advantage is the town’s preparedness?
I don’t want to just run it as if the module took all of their preparation into account.
Well, as a recently retired military person myself (20 years Infantry, 3 Military Police), this question appealed to me. The military people I've played with over the years were always fairly detailed in their defenses of a towns.
Since you didn't go into specifics of the defense plan, I am assuming you want general advice. First, assume the Order of Events as a baseline, so if the characters did nothing, this is what would happen. Essentially 200 militia and conscript defenders get overrun by undead and worshippers of Talos, and the town is destroyed; only the degree of destruction is tempered by the characters presence. The module even supports this by stating that the characters goal is to "survive the battle" not win the battle or even save the town.
There is one thing listed in the module that the characters can do in preparation that would drastically alter the outcome and was not mentioned by Tanksoldier. Did the characters succeed in securing the additional 300 reinforcements from Neverwinter in the "Icingdeath and Twinkle" quest? This more than doubles the defensive efforts with trained military personnel that provides calvary (knights) and early warning if the scouts are deployed outside of Leilon. I would point out that Leilon may not be able to adequately house some of these additional forces especially if they have horses, supply wagons, etc., and would possibly have to take up positions outside the walls anyway.
The module really under-estimates how much of an advantage these troops are in a defense only providing a 3 round reduction in how long the characters have to hold out in Event 1 and Event 3. Conventional military wisdom dictates that to win an assault you need 3:1 odds, and the opposition has that with 1200 combined forces to 200 defenders and would easily over-run Leilon; however, the odds are slightly better with 500 defenders although the enemy has the advantage as 2/3s of their forces are undead, but it should still be difficult maybe for a full over-run of the town to occur and maybe just a breach. If the characters secure these forces, I would consider giving them a pre-emptive victory for the battle to follow.
Alright, rant out of the way, on to general advice:
I would simply look at their specific defense plan, and pick two of the events to be auto-victories due to their preparations and the populace's boosted confidence in their leadership whether the characters are present at the event or not. This way the characters still have to secure one more victory to achieve a Pyrrhic Victory result at the very least, but still provides the possibility of failure. The module actually supports this in several locations as one of the clever tactics benefits is "If the players fail this objective, their allies still triumph," and under Use of Magic, it states "If a spell creates a powerful effect that sways the course of battle, consider granting the caster's side an additional victory."
Based on the stated preparations, Event 1 should be an auto-victory, and you could describe the battle as going according to plan despite the torrential downpour. The alarm, scouts, and early warning system provide enough time for the reserves and characters to man the walls and ballistas and non-combatants to get to shelters. As the horde of ghouls ravenously assualts the gate and forms human pyramids to scale the walls, the characters are already there giving rousing speeches and fending off the tougher ghasts... or not. Maybe they are at the tower with a viewpoint on the entire battle and are directing the battle efforts. They can see the gate is holding, because the characters don't have to fend of the breach as the allied reinforcements are already there to secure the palisade and drive back the undead which is the stated victory condition. Either way, still describe the torches being extinguished as more defenders are needed to repel the ghouls off the wall. It's a great opportunity for light spells (similar to modern flares or search lights), and characters should still feel like they are contributing to the defense.
I would then pick one of the next two events to be an auto-victory. It still provides the choice and allows the players will feel clever if they chose to defend the potential loss, and received a duel victory. Also, minor peeve here, have Jack Torvor deliver his message and pass out in the mud "Trolls in the dungeon" style. If the characters have good conscience and drag him to safety (perhaps a nearby shed) or the common decency to flip him over before he drowns in the mud, then they discover that he's hoarding a bandoleer with the potions of healing on him.
Personally, I would make the other gate an auto-victory. Describe how the lightening bolts are targeting the ballistas and their crews and not so much individual defenders (those ballistas were going to run out of ammo anyway), so the battering ram can still be assualted from above. It's a good time to describe the deployment of those cannister rounds against the living opponents. Maybe the calvary deploys from the woodline and sweeps into their flank. If you don't like an auto-victory here, grant them additional planning time before the gate is sundered. Perhaps instead of 1 minute (10 rounds), they have 2, 3, or more minutes with planning done in real-time and the remaining time counted in rounds to enact whatever plan they devise. Maybe the reserves weren't split into multiple teams, and the allied reinforcements are all at the South Gate. Event 2 could just as easily be an auto-loss if there are no reinforcements to support them. I do find it hard to believe that the gate is burning in a torrential downpour, so maybe it's only smoldering from repeated lightening strikes. Plus the rain has to be effecting that battering ram team.
Are the defenses at the quay really sufficient enough to defend against the water-logged zombies? Those bad-boys may be slow but they just don't burn. The keel boats won't be much good in the mud-flats and they'd be firing at the town if the crews utilize the ballistas. It would be great if the characters defended the gate first and then arrived at the quay just in time to see the boneclaw rend Counsilor Estapaar in half. What was she doing there? Why wasn't she at her post?
Some other specific examples that may require timing on the DM or players part:
Has the priest of the Red Knight utilized any divination spells in preparation for the coming battle? Perhaps during prayers or divinations, the cleric hears Sergeant Hazz Yorrum shout in distress, "Retreat! Save yourselves! Leilon is lost!" without seeing the surrounding events like an echo of the future and has to decide how to act on this information. Maybe the Cleric approaches the wizard Gallio Elibro or the other councilors makes a persuasive arguement to have Sergeant Yorrum relieved of command so Event 5 never happens, or maybe the priest just prepares a spell to bolster the Sergeant's resolve during his moment of cowardice, and Sergeant Yorrum rally's the troops after all instead making opposed persuasion checks making Event 5 considerably easier.
Finally, that bronze dragon could be an auto-victory if the characters call for her at the start of the battle... 30 minutes is a long time to wait in a seige. If they wait until later, the dragon shows up after the battle or during the final scene. Otherwise, have the bronze dragon show up during Event 7. Let the green dragon arrive on scene and perform one strafing run with her necrotic breath weapon. As it descends for it's second strafe, have the bronze dragon fly out of the clouds and slam into the green dragons flank. Maybe even landing in the town. If the characters pursued the drummers, have them witness the dragon fight from a distance through the wind and the rain and the flashes of lightening. Otherwise, they get to experience it. Either way, the bronze dragon and possibly the characters drive the green dragon away into the clouds. Before the bronze dragon flies off to perform her own strafing runs, she could say something quippy or maybe a call back to an earlier conversation or maybe she's apologetic: "Sorry, I'm late to the party, but I bet, she didn't see that coming." I don't know; I'm not that witty.
Finally, tool down random encounter table by eliminating any encounter that no longer makes sense due to the characters preparations. How about encounters 2, 5, 8, and 10 are eliminated as the ghouls didn't breach, the desserters and looters are now confident well-trained militia, and why is everything cathing on fire in a normal torrential downpour and a later magical storm?
All this comes down to is grant two victories due to their pre-battle actions and let them earn the rest. The victories don't matter as the characters are going to go off script after the inciting event anyways. If it seems a little too easy, well it is. As we often say in the Army, Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance (the 6 P's), but also no plan survives first contact with the enemy. If the characters suspect something during the battle and it's plausible, maybe it happens to be true and they feel clever.
One caveat, how come noone assaults the measely side gate from the east? This would be a good spot to introduce an elite infiltration team that only the characters can confront or even notice, maybe a team of half-blue dragon gladiators led by a blackguard or even Fheralai Stormsworn herself, not that any of those are stealthy.
One missed opportunity, the magic that brings the Swords of Leilon back could also possibly bring back the Lances of Leilon, a ghost calvary of those who died defending Leilon or maybe it's divine intervention from from Tyr or the Red Knight or just an answer to a prayer or spell. They shouldn't save the day, but possibly help turn the tide.
It's a bit verbose, but hopefully this helps to generate a few ideas.
One last thought: Give the ballistae a target and the characters are the first to see it. Maybe the Giant Skeleton from the Appendix emerges throught the fog and the rain in one last desperate attempt to smash the gate house (or that dinky east door) and the ballistae need to focus fire on it. Although, you may want there to be one last bolt or stone (not sure which type you have) to fire at the green dragon in a Bard of Lake-town fashion.
The ballistae is a neat feature of your specific campaign, so I would make an effort to show-case it. "See, I told you hauling those machines back here would be worth it."
The east gate has towers like the north and south gates, one of the first things they talked to the town council about.
they did secure the road patrols from never winter, at some cost.
offense is to defense as 3 is to 1, but that’s in an unprepared unplanned defense. With proper planning and preparation the ratio can go much higher.
there is a palisade with gates on the cliff top between the quay and town. No dedicated towers, but one tower from the north and south gates also covers each of the quay gates. There is also a postern gate in the middle, that might be a weak point.
I think the canister rounds of sling bullets for the ballistas will be a game changer, and the keelboats will be able to fire into the backs of any zombies assaulting the sea wall palisades assuming they aren’t taken out.
in “testing” we decided that the canister has half the range of a ballista bolt, and is a “half cone” area of effect: the cone is half as wide as the range… so at 60 feet the cone is 30 feet wide. Roll to hit the AC of each potential target, hit causing half normal ballista damage (8).
They even have a communication system using semaphore and the central tower to relay messages from the gates and to give orders to units. That may be hampered by the weather.
One tactic they’ve discussed is to cofferdam behind a potential breach. If the gates or a section of wall looks like it’s going to fail or be over run, squads of non-combatants will build a u shaped wall behind the breach location, and it will be manned by reserves. The enemy will find themselves in a killing ground surrounded by a makeshift wall and enemies armed with crossbows.
Weaknesses I see so far: ballistas are on turn tables but not mounted to shoot flying targets, communication system hard to use in bad weather, postern gate may be a weak spot in the sea wall defense, command post is in the main tower giving better view of the battlefield but also an obvious target to suppress.
Lol, sounds like only one player made their persuasion roll... probably the least charasmatic of them.
Very few defenses are unprepared or unplanned. Even hasty defenses have quickly dug battle positions. So the ratio won't go much higher and should be off-set by a largely undead force. Regardless, based off the additional information, the town shouldn't get overrun as described, and limit it to a breach that the heroes have a chance to contain. The key events that drive the conclusion of the narrative battle will be the Dragon Events, so Event 7, Possibly 9, Event 13, and then either Event 14 or Event 15 depending on victory status. The walls won't save them from an aerial assault, so the breach could be described anywhere using the same resolution as the two gate events which is basically hold off the invaders for 5 rounds until reinforcements show up or maybe shorter if the characters use magic to repair the breach.
The cofferdam is a neat idea. The trick would be to make the breach sudden. My pick would be the quayside; there is a mudslide along the cliff wiping out a section of the palisade possibly covering one of the buildings below and taking out a portion of the invading force, and now the heroes and the reserve have to hold off the Boneclaw and zombies for a longer period of time as the cofferdam is built. Ironically, the postern gate still stands, so the characters still have the option of sending a reserve out to flank the breaching force. Perhaps, the squads of non-combatants loss their nerve when face-to-face with the undead and the heroes have to simultaneously fend of the horde and boost their morale. The players will feel clever if they developed a contingency and then it was required to save the town. Just shooting ideas.
My general impression is that this battle takes place in the rain about an hour before dawn, so semaphore by flags would be mitigated and semaphore by light would be hampered. Although, the rain ends and the skys clear-up if the war drums are silenced leading to Event 9 which would allow signaling again and could be a narrative turning point in the battle. Using the tower as a relay was clever, but then if Event 9 occurs, you could describe how the dragon flings the signal team from the tower.
Finally, the ballista! After reading the description in the Axeholm adventure and doing a little internet research, it seems like the ballista are a later variety similar to the Roman Scorpion which may have had a ball joint which would allow changes in elevation and were capable of point targets, and the rules seem to support this as it takes one action to aim; however, how they were employed in Axeholm seems to indicate that elevation adjustments were not required. Basically, whatever you told your players works. But apparently the torsion springs were pretty sensitive to temperature and moisture and would have been carried covered in the baggage train, so it could be interesting if the characters didn't account for building shelter over the ballista. You could narrate about how half of the ballista misfire with torsion springs snapping or swelling to unusability, and then lightening targeting the functional ones at least on the Talos side.
I still like the idea of having one last bolt left to attempt that shot on the dragon with maybe a higher Wisdom ability check on the aiming action to essentially track the dragon's flight path and determine where she will be when the bolt hits.
Cannister round stats are neat, but only usable if a character tries to employ them as you'll be narrating their effect on the battlefield. Interesting that you went cone over burst. Cone seems more like a shot-gun where a burst seems more like an artillery round. Essentially the shot bursts on impact, correct or is there magic that allows it to detonate early?
My previous advice still stands: Grant two victories ahead of time on the Event chart, cause a breach at an appropriate time in the narrative, and force the characters to get at least one victory to get a pyrhic victory, and the better resolution to the battle.
Time to put the kids to bed!
Out of curiousity, did the characters or the town implement anything outside the walls to funnel or disrupt assaulting forces?
Also, an errant shot from the keel boat could create the breach possibly taking out the postern gate. It is pretty hard to aim on a boat in limited visiblity.
Historically, canister rounds were simply thin walled metal canisters, sometimes just burlap sacks, that held musket balls for loading into smooth bore cannon and were shredded by the force of firing…. A large shotgun. Shrapnel rounds were thicker walled projectiles with a bursting charge…. Large hand grenades.
The canister rounds for the ballistas are leather reinforced burlap sacks. Strong enough to hold the sling bullets and get them moving, weak enough to tear and release the sling bullets thru the force of firing.
I may roll a 1 for the keelboat crews so they cause something to collapse and a breach in the sea palisade.
The ballistas from Axeholm only do 16 damage, while a ghoul or zombie has 22 hp…. So they really are huge crossbows more than true siege weapons. Their main effect will likely be that many of the rank-and-file baddies will be at half HP by the time they reach the walls.
I did note in the Axeholm description that each ballista only had 5 bolts. I am assuming the PC's were able to make more using the originals as templates.
Anyway, you'll have to touchbase post battle, and let us know how the Players fared, and any unexpected outcomes that you needed to navigate. I personally am running my wife and son through the Starter and Essentials Kits and was looking ahead to see if there were any NPC's I could introduce in advance.
Bump for battle results in OP.
A bit of a problem with assumptions: ancient dragons have frightful presence, which will cut the damage from +0 wisdom save commoners by around 80%.
Only to 120 feet, only the ones the dragon knows about because it has to choose who to affect, only for one minute, and afterwards they are immune.