right now my players are in a city recently sacked and now occupied by the Empire(gray bad-guys in my campaign) well there last mission was to sneak into a wizards college that was abandoned by said mages to keep themselves from getting captured.
their objective in DM terms find the secret door that they were about to find.
they were tracing the source of the portal using arcana, which originally the college was made to get that player more engaged.
well several combat encounters later between two session all in the same location, and a point in the second session that I have dubbed the pool incident, and well, they blew up part of the college. Thus bringing the attention of the guards to the college and amassing some soldiers to go investigate.
well that had a good bad idea which was to fly away on a mount back to their base of operations within the city.
well when they flew away one of the soldiers spotted them, and he was a commander of sorts, and due to some shenanigans between solo sessions the empire now know that the people who blew up the college are the same people they are look for who killed one of their generals (solo session involving one of the party members who stayed behind thanks to them being a famous emperial)
so I ask you my fellow DMs should I make them send troops where ever they land or just send spies to monitor them. Keep in mind one of them is confirmed to be the general killer, and on the flip side they are low on hit points and spell slots.
would my soldiers strike while the iron is hot?
Or take care of them at a later date?
im just wanting to hear an opinion on this and see if I might be being to harsh or not, but I fill like going in is what my soldiers might do.
You've already decided that your world would respond.
I might suggest that you consider the after-effects of the city guard confronting the party. Would they kill the PCs on sight, subdue and capture to give the PCs a trial, capture and public execution? Whatever the situation, understand that the party will look to find a way out, which means there should be a possibility of success for the "heroes". It might be a significant difficulty, but there would be an opportunity. If the party is badly depleted of resources, and the troops do move to confront, I suggest that you make it clear before they join combat that the follow-on conditions will apply if they loose the fight. It might be a tactical error for the party to not set a watch, move into a building/room with very few means of egress, has poor visibility to the surrounding streets, and lacks cover and concealment for their escape. Final note, if the troops are allowed to follow the party back to their safe-house, that location will no longer be viable for them to operate out of. Consider giving the party an opportunity to realize this before they lead the garrison to their hideout.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
right now my players are in a city recently sacked and now occupied by the Empire(gray bad-guys in my campaign) well there last mission was to sneak into a wizards college that was abandoned by said mages to keep themselves from getting captured.
their objective in DM terms find the secret door that they were about to find.
they were tracing the source of the portal using arcana, which originally the college was made to get that player more engaged.
well several combat encounters later between two session all in the same location, and a point in the second session that I have dubbed the pool incident, and well, they blew up part of the college. Thus bringing the attention of the guards to the college and amassing some soldiers to go investigate.
well that had a good bad idea which was to fly away on a mount back to their base of operations within the city.
well when they flew away one of the soldiers spotted them, and he was a commander of sorts, and due to some shenanigans between solo sessions the empire now know that the people who blew up the college are the same people they are look for who killed one of their generals (solo session involving one of the party members who stayed behind thanks to them being a famous emperial)
so I ask you my fellow DMs should I make them send troops where ever they land or just send spies to monitor them. Keep in mind one of them is confirmed to be the general killer, and on the flip side they are low on hit points and spell slots.
would my soldiers strike while the iron is hot?
Or take care of them at a later date?
im just wanting to hear an opinion on this and see if I might be being to harsh or not, but I fill like going in is what my soldiers might do.
Lol i say flip a coin or role a 1d2. Heads or 1 you dont. Tails or two you do. Jokes aside kaavel is right
Just because they saw the PCs fly away - or even land - it doesn't mean that they can rally sufficient forces to attempt to apprehend them before the PCs have moved on. Just plan that the guards go to the landing site 2 hours after the PCs landed. If they're still there, they demand their surrender and/or attack, and if not, roll a Survival check for the leader to see if he can track them (if they left tracks).
Its your world, you know how it works. Based on your comments, it sounds like this "empire" would allocate forces to dealing with this group swiftly since one of the party is known to have killed a general.
However, your description of the situation seems to include a bit of the DM deciding how they want things to go rather than how things might have gone in the game world in order for you to later justify the NPCs attacking the party during the rest when the players start to ask about how they were found.
1) ONE soldier saw them. The ONE soldier is a commander, who can recognize the party at a distance, who is capable of immediately recognizing one of the party who killed a general. Likely a person they only have at best a description for rather than a picture. (unless this one commander was also present when the general was killed and just happens to be the ONE soldier that noticed the party fly away.
2) Somehow this ONE soldier who noticed them fly away is also capable of flying or has a flying creature capable of following the party to determine where they are going. In addition, whoever is sent to follow the party is very stealthy since they are able to follow the flying party without being noticed. (Just because the party doesn't SAY "we are going to watch if we are being followed" doesn't mean the characters would not have done so anyway - at the very least the characters will be looking around and should have had a chance to notice that they were being followed).
3) Whoever or whatever followed the party is able to follow them all the way to their "hidden" base. Presumably, the party isn't being obvious about where they are hiding since there are likely regular patrols. Speaking of which, since there are likely patrols then the party would have been taking precautions when flying to avoid patrols making it far more likely they would notice that they are being followed. If you assume that the party happily flies over the city where anyone can see them directly to their base without paying any attention then that is a DM playing "Haha gotcha you didn't say you were doing <obvious thing the characters would do> so there are consequences!! Haha". If the DM asks the party what they are doing during the flight - Are you watching out for patrols? How are you flying to your secret base? What route are you using? THEN the players will likely tell the DM the obvious precautions they take - but a DM should not base consequences on questions they didn't ask assuming actions the party didn't explicitly take.
Ultimately, how you want to run it is up to you, but the explanation provided for how the empire becomes aware of the hidden base the party is using seems a bit thin to me.
On the other hand, if the empire is aware of the base, then they will likely crush the party as soon as they have the forces available - whether that is before or after they complete a long rest depends on the DM but if the opponents have any idea of the capabilities of the party they will likely attack sooner rather than later assuming they can get 20-50 attackers ready - which for any army should be relatively trivial - getting higher level opponents or specialized ones (wizard, cleric etc) might be a different story.
right now my players are in a city recently sacked and now occupied by the Empire(gray bad-guys in my campaign) well there last mission was to sneak into a wizards college that was abandoned by said mages to keep themselves from getting captured.
their objective in DM terms find the secret door that they were about to find.
they were tracing the source of the portal using arcana, which originally the college was made to get that player more engaged.
well several combat encounters later between two session all in the same location, and a point in the second session that I have dubbed the pool incident, and well, they blew up part of the college. Thus bringing the attention of the guards to the college and amassing some soldiers to go investigate.
well that had a good bad idea which was to fly away on a mount back to their base of operations within the city.
well when they flew away one of the soldiers spotted them, and he was a commander of sorts, and due to some shenanigans between solo sessions the empire now know that the people who blew up the college are the same people they are look for who killed one of their generals (solo session involving one of the party members who stayed behind thanks to them being a famous emperial)
so I ask you my fellow DMs should I make them send troops where ever they land or just send spies to monitor them. Keep in mind one of them is confirmed to be the general killer, and on the flip side they are low on hit points and spell slots.
would my soldiers strike while the iron is hot?
Or take care of them at a later date?
im just wanting to hear an opinion on this and see if I might be being to harsh or not, but I fill like going in is what my soldiers might do.
I prioritize it making sense so I wouldn't just immediately have soldiers or spies where they land. That is very oblivion guard. Instead I would simply have the guards at towns in the area notified so if they do get in trouble there they will be noticed and have to deal with it. Similarly id have places connected to the offended nation keep an eye out so they cant go to like an embassy or the court which has an ambassador. Soldiers will not be going door to door though as they'd only have a vague idea of the direction. Think skyrim guards saying " wait I know you"
I'm not sure I followed this all correctly, but it seems that ultimately the party's cover was blown by something that happened in a solo session? That doesn't really seem fair to the rest of the group. I know I'd be upset if an army of guards were coming to kill me at my secret base because of what happened in Joe the Barbarian's solo adventure.
I'm also not clear on how the soldiers know the party's base of operations. Have they made themselves well known in the city? Did the solo player lead the bad guys right back to the HQ? It seems it would have been very easy to say, "Ok now you guys are wanted in town and will need to keep a low profile." Instead of "somehow the army followed you when you escaped on a flying mount and are now beating down your door."
Have the rules set up in advance for random encounters and stick with the rolls. You can also put in modifiers based on if they thought about where they would rest and picked a good area to hide to help them on the roles. If the dice wants the party dead, then they die, it happens. Perhaps they should have prepared scrolls and potions before going in or saved some of their abilities first to deal with bad luck. Death is part of the game.
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I’ll try to keep this short as best as I can.
right now my players are in a city recently sacked and now occupied by the Empire(gray bad-guys in my campaign) well there last mission was to sneak into a wizards college that was abandoned by said mages to keep themselves from getting captured.
their objective in DM terms find the secret door that they were about to find.
they were tracing the source of the portal using arcana, which originally the college was made to get that player more engaged.
well several combat encounters later between two session all in the same location, and a point in the second session that I have dubbed the pool incident, and well, they blew up part of the college. Thus bringing the attention of the guards to the college and amassing some soldiers to go investigate.
well that had a good bad idea which was to fly away on a mount back to their base of operations within the city.
well when they flew away one of the soldiers spotted them, and he was a commander of sorts, and due to some shenanigans between solo sessions the empire now know that the people who blew up the college are the same people they are look for who killed one of their generals (solo session involving one of the party members who stayed behind thanks to them being a famous emperial)
so I ask you my fellow DMs should I make them send troops where ever they land or just send spies to monitor them. Keep in mind one of them is confirmed to be the general killer, and on the flip side they are low on hit points and spell slots.
would my soldiers strike while the iron is hot?
Or take care of them at a later date?
im just wanting to hear an opinion on this and see if I might be being to harsh or not, but I fill like going in is what my soldiers might do.
You've already decided that your world would respond.
I might suggest that you consider the after-effects of the city guard confronting the party. Would they kill the PCs on sight, subdue and capture to give the PCs a trial, capture and public execution? Whatever the situation, understand that the party will look to find a way out, which means there should be a possibility of success for the "heroes". It might be a significant difficulty, but there would be an opportunity. If the party is badly depleted of resources, and the troops do move to confront, I suggest that you make it clear before they join combat that the follow-on conditions will apply if they loose the fight. It might be a tactical error for the party to not set a watch, move into a building/room with very few means of egress, has poor visibility to the surrounding streets, and lacks cover and concealment for their escape. Final note, if the troops are allowed to follow the party back to their safe-house, that location will no longer be viable for them to operate out of. Consider giving the party an opportunity to realize this before they lead the garrison to their hideout.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
No prob.
thank you for the input my friend.
helps out a lot!
Lol i say flip a coin or role a 1d2. Heads or 1 you dont. Tails or two you do. Jokes aside kaavel is right
Just because they saw the PCs fly away - or even land - it doesn't mean that they can rally sufficient forces to attempt to apprehend them before the PCs have moved on. Just plan that the guards go to the landing site 2 hours after the PCs landed. If they're still there, they demand their surrender and/or attack, and if not, roll a Survival check for the leader to see if he can track them (if they left tracks).
Its your world, you know how it works. Based on your comments, it sounds like this "empire" would allocate forces to dealing with this group swiftly since one of the party is known to have killed a general.
However, your description of the situation seems to include a bit of the DM deciding how they want things to go rather than how things might have gone in the game world in order for you to later justify the NPCs attacking the party during the rest when the players start to ask about how they were found.
1) ONE soldier saw them. The ONE soldier is a commander, who can recognize the party at a distance, who is capable of immediately recognizing one of the party who killed a general. Likely a person they only have at best a description for rather than a picture. (unless this one commander was also present when the general was killed and just happens to be the ONE soldier that noticed the party fly away.
2) Somehow this ONE soldier who noticed them fly away is also capable of flying or has a flying creature capable of following the party to determine where they are going. In addition, whoever is sent to follow the party is very stealthy since they are able to follow the flying party without being noticed. (Just because the party doesn't SAY "we are going to watch if we are being followed" doesn't mean the characters would not have done so anyway - at the very least the characters will be looking around and should have had a chance to notice that they were being followed).
3) Whoever or whatever followed the party is able to follow them all the way to their "hidden" base. Presumably, the party isn't being obvious about where they are hiding since there are likely regular patrols. Speaking of which, since there are likely patrols then the party would have been taking precautions when flying to avoid patrols making it far more likely they would notice that they are being followed. If you assume that the party happily flies over the city where anyone can see them directly to their base without paying any attention then that is a DM playing "Haha gotcha you didn't say you were doing <obvious thing the characters would do> so there are consequences!! Haha". If the DM asks the party what they are doing during the flight - Are you watching out for patrols? How are you flying to your secret base? What route are you using? THEN the players will likely tell the DM the obvious precautions they take - but a DM should not base consequences on questions they didn't ask assuming actions the party didn't explicitly take.
Ultimately, how you want to run it is up to you, but the explanation provided for how the empire becomes aware of the hidden base the party is using seems a bit thin to me.
On the other hand, if the empire is aware of the base, then they will likely crush the party as soon as they have the forces available - whether that is before or after they complete a long rest depends on the DM but if the opponents have any idea of the capabilities of the party they will likely attack sooner rather than later assuming they can get 20-50 attackers ready - which for any army should be relatively trivial - getting higher level opponents or specialized ones (wizard, cleric etc) might be a different story.
I prioritize it making sense so I wouldn't just immediately have soldiers or spies where they land. That is very oblivion guard. Instead I would simply have the guards at towns in the area notified so if they do get in trouble there they will be noticed and have to deal with it. Similarly id have places connected to the offended nation keep an eye out so they cant go to like an embassy or the court which has an ambassador. Soldiers will not be going door to door though as they'd only have a vague idea of the direction. Think skyrim guards saying " wait I know you"
I'm not sure I followed this all correctly, but it seems that ultimately the party's cover was blown by something that happened in a solo session? That doesn't really seem fair to the rest of the group. I know I'd be upset if an army of guards were coming to kill me at my secret base because of what happened in Joe the Barbarian's solo adventure.
I'm also not clear on how the soldiers know the party's base of operations. Have they made themselves well known in the city? Did the solo player lead the bad guys right back to the HQ? It seems it would have been very easy to say, "Ok now you guys are wanted in town and will need to keep a low profile." Instead of "somehow the army followed you when you escaped on a flying mount and are now beating down your door."
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Have the rules set up in advance for random encounters and stick with the rolls. You can also put in modifiers based on if they thought about where they would rest and picked a good area to hide to help them on the roles. If the dice wants the party dead, then they die, it happens. Perhaps they should have prepared scrolls and potions before going in or saved some of their abilities first to deal with bad luck. Death is part of the game.