dailyadventureprompts:Adventure: The Unexpected InvasionThe outbreak of war is much like a birth of
dailyadventureprompts:Adventure: The Unexpected InvasionThe outbreak of war is much like a birth of a child; when it wants to happen, it’ll happen, whether you were ready for it or not.- Brenna of Windspoke, DiplomatSetup: After years of political tension, an invasion fleet heading for the kingdom’s capital was blown disastrously off course, half wrecking itself upon a beach of a town more than a province or two away. With their element of surprise completely ruined, the invaders have decided to make use of this impromptu beachhead and take the local fortress for themselves. What a shame then, that the party is IN that fortress on unrelated business, and are now being pressed into its defense, the first of many skirmishes they’ll have with this impromptu adversary. Challenges and Complications: With no time to study the terrain and develop a siege plan, the enemy commander is forced to use blunt-force tactics to establish her beachhead, landing as many troops as she can a few miles up the coast from the fortress and sending ships to blockade the harbor. Even disorganized and recently disembarked, her force is more than enough to overwhelm the local garrison, and the players can expect successive waves of increasingly dangers foes as she manages to unpack more and more of her warships’ holds. Disaster of disaster, the king’s brother was visiting when the invaders made land, and with the blockade closing in and troops mustering on the beach there are increasingly few opportunities to get him to safety lest he become a hostage. His young son is missing however, brought along to gain some valuable political experience and run off to play with some of the other castle children when politics got to boring for him not to sit still. The Royal guest won’t leave until his son is returned, possibly requiring the party to search the castle and town to find his whereabouts. As much help as she would have been in the coming battle, the town’s wizard has left several days ago to ride the winds of the massive storm and see how much lightning she could bottle. If the party can make it past the wards that guard her sanctum, as well as the guardians summoned in its defense, they may be able to find a few tools useful for the upcoming siege. Adventure Hooks: The Unexpected Invasion can make a great starting adventure for a campaign focusing on epic battles, forging a cast of castle servants and unexpected guests into their kingdom’s defenders and giving them the first bitter taste of war. After the castle falls ( and it will fall, for our party are not yet heroes with the strength to defend it) the characters are taken as captives. Months later, laboring in the hastily constructed enemy shipyards, the party goes through the motions of their captivity while counting the hours till the other captives’ plan for an escape is set into motion. A chance for things to go awry arises however when they overhear that a missive containing vital enemy intelligence has made its way to the head of the camp, something that could give the kingdom’s other defenders a fighting chance against this foe. Do they stick to the plan, or risk it all to strike back against their foe? With the keep taken and their surprise attack on the capital thoroughly derailed, the invaders disembark and begin launching attacks into the kingdom’s heartland, ceasing towns and treasure, and knocking the monarch’s bannermen off the board before they can ever muster their forces. This leaves the kingdom a patchwork wilderness of battlefields and holdouts, a breeding ground for ghouls, bandits, and deserters that the party must cross if they are to seek allies. Periodically throughout their adventures in this wartorn land, the party will meet with an old woman who picks over the battlefields of the dead, seemingly perfectly comfortable as she fills her pack with bloodied spoils and pries rings from rot-bloated fingers. She refers to herself as Nana Nemain, and will cheerfully dole out directions and cryptic advice while she goes about her grisly work. In fact Nana Nemain is an aspect of the goddess Morrigan: spirit of war, death, magic and fate, who has taken an interest in the party’s doings and just how they’ll affect the outcome of this blunder born war. If the party heed her unsettling advice, things will turn out well for them, but if they scorn her humble scavenger persona she’ll likely turn to outright mocking them over time. -- source link