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HALO_Project
Acolyte
13 Posts |
 Posted - 03 Feb 2016 : 17:01:10
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You guys were really great the last time I needed some help and so I've returned for more of your sage advice.
I'm currently running a game with a very small group. Two players (one is playing two characters, a sun elf wizard/sorcerer and a tiefling psion; the other is a dragon blooded wood elf ranger who is the bounty hunter type and going into the Bloodhound class who has a cohort who is a half-moon elf cleric of Lathander/bard) and an NPC sun elf rogue.
The campaign is set in 1376DR. The mage was an apprentice to a powerful elven mage who was seeking lost elven lore in the old Elven Court so they came from Evermeet where they hired the ranger on as a guide. The higher level master stayed out of most battles instead wanting to see how his apprentice Evoker could handle himself. Many puzzles and drow later they arrived at the location where the relic/artifact, an ancient tome was kept.
During this time the tiefling was captured trying to leave her home of Thay and enslaved by a Red Wizard and his entourage because her demon blood would be perfect for a ritual he was planning to use on an ancient elven tome in the Elven Court. She also made a nice addition to his collection with his already fearful sun elven rogue slave. Once they arrived in Cormanthor they happened upon the Cleric/Bard who had left his village to find his friend who had disappeared (left home to act as a guide without telling anyone due to personal issues) and they captured him and forced him to take them to the Elven Court.
Just as the two groups arrive and begin vying for the tome the Red Wizards Imprison the elven master, getting the drop on him and he failed his roll to defend himself (it helps that I didn't fudge that roll, he really did botch). The Red Wizards have the book, the slaves take this moment to rebel and suddenly a wormhole rips open and all parties are dazed and confused and then they all sucked into the rift and the next thing they know they all wake up in a snowy forest somewhere. Not a Red Wizard in sight. (The Red Wizard entourage's tattoos allowed them to be deposited elsewhen.)
They have learned that they are in Miyeritar, sometime before the Dark Disaster and (because the ancient elves didn't feel like keeping a precise calendar during this time, they only have some very vague ideas of when they are.) They have taken shelter with a resistance movement and try as they may not to they are becoming attached to the resistance members, whom they feel are doomed, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but someday they will probably all die. The only one who knows that they are time travelers is an elven high mage and dijakaar named Illiam. And he is keeping it quiet because he feels it would be best if no one knew that they hail from somewhen else.
They are constantly worried that they will mess up the time stream but slowly they are starting to see that it would take something colossal to count as "messing up the time stream" and that even if they did change things, Miyeritar is doomed so how much harm can they really do? What they do not know is that they are going to be here for 1 year and that this is the year of the Dark Disaster. Right now they are preoccupied with finding the Red Wizards and getting back but slowly they are coming to realize that neither of those things are going to happen any time soon and they are resolving to try to figure out what they are supposed to be doing here, or if they can maybe help the resistance.
The reason they are here is to see first hand what happened, because what their imprisoned master was about to do in their time (and will once they free him) is very wrong but not something they might realize outright just how wrong unless they have seen how the actions of one can devastate others (among other more metaphoric stuff that fits my campaign world).
So my question is how to run a resistance. I have had some ideas and I'm not certain how to proceed. They are not military leader type characters and I don't want to turn this into a war-type campaign with troops under their command and what have you and they don't want to play that type of campaign either. I have a few ideas about sending them to deliver messages in enemy territory or to capture enemy agents or rescue agents of the resistance and maybe act as spies in some capacity but I was wondering if there were any good sources for something like this. Or if anyone had any ideas for how to go about this. I have some ideas just not enough to keep it interesting because they are going to be here for a long time. Sometimes, when appropriate I advance the clock, I won't make them play everyday of a year on a day by day scale. But I just want to keep it interesting and I thought, a new perspective (or five) is just what I need.
Thanks in advance. Sorry for the wall of text.
((tl:dr - I need help running a revolution/rebellion. Pointers, tips, suggestions, sources. Thanks))
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Edited by - HALO_Project on 05 Feb 2016 12:51:32
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Hoondatha
Great Reader
USA
2449 Posts |
Posted - 07 Feb 2016 : 12:21:14
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I can give you some generalities, but for specifics you need to define the situation in Miyeritar a bit more. By the time of the Dark Disaster, Miyeritar had been conquered for 800 years. That means that effectively everyone (aside from a few high mages and people of their ilk) had lived their entire lives under Aryvandaaran hegemony. Even long-lived as elves are, 800 years is several generations.
So you need to decide what the feeling of the overall populace is. How many of them accept/are resigned to gold elven rule? There will always be some collaborators, and some die-hard resistance folks, but you need to know the general percentages of both, and what way the general populace is leaning.
How are the gold elves ruling? Relatively light touch (ie: American colonies in the 1740's-1750's)? Iron rule but with restraint? Full on terror? That makes a huge difference both in the reactions of the populace, and the troubles your characters will encounter and have to deal with. Are there curfews? Are people being detained at random? Are there regular public executions of suspected resistance fighters or people who are just not enthusiastic enough? How restricted is travel? What sorts of papers would you need to leave your district/city/area of the countryside, and how hard are they to forge?
Switching to the resistance, what are their goals, how united are they, and where are they based? The elven realms would be a series of cities with massive tracts of forest between them, which would be ideal for guerrilla warfare, but it would also cut them off from the centers of power. It would also likely lead to fracturing into many groups.
So is the resistance group they've hooked up a local one? If so, how local? If it's part of a nationally-coordinated movement, well, someone's going to need to be controlling it, and there would be lines of communication that would need to be kept open (and could be attacked by the gold elves).
You also need to decide what the goal of the resistance is. Are they trying to pave the way for a war of liberation? If so, who would be the invaders/liberators? Are they trying to force the Aryvandaarans to withdraw from too many casualties? Are they trying to force a negotiation for better treatment?
I would look to the French and Dutch resistances in World War II as good examples of relatively modern and well-documented resistance movements, but there are some serious issues with using them too. For one, the countries were just recently conquered, so everyone remembered a time they were free. Second, they had allies much closer, who were actively looking to invade/free the territories at the earliest practical moment.
Which brings me to contact with outside forces. By that point of elven history there were only two nations that were leading the open warfare form of resistance to the Vyshaan: Keltormir and Ilythiir. Shantel Othreier had been conquered just a century in the past. Leaving aside the, umm, moral quandary of dealing with the dark elves, neither nation is exactly close by and well suited to be supplying logistics or outside trainers. Teleport magics would allow them to send some of both, but there are limits to how much can be carried, and most mages of that level would be needed closer to the front lines.
Finally, what, exactly, do the gods want them to witness? Obviously, if the gods want the group to see how crowd modification magics in cities horribly backfire (think the creation of the Reavers from Serenity), then it makes no sense to build the resistance around interdicting Vyshaan supply routes by ambushing caravans in the woods.
All that said, here are a couple of options for them to be helpful, just off the top of my head:
* Guard moving telepathic waystations contacting outside allies. Think of them like WWII radio operators, trying to stay one step ahead of Nazi radio triangulators. Just substitute telepathic crystals that can reach contacts in Keltormir.
* Secure incoming weapons shipments (either smuggled in legitimate merchant caravans, or teleported into designated areas
* Capture or destroy Vyshaan shipments (caravan traffic, etc)
* Free captured resistance members
* Raid local strong points for intelligence data (best if done without the gold elves knowing of the intrusion)
* Assassinate local gold elf military or civilian commanders (especially egregious ones)
* Produce and spread the elven equivalent of underground newspapers to the populace to increase discontent. This could combine a resistance with investigative journalism/spying, trying to dig up hard evidence of atrocities planned or accomplished, then to spread the word.
* Run messages between cells of the resistance, whether that's between cities, within the same city, or out into the forest.
* For the paranoid, find the Vyshaan mole amongst the resistance group. After all, there's always at least one...
Anyway, I hope this helps. |
Doggedly converting 3e back to what D&D should be...
Sigh... And now 4e as well. |
Edited by - Hoondatha on 07 Feb 2016 12:26:14 |
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Time travelling campaign, need some help
