Tidbits

I'd like to get back to daily updates (it is the blog title, after all). In fairness, I reached a point where I was feeling burnt out, and needed a break. I think the biggest trouble I was facing was that I locked myself into adding to this one encounter daily, so that when I hit a wall, it stopped me cold.

I need to feel comfortable adding generic dungeon commentary as well as information specific to this adventure. Of course, having a break has finally given me some breakthrough into how I want to shape this part of the adventure, so I may not need too much off-topic commentary for now.

I'm still only dealing in general terms, but I think I've got a good fix on what to do here. The guards can be pretty standard orc/bugbear types, although I'd make a good number of the half-orcs to better fit the motif. The acolytes don't need to be anything too developed. Both of these are mostly for stalling the party's advance or for fodder in a fight. They will only really threaten the party by force of numbers. I don't think any quantity needs to be fixed, just have 3 to 5 come at them, and keep coming.

The guards will be more specifically developed. They can be encountered individually in the wild, and that can have ramifications on how the encounter develops, but they don't necessarily need to be unique groups. I think making a stock guard party will be enough, then use as many as they encounter guards.

The acolytes should feature 2 or 3 prominent, higher level casters, but the majority can be generic. Something like Cultists, but I think they are too low level for this encounter. Mixing them into a larger group would work. I'm not sure what the bulk of them should be, I'll have to think about that and look at some numbers. Again, the idea would be to create a stock encounter group of 4-6 characters, and keep throwing them into the fight.

The point with both of these groups is to badger the party, churn through their resources, irritate them. Ideally, they get the point, and move away toward the fortress. These groups will chase them into the tunnels leading to the fortress, but only a small handful (one group, maybe) will pursue them into the tunnels. The guards will return to their posts, the acolytes will mill around near the connecting tunnel, attacking if the party returns. Gradually, they will thin out and go back to business.