December Entry: The Siege of Dreeston

[torstan]

I can see the problem with bringing over a full army. I'm more concerned about a few good climbers coming over and opening the gates from inside. I guess a loosely manned fortification along the crest of one of the cliffs would discourage any scouts coming from that side, along with some spikes dug into the rock.

As for wells and water supply, the thought was that an invading force has easy access to the river - the water runs from the north - but that wells are within the walls, or in the case of the keep, in the basement. That makes it very hard for an invasion to poison or tamper with the wells but easier to do with a river. Also, rivers cause natural weak points in walls, so the river stays outside the earlier fortifications, but gets incorporated into the later ones.

[Midgardsormr]

I can see the problem with bringing over a full army. I'm more concerned about a few good climbers coming over and opening the gates from inside. I guess a loosely manned fortification along the crest of one of the cliffs would discourage any scouts coming from that side, along with some spikes dug into the rock.

Why not let that be one of the things the PCs have to solve? They learn that the mountain approach is a weak point of the defenses, and they have only hours to implement a solution.

[torstan]

Actually that's an excellent idea. I think I'll do that.

There's also an ominous cave just behind the keep. I think that will be a last refuge - a little like the caves at Helm's Deep, but that might be a bit too derivative. Hmmm, I'll have to think about those.

Another thought was that the attacking force had a plan to bring down the mountainside on the keep by getting into old tunnels and setting alchemical explosives.

So many options.... really need to make up my mind.

[bryguy]

I think it is actually easier to poison a well than pollute a river. Especially a fast moving river. I believe there are plenty of historical stories of a castle's well getting poisoned by tossing infected meat/rodents/etc. into it. I guess if the invaders down have access to the wells or water table those would be safe.

yea, i read a book recently, it included how some enemies would poison the water supply by tossing infected things in it, dung, etc. And also, as you said, it is easier to poison a well, as a river would just take the poison to its outlet, killing people/fish/animals somewhere else.

You can add fell-beasts or other monsters that inhabit the mountain, environmental conditions, or just the logistics of dragging an invasion force over it. If whatever passes are there, are easily defended (a la the movie 300) that would discourage a large invasion as well.

that would be cool


bring de mayhem!!!

[RPMiller]

One other thing to consider regarding poisoning a well is that it can be done by one person. How much easier is it to sneak one person into a village or city than to try to invade it with a large force, especially if you are planning ahead and have it poisoned before you invade?

That might even sound familiar.

A small group having an easier time killing hundreds = recent attack in Mumbai proves that theory. History has hundreds of examples of these sorts of attacks and yet governments seem to refuse to listen to the historic lessons.
Planning ahead and poisoning the water supply before you invade = recent invasion of Georgia. The Russians actually launched cyber attacks against the Georgian infrastructure and took down their servers that controlled communication and infrastructure just before they invaded. Again, hundreds of times this has happened in history.

[torstan]

Indeed. This is why many castles have a fortified well with a locked cover on it in the basement store rooms. They make it hard to poison because it is an obvious weak point. If a besieged castle has no drinkable water it is game over.

Actually that would make for an excellent war time adventure for an adventuring group. Get into the besieged castle and poison the water supply. It would be a nice variant of the slip in and open the gates adventure theme and could be done by low level characters.

[RPMiller]

I think that may be where the game "capture the 'flag'" came from. LOL

[torstan]

You might be right there.