[Webcomic] The Order of the Stick thread
- Thread starter Piotyr
- Start date
All DMing in a nutshell, or how I got my players excited about finding McGuffin #23 from generic desert #5 by having them quest into the deadly Bright Desert in search of the legendary Anvil of Moradin.
You mean you're not capped yet? [emoji14]
Order of the Stick #1058 Ready, Set, Ready
Location: There's only 3 passes the Mechanus can use, as said in #1044, and they took the predictable one.
Time: The Mechanus can only fly up to 10,000ft up, which is shorter than these mountains. Even without divination and communication magic (say, clairvoyance and animal messenger), sentries/scouts could spot the uncloaked ship, and raise the alarm.
Still, the logistics required to move so large of a force would have me expecting the enemy forces would show more signs of cobbled-together planning as well.
--Patrick
Barring the ability to block the pass physically, an artillery gauntlet (i.e. a bunch of frost giants using their favored ranged weapon) followed by AoE damage spells strikes me as well-planned. Granted, we see few spellcasters, but they might not have many to begin with (I think we've seen less than 30 giants total). Note that thrown rocks and battleaxes are the two weapons frost giants generally use. Due to their size and climate I don't imagine they would have any advanced siege technology, or the time to make a big enough obstacle (like a yuge net).
This all might change depending on who the peeps in the last panel are, and how the giants fit into their strategy (or vice-versa).
Yeah, I'm just surprised the Bad Guys were able to field so much resistance and get them all into (the right) position so quickly. If the roles were reversed and it was Roy & Crew getting into the mountains to block the passage of an evil airship, we'd have comic after comic about all the obstacles they'd encounter while trying to gain that high ground.
--Patrick
To be fair, the frost giants are most likely native to that area, so getting them into position would be easier than a bunch of adventurers using hostile terrain.
If their instigators turn out to be (or become) named characters, then the process of convincing the giants could make for a few interesting pages in one of Rich's side books. Or he might just have a cutaway panel showing Evil Dude convincing the main giant spellcaster.