Defending Against an Attack By Naradin He’ami
The first page of this book is a large but simple illustration of an upright gauntlet with a blue eye in the center of the palm.
While the citizens of Sanctuary are well aware of the methods a person can use to assault our city, and the tactics that can be used to repel such invaders, very little is mentioned in how magic, arcane and divine, could play a part to thwart or bolster such an attack. I pen this now to outline some general strategies that can be employed against an invading force but also how we might defend ourselves from the magic of our enemies.
One might ask why such knowledge is relevant to the average person if the Spellguard exists. Isn’t their job to have knowledge of all things of this nature and to keep us all safe from harm? I feel, as many citizens must, that the Spellguard is becoming increasingly interested in the Machine and less concerned with the affairs of Sanctuary. I myself write this as a criminal, for I have tried on no less than six seven eight occasions to register myself as a spell caster and have been ignored by the Spellguard on every occasion. I am fairly certain that after this is written someone will say that I did not make enough of an effort to become registered, but this is irrelevant. I no longer care if they label me as a felon and lock me in prison because I must do what I can to protect Sanctuary. I feel that, at the moment, I would be of more use to the people of Sanctuary in spirit rather than in force, and I hope that by offering my somewhat considerable knowledge that they can benefit from it.
This work is somewhat extensive, and I plan on producing later versions of it as my own knowledge and experience allows. As such, I ask that the good people of Sanctuary bear with any errors I have made in haste to pen it, either in the form of the grammar of Common, or erroneous logic, or simple omission. It is my greatest desire to enlighten the people of Sanctuary in how to defend themselves from invasion, and to make the best work possible, I will doubtlessly need the help of others.
As a final note, I wrote this work with the intention that individuals with access to magic (either in the form of spells, wands, potions, or devices that store spell effects). There is very little the average person of Sanctuary can do against magic, which says a lot about the responsibility that should be exhibited by members of the spell casting community, in terms of responsible use and their obligation to defend the citizenry at large.
DEFENDING WITH MAGIC
Scrolls and Object Enchantments
There are several spells that, if prepared beforehand, could turn the tide of a battle. Unfortunately, spell casters have various personal pursuits, so trying to tell people to constantly have these spells prepared is simply setting an unrealistic expectation.
Bless
This spell allows all allied beings in a relatively large radius to hit slightly more often and do a bit more damage with each strike, as well as to better resist the effects of fear. While the benefits of such a spell are obvious, many would contest how helpful such a spell would be, in comparison to say, one that would heal the wounds of a defender. Most of the enemies that will reach the gate during a siege are not talented warriors. The enemy will almost always try to take Sanctuary by numbers rather than skill. It is feasible to say that, on average, most attackers will die from two hits of a weapon. Therefore, we should try to make every swing connect, as this will eat away at the enemy’s numbers more quickly.
Magic Weapon/Greater Magic Weapon
I do not recommend this as a scroll for a magic user, but rather, an enchanted object in the possession of a melee defender. If such a person lose the ability to do some or all damage to a resistant enemy, they will be rendered almost useless to the defense of the city. Fortunately, most serious adventurers are aware of this, and as a result keep these objects on hand whenever possible.
Summon Monster (Vomit Rat, Rat Arcanist)
While a true expert in Conjuration magic might be able to detail quite a few creatures that could be useful in defending Sanctuary, these two particular creatures can be invaluable on the field. A vomit rat, if sent deep into the enemy’s ranks, could weaken several of the enemies before they even reach the frontlines. A rat arcanist, on the other hand, can improvise as a novice spell caster and deal extra damage against a foe that is resistant to other forms of attack. A conjuration that is very powerful or resistant to physical damage may be able to survive long enough that it’s summoning would be worth the effort.
Other, more powerful, versions of the spell exist, and even without concern to the specific properties of the creature summoned, a great deal of them could be used to simply slaughter creatures en masse before they even reach our gates to fight.
Lesser Dispel/Dispel Magic/Lesser Spell Breach
Spells that linger over the battlefield or enemies protected by enchantments can be a true menace. Therefore, it is advisable for any citizen that has the means to always keep a lesser dispel or dispel magic scroll on their person, or an object that can produce this effect. Spells can end a battle, but if you have the means to do away with the advantage granted by them, then you stand on equal footing once more.
Potions
The people of Sanctuary understand and respect the craft of potion making. The applications and knowledge of their uses is so commonplace that I feel discussing them would be a waste of ink and time, both on the part of the writer and the reader. If for whatever reason the reader lacks this knowledge, almost any adventurer wandering the city can be counted on to ramble off a list of five potions you simply must have.
The only thing I will say on the matter is that a person who has the ability to cast defensive spells should consider carrying a potion or two of their favorite protections, in case they are dispelled.
Wands
Some spells need to be used several times in order to have a serious effect on the outcome of a battle. In this section, I attempt to consider wands that may be overlooked. For instance, although a wand of healing magic would doubtlessly save lives, I do not include it, because those who have the ability to do so commonly utilize these items.
Wand of Sound Burst/Electrical Loop
While not as devastating as a wand of Fireballs, this spell has the potential to deal a lot of damage to clustered enemies as well as stun them. Also, sound energy is a somewhat rare elemental form, and as a result, many creatures do not have an innate resistance or protective item that shields them from this type of damage.
Wand of Sleep
This is an invaluable tool for the defense against an invasion. The bulk of the enemies that will assault the gates will not have the force of character to completely ignore such a metal assault, whereas many of our defenders will. Moreover, the sleep spell has a comparatively large radius to. It is worth mentioning there are a few creatures that are able to resist magical sleep effects, such as the Drow.
Wand of Magic Missile
Some enemies are resistant to physical and some types of elemental damage, so our melee and ranged defenders will need someone who can damage these foes. A few uses of such a wand will have a serious effect on the health of such a creature, and hopefully by this time those of the front line will have enchanted their own weapons with magical objects in their possession.
Wand of Lesser Dispel/Dispel Magic
The importance of these wands cannot be measured. We have all seen the destructive fury a good warrior is capable of after drinking a few potions. Imagine then the same potions and spells supplied to a giant at our gates. There are also several spells that linger on a battlefield that these can clear up quite readily. In honesty, if you could only choose a single wand for the purpose of defending the city, I would say choose a Dispel Magic Wand.
Wand of Fireball/Scintillating Sphere
The applications of these wands are so obvious that I need not go into details. While such an item could literally end a battle, it is not without its risks. The large radius of the blast means that you will need to take care to only attack enemies that have yet to reach the frontlines. Also, the use of such an object can make the possessor a target for ranged attackers. There are various creatures that are resistant to elemental damages as well, so having a wand of fireballs or scintillating sphere as your only contingency may be unwise.
Wand of Stinking Cloud
Provided such clouds are kept a distance from our own gates, these clouds can slow the advance of enemy troops considerably, as well as halve the effectiveness the enemy’s ranged and spell casting soldiers.
DEFENDING AGAINST MAGIC
Enemy Spell Casters
I have outlined many ways a person with access to magic can change the tide of a battle, so for obvious reasons, enemy spell casters of all kinds require special attention on the battlefield. It is assumed that nearly all creatures capable of casting spells that will affect the tide of battle will not be present in the front line. Therefore, these creatures require the focus of our defenders armed with ranged weapons and spells.
Spells of Choice
This sort of combat is often going to take place at a very long range. Obviously, spells that can kill such a creature outright are preferable, but it is likely that an enemy spell caster would have foreseen the most obvious choices of attack (Fireballs, Lightning Bolts, and Magic Missile) and therefore have prepared defenses against these methods. It is crucial therefore to attack these creatures the instant they present themselves, as several of the most potent protective spells do not last for extended periods of time. If your initial attack is thwarted and does not put the enemy spell caster on the defensive or send it running, you have other options, but the circumstances are much more dire.
Dispelling an enemy’s protection is obviously the next best choice of attack. Hopefully you can defeat it quickly once the wards protecting it have been removed.
Long-range spells that disrupt rather than directly harm are useful as well. Freedom of Movement is not often employed in such a scenario, as the dreaded Hold spells require you to be quite close to the recipient. Therefore, Grease and Web can be the next best way to buy time for other spells, as well as allowing ranged defenders to strike the enemy and mortally wound it.
Summoned creatures can provide a nuisance to those unprepared to deal with them. Even a minor creature, if able to close ground to the enemy and actually harm it, can easily mean a spell or two not striking a defender.
Finally, if you can effectively counter-spell a caster, you can prove a valuable defender. This is not a strategy I personally employ, as it requires you have some idea of what spells are going to be used and have several of your own to spare. It also assumes you are either an equal or superior to your opponent, because there is very little chance a novice could counter a spell he cannot even cast. I find that, most of the time, it’s simply more efficient to prepare disabling spells and hope your allies can end the fight.
The Beasts of War
There are powerful creatures in the Underdark. Fortunately, such creatures often lack intelligence, cohesion, or simply numbers, and therefore do not pose a threat to our city by themselves. They can, however, prove to be the crushing fist of an army when trained, enslaved, or allied with lesser creatures.
Those fighting off the attack could often defeat these creatures themselves. The danger they pose is that the defenders are often in various states of injury and fatigue by the time they attack. Therefore, they are usually able to break through enemy lines.
In very unfortunate scenarios, these creatures may be enchanted and transmuted to add to their already formidable prowess.
Ranged Defenders
Those with ranged weapons should unleash their enchanted ammunition at these creatures when they appear. The most important responsibility you have is to alert everyone of what’s coming, so those holding the front know to consume their combat augmenting potions and charms before the real enemy reaches them.
Melee Defenders
Quickly get yourself into shape to fight off a true horror of the Underdark. You should have the potions and charms on hand to make this command feasible. Even if you yourself cannot do anything but stall the creature, you will give valuable time to your companions who can actually damage and ultimately defeat the creature.
Spell Defenders
A true Beast of War will have several protective and offensive spells in effect when it attacks. Your first priority is to take down as many of these defenses as you can so the other defenders can do their job. Once this is done, you should focus on using spells that will disable and damage the creature. Some creatures have an innate resistance to physical attacks, so you may be relied upon to essentially kill the beast while others hold it back from you.
UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES
Magic is a powerful force that cannot easily be understood. Even what I’ve outlined here, what we might consider “common magic,” is so powerful that the average person cannot hope to erect any defense against it. Therefore, it should not be surprising that due to magic, we may have to fight battles not at our city gates but inside the city itself.
Portals
Portals can take a person from one location to another instantaneously without any consideration for what lies between, even to different planes of existence. While the thought of escaping the Underdark is tempting even to me, a portal that that would anywhere in the city is almost guaranteed to be a bad omen. We must also assume that whatever created the portal intends us ill, and if we ignore it, it will come through for us.
Should such a portal appear, one should alert a Spellguard or Watchman, as these two groups are going to attempt to control the situation rather than jump right in. Despite the fact that I do not believe the Spellguard suited to seeing to our day-to-day affairs with their attention so divided, I cannot believe they would choose to ignore such an event. Announcing the fact that you’ve discovered a portal over the Sending system will only cause a mass exodus through the portal before responsible individuals arrive on the scene.
The second task of a responsible citizen should be to defend the area, making sure nothing comes through the portal into the city. There are very few incidents that I am aware of where a portal is maintained for any great length of time, but assuming this occurs, barriers should be constructed and guards should be posted, as well as a swift runner to alert others.
The final task is to form a strike team to investigate and close the portal. This often involves going through it, regrettably. Only the most powerful members of the city, warded by numerous enchantments to protect themselves, should attempt this, as one can almost guarantee they will become engaged in hostile action.
Tunneling
A tunnel dug into our city would take quite a bit of effort to achieve from most creatures. It is, therefore, unlikely that such an event would occur without the assistance of a creature that is particularly capable of making passageways in solid rock, such as the dreaded beholder. If detected early and reported over the sending system, the attackers will hopefully not be able to gain much ground before the defenders can meet them. Once beaten back to the entrance of the tunnel, the principals are quite similar to defending a gate against an assault. It is likely that once beaten back to this point, the enemy will retreat and regroup in order to plot and scheme.
It is during this time that the defenders would have to strike back in order to break the siege before the enemy begins attacking at the gates or digging a second tunnel. The purpose of this attack will not be to wipe out the army, but to slaughter whatever creature(s) were responsible for opening it in the first place. Without the ability to re-tunnel the passageway, all the defenders need do is close the original tunnel. This can generally be accomplished by the use of powerful alchemical materials or with arcane devastation.
Attacks Assisted From Within
A truly horrible scenario, an attack at our gates that is assisted from people or a group within our city would be a very devastating indeed. Due to the nature of thralldom, this scenario may not be as far fetched as one thinks. If such an attack were to occur, there is very little that can be done except to annihilate both groups.
If this were to occur at a city gate and our forces were pressed from both sides, the focus should be on the cultist group. Unlike the fodder that’s probably pressing in from the gate, the people to your back are a much more serious threat. They require priority from all but a few melee warriors, who should keep the gate from being overrun while this threat is dealt with.
In all other respects, similar tactics should be used for dealing with enemies that possess protective enchantments and enemy spell casters. It would be preferable to simply knock these individuals out and have a guardsmen send them to jail, as their thralldom can be ended and, in honesty, such individuals really can’t be held accountable for their actions.
Defeat
While we should avoid this at all costs, it would be unrealistic not to have a plan for what would happen if we should lose the gate. In Sanctuary, while there are many ways to get around and niches known mostly by the natives, without knowledge of these an invader would be forced to use the main avenues of traffic. Fortunately for us, many of these shrink the area a force can move into considerably. For the Upper gate, the stairs immediately leading into Sanctuary provide a chokepoint for Defenders, and the many bridges that separate the large areas around Sanctuary serve this purpose as well.
The first thing would should do is to retreat into a relatively safe area and regroup with others. There is very little that even the most accomplished citizen of Sanctuary can do against an invasion force by his or her self. Once you have a few fellows by your side, you can form a strike force and begin taking Sanctuary back. Once inside Sanctuary the enemy’s considerable forces will begin to spread apart, and whatever effect their numbers and tactics had on the gates will be lost.
Against a very large, determined, or disciplined force, an offensive strike force that roams the streets may not be able to accomplish as much as a force that simply holds an area. Doing so allows those citizens to escape the areas under siege and to regroup, adding numbers to your own.
Uncommon Invaders
Some invaders, as evidenced by the recent Formian assault, have unique methods of movement that allow them to bypass some of our defenses. In this case, they were able to scale our walls effortlessly.
It is my belief that a humble Grease spell, or similar alchemical implements, could slick our walls so this would not be an issue. With a wand of grease, a defender could funnel an assault into other defenders to greatly diminish the effectiveness of this tactic.
Flight presents a unique challenge. Fortunately, the Underdark limits the usefulness of this ability, and as such, it would be a challenge to find creatures capable of this feat to exploit this potential vulnerability, and even harder to find ways to compel them into service.
IN CLOSING…
I hope this book has been useful in stimulating some interest and concern in the defense of Sanctuary, and that it will serve as a model for defensive stratagem of the future. I also hope that the Citizenry, Watch, Spellguard, and Councilors seek to emulate and expand upon the ideas presented here, so that Sanctuary will continue to live up to its namesake.
If one were to ask what I felt the greatest weakness of Sanctuary was, I would tell them that the people are divided. Too many cultists and fanatics run amok in the streets, killing whomever they will. Some kill quietly, meeting their prey in dark alleys, but others, in grandiose spectacle for all to see. Life must be taken by need, not to prove the might of oneself or those they give praise too. To truly meet the threats we face as their equal and superior, a unity of conviction must be achieved against all that would storm our gates, and all people must be willing to sacrifice in order to meet that need. Remember, the young sapling survives the storm that the mighty oak cannot, because when the hurricane is upon him, he bends.