During the war, a terrible event has befallen your nation!
Word has reached the capital that the kingdom's army, yes the ENTIRE army has been wiped, the scattered survivors fled, and the nation now utterly defenseless.
This was the responsibility of, and this is true beyond a shadow of doubt, five.
A party of five monstrously powerful persons sent by the rival kingdom. Somehow, this party of individuals have utterly bested the army in combat with terrible power. Supposedly comprising of a Soldier, a Cleric, a Wizard, a Ranger, and a Barbarian.
They were like gods, arrows would bounce off them, swords broke upon them, and with a mere gesture a hundred died in an instant.
How does the Kingdom react?
>>44435142
>the ENTIRE army has been wiped
What Kingdom?
Serving as a beacon of hope, the frightened, scattered and defenseless masses of the kingdom take up arms, and rally behind the five heroes.
Either scream, beg for mercy, or worship them as gods. If that doesn't work, pray to whatever deity you happen to worship that the wizard will land a crit for damage, but a crit fail for accuracy, thus killing themselves by suicide.
>>44435142
Invoke the Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu. My battle prowess just rose exponentially, as I went from one of thousands to one against five.
>>44435268
I'd allow it.
>>44435142
Send out spies to verify the facts.
Assuming verification, they're just 5 people, 4 options:
1. Assassination if possible, preferably by subterfuge as to restrict any physical combat and to prevent it from being traced back to us
2. Less preferable: an enormous bounty on them so that every kilometer they walk, they are hounded with cannon fodder.
3. Informational Warfare: Find their objective and send agents to essentially mislead them (If they want treasure, lure them to a 3rd party kingdom to create havoc, if they want our nation's destruction, tell them a cave with some item can destroy us, when in reality it's a dragon's broodnest)
4. Have the court mage or local college of magic come up with methods of long range methods of destruction. Death is preferable, though sending them far away (another continent, another realm, w/e) works too. We're aiming to use time to our advantage, the longer it takes for them to get back, the more time we'll have to come up with counter-strategies.
>>44435311
There's no army. The kingdom is nothing but a battlefield for neighboring states.
>>44435311
>2. Less preferable: an enormous bounty on them so that every kilometer they walk, they are hounded with cannon fodder
That's just their daily routine.
As a DM I'd throw widows and orphans at them after a stunt like that. And bandits sacking defenseless villages.
>>44435142
We just teleport-drop a vortex bomb upon their heads. There is nothing you can't fix with a certain ammount of explosives.
>>44440567
They just killed the majority of the able bodied men in a whole kingdom; I doubt they give a shit if it gets raided.
Hell I'm pretty sure whoever hired them is taking over the land right this moment.
>>44435142
And what kind of a kingdom has only one army? Like seriously, you don't start a war if you have only one army, that can be wiped out by five lvl20 adventurers.
>>44435142
We surrender immediately.
I mean, it's the natural way of things. Exalted does this best: The ruling caste consists almost entirely of Exalted, and a Circle of Solars are the best-equipped to rule Creation.
Worship our new God-Kings! Praise them, or be destroyed!
>>44441268
What stops the Circle of Solars or Exalted from just being petty godlike beings that perpetually devastate the land in conflicts control
Easy:
I hypnotize a few prisoners and cast polymorph on them to make them look like my family members and me.
I empty out the treasury and with my bags of holding and flee the country with my most loyal retainers, their families and my family.
Also leave a note saying the nearby Ancient green who recently got a new clutch robbed the kingdoms treasury so if they want cash they'll get into trouble while we are on our way out of the country.
Or even better i politely present my self to them as an agent of the enemy kingdom who offers them rewards for the task of bringing me the hearts of all those green dragons (which i can later use to gain a dragon-sorcerers bloodline for my whole family so revenge in the future is an option).
>>44435142
Fair play, sue for peace.
We have been outmanoeuvred and have no recourse but to hash out a deal that will limit the suffering of our people and our kingdom. Naturally we will draw out negotiation for as long as possible so we may put together contingency forces for a last stand should they be so vindictive as to invoke total war.
Also it would be wise neutralise these exceptional individuals through covert means, trying to kill then will no doubt lead to some cosmically ironic backfire for myself so bribery or distraction should do well enough. Framing some foreign power or the one they currently work for for a slight could be most effective, if they're patriots then God help us.
I should look to meet them and what I can, I shall change their hearts or they will take my head. Rudolf, prepare my horse!
>>44435142
>''Well it looks like it'a time to call up my old bunch''
>King is actually a lvl 20 Valour Bard who married the first princess
>Calls up the rest of his former party who got generously financed by him in exchange for favours to do a bit of a clean up
>2 days later at the enemy capitol : '' Your majesty i have bad news. The enemy king and a group of four following him destroyed our entire army. The other four are a Monk, a Rouge, a Druid and a Sorcerer with monstrous powers.''
How does the enemy kingdom react
It kinda makes sense for the rulers in fantasy worlds to be powerful themselves or at least to have the backing of powerful individuals.
>>44442645
>How does the enemy kingdom react
"Tell the heroes to press on and destroy the enemy kingdom. If the King care's about his people he'll return home. If he does not, then we can be satisfied of having assured mutual destruction."
"Sire, how can we be sure their party won't defeat ours?"
"Simple, general. Our party are min-maxers. The lot of them. And the Gods aren't about to end the game by killing them all in a single encounter. They might as well throw rocks at them instead."
>>44442759
>The monk spends 15 ki total and annihilates the entire party of ''gods'' or ensures that the rest of the party has a chance to deal the finishing move.
>>44440760
Fairly common for a kingdom to have single army during medieval times. That's why England was conquered by the Normans after a single battle, for example.
The 'army' gathered in the spring, i.e. all the trained nobles with a small contingent of their best man-at-arms, plus whatever levies and mercenaries they deemed neccessary for the task they wished to accomplish. Then they struck out, gathering additional forces as they went to attack or defend a city, crossing, mountain pass, etc...
Armies, as we know them, are more the purview of larger empires, like the Roman, Chinese, Persian, and so on.
>>44435142
I advise to go for white peace with the rival kingdom.
>>44435311
>1. Assassination
That woule probably only piss them off more. If I were them, it would be another reason to kill all those in command.
>2. enormous bounty
Again, it would probably piss them off. Albeit they might also welcome all the free fighting experience they get on their way here.
>3. Informational Warfare
This is probably your best suggestion yet. But if they have clear objectives and the enemy knows exactly where to send them, this will not end well for us and it might just make them angrier. Again.
>4. magic destruction
This will most probably not work, if our own court mages aren't as strong as theirs: if their mage is as strong as reported, he'll likely see this coming from a mile away. And they also have a cleric, of whom we do not have much information on aswell.
>>44440760
I usually clump my levies up into one nice big army to crush the enemies when I'm trying to conquer or subjugate someone who has a lot of men himself.
>>44442562
This man has a good head on his shoulders.
>>44435142
I don't think they will be able to conquer our lands when there's only five of them. You need people to siege the castles and then actually hold all the counties in the first place.
I think we'll have enough time to call a truce with the enemy empire. In the meantime, we shall withdraw from them if they get too close.
>>44435311
That deals with the 5. But what about the armies of neighbouring kingdoms when they hear that you don't have an army ?
>>44435142
Gentlemen, the answer is clear.
We must train our own, better Adventurers.
>>44447928
Pull a Venice
>>44442759
You're an idiot. Obviously the right answer to >>44442645 is:
>''Well it looks like it'a time to call up my old bunch''
>King is actually a lvl 21 Battlemaster Fighter who became a king by his own hand
>Calls up the rest of his former party who are members of his High Council
>2 days later at the enemy capitol : '' Your Majesty, I have bad news. The enemy king and a group of four following him destroyed our entire army. The other four are a Warlock, an Arcane Trickster, a Berserker and a Paladin with monstrous powers.''
