Fight Drow Army or Not

I figured if I start this discussion now, maybe we will get some answers by the next session.

I vote for helping the dwarves fight the Drow, for many reasons. First of all, many of the adventurers helping might not know that Erubis (Spelling?) plans on taking over, and we have a moral obligation to help saves the lives of these innocent people. Second, if we can help the dwarven army to survive, then we have allies against the adventurer takeover of the town. Third, while the chances are the town will win this war with the Drow, there is still a chance the Drow will win. I think we need to fight.

I can't stress enough that this needs to be decided LONG before the next session. I need to know what I have to prepare, and it's gonna take some time. Let's get crackin gents. Appreciate it!

Stitch:

As I see it, we have two options:

1: Put our necks on the line twice, fending off the well-planned attacks of the Drow and then Erebus.

2: Control the situation ourselves and fight once, going right for Erebus...on our terms.


The second option seems far more strategic, but where's the fun in that?!

I've only wasted 2 of my 9 lives, so I vote that we first sharpen our blades on some Drow necks and then go plunge them in to Erubitch Limplance after.

I love how you state the logical course of action, then decide on the other one. Good choice my friend.

My character is dead, but I think it makes more sense for me to join as a random adventurer assisting in the defense against the Drow before joining in the fight against Erebus.

Besides, Drow are only elves and we all know elves have limp-wrists and cannot properly use a weapon.

i vote to fight both times!

Erebus, all the way. We owe the dwarves nothing. They fortified Chateau Anderway because it was actually one of their entrances--yeah, thanks for helping us by helping yourselves. We gave them one of there most sacred artifacts...for a few scrolls of Teleport. We owe them nothing. Erebus, however, we owe a sword in the face. That guy is responsible for so much that the party has gone through. He betrayed us, along with many other adventurers.

I think the biggest screw-you would be to find evidence of Erebus' plot and then to haul him in before the dwarves, dead or alive. Granted, alive would be a lot funnier, just to see some berserker dwarves rip him to shreds.

I think the Drow army is advancing on the dwarves regardless. And please understand the futility that ONE MORE adventuring party, of moderate skill level, will have on the outcome of that war.

Erebus should be our focus. Let the dwarves hold off the drow for a few days on their own. We're adventurers, and we're privy to inside information regarding some of the major happenings around (and under) Waterdeep. We should be using that information, not simply becoming akin to the dwarven fodder who will be slaughtered by the drow.

Dave, we can work your new PC in simple enough. You're the last of an adventuring party that was completely obliterated by Erebus' betrayal. You hear we're looking for Erebus and you want in on that action--badly.

Plus, the Erebus storyline is a zillion times more intriguing. Do you fight wolves and bats or go after Dracula himself? This really should be a no brainer for an adventuring party folks.

This thread should really be in the Rusty Axe forum. DM Tabletop is for online role-playing. I'll be moving this accordingly.

I need a consensus here gentlemen... what's it gonna be?

Stitch thinks Andreas's plan to ignore an entire army of Drow (and who-knows-what) just to go after one human is boooring.
Our participation might not tip the scales drastically, but we'll definitely make the battle more awesome!
Plus, we need to see our HQ Slaughterhouse put into action!

Hey Mart, what kind of attack bonus does a Halfling get if fired from a hallway catapult?

Standard +2 for charging, plus the enemy is denied their Dexterity bonus as they pause and say "WTF?!"

I have already stated my opinion, but I will state it again. I think it would be out of character to go straight for Erebus, I would much rather help fight the Drow army, however if we decide to skip the army i'll go with the groups decision.

So it seems the majority wishes to fight the drow. Congratulations gentlemen, you've decided to become just another grunt in a war whose odds were already clearly tipped in favor of the drow. Erebus has calculated all of this. If he was able to get the war started, he knows full well what the dwarves are capable of. This means he would not have started the war until he was fully sure of its outcome.

Six medium-level adventurers will not change the outcome of a massive battle. We're quite aptly a drop in the bucket here.

Therefore, our fight will be pointless. In the meantime, Erebus, the guy who engineered the whole thing, will be free to further his plans.

I'm all for democratic decisions here. If I'm out-voted then that's the way it is. However, I really can't understand why we're all voting for futility here. Seems rather foolish. Not to mention very un-heroic. This is like Beowulf deciding to fight all of the monsters at the bottom of the mire instead of going after Grendel's mother herself. I simply don't understand this.

Eric Gaidin wrote:

Seems rather foolish. Not to mention very un-heroic. This is like Beowulf deciding to fight all of the monsters at the bottom of the mire instead of going after Grendel's mother herself. I simply don't understand this.

We're not chosing to fight one battle instead of the other.
We're chosing to fight both battles.
That's EXTRA heroic!

Erebus clearly isn't going anywhere if this is all part of master plan...and ignoring the Drow isn't going to save any extra lives.

...so lets help stomp this army AND kick his ass.
That will show him that he shouldn't have underestimated the "meager" contributions of Stitch and the Meat Shields!!

Army grunts are typically low level, so a mid-level party can cause quite a stir in a battle.

Helping the Dwarves could prevent the battle from spilling into the streets of Waterdeep.

We could go straight for Erebus and should we defeat him we might have a city overun with Drow to contend with afterwards.

Besides, Stitch needs his meatsheids! A catapault isn't going to fire a halfling by itself.

We'd have better chance of defeating one man then tipping the scales in our favor for an entire war. Anyone who argues this, no matter how powerful that one man is (heck, make him 20th lvl), is a fool. The drow are going to win. Erebus set it up this way, and Mart stated it very clearly at the end of last session. Therefore fighting the war is futile. The drow are going to be in the streets whether we fight the war or not. Therefore, fighting Erebus is the only logical option.

The Lord-General wrote:

Army grunts are typically low level, so a mid-level party can cause quite a stir in a battle.

Helping the Dwarves could prevent the battle from spilling into the streets of Waterdeep.

With the size of the drow army that's approaching, a mid-level party isn't going to make a dent. The dwarves have been feverishly building fortifications for MONTHS. This means they understand the vast size of the drow army. We're going to be a drop in the bucket. What we really need to do is take out Erebus. Erebus has allied himself with the drow in order to take over Waterdeep. He is the head of the operation. If we take out the head, the rest of the operation will fall apart--maybe not immediately, but it will be much more disorganized.

However, if we end up fighting drow in the street, then we have the entire citizenry of Waterdeep at our side. I can guarantee you that they don't want a drop army marching through their town. Plus, if the drow army makes it topside, I can also guarantee you that there won't be many of them left. Drow on the surface means the dwarves lost the war, and I can't even imagine the high number of drow casualties if the dwarves have been wiped out.

So, we won't have many to fight on the surface. I believe that Erebus needed this drow army to severely thin the ranks of the dwarves below Waterdeep. Erebus wishes to instill an evil dictatorship and he knew that the dwarves would never allow this as it would completely affect their subterranean life. Therefore, Erebus is using the drow just like he used us. He has no intention of sharing power with the drow, but needs them to defeat the dwarves. The drow army will break on the dwarven defenses.

Erebus should receive our full attention. If he doesn't go down, Waterdeep will.