Another couple of questions for the sages.

[Ochoa]

First: is there a detailed write-up of the Daka Fal cult like those in Storm Tribe anywhere? My shaman is asking questions and it's getting harder and harder to stall.

Second: the players are about to finalize Spathar's pilgrimage to help the Lunar defector break his bonds to the Seven Mothers and gain acceptance as a Humakti (hehe). I have, as final opposition, a group of undercover lunars who have stayed behind as a fifth column. They know and use Heortling laws and culture to their advantage, confusing the PCs repeatedly with markedly non-lunar behavior. They're statted out and a challenge to the party. 

My problem is, basically, that if I put these 9 NPCs vs my players the fight will drag on forever. 

Any pointers on making such a large fight run smoothly/quickly?

[metcalph]

Daka Fal is written up in Cults of Prax (rq2 rather than rqg) 

[g33k]

1 minute ago, metcalph said:

Daka Fal is written up in Cults of Prax (rq2 rather than rqg) 

And then reprinted in the Cult Compendium.

[Ochoa]

Aaaand purchased. Thank you!

[Austin]

2 hours ago, Ochoa said:

My problem is, basically, that if I put these 9 NPCs vs my players the fight will drag on forever. 

Any pointers on making such a large fight run smoothly/quickly?

Honestly, maybe try out @Cgeist7's app Cradle of Heroes for recordkeeping and quick access back and forth between the NPCs? I've used it a little and found it reasonable to work with. I don't know if it made our last fight quicker, but I do think it made things a bit easier for me to run (I also have my laptop open all the time in sessions for notes, etc so it's a norm for me). You'll want to use the non-player character generator, and compile them in either a faction or an encounter (both of which have a quick-access screen).

Simplifying Statement of Intent to "SIZ or DEX?" speeds things up a little for me. You could also try foregoing SoI but I feel that has mixed results.

Predetermined surrender/flee conditions can help, but may be less useful in this type of fight. Ex. if a trollkin mob and a dark troll attack my players, typically at least some of the trollkin will flee after my players kill the dark troll. So if there's a Lieutenant, some soldiers, and like one or two militia, maybe the militia flee if the players defeat the lieutenant.

Of course, you could always just resolve the fight with a Battle roll 😎 but yeah that'd be super unsatisfying for your players, I bet. Still, maybe Battle rolls to start and see if a few of the NPCs are reduced at start?

Alternately, you could just let it be this huge nasty fight! Maybe it should drag out. Some of my more memorable RQ moments involve giant, session-long battles. Depends on the group, of course, but I've found it super satisfying as a player to spend like four hours of a session grinding out a long, hard combat. In a way, to me, it really gives that feeling of "oh god I'm sweaty and dirty and bloody and tired" from the fatigue as a player afterward.

[Sumath]

2 hours ago, Ochoa said:

My problem is, basically, that if I put these 9 NPCs vs my players the fight will drag on forever.

You could always have them engage each other on a dynamic battleground - by which I mean one where the environment changes during the course of the battle. There are a couple of ways to achieve this - the obvious one is a static battle in a changing environment (e.g. a collapsing building/mine/cavern with floors or ceiling dropping away, a coastal or river area where changing water levels alter the terrain, or amongst a herd of animals providing cover or obstacles to movement). This allows combatants to be creative with the opportunities the environment provides (pits, rock falls, pools, stampedes, etc) and combat options like knockback can be used.

But you could also play the combat as a running battle with the party pursuing or fleeing from the enemy, or with both groups trying to reach an objective first (e.g. a prisoner, a door, a McGuffin). In that case they could move through a varied environment in which the terrain might favour one side or another randomly. Debilitating injuries would see combatants fall behind or be out of the fight altogether. Spells like Mobility and Slow become more important, much early combat could be missile or spell fire, and aimed blows to opponents' legs and throwing obstacles in the enemy's path become important group tactics. You could also break the fight up into chunks if one group gets ahead for a while before the other catches up again etc. There are chase rules in RQG that can be used, but it would probably be best run as a miniatures battle on a moving grid.