Winter War
by Ville LähdeYou might want to consider the winter offensive still, but this would change the tone of the whole war and require a lot of work.
1) Nomads make a late autumn/early winter lightning strike against Akesoli, securing an important supply base for the spring offensive.
This will make it
possible for them to send in prepared supplies in great quantities, and the armies can be prepared for spring action.
2) With some magical assistance by the Master (the Maelstrom, the airships! - saving them as a surprise isn't necessary) the Nomad elite troops might even
launch another spear attack on Akorros. The great lake is frozen (Depending on the climate you choose for Darokin. I don't use the trail map tables, as they don't seem logical. There has to be a real winter in Darokin/Shires/Karameikos
in my opinion. Nothing compared to Glantri, Ethengar or the Reaches of course, but the east-west mountain range can't separate such extremities. Alfheim and Ylari are magical microclimates for a good storyline reason.)
Picture it: the PCs flee burning Akesoli into the winter, unable to ride all of the time due to blizzards. They know that thousands of crack troops are close on their heels, on their way to the unsuspecting Akorros. Master's powers are scrambling magical ways of intelligence-gathering, so the Daros are unaware...
3) Akorros is besieged, or taken quickly, but the Nomads must halt their advancement due to winter. Their airships allow them to supply Akorros, and Daros cannot take back the city now.
Master's allies in Broken lands, Thar's legions, take action. They are after all used to fighting in desperate situations, can eat the local populace instead of supplies - and most importantly, they are close to Corunglain.
Thar's legion hits the city hard during the winter, making it very hard for Darokin to build up a concerted war effort.
--> An added bonus: This would make it very hard for the PCs to reach Glantri, thus their diplomatic effort will not outrun the war too much.
4) Master's Agents are of course all around the world harming the Darokinian diplomatic effort. (BTW: make the Agents kill a lot of DDC employees in distant places. This makes it plausible why the Daros choose a ragtag group
of adventurers to be their ambassadors! Of course your PC group might be DDC trainees, what do I know?:)) But the same time elite commando units are attacking supply depots, assassinating politicians and otherwise wreaking havoc in the Darokinian system. Thus there is a covert winter war going on
all the time.
5) When spring finally comes, the Darokinians are of course ready for an attack, but already deep in trouble. This might make the war very interesting.
And the Nomads have supplies and troops ready to charge in and relieve the Akorros garrison.
If it seems that the PCs would gather all the allies too early on, send them first to Glantri, then after the saboteurs and assassins out of priority reasons. The next place they go is obviously Alfheim. Make that mission much more complicated (I didn't have the energy), involve them in clan politics and whatnot. That'll take time.