We managed to survive the great land shark attack. First there was the resolution to the question, "How far ahead are Thoril and Maendir scouting?" The answer wound up at a quarter mile, which is practical for scouting but not for encounters. Then there was a diversion to the inn at Westbridge, to reset the context of where they were. And I wound up rolling an encounter during the night.
So I sketched out a layout of inn, pasture, barn and makeshift extra pasture, since they had so many wagons and oxen. None of the encounters were making a lot of sense, so I settled on some wolves being attracted to all the extra oxen. Truth, Freyja and Maendir were on watch. Maendir spotted them and advanced on them, yelling. This alerted the others. Truth cast a fire bolt in their general direction, and rolled a 1 for damage. So at least he didn't set the grass on fire. Freyja joined up with Maendir, so they were a mini-pack in opposition.
Meanwhile, Thoril was sleeping in the woods, and one of the more alert wolves went to check him out. He used body language to indicate that he was not prey, and the wolf pondered how to classify him.
Back at the main incursion, the wolves split into two groups on either side of Maendir/Freyja. Maendir cast speak with animals and told the wolves to back off. Truth tried using thaumaturgy to echo Maendir's howling, but a bad perception roll had him apologizing to the wolves instead: "I'm just a child, I don't know any better." In the end, the wolves decided that this was more opposition than they wanted to deal with, so they withdrew.
Finally, we got the caravan on the road again. Near the end of the day's travel, Maendir and Thoril missed their perception rolls, both with a 6. In the front wagon, Zook also rolled a 6. I gave the scouts another chance and this time Maendir rolled a 16. He noticed a tremor in the ground -- behind him, toward the caravan. Finally, someone had a clue!
So Thoril and Maendir started running back to the caravan, from a quarter mile out. I gave them 5 rounds of running before the bulette emerged in front of the caravan, but that still put them 650 feet out. Let that be a lesson to roll better on perception.
The bulette used its Deadly Leap to pounce on the lead oxen. The target ox rolled a 19! for its save, resulting in half damage. The stupid Monster Manual somehow fails to have an entry for oxen, so I used the HP for draft horse instead -- 19. The ox took 8 damage, thanks to its stellar rolling. Also, I dropped the damage rolls by one die so it wouldn't insta-kill a party member.
Since there are 8 wagons in the caravan, the party was all strung out. Zook was the only one close and the others had to find a way to target it. Fortunately for Su'uvarax, eldritch blast has a terrific range. The oxen rolled the lowest initiative, but they eventually scattered out of the way.
In the next round, I rolled to see what the bulette would target, since there were several wagons nearby. It went for something slightly out of range. With the wagons out of the way, the party had much better line of sight. Also, the NPC guards fired crossbows; their rolls were either really bad or really good.
In the third round, Freyja and Silaqui managed to make it up from the end of the caravan. Freyja threw her javelin and Silaqui took the kill with a chromatic orb; since the bulette had 1 hit point by then, it was the definition of overkill. But I didn't tell them that, because what's the point?
The fight ended with Thoril and Maendir still 400+ feet out. The players think that the scouts should have horses.
Next session, I unleash the cockatrices. Per the MM, they're not a hazard unless they feel threatened. I don't want to park them right next to the road. My next thought was to have the party find a flock of sheep untended, milling about on the road; an investigation would lead them to some stone sheep and shepherds. But would they all investigate? So now the plan is that they overtake a flock on the road, which moves aside to let them pass, and some sheep range into the cockatrices' territory. Cue outraged cockatrices. After that, they should pull into Red Larch. I'll let them wander around town (need to study up on the NPCs) and then do the Tomb of Moving Stones.
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