ZEITGEIST Collosus Battle Adv 5

ediz · Jun 8, 2019

Hi, one of the members of the party suggesting using an almost empty train to lure the collosus South of the city into the forest or farmland and while the collosus is playing with his new toy train the king could use his ritual. Is that a good idea or a bad idea?

Tormyr · Jun 8, 2019

I will wait for someone more familiar with that encounter to post, but the thought of the colossus playing with a toy train makes me smile.

Len · Jun 8, 2019

Yeah, this sounds like one of those things that falls in the category of "too good to refuse". But then the question is, how long will the colossus be fascinated with his toy? There's always a way for the DM to turn the players' great idea into a nail-biter.

Andrew Moreton · Jun 9, 2019

It could be fun. However make sure there are enough problems to keep the players involved, I think that the Colossus senses when the king starts the ritual and he has to be in sight of it. So how are they going to stop it stomping him for the 30 minutes or so he needs . Could be a train chase with Bourne chasing another train, maybe have Gale fly him around , or have a fast ship in a nearby canal.
It is the sort of good player idea I would want to run with , just make the events memorable with their quick thinking being all that prevents disaster in the city and Bourne reaching the king

ediz · Jun 9, 2019

Yes, I am trying to think of what kind of Skill checks I can have the PCs do. One of them has come up with the idea of having the train shoot off fireworks. If the train is able to maintain the same distance from the collosus without the collosus losing interest. I can have the arcanist cast some spell or something. Any ideas how I can make this encounter work.

Andrew Moreton · Jun 9, 2019

To stop Bourne attacking the king and interrupting the ritual you are going to want decoys
Perhaps another train running in the opposite direction starts to fire off fireworks as he gets close to decoy him
A massive surge of fireworks to the face to blind Bourne
Paint bomb to the face
(some of these are the ideas my pc's tried)
Getting Harkover to mirror the ritual so Bourne senses it elswhere, or maybe a PC spellcaster can do that using his position as an officer of the crown to draw on the kings power
Hidden battery of guns on the Hill shoot bourne to distract him
Crazy mountain climber with bombs scale his legs and attack the knee's to slow him down or avoid him
Try to lure him into a swamp, or get the train over a bridge with a wide ravine to slow him down
Swoop down on a giant bat and poke him in the eyeball .......

I abandonded the structured encounter in favour of a series of montages where each pc had a chance to do something cunning and based off how well they rolled decided how long the king would take, ideally with the king succeeding as the players plan their last stupid and near suicidal trick, as lets face it you want the king to pull if off with the pc's aid

Zipster · Jun 15, 2019

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I don't think Flint has any trains going out of the city? The subway system in the city is just now being completed in adventure 5. You may have done things differently, and really, it's a solid idea save for now Borne can throw a train at the party. Being on land - and if they're on train as others had suggested, a train being hurled at them or their train is quite catastophic. In the sea battle, I can imagine the boats moving fast enough in the Naval Round to make something like that a harder hit. Borne Isn't stupid, unfortunately, just a child-like disposition at first. One train that isn't fun can be thrown at the one that's moving, or the tracks, or that train can just be grabbed. Aodhan's ritual is sure to attact Borne's attention.

ediz · Jun 15, 2019

Well, it seems you may have forgotten the events of adventure 3. Wherein the party took the train from Flint to Bole. I envision it to go off less like a combat and more like a skills challenge. The skills check for the engineer is to maintain a speed fast enough where Borne cannot catch up nor does he fall behind. (Kind of like the old Bugs Bunny idea where he was riding a donkey with a carrot attached to a fishing pole.) The party has four members... a Steamwright, an Arcanist, a Slayer and an Oracle. I feel as though the Steamwright engineer can perform Engineering checks and such. The Arcanist Arcana checks to use his spells to keep Borne interested. I am trying to figure out what the Slayer and Oracle can do.

Andrew Moreton · Jun 15, 2019

Ediz , your approach is basically like mine was to this battle, although my party was on ships. I suspect your players will come up with things to do and then you can think of ways to ensure they are useful failing that.
Have Bourne get his withcoil oozes on the train then the Oracle and the Slayer will have to protect the King and the train from them. Maybe add some bystanders (in a cart on the road) they can rescue before Bourne treads on them. Without knowing the Oracles speciality it is hard to work out what they can do as Oracles differ so widely . Most have good social skills , so persuading the train crew to help, inspiring some soldiers to mount a diversion, maybe tricking a powerful local Fae into doing something useful

Zipster · Jun 16, 2019

ediz said:
Well, it seems you may have forgotten the events of adventure 3. Wherein the party took the train from Flint to Bole. I envision it to go off less like a combat and more like a skills challenge. The skills check for the engineer is to maintain a speed fast enough where Borne cannot catch up nor does he fall behind. (Kind of like the old Bugs Bunny idea where he was riding a donkey with a carrot attached to a fishing pole.) The party has four members... a Steamwright, an Arcanist, a Slayer and an Oracle. I feel as though the Steamwright engineer can perform Engineering checks and such. The Arcanist Arcana checks to use his spells to keep Borne interested. I am trying to figure out what the Slayer and Oracle can do.

Indeed, I did forget about the train ride to Bole. There's a lot to keep in mind with this world, lol.