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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 5652028" data-attributes="member: 6669384">Within the next couple of weeks I'm probably going to be running a special game session, one where a character has to evade the Wild Hunt, of Celtic mythology.According to Celtic lore, Arwyn is the Celtic deity in charge of the underworld.  The Wild Hunt is normally lead by Vandos, a minor deity, who leads/drives the hunt across the land at night.  The hunt gathers the souls of the fallen and drives them to the dark realm of Tor, under the plains of Glastonbury.The PC in question is fated to die (the dice have already been rolled, it's a done deal).  He's 9th level, with 3 Barbarian and probably 6 Wizard.  Now, to my way of thinking, he'll be running in spirit form, but still semi-solid, in that both the hounds and the prey need to concern themselves with terrain modifiers, and things like brush and walls and such.  He won't have any of his gear with him (you can't take it with you, you know).Now this particular chase won't be taking place anywhere near Celtic lands, so I'm probably not going to have the actual deity on the field.  Divine presence in the lands of another pantheon, even in this special context, would be a problem, so they'll send one of the other huntsmen and a portion of the Sluagh (the hounds of the hunt) to do the job.Now I'm thinking that the Sluagh should probably be Shadow Mastiff, perhaps bumped a dice or two.  There should be no way to fight a pack of these guys and make it.  The scene is, they chase and you run.Shadow Mastiff have a lovely ability for this purpose:  Their baying causes panic in those who hear (anyone within 300 feet).  Once affected you're immune to the bay of that particular hound, but with a pack of them you could keep someone in near mindless flight all night long.While my first impulse is to put the huntsman on a Nightmare, I know there's almost certainly something more appropriate.Oh, I almost forgot the goal of this:  In our version of the mythology, you can choose to challenge the huntsman to a "true hunt", make a real sport of it.  Our hero will begin his flight at sunset.  He'll have a head start until moonrise, then the hunt will be on.  If he can evade the pursuit until sunrise, he gets to return to his body.  Failure means that he becomes one of the Sluagh, and never reaches the afterlife.As a side note, there is an in-game, story bases reason for this to take place, it isn't just a DM pulling the punch on a PC death.  Also, the Wild Hunt is just about the only afterlife transition that's said to be visible to mortal eyes.  Legend says that mortals may in fact get caught up in the hunt if they're incautious and out on the plains at night.  That means that other PCs might get involved, voluntarily or otherwise, and "civilians" can be accidentally involved as well.I can't have the Sluagh actually hurting civilians in this, but if someone intentionally interferes they're fare game (literally).So, what I'm looking for is inspiration, alternatives, bits of the unexpected to toss in.If you were designing it, how would you lay it out.  (Likely to begin in a major city, in China of all places.)  System is D&D3.5, in case that wasn't clear.</blockquote>

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