Fishing for ideas

[werk]

I have a session tomorrow, and am not coming up with anything good for a biggish encounter so I thought I'd go fishing.

Any of my players, yeah, beat it.

So here's the set-up: Party is strait class (cleric, rogue, monk, ranger, wizard) level 3 std races in the forgotten realms setting. I play lower magic, double scale. The party is traveling south to north through the Star Mts in the High Forest in the 'Western Heartlands'. They are basically fleeing a city that is controlled by bad guys, and are searching for a druid friend of an ally to find a safe place to hide out and maybe get some help or advice about the bad guys. In the last session the party fled the city and I've rolled encounters every day of travel. They've done really well with this, but I'd like to have some more substance than rolling encounters.

I decided that there would be a situation when the party has to travel through a tight mountain pass...but now all my ideas are clunky. I'd prefer to have something(s) charging a toll or preventing travel through the pass, but am open to most anything that is level appropriate. There is a huge underdark tie-in with the city, so duergar and drow are on the encounter tables. The pass could be cliff face on one side and raging rapids on the other, pretty much anything, they're not there yet.

I have a bigger adventure set up for once they reach the druid, so a nice encounter really fits the bill.

Just looking for ideas to help me make it interesting.

 

[Turanil]

the party has to travel through a tight mountain pass...but now all my ideas are clunky. I'd prefer to have something(s) charging a toll or preventing travel through the pass

Each side of the pass are cavern and fortifications, as two opposing groups of creatures are at war with each other. There are sentinels of each side continuously watching to the other side. When the PCs arrive, they will be spotted by probably both of them. So they are in between fire. They may be intercepted by one side then the other; obviously they cannot fight one side (even less both) all by themselves. Hence they must use diplomacy and treachery just to get through.

 

[The_Gneech]

"Buzz On the Bridge" from Dungeon #100 ... giant bees have made a hive in a covered bridge that's the only way across a deep gorge.

-The Gneech

 

[Arkhandus]

A few roving small/medium Earth Elementals on the loose maybe? Could tie-in with the druid, like saying that they're part of a growing problem nearby, some imbalance in nature or whatnot. Or a temporary portal to the Elemental Plane of Earth has opened up nearby, maybe it opens this time of the year once every 1,000 years. Perhaps instead a few Earth Genasi bandits in the area, looking to extort a huge toll on anyone passing through, like demanding half their valuables? Maybe some Ogres are standing over the pass and looking to roll small boulders onto anyone that comes by, as some sort of (deadly) ogrish prank? Perhaps a low-level (5-ish in level, or thereabouts) evil druid is in the pass currently, with a pack of wild dogs/badgers/dire badgers/wolves/hawks/whatever at his command, and is seeking to dissuade travel through the pass, waylaying travelers to prevent traders and such from reaching the other side, hoping to work toward the fall or decay of a city/town/village/whatever on the other side, so nature can reclaim the area? Or some Grimlocks might be wandering around the pass after having left the Underdark through some nearby cave-tunnel, and are looking for fresh meat or weapons or whatnot to take for their tribe/clan/whatever-it-is-grimlocks-have.

 

[JimAde]

I play lower magic, double scale.

Just out of curiosity: what does "double scale" mean?

On topic: How about bandits? Sure it's done to death, but an unguarded pass that people have to go through is the perfect place to set up a little extortion.

 

[philreed]

Each side of the pass are cavern and fortifications, as two opposing groups of creatures are at war with each other.

Take it a step further -- the party hires on as mercs and works either side of the conflict -- and you've got yourself a Clint Eastwood movie.

 

[werk]

Just out of curiosity: what does "double scale" mean?

On topic: How about bandits? Sure it's done to death, but an unguarded pass that people have to go through is the perfect place to set up a little extortion.

Well, take the scale on the maps, and multiply by 2 It spreads everything out and allows more 'normal stuff' (like farmers) for low magic. It helps prevent tripping over monsters and archmages all the time.

Yeah, they've already run into badits, but I've considered either using mostrous humanoids or underdark races for the bandits... If I use this idea, I want to make it with a twist or change it to make it more interesting than before.

At the moment, I'm leaning towards the opposing faction thing. There are a lot of displaced critters from all the development and mining going on. Probably something small like goblins or kobolds that I can add classes to. Buzz on the Bridge sounds like a regular encounter, but a good one.

They are getting into a Watchers of Severeld vs Brotherhood of Black Blood fued, so I'd like to lay off the druids for another few sessions. They had a druid trailing them for the first couple of days travel after leaving the city...they hate him.

Keep em coming! Thanks!

 

[diaglo]

N5 Under Illefarn.



or a needleman encounter in the High Forest. needlemen hate elves more than orcs do.

 

[werk]

Follow up

So I totally stole the first ideas that I got from this thread.

The party came up on a pinch in the mountain pass. When they scouted ahead they could see a bunch of goblin females and children all huddled up against the pass wall with the goblin warriors behind a low wall ahead. Opposite the wall was a small contigent of bladelings that had taken up residence in a cave. Eventually the party approached the goblins and learned that this was not their cave, they had been forced out of a cave far away, but this cave was as far as they could go because the pass was blocked ahead by a giant bees' nest. The party agreed to help the goblins find a new home if they would help with the bees. The goblin leader gave them 9 warriors to help, and they went ahead and web/burned the bees' nest and bridge that it were attached to with limited conflict. So now they return to the goblins with one dead warrior and no way to move the goblins over the newly destroyed bridge...and they still need to deal with the bladelings.

Nice lil side encounter.

 

[JoeBlank]

I requested suggestions for a similar situation a while back in this thread:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=112345

Ended up going with the idea of bandits spreading rumors of a troll (or owlbear) in the area, and then using a fake owlbear to distract before they attacked. Made for a fun little encounter while on the road. And the PCs were even more surprised the next night when the real owlbear made an appearance.