Help! Players have avoided encounter - need an alternate.

[Infiniti2000]

Here's some real house damage (mine). Feel free to share it as well. This was from Charley in 2004. It caused over $113K in damage. When it hit us in Orlando, it was only a Cat 2 hurricane, though I think gusts were about 110mph or maybe 120mph.

 

[Hand of Evil]

for some images, just search on lewis & Clark Keel Boat:

http://www.lewis-clark.org/media/images/bo_keelP.jpg

 

[CarlZog]

A couple additional thoughts on vessel movement:

Poles and sails will be useless as a means of propulsion in this circumstance. They will be moving so quickly downriver, any effort to connect with the bottom using a pole will either be fruitless or profoundly dangerous. As other have said a sail would be shredded, but wind in this circumstance will also most likely be funneling along the length of the river, not blowing across it in the direction they want to go.

To calculate how far down the river they go, I'd assume the water will be carrying them downstream at a rate of about 10 mph. I would reduce their forward motion across the river to between 20 and 30 feet to reflect hazardous conditions. Based on the width of the river, determine how long it will take them to cross barring disaster. The amount of time they're on the water multiplied by the downstream movement rate will give you some idea where they end on the other side. Assuming they actually make to the other side in one piece.

Depending on how well they know the area, getting back to where they want to be from where they end could be a whole other adventure.

Carl

 

[lobsterGun]

Hey all,

The problem is that one of my players said "Hey! We can just use my Quaal's Feather Token: Swan Boat to sail across the water.

How many times during the game are they going to get the opportunity to use the Feather Token to such good effect? How many times has one ever been put to such a good use in _any_ game? I'm guessing the answer to both of these questions of zero and close to zero.

Just let them cross the river. They earned it.

 

[GandalfMithrandir]

Another thing along those lines is they can say after it's all done "hey, remember that time we tried to cross the river in the swan boat?" maybe they'll say "man, that was such a stupid idea" or they'll say "That was a great idea, it was a lot of fun watching our characters get thrown around like bowling pins!"

Either way it will almost definitely lead to a memorable (positive or negative) experience.

 

[Sigurd]

I hate to buck the trend but its a 500gp magic item with one use. If it can carry 8 horses and gear for 32 men its not small. They'd have the advantage that they could carry it to a clear bit of river (even in a hurricane) and activate it for a very short violent trip. It would begin completely undamaged and almost certainly be damaged by the end of the trip but its a magic item.


I'd give them a difficulty to get on or off it. Some difficulty safely getting to land but during the trip I'd mostly trust the magic of the item. How big is the river? It might simply get caught on the other bank.

I know you've planned a challenge here but I think this isn't such a terrible trump for the challenge. If the player's going to burn a magic item like this, I'd probably give them a little cooperation.

Sigurd

 

[Eloi]

I would like to suggest that the PCs sail across the water, reasonably happy with the way their Token is holding up, when they see something happening on the other bank.

Someone (who is likely a valuable person to know) is running towards the water downstream of the party, being pursued by an Ogre (CR 3). If the PCs angle the Swanboat a bit, they can accelerate and get into a decent tactical position just before the Ogre gets there.

If they hurry.

The person hasn't seen the party yet, and is having a hard go of it against the wind.

This lets the party have a "Wow, where did you come from?" moment. Very cool for heroes.

 

[Sigurd]

I like that. Some way to congratulate the player for the somewhat reckless use to the token.

 

[Mistah J]

Hello and thank-you.


Your advice on the matter was very helpful and appreciated so I thought I'd post the results of the session with you all.

The party decided to try the bridge in the end. They did a very good job of getting most of the way across but just at the last section, a series of really bad rolls had everyone fall into the river.

Since none of them could really swim all that well in a raging river - the party member with the token used it like a life raft. It was large enough to scoop up everyone as it rose to the surface and then I just let them get across to the other side with an Acrobatics check to jump.

Since they already did most of the bridge encounter, I didn't really care too much about steering the boat or getting on or off. I also hand-waved any command word activation for the token since without it, it could have been a TPK.

Thanks again for your advice, it really helped me out.