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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BSF" data-source="post: 1826449" data-attributes="member: 13098">Solution?  Actually, I can think of a couple of options.  I just don't see a combat solution to your situation.  Mostly though, that is verisimilitude.  You know a gnoll army is in the area.  Would it feel right if you didn't see a company of gnolls know and again?  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />What Macbeth is referring to is in the current campaign that I mentioned above.  The one where the PCs decided to go after some gnolls.  This particular situation came about in a rather interesting manner.  See, the PCs are travelling to the next town looking for gnolls.  They are also kind of exploring and they came across an ancient ruin.  They could look around, but some sort of golem was blocking progress.  Knowing it was some sort of construct, they searched for a non-combat method to bypass the situation.  In the campaign, we are using a lot of material from the Oneiromancy chapter in Penumbra's Occult Lore.  So it is possible to journey in dreams.  I knew the PCs could eventually travel into the dream world and recover a key to bypass the golem.  I figured they would investigate the golem and then move on since the PCs have been real antsy about preventing more gnoll raids.  Then they would start having dreams about how they might recover a key.  It was meant to be a staging hook.  But you know how players are.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />They had also recovered potions of dreamwalking.  On a lark, one of the PCs downed the potion right there.  I had to scramble to go through the dream sequence.  Fortunately, even though I hadn't prepped the encounter, I had planned it.  So I was able to wing it with decent proficiency.  The PCs ended up recovering the key the next day when the lucid dreamer went dreamwalking next.  They checked out the ruins and ended up spending something like 9 days there.  More than I anticipated, probably more than they anticipated as well.  But it was cool because I think we were all having fun.  However, the PCs did not get to the next town in time to find out there was a gnoll army getting ready to attack.  Nor did they have any chance to avert the attack, evacuate the town, etc.  Basically, however they decided to address the situation.  What is a DM to do?  Have the PCs wander through another burned out town?  Find more tortured refugees?  Well, I know where the gnolls are going next.  I predict they will pass by this area right around this time.  I figure the PCs won't know the gnolls are there, but maybe they will see the ritual fires and hear the drums in the middle of the night.  Then they can help more tortured refugees, track the gnolls and try to save the next town.  But no, the PCs take that out of my hands as well.  The Shaman sends his spirit hawk up to look for anything interesting.  Hawks have great bonuses to spot right?  Well, the hawk also rolls a natural 20 for spot.  Even with distance penalties, that is a great spot, and 120 humanoids walking across the grassy plain aren't all that difficult to see.So now the PCs know the gnolls are coming their way.  Unfortunately, the PCs are low on spells and hp.  The gnolls are camped ~ 2miles away.  There are only 108 or so of them.  They have a dozen survivors that will likely be tortured and mutilated.  Perhaps even eaten.  The PCs are generally good hearted and would like to save these people.  Can they do it?  I don't know.  I ran with the story arc and this is where we are.  It is far more interesting than walking into another burned out town.  The PCs have the chance to affect the lives of these people.  Can they do so without being killed?  There isn't a right or wrong solution.  There are events and results.  I feel a bit bad for the players to have put them in this situation.  On the other hand, I can see some great characterization coming from this.  I also see creativity.  They might learn a lot about their adversaries too.  We shall see how it all works out.  Tomorrow night actually.Macbeth - Think of this as a tension point.  You guys are in a position to create tension that the gnolls will have to react to.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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