Greenfield
Adventurer
We have a tradition at our table that somebody (often me) will come up with a Halloween themed adventure right about this time of year.
I was running this over the past two weekends, when suddenly the play seemed to laps into a comedy of errors.
The party was pressing their horses to try and get to a town for the night, instead of camping. One of the characters, the Paladin, was being hag-ridden each night, and was up and functional purely by the power of Lesser Restoration spells.
They knew, from certain signs and portents, that there had been "enemy" activity at or near this town in the last 48 hours or so. It was dark when they arrived, but those with good night vision could make out humanoid shapes along the town's walls.
After a time they realized why this seemed wrong: It was a Human town, as far as they knew, but there weren't any lights. Human guards on that wall would need them.
They had Humans in the party, so they carried lights, and as they approached closer they were able to see that the walls were manned by "Rift Fiends", Fiendish Orcs.
This being a relatively small town just two days south of the High King's capitol city, and well away from the frontier, the "walls" of the town were little more than cover for a standing archer, barely six feet tall, and the gate was open rails, something a child could climb through.
The Paladin spurred his horse forward, wheeled left at the open gate, and rode down the line of enemies, slashing as he went. (Ride by attack). The mighty Barbarian mirrored his maneuver to the right of the gate. The Ranger/Druid unlimbered his bow and began his assault in earnest.
The Paladin's slash-and-go style dropped opponents quickly. The Barbarian, swinging a scythe from horseback, lacked the Paladin's dash and style (No Ride By feat), but the Ranger backed him up so together they were dropping fiends almost as fast as the Paladin. In under a minute the walls were cleared.
The Bard went Invisible to scout the small plaza that greeted the traveler inside that gate. Across the way she saw a guard station, and went there first. Inside she saw a Greater Rift Fiend (Fiendish Ogre Barbarian) who had been relaxing inside, slowly getting to his feet and beginning to stretch. Beyond him she saw two cells packed with townsfolk, apparently still alive.
The Cleric, also curious, began to scout as well. He started at the same building, not knowing the Bard was there. (I'm serious, I have two players who join us via Skype, and they missed the Bard's stated activity.)
She was standing by the window as the Cleric approached the door, and warned him just as the Ogre kicked the door open, trying to hit whoever was outside. Missed the Cleric by one point.
Now everybody wanted in on the only opponent worth fighting. The Paladin rode in and leapt from his horse, ending up to the right of the door, before the second window. The Ranger advanced into the town and was lined up to try and slip a shot through the crowd.
The Barbarian (whose player does read this forum), still mounted, decided to charge the Ogre. This player is one of the two who come in via Skype, so I had to make clear to him that there was no real way to do that, unless he wanted to ride over/through his own team mates, and duck his head and try to fit through the jailhouse door on a horse.
That sounded good to him, and counting on his friends' good Reflex saves, he set course through the Ranger and the Cleric (the other PC whose character visits via Skype). The Ranger rolled out of the way. By rights I should have applied some sort of penalty to the Cleric's Save, since he had people on either side that would restrict his ability to "step aside", but I didn't need to. A 3 was rolled on his dice and even at 10th/11th level he didn't have enough bonus to make up the difference. He got trampled by the horse.
From there the Barbarian's maneuver called for him Bull Rushing the Ogre with the horse. No joy, the Ogre didn't move. So the Barb' is bent over in the saddle, jammed into a doorway, on a horse, which was on the cleric.
The Ogre swung and dropped the horse. On the Cleric.
At that point we broke the game for the week (we were twenty minutes past quitting time. I figured that the break would give people time to stop laughing and we'd end the 3 Stooges roll we were on.
This past Saturday we picked up the game, and the laughter and style returned in full force.
The Bard, having Rogue levels, decided that rather than breaking the rare and valuable glass in that window, she'd "Disable device" on it, and steal the glass. So she's out of play for several rounds. (To be fair she'd already blown her Invisibility by stabbing the Ogre through the doorway, and she knew she wasn't getting in through that mess.)
I treated being pinned under the horse as a Grapple, so the Cleric spent a round or two "breaking the Grapple" by trying to pry himself out from under that horse. He was taking a D6 +4 damage each round he was in there (the horse's "unarmed strike" damage, per the rules.)
The Barbarian, having a level or three of Sorcerer (Dragon Disciple under construction) decided that this was a good time to throw a Shield spell. Forgot to cast defensively, but the Ogre missed anyway.
Enlarge Person was cast on the Barb, as he was stuck in the doorway, jamming it even farther. Cure Moderate was cast on the horse (Druid thing), and it tried to get up, under the now Large barbarian, in that tight doorway.
The Paladin declared that he wanted to enter, via that same doorway, to face the Ogre. It was explained that he'd need an Escape Artist or Tumble check, DC 25, to pull that off. Technically it should have been a 27, since the Ogre is an opponent whose squares he'd be traveling through, but the point was made. Nobody going through that door right now.
The Barbarian, getting really tired of all of this, Raged, and did a Mongo on the horse, knocking it unconscious again (unarmed strike for 10 points non-lethal).
Fortunately the Cleric wasn't under it any more, or a second drop of that 1200 pound animal would have hurt.
Finally the Paladin, equally tired of it all, broke the other window and climbed through.
Once they could actually get at the foe it only took about two rounds to finish the Ogre, with the help of a Cleric in one of the cells. (New player, so having them in the cell seemed like the easy intro.)
And the comic interlude ended.
The damage from the horse's Trample was actually minor at this level, as was the damage from being crushed under it, but the way it all played out was jaw-dropping. Everyone was laughing and trying to clear things up, and somehow they just managed to keep making it worse.
This was intended as a walk-over encounter, by the way, good for a few RP points and little more. An intro to the situation, as well as a reminder that the world doesn't always level up with the PCs.
But, for better or for worse, 'tween laughter and tears, that's actually how it played out.
By the way, the Bard did manage to get that pane of glass out unbroken. The player commented that he was lucky the character hadn't gotten hurt. Seeing the opening I had the character roll a Reflex Save. She rolled really badly so I assigned 1 point of "paper cut" damage from the edge of the glass. Just because it somehow fit.
I was running this over the past two weekends, when suddenly the play seemed to laps into a comedy of errors.
The party was pressing their horses to try and get to a town for the night, instead of camping. One of the characters, the Paladin, was being hag-ridden each night, and was up and functional purely by the power of Lesser Restoration spells.
They knew, from certain signs and portents, that there had been "enemy" activity at or near this town in the last 48 hours or so. It was dark when they arrived, but those with good night vision could make out humanoid shapes along the town's walls.
After a time they realized why this seemed wrong: It was a Human town, as far as they knew, but there weren't any lights. Human guards on that wall would need them.
They had Humans in the party, so they carried lights, and as they approached closer they were able to see that the walls were manned by "Rift Fiends", Fiendish Orcs.
This being a relatively small town just two days south of the High King's capitol city, and well away from the frontier, the "walls" of the town were little more than cover for a standing archer, barely six feet tall, and the gate was open rails, something a child could climb through.
The Paladin spurred his horse forward, wheeled left at the open gate, and rode down the line of enemies, slashing as he went. (Ride by attack). The mighty Barbarian mirrored his maneuver to the right of the gate. The Ranger/Druid unlimbered his bow and began his assault in earnest.
The Paladin's slash-and-go style dropped opponents quickly. The Barbarian, swinging a scythe from horseback, lacked the Paladin's dash and style (No Ride By feat), but the Ranger backed him up so together they were dropping fiends almost as fast as the Paladin. In under a minute the walls were cleared.
The Bard went Invisible to scout the small plaza that greeted the traveler inside that gate. Across the way she saw a guard station, and went there first. Inside she saw a Greater Rift Fiend (Fiendish Ogre Barbarian) who had been relaxing inside, slowly getting to his feet and beginning to stretch. Beyond him she saw two cells packed with townsfolk, apparently still alive.
The Cleric, also curious, began to scout as well. He started at the same building, not knowing the Bard was there. (I'm serious, I have two players who join us via Skype, and they missed the Bard's stated activity.)
She was standing by the window as the Cleric approached the door, and warned him just as the Ogre kicked the door open, trying to hit whoever was outside. Missed the Cleric by one point.
Now everybody wanted in on the only opponent worth fighting. The Paladin rode in and leapt from his horse, ending up to the right of the door, before the second window. The Ranger advanced into the town and was lined up to try and slip a shot through the crowd.
The Barbarian (whose player does read this forum), still mounted, decided to charge the Ogre. This player is one of the two who come in via Skype, so I had to make clear to him that there was no real way to do that, unless he wanted to ride over/through his own team mates, and duck his head and try to fit through the jailhouse door on a horse.
That sounded good to him, and counting on his friends' good Reflex saves, he set course through the Ranger and the Cleric (the other PC whose character visits via Skype). The Ranger rolled out of the way. By rights I should have applied some sort of penalty to the Cleric's Save, since he had people on either side that would restrict his ability to "step aside", but I didn't need to. A 3 was rolled on his dice and even at 10th/11th level he didn't have enough bonus to make up the difference. He got trampled by the horse.
From there the Barbarian's maneuver called for him Bull Rushing the Ogre with the horse. No joy, the Ogre didn't move. So the Barb' is bent over in the saddle, jammed into a doorway, on a horse, which was on the cleric.
The Ogre swung and dropped the horse. On the Cleric.
At that point we broke the game for the week (we were twenty minutes past quitting time. I figured that the break would give people time to stop laughing and we'd end the 3 Stooges roll we were on.
This past Saturday we picked up the game, and the laughter and style returned in full force.
The Bard, having Rogue levels, decided that rather than breaking the rare and valuable glass in that window, she'd "Disable device" on it, and steal the glass. So she's out of play for several rounds. (To be fair she'd already blown her Invisibility by stabbing the Ogre through the doorway, and she knew she wasn't getting in through that mess.)
I treated being pinned under the horse as a Grapple, so the Cleric spent a round or two "breaking the Grapple" by trying to pry himself out from under that horse. He was taking a D6 +4 damage each round he was in there (the horse's "unarmed strike" damage, per the rules.)
The Barbarian, having a level or three of Sorcerer (Dragon Disciple under construction) decided that this was a good time to throw a Shield spell. Forgot to cast defensively, but the Ogre missed anyway.
Enlarge Person was cast on the Barb, as he was stuck in the doorway, jamming it even farther. Cure Moderate was cast on the horse (Druid thing), and it tried to get up, under the now Large barbarian, in that tight doorway.
The Paladin declared that he wanted to enter, via that same doorway, to face the Ogre. It was explained that he'd need an Escape Artist or Tumble check, DC 25, to pull that off. Technically it should have been a 27, since the Ogre is an opponent whose squares he'd be traveling through, but the point was made. Nobody going through that door right now.
The Barbarian, getting really tired of all of this, Raged, and did a Mongo on the horse, knocking it unconscious again (unarmed strike for 10 points non-lethal).
Fortunately the Cleric wasn't under it any more, or a second drop of that 1200 pound animal would have hurt.
Finally the Paladin, equally tired of it all, broke the other window and climbed through.
Once they could actually get at the foe it only took about two rounds to finish the Ogre, with the help of a Cleric in one of the cells. (New player, so having them in the cell seemed like the easy intro.)
And the comic interlude ended.
The damage from the horse's Trample was actually minor at this level, as was the damage from being crushed under it, but the way it all played out was jaw-dropping. Everyone was laughing and trying to clear things up, and somehow they just managed to keep making it worse.
This was intended as a walk-over encounter, by the way, good for a few RP points and little more. An intro to the situation, as well as a reminder that the world doesn't always level up with the PCs.
But, for better or for worse, 'tween laughter and tears, that's actually how it played out.
By the way, the Bard did manage to get that pane of glass out unbroken. The player commented that he was lucky the character hadn't gotten hurt. Seeing the opening I had the character roll a Reflex Save. She rolled really badly so I assigned 1 point of "paper cut" damage from the edge of the glass. Just because it somehow fit.
Last edited:
