Just Another Road Thread


log in or register to remove this ad

The roadside is badly scarred, as though something has been ripped from the ground. As the PCs wonder about this development, they see the first of several corpses, strewn about with their heads severed. The expression frozen on the faces of these men (and one well-dressed dwarf) is universally one of extreme terror.

As the PCs come within view of the next town, they find it beseiged by an angry army of animated trees, awakened by vengeful druids, and bearing the axes of those who formerly abused them...
 


Good stuff here folks :D Ok I finally got home from work so I can actually contribute to my own thread now.

The hill giants have eyes

The party should be traveling through rugged mountainous terrain. While moving through the trail, rocks begin flying in and killing mounts and pack animals (preferably knocking them off a nearby cliff) After a moment the attack stops with the PCs largely unharmed but without much equipment or supplies.

Shortly thereafter some deep gutteral hooting is heard from far away. The party is then stalked and harassed by a 12 foot tall Michael Berryman and his cronies. :] They will seek to use hit and run tactics to maximize the time that the party can be terrorized before beginning a determined assault.

What just happened here?

This encounter takes place along any stretch of country road with villages in the vicinity. Ahead in the distance a child no older than 8 or so is standing in the road. He/she has glowing green eyes and blood spattered all down the chin and front of his/her clothing. Upon being noticed, the PC's will see the child quickly fleeing into the woods morphing into a jackrabbit while running.......

The village just up the road is deserted. No bodies, no blood, nothing. There is evidence of very recent occupation

The Joker
The PCs meet a rather normal looking traveler along a road heading in the same direction as them. He will be pleasant enough and request that he be allowed to travel with the PCs for safety and to exchange news and such. As the journey continues and conversation gets going he will begin randomly insult those he is speaking with. If the insults are ignored or laughed off he will bid the PCs farewell after an hour or so and head in another direction. If anyone responds in anger, the joker will goad them on trying desparately to be struck by the victim.

If the joker is struck in anger the person so doing will be cursed. The joker will follow them everywhere spewing vile insults until the curse is removed. The joker is of course immune to damage and magic, and also incapable of causing physical harm.
 

((Since we're borrowing from movies))

A naked man is walking down the road towards you, he nods as you pass by.

-------

An ogre pulling a large wagon trundles towards you. Atop a massive pile of junk in the wagon is a tiny halfling holding a long horse whip and driving the ogre.
 

A halfling pops up from behind a rock. "NO ONE EXPECTS THE HALFLING INQUISITION!" he shouts, before taking off runnig up the road.

A young man in patched clothes, humming and strumming a lute, begins to follow you, gradually composing a ballad based on everything your party encounter.

The road rises up to meet you, inflicting 2d6 damage.

You come across a large snow-covered field, filled with a thousand three-foot-tall snowmen.
 


A large heavy cauldron lies on its side in a ditch by the road.

On an otherwise sunny day, a small fog bank-- not even a hundred feet across-- lies over the road up ahead.

To one side of the road are two short columns of stone, waymarkers. Through them, one can see in the distance a small castle. However, this structure is not visible from any other perspective-- only through the two way-markers.

A wet, stained burlap bag lies in the middle of the road. It contains a number of severed right hands.

Along the way, the party finds a number of coins on the ground, usually singly, sometimes in small handfuls. They are all slightly unusual in that they're not local coinage, having been minted in a nearby land; but they're otherwise ordinary and of the same denomination. An astute person might notice, however, that they are all found tails up.

Some children sit along the road, playing marbles in the dust.

There is a two-headed scarecrow in a nearby grain field.
 

I ran a little roadside bit I call "The Feastinghouse of Mad Thom."

As you round the bend, you see a wooden hall up on a nearby hill with sounds of merry making coming from within. As you knock upon the door, you are invited into the hall to join in the celebration. A jolly fat little man at the head of the table invites you to sit down and eat, while musical instruments appear to play themselves in the background.

In short, the hall was filled with fairies. Eating the food made people sleepy, and the next day, those who ate the food found themselves changed into goblins. Complete with stat change.

There were a bunch of checks to see whether or not there was an issue. As there was a rather common bard song about the Feastinghouse of Mad Thom, that was the first check. A save to notice "hey, there's something odd here," a save to avoid falling asleep, a save to see if you wake up before they cast permanancy on you...

The Bard and the (lawful stupid, played to the hilt) Paladin wised up, everyone else ate, fell asleep, and became goblins. The bard roleplayed the fay into not casting permanancy, 3/4 of the party was turned into goblins for 24 hours. It was the first time I pre-rolled for character so that I could have a bit of narrative flow, but the bard could have stopped the whole thing at any time.
 


Remove ads

Top