Overland Treks - suggestions?

[Schmoe]

My group will, in the very near future, be trekking about 200-300 miles across a barren expanse known as "The Wasted Lands". This area was once a mighty kingdom, but was overrun by hordes of demon-led humanoids during the War of Ending and now is a shattered, desolate land. I want the journey to truly be an ordeal, but I also don't want it to devolve into a series of "you travel for x hours, then you see y. Roll for initiative."

First, a little more information:

The Wasted Lands are, as mentioned, the broken remains of once-fertile plains. Ruins of ancient cities (~500 years old) dot the wastelands here and there. The plains are home to ravaging bands of gnolls that feud amongst themselves in bloody conflict, as well as numerous magical beasts that vie with one another for territory. Vast battlefields are littered with the bleached bones of ancient warriors, and demons and undead lurk in these haunted places. The journey will take place at the beginning of winter (late November/early December) in a latitude roughly equal to North Dakota.

The group is very heavy on fighters and healing, very light on arcane magic:

Human Bard 1/Paladin 5, with warhorse
Human Cleric 1/Fighter 5/Windslayer 1, with warhorse
Dwarf Barbarian 1/Fighter 4/Ranger 1
Human Bard 3/Cleric 1/Rogue 1/Sorcerer 2/Virtuoso 1 (!)
Grig (!) Rogue 1/Sorcerer 4
Elf Cleric 8
Human Ranger 3/Druid 4
Half-elf Monk 6 (NPC)

As far as their journey is concerned, I do have a few encounters planned that consist of at least a little more than just your typical random encounter:

1.) An advanced, huge chimera who attacks the party, then flees to its lair.

2.) A treasure map the group can purchase which leads to the tomb of an ancient warlord.

3.) A canyon encounter with a tribe of girallons that forces them to flee into the cavern of a behir.

4.) A haunted battlefield, ruled by a ghostly general

5.) A ruined tower inhabited by a devourer or other undead nasty

6.) A terrible blizzard that brings with it demons/malevolent spirits of winter

7.) And, of course, lots of gnolls


So, what else can I do to make the journey exciting and interesting without bogging down into an exercise of "Are we there yet?" I'm interested in suggestions about everything from plot ideas to pacing of gameplay.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Water holes would be important and moving from one to another could be interesting.

Sinkhole into the dungeon - ground opens up and player or NPC falls into a dungeon system.

 

[Munin]

Have the barbarian and the monk play hacky-sack with the grig

 

[Nifft]

Detection Hazards: there are lots of gnolls. If the gnolls know that they're around, they'll attack. This means no campfires, which in turn reduces the HP healed by a day's rest.

To build a fire, the party must first find some safe cavern ... of course, there are no safe caverns. They'll have to kill or bargain with the cavern's occupants to stay.

What could survive an extended campaign of elimination by a determined clan of gnolls? Or alternately, what sort of creatures would be supported by gnolls (would eat them or make them serve it)? These sort of things will be the hazards that the player's must face.

- A village-sized assassin vine, where a tribe of gnolls throw prisoners / enemies / the weak & infirm.

- A city of shadows ruled by a sorcerer's ghost.

- A powerful demon is bound in a wizard's tower. Its power is corrupting the area around the tower -- the tower is surrounded by a disk of boiling, sulphurous mud. Gnolls avoid the area, as do all natural animals. The demon has been trapped since the middle of the War.

- Several gnoll tribes are stalked and harried by a small family of half-fiend troll barbarians.

- A large, slow river. Warring gnoll tribes on each side. Either no boats to speak of, or war-boats on both sides.

- A wounded beholder (missing several eyestalks) has enslaved a tribe of gnolls.

- Half-fiend bulettes, half-fiend displacer beasts, half-fiend spider eaters, half-fiend stirges.

- Winter wolves migrating south with the snow. Throw on a half-fiend winter wolf or two if you really hate the party, or have the wolves "request" the party's help to ferret out a nest of hellcats.

- Giant trapdoor spiders. Half-fiend if you'd like.

- A squad of very rusty, corroded iron golems (treat as half HP) guarding the remains of someone long dead.



Gravelands: large areas infused with necromantic and demonic powers. Each should be considered under the effects of a permanent Desecrate and Unhallow.

- A clump of skulls on posts. The skulls turn to watch the party. If attacked, each skull explodes and bestows a curse on a random party member.

- A field of skeletal arms, planted every 2 feet. They look like short cornstalks blowing in the wind. They are immoble and harmless unless someone walks next to one. Each one attacks for 1d2 damage with a BAB of 4.

- A plain of half-living, rotting flesh and maggots. To travel through it, the party must overcome the nauseating stench (as Stinking Cloud: Fort negates, DC 10+2d8 each round) and the slick, pulsating surface (Balance check, DC 5+2d8 each round). At the "heart" of the field is a Bone Devil (Osyluth) with some Lemures and a squad of half-fiend monstrous large scorpions.

- A lone hill with a bare tree at the top. The hill is a mass grave, and the tree is the manifestation of the anger of a dead druid. The hill is defended by shambling mounds and whatever spells the druid-tree casts.

- One human cleric or wizard vampire and several gnoll vampire-spawn reside in a ruined keep. The gnoll tribes trade blood for magic.

- An evil spirit has posessed a war engine, say a wheeled battering ram. Treat it as a huge fiendish animated object.

- Ghouls reside in a marshy backwater, and try to drag anyone they can into the water. Gnolls either pay them a tribute (of flesh) or send young warriors through the swamp as a rite of passage.


That's it for now.
-- Nifft

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Here's a trick I used recently: There is a powerful demonic entity that wants something from the party - perhaps a specific magic item. But while it is powerful, it can be driven away by even the dimmest light.

Smart PCs will soon wise up to it - when it attacks a lonely party member or pack animal, and the rest of the party hear screams, they will investigate. Naturally, they will use light sources to invastigate - which drives the creature away.

Emphasize that the creature seems to be too powerful to be attacked directly (and how well can they fight in the dark, anyway?) Now the party will keep fires or lanterns burning all night (which will draw other unwanted attention...), which means the creature can't get at them. So it needs to put the light sources out somehow...

I gave the creature the power to create zombies. These zombies were made of any dead creatures in the vincity (in my case, they were killed by the monster in the first place...) - since the party was in an inn at the moment, I used zombie horses, zombie cows, zombie pigs, and even zombie chicken! (And before anyone ss at the idea of zombie chicken, these are pretty fast and thus ideal for running through the PCs' legs and knocking over lanterns and torches...). If you need to put out a large camp fire, use a zombie made out of a large animal and let it "drink" water. Thus, when the PCs cut it up, it spills water all over the campfire...

Play this throughout the wilderness, and the PCs will be kept up all night to defend their light sources from zombie attacks, and watching their precious storage of firewood dwindling...

 

[Guilt Puppy]

I'm running something very similar... Party will be a lot higher level (11th or 12th by the time they start), but same general principle: Long overland quest, lots of barren-ness.

First thing I'll be doing is writing up stats for the weird creatures that inhabit the place... Basically, they'll be MM monsters with a few changes to what they do, and big changes to physical form. I can forward you copies of these once they're written up (they will be primarily undead, esp. as the party approaches its goal), although their CR's are going to be generally high.

More useful are the changes in locales, et cetera I'm planning... I have a concurrent thread with a similar topic in this forum, so you might want to check that out from time to time as well. (I'm sure I'll be checking this one: the Gravelands rock, for instance )

BTW, what's the party's ultimate goal? Mine will be following a lich, trying to prevent his becoming a god, and once successful they'll be diverted toward discovering just where he was going...

If your players are doing something similar (on a pursuit, or with a clear goal), you might want to consider having something pursue them... The players are forced to cover their tracks, and if they're smart, can say "oh, we tracked this guy by noticing how he did such-and-such, so we'd better do something to keep the guys tracking us from discovering the same."

Of course, who's tracking them? Depends on the history of your campaign... Alternately, you could have it be something that emerges from the new landscape: They steal the +3 Longsword of Some Balanced but Cool Power, and the warlord who once owned it rises from the dead after they've left, and summons up his former troops to track them down.

 

[Schmoe]

Sorry I haven't responded earlier to this. There are some excellent suggestions and ideas here! I really like the Gravelands suggestiosn, as well. I think I have more than enough ideas now for interesting encounters and locales. I've decided that fiendish creatures will figure prominently in the mix - I have a half-fiend gnoll priest that I'm dying to use . As well, I will put some of the dangerous terrain in the party's path, such as the stinking field of rotting flesh (excellent!). I think the placement and size of obstacles like this is important, as otherwise the group will simply go around the obstacle.

As far as pacing goes, I'm still interested in hearing other's opinions. My group is trying to find their way to a ruined city that was the focal point of four shrines of power before it was taken over during the War of Ending. The city was in the hands of demons and evil humanoids for nearly a hundred years before the forces of good shattered the unholy alliance, and it has lain in ruins ever since, haunted and forlorn. There are several other groups who are seeking out the city, as well. One of the groups has at least a week's head start on the party. Another group is trailing the party, not quite strong enough to challenge them head-on. The third group will be the strongest. They haven't left yet, but will travel quickly using powerful magic (Wind Walk).

The first group is led by a powerful priest (9-10th level), we'll call him Sumar, who double-crossed the priest in the second group. He is rich, good at diplomacy, and thoroughly evil to the core. He stopped at the same gnome outpost that the party is just about to arrive at, and he recruited a powerful gnome illusionist to his cause. I think it would be a good idea to have the party discover traces of his passage here and there in their travels. There is another ruined city fairly close to Nornshold that is now home to the Ra'een, a barbaric civilization of true werewolves and powerful human necromancers that lives off the fat of "chattel" humans. I plan for Sumar to make an alliance of sorts with the Ra'een, one which could certainly cause problems for the party when they arrive. I keep envisioning the party requesting an audience with the necromancer king of the Ra'een, only to discover that Sumar is there in the king's court and has arranged for them to be captured and thrown into the Pit of Ghouls.

Anyway, what do others find works well for the pacing of overland treks? I'm talking about exchanges like this:

"The next day passes uneventfully. The sun shines in a cloudless sky and the chill wind blows. You stop for the (evening/mid-morning break/lunch), everyone roll a Spot check."

Repeat a few times, and you can see how it starts to become somewhat repetitious.

 

[the Jester]

Well, one technique I use for overland travel is describing the weather and wildlife. I generally spend a little time on each day's journey, even if nothing happens. As in, "You start moving about 9 a.m. The surrounding country is full of mildly rolling hills dotted with some kind of scrub and thigh-high grass. You see the occasional birds in the sky. The sky is cloudy, and by noon it starts to rain a little. The drizzle seems to drive most of the animals into cover, and though you had been seeing lots of small groundhog type critters and lizards, now the animals you see are limited to the rare bird sheltering under the leaves of the few trees around. By midafternoon you're all soaked through, and the rain has picked up to a steady downpour. When you break for the night you have some trouble finding dry wood for a fire."

I find that calling for spot checks for things other than encounters helps break things up, too. "Make a spot check.... okay, everyone who made a DC10 notices that clouds are massing on the horizon." Or, "If you made a DC13 you spot a river winding in the distance." Or, "All right, Bob, you see a distant line of smoke in the sky, possibly from a good-sized fire. You'd guess it's about eight miles away."

Red herrings stop the pcs from assuming that every spot check means something's out to get them. I'll never forget the time I called for a spot check and none of the pcs made it, but one of them immediately cast mage armor. "Why?" I asked. "Uh..." said the player. "Right. No, you don't have any reason to cast it..." After that the players started casting their long-duration buffs at a given time every day.

As long as you don't have twenty days between every encounter, I find that a little time spent on every day helps the players feel like their journey actually takes time, and describing the non-monstrous creatures, weather, terrain, etc. goes a long way towards fleshing out the experience.

Hope this helps...

 

[Kaji]

We just did a overland trek in my campaign. You might be able to use some of these ideas for pacing and excitement.

In our case, time was important and the PC's had to ride hard and long to get where they wanted to be. At one point, they were forced to ride through the night. This brought up fatigue issues, and we started subtracting points for fatigue. We did not get all the way to exhaustion, but a number of the ideas already advanced here could make this come about, like the constant presence of gnolls. Wake them up every night with a gnoll war band for a couple of nights, and everytime a rock falls or a bird tweets they'll be flinging arrows and bolts near it. Play this up, describe the hot sun, the tired horses and legs, and interupt daily travel with non-aggressive encounters. Meet some hunters, another party (maybe also beat up?). If you build enough excitement, by the time you say "You travel the day uneventfully" they'll be sighing with relief and patting each other on the back.

 

[Nifft]

(I'm sure I'll be checking this one: the Gravelands rock, for instance )

Thank you! Here, then, are some more:


Dry Siren: The ghost of a Harpy-Sorceress haunts her cave, in a ravine. Her song is just as potent in death as it was in life, and those affected by it will walk towards the sound of her voice -- and into the ravine.

At the bottom of the ravine are the animated remains of many gnolls (4 Zombies and 31 Skeletons; due to damage from their falls, they move at half listed speed and do damage as though they were size Small. Treat them as size Small for Hit Dice and CR determination).


Crimson Scent: A beautiful wildflower grows with surprising frequency over this field. The petals are shiny -- almost metallic -- and the center is a vibrant crimson. The stalks are clumped together in places, and spread out in others. A crisp scent fills the valley air.

The flowers are the souls of soldiers betrayed in an epic battle with demonic forces. The demons did what they could to taint the field, and a Druid later did what she could to purify the field. Unfortunately, the demons' powers proved stronger.

The scent of the field is the flower's pollen, which acts as a poison slowly (if the party merely stays in the vicinity) or quickly (if someone sniffs a flower). Anyone plucking a flower must make a reflex save [DC 15] to avoid being pricked by thorns among the leaves and petals; anyone so cut risks being poisoned as well.

Crimson Bite Flower Poison:
Every Hour In Valley: Fort [DC 10] initial 1 minute of Nausea, secondary Lightheaded (-2 Circumstance penalty to all rolls) for 1 hour
Sniff Flower: Fort [DC 20] initial 3d6 rounds of Confusion, secondary Sleep for 2d4 hours
Pricked by Thorn: Fort [DC 25] initial 2d4 rounds of Confusion, secondary Sleep for 2d6 hours

Anyone sleeping in the valley, voluntarily or due to the poison, must make a Will save [DC 15] or be assailed by visions of slaughter, despair, and infernal suffering (treat as being affected by a Nightmare spell). Those who succeed have visions of ghostly human soldiers, forlorn and mute, trying to communicate thier situation... and perhaps a way to purify the battlefield and free them.

Gnolls in the area regard the valley as sacred, due to the holy visions of rage and battle it provides. Spending a night in the field has been incorporated in their Rites of Manhood. They will 'defend' the field with all thier might, should they spot interlopers 'defiling' it.


Dark Pool: A watering hole. If the party tastes the water, it tastes slightly sour.

Spot DC 10: Many animal tracks lead up to it.
Spot DC 20: No gnoll tracks present.
Spot DC 30: Very small bubbles in the center of the pool at irregular intervals.

The bottom of the pool is a huge black pudding, which will emerge at night should the party camp nearby. If anyone goes swimming, they're grabbed by the black pudding and pulled under. Simply drinking from the pool has only a 1 in 20 chance of 'awakening' the black pudding.

For a more "gravelands" feel, make it a huge bone ooze (from MM2, which I don't yet have).


That's all for today. -- Nifft