Random Encounters in Adventure Two *SPOILERS*

[Crazy Eights]

My players will be heading through the elven village in act 2 of adventure 2 tonight, and I'm sure that they will both want to rest there and also explore it for clues as to what happened to the forest and the elves. The adventure calls for some random encounters, to the tune of a 25% chance per hour of searching. What I'm looking for are some ideas, because my brain has pretty much ceased to function today!

What I have so far are:
1) A mated pair of krenshar with the indomitable fire template which are guarding a den, which house the remains of their kits, which have been torn to shreds and eaten.
2) A pair of child ghouls, which killed and ate the krenshar kits. This pair, themselves, bear the marks of humanoid teeth, having been with the group of children the ghasts at the Shrine of Anyariel ate.

The adventure suggests a Bat Swarm with the Indomitable Fire template, and also for a Hell Hound. These are fine, but I need some creative encounters, just in case my group decides to tarry a little longer than normal. Thanks for any and all help you can give.

~CE

 

[RangerWickett]

I think those ideas are pretty fine and creepy. What's your party composition? Maybe something tailored for their talents (or tailored against them)?

Perhaps Indomitability could speak to one of the PCs in a dream if they rest and sleep. Imagine 'waking up' and seeing a flaming stag standing over you, demanding you release it, then vanishing a few moments later when the PC really wakes up.

 

[Crazy Eights]

Well, We've got:
Elven commander from Shahalesti who venerates Anyariel (won't that be fun when he finds out what happened to the forest)
Human Shugenja who worships the Tide Reaver
Orc monk who intended to join the Inquisitors and then decided they weren't for him
Human rogue from seaquen, , a sailor and true 'old salt'
Human wu-jen, and former captive on the Black Horse bounty hunters
Gnomish Totemist, and nephew of Rivereye Badgerface, the resistance spy

Basically, we lack a serious meat shield, so I want to try and keep the fights somewhat low dmg and low challenge here, but make it creepy and scary regardless. Sorry, I know its not much help. As for Indomitability speaking to a pc in a dream, I think I have just the person for that...

 

[RangerWickett]

Oh, you guys. I found your adventure log online. Nifty.

Sadly, after two minutes of thinking, I don't have anything specific. All I know is that the shugenja in a game I ran got no love. I think you already have enough listed in your first post, though. *shrug*

 

[Crazy Eights]

Not to derail my own thread, but I like the shugenja we have, but thats sort of because we set the game up to focus on them as the main healing class. It's working out good so far, and I shudder to think of the time when the PCs make 16th level and the shugenja gets mass heal as a spontaneous caster.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

My suggestion.. normal critters... ya know, squirrels and stuff.

My reasoning is that these sorts of encounters can amplify the unnaturalness of the forest as well as show how nasty the Indomitable Fire template can get. You also don't need a full meat shield to handle these sorts of encounters.

Just imagine the group trying to defeat a gaggle of geese that are driven mad and want to run the party out of thier territory

If you want a slightly higher CR, go for a herd of Javalina {small brutish wild pigs}... this would be good since the Javelina prefer charges and you could have a very dynamic battle scene with pigs charging all over the place. {give em spring attack just to make it more dynamic}

IMC I skipped over the incidentals of the village due to time limitations, actually just did a synpsis via email so my group is missing out on the details and depth of the problem
That is what happens when you only have a 4 hour session each month!
Of course, I am also trying to limit PC leveling since I have 7 players... I don't really need them to be 4th level yet!

 

[Crazy Eights]

Ok, so some thoughts on how things went. The party bypassed the tower on the bridge altogether and headed straight for the temple of anyariel. They noticed the bodies in the tree, but chose to give them a wide berth. So later, whilst exploring the town, they find the den of the krenshar I mentioned in an earlier post. They rummage around and upon leaving the decrepit building the den was housed in, were attacked by the two adult krenshar. During the fight, which sent all but one of the PCs running in fright but left them mostly unharmed, they managed to down the krenshar only be attacked by the two ghasts who had stalked them through the town. I gave the ghasts the ability to shift to a feline form similar to the first form in the PHB2 druid variant, so they jumped down off of a building in this strange, dessicated cat form and started to lay into the party. It really freaked the party out, which was awesome. It turned out to be pretty well balanced for the party, and they seemed to really enjoy the dire irony of undead elven druids!

The night ended with the party chasing the ghasts away, but being unable to run them down, so now they are really freaked out because they don't know whether they should try to track down the ghasts, go explore the tower, or head to the lake. Plus they are still worried about being attacked by Kazyk again.

IMC I skipped over the incidentals of the village due to time limitations, actually just did a synpsis via email so my group is missing out on the details and depth of the problem
That is what happens when you only have a 4 hour session each month!
Of course, I am also trying to limit PC leveling since I have 7 players... I don't really need them to be 4th level yet!

Its too bad you only get to play once a month. We have to play pretty much every monday like clockwork or I imagine some of the players would quickly either forget what was going on or get side tracked.

Also, I've got six players, which I'm thankful for. Had we still been stuck at 4 like we started with, the party may not have handled Kazyk or the attack by Indomitability's elementals. As it is, six seems to be a good number for us.