Red Hand of Doom, players hunted by Dragon

[Lord Zardoz]

Obviously, spoilers here for Red Hand of Doom.

The short version of this post: How hard would it be for a young dragon to hunt down players fleeing through a forest, and what kind of checks do you suggest?

Long version:

So my players managed to take out Skull gorge bridge, but Ozzyrandion is still able to chase and fight them. In an amazing display of resourcefulness and Common sense, they manged to take it out before the fight started. One of the players was made invisible, and flew under the bridge using a fly potion from Guard Captain Sorianna. He made his search check, found the weak spot, and used Stone shape. the weak spot had 40 Hp, and the spell does 50 damage to the bridge according to the adventure. A hell hound did scent the player and start barking near the weak spot, but the player managed to do the deed before anyone could workout what the dog was angry about. 3 of the 4 hobgoblins fell into the gorge, one fell onto land on the far side of the bridge, and due to making a DC 15 reflex save, the player avoided having a bunch of the bridge fall on him, taking only 3d6 damage.

Then the fight started in earnest. Lucky for the players, they only had to deal with 6 archers on the far bank shooting at them with a pretty low to hit. Still, they had Ozyrandion to deal with, who spotted them and went to work.

A few rounds of combat and they had managed to take down about half of Ozzyrandion's hp, but some of the players were down due to the breath weapon. At this point, the dragon flew back accross the bridge and started yelling orders. A listen check succeeded in making the order "Give me your potions" clear. (The surviving hobgoblins have about 15 Modreate healing potions on hand).

So at this point, the players have a few rounds before the dragon is fully healed. I expect them to try to run and hide, since they have burned off a bunch of their spells, and though they are reasonably effective at ranged combat, Ozzyrandion can dictate the terms of this fight if they try to go toe to toe.

Hence my opening question. Ozzyrandion has a damn good spot and listen check, at +17 each. But he does not have the Track feat. In the short term, no question. Ozzyrandion should be able to catch up to and attack the players again. I expect the players to be able to drive him back with their remaining spells and abilities, but it will be difficult. But the dragon will simply flee, get back to the bridge, drink yet more potions, and head back out.

In addition to the dragon, there are a handfull of Worg rider scouts for the Red Hand on the same side of the bridge as the players. My default idea is to simply have the dragon + Worg Riders use a search check, albeit on a larger scale. Suggestions regarding the DC would be appreciated.

Also, the idea of having my players being hunted by an angry dragon with the resources to retreat, heal and return 1 or 2 more times is appealing in an unholy rat bastard kind of way.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[brehobit]

Well,
It's a bit tricky. As the dragon, I'd be careful of a trap of some sort. But if I was going to go, I'd do it by first going along the road for a few minutes. If the PCs stay on the road, he should find them. Then I'd do a spiral starting where they entered the woods. They'd have a good chance of hiding from the dragon. As the dragon I would NOT land and search. Too dangerous. So if they run along the road they are probably toast.

Beyond that, I'd have to say the dragon should continue to avoid landing. If the party hides in deep enough woods, I'd have to say the dragon would not close, but may start a fire to clear them out. It's way too dangerous to close just to get back at "those pesky kids". If they keep moving, at some point they'll hit a clearing or a point where the dragon can safely use it's breath weapon.

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In the game I ran the party found out about the dragon at night, slept, and the cleric came back with 2 "downdraft" spells memorized. The ranger with a +1 holy sword and the barbarian/swordsage killed it in short order. (OK, there was some jumping off the tower and grappling the dragon in midair stuff that happened first, but still...) The party was quite buff (Spell compendium and Bo9S in play will do that, and the holy sword helped a lot) but still had serious problems until downdraft came into play. Then it was pretty short.

Keep in mind the dragon has a huge movement rate and while his maneuverability isn't the best in D&D terms, his maneuverability is still crazy good.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

My party is not quite that combat optimized, at least not for toe to toe battles.

- 6th level Cleric, mostly support / ineffective melee
- 6th level Sorcerer with mostly enchantment and summon spells
- Ftr 2 Ranger 4, dual weilding, with feats for disarming, good dex makes for decent archery.
- 6th level Gnome Rogue
+ Guard Captain sorianna, 5th level fighter, mostly archery

The Gnome is an NPC, but I added it because most of the time, I only have 3 out of 4 of my players show up (In our line of work, its a known issue). The Gnome NPC allows me to avoid having to rebalance fights expecting 4 players. The primary tank fighter is unable to play for a while, but he is mostly geared for Mounted Combat. The party can be scary effective at times. Between the cleric's Hold Person and the sorcerer laying out Hideous Laughter, most human type combatants get to play Save or be Screwed. The sorcerer's monster summoning is also doing nicely, since the Celestial Bison / fiendish Ape have damage resistance that most of the Hobgoblins cannot bypass. The Ranger is also able to do quite well for himself. And while the Cleric sucks at melee combat, he is doing pretty decently with a very high AC. All the characters are at least functional at ranged combat.

The dragons AC and HP give it a great deal of staying power, more so than pretty much any other fight the players have come into. It can also dictate the terms of the fight, as I outlined in my first post. It does have enough staying power that I can afford to drop to the ground for 1 or 2 rounds of melee and get off a full attack.

It also helps that my players were not expecting to find a Dragon. They got do the bridge encounter on the morning of Day 7, and from the notes they got from Wyrmlord Koth, they knew they did not have time to select optimized spells. Still, only the Cleric suffered for that. The Dragon did some pretty solid damage, and it can come back at full HP. The players have to deal with some pretty heavy damage, and the Sorcerer has used up a fair number of his spells. The rest of the day will suck for them.

Also, while they got Wyrmlord Koths notes, they did not caputure or kill Koth. And given that they also heard the dragon order the Hobgoblins to "Go fetch Koth", that things are going to get nasty for them.

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[Pedestrian]

That encounter resulted in a wipe for my party, without half the success that yours got. Well done to the players.

Aside from that, having Ozzy follow the party through the woods? I wouldn't go down that route. First of all, while Ozzy has an excellent Spot and Listen, as you observed, he doesn't have Track or Survival. While he's glugging down potions, the party should have ample time to haul arse away into the woods. The density of the wood, combined with whatever distance the party have managed to get between them and the gorge, should render Ozzy unable to find, let alone follow them.

However, if you are dead set on a perilous chase through the woods, use the goblins mounted on Wargs. Give them horns, so that as they pursue the PCs, they sound out signals to one another and the dragon. Ozzy, meanwhile, will be hanging back, not wanting to get into a fight where it loses the advantage of flight, and can be ambushed. Given that the dragon has already felt the sting of the party, and needed to get healing, it won't underestimate them and rush in foolishly.

Of course, if the party stand on the edge of the Gorge, trying to shoot Ozzy, then unleash everything on them.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Skull Gorge Bridge is a fine example of an encounter that can destroy a party that simply tries to walk up and muscle their way through the defenders. There are a few reasons for this.

- Hobgoblin Veterans have plenty of Hp, and will probably be engaged in ranged combat
- You can have all 9 Hobgoblins (8 veterans + Sargeant) pincushion a single target
- The Hobgoblins have a staggering amount of healing potions on hand
- The Hobgoblins in the towers have damn good cover
- Closing into melee is difficult because the hobgoblins can force the players to fight on the bridge. Ozzyrandian is explicitly advised to bull rush people off the bridge.
- The players are probably not geared up to take down a Dragon, even one as weak as Ozzyrandian

A careless party will probably end up tossing a fireball at the dragon, and charge the bridge. The Hell hounds will slow them down just long enough for the rest of the hobgoblins to bottle up the bridge. Then the players will likely either focusing attacks on the dragon, and get worn down by the Hobgoblin Veterans.

As I said, I am quite surprised my players worked out such an effective plan. The only improvement to what my players managed would have been to run the hell away as soon as the bridge went down instead of trading shots with the dragon within bowshot of the surviving Hobgoblins.

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