Squirrels, chipmunks, and hawks, oh my!

[Edena_of_Neith]

Once upon a time, I had the privilege of running Dragonlance.

Since some of you do not know what Dragonlance is, I will explain in detail the things in my scenario.

In my version of Dragonlance, there was a town set in giant trees called Solace.
This town was guarded by a stockade, had about three hundred militia men and women, and a handful of trained fighters.
Then the dragon came. Not any dragon, but a Great Wyrm, and on his back was a high level fighter/cleric called the Dragon Highlord.
Three lesser dragons came with the Dragon Highlord, and this army demanded Solace surrender, and her jewels, gems, gold, and young ladies be turned over to the dragons (the former to keep, the ladies to eat.)
Of course, everyone else was to kneel to the Dragon Highlord, adopt his religion, become his personal property, and were to be taken away as useful slaves for the mines and for the whims of the dragons.
There were no draconians. For those of you who do not know, they are dragonmen created from eggs of good dragons - the evil dragons in my dragonlance did not feel they needed any help from ground troops.
When you have a breath weapon and dragonarmor, you don't need troops.

But anyways ...

My players, with their mid level characters, fought for Solace against these attackers.
During the battle, a hole was blown in the fabric of reality, and assorted people, dragons, and trees were hurled through it into other times.
The party awoke in a strange world, 100 years in the future, along with the very puzzled and very angry red dragon who had been fighting them.

The main point of the adventure, from that point on (after they killed the dragon, of course) was to find a Gate back to Krynn (the world of Dragonlance), and hopefully to figure out a way to return to their own time (such a way did not exist in the strange world they were now on.)

The party, after many adventures, did find the Gate, and they did return to Krynn.
What they found, on Krynn, was something slightly new and different.
It seems that when magic failed after the Chaos War (see the book Dragons of Summer Flame) Krynn's gravity and natural climate returned.
Well, my Krynn had a diameter twice that of Earth's, and it's mass was three times greater, at least.
It's surface gravity was three times Earth gravity, it's atmospheric pressure three times as great, and it's climate ... well, my Krynn had an axle tilt of 80 degrees and a year of 24 months, so the temperature soared to 200 degrees in the summer and 100 below in the winter, with violent storms the year around.

Of course, the party was accustomed to Earth-like gravity, atmospheric pressure, and climate, so when they returned, in the dead of the winter, they were in for an unpleasant shock.
A 200 pound character wearing 150 pounds of armor and gear, now weighed 600 pounds plus 450 pounds of gear.
The sudden increase in atmospheric pressure was rather ... problematic.
The temperature of 60 below (it was unusually warm right then) with gale force winds, and snow several feet deep, was also problematic.

The party saw, to their amazement, tall conifers and deciduous trees which were bare for the winter.
Apparently, the native flora had somehow adapted to the changes.
This adaptation was realized when someone tried to cut the wood with an axe, to make firewood. The wood was not harmed, and the axe was.
The trees and brush, had become very incredibly much stronger, denser, hardened against cold, heat, wind, and shocks of any sort. Whether this was magical or natural, nobody could say.
It turned out that even breaking a twig or a piece of brush required titanic effort, and pushing brush out of the way required all the strength a man could put into the effort: the brush might as well have been made - almost - of steel wire, for all the bend and give it seemed to have.
The trees and brush had this strength as an adaptation to the gravity, the powerful winds in an atmosphere three times as dense as Earth's, and the herculean changes of temperature during the long year.

What went for trees and brush, went for squirrels.
Now, squirrels are not generally aggressive, but Krynn features a type with a temper akin to wolverines.
This would not be a problem for a normal party in normal circumstances.
These were not normal circumstances.
After adapting somewhat (with magical aid) to the increased pressure, and after adapting to the cold, the party found they could not find the strength to do much more than weakly stumble around (whatever allowed everything else to adapt, had not come to the party's aid!)
They could not wear armor very well, could not swing their weapons very well, and even spellcasters had quite a time with somatic gestures.
The squirrel, like everything else on Krynn, was stronger - far stronger - than a normal squirrel should be. It was effectively a 6 hit dice monster, with the strength of a full grown man, two claw attacks, a bite attack, and it's skin had become tough and imprenetrable like the bark of the trees.
As a result, the party suffered one fatality and two seriously wounded, in fighting it off (the resurrected their fallen, but they failed to kill that squirrel.)

Then two chipmunks showed up, just meaning to harmlessly observe the party - but the party got up and ran away as fast as they could.
That tactic worked with the chipmunks, who weren't interested in attacking anyways. However, the tactic did not work with the hawk that decided to dive-bomb the party.

After they killed the hawk, and nearly lost another party member doing so, my players were very unhappy to find the bear tracks in the snow ...

 

[Terraism]

Edena, that's a horrible thing to do to your players. You have my hearty approval. [Grin.]

Now, you've got to tell me how the managed to kill the Angry Red Wyrm, hm? And, what exactly did the players use to adapt to that changed pressure/setting before it killed them nearly instantly? I can't imagine a 200 lb individual, with his 150 lbs of gear, not nearly dying just from the addition of some 700 lbs, after all. I mean, *ouch!* Oh - one last question; are you going to let them take souveniers? Some of the native flora might be incredibly useful for the creation of items...

 

[William Ronald]

Edena, looks like the players had to come to terms with the gravity of the situation. (Pun intended.) Good to see you around on the boards!

Actually, you are touching on a topic common to many games: the alteration of an existing popular campaign setting. I would argue this happens to some degree whenever anyone starts a campaign in such a setting, because there will be differences as soon as the player characters are created.

Some chose to create detailed NPCs, who sometimes may replace characters in the popular product or may have some ties to those name characters. Others alter an existing character, such as Darkness has done with Elminster and several others in his FR campaign.

However, some DMs decide to alter an important part of a world, whether by changing climate or the history of a setting. So, Edena, how did you make some of your decisions? Do you think the process you used could serve as a guide to other DMs, especially new DMs?

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

The Gate was free standing on the alien world the party was trasported to.
However, where it emerged upon the world of Krynn a bubble of safety existed around it. Within this magical area, visitors from other worlds experienced conditions appropriate to that world.
Thus, the party could retreat into this safe bubble and avoid the crippling effects of Krynn's pressure, gravity, and temperature until they could find ways to counter it.
They could also return through the gate to the alien world - one group I DMed for decided to do just that. Finis the adventure!

If they choose to stay, they had the option to flee through the Gate (their magic could take them right back to it quickly enough.)
Only by foregoing that option altogether, when the chips were down and the decision meant something, caused them to Cocoon.
Yes, I said Cocoon. The instinct came to one of them, to grab the Weave of Krynn and wrap it around himself, until he was enmeshed and invisible in magical strands.
Then, the impulse came to all the others.
During the cocooning, those in the party underwent changes in appearance, but gained all the innate strength, hardiness, and endurance of the native peoples of Krynn (for this Krynn had all the peoples you would normally think of as being there: kender, tinker gnomes, hylar, theiwar, silvanesti, qualinesti, Solamnics, etc.)
If you see a theme from Terry Brook's Magic Kingdom for Sale: Sold! here, that is because there is one. The concept of the Paladin, applied to the party and their acceptance of the new Krynn.

The nations of Krynn were in peace and prosperity in this future.
A good comparison to this future Krynn would be to the Krynn that might have been, from Dragons of a Fallen Star.

How did I make this decision?
Ansalon seemed too small to me. I wanted to make it big enough to truly hold all the unique creatures and civilizations within it.
For example, if the Dragonarmy attacked Solamnia from the east, it attacked through the land of Throt, which is so far away as to be very remote, hardly known except to the well travelled bards.
As for Estwilde, it is a distant land of legend and rumor (like Ireland to the Romans.)
Taman Bursak, the evil land where Neraka (the capital of the Dragonarmies) sits, is so far away the land is only a myth to the Solamnic generals, and no bards seem to have ever travelled there.
Qualinesti is huge, and beyond it Thorbardin lies at the center of a vast region of mountains and hills hundreds of miles across.
And the desert that is the Sea of Dust, is a BIG desert. It is the size of the Sahara, and as easily crossed - which is to say, the Qualinesti and Silvanesti never meet. Beyond it in the south is a strange subarctic land where the people of Tarsis rule in violence, ever at war with the men of Icebay and the Thannoi of Icewall beyond.
It is a world big enough for dragons. Dragons hold many territories and regions, but the land is so big that most of it is still free of their dominion, from sheer size.
Of course, Krynn dragons (in my Dragonlance) are BIG. Like Malys and Skie. You do not hit one with a sword and it dies, generally. Unfortunately, if it hits with it's breath weapon, you do die, along in general with everything around you for hundreds of feet in all directions.

I thought that if the world was so big, it should have greater mass, and thus heavier gravity. It would have denser air, because a larger planet would have a deeper atmosphere. I guess I found these idea fascinating. The 80 degree tilt allowed for weather extremes, and that meant the flora and fauna had to somehow be greater in stature, stronger than mere mortal plants and animals should be. I found that idea fascinating too.
Don't know why. I just did. Thought it a neat thing to try. I knew it would challenge the players, but the changes simply seemed neat, and I tried them.
(That one group I mentioned, saw a world in darkness and winter, and scorned the Krynn they saw, returning to the warm, lighter gravity world, and in scorning Krynn, forever doomed any chance they could Cocoon and adapt to it, even if they went back later and tried.)

A guide to other DMs?
Yes. Let your imagination run amok. (looks embarrassed ... don't start me on the Valley of Eloi, which I had in that scenario!) The ideas you come up with will work in your setting. Just tinker with them if needed, until they fit in.

- - -

The parties (I ran this scenario several times) killed the angry Red Wyrm because it was dazed from the time travel and worldwalk, and the party - acting quickly - pounced on it before it could recover.
Also, the Red Wyrm was already badly hurt, from the battle at Solace.
If they did not kill it quickly enough, they had the option to run out of the cave, and the Great Wyrm could not leave through the small entrance (it did not come in by the entrance!) Then, they could approach the people of the foreign world and try to get help, before the Red Wyrm smashed it's way out and started on a general rampage.

The magnified air pressure of Krynn, being 90 pounds per square inch, caused damage each round those in the party were exposed to it, unless certain spells were used to protect against it.
I remember that Polymorph Self was one of those spells. For some reason Stoneskin partially worked. Airy Element protected the user. Water Breathing, incredibly, lessened the damage taken each round.
A Ring of Regeneration stopped the damage, but not the pain. Healing magic of any sort reversed the damage temporarily.
The point really, is that if one stood the increased pressure for a sufficient length of time, his or her internal pressure increased sufficiently to cope, and the damage stopped coming. It was a matter of surviving until then.

The triple gravity could not be overcome so easily.
Each person effectively had one third of their original strength, rounded down. A strength of 18 through 20 became 6, 21 through 23, 7. If the new strength disallowed armor, the wearer collapsed to the ground (in some cases, they collapsed, and literally could not move until someone else got all that weight off of them.)
Strenuous effort of any kind was dangerous. Enough strenuous effort, and saving throws (starting with a + 4 bonus) were necessary to avoid first passing out, then if the user kept working, to avoid heart attacks or strokes. Slow walking counted as a strenuous effort!
Bags of Holding proved their worth here, for a lot of extra material could go into them and be safely stored - the weight of the Bag of Holding did NOT increase with the increased gravity.
Magical armor was effectively weighless in my campaign, so it could be retained. Normal armor usually had to be left behind, although elven chain could usually be kept by a strong person.
Shields, magical and otherwise, proved useless weight. Cloaks, Rings, and Amulets, were worth their weight in gold.
Magical weapons retained their lightness, if lightness was a part of their magic. Otherwise, weapons became awkward to use, if not impossible. Wrist muscles simply could not instantly adapt to a broadsword weighing 12 to 15 pounds.
The point was, to somehow endure until one could find the means of adaptation, which was Cocooning.
However, one could not Cocoon if one did not choose, irrevocably, to stay on this new Krynn when faced with immediate danger. But nobody wanted to stay on this new Krynn facing danger, until they could somehow adapt. This cart before the horse scenario proved to be a real problem ...

The cold was easily defeated with magic.
The wind, was another matter. Remember that the air was three times denser than normal, so a blowing 40 mile per hour wind had three times the force.
The party encountered wind gusts to 100 miles per hour. Even at normal atmospheric pressure, few men can stand against this. In the tripled atmosphere of the new Krynn, avoiding being literally picked up and blown through the air (to inevitably crash with nasty results against a tree or rock) was a major challenge.

Yes, the party WAS able to collect and keep sovenirs from this new world.
But there was a catch.
DEAD material, be it rock, deadwood, or dead creatures, lost ALL of the special strength and endurance native to this new Krynn.
Thus, a club fashioned from deadwood, was no more useful than any normal club.
The trick was to find a way to make weapons or tools of living wood (the native peoples of Krynn, in their adaptation, had built all their homes and tools of living wood or magically enhanced substances, or of very thick stone or strong metals.)
Living wood was easily as strong as mithril. Normal steel weapons would not affect it. Blows from hammers and cudgels would not crush it. Only an incredibly strong man could cause a slender sapling of a tree to bend in the slightest (remember, those saplings had to withstand 100 mph winds in the tripled atmosphere, not to mention holding up their own weight.)
Living wood would generally not burn, unless it was exposed to incredible heat, or dried out (which took so long it was effectively not possible. Remember, the trees had to withstand 200 degree temperatures and a blazing, Venusian-like sun, during the summer.) Of course, DRAGON heat counts as incredible heat, and living wood would burn if exposed to that!

So yeah, the party could take all the memoirs of this new Krynn that pleased them.
However, for it to have the special qualities of the new Krynn, when they returned to their past, these items had to be living.
And that was the challenge.
You might point out I just said the natives had living wood, and obviously they could give their items of living wood to the party. All true - but the Gate back to Krynn emerged in a remote area, hundreds of miles from the nearest habitation. A matter of a small wilderness journey through the new Krynn, to get to the natives and those living wood tools. And more than a few encounters along the way.

Incidentally, the party was able to look at the historical records of the new Krynn.
Looking, they found they had won the battle of Solace! Indeed, many elves and dwarves could confirm this, having been around one hundred years back, and having testimonials from the battle.
This, of course, meant the party had gone back to finish the battle that was interrupted by the time-space explosion.
The new world was an intriguing place, and after adaptation the group (s) generally wanted to stay. Yet if they did not go back, how could they win the battle?
And if they did NOT win the battle, how could the historical records have said they did? There was NO WAY for the party to be assured of winning, if they returned! When they were hurled away by the explosion, they and the people of Solace were LOSING.