"The bridge is destroyed! We're trapped!"

[BiggusGeekus]

Inspired by the zombie plague thread ( http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=115321 )

A puzzler:

How would you trap a party in a town overnight? They should be able to move about the town, but not get too far away. Using magical force fields (or walls of fog, or demi-planes, or other magic stuff) is discouraged. The party may be assumed to know 2nd level spells, but not fly or teleport. So a 3rd or 4th level party.

A river would work nice on one side and maybe cliffs on the other. But how would you really isolate the party?

Reason:

I want zombies to eat their brains and/or turn them into other zombies.

Bonus points:

Plausible reason why the kiddies would all be out of town for that night.

The Prize:

The coveted smilie:

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Perhaps there is a snow storm? If too much snow comes down, they will probably hesitate to go away too far from a warm heath...

If it's the wrong season, try heavy, continual rains instead.

 

[Thanee]

Heavy rains have turned the fields around the village into a muddy mess. Wolves howl outside in the dozens. Something is wrong, very wrong.

Their own fear can keep them inside...

And everyone knows... kids have no fear for nothing...

"We played hide and seek and built us a cool mud castle out there, but the stupid rain ruined it. Ricky wanted to find the wolves to pet them, like the dogs in the village, but we told him, that they would bite his arm off, so he stayed with us."

Bye
Thanee

 

[Piratecat]

I find snow does a wonderful job. I once had a doppelganger hunt in a snowstorm around an isolated inn... it was one of the best games we'd had.

 

[JimAde]

I think the thread title is a fine idea. If the town is on an island in a river, it could be isolated by a heavy storm that causes the river to rise and take out the only bridge. Once the river subsides they'll be able to use rowboats to leave, but to do so while the river is raging is suicide.

Snow definitely works. I just trudged through thigh-deep snow to work this morning and it was a drag. I couldn't imagin doing that for miles. Especially if it's actively snowing/blowing at the time. Hypothermia here we come.

I don't know if you've established the town's location already, but now about it's built on a bit of firm ground and surrounded by deep marsh/swamp? The town exists to exploit some natural resource available only in the swamp (a valuable plant or animal, probably). The town is normally accessed by pole barges and small boats, but most of these have been appropriated for the annual Midsummer Festival. This is a high holiday where children are taken by their parents and others to spend the night in the swamp and offer thanks to the gods for another safe year. The few remaining boats are the first target of the zombies...

 

[Ibram]

or you could have even larger parties of zombies roaming the woods.

perhapse there is a ring of zombies standing around the villiage just out of bow shot range

bad weather is always a good one, a flood to knock out the bridge and make the river unnavagatable. if the villiage is on the edge of a wilderness area it could take weeks hiking through the woods to get out.

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

Just surround them - have the zombies come from all different directions so whichever way they run the find zombies. Could include the cliched moment of "Runaway.... no not that way.... no not that way either...."

As for the kids - I had the thought of an annual 'field trip' for everyone under the age of (whatever age you want). On one day of the year (midsummer's day?) the local druid/priest takes them out to a nearby field/hill/cave to teach them all about (appropriate god). It's kind of educational, kind of fun, kind of tradition. The eldest have to look after the youngest for the night - so they're carrying around the new borns (or maybe you have an age cutoff at the bottom and only the youngest are still in the village.

Tie the two together - whoever is launching the attack wants the villages children so has picked this night when they're all away to attack with an overwhelming force.

 

[carrot]

Going on with the water theme - how about a flood... and the kids are just mucking about on home-made rafts.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Inspired by the zombie plague thread ( http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=115321 )

A puzzler:

How would you trap a party in a town overnight? They should be able to move about the town, but not get too far away. Using magical force fields (or walls of fog, or demi-planes, or other magic stuff) is discouraged. The party may be assumed to know 2nd level spells, but not fly or teleport. So a 3rd or 4th level party.

A river would work nice on one side and maybe cliffs on the other. But how would you really isolate the party?

Reason:

I want zombies to eat their brains and/or turn them into other zombies.

Bonus points:

Plausible reason why the kiddies would all be out of town for that night.

The Prize:

The coveted smilie:

First - put the town at the intersection of two rivers - sort of like a Y. Then, on the open end of the Y, there is a large cliff - think of the scene in Fellowship of the Ring with the gang rafting through the huge statues of the ancient kings - only this town is at the point where two rivers meet.

There are bridges going over both rivers. However, a sudden blizzard comes upon the town and both bridges get quickly weighted over with snow and collapse when merchants try to take their wagons out of town & beat the snow...

If you had just a snowstorm, the PCs might be inclined to rough it. To keep them in town, maybe some orcs, goblins, hobgoblins (or whatever) try to use the snow to stage a raid on the town. The PCs would hopefully be obligated to stay & help them out, as some PC groups may still decide to rough it and leave town with no bridges & a blizzard.

Of course, the kiddies go out & play in the snow when it stops snowing.

 

[Maerdwyn]

The town is quarantined. The sickness makes certain adults go mad an eat people's brains, while others simply become carriers, and other are completely unaffected - no way to tell which is which with the spells available. But kids can't transmit the sickness and none of them has gotten ill, ( or a cleric among the forces quantining the village could detect the illnes in a limited number of people - all the spell were used up by the time the PC's a re trying to get out.), so the kids get rescued, but the big army camped outside the village won't let anyone else leave until the disease has played itself out - either everyone is dead or cured.