Zombie Hunt (Bront Judging) [Concluded]

[Jarik]

OOC: To be honest I am a little confused as to what you want us to do. I would rather have not been told we should not engage the beaste in combat by this farmer - who has maxed out ranks in dungeoneering? Pinning the beast down with rope or chain seems ludicrous, and our only other option seems to be me blasting it and then running away as arrows don't harm it and its been spelled out that it will hand us our hats in combat. I would suggest giving it an appropriate CR and pointing us in its direction.

 

[Patlin]

ooc: The farmer admittedly doesn't know as much as he thinks he does. You've allready deduced he was wrong about the arrows not hurting it, for example. Mostly, he's not an adventurer and thinks the monster is big and scary. The idea behind this module is a single very difficult fight. It's CR 4, which isn't out of reach but which is highly dangerous for a first level party. The idea is that you have excellent intelligence on the threat, choice of terrain with a bit if work, and the opportunity to set up an ambush in a variety of ways. All of these things should bring the combat into a reasonable range, but it's highly open ended as to how you want to pursue it.

Basically, this is a very open ended fight that you have a great deal of ability to manipulate, and the farmers warnings were my way of alerting you to the fact that charging straight in without preperation would be unwise.

You shouldn't take everything the npc says as being correct.

If you feel I've left it more open ended than you like, I could give you some suggestions, but that wasn't my original idea for this module.

We've all had experiences as players where we've walked into a DM's carefully prepared ambush. Adventures by their nature give npcs more of a chance to prepare for an encounter than pcs as the dm or module writer has much better access to information.

I thought it might be fun to turn that on its head. I know how I would want to handle this encounter as a PC, but you have a lot of options.

I'd also agree that trying to net the monster seems a bit unlikely to me, but that's an example of how open your options are. You may come up with a lot of things I wouldn't have thought of.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

ooc: I think the reason things have stalled out is that some of us have assumed that this particular scene is done, and that we're moving on to the next one. I (and Balnibar) can't think of anything more to ask the farmer, and I've already asked for the rope and chain for the ambush. We can probably move forward to the net-making montage which should give us some opportunity to continue role-play with more farmers and victims, giving us a chance to gain more intelligence.

I just wouldn't say something like "Balnibar grabs all the rope and starts making a net" because that's presumptuous of the other farmers' need for that rope.

Also, regarding the feasibility of the net: do we have an alternate plan on the table? If not, what knowledge are we lacking in order to come up with a plan? For example, would we want to hide and see the monster in action, first?

 

[Patlin]

ooc: Any information gathering you want to do is fair game.

ic: The farmers put you up for the night, and by morning time a bunch of them are hard at work assembling a large net out of a combination of rope and chain.

 

[IcyCool]

OOC: I generally have no net access over the weekend, and have been sick. Sorry about the lack of participation.

Before sitting down to help the farmer's with the netting, Aidan asks, "Do we have some way of baiting the beast? It occurs to me that unless it attacks a nearby farm, we won't be able to reach it before it has done its damage and moved on." He glances around, "It may be that arrows do indeed hurt it. If there is a safe location that the farmers could situate themselves in and rain arrows on it ... but I wouldn't want to endanger them if we can help it."

 

[Patlin]

"From what we've seen, if you move, it'll chase you. I don't think baiting it will be too much of a problem."

After some discussion, you get four volunteers willing to shoot at it if they can do so from some safe spot.

They don't know of any fortified location you could use, though if you wanted to dig in somewhere they'd help with the shoveling.

 

[IcyCool]

Aidan looks to his more knowledgeable companions. "If this thing is a zombie, it's unlikely to be able to reason. Do you think it would be possible to suspend the net between two sturdy anchor points, like trees, and then stand on the opposite side of the netting and get it to charge into the netting?"

 

[InVinoVeritas]

Balnibar looks up from the knot he was working on. "It's possible, I suppose. If we could get it to charge into the net, that would be convenient, but difficult. A net probably won't hold it for long, but it might be grounded as a result. Then, it could charge into other items, like a pit..."

Balnibar stops to think for a moment. His hands wave in front of him, indicating the monster and modes of attack. He stops, and mutters, "I need a diagram." Clearing off a patch of dirt, he waves his hand, and a melon-sized model of a dragon appears, flapping its wings about six inches off the ground. "The first task is to place the net on it. It will have to fly into something it doesn't notice." He smirks. "We're small. We can slip under something really easily." Two tiny trees grow in the dirt, a net stretched between them. A miniscule stick figure calls out "Stinky Zombie!" in a soft, high pitched voice, and runs under the net, chased by the dragon. The dragon tears out of the net, but it remains stuck on the wings. Still running after the little man, they stop.

"Wait, the zombie will be slowed for a moment, giving us time to shoot him." Four more stick figures appear, with bows and arrows. "There's no fortification, and arrows don't work well. It's a pity we can't just throw rocks at it..." A tiny catapult appears, but then disappears. "No, there isn't time... Aha! Slings!" The four archers suddenly become four slingers. "That might help. But still, there's no fortification, walls will break easily." A barn appears, and the slingers take refuge in the barn. The dragon starts running after everyone, crashing into the barn. Balnibar suddenly gets more excited (is that even possible?) and cackles with glee, "Yes! No fortification whatsoever!" The barn crumbles as the dragon plows into it, dropping a bunch of stones hidden in its hayloft on it.

"Ha ha! Now that looks like a plan! Does anyone see any flaw with this?"

 

[IcyCool]

the slingers take refuge in the barn.

The barn crumbles as the dragon plows into it, dropping a bunch of stones hidden in its hayloft on it.

"Ha ha! Now that looks like a plan! Does anyone see any flaw with this?"

"I think I noticed a flaw. The slingers are still in the barn when it collapses."

 

[Patlin]

ooc: By my count we've got one player we haven't heard from in 10 days and another we haven't heard from in two weeks. Please check in if you're still about, even if it's only with "Soandso has nothing to add to the plan."