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My players LOVED this encounter that I put together and said it was very memorable. I LOVED running it. It allows player ingenuity. It also was a way for the players to pick up two fame points (I hadn't done two of the optional encounters in a previous module and this module.)
So after the mayor's mansion gets destroyed, the city is supposed to be in a bit of chaos, at least near the newly ruined estate.
I didn't convey this very well to my players, and noticed a few passages that I missed that mentioned chaos & looting. (see the 4th mod's bestiary for looting)
So I came up with an idea to help convey that message.
They had gone into the ruins for 2 days in a row, getting all the way to the succubus.
The next day, as they were walking to the ruins, they began to smell something burning. Then they heard screaming.
I had previously drawn a map of a busy city street, complete with various buildings and a asmodean water fountain. (I made that up to help with the encounter)
I placed a bunch of mini d6s all over to represent the amount of people in the streets, and included several actual miniatures to represent people they may pay attention to, for reasons of being shady, or just interesting.
As they approach the scene they see several things:
* Two buildings partially on fire (only one-three squares each).
* Two Ukobach devils setting these fires. (see bestiary of 1st mod)
* A few unorganized looters (in my case, they were all tieflings)
* A child (looks like a halfling from a distance) stuck on the second floor balcony of a building that is on fire. - the parents are on the street, crying for their child)
I added the possibility of several of the miniatures to be helpful characters. When the PC bard fascinated the crowd of people to get them to stop looting, panicking, and try to get them to leave (I allowed the mechanic of fascinate to allow the bard to get the crowd to leave the street), a woman on the opposite side of the street, who had been dancing for money with her brother, who had been singing, started to also fascinate the crowd. She had a lower DC, so didn't get as many people, but helped out a little. After some role-playing, she and her brother eventually became the bard's followers (Leadership feat).
The Ukobachs animated the fire to create fire elementals, and used their fire jump ability to stay away from melee combat for a while. This made the combat much more fun by lasting a little longer than usual. Once I had them "disappear" - only to reappear when they set the smithy's building on fire, which was where they came out in. The players appreciated the creativity of that.
The players had just gotten a hold of a wand of quench, and used it to good purpose. Unfortunately for them, the devils don't have the fire subtype. They also summoned a water elemental - which really helped a lot (douses as it touches fire, so can douse 40ft of fire in a double move). They also looked around for vessels that could hold the water from the fountain. I had a barrel of pickles be nearby. After tossing the pickles onto the fire, two PCs went to fill it up. The elemental and the quench wand worked first, but this was a fun way for fighter types to help.
I gave one fame point for defeating the devils and putting out the fires, and one for saving the child.
I used the rules from the Catastrophies article in the last module. It created "explosive fires," in the words of one of my players. The fires wouldn't grow for a round or two, then could grow in two or three squares in all directions!
I didn't use the rules on collapsing buildings because the PCs took care of the fire before a couple minutes went by. I did use the smoke inhalation rules to have the child pass out after a couple rounds. This got the monk to jump up to the balcony's edge, and grab the kid before "slow falling" down the side of the building. After a successful heal check (low DC - arbitrary), she told the thankful parents how to care for her the next couple of days. (If they had wanted to heal her then, a lesser restoration would have done it)
Oh - I made the areas with the most people partially difficult terrain (half speed, but five foot steps ok) - once the crowd cleared, it became regular terrain.
I just thought I'd share this since it was so successful. If you use it, please tell me what you did differently, or what your players came up with!
Hello Deidre,
I used this encounter yesterday to delay the players on their first trip to the ruins. It went very well and took about four hours to play. I added Sian Daedamus (upgraded with devil bounded-template) to the chaotic situation.
If you are still here and interested, I can give a more detailed report.
Thank you very much for this encounter!
Daehsquinn
Oh neat, I'll be borrowing this as well, but I have a sneaking feeling that I'll be using the opposing bards to counter the party...;)