Protecting Road Crew

[Irranshalee]

My next session is designed around the party protecting a large group of road workers as they clear a jungle. The length of the road will be approximately 600 miles so there is ample time and space to throw in just about anything. I have a party of five 2nd-level characters.

I have five encounters set up.

Two requests...

Each encounter, other than the last, is small. They could use all of their resources and have no repercussions in one fight. Any suggestions on how to challenge the party?

Do you have any suggestions on a non-combat, yet perilous encounter?

Character classes are fighter, cleric, wizard, monk, and rogue.

Thanks,

Irrie.

[Phneri]

A couple small encounters are fine, but don't be afraid to put in a continuous resource drain.

For example, how is that fighter staying comfortable in his armor in a jungle? Or how is this crew functioning? The cleric/wizard might be out most of the day on endure elements.

Intelligent enemies will realize the group is defended after a single attack, then go for stragglers/isolated folks/supplies. Pick at those to make the party nervous. Fey (annoyed at having their homes disturbed) might go this route.

Severe storms are always good for threatening the group with no monster to go after.

Something like this would be rife for survival checks. Look at the jungle/swamp hazards. Throat leeches in the drinking supply aren't a combat encounter, but they can be very deadly.

[Doc Cosmic]

As there is no druid in the party...a plant encounter is needed. Just to make someone say "Damn, wish we had a druid"

[Tom S 820]

I personaly do not see why you do not track resources the it helps make choses more important.

[doctor_wu]

Couldn't the players solve throat leaches all day with purify food and drink.

[Phneri]

doctor_wu wrote:

Couldn't the players solve throat leaches all day with purify food and drink.

purify cannot ever effect a creature. So no.

Regardless, the idea with some encounters (particularly hazards) is to give the party a problem to solve. All of them don't have to be insurmountable. If they have someone with a survival check or decent heal skill the leaches aren't a horrible problem. They're just a problem.

[Irranshalee]

Looking for more advice like Phneri's. As for why resources are not tracked...the process will take months and each encounter happens over that span of time. Ton of time to rest.

The last encounter, on the other hand, is major and will require all of their resources...if not more.

I was really hoping for some ideas that might cause the characters to use skills. Maybe some diseases or such that could drain their strength before an encounter? You know, like throat leeches :)

[EWHM]

Sounds kind of like the construction of the Panama Canal. Your biggest threats honestly are disease and parasites. Your characters with healing spells and skills will be busy. Probably a few wild animal encounters also, and maybe some natives that see the construction of the road as a threat to their way of life. The natives encounters might be solvable without violence per your preferences and the social capabilities of your players and characters. You've got to have at least one tropical squall or storm too, if only for flavor. Perhaps an animal attack by beasts spooked by the storm?

[mdt]

Things to make life difficult :

Vermin - Even if they aren't swarms, vermin can make things miserable. Poisonous spiders and bugs can cause the PCs and NPCs problems without being deadly. Con drains, str drains, nausea. I'd set up a percentage chance of anyone being under the effects of some insect poison for any encounter. Make up a table of effects (say 1d10's worth), and then give each person a 10% chance of being under any effect (PCs and NPC workers, natives know how to avoid). Same goes for snakes, snakes like to crawl into blankets at night to stay warm, and are cranky when awoken. They also like to hang from tree-limbs looking like vines until they spit caustic venom into eyes.

Disease/Poison using natives - Have the natives use arrows dipped in the rotting carcasses of dead critters, or smeared on poisonous frog saliva, or both. I've done this before, and even Dwarves are vulnerable to an arrow slathered in actively infectious puss. This can last weeks without a cure disease spell.

Environmental Issues - Ravines that are very dangerous, and the workers need someone with better climb skills or whatever to get the first foot bridge across. Or, quicksand that endangers the foreman, or as said above, heavy storms, flash flooding, rivers, etc.

[Phneri]

A nice "midboss" encounter might be something like large predators attacking the workers at night. Think something along the lines of Ghost and the Darkness. 1:1 this is threatening to the party and challenging, and caught unawares absolutely devastating to the (4 hp commoner) laborers.

Two worgs would be roughly on par for CR and absolutely brilliant for hit and runs like this, as the party goes in expecting animal intelligence and gets freaked out when they encounter a calculating, reasoning opponent mauling men in their beds.

[Fraust]

You could have something along the lines of one of the workers getting trapped under a tree they just cut down. Not being terribly high level I think it would be easy to make it more a series of skill checks and strength checks rather than the wizard casting a spell and solving the problem. Make sure the party doesn't forget aid another and the fact that there's a number of burly workers to help out too.

Depending on other circumstances you add in, you could make it as mundane or intense as you like. Put a trail of fire ants on their way through the area...use the storm idea mentioned earlier to flood the work site...maybe there's a poisonous fungus on the tree so they need to be careful about exposing everyone trying to save the one guy.

[Jit]

After heavy rains - flash floods who flush workers down ravines or cenotes. The cenotes can be very deep (race against time to save before drowning), or inhabited by low level undead or a large snake .

Killer bees, stirges , spreading fear.

After storms - trees will have fallen - slowing down roadwork , maybe near a monster lair? The workers need to woork faster and silently to avoid notice?

A choker or ettercap picking of workers one by one.

Some of the worker work for the local thievesguild, stealing equipment and planning to rob the the guys who come with the pay roll:)