Ideas for events in a small holy town recently captured by Asmodeans.

[Aberzanzorax]

The scene:

It is a small vale, cut off from the rest of the world/help for 3 months of winter. Normally a very holy site, Asmodeans and their bugbear army have taken it over, seeking to slay everyone in the vale --especially any clerics/spellcasters and to prevent people from seeking help.

I'm looking for what events might occur over the three months of seclusion and slaughter. Feel free to put yourselves in the place of the DM, or in the place of a player of a good priest/churchgoer seeking to survive the winter.

(I didn't mention this at the start, but this is from the adventure path Way of the Wicked; the Asmodeans are the player characters.)

I'm using this map for the civilized/town part of the vale.
Map

[gustavo iglesias]

I think it is impossible for the PC to really succeed in the task of doing it secretly. There are clerics there, some of them survive for a while (in the Cathedral), and specifically one of them have enough level to cast "sending".

That said, there's a lot they can do.

One of the groups might go into the sewers. Think of Catacombs in Rome, and the legionaires hunting down christians. Except here the catacombs can have much more interesting things. "The Dwarves dug too deep. They awoke in the darkness… shadow and flame."

Several priests/clerical guys can be hidden by the peasants. Think on Schindler's list and similar films (or Ana Frank's Journal). There are few things that scream "lawful evil" more than a group of fanatical racists that patrol the streets with uniforms and iron boots. Think of "nazis" or "Stalin's political commissairs". The "good guys" can be either combatives (partisans, french resistance) or just trying to survive and flee (several groups hiding and saving jews in the whole Europe)

There's the question about how the PC will handle it. They can try to make the city a hell prison for three months, but they could just slaughter everybody in the first day. If so, you could free some ghosts in the town, avenging the dead.

Some group of rangers could hide in the mountains. That will lead to a wilderness hunting, where the PC might face some monsters (basilisks, chimaeras, etc)

The weather itself might be a challenge. Make it a very cold winter. Make the bugbears and human auxiliaries to grumble, and bugbears ask for "meat back in the menu". The tension between humans and non-humans in the army could grow, so the PC will need to do something about it. A (smmall) group could rebel, so the PC will need to make an examplary of them. A small group of brave resistance might try an "scorched earth" approach, burning the grain siloes (in a "we're already doomed. Let's make them pay for it" tactic).

[Douglas Muir 406]

Here's an event I put in the thread a while back. (Those Way of the Wicked threads are getting crazy long -- Gary really needs his own forum.) It's a possible encounter to add as a break between duking it out with angels and whatnot.

Kly the Mail is a ranger who has been carrying mail over the frozen passes every Midwinter for years now. Everyone knows about him -- Kly is the only contact that Sanctum has with the outside world for three months. His arrival is always cause for a celebration; he usually stays a few days, collects the return mail, and then heads back over the pass.

Kly is an elderly human who is really getting too old for this, but he's stubborn and determined to keep it up until his old bones finally fail. Give him the Elderly template (-3 to Str, Dex and Con, +2 to Int, Wis and Cha). He's a 8th level ranger / 2nd level Horizon Walker; his favored terrain is Cold, and he's followed the Archery combat style. Favored enemy, season to taste, but if he can match one of the PCs or their allies, go for it. He's Chaotic Good, and holds no brief for the Church of Mitra -- they're rather too controlling and stuffy for his tastes -- but he has many friends among the good people of Sanctum.

Kly usually travels alone, but this time he's come with a companion: a half-elven druid named Distra, a friend of his youth. Distra is trying to persuade him to train a replacement and retire. She knows this will take years, so she's coming along to get an idea of how hard the trip is. Distra is a 10th level druid who is just hitting middle age (which actually makes her a bit more dangerous). She has an animal companion, a snow leopard.

Whether this is an easy encounter for the PCs or a tricky one will depend on what preparations they have made...

[Douglas Muir 406]

-- Nobody is going to mention Kly, even under torture, unles specifically asked; many people won't think of him, and others will conceal him as a last best hope. The only way the PCs will find out about him is if they ask the right questions -- "Does anyone get in during winter," "Is there any way of communicating with the outside world once the passes are closed," etc. If the PCs announce that they are searching through the garrison's papers, give them a DC 30 Perception check to notice that the commander's file of correspondence stops for three months per year -- except that a few letters from the capital appear every year just before Midwinter.

-- If the PCs have bugbear scouts out, they have a chance to spot Kly and Distra. They won't be stealthy, and bugbears have respectable Pereption (+8) so very likely they'll be spotted. It then becomes a question of whether the bugbears can slip away without being noticed themselves -- they have +10 Stealth, but Kly's Perception in a wintertime forest is something like +16. If the bugbears are spotted, Kly and Distra should have little difficulty killing them. They'll reasonably assume that the creatures are scouts from the Fire-Axe's army, and will continue on their way; the only warning the PCs will get is when a patrol is a couple of hours late.

-- If the PCs are aware of Kly, they should have little trouble setting an ambush -- normally the ranger snowshoes right up to the gate of the garrison. Even if the PCs don't know he's coming, he may come within hailing range before realizing anything is wrong. He's familiar with the garrison, though, and has a good Perception, so it's very likely he'll spot that something is wrong before knocking on the door. The details will depend sensitively on whether the PCs still have guards there, how watchful they are, etc. If attacked, he will try to escape. If he does, he'll take a day to circle around through the mountains and will then enter the valley from another direction entirely, several miles from the garrison.

-- Once Kly and Distra realize something is wrong, they will want to explore the valley. Kly will be overwrought with grief at the deaths of many of his friends; Distra, a cooler head, will want to reconnoiter, find out exactly what has happened, and get the news back to civilization. If there are still survivors, Kly will want to contact them and attempt a rescue, while Distra will try to persuade him against it. Either way, the two will scout the valley for 2-5 days and then head home. If there are no survivors, Kly will want to massacre some bugbears, or possibly ambush a lone PC or high-level NPC if he can manage it.

-- Catching the two is best done in or around Sanctum. If they escape into the surrounding forest, the PCs have a problem -- both can move fast over snow, and Kly has very high Stealth. If found and attacked with overwhelming force (i.e., the whole PC party), Kly and the snow leopard will make a last stand while Distra takes on whatever is her fastest flying shape (probably an air elemental) and runs for it. Kly will concentrate fire on anyone who is pursuing her; he should have the long range feat and at least one Arrow of Slaying, just so the PCs don't ignore him.

If the PCs have nothing fast enough to catch Distra, then the game is blown. (But hey -- at least they know it). If they do catch her, and she's losing a fight, her last trick is to cast Quickened Obscuring Mist, drop like a stone into the forest below, and then Wild Shape into a pine tree. The PCs can then have fun trying to figure out which one of 50 or so identical trees she might be. (Of course, cutting or burning them all works.)

-- For bonus fun, say that the druid has put one of the snow leopard's ability score increases on Int. This gives it a 3 Int -- capable of understanding simple speech and instructions. If the PCs don't kill it, it will eventually make its way back to the druid's home (a couple of weeks away, but it has all winter) and try to warn them. The leopard can't talk, of course, but Speak With Animals is a first level spell for druids, so it won't take them long to realize what's up. If you want to be really nasty, say that the druid has thrown 5 points of her favored class bonus towards giving the leopard +5 Stealth; if I'm doing the numbers right, that should give it Stealth +24 or so. Even 11th level PCs may have some trouble catching this thing if it's allowed to escape into the forest.

-- Killing Kly will cast any survivors into utter despair. It will also impress hell out of the bugbears -- a generation or so back, he worked the North, and killed dozens of them.

Doug M.

[Eric Hinkle]

That whole business with Kly and his druid friend sounds like a great idea. Thanks for sharing it.

[Aberzanzorax]

Some great suggestions here!

I especially like the ideas of noncombatant events as well as the combatant ones. I'm stoked for Kly and the ghosts, but also weather, pc minions versus bugbears, and burning of food.

I'm also thinking something related to an avalanche could be done in this snowy, mountainous region. (Maybe buried bugbears, priests causing it on purpose, or simply a random occurance sweeping into town.

[Anonymous Visitor 163 576]

Fewer good clerics could lead to the outbreak of some kind of disease.

With the winter and the tight conditions, that could be quite dangerous.

Likewise, I could see a poisoning of the water supply.