Need advice on a survival (tracking) vs stealth encounter


Advice

Sovereign Court

A bit of background; I'm running a home game where the PCs came across a patrol of bad guys and last session ended with a few of the patrol members "getting away" in mountainous/foothill terrain. The PCs stated they're chasing the fleeing patrol because having them report back to their main army is really bad.

So I'd like to have an encounter that sets up a chase-like atmosphere without going through the rules for a chase; I want this to be longer than a quick dash through some obstacles, think something more along the lines of Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas following the Orcs to rescue Merry and Pippin.

I was pondering maybe do a skill challenge-esque type setup where they need to make 5 or 6 total successes before 3 failures and at least 2 or 3 of those successes need to be survival (tracking) checks.

I'm also pondering throwing a trap in there that the patrol pre-set in case they were followed that will do more to slow the PCs down than damage them.

Any other suggestions/hints for running this?

thank you in advance.

The Exchange

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Bows and crossbows have much longer ranges than ever crops up in the normal course of play - this could be an opportunity to play some long-range exchanges, as the PCs start to gain on the bad guys and spot them in the far distance heading up a mountainside (or the bad guys pause at some point where there's a nice clear patch the PCs have to cross somewhere below them so they can fire off a few shots to try to dissuade their pursuers). I'm picturing it like something out of an old Western film where one group's tracking another, just getting to talking about this and that, and then suddenly the quiet of the great outdoors is shattered by a shot ricocheting off a nearby rock... It wouldn't have to last long before the bad guys vanished from sight again - just long enough to let the PC's know that they're gaining on them, and to remind them to keep their wits about them!


How much of a head start do the bad guys have?


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I think that the reason the chase sequence from Lord of the Rings took so long is because the orc’s could run faster and longer than Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas. Dwarves don’t move that fast, and I doubt either Aragorn or Legolas can match the sheer endurance of the orcs.

How this plays out really depends on the composition of the party and, or the patrol. If the party is in heavy armor, or is otherwise slower than the patrol the party may have to figure out how to outlast the patrol. Spells can help particularly cleric or ranger spells. If nothing else a couple of good CON rolls to continue running through the night may allow the party to overtake the patrol. If the party is faster than the chase may be over a lot sooner.


I think that the reason the chase sequence from Lord of the Rings took so long is because the orc’s could run faster and longer than Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas. Dwarves don’t move that fast, and I doubt either Aragorn or Legolas can match the sheer endurance of the orcs.

How this plays out really depends on the composition of the party and, or the patrol. If the party is in heavy armor, or is otherwise slower than the patrol the party may have to figure out how to outlast the patrol. Spells can help particularly cleric or ranger spells. If nothing else a couple of good CON rolls to continue running through the night may allow the party to overtake the patrol. If the party is faster than the chase may be over a lot sooner.

Assuming the patrol moves for 8 hours at 30’ and the party has a speed of 20’. If the party pushes through and runs an extra 4 hours they will catch up to the patrol on the 12th hour. So the patrol should be caught in the middle of the night. Just use the standard tracking rules and if the party misses the roll they need to find it again and probably waste an hour. I would probably require hourly survival checks, but don’t forget to adjust for the time and lighting.

Sovereign Court

blahpers wrote:
How much of a head start do the bad guys have?

about 5 minutes.

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