One of my most interesting encounters was a planned extra encounter on the M'neri plains. The party had been tracked by a hyena, just staying out of reach, scooting away if shot at or approached.
The party were camped at night in a broad gully. Two adult rhinos and a baby rhino charged towards the party, scattering them. The party started attacking the rhinos, believing the rhinos would turn and charge at them anyway. Then they noticed the rhinos had been injured already.
Out of the darkness a group of gnolls charged the scattered party, from several directions at once. As the party manoeuvred for an advantageous position (fighters to the front, spellcasters to the rear), the gnoll's hyenas and handlers came barrelling in to attack from the rear.
It was good fun, took a while to play. PC's were wounded, but no one was close to death. But they enjoyed the tactical battle. They also felt bad afterwards for killing one of the rhinos, realising the beasts had been used. For the battle I used a few different gnolls, having archers, a gnoll barbarian, gnoll fighter, a gnoll sergeant, a couple of "standard" gnolls, and a gnoll priestess. Played as a random encounter but obviously prepared.
Two of the five players couldn't make it tonight, so we did a side trek. Adapting the Pathfinder Society adventure "Perils of the Pirate Pact" was easy as the party were on the river having just left Kalabuto.
It went well, was good fun, and part of the reward was getting a ride further up the river, saving another day.
One of my player characters has had a romantic liaison with Sasha, which started on Smuggler's Shiv. The same character had a Pathfinder background, he (like Gelik Aberwhinge) wants to be a Pathfinder. On Smuggler's Shiv I thought they might be rivals, but the PC shared the information he found freely with him, hoping they could both be made full members.
more info spoiler:
In Eleder I was expecting the party to join The Pathfinders, and have the Aspis Consortium as enemies, and maybe the Red Mantis as allies as well (because the Red Mantis only really want certain artefacts, not all the treasure). It didn't work out that way. They entered a deal with both The Pathfinders AND the Aspis Consortium who were both willing to deal with them, but unhappy about the party having two masters. I could have stopped that short, but I want to let the party have a say in how it goes. Their main allegience is to The Pathfinders, but the deal they have with The Aspis Consortium is that they will sell all the items they find in Saventh-Yhi to them at half market price. Of course the Aspis Consortium have a twist in their tale and they will obey the letter of the agreement but not the spirit. Of course they are not to know how horribly wrong things are going to go for them in Vaults of Madness. Despite this the Aspis Consortium were also the only ones who could get the party out through bribery when the Sargavan Government faction put a blockade around Eleder (easy because its a walled city) to try and stop expeditions leaving before them.
Sasha has decided to renounce all ties with Red Mantis. This is partly because of her romance with a PC and partly because of what happened to Pezock. Initially on Smuggler's Shiv Sasha and the tengu Pezock were enemies because she did not believe his story about how he obtained a red mantis sawtooth sabre. Later they became friends, although the sabre was always a point of conflict. The party took Pezock with them when they were rescued, and he decided he wanted to continue his career at sea and so joined Aerys when they arrived in Eleder. However Pezock was later murdered and his sawtooth sabre taken - the party blames Red Mantis for that (they are right). So they are the main enemy and all the rival faction agents belong to Red Mantis, and I'm thinking of including a Red Mantis priest (stats available in City of Seven Spears page 64) with the Rival Agents when they attack the party in Kalabuto (should be next session).
One issue I am having is that my five PC's seem to be ahead of the xp scale. They are now level 6 just having reached Kalabuto. I'm hoping the trip to Tazion won't be too easy for them.
I had a moment of hilarity with Encounter C - The Fzumi Salt Mines.
Spoiler:
The party met Athyra and accepted her request that they find the locket. When she said she would meet her on the other side of the mine (and indeed on page 27 under C7 it says she is waiting for them) the party just looked at each other and said:
"Well why bother going through the mines? We'll go with Athyra because if she'll be waiting for us on the other side her way must be quicker!"
I, as DM, had to mumble something about Athyra being able to travel quicker than the rest of the party, and besides (luckily) they had a pack horse that wouldnt be able to trek the route that Athyra would take. We all had a good laugh about it though.
Ran the battle between the Thrunefang Cannibals and the party at the lighthouse settlement ruins. Used Malikadna as per daemonslye's awesome witch version and..
spoiler battle tactics:
most of the party were caught in her web spell between two huts, and then she hit them with glitterdust while the cannibals peppered them with javelins.
Thought a TPK was going to happen for a while there. The party won but it was tight. Great fun.
Everyone is loving this adventure so far, they love the background, the mystery, the recurring villains (eg Red Mountain Terror), and especially the side quests with the NPCs.
Trickster, I like your idea of day/night encounter tables, could you post the ones you made?
MM = Monster Manual (I don't have the Pathfinder Bestiary)
Also I know having a d100 for one and d20 for the other isnt ideal but it works :) Also it didnt convert too well from Excel, but you get the idea. Feel free to steal and convert to suit yourself.
Random Encounters on Smuggler's Shiv - Dawn, Noon % Roll Result CR Source Notes
01-50 No Encounter
51-53 1d6 Dire Rats 1 MM p64
54-57 2d8 Ramphorhynchus 1/3 Page 82 Will only attack isolated PC
58-60 1d4 Monstrous Centipede, Med 1/2 MM p286
61-63 Flying Insect Swarm 2 Checklist p6 chance of disease
64-66 1 Monstrous Spider, Med 1 MM p288
67-70 Monkey Swarm 1 MM p276 Abuse and throw poo at party
71-73 1 Spider Swarm 1 MM p239
74-77 1d4 Thrunefang Cannibals 1 page 29
78-80 1d4 Vipers, Sm 1/2 MM p280
81-83 1 Constrictor Snake 2 MM p279
84-86 1d4 Dimorphodons 2 page 82
87-89 Pezock 1 page 22
90-92 1 Monitor Lizard 1 MM p275
93-95 1 Snake, Viper, Lg 2 MM p280
96-97 1d4 Shocker Lizards 4 MM p224
98-00 Winged Chupacabra 5 Page 43 Quick sighting, noise
Random Encounters on Smuggler's Shiv - Dusk, Midnight D20 Result CR Source Notes
1-10 No encounter Dream or event instead
11 1d6 Dire Rats 1 MM p64
12 1 Ghoul 1 MM p118
13 1d4 Monstrous Centipede, Med 1/2 MM p286
14 1d6 Human Skeletons 1/3 MM p225
15 1d4 Snake, Viper, Sm 1/2 MM p280
16 1 Bat Swarm 1 MM p237
17 1d6 Human Zombies 1 MM p266
18 1d4 Thrunefang Cannibals 1 page 29 Night raid - if any escape 2d8 will attack later
19 1 Snake, Viper, Lg 2 MM p280
20 Winged Chupacabra 5 Page 43 Quick sighting, noise
I ran the first session last weekend, I've been using a blog to get the players excited, giving them bits of info about the NPCs and other player characters.
I used Gamemastery flipmats which worked well for encounters, and the 4th Ed Dark Sun Game Day map for when they are camped in caves on the beach. The hex map of Smugglers Shiv provided on this forum was invaluable, and the Smugglers Shiv Checklist was very useful - thank you!
About this Session:
Initially they thought they'd been abandoned by the crew, and it took some time before they decided to scan the horizon and saw the wreck.
Without much prompting a couple of the more Role Play orientated PCs tried to improve the relationship with the NPCs, and the other three joined in once they saw the benefits.
Keeping track of everything was a challenge (disease, rain, encounters, NPC morale/, heat, starvation/thirst, etc) and I made a few blunders but no one knew and I kept the story running as a priority over religiously sticking to when the rolls had to happen.
Three PC and one NPC currently have dysentry. The group has decided to hole up until everyone is well.
One PC was a druid and she wanted to be already on the island rather than a passenger. She came up with a plausible backstory so I made it so she only knew about the northern part of the island because she wanted to stay away from the cannibals. The druid PC was able to warn the party about the dangers of heat exhaustion and what times it was best to rest which was helpful.
I made two different encounter tables - night and day, I wanted the winged chapucabra to have a greater chance of making an appearance, undead only to appear at night and reptilian creatures to appear only during the day.
