So my characters wash up on the Isle of Dread (or "Freedom Isle" as they've renamed it). They barely survived the t-rex ("freedom lizard") attack, but only barely. Being the sweet and kind-hearted DM that I am, I took pity on them that evening. Two terror birds ("freedom birds") came to feast on the t-rex, but were content to stay on the corpse and leave the camp farther down the beach alone.
Sadly, my players looked this particular freedom lizard in the mouth.
Roven, the character on watch, woke Vance, another character, up when he spotted the terror birds. Instead of letting the birds scavenge in peace, Vance got a brilliant idea. Why not capture a terr -- I mean, a freedom bird -- and use it to cart goods and perhaps eventually serve as a mount?
Despite Roven's doubts, Vance proceeded with part 2 of his plan. Waking Avner the spoiled noble up. Vance's reasoning: Avner has a horse, so he knows how to handle animals, so he's the best choice to tame the terror bird.
Roven: "We're going to wake up Avener?"
Vance: "He has a horse, I'm sure he can...chirp at the birds or whatever to make them calm."
Roven: "Ah, yes. The terror bird whisperer."
(Avner has a -1 to Handle Animal checks, but they didn't know that).
Avner was a little upset at being wakened in the middle of the night, but Vance's flattery convinced him that using a homemade rope bridle on a terror bird was a great idea. The birds stared at Our Heroes as if they were alien beings as Avner approached, making clucking sounds and bobbing his head oddly. He successfully tossed the bridle over the bird's head.
The terror bird let out a shriek loud enough to wake the dead and took off down the beach, dragging Avner by the lead rope. Avner shouted for the beast to stop but lacked the strength (and the leverage) to pull it to halt. Vance, unwilling to let his prize go, grabbed onto Avner and was subsequently dragged along.
The rest of the party woke to the sight of the maddened terror bird careening across the beach, dragging Avner and Vance. The second bird attacked non-dragged party members. Our Heroes killed the free terror bird, while Vance climbed up over Avner and onto the back of the bird. A paralyzing spell from the wizard stopped the bird's mad dash, and now they have a captive terror bird they're trying to tame.
So weird. But so fun.
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I'm going to risk sounding like an 80's valley girl, because that is TOTALLY awesome! Kudos to your group for their creativity and bravado, and to you as DM for allowing them to attempt this hare-brained scheme. Sometimes you have to sacrifice a little believability for the sake of the game. Rest assured...this is gaming moment that your players will remember years after this campaign is over.
"Oh...yeaaaahhhh! Remember that one time, when we convinced that pompous dillweed...what was his name...? Avner! That's right! Rememeber when we convinced Avner to try and lasso the killer ostrich thingy...and it ran off down the beach, dragging him face first through the sand, screaming! That was AWESOME!"
Thanks! They're an odd bunch. Later they used speak with animals to try and negotiate past the terror bird mother. It was an amusing few minutes of roleplaying that basically went like this:
"You bad!"
"Us good."
"You bad nest! Me eat!"
"Us good. No nest."
"You nest!"
"No nest. Us cave."
"You nest?"
"No nest."
"Me eat?"
"No eat. Us cave."
"You cave, you good?"
"Us good."
"YOU NEST!"
"No nest! No nest!"
Roven: "I don't even understand what he's saying anymore."
You have just made my entire week. I fear I have soiled my keyboard with Mountain Dew because of you!
Great gaming! Keep it up!
Interesting.
If anyone wants to get a good feel for Terror Birds I suggest the documentary Walking with Beasts. Both the first and last (sixth) part of that series features Terror Birds (actually the first episodes bird is probably not a true Terror Bird but for our purposes its a fine example - its big and it preys on other creatures ... like the ancestors of horses).
Also Wikipedia has a bit on Terror Birds here.