Chase on Charred Ground

[Arven]

LeandraChristine wrote:

Hi there!

At first I wanted to avoid posting during the voting time, but I just needed to stop by and say that I (really) enjoy the comments and the discussion they spawned.

Hallo!

Eine Stimme mehr hast Du. Die gleichbleibende Qualitaet ist schon fast unheimlich ;-). Ich druecke Dir die Daumen!

Leider scheint es hier keine Moeglichkeit zu geben, Dich zu kontaktieren. Bist Du auf einem der dt. RPG-Foren aktiv? Wenn ja, auf welchem und unter welchem Namen?

Fantastische Gruesse,

Arne 'Arven' Reuter
www.cardmasters.de

[Christine Schneider]

Thank you for the praise :P
I hope it is ok if I reply in english, because it would be weird to write in a language only so few understand. (Although I get the impression that this forum is very multicultural :-)

I'm not "active" on any german d&d forum, but I admit to lurk there once in a while. If you or anybody else, wants to contact me, just write a mail to: leandrachristine at mail.com

[mevers]

This is a great encounter. Well done in actually designing a chase scene that works well. This would be a very enjoyable encounter to run, both for the DM and the players, and that's a very rare balance to strike. As I was reading this, I was straight away thinking that this was one encounter I really wanted to run (or even better yet be a player in).

I don't really have much more to add. I never really understood the praise you garnered, yeah, your work was good, but never the clear best (IMO of course). However, this round you really were the best (and be a good way as well), and as I look back over the other rounds, I see that although you may not have always been the number one choice, you were nearly always in the top few.

You have been by far the most consistent entrant, and of all the entrants, I think you are the best at combing great ideas with good mechanics and presenting it clearly for DMs to use. You submissions feel like you are writing them for someone else to use, as opposed to writing just what you want.

Yeah, in this submission there are a few plot (and "realism") holes, but I don't care. It looks like it would be a ton of fun to play, and if after this encounter your players are complaining about holes then either you have completely butchered the encounter, or you need new players (and my bet is on the second). This game is about enjoyment, and this encounter has that in spades.

[Charles Evans 25]

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

NB

If chasing captives down the mountain into fire is part of some ritual then you don't need a geological explanation for the 'oil slick' along the left-hand(?) run at rounds 6 and 7. The orcs would routinely prepare runs with oil, to be able to chase their sacrifices down 'tunnels of flame'. In fact a need for several 'tunnels of flame' to be available (for times when sacrifices are plentiful) might explain why the routes diverge beyond point 5; so that there is more likely to be one route available for ritual use, whilst others are being 'reset' after hunts down them have been carried out.

Sorry. I had this mental image of the flames licking together overhead. I should have used the phrase 'gauntlets of flame' or some such, to avoid possible confusion- especially having being getting worked up about 'lava-tubes' in one of my previous posts. Oh the irony....

Please consider my previous remark I quote above editted.

[Ahwe Yahzhe]

gbonehead wrote:

I think think the large post complaining about the physics of the volcano eruption is off mark.

I get into arguments all the time about things like this with players, especially ones who are engineers (like me) or the like.

There is a pretty important key to remember here: this is a game, not a simulation. There is a big difference between the two.

I'm with you- I like clarifications of rules from players, and the appearance of verisimilitude, but I've got kind of an internal cut-off that prevents me from putting sufficient bathrooms and fresh water in my dungeons when it gets in the way of the Cool. Christine's entry is Cool, and I'll find a way to use it sooner or later.

I thought "ashscar" was intentionally close to "ash-car," which is kind of what these crazy volcanic half-pipe sleds sound like.

P.S. = If a player were to capture an Ashscar orc and ask something like, "How do you get the sleds back up the hill?" I would probably come up with some ridiculous, elaborate story about an annual ceremonial race where the survivors of the losing team have to carry everything back up the mountain...

[Arven]

Thanks - you got a mail.

Didn't want to distract too much from the topic at hand - but either I am blind or there simply is no PM system on this messageboard.

LeandraChristine wrote:

Thank you for the praise :P

From the looks of your submissions you deserve that :D. Now go all the way!!!

[Clark Peterson]

Jason Nelson 20 wrote:

First of all, why would anybody hassle you about using orcs when we have two entries using GOBLINS?

Yes, but they are MONKEY goblins.

And the other one with goblins I did criticize for using goblins.

Clark

[Jason Nelson]

Clark Peterson wrote:

Jason Nelson 20 wrote:

First of all, why would anybody hassle you about using orcs when we have two entries using GOBLINS?

Yes, but they are MONKEY goblins.

And the other one with goblins I did criticize for using goblins.

Clark

Fair enough, and indeed you did, but these weren't exactly assembly line standard orcs either. These are rune-scarred FIENDISH orcs who light themselves on FIRE! Come on, how is that not a fun twist on an old standard?

[Steve Greer]

This does sound like a very fun encounter and could easily become it's own minigame or even a board game that would be pretty fun to play. There is a Lord of the Rings board game that came out a few years ago that uses a pretty cool game mechanic where the players run up to 5 hobbit characters (Fatty Bulger is the 5th with the rest of the hobbits that you know from the story) and work together to beat it. It uses cards and a single d6 with the blank side being the most desirable. The players work together to try to get across several boards starting at Bree and ending at Mordor. The group I've played with has yet to beat the game, but it's a ton of fun.

I could see the same kind of game system for this. As far as a D&D encounter, this would be a ton of fun to run. (how now brown cow?) Good luck, Christine!

[mythfish]

The point about fire damage seems pretty valid to me, but I still think this may be the coolest thing submitted in the entire contest so far.

I don't want to DM this; I want to be a player in this. It's that cool.

[Jason Nelson]

Steve Greer wrote:

This does sound like a very fun encounter and could easily become it's own minigame or even a board game that would be pretty fun to play. There is a Lord of the Rings board game that came out a few years ago that uses a pretty cool game mechanic where the players run up to 5 hobbit characters (Fatty Bulger is the 5th with the rest of the hobbits that you know from the story) and work together to beat it. It uses cards and a single d6 with the blank side being the most desirable. The players work together to try to get across several boards starting at Bree and ending at Mordor. The group I've played with has yet to beat the game, but it's a ton of fun.

I could see the same kind of game system for this. As far as a D&D encounter, this would be a ton of fun to run. (how now brown cow?) Good luck, Christine!

Fatty was the forgotten 5th hobbit. The other guys left him behind in Buckland for reasons I don't quite remember, but he barely escaped when the Nazgul came to the house where the hobbits had been hiding out before they went under the hedge to the Old Forest.

[Ernest Mueller]

Yeah, I love realism and all, but I have to go for a "bah" on Charles' screed on volcano realism. As with most critiques of the sort, it has two main problems.

1. It's pedantic, woo fun.
2. Under the guise of scientific information, it "rules out" too many things that are entirely believable.
- There are many examples of real-life lava tubes collapsing and resulting in sinuous troughs (especially if motivated orcs clean the rubble out of them).
- When a volcano erupts, there's the new hot rocks of course, but there's also often plenty of good old fashioned landslides of the existing terrain features. So yes, you can get landslid without heat.

Did you know there's a real tradition of Hawaiian lava sledding? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_lava_sledding

I find that 90% of the time when someone complains about something in D&D being "unrealistic," the real world has weirder stuff hands down.

[Cesare]

Awesome! I really hope you win this.

[Charles Evans 25]

Ernest Mueller wrote:

Yeah, I love realism and all, but I have to go for a "bah" on Charles' screed on volcano realism. As with most critiques of the sort, it has two main problems.

1. It's pedantic, woo fun.
2. Under the guise of scientific information, it "rules out" too many things that are entirely believable.
- There are many examples of real-life lava tubes collapsing and resulting in sinuous troughs (especially if motivated orcs clean the rubble out of them).
- When a volcano erupts, there's the new hot rocks of course, but there's also often plenty of good old fashioned landslides of the existing terrain features. So yes, you can get landslid without heat.

Did you know there's a real tradition of Hawaiian lava sledding? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_lava_sledding

I find that 90% of the time when someone complains about something in D&D being "unrealistic," the real world has weirder stuff hands down.

Response (much editted)

1.) Volcanic eruptions, properly represented, are woo, scary fun. (In a game world; I wouldn't want to be anywhere near most real ones.)
2.) No context is mentioned of the orcs having cleared out collapsed lava-tubes, either through use of captured slaves or with their own hands. If we're going into a situation of 'how many credible solutions can we come up with for things that the Round 5 entrants haven't told us?' then we may as well vote purely on the basis of who our two favourite contestants are in terms of personality, without bothering to read any of the entries; any one of the entries in this round can be made to look star-quality once it becomes a question of the voter, not the writer, doing the work.
-And, whilst the survivial of their characters is the primary concern of many players, I think that there would be a certain player expectation for large quantites of *hot* rock to be involved (part of the woo, scary fun) if they know that a volcano in the vicinity of their characters is about to go *BANG*. Christine didn't use the knowledge (nature) check to set up a fear of earthquakes or rockslides; She used it to set up a fear of volcanic eruption.

Christine Schneider wrote:

Any character can make a Knowledge (nature) or Survival check (DC 15) to realize that the volcano is about to erupt.

I find the news that there is a tradition of Hawaiian lava sledding very interesting- thanks for the pointer.

I would like to suggest an adjustment to the schedule, so that Ernest Mueller can have his 'land-slip' and I can have my pyroclastic flow.

Round 7) Major earthquake smashes rim of crater and fractures the upper part of cone facing out across the orc village and upper-part of the sled-run.
Round 8) Resulting from fatal weakening of the rock by the earthqake, a rockslide starts thundering down the side of the volcano, wiping out/burying the village and upper part of the sled-run.
Round 9) Rockslide continues thundering down the volcano's flank. Any PCs glancing up and back will see the ominous glow of a lava dome as the weakened flank continues to collapse further. (Option for glimpses of the visage of a *very angry* deity/nature spirit flickering like an illusion over the dome which makes it *very clear* that something bad is about to happen; maybe it seems to be puffing up its cheeks as if to be about to puff out very hard.) Hopefully the PCs will spend this round frantically turning the sled over and hunkering down beneath it (it is adamantine, I note).
Rounds 10-12) Pyroclastic flow. (A lateral blast outwards, horizontally, under pressure, in the direction of the part of the volcano's flank which has 'been removed'- local wind conditions irrelevant in the immediate vicinity). Goodbye anything still moving within the arc of the exposed side of the volcanic core (think Mount St. Helens, 1980 top image in particular). The PCs (possibly shielded by a small pile of rock, or with the bottom of the sled-run having carried them out to where they are now only on the margins of the flow (additional advantage here for chosing a route back at 5 which took them 'further out' from where the mountan side has now fallen away) survive beneath their now very much battered sled.
Round 13) This is only a small volcano, and an eruption tirggered by an angry deity/nature spirit. The worst of the pyroclastic flow has moved on by this point, so the PCs now face one of two situations:
(i) If they took a sled-run at 5 which carried them back towards the direction of flow, then they may now be buried and have to dig their way out from underneath the sled through the hot material.
(ii) If their route took them outside the path of the flow, then all that they have to contend with is a light scattering of hot ash which has fell outside, and the gentle shower of volcanic ash which may now be falling if the eruption is continuing to now vent ash straight up into a more traditional eruption cloud. (If a breeze is carrying this in a direction away from the PCs, then this should be little of a problem.)

By the way Christine; your work seems to be the most imaginative that I have come across this round (even if it annoyed me greatly on the way some topics were covered) and the fact that I am now enjoying this discussion means that you get one of my votes. If you get through this round, I think you will be a strong contender to take the final round.

[CastleMike]

Great job Christine this gets one of my two votes. Good luck advancing.

[French Wolf]

Good stuff Christine. One vote from me to you.

[Charles Evans 25]

NB
The link to the Mount St. Helens 1980 eruption that I supplied in my previous post on this thread may be treated as 'adult content' for some reason by web-filters.
This surprises me, since they are simply photographs of a volcano erupting posted on a US government website.
All that I can think of is that some of the descriptive text that accompanies the photographs may be registering as 'naughty words' to some filters owing to words with multiple english language meanings. (!)

[Ragwaine]

Saved this one for last. It's a bit 'frantic' and very Hollywood, but I can't say that's a terrible thing. I think I'd enjoy playing it much more than I would enjoy running it. Definitely memorable, love the flying flaming orc (and I don't even like orcs). I don't like that they all have masterwork weapons and potions, I would rather just see tougher orcs (give them a level of warrior).

There was something funky with tenses in the first section. I stumbled a couple times while reading it so I was really surprised to see the judges praise about nailing the language. I thought writing in the last entry was better.

Time to look over all my comments and vote. Good luck everyone.

[erexere]

This submission was reminiscent of the intro scene to Indiana Jones. He snatches the idol, and the all sorts of nasty traps start cascading during Indy's mad dash for the exit. I really liked the setup and the sled event, but when the volcano erruption is thrown in, I grew skeptical. Some reasoning for this would make the whole setup that much better.

Apparently volcanos are capable of forming very speedy conditions, enough for this mountain biker to set a land speed record. If I DM this encounter I'd probably add seat belts to those sleds.

[Steven Helt]

Ernest Mueller wrote:

I find that 90% of the time when someone complains about something in D&D being "unrealistic," the real world has weirder stuff hands down.

Well...tarrasques aren't very realistic. Beat that.

My dog and my two year old can put out that much destruction, but there's two of them.

[Arven]

LeandraChristine wrote:

If you or anybody else, wants to contact me, just write a mail to: leandrachristine at mail.com

Hmm. I am not sure my mails came through. If not, please contact me at reuter at phoenix-interactive.de

[Mactaka]

grats Christine!

please give us a A++ adventure proposal!

[Charles Evans 25]

Congratulations are due for reaching the final round.

I eagerly look forward to reading your clarifications/responses to Round 5 now that the voting is over and the results out.

[Jason Nelson]

Mactaka wrote:

grats Christine!

please give us a A++ adventure proposal!

If she's a programmer, she could give you one in C++ [ba-dum-bum]

But seriously, congrats to Christine - I voted for you every round so far, so I'm happy to see you here.

[Christine Schneider]

Lol, I knew that some kind of coding joke would show up someday :P. You can tell your Argonauts that it was a good one and I laughed about it despite the final round stress ;-)
(Christine loves simple jokes and the fact that *sneak attack!*...seriously thats the single best d&d one ever!)

I want to thank everyone for putting your faith in me and I will try to submit a proposal that lives up to your expectations.

As for my reply to this rounds entry, I have to apologize. Initially I hoped to be not so brief, but time is my opponent these days, so please excuse the short reply (especially Mr. Evans, you put much work into your discourse about volcano eruptions and I fear my short replies might be less than your work deserves).

Orcs, why orcs?
I decided on the monsters for this encounter after thinking up the scenery (volcano, chase) and I knew that I needed something with a low initial CR to adjust them with NPC class levels, so I could make relatively low CR opponents with lots of HPs (~HD) and fair BAB/DMG values. Monster "mobs" are usually easily defeated by a few area spells and are therefore rarely a threat. These orcs are not really CR 1...they are a mathy CR 1, but in actual play they are much tougher and able to challenge a 6th lvl party.
With this restriction, not many monsters were left to choose from and while I had a look at Hobgoblins, Bugbears and even Dwarves, the chaotic, battle hungry and violent orc style was exactly what I was looking for.
I read an article about the "Hell's Angels" before coming up with the encounter :P
...also this one is weird enough without farspawned legendary formorians for most campaigns (except for Booms campaign of course :P )

Lots of Equipment
I couldn't add more HD/Levels to the orcs because it would have sent the EL through the roof and give the false impression that this encounter is written for a higher level party. So I decided that these creatures were wealthy, which also added to their uniqueness because it gave them a background of being able to craft sleds, weapons, armor, and brew potions (the shaman would have had the feat if he had stats).

The volcano issue
I know this won't be sufficient and maybe even a little disappointing, but my main reason for choosing the (relatively simple) avalanche mechanic was space.
After already touching the 2000 word bar, I needed to keep it as tight as possible to make the encounter read- and playable. There was already so much going on with the main focus on the "chase scene" that the volcano had to play its role as a cool scenery but not as the main actor.
This brings us to the second reason for using the avalanche. Lethality. As Mr. Evans pointed out so well, a full volcanic eruption and especially these pyroclastic flow thingies are super-deadly. TPKing a group after their hard-bought victory against flaming orcs seemed even too cruel for me :P...so I made it much less deadly than it might be realistically while still hoping that the suspension of disbelieve could be held.

but...a little fire dmg...
Yes, that would have been a good addition. With only a sentence I could've made half of the avalanche dmg fire-typed. I missed that and I'd definitely add it in a rewrite.

...and it blows up a little fast too.
I went with the cineastic route and took the removal of the magical totem statue as the excuse for the fast eruption. Adding more magical visuals to the show could make it more believable (...in a fantasy way...it is funny that magic makes things more realistic in d&d, isn't it?).

Moving the Idol after the Encounter
The shaman's super sled will do wonderful as its adamantine vats reduce friction to a minimal degree making it possible to move things nearly regardless of their weight (as long as you don't have to move up-hill :P)....of course the adamantine will bite into the stone and leave trails that can be followed for centuries...even by orcs...

Getting their sleds back up...
The orcs usually walk, with sleds strapped to their back and a few farmers-soon-to-be-sacrifices under their arms. Str 17 is strong ;-) (The shaman's sled is usually carried by four orcs, while the shaman still sits on its top enjoying this benefit of lordship.)

[Mothman]

Well done on making the final round Christine! I think I need to use this encounter in a game soon...

[Alex Handley]

Well, firstly let me apologise for not voting this round at all Christine (I have no excuse other than it completely and inexplicably left my boney mind). Sorry.

As is usual by now, you have done a superb job; I think this was my favourite encounter out of the four. I have high hopes for the final round!

On the volcano realism note, I call the Hollywood effect. Everything should explode in a pointlessly pyrotechnic fashion that beats the laws of physics over the head ad then impale them on a spike. Heck, I spend most my my time, as an Epic-level caster, commanding (as one wise sage once said) the laws of physics to sit down and shut up in real unlife, so I'm not about to give any room in my games!)

[Kevin Olmstead]

Christine,

Congratulations! I'm glad, and not even a little surprised to see you still in the running.

I voted early, but decided to comment late.

I think it would be funny to search the comments on all the entries to see how many contain the phrase 'blew me away', (Look! There it is again!) and predict winners based on that verbiage alone. I'm smart enough to add fire damage. And I'm smart enough to ignore some of the unrealism to keep this one as much fun as it's supposed to be. Regarding post-ride transportation of the statue, I can already picture the player comments...
Lidda, in a mocking impression of Redgar, says, "I've got a great idea, guys! Let's toss the statue in this sled and ride down the mountain! We'll be back at the Green Dragon before the orcs even realize it's gone!"
The end of the ride is a great opportunity for players to develop some truly memorable dialogue, whether they have a way to haul the statue out or not.

This is Superstar material and everyone knows it. The other three finalists have some good stuff too, but my money is still with you. Now, blow us away again!

-----------
Paizo,

I can't find the link to preorder Christine's module. Little help? In the unlikely event she DOESN'T win, you need to pay her to do a module! Or, just go ahead and make preordering a voting requirement!

[gbonehead]

Kevin Olmstead wrote:

Paizo,

I can't find the link to preorder Christine's module. Little help? In the unlikely event she DOESN'T win, you need to pay her to do a module! Or, just go ahead and make preordering a voting requirement!

Heheheh.

I think Paizo may have missed the boat slightly here. Perhaps next year it ought to be the RPGSuperDuperStar where the top 4 ALL write modules and the overall winner writes an episode of Pathfinder, or something like that.

Then again, there's a certain amount of expense involved in producing a module, so it may not be cost-effective to dump them on the market without pre-orders; Kevin may have an excellent idea there.

Digging Pathfinder, especially now that the CR of the critters has upped a bit. I think a lot of the new creatures will be seeing some use in my campaign, if only because I'm tired of people that have MMI-V and FF memorized :)

[Charles Evans 25]

Christine:
I've read your response and I'm not sure now if by 'vats' (something I didn't understand before) you aren't using a technical term for something I'm thinking of as runners? I am referring to the long parallel, horizontal strips of metal, which a sled stands upon, and on which it slides along.

I'm still not clear, since as far as I can see you didn't really refer to it in your response, how the orcs, riding down the mountainside at 300ft/second, catch themselves 'fiery sacrifices'? Can you clarify: is this some sort of hunting ritual, where they chase after captives who are in another sled or vehicle of some sort?

The physics and chemistry of fantasy settings can be very different from real life. Lava seems to me to consistently flow at a much lower temperature in a fantasy setting, and the presence of such metals as mithral and adamantine indicates that something is different about the periodic table (if indeed the perodic table as it is understood in Real Life has a closely corresponding fantasy equivalent). The volcanos which in the real world I would associate with eruptions that do not fling out pyroclastic flows or clouds of ash would be much gentler sloping ones than the sketch map seemed to me to indicate that the PCs are being chased down.
But if you want a steep-sided fantasy volcano, which erupts by throwing a couple of minor rockslides and maybe spurting a bit of lava up and down before going back to sleep, it is a fantasy setting after all, so go ahead and do it.
[But could you at least, if you do have a rewrite, have the rockslide/avalanche start a couple of rounds earlier, so that the PC's see it coming, and are being chased by it, down the remainder of the sled-run, worrying if they will get to the bottom before it or not? That might be so much more dramatic? *Please*?]

I won't ask you to say anything further for now about context of this encounter; after all for all that I know you may be planning to flesh this encounter out into your adventure module submission.

[Aramil Xiloscient]

WOW!!!!! you have my vote!

[Clinton Boomer]

LeandraChristine wrote:

(Christine loves simple jokes and the fact that *sneak attack!*...seriously thats the single best d&d one ever!)

Oh . . . my . . . GOODNESS!

Christine, did you just "out" yourself as a fan of the PSAs?

*blushing*

[Jason Nelson]

thatboomerkid wrote:

LeandraChristine wrote:

(Christine loves simple jokes and the fact that *sneak attack!*...seriously thats the single best d&d one ever!)

Oh . . . my . . . GOODNESS!

Christine, did you just "out" yourself as a fan of the PSAs?

*blushing*

C'mon, who doesn't like the PSAs? It's good stuff, dude. The Tordek & Mialee debate is still my favorite.

[gbonehead]

Jason Nelson 20 wrote:

C'mon, who doesn't like the PSAs? It's good stuff, dude. The Tordek & Mialee debate is still my favorite.

Okay. Time to bite the bullet and accept the inevitable (no pun intended, Mr. Boomer) ridicule ...

What the bleep are PSAs?

[Jason Nelson]

gbonehead wrote:

Jason Nelson 20 wrote:

C'mon, who doesn't like the PSAs? It's good stuff, dude. The Tordek & Mialee debate is still my favorite.

Okay. Time to bite the bullet and accept the inevitable (no pun intended, Mr. Boomer) ridicule ...

What the bleep are PSAs?

It's a series of amateur short films by Creative Juices Productions, of which Boomer is a part, and they spoof the iconic characters from the 3rd Ed. Player's Handbook (among other characters). If you google up Creative Juices or go to youtube and search for PHB PSA you should be able to find them.

Here's a link to the first one in the series:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwp-lDSN3Qo

They are very silly and occasionally profanity-filled but a lot of fun.

[Stormrunner]

I knew of the Hawaiian tradition, and assumed that was what inspired the author. Note that given the real-world speeds of the Hawaiian sleds, the movement should be more like 500' per round for the small sleds. The Hawaiian sleds are very lightweight, minimal, almost flimsy construction - it's luge, not bobsled.

What I would change:

Instead of a single track, there's a whole web/tree of branching tracks running down the mountain (more tracks as you get further down). This helps solve the problem of a single Wall spell/sled crash piling up all the pursuers, and forces the players to make more than one "Quick! Left or right?" decision (not all of which have any real effect, but only the DM knows that).

If the small sleds steer like luge, you could put the driver position in back, giving the orc in front a clear field of fire and making it easier for him to leap onto the back of the PCs' sled.

More than just three sleds chase the PCs - as many as the DM wants. But the twisting, turning sled runs mean only two or three have line of sight to the PCs at any one time.

Instead of the (rather unlikely) "natural oozing" of oil on the one stretch, try this: The runs need to be greased occasionally, and this boring drudgework gets foisted onto the weakest (lowest-level) orcs. So two lvl-1 orcs are trudging slowly up one of the runs, one toting a big cask of oil strapped to his back, the other dipping a mop in the open cask and swabbing the run behind him as they go. Suddenly they hear a screeching noise... WHAM! oil and orc bits everywhere!

The landing at the end doesn't break the big sled. If the ash field is soft enough to cushion the PCs landing (it shouldn't totally cushion, but reduce the damage to only 1d6 or 2d6), then it's soft enough to act like deep snow - you can pull/push the sled across it, though probably with considerable effort. It also would hamper movement/combat like snow.

The small orc sleds CAN jump the river - in fact, this is how they usually end the run, with a "soft landing". The party has whittled down the orcs' numbers somewhat on the way down, and the surviving ones will be arriving one or two sleds at a time rather than en masse, so the PCs should be able to win the combat at the bottom. (Mental image of the party warlock or sorceror blasting airborne orcs like clay pigeons.)

"Fiery sacrifices" - I'm assuming this simply refers to tossing the captives into the volcano. I don't think the orcs snag captives while sledding past them - it's simply a very fast way to get a raiding party down the mountain (one minute instead of 40-60 minutes!). Plus it's fun - doing a sled run certainly gets the blood/adrenaline pumping in prep for combat, and if it's a little dangerous, there's a "Woohoo, we survived again! We're BAAAADAAASS!!!" morale boost too. Presumably the shaman (with eyes of the eagle? Or a vulture familiar?) keeps watch from the peak and when an approaching caravan is sighted the warriors leap on their sleds and go whooping down the mountain, pick themselves up at the bottom, and charge off to raid it.

(Edit) perhaps the PCs somehow trick half or more of the orcs into sledding down prematurely (an illusionary caravan?), then overwhelm the now-weakened defenses of the village and seize the idol while the angry warriors are climbing back up. This explains "Where did all these orcs come from if the PCs already conquered the village?" - they just got back.

The party apparently doesn't know much about the idol - at the least, they don't seem to know that removing it makes the volcano erupt. It's quite possible that the SIZE of the idol was a surprise as well - only upon reaching the orc village do they find out the thing is eight feet tall and weghs a ton or more, and they have to improvise with the sled rather than having brought appropriate gear with them.

[Jason Nelson]

Stormrunner wrote:

More than just three sleds chase the PCs - as many as the DM wants. But the twisting, turning sled runs mean only two or three have line of sight to the PCs at any one time.

Instead of the (rather unlikely) "natural oozing" of oil on the one stretch, try this: The runs need to be greased occasionally, and this boring drudgework gets foisted onto the weakest (lowest-level) orcs. So two lvl-1 orcs are trudging slowly up one of the runs, one toting a big cask of oil strapped to his back, the other dipping a mop in the open cask and swabbing the run behind him as they go. Suddenly they hear a screeching noise... WHAM! oil and orc bits everywhere!

I love your suggestions for this. Lots of fun, extra tension, a little extra variety, but the piece de resistance is the oil crew trudging up the chute when the sleds suddenly come barreling down the pipe. I think players would LOVE the visual there. Awesome...

[Patrick Walsh]

Jason Nelson 20 wrote:

Stormrunner wrote:

More than just three sleds chase the PCs - as many as the DM wants. But the twisting, turning sled runs mean only two or three have line of sight to the PCs at any one time.

Instead of the (rather unlikely) "natural oozing" of oil on the one stretch, try this: The runs need to be greased occasionally, and this boring drudgework gets foisted onto the weakest (lowest-level) orcs. So two lvl-1 orcs are trudging slowly up one of the runs, one toting a big cask of oil strapped to his back, the other dipping a mop in the open cask and swabbing the run behind him as they go. Suddenly they hear a screeching noise... WHAM! oil and orc bits everywhere!

I love your suggestions for this. Lots of fun, extra tension, a little extra variety, but the piece de resistance is the oil crew trudging up the chute when the sleds suddenly come barreling down the pipe. I think players would LOVE the visual there. Awesome...

I can so see the movie visuals for that:

Two orcs trudging their way up a darkened tunnel, mopping the oil on the surface behind them. Suddenly they look down at their feet...
CUT to the pebbles at their feet vibrating enough to be seen...
CUT to one of the orcs scratching his head in a puzzled manner. A high-pitched screetching noise starts to grow louder and more piercing. The orcs suddenly look up tunnel.
CUT to a shot from behind the orcs looking up tunnel as the shaman's cart suddenly, thunderously whips around a curve and into view, sheets of sparks flying off the runners, underlighting the Brazen Juggernaut, while adventures and firey orcs battle each other and to stay on the sled!

[vikingson]

I deeply regret not having voted on this (in time) ... but this is among the coolest encounters I have come across in a very long time !

Kudos and best of luck for the final (which I will watch in eager anticipation )

[Xaaon of Xen'Drik]

This combines two aspects of my favorites, I loved UK1, because of the downhill adventure and flowchart. I ran a very successful chase scene thru Sasserine, it was one of the best encounters I ever Ran

You've got my vote Christine! you're my numero uno! Well you would have, had I voted in time...

[Christine Schneider]

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

Christine:

I've read your response and I'm not sure now if by 'vats' (something I didn't understand before) you aren't using a technical term for something I'm thinking of as runners? I am referring to the long parallel, horizontal strips of metal, which a sled stands upon, and on which it slides along.

I'm still not clear, since as far as I can see you didn't really refer to it in your response, how the orcs, riding down the mountainside at 300ft/second, catch themselves 'fiery sacrifices'? Can you clarify: is this some sort of hunting ritual, where they chase after captives who are in another sled or vehicle of some sort?

Sorry about the delay, by vats I actually meant runners I guess. My dictionary (www.leo.org) matches the German word "Kufen" with "vats". I guess imperfect translations sometimes happen just because I have to rely on my dictionary 100%...and since translations are not bijective I'm in for a mistake from time to time.

As for the fiery sacrifices, Stormrunner is correct with his assumption

Stormrunner wrote:

"Fiery sacrifices" - I'm assuming this simply refers to tossing the captives into the volcano.

The orcs just have a certain ritualistic love for throwing someone into molten stone(after they walked back up the mountain with the captive).

The Indiana Jones comment made me think about that classic scene in "temple of doom"...if I had written an adventure around the chase, I'd certainly put something like that sacrifice in as an homage.

[Ahwe Yahzhe]

Just wanted to thank you again for this encounter, Christine-

I just converted it to 4E using some of the info leaked/released from the D&D Experience. Turns out this works very well for a party of 1st-level 4E adventurers, although I did have to make the sled two squares longer, change the Ashscar Orcs to Hobgoblin Soldiers and Archers, and convert all of the skill checks and saving throws. Fun encounter!