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The Fiend of the Woods: Aldern's Boar Hunt - CR3
Encounter: Found in a dark, damp and foul smelling den, this slightly decayed Boar emanates a terribly dark power. Next to the Boar lays an ancient looking water well.
If the players make a DC20 Knowledge Nature check, they can see that this Boars attitude and appearance has gone through an unnatural change. A change that has warped the beast, both physically and mentally.
Init +0; Senses: low-light vision, Darkvision, scent; Perception +6
DEFENSE
AC 15, touch 10, flat-footed 15 (+5 natural)
HP 20
Fort +6, Ref +3, Will +1
Defensive Abilities: ferocity (Continue attacking even after you drop below 0hp, but lose 1hp each round, up to the Boars Con Mod of -17)
Cold and Fire resist: 5
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee gore +4 (1d8+4)
Gore with Smite: +4 (1d8+6)
Smite Good (Su)
Once per day, the fiendish creature may smite a good-aligned creature. As a swift action, the creature chooses one target within sight to smite. If this target is good, the creature adds its Charisma bonus (if any) to attack rolls and gains a damage bonus equal to its HD against that foe. This effect persists until the target is dead or the creature rests.
STATISTICS
Str 17, Dex 10, Con 17, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 4
Base Atk +1; CMB +4; CMD 14
Feats: Toughness
Skills: Perception +6
Weight: 200lb's
Reward: 800xp (200 each)
I'll be running this either this Tuesday or next and my party (a group of 4 usually) consists of 2 Barbarians, 1 Witch, 1 Magus/Rogue and 1 Fighter (Sword and Shield Sell Sword who will be able to play on some weeks, but not others).
Estimated level for this encounter: 2
Enjoy! :)
Sounds pretty cool.
I had designed a boar hunt (with a normal boar with the simple advanced template). As a prelude that the party encountered a small goblin raiding party. After they defeated the goblins, they took two goblin prisoners back to town, and never got to the actual hunt.
Boars are surprisingly tough! Ferocity means they have over 30hp, more than enough of a challenge for my group of 3 level 1 PCs (remember, not everyone is going to join the hunt, necessarily). I'd dug out my notes with a deghoulified Aldern (it was a hell of a hunt to find the file, let me tell you), but I scribbled up a map and ran Valeros, Merisiel and Seoni. Heres an idea of how this encounter could pan out (I did, however, use an ordinary boar):
After a spectacular miss from the PC, Aldern moved in beside the PC, cheering him on with an aid another check, either as a devoted fanboy or as a surprisingly competent hunter (telling the PC to aim behind the shoulderblades). Meri and Seoni deal piddly damage with a shortbow and magic missile spells.
After a few rounds the boar is staggered, surrounded and, as a last ditch effort to escape, overruns Valeros the PC stand-in. He drives the spear in deeper with his AoO, but after a totally awesome roll the boar knocks him flat on his arse and makes it 40ft. away, the dogs snapping at his heels but missing their AoOs. Aldern, with Valeros face down in the dirt, sees the boar rushing past Seoni. In an uncharacteristic flash of bravery, he tackles the mortally-wounded boar to the ground with a charging grapple, and it's dispatched by his allies before it can break free.
I was pretty amused with the way it all panned out. I made a point of using hounds and boar spears as a way to make the encounter stand out. What started with what should be a chance to let the PC shine, turned into the opportunistic cad Aldern stealing the show. Can't wait to find out how it'll pan out when I run it for real.
I'm glad you're all enjoying this encounter and would like to thank those of you who have done, for favouriting it! :)
Everyone survived it in my party. If the Boar were more intelligent, it would have gored the Magus/Rogue on the ground, but nope, it ran out of the cave after downing two of my PC's and ran straight for Aldern, with the other PC just out of sight.
Aldern finished it off after moaning that the heroes should have been more heroic, showing a slightly angrier side to him, but acting like nothing happened again, once they all returned to town.
I didn't put him with any henchmen as I wanted the PC's to not suspect anything. I instead gave him a crossbow and made him pretty decent with it.
I love this idea. And it would be an awesome way to drop a small hint at whats to come without revealing anything when the players enter the a certain location with another runewell and discover its the same style fountain.
If you wanted to add a bit of goblin quirkyness you could have a few goblins around that are venerating this boar much the same way *spoilers possibly ahead* Nualia views Malfeshnekor, except that a boar is simple stupid boar, not some intelligent demon dog.
This was very inspiring!
I decided to flush the battle out a little more... our group hasn't had to do much mounted combat in our other games thus far, so I decided to stage the first half of the battle as a chase sequence. The second half was at an old abandoned tower with a dried up well (inspired from above). I also gave the boar the Advanced template, to bump the CR (we have a party of 5). Here are my thoughts for the encounter:
As they get to the Tickwood, Aldern passes out Boar Spears to all. Daverin's (and his dogs) were hired for the afternoon, so he lets them loose to flush out the Boar, and the Party begins the chase:
Init for chase sequence
Rd 1-3: PCs get used to riding rules (horses not combat trained), build tension.
Rd 4: the dogs flush out the Boar in front of the party (on random person's initiative count), and PCs can attack it. Only the first 3 can move into melee position (left, right, and behind it).
Rd 5: Boar moves back into underbrush at the start of the round, dogs follow.
Rd 6: Boar crashes through the woods right next to a random PC, attacks their horse w/ a charge. That PC gets an AoO (provided they passed their ride check that round), and up to 2 others can move and attack (3 total).
Rd 7: back into the brush, dogs follow.
Rd 8 on: continues pattern until HP < 1/2.
Once done:
"You emerge and find yourself in a small clearing in the forest. At the far edge of the clearing, you see the remnants of a vaguely circular structure. The walls are mostly collapsed on the side closest to you, allowing entry at a few points. As you enter the field, you hear the sounds of dogs baying in the surrounding forests. Aldern looks around and says 'This spot looks just as good as any. Daverin, why don't you show us how good your dogs really are!' Daverin makes a series of sharp whistles with his fingers, and you hear the dogs excitedly bark in response. He turns to Aldern and replies 'They're the best trained dogs this side of the Yondabakari River! We can set up here and they'll drive the beast straight to us. Too bad we aren't going after Goblins, or you'd see their true value! (muttering) wasted on a boar, better not get injured... (/muttering)'
At this Aldern motions to the Structure - DC 10 Handle Animal to get horses situated at the rear of the tower (failure means the PC is outside the structure when the dogs bring the Boar in: one fail is in behind the back wall, 2 fails toward the front, 3 fails in the middle of the field, directly in line for a charge).
Once inside, the PCs notice that the center of the structure stands a slightly raised rim, reminiscent of an ancient well, though oddly triangular in shape (dried up). DC 20 Knowledge (History) or Linguistics recognizes a few runes on the stones as Thassilonian in origin. A DC 20 Survival or Knowledge (Nature) would grant a PC the revelation that, other than the baying of the dogs in the distance, there are no other normal sounds in the immediate area.
The boar then comes crashing from the far end of the clearing, and charges whichever PC is in the best line of sight. If all the PCs are inside the structure, it will force its way in and fight to the death.
Once the PCs have reduced it to <0 HP, for flavor, I'm going to have Aldern make an acrobatic move to flank the boar and deliver the killing blow. Above the table I'm going to tell the players how much damage he did (sneak attack, giving the players a little hint that Aldern is more than just an aristocrat, but nothing too suspicious). At the celebratory feast, Aldern will make no mention of this final blow, instead giving most credit to whomever he's smitten with.
I'm debating having the well be only a few feet deep, leaving the PCs to speculate whether it had been filled in at some point, or that it was never really a water well to begin with. However, I'm not sure if that's tipping the cards too much...
I'm in the process of setting up a projector for our group, so until the Paizo VTT is out I've been dabbling with Maptools. Here's a link to a jpg of the map I created for the ruined tower:
If anyone wants the actual Maptools file w/ the layers, just PM me and I'd be happy to share.
Anyone have any thoughts on how to improve on this?
My question is this: why would there be two Runewells (which are minor artifacts) so close to one another?
In the background info, it mentions how this region was a heavily watched and guarded border between two Runelords. Considering the fact that these wells feed off of bad feelings, a tense border would probably be a prime location to harvest power.
Also, in the Runewell entry, it mentions that Alaznist experimented with variant Runewells of her own design, and that most are lost or hidden away. I think here it could make sense that this was an early experiment, but was too exposed (being in one of her watch towers), so she allowed it to go dormant when she successfully created the other one. Or perhaps as her power was waning, she over extended its capacity, and didn't want to waste the resources to reactivate it.
I think I envisioned this like many of the abandoned WWI era bunkers you see along the east coast US... at once it made sense to have power focused there, but as tech (or here, magic) changed, it made more sense to move it to a more remote location.
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It's a good idea, but I agree with Tangent - Runelord Alaznist's territory was huge, and the area now known as Varisia is but a fraction of it. It's like doing the Manhattan project research very near the team working on the blueprints for ENIAC. You want to have some compartmentalization, just so that saboteurs can't affect all of your operations at once.
Besides, I'd worry that introducing the runewell early detracts from the surprise of finding one beneath Sandpoint.
Very nice. I may change the template to something more rage-y. As for a full-fledged secondary runewell, I'd make it broken, drained, and serve only as foreshadowing. Detect magic would only show a lingering aura with nothing really concrete to go on. Maybe one or two glyphs in Thassilonian with a hard Linguistics DC to decipher, and only then they'd be just small pieces of info. Stick a sinspawn skull hidden half-buried in the dirt at the base of the well, it's more human-like top half the only part visible, again to foreshadow future badness.
Love the idea of the skull! Knowing my group, they'll instantly want to do a Knowledge check to ID it, so I'll probably make the DC too high to get it (to keep the surprise), with a reveal when they meet the first one in the Catacombs.
I wasn't planning on the well to be active, as you mention, just used for foreshadowing. We have a Thassilonian "expert" in the party, and I thought it would be rather ominous if the well was completely unfamiliar to him (also to frighten the player a bit, set the tone for how much his "expertice" is lacking).
That's a nice map, Numerator! What's the scale? In other words, how big is the tower? Presumably it has to be big enough for the PCs to fight the boar in while mounted?
I've assumed the well is about five feet wide - the same size as the one in the Catacombs of Wrath - which makes the tower 40 feet across.
Technically the well is five feet wide at its widest point of an equilateral triangle - or in other words, the inner edge of each side is five feet. I still strongly suggest against having a couple of Runewells within a couple of miles of each other as these are minor artefacts. They should not be that common. Not even a "deactivated" version.
Twigs, would you mind posting your stats for de-ghoulified Aldern?
I'm not him/her but judging from what is presented in #2 he should look something like this:
Aldern Foxglove CR 2
XP 600
Male aristocrat 4
CN Medium (human)
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +0
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DEFENSE
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AC 18, touch 15, flat-footed 14 (+3 armor, +1 deflection, +3 Dex, +1 dodge)
hp 22 (4d8+4)
Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +4
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OFFENSE
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee sword cane +3 (1d6)
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STATISTICS
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Str 10, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 13, Wis 10, Cha 14
Base Atk +3; CMB +3; CMD 16
Feats Dodge, Improved Initiative, Persuasive
Skills Acrobatics +8 (+13 jump), Bluff +9, Diplomacy +11, Knowledge (local) +8, Knowledge (nobility) +8, Ride +10, Sense Motive +5
Languages Common, Elven, Varisian
Gear +1 leather armor, ring of jumping, ring of protection +1, extravagant noble’s outfit worth 200 gp etc.
Notes:
Hope it helps!
Ruyan.
Thanks, Ruyan - you've been very helpful!
If I could suggest a slight modification - looking at the Skinsaw Man's stats (both the revised and original version), I'd say that Cha was Aldern's highest stat, followed by Dex, Str, Int and Wis. So I'd assign the elite array like this: Str 13, Dex 14, Con 8, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 15. Then, as you suggest, give the +2 human bonus to Wis, but the +1 level bonus to Cha instead, for a final array of: Str 13, Dex 14, Con 8, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 16. (His transformation into a unique ghast then adds +6 Str, +8 Dex, +6 Int, +6 Wis and +8 Cha.)
Thanks, Callum!
Sounds even better--this way the CON is not "wasted" as it doesn't matter anymore upon his transformation and the higher CHA fits his description very well, too.
Ruyan.
Inspired by Ruyan, I've made my own version of Aldern as a simple aristocrat. A low Constitution score gives him a good reason to avoid fights unless he has the upper hand, preferably through the assistance of the PCs.
Aldern Foxglove CR 2
XP 600
Male human aristocrat 4
CN Medium humanoid
Init +2; Senses Perception +1
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DEFENSE
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AC 16, touch 14, flat-footed 13 (+2 armor, +1 deflection, +2 Dex, +1 dodge)
hp 17 (4d8-1)
Fort +0, Ref +5, Will +5
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OFFENSE
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee sword cane +4 (1d6+1) or boar spear +4 (1d8+1)
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STATISTICS
________________________________________
Str 13, Dex 14, Con 8, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 16
Base Atk +3; CMB +4; CMD 18
Feats Dodge, Lightning Reflexes, Persuasive
Skills Bluff +10, Diplomacy +12, Intimidate +12, Knowledge (local) +6, Knowledge (nobility) +8, Ride +9, Sense Motive +7
Languages Common, Elven, Varisian
Gear ring of protection +1, leather armor, sword cane, boar spear, light horse, extravagant noble's outfit worth 200 gp, 65 gp
Some quick notes on my version of Aldern. I tried to extrapolate back from the later version of him as much as possible. That's why, for example, I've used three of his favoured class bonuses as extra hp (assuming that aristocrat is his favoured class). I've left out all the rouge elements of the later character - this is simply a smooth-talking aristocrat who does his best to keep out of harm's way. I've also made his gear appropriate for an NPC of his level - though you could argue that he would have more.
Sorry for the late reply... the well is 10' across at the top, the inside of the tower is about 75' across
I was figuring that the PCs would make a stand in the tower. However, I had each of them make a DC 10 handle animal check to get their horses situated behind the tower. Two of the PCs rolled under a 5 on the check, and I made it so they had difficult w/ their horses. Thus, when the boar broke through the tree line, they were still in the middle of the field, and it charged right at them. That made the PCs in the tower come out to engage it, and they ended up not using the cover the tower would provide. Even so, it was a tricky battle for them.
I also kept Aldern's Rogue levels. In our battle, he hung back and watched how the PCs handled themselves. Then, once the boar reached it's negative Con, for flavor I kept the boar "alive" and had Aldern do an acrobatic maneuver, get into flanking position, and deliver the "final blow" using all his sneak attack damage. I rolled really well, and the players were a little surprised when "Mr. Useless Fop" (as they were calling him) came in with 20 damage and dropped the beast. They thought he would try to take all the credit, but instead at the after party he never mentioned his role in the battle, but bragged about the heroics of the PCs. Now, they think he's a fairly powerful ally, and have said if they ever have a tough fight they may try to recruit him to help!