The Lurking Threat (aka My Party is their Own Worst Enemy)

[Orthos]

Two sessions ago my party (Spellscar Oracle, Bladebound Magus, and True Primitive Barbarian) gutted Tuskgutter, and while heading back to the Thorn River Camp (which they had just prior "liberated" from Kressle's control and taken "command" of the surviving bandits there, who were quick to surrender when the Stag Lord's rep had her skull caved in) happened to stumble across a Shambling Mound, which they'd been fearful of encountering ever since the Sootscale Kobolds had alerted them to the existence of the thing after coming across some trails. Being level 3, they of course fled like the dickens.

Last session the Oracle and Barbarian stumbled across a Will-o-Wisp while hunting for breakfast the following morning. It managed to lead them on a merry chase through the woods before looping back to the camp, killing a bandit, and severely wounding the Barbarian... before the Oracle managed to crit it with an eldritch bolt (Su, and thus ignoring its magic immunity) and deliver a suggestion via crit card (at which it rolled a 3 on its Will save -_-). Her suggestion? "Go fight something more challenging", and pointing off to the south where the Shambler was when it asked where. Probably shortly after it would have found the Shambler, the suggestion effect would have worn off.

So now we have a tiny flying creature that delivers electric damage with a touch attack hanging out in the same vicinity as an enormous, low-touch-AC creature that gets stronger if you hit it with electricity. And yes, now the combination is on the random encounter chart for that part of the woods.

Before they run into it though, I want them to get some hints that their plan of setting two of the only three things they've encountered thus far that they couldn't beat or negotiate with (the third being a pair of trolls they ran from four or five sessions back) against each other did not pan out as they intended. A few plots of scorched earth, some trees that look like they've been struck by lightning and are rapidly rotting, things like that. Any thoughts?

[Andostre]

Lots of dead things in the area. Wildlife and bandits, maybe.

[Caius]

Do you want an actual monster in the off chance they decide to try to fight it? Our DM created something called the ghoul tree which was a will 'o wisp colony living in a shambler.

[Orthos]

I was intending to just have the original shambler beefed-up beforehand with the wisp inside, but I like your idea better. Yes, stats would be much welcomed =D

[Caius]

Will try to get them from him. May be a while as he's gotten more overtime lately. You'll also need to scale it down since it popped up in the second book and was built around a larger party. Can't say how much since we actually have an agreement with the wisps to cleanse a fear blight we came across.

[Caius]

Here is the e-mail he sent with links.

Quote:

How it works is a modification to the symbiotic swarm idea on the pfsrd but instead of a centipede swarm, add will o wisp. Because of the ridiculousness of your party I put, I believe, 7 will o wisps inside of the Shambling Mound, but you could have any number of them in there that you want to say as DM. Because each round each will o wisp could use its own attack against the Shambling Mound they were within, it could gain 1d4 points of temporary Con per round per will o wisp. The will o wisps have total cover while the Shambling Mound is alive. When the Shambling Mound dies, the will o wisps explode out from the remains. When the Shambling Mound uses its constrict attack, each will o wisp within may make an attack against the constricted target. The will o wisps are only able to attack a constricted target while within the Shambling Mound. Hope that helps. I really liked this idea as terribly DM evil as it was.

Symbiotic swarm is here

[Orthos]

Cool, thanks.

[RuyanVe]

O-M-G! Sorry, but I couldn't stop laughing. This is hilarious - but the suggestion how to proceed is very cool!

Ruyan.

[Orthos]

This probably wouldn't have happened if the party had rolled higher on their knowledge during the Shambler encounter, but no one got enough to learn of its reaction to lightning. =)

[Orthos]

"I'm sure if sufficiently motivated, we could find a way to render the Stolen Lands a smoking crater that requires cartloads of salt and a cleric from every known deity in a complex ritual of purification before even a cockroach dares show its face there."
~ Scintillae, player of Elegy the Oracle.

Oh dear gods they have no idea.