Here are a couple stories from my Reign of Winter game that I’m running that I found amusing. This contains some spoilers, so if you don’t want things spoiled then stop now.
Story 1
So my group completed “Mother Maiden Crone” and escaped the dungeons. They stood on top of the Crone statue’s head looking down over the cliff down to the valley below, glad to be in the fresh air and ready to travel back to the Hut. The half-elf cleric decides that he will fly everyone down with the Broom of Flying that they found in the dungeon. So he sits on it and the gnomish cavalier sits behind him. Then they say the magic word and jump off the edge of the cliff, leaving behind the dwarf fighter, half-elf witch and half-orc wizard.
Everyone watches as the broom flies out and then proceeds to do a loop in the air. The cleric makes his fly check to hang on, but the cavalier has no such luck and he starts to fall to his death. The dwarven fighter and half-orc wizard watching from the cliff start to freak out. The fighter screams to the wizard “Do something! He’ll die!” So the wizard takes a running leap and jumps off the cliff and starts falling. The dwarf is utterly in shock.
Meanwhile the broom is flying in loops and bucking like a bronco trying to kick the cleric off who is holding on for dear life. The cleric manages to hold on with one hand while searching through his pack with another hand. Then the broom starts slamming the cleric against the side of the cliff. Eventually the broom swings around for another slam into the cliff and the cleric manages to pull out his Owl Figurine of Wondrous Power and activates it transforming it into a giant mechanical owl. He jumps off the broom and onto the back of the owl. (In our adventure the owl looks like “Bubo” from the old Clash of the Titan’s movie.)
At this point the wizard and gnome are nearing the ground to their certain doom and the wizard is falling in a power dive toward the cavalier. When she gets close enough she casts feather fall and the two of them stop falling and start floating gently down the last few feet to the ground.
Back in the air above, the cleric is now facing off against the broom. The two opponents are doing fly-by attacks on one another, mechanical owl against the broom. The witch draws a bead on the broom and unleashes a fireball, exploding the broom into splinters and then the giant owl burst through the flames, sunlight glinting off its glorious golden metallic feathers.
Then the cleric used the owl to ferry the remaining party members safely to the ground.
Story 2
At the beginning of “The Frozen Stars” the party is investigating the gardens of Baba Yaga’s Hut. They wandered around for a bit staying cautious of everything and having a few battles. They had the encounter with the grey cat. I had her as a spirit at certain points running around the garden, but always eventually returning to her body on the wolf-in-sheep’s clothing. The party spotted her now and again.
They eventually found the warehouse in the jungle and (taking a note from a suggestion on these forums) I had the red robed servant spy on them and use his minor images to manipulate them into following him into the warehouse. He said that Baba Yaga had been cursed and was in a back room of the warehouse. Then he led them to the Moon-Beast claiming that Bobba Yagga had been transformed and needed their help. Then he cast Hypontic Pattern while the Moon Beast dominated the Dwarven Fighter. It went pretty poorly from there on. The witch also ended up being dominated and everyone else had to run for their lives. So while the rest of the party made a tactical retreat the Moon Beast ordered the dwarf to barricade the door to the room and said within a day they would be leaving back to their new home to serve the beast.
So the cleric, wizard and cavalier ran from the warehouse to recover. Not really sure what to do next. Then the saw the spirit of the grey cat again. The cat listened to their story and said that she knew of someone in the garden that might help, a treant. But they would have to convince the creature to help them and she warned them not to mention Baba Yaga.
So they followed the cat to go see Dawnbark. The old treant was not happy with her situation being trapped in the garden for so long without sunlight. The party was cautious and did their best not to antagonize the tree. They explained that their friends had been made into slaves. Dawnbark was beside herself with anger. Then they promised they would find a way to help her escape the garden and she believed them. So Dawnbark joined the party and they headed back to the warehouse in the jungle.
Knowing what they were up against they spent a few rounds buffing themselves before they approached the side of the warehouse. The Moon Beast knew they were outside and positioned it’s “slaves” around the room and took to the air. Then Dawnbark ripped open the side of the warehouse and tore off half the roof. Then the fight commenced. With the treant on their side things went much more in their favor. In two rounds they had taken the dwarf fighter out. Then the following round they took out the witch. The Moon Beast was out of spells for the day, so it moved in to attack and Dawnbark tore it apart. At seeing this, the red robed slave, planeshifted away.
Now they need to find a way to get Dawnbark out or they are going to have one pissed off treant to deal with.
Great stories!
The group I'm running through RoW have had their issues with cursed items too. The Bard currently has a ring he can't remove, it'll probably be on till the end, they are a third the way through book 6.
Sounds great. Making me consider using more ofthe garden encounters than I had planned to. Problem my party will probably resort to combat in all of them :-(
Can you remind me what room the broom is in? I don't remember seeing it during read throughs and my group have done at least 70% of the rooms
Sounds great. Making me consider using more ofthe garden encounters than I had planned to. Problem my party will probably resort to combat in all of them :-(
Can you remind me what room the broom is in? I don't remember seeing it during read throughs and my group have done at least 70% of the rooms
Supply closet with the pot-hurling frost giant and hag disguised as a naked slave woman.
Sounds great. Making me consider using more ofthe garden encounters than I had planned to. Problem my party will probably resort to combat in all of them :-(
Can you remind me what room the broom is in? I don't remember seeing it during read throughs and my group have done at least 70% of the rooms
It's in D7, check under the Treasure section.