The picture of Valeros getting attacked by a scarecrow-ghoul is great and I really think that having this session occur at night would be great for the mood.
But the party already knows that there are undead about and they are unlikely to approach the farm at night.
Can you guys think of any way I can get them to get to the farm at dusk, or just after? Some kind of plausible distraction?
The picture of Valeros getting attacked by a scarecrow-ghoul is great and I really think that having this session occur at night would be great for the mood.
But the party already knows that there are undead about and they are unlikely to approach the farm at night.
Can you guys think of any way I can get them to get to the farm at dusk, or just after? Some kind of plausible distraction?
I'm not sure exactly where you're at, but if the farmer shows up frantic and needing someone to come help his family right away before the ghouls do something with them, it might create enough of a sense of urgency that the PC's rush straight out. If they say they'd rather wait til morning, have the farmer curse them and have Hemlock send soldiers who in turn are killed and become ghouls, making the battle tougher than they otherwise would have faced.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
If the PCs don't bite on Hambley's story, a short while later a little girl, about the age of 6 and covered in dirt, wanders into town. She looks confused and lost. She looks one of the PCs right in the eyes and says, "Mommy ate daddy."
Oh my god. I want el cuervo as my GM.
Good stuff.
I actually can't take full credit for it! As good as it is (and I did use it on my players), the "mommy ate daddy" line came from a post by slayer_of_gellcor in another RotRL thread.
If the PCs don't bite on Hambley's story, a short while later a little girl, about the age of 6 and covered in dirt, wanders into town. She looks confused and lost. She looks one of the PCs right in the eyes and says, "Mommy ate daddy."
That's awesome! I wish I'd used that!
I had Farmer Grump intercept the PCs as they were returning to Sandpoint from the Sanitarium, about half an hour before sunset. He was wild-eyed and begging for help. The PCs didn't believe him and were about to head back to town when I decided to have two more travelers walking up the road. Grump was terrified of them, and rightly so! They turned out to be scarecrow-masked ghouls! Once the party realized that animate scarecrows were stalking the night, they investigated immediately.
Maester Grump arrives in Sandpoint during the day, presumably in the morning after fleeing a ghoul encounter that happened the late afternoon/evening before. There's still time for the pc's to get out to the Hambley farm if they leave right away. The sheriff and mayor should implore the pc's to leave a soon as possible given the innocent farmers at risk. Hemlock should ask the pc's to check on the farms along the way - between that and the few hours trek to the farm is should be dusk or later by the time the pc's get there. Remember Fall has come - the days are getting shorter.
Of course the Mommy ate Daddy line is pretty awesome and that should get them motivated. Or you could use it at one of the intervening farms if the pc's start getting alarmed by the approaching sunset.
Of course the Mommy ate Daddy line is pretty awesome and that should get them motivated. Or you could use it at one of the intervening farms if the pc's start getting alarmed by the approaching sunset.
This is actually how I used it. When they were traveling through the hinterlands towards the Hambley farm, I made sure they had the proper motivation and were in the right mindset by inserting her into the story as they were checking the various farm houses along the way.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I had a similar problem. My players were intercepted by Grump on the way back from the Sanatorium, but they were too cautious to go at night, saying they needed to check in with with the Sheriff. So with a bit of quick thinking, i said a massive storm rolled in over the night, and when they woke, it was dark, overcast, and raining like no ones business. So even though it wasn't at night, it was still dark, they had to get close to the scarecrows to see if they were real or not, and it would have been awesome for the Misgivings, but my players when into the well first...go figure...
Some great ideas here.
Sadly, my players had figured out the clue about the Misgivings and were ready to head out to Foxglove Manor at first light, so I had to throw Maester Grump at them right away or skip the whole Walking Scarecrows chapter.
We will be starting the Misgivings today. I know they will be heading there in the daytime but I am going to have a snowstorm roll in (it is the start of winter). It won't be a blizzard but enough that things will be grey and gloomy even in the daytime.
The joke is that aside from Darkvision, ghouls aren't any more powerful at night.
Peet
I'm wondering if it's theoretically possible in such a climate for the Hambley Farm to have a crop of "winter corn/maize" growing in winter. I want the effect of the tall cornstalks hampering visibility during the ghoul attacks. If not green corn stalks, then what about post-harvest, somewhat wizened but still "tall and broad" stalks?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You could reskin it as a barberry farm. They grow a few feet high, are evergreen and have (in some varieties extremely vicious inch-long) thorns.
You could reskin it as a barberry farm. They grow a few feet high, are evergreen and have (in some varieties extremely vicious inch-long) thorns.
oh i hate Barberry bushes so much!
you would not believe how many times i've stabbed myself with those vicious little f@#$ing thorns!
Keep in mind that Varisia is modeled after the American Pacific Northwest. Outside of the mountains, winter usually means rain, not snow.
Geographically Varisia doesn't resemble the Pacific Northwest at all, so this never occurred to me. I do know that Sandpoint is based on a town in California, but only in layout and "feel," not in climate. It is noteworthy though that Varisia is significantly north of the American Pacific Northwest. It will be colder than that.
I'm wondering if it's theoretically possible in such a climate for the Hambley Farm to have a crop of "winter corn/maize" growing in winter. I want the effect of the tall cornstalks hampering visibility during the ghoul attacks. If not green corn stalks, then what about post-harvest, somewhat wizened but still "tall and broad" stalks?
I had the winter wheat planted by the time the players got there, but it won't be "tall and broad" until the spring. Any grain crop that is harvested will be cut down to stubble.
You could just make up some fantasy crop that doesn't exist on Earth.
Yeah, I think that I'll invent "winter corn" (as opposed to winter wheat), which is sown in late summer/early autumn (after the harvest of a different crop), and which can survive and thrive in the wet winters which Sandpoint's hinterlands get. Normallly it will be harvested in early February, so that a summer crop can be sown.
By the time that the party gets around to the investigating the farm, the winter corn crop should be at the leafy, green, "tall and broad" stage.
The main thing about Winter Wheat is that it survives being frozen in the winter. If you are playing with a warmer climate for Varisia then you could just have something that is planted and harvested later.
I had there be recently planted winter wheat when I ran this and it meant the fields didn't provide any cover or concealment. But I didn't worry about that as the Hambley Farm was supposed to be pretty easy.
It occurred to me that one way to do things would be to have the farm be more than a day away. Have a bunch of ghouls attack when they camp for the night.
|
The timing of my second group worked out that they pretty much had a choice of investigating the farm or Foxglove manor. They opted to investigate the manor and send the four town guards to go checkout the farm. Needless to say, the town will be short four guards, and the ghouls will be bolstered by four.
I had a similar problem. My players were intercepted by Grump on the way back from the Sanatorium, but they were too cautious to go at night, saying they needed to check in with with the Sheriff. So with a bit of quick thinking, i said a massive storm rolled in over the night, and when they woke, it was dark, overcast, and raining like no ones business. So even though it wasn't at night, it was still dark, they had to get close to the scarecrows to see if they were real or not, and it would have been awesome for the Misgivings, but my players when into the well first...go figure...
I went with this as well, but for a completely different reason: atmosphere. I felt exploring a cornfield maze in the middle of a thunderstorm would be very much in feel with the horrific elements. I didn't even both with having it "too dark to see far" as the corn was high enough to give the group troubles and no one had Flight - though putting a halfling cleric on the back of the barbarian gave them a little extra visibility.
What was hilarious was that a thematic element I included? Sent the party fleeing to the building. I had a bolt of lightning strike a tree not that far from the party. They freaked, went "we're wearing armor in the middle of a field in the middle of a thunderstorm! Get to shelter!" and next thing they knew they were in a big fight with ghouls! All I intended the lightning for was to create a sense of foreboding! Instead I got a player panic! Quite delightful, really! :)
The pacific NW has a ten to eleven month growing season i've anything grow there