My players have been making good progress exploring the Stolen Lands, but between one thing and another it's been several months since they cleared out the Thorn River camp. I think it's time for the Stag Lord to start fighting back. The players have been thwarting and humiliating his bandits, not to mention the time they impersonated him, and his liquor is way overdue. So he wants them dead. But I imagine he knows better than to try sending more bandits after them, given that they've already defeated Kressle's whole group. So, trying to think what I would do in his circumstance, I've come up with the following plan:
1. Make dad get animals to keep an eye on the party (they camp in a pavilion, so they're not that hard to find).
2. Wait for a windy day when the party is in the forest.
3. Set forest on fire.
Such a plan should give the party a good scare, and show them the Stag Lord is a real threat. They can find out from their fey friends afterwards that the bandits were responsible for the fire.
However, the forest fire presented in the Environment rules is a CR 6 encounter. It travels 130 feet per round, deals 1d6 damage per round for 2d4x10 minutes when it catches you, and generally looks like it would be guaranteed to burn my party to a crisp.
How would you go about adapting a forest fire to be a suitable encounter for a second- or third- level party? I would like something that could pose a real danger, and probably burn up their pavilion, but that they could get away from without anyone dying if they act sensibly. I'm also wondering if anyone has ever run a forest fire encounter, and has any ideas how to make the encounter interesting, rather than it just coming down to whether they move faster than it.
Some of my thoughts and ideas:
- Could give the players more advance warning. The fey could fly by squeaking, "Run! The forest is on fire." (Unless the party assumed it was another prank, of course, in which case their deaths would at least be funny.)
- Could make the fire slow-moving, but add other threats like a rampaging owlbear fleeing the flames.
- Could arrange the terrain so there is somewhere not too far off that the players could flee to for safety, such as a rocky outcropping or a river.
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Have you considered running it as a chase scene? Put some obstacles in the way like streams, collapsing logs, or panicking wildlife.
Oh, that's not a bad idea at all! That will probably work much better, and give us a chance to try out the chase rules that we haven't used much before. Thank you very much for the suggestion.
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Essentially the fire moves 1d4 cards/round at Initiative 0. The goal is to outrun the fire by getting to either a River or the edge of the forest. Any round the PCs are in the fire, they take 1d6 damage automatically. You could have bonus objectives (Fey trapped under a log, or animal in a bear-trap) that might net the PCs bonus XP and other boons.
A wet forest doesn't burn. The Stolen Lands don't seem to conjure images of Australia. :-)
So, if you want a lesser forest fire, feel free. A chase sounds great, to my thinking. It is an abstraction of precisely this. Don't forget to have a bunch of bandits harassing them both in melee and with arrows. It is about killing them, so let them spend resources for a while, then have them attack. Preparing the route with traps is also an of course.
Thanks for all the suggestions! You've given me lots of ideas to make it a fun, hectic encounter.
(And, indeed, what kind of villain wouldn't send his minions into a burning forest to kill the heroes!)
Maybe it's just me, but dad's a druid, and helping burn a forest down just to kill four guys your son doesn't like doesn't seem druidic, even for an evil druid...
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Eh, perhaps. I can see what you mean, but I think it's reasonable because:
1. Nugrah is a heretic druid and a convert to Gozreh, a god who is more about the destructive powers of nature than about preserving the wild. The AP mentions him "finding strange solace in all the violence and impassive cruelty in nature", so he might even find the needless collateral damage aesthetically pleasing.
2. The Stag Lord has tortured and intimidated Nugrah into doing whatever he wants. So if the Stag Lord tells him to burn the forest, he probably goes along with it.
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I ran this encounter today, and it went pretty well! I thought I would share the details of what I ran in case anyone else wants to do something similar.
Thanks again for all the suggestions. I think I used pretty much all of them.
FOREST FIRE CHASE
1. Dry streambed
A: Jump over (Acrobatics DC 10; on failure, player falls in and must attempt to climb for subsequent attempts)
B: Climb the bank (Climb DC 15)
2. Thick and tangled vines
A: Slip through (Escape Artist DC 15)
B: Attack vines (10 hp, DR 5/slashing; removes obstacles for subsequent players)
3. Clearing -- No obstacle.
...Except a covered pit trap. Perception 15, reflex 20, 1d6 damage, move action to get back out with a DC 15 climb check.
4. Fallen logs
A: Jump over (Acrobatics DC 10)
B: Roll one aside (Strength DC 15; removes obstacle for subsequent players)
5. Elk stampede
A: Find a gap (Handle Animal DC 15)
B: Push through (Overrun manoeuvre, CMD 16)
6. Game trail (no obstacle)
Six bandits make arrow attacks on their initiative count. Stealth/perception could be used to determine whether the players see the bandits before they attack. They have been dosed with potions of Resist Energy, but they still clear out once the fire gets close.
Longbow +2, 1d8/x3 on hit
7. Bushes and undergrowth
A: Three move actions to go through it
B: Perception (DC 20) to spot a better route
8. Clearing (no obstacle)
A cute owlbear cub (small) is caught in a bear trap. DC 26 strength or DC 20 disable device to free.
9. Down a crumbling bank
A: The slow way (Climb DC 10, 2 move actions)
B: The fast way (Acrobatics DC 15)
On failure using either option, proceed to next card but take 1d6 falling damage.
10. Escape by water
A: Dive (Swim DC 10)
B: Wade (3 move actions)
At this point, the players are safe from smoke hazards and from the full strength of the fire, but there is still a 50% chance of a fire hazard if the second wave of the fire has reached this card -- burning trees and the like can fall into the water.
11. Safety
A rocky island in the middle of a small lake. A mother owlbear has already swam ashore on the island. The owlbear is peaceful if its cub is safe, otherwise it is violent. Surviving bandits may turn up here as well (and likely surrender).
The Fire
The fire advances 2 cards per turn, on initiative count 0. There are 3 waves, each 2 cards apart. The first wave reaches the first card on turn 2.
Wave 1: Smoke hazards
Characters within the smoke must make a Fortitude save each round (DC 10, +1 per previous check) or spend that round choking and coughing -- treat this as the Staggered condition (can only take one move or standard action per turn). A character who chokes for 2 consecutive rounds takes 1d6 points of nonlethal damage. A character can avoid these checks entirely by holding their breath (note that doing anything other than one move action in a turn causes a character to use up 2 rounds of breath).
Wave 2: Fire hazards
The fire is spreading into the area, but there is still room to maneouvre.
In addition to smoke, roll 1d4 on the chart below. All characters on a card face the same hazard.
1 - Collapsing tree! 2d6 bludgeoning damage and 1d6 fire damage. Reflex DC 12 negates.
2 - Ring of fire: Essentially counts as an extra card. Acrobatics or reflex DC 12 to escape, 1d6 fire damage on each failure.
3 - Rain of coals: Reflex DC 15 or take 1d4 fire damage.
4 - Burning branches: Reflex DC 12 or catch on fire (see below).
Wave 3. Full forest fire effects
Heat damage: 1d6 per turn, reduced to 1d4 nonlethal if you hold your breath.
Heat metal armour effect: warning on first turn, 1d4 damage second turn, 2d4 damage per turn thereafter, similar cooldown once heat stops.
Catching on fire: on the turn a character is first overtaken, they must make a Reflex save against catching on fire (DC 15).
Being on Fire
1d6 damage per turn, attempt save to extinguish fire each turn. Rolling on ground adds +4 to save, water extinguishes automatically. Clothes and equipment may also take damage.
Clawbat Swarm
On turn 4 of the chase, a swarm of panicking clawbats comes rushing through the woods. Each character must cower (missing their next turn) or suffer a clawbat flyby attack.
Bite +6, 1d4 + bleed 1 on hit.
Tongue: DC 11 Fortitude to avoid nausea (immune to tongue if at full hp).
NOTE: Clawbats have been a recurring presence in the Greenbelt in my campaign. You may want to replace them with something else if this is not the case in your campaign.
Playtest Notes:
A "reverse chase" like this turns out to work very well. Requiring all the players to get through the obstacles together makes it more of a team challenge than the other type of chase where only the fastest player needs to catch the fleeing goblin.
My players were level 3, and got through without any deaths, though they left their wagon behind to burn. The inquisitor fell unconscious going down the slope on card 9, and had to be dragged across the water to safety. The last of the party escaped down the crumbling bank to the water just a turn before the third wave reached them. Honestly, the chase could probably be made a little deadlier; I originally designed it when the players were level 2, but didn't have a chance to unleash it for some time.
When running this I actually also ended up drawing a simple map for the bandit ambush card. The players seemed eager to stop and fight the bandits, even with the fire close behind them. I gave a couple of the bandits tanglefoot bags for added fun.
The most fun part of the chase was the cute owlbear cub. The players couldn't bear to leave it because it was "cute", even though they are usually happy to slaughter owlbears. It cost them several increasingly desperate turns before they finally forced the bear trap open with a crowbar.
Nice touch with the owlbear cub death trap.
That is an awesome chase scene. Well done! I know for a fact our party would have two people dash through and ignore the owlbear, while the other two would willingly die to save the thing.