Recently, I've been working on a campaign where the characters are journeying down a great river in an Egypt-like environment which is similar to the Nile. On one of their first stops at a small fishing town, they are probably going to be spotted by one of their enemies - specifically a wizard who was left behind to look for them. He's capable of long-range communication and teleportation.
My question is, do any of you have any ideas for unique traps, ambushes or feints the enemy could make against the characters? I don't want for this to devolve into 'Oh look, they found us again, better fight back' kind of a thing. I want the players to genuinely feel as if their character is being hunted by half the people in the country and the other half seem to think whatever collateral damage their doing is the work of madmen and want to stop them.
Any advice is appreciated!
One important thing is to set the right mood.
If everything they face is a trap or goes against them they soon get used to it.
But if you use paranoia against them with not everything being a trap but everything being suspicious, they will be wary and paranoid soon.
You could also play with the fact that nobody wants to stay close to them as they are seen as dangerous. As they get into a new town, children who are playing on the streets are called back to home by their mothers, everybody gets in their houses and soon the streets are empty.
And after that you could add a single person who is too willing to help them without any apparent reason, offering his house for them to rest, insisting on feeding them. He could be actually a nice person who really wants to help them, or maybe he just wants to lead them into a trap by posoning them, bringing their enemies to attack them, etc. Or maybe he is genuinelly wanting to help them and he is caught on an attack of the hunters and gets killed/badly injured just for helping the PCs. The PCs could also refuse to get his help because he is way too suspicious, but that would be OK too.
Play with the paranoia so they suspect even nice people and safe environments.
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Have some re-occurring symbolism going on. A common tattoo among specific NPC's. A bird that keeps watching them from afar. Play with the fact that players generally assume "whatever the DM says is usually important", and then break that rule a few times. Fear is more powerful with an ample amount of suspense.
Also, if you get your players paranoid, they might do some of the work for you. When you hear them say something like, "what if this food is poisoned?", play off that paranoia by being more specific when describing the next meal they eat (but yu decide if it's poisoned or not)
An Egyptian River setting could have a crocodile or a hippopotamus attack. A summoned creature could seem to be just a rogue hippo, holing or capsizing a small boat and then vanishing beneath the water before it vanishes (or is killed). Even large boats can be knocked hard enough to have a crewman or NPC fall overboat and then crocodiles or a hippo crushes or snaps them in two. The PCs may even feel their being stalked by some rogue beast rather than an intelligent enemy just using summoned creatures (as long as they don't kill it or see it vanish.)
^ The same creature they keep killing coming back to attack them would be both suspenseful and humorous. Play the jaws theme for extra effect.
As long the PCs don't actually 'kill' it. Since summoned creatures tend to vanish at 0 hit points and that's a dead giveaway to most players. Thankfully, hippos are typically robust enough that they can take a couple of hits and as long as they are near a river and can 'submerge' before vanishing that can keep up the facade for the wizard and the 'rogue hippo' stalking them and the villages they stop at. At night, the wizard can have the hippo break down nearby doors and maul people and the tracks can lead to the river, but the PCs can never find and stop the beast.
IF the PCs do ever notice the wizard following, he can claim he's a river priest investigating disturbing murders. If the PCs mention the hippo, have him claim it's an angry or possessed river god or spirit. Perhaps they've robbed a grave, raided a tomb, found a magical/cursed item that should be discarded into the river (and he can retrieve it later), or maybe they forgot to pay a tribute to the river god for safe passage (no shrines here, but he'd be happy to make a prayer and give a blessing for a suitable donation, and hey, maybe the attacks do stop temporarily, since he controls them.)
All of these are really good ideas. It's also worth noting that the country which rules over this part of the world is also home to a state run religion who has a sort of religious police which are normally good people. But I can see the character's enemies trying to spark some animosity between them and the police. Any ideas concerning that?
Pizza Lord wrote: IF the PCs do ever notice the wizard following, he can claim he's a river priest investigating disturbing murders. "Yes. Yes. Disturbing, brutal murders. YOURS!"
...and yes, I realize that is a bit grammatically confusing now. But that kind of works- "Who did we murder?" "NO! NO! I MEAN...y'know.... as in the murder... of you. As in you are going to be...."
You could come up with some "technicalities" that exist in the holy text, maybe some obscure commandments that most of the clergy try to ignore, but still have to recognize as "technically forbidden." Then have the wizard try to bait the party into breaking several of these. Suddenly, they are confronted by a religious authority figure who questions them on their actions. Some room for social checks and knowledge religion of course.
Or the wizard could try and frame them for a serious crime. Grave robbing seems thematic for a desert setting.
pbeth wrote: Play with the fact that players generally assume "whatever the DM says is usually important", and then break that rule a few times. Fear is more powerful with an ample amount of suspense.
Also, if you get your players paranoid, they might do some of the work for you. When you hear them say something like, "what if this food is poisoned?", play off that paranoia by being more specific when describing the next meal they eat (but yu decide if it's poisoned or not)
This trick works very well. I've used it before if they seem to show unusual interest in certain things, to emphasize those things. Whether it's that they're paranoid of traps, so I'm describing fountains and clocks and whatnot in more detail, or they think they'll be ambushed, so I'll describe the large, muscular man in the marketplace in a little more detail, or things along that line. Plus, then you do describe something that's actually important, they'll actually have to consider whether it is or not.
Also, use the adage "random events segregate non-randomly" to your advantage. If the attacks just happen to come at a certain time of day, or if they just happen to hear someone chanting or singing each time they're beset, they might start to assume that's some sort of sign, even if it's just pure coincidence.
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