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canyonwalkerFriday night we played session 5 of my D&D adventure, The City of the Dead. In this chapter the protagonists have gotten through phalanxes of undead creatures on the outskirts of the old, abandoned city and are ready to probe into the city's center. They're looking to find the body of cleric Terence's mentor— in session 4 they fought his angry, corrupted undead spirit wraith— and to try to recover some of the goods from a small merchant caravan that passed through here recently and was believed killed.
Before venturing back into the city, though, the group needed to rest up and heal its wounds. They'd expended a lot of their energy fighting in the cemetery back in Session 3— yes, that was part of the same, in-game day!— and chasing after a horse that ran off when spooked by flesh-eating zombie sheep. By the time they rescued the horse and fought a few undead stragglers on their way back to camp they were spent. That's where this Friday's session 5 picked up.
This time around, "something" was a small pack of worgs.
Worgs are similar to wolves but they are stouter (about double the body mass), stronger, more intelligent, and also evil. A nighttime ambush by worgs could easily be chalked up to a random wandering monster encounter... but as I've written previously, I don't do random wandering monsters. These worgs are part of the evil ecosystem in the City of the Dead. They have a role in the main plot. They're not just a side story designed to slow the players down or deplete their resources. I mean, yeah, they literally are there to slow the group down and deplete their resources, but they're doing it in coordination with the more powerful evils in the city. They're also probing the PCs to report back to the Big Bads. (Report back? Did I mention that part of being more intelligent than wolves is that some worgs can actually speak!)
So the worgs followed the PCs' trail out of the city after dark. They followed them to their camp 2 miles away. Six of them circled the camp late at night and starting drawing their circle tighter, planning to charge in with an ambush from multiple sides if they were undetected.
Fortunately for the PCs, the PCs made good Listen checks. Paladin Astrin was on watch when worgs were setting up their ambush. She heard one creeping through the forest 50' away. She immediately used her Detect Evil ability— a solid choice as it right away revealed whatever was making noise was actually evil. That was enough cause for her to wake the rest of the party.
The worgs waited to see if the group would decide "Enh, false alarm," but everyone took Astrin's warning seriously. It's not like Detect Evil gets fooled by an ordinary racoon. Meraxes the mage tossed a light spell in the direction Astrin pointed. It illuminated the worg— which having been exposed in its hiding spot, ran away— but not before a few PCs saw it. The other worgs ran away, too.
The group continued on raised alert for the rest of the night. They doubled the watch and placed magic lights around their campsite so nothing could sneak up so easily. The worgs lurked outside of the range of the lights a few hours before giving up for the night.
The group decided to take a day in camp the next day. They were still kind of banged up and wanted to make sure nobody came down with Grave Rot. Nothing bothered them by daylight. The second night the worgs approached again, but the group had left its ring of lights set up. The worgs are evil and hungry and would enjoy eating the PCs for dinner, but as cunning creatures they're not going to attack well equipped and alert adventurers foil their element of surprise.
Before venturing back into the city, though, the group needed to rest up and heal its wounds. They'd expended a lot of their energy fighting in the cemetery back in Session 3— yes, that was part of the same, in-game day!— and chasing after a horse that ran off when spooked by flesh-eating zombie sheep. By the time they rescued the horse and fought a few undead stragglers on their way back to camp they were spent. That's where this Friday's session 5 picked up.
No Rest for the Wicked
In fantasy roleplaying games there's seldom such a thing as, "Okay, you rest up, recover all your hitpoints and spells, and nothing happens." Well, okay, there is... when the players go all the way back to a safe home base. When they camp out next to Evil, Inc.'s headquarters, something almost always happens. We GMs make sure of it.This time around, "something" was a small pack of worgs.
Worgs are similar to wolves but they are stouter (about double the body mass), stronger, more intelligent, and also evil. A nighttime ambush by worgs could easily be chalked up to a random wandering monster encounter... but as I've written previously, I don't do random wandering monsters. These worgs are part of the evil ecosystem in the City of the Dead. They have a role in the main plot. They're not just a side story designed to slow the players down or deplete their resources. I mean, yeah, they literally are there to slow the group down and deplete their resources, but they're doing it in coordination with the more powerful evils in the city. They're also probing the PCs to report back to the Big Bads. (Report back? Did I mention that part of being more intelligent than wolves is that some worgs can actually speak!)
So the worgs followed the PCs' trail out of the city after dark. They followed them to their camp 2 miles away. Six of them circled the camp late at night and starting drawing their circle tighter, planning to charge in with an ambush from multiple sides if they were undetected.
Fortunately for the PCs, the PCs made good Listen checks. Paladin Astrin was on watch when worgs were setting up their ambush. She heard one creeping through the forest 50' away. She immediately used her Detect Evil ability— a solid choice as it right away revealed whatever was making noise was actually evil. That was enough cause for her to wake the rest of the party.
The worgs waited to see if the group would decide "Enh, false alarm," but everyone took Astrin's warning seriously. It's not like Detect Evil gets fooled by an ordinary racoon. Meraxes the mage tossed a light spell in the direction Astrin pointed. It illuminated the worg— which having been exposed in its hiding spot, ran away— but not before a few PCs saw it. The other worgs ran away, too.
The group continued on raised alert for the rest of the night. They doubled the watch and placed magic lights around their campsite so nothing could sneak up so easily. The worgs lurked outside of the range of the lights a few hours before giving up for the night.
The group decided to take a day in camp the next day. They were still kind of banged up and wanted to make sure nobody came down with Grave Rot. Nothing bothered them by daylight. The second night the worgs approached again, but the group had left its ring of lights set up. The worgs are evil and hungry and would enjoy eating the PCs for dinner, but as cunning creatures they're not going to attack well equipped and alert adventurers foil their element of surprise.
