Thoughts on Defending Apple Lane (possible spoilers)

[d(sqrt(-1))]

I'm going to run "Defending Apple Lane" from the GM pack on Tuesday. Reading through it I'm just wondering - if the Tusk Riders flee back to Pig Hollow and Redeye the boar turns up, what happens then? The PCs can run away as recommended, but that then doesn't solve the problem of the Tusk Riders and leaves things unresolved. Ok, the Tusk Riders could continue to be a problem, or they might wander off to somewhere easier to raid etc, but those all seem a bit uninteresting.

Does anyone have any interesting thoughts about what else might happen? Given that Redeye has been there for ~50 years and is pretty tough, he's not going anywhere soon. Eventually I guess the PCs could take him out, but might this put them in Ernalda's bad books?

Edited October 13, 2018 by d(sqrt(-1))

[Joerg]

8 minutes ago, d(sqrt(-1)) said:

I'm going to run "Defending Apple Lane" from the GM pack on Tuesday. Reading through it I'm just wondering - if the Tusk Riders flee back to Pig Hollow and Redeye the boar turns up, what happens then? The PCs can run away as recommended, but that then doesn't solve the problem of the Tusk Riders and leaves things unresolved. Ok, the Tusk Riders could continue to be a problem, or they might wander off to somewhere easier to raid etc, but those all seem a bit uninteresting.

Does anyone have any interesting thoughts about what else might happen? Given that Redeye has been there for ~50 years and is pretty tough, he's not going anywhere soon. Eventually I guess the PCs could take him out, but might this put them in Ernalda's bad books?

Aram ya Udram (human ancestor of the folk that would become the Tusk Riders in the EWF era) did exactly such a feat to Gouger, the son of the earth goddess.

That (and possibly some certain animal charme) earned him the Necklace of Kero Fin, the approval of the local earth mother, and the position as human representative on the Unity Council.

A demon pig can be seen as a punishment by an angry earth goddess, but also as a test for a possible mate. Given the location, the reward after this test (and probably a few more) might be an intimate relationship with Tarndisi?

[d(sqrt(-1))]

Ok, I'll need to read about Tarndisi then. Not much I'm familiar with really!

Given that's likely to be later on when the PCs are tougher, anything for the short term?

Thanks.

 

Edited October 13, 2018 by d(sqrt(-1))

[jajagappa]

Set up a quest for the PCs to gain the weapons, magics, and/or blessings needed to defeat Redeye.  

They go to Queen Leika with the news.  She consults her advisors and recommends they talk with the Earth priestess at Clearwine (thus getting Ernalda's blessing).  

What might they need?

• a magical truffle taken from an aldryami grove (negotiate with Tarndisi perhaps? or something more distant like the Stinking Forest) to lure Redeye out of his place of refuge
• a shadow to blind Redeye (from an Argan Argar merchant)
• a copper axe to ritually drive Redeye back to the Otherworld (perhaps the Earth temple will loan it for services; or perhaps they have a vision of it in some ancient queen's barrow?)

[d(sqrt(-1))]

Nice ideas. Oddly enough one of the PCs is an Argan Argar merchant. I'll need to check where their nearest temple/shrine is. They don't have an Orlanth initiate though.

For the last one, when you say an axe to ritually drive Redeye back, do you have any thoughts on how that might work (other than just hitting him with it I guess!)

I think the PCs have to go to Queen Leika anyway to be confirmed Thane, so it fits in for them to follow it up in this way.

 

Edited October 13, 2018 by d(sqrt(-1))

[Roy]

I ran the first part of this when the Tusk Raiders raided the town(Pig Hallow is the next session).  Several players stationed themselves in high places to shoot arrows and there were multiple groups of tusk raiders running around town to pick as targets. It became important to know distances on the Apple Lane map. There is not a distance scale listed on the map. I had to pull out the Avalon Hill version of Apple Lane to get a since of scale. On the old map the distance between the Tin Inn and and Gringle's Pawn shop is 70 meters. I used that as my scale. 

[jps]

I had the same problem last evening and I deemed 1.5 cm=24 meters (so one round at full speed by foot). Reading your post I realize that it made distances shorter than they should be according to the original map (by my guestimation the two buildings would be 50m apart instead of 70). My group and yours ended up at the same point: they made the tusk riders fleeing away after they killed three of them including their leader (who fumbled an attack roll, leaving him with no parry, no dodge, and no attack !)

[Jeff]

49 minutes ago, jps said:

I had the same problem last evening and I deemed 1.5 cm=24 meters (so one round at full speed by foot). Reading your post I realize that it made distances shorter than they should be according to the original map (by my guestimation the two buildings would be 50m apart instead of 70). My group and yours ended up at the same point: they made the tusk riders fleeing away after they killed three of them including their leader (who fumbled an attack roll, leaving him with no parry, no dodge, and no attack !)

Which is normally how the skirmish ends up (actually it is how most skirmishes SHOULD end up). This creates an open-ended dilemma for the players. Do they pursue the fleeing Tusk Riders to Pig Hollow, only to flee in turn if Redeye shows up? Does that mean that they emotionally feel they must remain in Apple Lane to protect the hamlet against future reprisals? Do they try to persuade the queen to hunt Red-Eye? Do they stalk the Tusk Riders and wait for them to leave the Hollow and then attack them?

This may take seasons to resolve, while meanwhile the adventurers get wound up in other problems, like the Varmandi feud with the Orlevings and so on.  But a partially resolved problem is a great tool for the GM - anytime you want you can turn that partial resolved problem into a new problem.

[jps]

Yes, we had a great time. We played the quickstart adventure but there was no combat with many opponents, so it was an opportunity to test combat versus lots of combatants.  I must say, next time I'll have to be better organized: every single Tusk Rider had a different set of scores and skills (same thing for their mounts) and I struggled a couple of time on SR order. Next week I'll present them with different choices: does anyone want to claim the title of Thane? Do they want to run after the Tusk Riders? Do they want to protect Apple Lane and develop the hamlet (a redsmith would be needed, a merchant too etc.)? A lot of opportunities  

[jajagappa]

8 hours ago, d(sqrt(-1)) said:

For the last one, when you say an axe to ritually drive Redeye back, do you have any thoughts on how that might work (other than just hitting him with it I guess!)

Could be that a copper axe ignores armor, and when Redeye's HP drop to 0, then he fades back into the Otherworld.  Or maybe the touch of the copper axe drinks up MP like a spirit combat attack and if MP drop to 0, then he fades away.

Or maybe you need to find a ritually enchanted copper axe that has some other properties or powers.

Or maybe no weapon will work well - you need another way.  Perhaps you need to borrow the Jeweled Notes from Queen Leika to lull Redeye to sleep (it's really why he's got red eyes - he can't sleep!).  What you need to do when he's sleeping may be another question.

[Narl]

I'm running the tusk rider attack Monday night. The adventurers did not fall for the feint and are in position at the Tin Inn.

My anticipated outcome is that any tusk riders that survive carry on to be long-term villains and nuisances!

[Pentallion]

My group did the archery from high places.  They also placed a darkwall upon the gate of the Tin Inn.  Then they lit the gate afire just as the Tuskers were charging it.  The gate was burst asunder, but the Tusker fumbled his luck roll to which I declared "Bacon! It's what's for breakfast!"

[d(sqrt(-1))]

All great suggestions, thanks - I'd be interested to hear what happened in later sessions!

[Geoff R Evil]

Picking up on this old thread. My group had a very different outcome. They realised the god talker Orlanthi in town had the spell Summons Evil. So they decided using that would ensure they would have some idea when the attack might happen, and might disrupt any formalised plans of the tuskers too. So they did the ceremony. (un)fortunately an Eurmali with a magical flute that adds bonuses to augments then criticalled their augment for the ceremony, so when the wicker figure of the Tusker bust open, it was not a tusker spirit inside, it was a large boar, a minor manifestation of Redeye. Now it’s an Eurmali that did this, so nothing was going to go as planned. Yes the tuskers turned up on schedule as planned, and they defeated them like others with arrows and a trapped courtyard in the tin inn. However, the ernaldan in the group had a sense of foreboding after the tuskers ran off. So she and her Babeestor Gor sister went to the tower to stay on watch as the others celebrated.

and through the trees came Red Eye, ….the Eurmali was in the Uleria temple enjoying his reward, but the boar communicated to the Ernaldan he wanted the music player, so the nude Eurmali was called from the temple to face the boar, he was ordered to play again, seems the beast liked the music….and the bloody Eurmali criticalled again! I decided that this placated the pig, such that, after some negotiation, it would aid the Eurmali, if fed regularly once per season by the townspeople.

How aid will be garnered, how much food is needed and the ongoing cost of this, are all tbd, as are the consequences of failing to feed the boar on demand.

In the meantime, the heroes have gained a thanedom with the reputation their town is protected by a giant boar….should be fun to see how this plays out

Edited January 2 by Geoff R Evil