Around the Fated Bend – Encounter – CftD 7

This encounter is designed to be the seventh encounter in the “Chalice for the Devourer” beta testing Adventure. It can also be adapted for the crashing of a train, riverboat or stagecoach in any adventure.

Overview

Type: Battle Map / timed Peril

In this encounter the mode of transportation the player characters were using crashed and is burning. Players need to act quickly to recover as much of their gear as possible.

Bonus Items

Train	Stagecoach	Riverboat
Wire	Wire	Wire
Shovel	Crowbar	Cargo Hook
50′ Rope	50′ Rope	50′ Rope
Rail Lantern / 1ltr oil	Lantern / 1ltr oil	Rail Lantern / 1ltr oil
1 Barrel Shotgun / 10 bird shot	Double Barrel Shotgun / 6 buck shot	Rifle / 5 rounds

Location:

Train or Stagecoach: Wilderness Hill Side (Specifically the Gamey Hills for CftD)

Riverboat: Wide section of river

Outline:

• Introduction
• Item Recovery
• Post Action (“Chalice for the Devourer” Adventure)

NPCs:

• Allied:
  • Expulsior Tome
• Neutral
  • Joseph Cartage
• Hostile
  • None

Location

Map should be large and (30+x30+)

Introduction checks are done prior to map encounter.

Water Crash –

The water should take up the majority of the map with wildland (Gamey Hills) on the bottom, marshland on the top and the motion of the river flowing right to left. The river should be about 15 squares wide (north to south) and at least 22 squares long.

The river should have a few rocks or small islands. Small planks of wood should be floating in the water along with the dead body of the boat captain. The riverboat was completely destroyed, but if you have props for a wrecked water wheel, etc, those can be strewn in the water.

Place marked and numbered barrels floating in the water at the upstream edge of the map. There should be 1.5x (round up) player characters in piles (6 barrels for 4 players, 5 for 3 players, etc)

Expulsior Tome and Joseph Cartage should be lying on the southern (bottom) shore, lying on the beach.

Prior to the encounter, the players should give their inventory lists to the game master that includes all items not on their person. The GM will need to split the items into groups, 1 group for each barrel.

Players will need to swim to each barrel and drag it to shore. Swimming with a barrel is a -1 move speed to swimming. If players grab and use a plank of wood as an oar, they may paddle a barrel at a +1 speed to swimming instead of the penalty but must make a 2T care check per round or fall into the water. This should not be player knowledge. Players with the Roping skill or if they found the Cargo Hook, may pull the barrels in from the shore

Land Crash

The train or stagecoach should be crashed in the middle of the map. The train engineer or coach driver should be pinned under the train or stagecoach and is dead.

The map should have a lot of terrain features and obstacles. Ideally there is 1-2 6′ drop-offs that require players to climb up or down to navigate.

Place marked and numbered debris piles around the map. There should be 1.5x (round up) player characters in piles (6 piles for 4 players, 5 for 3 players, etc)

Expulsior Tome and Joseph Cartage should be placed in the center of the map, but outside the wreckage.

Players may select a debris pile to start next to.

Prior to the encounter, the players should give their inventory lists to the game master that includes all items not on their person. The GM will need to split the items into groups, 1 group for each debris pile. And inside each debris pile, into 4 sections.

Players will need to use a Search action at each debris pile to find their items. Each action point from the search action will recover their items from 1 section of that group’s items. Additionally, there should be 1 bonus item that they can recover with a 5th Search action point.

Introduction

Train

The attacking Gremlins are falling back, routed and defeated. The train races down the tracks with 1 more bend prior to the bridge that will take them to the Sonotra mountains and the final 1 day run to Plataveta.

To their horror, as they round the bend, they see a massive ramp made of bridge trusses reinforced with rails, as if the bridge itself had been pulled up and reconstructed into a trap. In a moment the engine and cars will crash into it.

Players may attempt to avoid the impending doom by attempting to disconnect the cars from the engine, or car Infront of theirs. If they have other creative means adapt the checks for the same purpose.

1. Making a 5S vigor check to leap to the car disconnect for the car in front of them.
2. Make a force action to pull the connector (20S, not player knowledge) while making a 3T care check to avoid being thrown off the train.

If they succeed, their car will continue down the track to the river, they will have 2 rounds to thrown barrels off the train cars prior to needing to leap to avoid going over the edge themselves, to certain doom.

If they fail, the train and their cars go off the rail and proceed to recovery.

Stagecoach

The attacking Gremlins are falling back, routed and defeated. The party races down the road nearing the rail bridge that they will use to cross into the Sonotra Mountains.

Up a head the path goes through a narrow slot canyon before reaching the bridge.

Not Player Knowledge: The Gremlins have rigged the bottom of the canyon with explosives. To avoid the explosion players must:

1. Say they are making an observe check prior to entering the canyon
2. Make an observe check of 6T
3. Make 5 sequential care checks of 3Ts to find each mine and disable it.

If they succeed, The heroes will reach the bridge with no item loss, but the stagecoach cannot pass since the bridge is out. They will not receive the bonus items.

If they fail, Proceed to the Land Recovery phase.

Riverboat

The attacking Gremlins are falling back, routed and defeated. You are nearing the rapids and around the next bend is where you’ll put the boat to shore and disembark to finish your journey overland.

As the river boat races around the end, they find one last surprise from the nasty creatures, roped from shore to shore is a line of barrel mines. The captain, seeing this immediately throws the engine in full reverse, flinging everyone prone to the front of the boat.

Players may attempt to avoid the impending doom by:

1. Making a 5S vigor check to not be thrown
2. Making a quick draw check to draw and shoot a firearm
3. Hitting a 1/2 man sized target at 10 squares while making a 3S vigor check.

If they succeed, the mine string will explode prior to the riverboat hitting it and they will be able to safely disembark on the shore, keeping all of their inventory but not getting any bonus items.

If they fail, the players may select a board in the river to start the scenario at.

Item Recovery – Land

Players wake up next to the debris pile of their choosing. They will have the Daze status for 5 rounds, but can use smelling salts to counter the effect if they have them on their person.

Each debris pile has a small fire and the train or stagecoach has a large fire. The small fires may be extinguished with 1 shovel of dirt or 1 ltr of water. The large fires are too large for the equipment the players have and they should be told this. The only solution is for them to throw dynamite into main fire, this will extinguish the fire but the explosion will result in the loss of 1/2 of unrecovered items.

The Expulsior will call out to the players for wire. The mask holding Joseph Cartage has come loose and wire is needed to resecure it. Players will need to bring wire to the Expulsior from items on their person or recovered from a debris pile. It will take 1 round for a player to assist the Expulsior in securing the mask, at which time the Expulsior and Joseph Cartage will move to safety away from the fire.

Each round track 2 separate peril counters, adding 1 action point per round. The count should be visible to the players, but the break values should not be player knowledge.

At 8 rounds, any debris pile that has not had its fire extinguished will become engulfed in flame and all items in it will be lost.

At 10 rounds the coach or train will start a brush fire that will expand out at 2 squares in every direction per subsequent round. The fire is too intense to fight with the equipment the players have. When the fire reaches a debris pile, the items in the pile that have not been recovered are lost.

If the mask has not been fixed by the time the fire reaches the Expulsior, he will move holding the mask and recover wire from the burnt wreckage later. The experience of nearly loosing the mask will cause all players to have a -15 max tear debuff until they reach Plateveta.

The players may choose to relocate up wind to avoid the fire, there is no check for this, they will automatically succeed.

Item Recovery – Water

Players are flung through the air and cling to the water debris of their choosing. They see the barrels containing their equipment upstream and realize it will soon be carried down into the rapids below and destroyed. They will need to recover as many barrels as possible.

At the end of each round, the barrels move 2 squares toward the rapids end of the river. Any barrel not recovered before it reaches the rapids will be lost along with any items inside the barrel.

Post Action

The party is exhausted and must choose if they want to cross the river (Next scenario) or camp for the night. If they camp for the night they can take the sleep recovery action and attempt the next scenario in the day. If they elect to immediately proceed the next scenario will be in the dark.