A Surprise Bad Day in the Forest

So I’ve had this strange reading project for the last two years. I’ve mentioned it before. I have Dragon Magazines from Issue #55 to the final print issue. It’s time to part with them, so I decided to read each one, one more time.

In so doing, I started piling up issues that I want to comment about. I flagged the article(s) in each with a Post-It so I could remember what I wanted to talk about.

Alas, the stack grew quite high, though I managed to work through a decent number of them in 2024.

So when you see me quoting a Dragon Magazine, this is why.

Today, though, I’d like to try an experiment. I’m calling it GM Tips by Bill O’Reilly. Here we go….

Let me blindly reach behind me and grab a random mag from the pile.

Issue #167. On the cover, it looks like a female priestess is wrestling with a treant over a golden shillelagh. Cool.

Hmmm. What if… the shillelagh has a hidden compartment? The priestess is delivering an urgent message.

What does the message contain?

How about a plea from a High Priest for help against a terrible foe. Classic plot, and effective.

Twist: the message is for some weaker rivals of the PCs. Let’s see if they’ll bite on the hook when they learn that detail.

So we have a situation now where the PCs stumble upon this wrestling match. That’s a good start. We need another layer to make it more interesting.

I see the treant has an angry look on its face, and it’s depicted as kind of evil. Let’s say the monster dominates some of the local flora and fauna. And all forest creatures despise it.

We’ll give ol’ Barkblight some minions. He’s a fun guy, right? So he’ll have some fungi bros that like to bully and stomp on stuff.

Having them come in as a second wave on round 2 might be interesting. If there’s combat, this would be a great stakes escalation, and it adds urgency to the PCs. If there’s parley, then the extra troops enhance Barkblight’s “diplomacy”.

Taking a step back, what do we want the players to feel during this encounter? It depends on the story beat at the time it triggers, but I like to prep a default. The default can flex easily to accommodate most player actions.

I want the players to see Barkblight as an ally. That way, when he stabs them in the back, I can twist the end of my invisible moustache and run my poker face in glee.

So let’s say the fungi that stomp into the encounter on round 2 are actually enemies of Barkblight. The PCs have a juicy dilemma.

Now we need a mechanism for the players to think Barkblight can be trusted, despite appearances.

So let’s say on Round 2, even if in combat, he’ll yell at the priestess: “Hands off this gewgaw, weak ape! It’s trapped. I attempt to show you! Off!”

Ok, that hopefully surprises the group.

The fungi call themselves the Wungi. And it’s likely the fungi Wungi gang hears Barkblight and now take interest in the golden weapon.

Now it’s The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

What do the PCs do?

We can start by rolling initiative….

Before we finish though, let’s make the encounter a bit more robust. The crazy players, you know?

What’s our worst case here?

What if… the party goes murder hobo? In the melee, Barkblight burns up, the fungi Wungi gang take so many casualties they turn and stomp away. And the priestess has been whacked — could’ve been Krug, could’ve been the Wungi fungi with the bung eye got in a lucky shot. Uh oh.

Can the murder hobos convince the High Priest that the fungi Wungi gang murdered his disciple? Yes, that would be an excellent outcome. Wouldn’t even need to roll for it. Now we’ve got NPC Leverage over the party in the future when another NPC inevitably learns the truth, perhaps with a Speak With Dead burial ceremony.

If the PCs charge in talking, then I’ll have my fun guys stomp in and create conflict and friction with insults, aggressiveness, and rudeness. I’ll be trying to start an argument with the PCs to get my players riled up. I’d be ok with an outcome of players getting emotionally engaged with this encounter in that way too!

A TPK might actually be the worst case of any encounter. So we’ll make the Wungi fungi gang local brokers with some humanoid clans that live in nearby hexes. If the PCs start to fall, they’d prefer to take the party alive as prisoners to sell to one of their business partners.

I look forward to a fun and tactical combat with this interesting variety of foe types, and the addition of a cleric NPC who wasn’t looking for the PCs, starts off extremely wary of them, and could end up joining the fray as a foe!

But what if the players are persuasive? That could mean all foes become neutrals or allies. Neutrals are future battles to be fought. And I can always use new allies as future pawns.

Allies shouldn’t flop over and become the party’s minions, though. Allies got their own thing goin’ on. And you never invite a wolf into the flock. Even for dumb foes (though gullible is a nice flaw to give some NPCs) general protocol for new allies and partnerships and deals of any kind should be a test. Trust comes slow.

And tests equal quests. So that’s a win.

Finally, I guess the worst worst worst worst result would be apathy. The players shrug their shoulders and move on.

So let’s play that out in our minds for a sec.

How does the encounter trigger?

I don’t want to risk a roll, so I’ll inform the scout or PC with highest perception they hear yelling erupt nearby. Then I’ll drop into rotating spotlight init starting with the player who hears the argument, going clockwise from there.

The party would be interested in the shillelagh, but not so much if it belongs to a good priestess. Even my murder hobos would let that be.

Some players will bite on the sound-hook because they’re curious, want to help the GM, or they feel obligated. But others won’t. Perhaps they’re already on an urgent mission and don’t like playing multiball.

Let’s strengthen the hook by spicing things up further. Let’s say the priestess is actually EVIL. We can play up her good appearances at the start of the encounter to stage the twist.

As a bonus, this sets up a smart double-take for clever players who might see a reality where both the treant and the priestess could be untrustworthy.

With this now in place, if we could flare up some bright magic, it would strengthen our hook. So, as the treant and priestess begin to wrestle over the shillelagh, she yells, “Hey! Don’t grab that! It’s mine!” And she casts a spell that emits a bright light, an explosion or burst of energy, or maybe a sonic boom. Such a magical disturbance would hook additional players, methinks.

And one more thing we can do. We can enter stage left our fungi Wungi gangbangers, lead by one fungi who ends every reply with, “But I’m just one fun guy!”

The Wungi see anything that sets foot on their territory as their eminent domain. The leader could command Barkblight and the priestess to drop the magic golden stick because it’s now their property. And we can play to find out how well that goes over….

Summing up:

  • Combat: A fun ConflictScape in a forest with a variety of foe types. Foes might fight to the death but prefer to live to fight another day if it comes to it.
  • Roleplay: Lots of opportunities here as the players can try to figure out who’s good, who’s bad, and who’s ugly. They have a chance to garner useful allies, as well.
  • Puzzle: What’s going on here? Who’s the good guy in all this? What’s with the golden stick? Should the party take up the High Priest’s quest? Who can be trusted here?

Unfortunately, this encounter idea and article was inspired by the cover of the magazine. I still haven’t looked at the article I flagged. That’ll be another article for another day!

Cheers,
Johnn
roleplayingtips.com
https://discord.gg/6MxTRAqQ76
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