Saturday, January 3, 2009

The Hambley Farm Fields

The morning after the PCs finish (or come near finishing) their investigation of the murders, Farmer Grump wanders into town and demands that someone do something about the wandering undead that have begun to spring up in Sandpoint's local farms. Sheriff Hemlock sends the PCs out to substantiate Grump's claims. If the PCs accept the aid of Hemlock's men, send four guards with them (use the Grand Melee Gladiator stat block from Dragon #368) and subtract 31 xp per guard from the experience reward for each fight they participate in.

When the PCs arrive at the farm fields, give them a moment or two to decide on a course of action. When they do venture into the field itself, they quickly trigger the changed ghoul's hunger. Don't bother rolling strength checks for the ghouls to break free of the supports. It's much more cinematic if they start breaking out immediately. If you want to introduce a short delay, have three break free at the start of the encounter and the remaining two join in during the second round. In these fights I call for wight stat blocks but they remain ghouls in the adventure itself. I suggest the following encounter for a party of five adventurers:

  • 3 Wights
  • 1 Deathlock Wight
  • 1 Battle Wight
Total: 1175 xp (Level 6 Encounter)

4 comments:

tadkil said...

How come wights and not ghouls?

Scott said...

Because, by the Monster Manual, there is only a single heroic-tier ghoul whereas there are three heroic-tier wights. The situation doesn't improve much when I turn to the Compendium. And if you call them ghouls, your PCs will never know the difference.

Also, I like how the wights play better.

gamesmeister said...

You could still run with the Battle Wight and Deathlock Wight, alongside 3 ghouls. In fact, with the Ghoul's immobilising ability combining nicely with the Battle Wight, it might even turn out more fun :)

Nice encounter though, some nice options

tadkil said...

K. Wights do ROCK!

I am tempted to add some ghouls into teh mix with the Wights (all named ghouls) and give them all Ghoul fever.