Fey Square

Brothers Grimm, Anansi, Aesop, and countless of tale tellers real and fictional have regaled humans with fantastic tales meant to entertain and educate.  Each tale is strongly rooted in fantasy while retaining an air of realism that connects the fantastic with the real.  For the next week or so I’ll be publishing free encounters inspired by faerie tales from around the world.  Use these in your game when you want to introduce a fun or unique scenario to keep your players on their toes.

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THE BRIDGE AND THE TROLL

This is an encounter appropriate for a level 5 party of five or six.

The DM reads: “You come to a river cutting through the river on a flat farmland. The river extends to the horizon in both directions with a strong current.. A simple stone bridge, aged with overgrown grass, flowers, and moss, closes the 10 yard gap.”

Before the players reach the bridge, a scrag (water troll) rises from the water and hops on the bridge, barring the path. Holding his arms out in a nonthreatening fashion, he introduces himself as Krath, guardian of the bridge, and refuses to let anyone pass unless they prove themselves “worthy” through a mental challenge. If they succeed, he ‘gifts’ them with a magic pendant of luck (which is actually cursed) and a sack with 100gp. If they answer incorrectly, he eats the one who answered wrong.

Krath asks a single riddle. Roll 1d4 to choose randomly. He waits as long as it takes for someone to answer.

Random Riddles (1d4)
1. Question: A human warrior walks into a room with six wooden chairs and six elves sitting down. The warrior picks an elf up and throws him out the window. How many legs are in the room?
Answer: 36. 24 chair legs (4 per chair) and 12 humanoid legs (five elves and one human).

2. Question: A druid is bitten by a werewolf and contracts lycanthropy. On the night before the full moon, he transforms and bites his wife. On the night of the full moon, he transforms and bites his father. On the night after the full moon, he transforms and bites his sister. How many people total did the druid possibly infect?
Answer: None. Only true lycanthropes can spread lycanthropy.

3. Question: A dwarf wakes up in the morning and drinks four beers. At noon, he drinks six beers. In the evening, he drinks three beers. Working through the night, the dwarf drinks seven beers at noon and goes to sleep. How many beers did the dwarf drink that day?
Answer: Seven. He woke up in the morning the previous day making the seven beers his first drinks of the new day.

4. Question: In my pocket is eighteen copper pieces, twenty-two silver pieces, and ten gold pieces. How many pounds of gold are in my pocket?
Answer: .20 or one-fifth. Fifty gold pieces to a pound and there are ten gold pieces.

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If the answer is correct, Krath congratulates them on their skill, rewards them with the pendant and the gold, then returns to his home under the bridge. If a character answers incorrectly, Krath immediately attacks them. Krath fights as a freshwater troll with 8 hit dice (44 hit points, 1,000xp) and his extra thick skin gives him an AC of 1.

Krath has a twisted sense of honor, attacking only the one who answered incorrectly. Krath is oddly attached to his choosen bridge and will never move further than 30 feet away. If the characters try to answer his question from afar, he asks them to come within 10 feet because his hearing is poor. So powerful is Krath’s attachment that any magical attempts to move him across his bridge automatically fail.

If the PCs attack Krath he fights back attempting to grab and drag heavily armored characters into the water. Characters wielding fire or acid are attacked first and he fights them while submerged in the shallow end of the river implying a +4 bonus to his save vs. fire or acid spells. If characters attack him from afar he tosses heavy stones (short range 2, medium range 4, long range 6, 1d6 points of damage). If the characters fight him from afar with fire or acid ranged weapons, Krath tosses rocks while taking cover using the bridge and water implying a -4 penalty to hit.

Krath is cowardly. If he’s brought down to less than a quarter of his health he foresakes his bridge, grabs his knapsack, and swims down river (the powerful current increases his swimming speed by 2). Krath eventually finds another bridge and may show up in a future encounter. Krath is held in high favor by the god of trickery (or any kind of deity that favors luck or fate). If Krath is killed, the character that dealt the final blow suffers a -1 penalty to attacks and saves for 1d3+1 weeks.

Trying to cross the river by swimming is difficult because the rapids are fast. Any attempt requires a swim proficiency check or a strength check at a -4 penalty. Failing drags the character under and carries him 60 feet down river in a single round. Trying to ford the river in a raft or swimming across within Krath’s sight will result in him tossing rocks while muttering curses.

If the party has a ram or adult male goat with them it immediately flies into a rage at Krath’s presence, breaks free of any nonmagical bonds, and charges the troll. The attack instantly knocks Krath off his bridge and down river. The characters are rewarded with full experience as if they had defeated Krath in combat.

Rewards

If a character answers Krath’s riddle correctly they’re given a cursed pendant of luck and 100gp. The character who answered (or first came up with the answer) is rewarded with 250xp.

Krath has a small burrow underneath the far end of the bridge where the characters may find the remains of his unfortunate victims under a musty straw bed. Krath also keeps a well hidden knapsack (sized for a giant) of the treasure he earns from dull witted travelers.

Inside the knapsack are 3 pendants of luck (all cursed), a garnet (500gp), 2 black opals (1,000gp each), a flawed chunk of obsidian (10gp), potion of fire breath, a scroll of fireball (level 8 wizard), three arrows of slaying (giants), and Rams-head, a +1 longsword that functions as a +2 longsword against regenerating creatures and can automatically slay them if helpless or reduced to 0 or fewer hit points. Krath was going to destroy those last four items before the PCs arrived.

If the PCs cross the bridge peacefully, reward them with 3,600 group experience points. If the group finds the treasure (which usually means they killed Krath or somehow tricked him) reward them with an additional 4,560xp.

Pendant of Luck: This is a finely crafted grinning mask pendant carved from ivory, gem encrusted, and set on a pure gold chain. A gemcutter or dwarf would estimate its value at 1,200gp. In reality the item is cursed. Wearing the pendant implies a 5% chance to fail at a single task per day when the results of failure would most inconvenience the wearer. Traps go off even when the wearer thinks he disarmed them, his grip loosens causing his magical sword to fall down a well, he says something offensive to the baron’s wife, or his spells target a random ally (when harmful) or enemy (when beneficial). This chance increases by 5% cumulatively each day until the check is made reseting the chance back to 5%.

Despite being cursed, the amulet can be removed in which case the penalty to fail still remains but does not accumulate daily. Regardless of how long a character wears the pendant, every time it is removed and put on adds an additional 5% to the chance of failure. The chance of failure is eliminated by a remove curse spell.

The pendant never detects as magical and its cursed status can only be revealed by a 9th level or higher wizard who casts identify and only on a 1-in-4 chance (1 on a 1d4). The deities of trickery have created a powerful curse indeed.