Halfling Rain

[ArcanistSupreme]

So I was perusing the Magic Item Compendium and came across the lore for the Piercer Cloak (p 118). The lore discusses the Halfling Rain, a seven day period in which halflings wearing these cloaks jumped from buildings onto unsuspecting passerby and stole their stuff or killed them. Of course, I instantly fell in love with the idea of nobody being able to walk around after night without a halfling falling on them.

I really like the idea, but I'm having trouble coming up with a cohesive reason for the Halfling Rain to occur. I want to develop this for a campaign I'm running as a gang that is preying mainly on refugees from another city. But what would such a gang's motivation be for relying solely on jumping on people? Do they have some sort of creed that pushes them toward this action? Do they have ulterior motives beyond robbery? Could this be some sort of cult?

Any and all ideas are welcome, from silly to sinister. I'm also looking to stat out some of the gang lieutenants and the leader (ECL ~2-5), so if you get inspired and want to throw out some builds, that would be great.

[Zubrowka74]

The easiest way out is a curse. Village mob give the usual pitchfork'n'torch treatment to a passing caravan of gyspsie haflings. The tribe elder curses the village. Adventure hooks galore!

[SilverLeaf167]

Easy. Jumping off rooftops may have been
a. something the halflings thought would be a nice change of pace and simply hilarious
b. an initiation ritual into an Assassins' Guild etc., kinda like the Leap of Faith in the Assassin's Creed series.
c. simple madness
d. a testing run for the magical cloaks

Overall, some weird local guild would be in order I think. They stopped doing it because they could have been noticed, because the cloaks didn't work as intended, or something like that.

[ArcanistSupreme]

The easiest way out is a curse. Village mob give the usual pitchfork'n'torch treatment to a passing caravan of gyspsie haflings. The tribe elder curses the village. Adventure hooks galore!

So is it the halflings living in the town that are cursed to suddenly climb trees and jump on people, or the town is cursed to attract halfling ruffians?


Easy. Jumping off rooftops may have been
a. something the halflings thought would be a nice change of pace and simply hilarious

Murder is always fun. :smalltongue:


b. an initiation ritual into an Assassins' Guild etc., kinda like the Leap of Faith in the Assassin's Creed series.

Do prospective initiates need to take down so many targets or was there simply a large number of applicants that week?


c. simple madness

Something in the water is driving the halflings crazy? I like it!


d. a testing run for the magical cloaks

To what end? What is the final intended use of the cloaks?

The ideas are great, keep 'em coming. How should the organization be run? Does the group have a hidden agenda? Are the "muggings" actually disguised assassination attempts?

[Zubrowka74]

So is it the halflings living in the town that are cursed to suddenly climb trees and jump on people, or the town is cursed to attract halfling ruffians?

The village is cursed, as the halfling gypsie caravan was only passing through. The halfling matron bestows the curse, Ravenloft style, as the last members of her tribe are pitchforked to death. This way the jumping halflings can litterally rain down from the sky.

[SaintRidley]

Make it part of a festival so old they don't even remember the origins?


Really, you just rain down on the big people as a group and rob them blind in the confusion. Halflings are weird little folk, I'm not saying go full Kender with them, but a general disrespect for the property rights of the big people can be a neat cultural trait, with or without a festival component.

[ArcanistSupreme]

The village is cursed, as the halfling gypsie caravan was only passing through. The halfling matron bestows the curse, Ravenloft style, as the last members of her tribe are pitchforked to death. This way the jumping halflings can litterally rain down from the sky.

So are they halfling ghosts?


Make it part of a festival so old they don't even remember the origins?


Really, you just rain down on the big people as a group and rob them blind in the confusion. Halflings are weird little folk, I'm not saying go full Kender with them, but a general disrespect for the property rights of the big people can be a neat cultural trait, with or without a festival component.

I'm not sure that I understand the festival concept. Doing it during the festival makes sense and is good cover, but what about the old part?

[Ajadea]

Why do a halfling rain?

I like the idea of the festival. Halflings are small and lack physical strength. In the old old days, they would be pushed off the best lands by the stronger races, and perhaps be forced to steal to survive. While this is no longer the case, some traditions remain.

Once every X years, a few caravans of halflings band together to rob an entire human city blind. Over the course of a week, all the physically fit halflings instantiate themselves on rooftops and alleyways, high up and down low, where humans do not look. They empty out entire houses, accost people in alleyways, and yes, drop from roofs on to the heads of the poor Medium-sized creatures. It's fun. And besides, it only counts as theft if they are the same size as a halfling or smaller. Afterwards, there is a big party, the caravans divide the spoils, and they go their separate ways.

[ArcanistSupreme]

Why do a halfling rain?

Because it amuses me. :smalltongue:

But seriously, I like that idea. It keeps the halflings hard to lock down and could allow for them to become a recurring problem throughout the campaign. I also enjoy the shades of gray morality issues this opens up.

[Alefiend]

I always liked to play halflings as an underclass—the childlike foodies that nobody takes seriously, having lost most of their own culture to assimilation in human lands. This gave me (and thus you) a chance to work in a social upheaval.

Somebody in the halfling community starts agitating for change to the status quo, demanding more opportunities for halflings. He can pull out a fantasy version of the old Malcolm X line, "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock; Plymouth Rock landed on us!" A violent faction within the halfling rights movement orchestrates the Halfling Rain as a response to whatever resistance or ridicule the taller and better-historied races present to the cause.

[SilverLeaf167]

If the event was big, famous, mysterious, bloody and/or legendary enough, you could have bards all over the area still singing romanticized and exaggerated songs around it. Good places to start include Chocolate Rain and It's Raining Men. :smallwink:

[dysprosium]

don't forget Purple Rain!

[ArcanistSupreme]

Somebody in the halfling community starts agitating for change to the status quo, demanding more opportunities for halflings. He can pull out a fantasy version of the old Malcolm X line, "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock; Plymouth Rock landed on us!" A violent faction within the halfling rights movement orchestrates the Halfling Rain as a response to whatever resistance or ridicule the taller and better-historied races present to the cause.

Again, I like the depth that this type of situation offers.


If the event was big, famous, mysterious, bloody and/or legendary enough, you could have bards all over the area still singing romanticized and exaggerated songs around it. Good places to start include Chocolate Rain and It's Raining Men. :smallwink:


don't forget Purple Rain!

So much yes!

I don't want you to come to any sorrow
I don't want you to come to any pain
I never wanted one time to see you dying
I never wanted to see you dying in the Halfling Rain

[BarnabasBailey]

Or, if all that seems like too much back story, you could just ascribe it to the reason human beings do half of the things they do: for the lulz.

Think about it. A group of halflings start thinking of ways to rob people, one of them suggests a little shock and awe aerial bombardment, and his mates think it's such a fun sounding idea that they start doing it. What's more, it works. Halfling thieves get not only the money they were going after, but also the thrill of what would be the fantasy equivalent of base-jumping.

After that, it was like graffiti. It caught on with the halfling youths, and soon every thrill-seeking short person is trying to throw themselves off of buildings at passerby. A subgroup forms, then an underground movement. It becomes as much a part of the culture of the local halflings as, say, the creation of grand frescoes is part of the culture of certain dwarves in certain caves. Urban legends sprout about incredibly skilled "droppers" who could hit a crouching dwarf from the top of a wizard's tower. Y'know, things like that.

[Evard]

don't forget Purple Rain!

Or Chocolate Rain!

I had that guy's voice in my head as I read this entire thread....

Twas interesting.

[Fitz10019]

It's a contest, with strict rules. Contestants must acquire their loot by this dive-bombing method. The loot is pooled. The biggest contributor gets the whole haul (minus 10% for the 'house'). Contestants can contribute multiple times, so there is a lot of one-upmanship. The contest is held in a different city each year, so local target populations are slower to adapt.

The cloaks magically convert the kinetic energy of the fall into non-lethal damage to the victim, and when damage exceeds 50% of HPs, the target makes a Fort save v. unconsciousness (like the massive damage death optional rule). Most victims are entirely surprised, so sneak attack damage yields a high success rate for victim unconsciousness.

[Person_Man]

The city has a large Halfling population. The city is located on a small island situated on an important bay or river, which means that land is at a premium. So the city is very densely built, with narrow roads and ally ways, and buildings (mostly built by the short Halflings) are only 9ish ft high on average with flat-ish roof tops.

Halfling children, who have few parks or other places to congregate, have made a habit of playing on rooftops. They run across buildings, play stick ball, soccer, football, and whatever other crazy games Halfling children play. Falling off or purposefully crowd surfing is a fairly common event, as falling less then 10 feet doesn't cause damage. Poverty is also rampant, so there are gangs of orphan street children who use the Halfling Rain as an opportunity or distraction in order to pickpocket unsuspecting adults.

As an added bonus, the local law enforcement does very little to prevent this. Children who are arrested are brought to overcrowded juvenile detention facilities, which simply act as revolving doors back to the streets and training grounds for the children to learn from older and more experienced child thieves.

[SaintRidley]

Why do a halfling rain?

I like the idea of the festival. Halflings are small and lack physical strength. In the old old days, they would be pushed off the best lands by the stronger races, and perhaps be forced to steal to survive. While this is no longer the case, some traditions remain.

Once every X years, a few caravans of halflings band together to rob an entire human city blind. Over the course of a week, all the physically fit halflings instantiate themselves on rooftops and alleyways, high up and down low, where humans do not look. They empty out entire houses, accost people in alleyways, and yes, drop from roofs on to the heads of the poor Medium-sized creatures. It's fun. And besides, it only counts as theft if they are the same size as a halfling or smaller. Afterwards, there is a big party, the caravans divide the spoils, and they go their separate ways.

Thank you. I wasn't feeling too up to elaborating on the festival at that point. I love it.

[ArcanistSupreme]

Or Chocolate Rain!

I had that guy's voice in my head as I read this entire thread....

Twas interesting.

Holy cow, you don't even have to change the lyrics much if stick with the oppressed halfling theme.

Halfling Rain
Some stay dry and others feel the pain
Halfling Rain
A halfling scorned will die before the sin

Halfling Rain
The school books say it can't be here again
Halfling Rain
The prisons make you wonder where it went

Halfling Rain
Build a tent and say the world is dry
Halfling Rain
Pull perspective back and see the lie...


It's a contest, with strict rules. Contestants must acquire their loot by this dive-bombing method. The loot is pooled. The biggest contributor gets the whole haul (minus 10% for the 'house'). Contestants can contribute multiple times, so there is a lot of one-upmanship. The contest is held in a different city each year, so local target populations are slower to adapt.

Hilarious. It's like illegal street racing, but with falling halflings.


The city has a large Halfling population. The city is located on a small island situated on an important bay or river, which means that land is at a premium. So the city is very densely built, with narrow roads and ally ways, and buildings (mostly built by the short Halflings) are only 9ish ft high on average with flat-ish roof tops.

Halfling children, who have few parks or other places to congregate, have made a habit of playing on rooftops. They run across buildings, play stick ball, soccer, football, and whatever other crazy games Halfling children play. Falling off or purposefully crowd surfing is a fairly common event, as falling less then 10 feet doesn't cause damage. Poverty is also rampant, so there are gangs of orphan street children who use the Halfling Rain as an opportunity or distraction in order to pickpocket unsuspecting adults.

As an added bonus, the local law enforcement does very little to prevent this. Children who are arrested are brought to overcrowded juvenile detention facilities, which simply act as revolving doors back to the streets and training grounds for the children to learn from older and more experienced child thieves.

Oo, that's gritty. I think my favorite part is the 9 ft. rooftops. Because no fall under 10 ft. ever hurt anyone.