Uninteresting Encounter

[Bjarkmundur]

After a whole summer of just theory crafting and getting familiar with the system it's nice to finally stretch my DM muscles. Although I'm appearantly more rusty than I realized. A 10 year break from creating engaging narratives and dynamic encounters leaves you a bit stiff. How about we continue the trend (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?596990-The-Best-DM-I-ve-Ever-Been-But) of taking simple encounters and spicing them up a bit.

This time a Carrion Crawler (https://jsigvard.com/dnd/monster.php?m=Carrion Crawler) pop up from the sewers in an urban environment and attacks innocent civilians. How to make this exciting?

The obvious thing I see is that it tries to take a commoner and drag it back into the sewers, but what else can I do around the half-way mark to shake things up?

How about, when the Crawler is 'bloodied' I'll have it explode with Rot Grubs (eeeeeeew)?

[Sparky McDibben]

The carrion crawler uses its statblock, but actually is the larval form of something else. Another creature is controlling it, telling it (telepathically) to take a human. Some PCs might get garbled versions of those commands as telepathic "sidelobe." Good hook for wizards and GOOlocks. Also, use multiple crawlers, but space them out like a block away and separate them by maybe a minute each.

[sithlordnergal]

After a whole summer of just theory crafting and getting familiar with the system it's nice to finally stretch my DM muscles. Although I'm appearantly more rusty than I realized. A 10 year break from creating engaging narratives and dynamic encounters leaves you a bit stiff. How about we continue the trend (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?596990-The-Best-DM-I-ve-Ever-Been-But) of taking simple encounters and spicing them up a bit.

This time a Carrion Crawler (https://jsigvard.com/dnd/monster.php?m=Carrion Crawler) pop up from the sewers in an urban environment and attacks innocent civilians. How to make this exciting?

The obvious thing I see is that it tries to take a commoner and drag it back into the sewers, but what else can I do around the half-way mark to shake things up?

How about, when the Crawler is 'bloodied' I'll have it explode with Rot Grubs (eeeeeeew)?

Hmmm, having it grab a few civilians is a great idea, especially if the party is trying to protect them. Maybe one or two commoners decide to try and fight instead of flee, and brandish lit torches. One of those torches could accidentally start a small fire that the party now has to contend with. Or, since it is like a giant bug, maybe an Ankheg and a few Insect or Rat swarms crawl out to join it. That would give them both a ranged attack to go with the Crawler's melee attacks. All of these things crawling out of the sewer could be tearing up the street a bit due to them being large and the sewer holes being sized for medium creatures, creating some difficult terrain.

As the party is fighting, the guards start to join the fray to assist them as they reach the area. Perhaps a commoner tries to sneakily steal something off the PCs as they're busy fighting in the chaos. I'd do it as Slight of Hand vs. Passive Perception. And finally, when the Ankheg and Crawler realize they are losing, they start to focus on fleeing into the city by crawling up and over some buildings in order to escape and cause trouble elsewhere.

[Tvtyrant]

After a whole summer of just theory crafting and getting familiar with the system it's nice to finally stretch my DM muscles. Although I'm appearantly more rusty than I realized. A 10 year break from creating engaging narratives and dynamic encounters leaves you a bit stiff. How about we continue the trend (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?596990-The-Best-DM-I-ve-Ever-Been-But) of taking simple encounters and spicing them up a bit.

This time a Carrion Crawler (https://jsigvard.com/dnd/monster.php?m=Carrion Crawler) pop up from the sewers in an urban environment and attacks innocent civilians. How to make this exciting?

The obvious thing I see is that it tries to take a commoner and drag it back into the sewers, but what else can I do around the half-way mark to shake things up?

How about, when the Crawler is 'bloodied' I'll have it explode with Rot Grubs (eeeeeeew)?

Carrion Crawler's stun their prey, so if you fight it in water and get stunned you drown. One thing you could do is have it come up during the worst flood in the town's history, everyone has their movement slowed by waist high water and it is swimming by grabbing panicking civilians. The party has to keep the civilians from drowning, fight through the flood waters and stop the monster at the same time.

[Tawmis]

After a whole summer of just theory crafting and getting familiar with the system it's nice to finally stretch my DM muscles. Although I'm appearantly more rusty than I realized. A 10 year break from creating engaging narratives and dynamic encounters leaves you a bit stiff. How about we continue the trend (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?596990-The-Best-DM-I-ve-Ever-Been-But) of taking simple encounters and spicing them up a bit.
This time a Carrion Crawler (https://jsigvard.com/dnd/monster.php?m=Carrion Crawler) pop up from the sewers in an urban environment and attacks innocent civilians. How to make this exciting?
The obvious thing I see is that it tries to take a commoner and drag it back into the sewers, but what else can I do around the half-way mark to shake things up?
How about, when the Crawler is 'bloodied' I'll have it explode with Rot Grubs (eeeeeeew)?

Something that could be fun - when the Carrion Crawler reaches 50% health, it retreats into the sewers.
The party ideally gives chase.
And suddenly it becomes clear why the Carrion Crawler is there.
As the party ventures into the sewers in pursuit - it's not just the stench of sewage that assaults them... but there is a smell of something horribly rotten.
As they press on, they notice pieces of corpses drifting in the water past them...
They get to a big center room, and there's DOZENS of corpses here...
Now you can either have it be a Necromancer who is practicing some shady stuff and raises up some Skeletons, Zombies, and the like (maybe a Ghast or Ghoul is also down here)...
Or, if they're higher level - discover that someone (Necromancer?) has taken all these dead bodies (either kidnapped people from the city, or been robbing graves - do some foreshadowing with either of these) - and made a Flesh Golem.

So while the Carrion Crawler seemed to be the real problem - it's actually only drawn here from the multitude of corpses...
Could even be the Necromancer brought it to devour the unused flesh.

[Vogie]

An interesting thing about Carrion Crawlers is they have a spider climb ability, which is really interesting in an urban environment. Sure, it could escape back to the sewers, but it could just as easily climb up and lead them on a merry chase across rooftops. You can also add thematically carrion-adjacent monsters, such as a vultures, swarm of rats, and/or stirges that are also attacking the crawler's target, the party, bystanders, and maybe even the crawler itself.

[Imbalance]

Super Mario 64: Make Wiggler Squirm
When the carrion crawler takes physical damage, until the end of its next turn it turns red, its speed is doubled, and it gets an extra attack that may only target the character who last dealt it physical damage. If it has any hit points remaining after this effect has been activated three times, at the end of the next round it instantly shrinks to tiny size and disappears through a floor grate, leaving a small flower and a strange, star-shaped gem behind.