Events during a well dig

[Pinjata]

Through some strange event loops and NPCs actions, my PCs came up with an idea of them assembling some men from forest village to dig a well deep in a Big Forest. They now have a digging crew, they have supplies, they may even get a guide. Thing is, dig will take two days travel time one way, about 20 days of digging and camping at the edge of a big glade.

What should I toss at them?

Mundane things are always welcome. I intend to to a single encounters-per long res attack, but I do not want to overflow their camping days with combat. Playground is really good with some ideas and I said I'll try my luck here :)

thanks

[Sparky McDibben]

Random encounter table that includes the following:


Food spoiling or water leaking out
Storm blows in (or seasonally-appropriate equivalent), requiring them to either seek shelter or potentially get lost
Fight breaks out between diggers over whose mother is actually a person of loose morals
One of the wagons is actually a mimic!
Some of the diggers fall ill...or were they poisoned?
You wake up from a long rest, but you're all in the Feywild
Something starts hunting the party; could be a displacer beast, could be a ghoul or even a wight trying to turn the diggers into zombies
A rumor is going around among the diggers that you are either a) cheating them, or b) leading them into a trap
One of the diggers gets roaring drunk and sets a tent on fire
Someone falls through a sinkhole; during the struggle to get them out, you see a series of steps carved into the wall of the sinkhole - where do they go?

[CapnWildefyr]

Here are a few more:
* drilling shaft breaks - you hit a rock - how many days delay to repair?
* what did it break on? Could just be a rock, or could be a buried statue, golem, petrified dragon, bones of the earth, whatever
* I liked Sparky's weather idea. Adding on, once the field is a mud bath they have to build wooden walkways - which means logging in Big Forest, which may or may not be good.

[Sparky McDibben]

Yes! I think the whole point of event tables like these is to either strain the players' resources, give you some inspiration to spin out a new adventure arc, or force the players to do a suboptimal thing. They would never venture into the Big Forest under normal circumstances...so let's give them some abnormal circumstances! :) Plus, they're just fun to come up with!


One of the diggers goes missing, and when they return the next morning, they immediately start convincing everyone to check out a spring they found that gives them eternal life! (or equivalent plot point to your taste)
The diggers find a spellbook in a lead-lined box, buried under an arcane glyph of obscurement that has the notation on the inside cover: "Property of Raistlin Majere." (or similar arcane badass)
A group of knights ride by, and order you to cease and desist, by order of their lord. (Who may or may not actually exist)
Each morning, a digger is found dead, their face contorted in horror. No one has seen anything, but on the third day, a scrap of a PCs clothing is found clenched in the fresh victim's hand. (Might be a wizard's imp familiar setting them up, or a doppelganger hired by their enemies)

[MrStabby]

So for me an activity like this is a chance to build the world, introduce some NPCs or drive a plot forwards. So some things that might happen:

1) The water is polluted, why? How? Is it accidental or intentional? It is a physical or a metaphysical pollution? A divine curse for anyone who drinks the water?

2) There is some kind of guardian - maybe a treant or similar. Or a naiad, something who guards the water. Not hostile, but maybe curious. Maybe supportive but a chance to introduce a new character to advance the story, give quests, lore or just be fun.

3) There is a new species of worm found in the ground whilst digging. A successful check may determine that it has potential to be used as a material component in some spells. Will require further research and discussion with NPCs who know about this kind of thing

4) One of those digging is behaving oddly. A discussion reveals that there are tales of buried treasure in the woods guarded by a Green Dragon. He thought he heard something...

[Lupine]

"Over the last few days, you have started to receive some startling reports. At first you put it off as your miners being drunk, and not wanting to keep digging, but there have been so many reports, you can't help but believe them. While you're digging down, something is digging up!"

Weather idea is pretty good, maybe include some other things, such as bird swarms blocking out the sun, or the great owl-bear migration. What you want it thinks where the players have to show their mastery over nature, or their men begin to waver, and maybe leave. I would say that the "final event" of the well should be something due to choices made during the well building, or maybe even just due to building the well.

[Imbalance]

The moment the ground is first broken by a worker's spade, a rabbit appears. Each hour from then on, another rabbit just shows up at the site. They are timid, but only briefly flee when threatened, always returning to the spot of the dig. If one is killed, two more come out of the woods. They do no harm, but as their numbers reach into the hundreds they are a nuisance underfoot. The workers complain, but the work generally goes unhindered (by hares, at least). Eventually, they will have consumed all low vegetation in the area, but that's the worst of it if they are more-or-less ignored.

However, if the party deems it necessary to exterminate them all, that's when things turn weird. The slain bunnies pour out excessive amounts of blood as they die screaming, no matter the means the party uses. Even if the PC's cease their slaughter in response to this gorefest, any large percentage killed all at once will result in the entire population violently expiring in a fountain of viscera. All around the well will be covered in red. How the NPC's respond is up to you, but work resumes regardless. The next morning, more rabbits - half as many, though twice as big. Maybe a worker gets bitten or scratched occasionally by these, but generally, as before, they pose no actual threat. Also, as before, wholesale slaughter produces more god-awful throes and crimson torrents in greater volumes than the mass of the animals that died. Rabbits the size of men appear after this. They hop about with impunity, knocking over tools, pulling down tents, and are constantly at odds with the crew. Work is frequently interrupted, but progress isn't totally thwarted. They are large enough to reach the tree leaves now, and the glade is starting to look like a clearing.

Peacefully tolerating this final brood will be difficult but possible. Destroying them brings the wrath of this warren's supernatural protector. If even one of these giants is slain, the flesh of all of them explodes in fire and they become skeletal excavation machines hell bent on undoing all of the work performed to date. Their claws enlarge and scrape across the earth like great plows and harrows of bone pulling rock, soil, and man alike toward the pit. They make no attempt to attack anyone directly, but do not distinguish foe from fill in their furious effort to cover the hole. It takes them only a few hours to replace the material that the crew spent days or weeks removing, and when finished they collapse into ash. New green sprouts and buds emerge within hours.

Some characters may have been buried alive and can be rescued, but there really shouldn't be any fatalities once the dust has settled. They can even try to move forward with the well-digging task, but as soon as the ground is broken anew, a rabbit appears...

[noob]

The moment the ground is first broken by a worker's spade, a rabbit appears. Each hour from then on, another rabbit just shows up at the site. They are timid, but only briefly flee when threatened, always returning to the spot of the dig. If one is killed, two more come out of the woods. They do no harm, but as their numbers reach into the hundreds they are a nuisance underfoot. The workers complain, but the work generally goes unhindered (by hares, at least). Eventually, they will have consumed all low vegetation in the area, but that's the worst of it if they are more-or-less ignored.

However, if the party deems it necessary to exterminate them all, that's when things turn weird. The slain bunnies pour out excessive amounts of blood as they die screaming, no matter the means the party uses. Even if the PC's cease their slaughter in response to this gorefest, any large percentage killed all at once will result in the entire population violently expiring in a fountain of viscera. All around the well will be covered in red. How the NPC's respond is up to you, but work resumes regardless. The next morning, more rabbits - half as many, though twice as big. Maybe a worker gets bitten or scratched occasionally by these, but generally, as before, they pose no actual threat. Also, as before, wholesale slaughter produces more god-awful throes and crimson torrents in greater volumes than the mass of the animals that died. Rabbits the size of men appear after this. They hop about with impunity, knocking over tools, pulling down tents, and are constantly at odds with the crew. Work is frequently interrupted, but progress isn't totally thwarted. They are large enough to reach the tree leaves now, and the glade is starting to look like a clearing.

Peacefully tolerating this final brood will be difficult but possible. Destroying them brings the wrath of this warren's supernatural protector. If even one of these giants is slain, the flesh of all of them explodes in fire and they become skeletal excavation machines hell bent on undoing all of the work performed to date. Their claws enlarge and scrape across the earth like great plows and harrows of bone pulling rock, soil, and man alike toward the pit. They make no attempt to attack anyone directly, but do not distinguish foe from fill in their furious effort to cover the hole. It takes them only a few hours to replace the material that the crew spent days or weeks removing, and when finished they collapse into ash. New green sprouts and buds emerge within hours.

Some characters may have been buried alive and can be rescued, but there really shouldn't be any fatalities once the dust has settled. They can even try to move forward with the well-digging task, but as soon as the ground is broken anew, a rabbit appears...

And what happens if instead of rabbit murdering the adventurers use mass rabbit redemption?
Is it an unlimited source of good aligned creatures if you throw them into a redeemery?

Also if there is no woods in the entire world due to adventurers having set the entire world on fire and covered it in oceans of lava does the rabbits keeps appearing?
Or does lava forests starts to grow in order for the rabbits to be able to appear?
If the lava forest is heated enough for turning into plasma do you get a plasma forest?
If the planet falls in the sun thanks to the adventurers how does the forest looks like?
Or do your campaigns generally ends before the planet is set on fire then becomes covered in lava that then turns into plasma due to adventurers superheating the planet more and more?

[Imbalance]

And what happens if instead of rabbit murdering the adventurers use mass rabbit redemption?
Is it an unlimited source of good aligned creatures if you throw them into a redeemery?

Also if there is no woods in the entire world due to adventurers having set the entire world on fire and covered it in oceans of lava does the rabbits keeps appearing?
Or does lava forests starts to grow in order for the rabbits to be able to appear?
If the lava forest is heated enough for turning into plasma do you get a plasma forest?
If the planet falls in the sun thanks to the adventurers how does the forest looks like?

Well, well, well...

[noob]

Well, well, well...

I want to know how a forest on the sun looks like but since forests within the light of the sun are a common pic they drown sun forests pics in researches.
Adventurers killing rabbits is very likely.
Is the gory mess unfit for human consumption?

[Undyne]

Through some strange event loops and NPCs actions, my PCs came up with an idea of them assembling some men from forest village to dig a well deep in a Big Forest. They now have a digging crew, they have supplies, they may even get a guide. Thing is, dig will take two days travel time one way, about 20 days of digging and camping at the edge of a big glade.

What should I toss at them?

Mundane things are always welcome. I intend to to a single encounters-per long res attack, but I do not want to overflow their camping days with combat. Playground is really good with some ideas and I said I'll try my luck here :)

thanks

Burrowing monsters (Specifically, anything that can dig and have tremorsense) going towards the vibrations of the digginhg.

[Imbalance]

Is the gory mess unfit for human consumption?

DC 20 CON save. Don't drink the water.

[Pinjata]

A big thank you, to all of you!

Made my day!

[Lupine]

In honor of Imbalance entering the thread, A large number of little white stones are placed around the camp. The little stones fizzle in water, but nothing harmless. They look kind of like pieces of corn.

Then one night, some druids release a large amount amount of chickens into the camp. They've been starved, and go crazy for the "corn"

see signature