How to run a menagerie escape?

[Darth Credence]

My players are going to a festival! This is the midway point of the campaign, where it will be mostly political intrigue and setting the stage for things to come, but I want them to have something to do other than just participate in the various tournaments going on. They have arrived in the city early, so things will be setting up around them. The festival will have several touring carnivals there to interact with, and each one will have their own menagerie.

I think it will be fun for the characters to deal with a menagerie getting loose and running free through the city, but I'm not sure how I want to run it. They could easily just kill all of the animals - I don't want them to simply do that, so the animals will come from the carnival that they have friends in. I want them to need to round up the animals to be returned, protecting the people in the city while they are at it, and maybe needing to put down one or two that are particularly dangerous.

The party is all level 11 - 2 bards, one artificer, one blood hunter, one paladin, and maybe a wizard.

Spoiler: No wizard

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(They have to take a few sessions off, so probably won't be back by then, and their character will still be sick in their room. Quick side rant, I told the other players the wizard's player couldn't make it for a month, so we would have them have a reason to not be there. The wizard got food poisoning and was staying in bed, and they started asking if cure wounds, or lesser restoration, or getting a cleric in, would work, until I finally said it's plot poisoning, and nothing can cure it until the player is back.)

I'm going to spoiler list their relevant spells and equipment in case anyone wants to see it.

Spoiler: Spells

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• Paladin - standard stuff, create food and water might help.
• Artificer - Disguise self, longstrider, vortex warp, web, haste.
• Blood hunter - Earthbind, spider climb.
• Bard 1 - Minor illusion, conjure woodland beings, dimension door.
• Bard 2 - Mage hand, feather fall, tiny barn (like tiny hut for horses), sending
• Wizard - so many spells, and who knows what they would have ready on any given day.

Spoiler: equipment

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• Paladin - decanter of endless water
• Artificer - alchemy jug, pipes of haunting
• BH - immovable rod (1 of 2 in party), bands of binding
• Bard 1 - Nothing of note
• Bard 2 - cursed ring of invisibility
• Wizard - gem of brightness, potion of hill giant strength

How would you run this? I've only run one thing that could really be described as a "skill challenge", but I think that's the route I want to go. If anyone has suggestions or tips on how to run a skill challenge, I'd love to hear them. If anyone has ideas for what animals should be involved, that would be great, too. I specifically do not have dinos of any sort in the world. To replace the T-Rex as the strongest beast, I have a giant cat based on the giant cat from Attack of the Clones. Right now I basically have that the animals will escape (probably a rival carnival opens the cages and smokes them out, but I'm not wedded to that) and flee, ending up charging down the streets of the town near the harbor. The streets are very crowded, with a lot of people in town for the festival. Some animals will likely take the time to attack and eat, but most will just be running from whatever caused them to escape and flee.

[JackPhoenix]

Don't limit yourself to mere animals. There's plenty of animalistic monsters and other creature types, and of course, more exotic creatures are more valuable, so killing them is even more problematic. Good luck chasing a griffin over the rooftops, containing a regenerating hydra who just won't stay down or dealing with blacksmith who blames the characters for not catching the rust monsters before they ruined his shop. You may even include some rivals who also deal with the chaos, and are less interested in keeping the rampaging owlbear alive than the characters.

[Sorinth]

Blink Dogs might be hard to catch and would have to be lured back. There should also be a flying creature of some kind. And of course a giant ape who grabs an NPC from the crowd and starts climbing to the top of a tower :)

In terms of how to run it I would choose some number of creatures (Six seems like a good number), and then plan out 3-4 turns worth of damage/mischief they cause if not stopped. Once released each player describes how they try to get a creature under control and based on that make roll an appropriate skill check. Narrate the chaos caused by any creature that isn't stopped that turn. Even if creatures have gone in different directions you can ignore movement and just let them attempt to wrangle whichever creature they want.

[Darth Credence]

Thanks. I was not going to keep it to just beasts, just things that would end up in a fantasy menagerie. I had not thought about flying creatures, but a griffon is now going to be a part of it, definitely. Maybe a hippogriff instead, since they might wander and try to avoid others, but want to stay close to their 'home'. If I go griffon, then it will probably start with they players hearing a shriek, and the griffon diving in and attacking a horse. One of their horses, because it's almost a tradition at this point that they keep having horses die.
Blink dogs sound like fun, too, but I'm not sure how I will make them actually a part of the menagerie. If they stayed because they are smart enough to realize they have a good gig, then they probably wouldn't run when the cages are open. I'll probably have to leverage them not being able to teleport past where they can see - they could always be kept inside a cage they can't see out of, and when taken out to show the rubes it's done in a tent they can't see out of.
And yes, I will need to throw in the giant ape. There is a tower that will be perfect for it to climb, and one of the bards likes to polymorph into a giant ape, too. I imagine a non-lethal giant ape boxing match.

[Corran]

You may even include some rivals who also deal with the chaos, and are less interested in keeping the rampaging owlbear alive than the characters.

+1 to that.
Arrogant low level npc tries to show off by killing a rampant bull (replace with what you have in stock, I can only think of bulls when imagining the scene however), sticks it with a bolt, animal is in pain, sadistic npc laughs and boasts to their friends and slowly goes to reload the crossbow, bull turns around and runs at them, npc freezes in place. PC(s) watching this have a choice, which you present.They can try to save NPC's (let's call him Duffus); they can try to save Duffus's life (by tackling them out of the way, by stopping the bull at its tracks or drawing its attention or however else they want). Or they can do nothing and let Duffus get killed/injured (up to you, or up to a die). Goes to show how much they value human(oid) life, if they believe that people can change for the better and thus allow them the chance, if anger can get the better of them easily, stuff like that. More importantly, you can make something out of it by having Duffus's pa or ma be a person of importance, so what the pc's do in that situation may provide them some minor benefits or hindrances in the near distant future (let enough time pass before you use it; some NPC they'll one day need to convince about something can be the parent, so their decisions during that day could influence their efforts).

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The real question though? Who caused this mayhem and why?

A) Light hearted option. Two kids in love. Their respective families own two competing menageries and hold a grudge against each other. Kids created the situation so they could escape within the chaos and go and get married in that small temple at the outskirts of the city (been arranged). Each one left a note to their parents. Split the group up in all the chaos (just have multiple bad stuff going on in different directions so the only way they can handle them is if they split up in two groups or more). Each family apporaches half of the party, explaining the situation. Throw in accusations of witchcraft, of kidnapping, whatever might make your players bite, so that they'll not totally expect a small peacefull wedding ceremony when/if they get to the chapel in time. Heck, have the poor wizard absent pc be there as a witness. He just visited the temple for some herbs/potions for that food poisoning, couple couldn't get married without a witness, so they kind of convinced him to stay put and witness the ceremony. If pc's are keen on letting the ceremony proceed, have an angry crowd (the families) arrive outside the temple. Bards will probably negotiate and/or stall to win time, fighters might block the door and lift a few npcs up in the air or something, or handle it in whatever other way they see fit and hopefully surprise you.

B) Murder! Someone caused chaos to get away with it. Plenty of blood, but no body around (to bring back or to ask questions of). No one saw a body moved, and zone of truth (let the pcs earn this opportunity) reveals nothing if cast on anyone from the menageries. Who did it? Where is the body? And why the single clue found in the scene of the supposed crime points to the poor food poisoned wizard pc who is clearly ill and could not have done it (neither did he do it)?

C) Old good thievery. The mayhem kept the city guard busy for several hours, and now, about one hour later and a couple of guards knoced unconscious, the baroness's prized diamond is stolen! What a heist! This is not a task for high level pcs. Humor them. Have them first hear about it by overhearing another adventuring group (low level party) who are investigating. Probably asking your pcs for some help or tips. The diamond was stolen by a member of the baroness's kitchen stuff. Wants to use it to bring back to life his recently deceased daughter. He had nothing to do with the wild animals going free. That was just Tymora smiling on him a little. Might be hard to keep your pcs invested so they can reach the simple dilemma at the end (without completelly bypassing the obstacles with magic), so this may only be worth it if you can make the newbies entertaining enough for your pcs to stick around a little and letting them try to figure this out. Cheap but effective, make each newbie npc resemble t least a little each ones of your pcs, and plan at least for one roleplaying scene for every pairing (think of advice the npc might ask of the pc and plan for one or two interesting questions). If they get along, then for added drama you could have the newbie npcs stand on the opposite side of your pcs when it comes to the end dilemma.

[Darth Credence]

I like the heist option! I think I will try to adapt that one.

[Falconcry]

Sounds fun. You could have them chase a lion, a zebra, a hippo and a giraffe that were kidnapped by a gang of penguins with an airship.