Medevac DnD 5e-style
May. 23rd, 2024 11:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elglinSetting 101: a West Marches styled campaign in a "fantasy post-apocalyptic" world. The Event was a zombie plague, only not a proper zombie-skeleton-undead plague, but more like corruption-based Resident Evil or Last of Us plague. All the original population went dead, or corrupted, or undead, or worse. And is now roaming more or less aggressively around.
There is a base camp (with field hospital etc.). A boat-navigable canal runs due south past the camp, enters an enchanted forest approx. 50 miles from the camp, then runs for a further 50 miles through the forest up to and past the enchanted elven settlement.
Long story short, in the aftermath of a boat raid on the said town, the party wizard almost succumbs to said corruption plague (the reasons thereto are best left off the page). It's a splendid evening, the party is appropriately tired, battled and out of spells as befits a day of adventuring, and a knowledgeable person says that the party wizard has "two nights till he succumbs finally, unless the party finds a magical artifact in this accursed forest". He remains more or less fully operational, though. A hundred miles to the hospital, 25 miles/day of traveling even at fast pace, good night, sweet prince?
Well, quite possibly so, yet...
1. A day of travel (Day 1) at fast pace brings the party 25 miles along the road running alongside the canal.
2. Then, if the wizard burns all his spell slots on Expeditious retreat, he can get himself and the party druid 5 miles further within an hour. (Edit: it would be more beneficial to use that during Wild Shape, but this thought came to me as I was typing this, and I describe how it had been presented to the DM)
3. The party druid has 2x Wild Shape for 2 hours each. The giant eagle has a 60ft flying speed, and, as a Large creature, can carry our Medium wizard, who is a vanilla human. Then, the good old riding horse has a 60ft land speed and, as a Large animal, can be ridden by our Medium wizard. This brings us a further 20 miles, exactly to the edge of the forest, 50 miles both from the elven city and base camp.
4. The party has limited and fantasy-style, but comms to the base camp. And the boats carrying the raid, although considerably closer to the base camp (they left a day earlier), are, on that "splendid evening", approximately at the aforementioned edge of the forest and can stay there a day longer - pretty safely.
5. The druid, who is properly FUBAR from exhaustion, as well as the wizard, get loaded onto the boats, which then travel the entire rest of the night (Night 2) for approx. 20 miles - against the current. So, 70 miles from the elven city and 30 miles from the base camp.
6. Meanwhile, a mounted rescue party issues forth from the base camp at the same morning of Day 1 as the adventurers leave the elven city and camps approx. 30 miles from the base camp.
7. In the morning of Day 2, the wizard mounts (or is put on) a horsey and travels the same 30 miles to the base camp and arrives before nightfall - in time to get wheeled into the field hospital so that the base camp clerics can run him through the cleansing ritual, or, more accurately, the ritual through him. The fate of the druid, who is still mostly FU, but thankfully not beyond all recognition, is less important - he just gets a lifelong aversion to night flying and passive night horse-riding.
At this moment the DM said something on the lines of: "Holy cow, that might actually work" and "well I never, I thought you never had the chance to cover 100 miles, but i never thought of the boats".
Then, because he is a respectful and polite DM, he asked us: "What if I told you right now, not to nullify all that effort, that your wizard is FUBAR enough that the camp clerics actually won't be able to heal him, and all your hope, indeed, must rest on some kind of an artifact you must find in this accursed forest?"
Then, because we are players respectful of DM preparation and effort, we replied that we would be very thankful for the insight and focus our efforts, indeed, on that accursed artifact in that magical forest.
There is a base camp (with field hospital etc.). A boat-navigable canal runs due south past the camp, enters an enchanted forest approx. 50 miles from the camp, then runs for a further 50 miles through the forest up to and past the enchanted elven settlement.
Long story short, in the aftermath of a boat raid on the said town, the party wizard almost succumbs to said corruption plague (the reasons thereto are best left off the page). It's a splendid evening, the party is appropriately tired, battled and out of spells as befits a day of adventuring, and a knowledgeable person says that the party wizard has "two nights till he succumbs finally, unless the party finds a magical artifact in this accursed forest". He remains more or less fully operational, though. A hundred miles to the hospital, 25 miles/day of traveling even at fast pace, good night, sweet prince?
Well, quite possibly so, yet...
1. A day of travel (Day 1) at fast pace brings the party 25 miles along the road running alongside the canal.
2. Then, if the wizard burns all his spell slots on Expeditious retreat, he can get himself and the party druid 5 miles further within an hour. (Edit: it would be more beneficial to use that during Wild Shape, but this thought came to me as I was typing this, and I describe how it had been presented to the DM)
3. The party druid has 2x Wild Shape for 2 hours each. The giant eagle has a 60ft flying speed, and, as a Large creature, can carry our Medium wizard, who is a vanilla human. Then, the good old riding horse has a 60ft land speed and, as a Large animal, can be ridden by our Medium wizard. This brings us a further 20 miles, exactly to the edge of the forest, 50 miles both from the elven city and base camp.
4. The party has limited and fantasy-style, but comms to the base camp. And the boats carrying the raid, although considerably closer to the base camp (they left a day earlier), are, on that "splendid evening", approximately at the aforementioned edge of the forest and can stay there a day longer - pretty safely.
5. The druid, who is properly FUBAR from exhaustion, as well as the wizard, get loaded onto the boats, which then travel the entire rest of the night (Night 2) for approx. 20 miles - against the current. So, 70 miles from the elven city and 30 miles from the base camp.
6. Meanwhile, a mounted rescue party issues forth from the base camp at the same morning of Day 1 as the adventurers leave the elven city and camps approx. 30 miles from the base camp.
7. In the morning of Day 2, the wizard mounts (or is put on) a horsey and travels the same 30 miles to the base camp and arrives before nightfall - in time to get wheeled into the field hospital so that the base camp clerics can run him through the cleansing ritual, or, more accurately, the ritual through him. The fate of the druid, who is still mostly FU, but thankfully not beyond all recognition, is less important - he just gets a lifelong aversion to night flying and passive night horse-riding.
At this moment the DM said something on the lines of: "Holy cow, that might actually work" and "well I never, I thought you never had the chance to cover 100 miles, but i never thought of the boats".
Then, because he is a respectful and polite DM, he asked us: "What if I told you right now, not to nullify all that effort, that your wizard is FUBAR enough that the camp clerics actually won't be able to heal him, and all your hope, indeed, must rest on some kind of an artifact you must find in this accursed forest?"
Then, because we are players respectful of DM preparation and effort, we replied that we would be very thankful for the insight and focus our efforts, indeed, on that accursed artifact in that magical forest.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-05-29 03:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-05-29 04:32 pm (UTC)This means that the extra 5 hours are relatively okay - sure, they are rewarded by extra exhaustion, but I've mentioned the FUBAR state the druid ends up in. Normally it would leave the party completely unfit for travel - but since they are traveled rather than travel themselves further on, that is fully okay.
The night less five hours is, certainly, an issue, but once again the rowing team can exert themselves as they can spend the day recovering.
Then, as I've mentioned, the solution lends itself to further improvement.