Combat Encounters

This module will feature at least seven creature types in as many combat encounters. Each type of creature faced will be affected by the environment in which the players choose to strike, either negatively or positively, depending on the creature and environment. The players can decide where to engage these creatures, which will alter the battlefield map and may benefit or hinder the players depending on their team composition.

Each day there will demand a new encounter from the party with potentially deadly foes. The Riftspawn typically emerge late at night and are often spotted coming down the mountain in the early morning. They typically arrive in the Hillside by Morning, the Forest by Midday, the Meadow by Afternoon and the city by Evening. The players may choose to engage the creatures at any of these areas which will affect what time of day the encounter takes place.

There will be a total of 7 Encounters in this Module; Each encounter features multiple creature options except the first and final encounters.

The PCs can make Skill Rolls to gain insights on each individual creature. Appropriate Skill Rolls would be Knowledge, Survival, Perception and Investigation. It’s recommended that you limit this skill usage to 1 attempt per character per day, as each use of these skills requires time and effort.

Use the table below as an example of information characters might glean from their skills based on the skill used. If a character achieves the highest DC they may choose to learn any one of the 3 types of information. Refer to the Encounter Table or Creature Entries for Creature Daytime and Night Time Preferences, Specials or Tactics and Weaknesses. 

The players may choose to engage the threatening creatures in any one the major areas of Portaland: The Mountains, Hillside, Forest, River, Meadow, Moat Bridge or City. 

This will determine which map type will be used and may hinder or benefit the attacking creatures depending on their type. Depending on their character’s abilities, some characters might excel in certain map types, such as those that feature vegetation and water sources.

Many of the attacking creatures can or must be engaged on the Road version of these maps as that is the only part of the map that they travel. Mainly the Humans, such as Bandits and Raiders and the Zombie Horde.

This module features a wide selection of available creature types per encounter. 

The possible creatures the players will encounter are: Acid Oozes, Cultists, Giant Rats, Spiderhordes, Thistlemaws, Flying Serpents, Giant Snails, Gulpers, Fakers, Abominations, Bomb Beetles, Slimes, Silver Slivers, Raiders, Bandits, Highwaymen, Fire Bellies, Mirror Beasts, Trolls, Drakes, a Boulder Worm, a Hydra, a Wyvern, a Golden Golem, a Hookwing, a Kraken, a Zombie Horde, a Chomper Swarm and a final encounter with the Dragon. 

As the Narrator you may choose the creatures for each encounter. There are a couple of common approaches for selecting creatures in this module:

1. You can choose randomly by rolling a die based on the number of creatures with the one on the die representing the first creature listed and so on.
2. You may select a specific creature type from the list of available creatures based on player character composition or your own preferences, using the Creature Table. 

Each creature entry has helpful sections that describe the creature and its Traits and Abilities. Keeping these in mind can help you to evoke a more visceral mental image of the unfolding events. The same goes for the PCs. Keeping in mind what they look like and how they fight can really help you more accurately describe their heroic feats during each encounter.

Each creature entry has helpful sections that outline the creature’s standard Behavior and typical Tactics. In addition to their natural instincts, these creatures are drawn to the city. 

What the players don’t know is that the same dark magic of the Cultists of Pinnacle that will summon the dragon in the final encounter also draws each creature to this place. This will make them behave in a substandard way, and they may not retreat or surrender like they normally would. You can even foreshadow the final encounter by hinting to players that it’s odd and unusual for creatures to fight to the death in most circumstances.

Each successful engagement will grant the player’s characters additional XP, Funds, Creature Specific Loot and Renown. The further away from the city the engagement is made, the higher the difficulty(typically), but the more renown and rewards the players earn.

XP can be used to enhance a player’s character, and when enough is earned the characters Level Up, increasing their Maximum HP and Wound Thresholds.

Funds can be used to purchase Items, Weapons and Armor from available businesses . 

Loot can be used to upgrade or enhance gear and equipment.

Renown can be used to unlock access to better goods and services in town, such as Potions, Enchanted Items, Spells, Maneuvers and Rare Weapons, Items and Armor. 

The castle allows the PCs to meet monsters in the Ring on the Map where the Castle Crab was slain. This grants access to the Castle Battlemap, which offers significant defenses for those inside its walls.

Player’s Characters may choose to rest for as long as they need to regain HP and repair their Armor. They may need more time than allotted depending on the difficulty selected, which can affect the tactics of the situation depending on the creature selected for the next encounter.

The creatures will still attack the city if the PCs do nothing and they risk the terror in the city increasing and losing renown and standing with the people of the city. A loss of renown or an increase in city terror could cause various businesses to close their doors permanently. 

The final encounter will always pit the players against a dragon that the cultists of Pinnacle have summoned to the city with their dark magics. 

At which time they will offer the city and its riches to the dragon in exchange for the opportunity to serve the dragon in the new age. The dragon, full of greed and in an unfamiliar place, agrees and begins to lay waste to the city. The cultists may aid the dragon, attempting to weaken the city’s defenses and ensure the dragon’s success.

As the dragon can fly at incredible speeds it arrives at the city in the morning, giving the players little opportunity to prepare and eliminating the option to choose where to face their foe.

The first sign is silence.

No birds sing. No livestock bray. No dogs bark. Nature feels it. Something is not right. Danger approaches. Even the banners over Castle Town seem to fall still, as if holding their breath.

Then comes the light.

Not the golden, gentle light of a sunrise.

A deep angry red.

A crimson glare paints the hills as something massive crests the western ridge. The treeline ignites and an entire path in the forest vanishes into smoke seconds. Farms erupt into flame. The river begins to steam and boil. Livestock scream in terror. The sky seems ripple and warp with energy.

Then the sound is all that can be heard.

A roar so vast it bends the world around it. Glass shatters across Portaland. The cathedral bells ring without being touched. Children wake in tears. Old warriors drop their swords.

And at last... it comes into view.

The dragon.

Its wings stretch wider than city streets, each beat sending shockwaves across the rooftops. Its scales shimmer like molten rubies. Its claws are like obsidian sickles that carve gouges into the castle walls as it lands.

Its maw opens wide, wide enough to swallow a warhorse whole, and from its throat boils fire ancient and unnatural. Not orange, not yellow… but deep, seething red and burning with such heat and intensity that it could melt steel.

It speaks in a message pressed into your mind like a brand:

“Bow and Serve, or Die. I care not what you choose.”

Behind it, the portals ripple and shimmer, glowing veins of the veil pulsing at the edges of the sky.

The Melding has arrived.

And the Wyrm is its herald.

Use the Castle Town Battle Map for this encounter. Feel free to add rubble, destruction and open fires to the Battlemap for this encounter.

The dragon may be placed anywhere in the open or on top of a structure. Make sure they are at least two full movements away from the fastest PC.

Place 2 Cultists per Player concealed on the map(or as many cultists as there are remaining). Place them in defensive positions where they can quickly get to cover and are not in the path of the dragon's attacks.

The Dragon is a powerful and resourceful foe. They are intelligent, strong and magically gifted. They have no qualms with sacrificing their cultists for an edge and has an answer to almost any situation. They will fly if cornered, use psychic and illusion magic on brutes, use crushing force on mages and break the legs and clip the wings of anyone that dares to outpace them.

Their only weakness is their pride and their inability to believe that a band of hapless mortals would be able to slay such a powerful, magical and majestic being.

The dragon screamed in a mixture of pain and rage as the final blow came. A sound like a collapsing dimension. A cry that seems to echo through the bones of time.

And then… silence.

Not even the wind dared move at first.

Its body — impossibly vast, armored in scales that glimmer like gems, twisted in its death throes, collapsing into an undignified heap.

You stand amidst the destruction it left behind — smoke rising from torn stone, magic bleeding into the air like vapor.

You did it.

You fought the impossible and won.

Portaland doesn't cheer right away. The city waits. Watches. The fires still smolder. The veil still ripples.

But then the bravest survivors emerge, wide-eyed and awestruck. Then the bells begin to toll. A slow song of survival and victory over the Melding.

And high above, the portals flicker, shrink, and finally seal, for now.

Portaland lives.

The Riftguard live.

Though the scars remain, so too does the memory: of the day the dragon died... and Portaland found their heroes, They had found their Riftguard.

They say Portaland was ended in a fire. But that’s not true.

It ended in an unforgettable battle. When all others ran or hid, they stood there in defiance as the dragon’s shadow blotted out the sky. The Riftguard.

Their blades struck true. Their shots hit their marks. Their spells carved wounds into myth. They shed tears and bled.

But it wasn’t enough.

The dragon’s eyes saw through every defense and weakness. It unmade magic. Bent time. And tore through flesh like parchment.

One by one, the Riftguard fell, not quietly, but as the last heroes and legends of Portaland. As the Riftguard.

In the aftermath, the city of Portaland burned, twisted and warped. It became something else entirely.

The portals burst wide, and from their mouths poured an unending horde of riftspawn, things that were never meant to touch this world.

The dragon didn’t destroy Portaland. It claimed it. It transformed it.

Now the city floats between dimensions, part nightmare, part tomb. Portaland has become an unknown void on the maps. 

Now it is just a memory, just like this story. Just like the Riftgaurd.

Now the dragon turns its focus to the rest of Renna, now ripe for the conquering.