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Nerdarchy > Dungeons & Dragons  > Out of the Box D&D Encounters  > Out of the Box D&D Encounters, Series 2, #8 – Road Crew
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Out of the Box D&D Encounters, Series 2, #8 – Road Crew

Out of the Box D&D Encounters, Series 2, #7 - Feeding Time
Out of the Box D&D Encounters, Series 2, #9 - Bandersnatched

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Svirfneblin D&D out of the boxSocieties all over the world have their own way of doing things. Regardless where you are from, I bet you’d be surprised how cultures on the other side of the world did some of the most common things. The way we make a meal, prepare a home, treat the loss of a loved one, or manufacture materials or products might be done in a completely different way in a far-flung culture. This objective truth should also apply to the realms within fantasy. Volo’s Guide to Monsters goes into some of these cultural aspects, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Road Crew will examine something we take for granted, glass manufacture, and pop it into a fantasy world – with a twist of absurdity. To do this, we’ll also riff off something many of us see every day – road work. How often have you been on your way somewhere and traffic ahead has been slowed, stopped, or rerouted for some form of road repair. We know how this goes. There will be a crew of workers around, dressed in a specific way for safety and visibility, and there will be large equipment nearby.

Now take that image – and imagine Svirfneblin and a Flail Snail. The absurdity part just hit you. Good. Not every encounter should be dark and dangerous from the get go. Like any work site, dangers will exist. The room for harm is always there. But caution and common sense can make up for a lot.

Who am I kidding? These are player characters we’re talking about. We all know how this ends, right?

Environment: Underdark/Caverns

Level: 2-4

Description: The characters will be travelling through deep passages through the Underdark. Tunnels will twist and turn, rise and fall. Bioluminescent mushrooms create a dim ambience throughout. Turning a corner, the sound of muffling created by the mushrooms gives way to the sounds of digging. A squad of smaller humanoids, perhaps 3 feet tall and heavyset, wearing chain shirts with luminous fungi attached, guide a large snail-like creature slowly along a passage. The figures wear metal helms with candles, lighting the way dimly, with the light reflecting off the shell of this massive mollusk in a brilliant array of colors. One figure walks ahead of this large creature with a bucket of some kind, while three others walk behind with tools, carefully digging up a hardened surface left by the creature. Trailing this group is another small humanoid pulling a hand cart, into which the others load sheets of thin, shiny material as they gather it from behind the massive snail creature. The humanoids’ grey skin contrasts the bright lights created by the fungi, candles, and the reflections of the snail’s shell.

The player characters have happened upon a group of Svirfneblin (Deep Gnomes) working with a befriended Flail Snail. The flail-like appendages of the Snail hang passively at the front of the beast until or unless it becomes agitated. The Gnomes are leading the Flail Snail along with a bucket of quart shards and then collecting the glass trail that the snail leaves as it moves forward. They use pry bars and hammers to tap the glass, and carefully break the trail into sheets that they load into the cart on cave bear furs for transport.

How they proceed from here is up to the player characters. This is a work crew. They are close to home in some regard, and likely close to guards of some kind or another. Unless the player characters threaten them in some manner, they will attempt to guide the party safely around the flail snail and allow them passage forward. Once the players are clear, they will resume work and continue on as normal. Should the players enter a friendly community of Svirfneblin ahead, they may well run into this same crew later on. having completed their day’s toil.

If they choose to be aggressive or attack, things may change rapidly. The Flail Snail (”Bessie”) responds favorably to the Deep Gnomes based on a long relationship of mutual cooperation. “Bessie” may not be so favorable to encroaching or aggressive player characters. That’s up to the DM. The Flail Snail will certainly turn on the player characters if threatened, much like a bull might when interlopers enter its field. So long as the Flail Snail has his handler (Gimble – the Gnome with the bucket), he might not attack. However, if the player characters attack the Deep Gnomes, all Hell will break loose.

Monsters: Svirfneblin (Deep Gnomes) (5) – As per Monster Manual, p. 164.
Flail Snail – “Bessie” – As per Volo’s, p. 144

Treasure: The Gnomes all carry some pocket change (3d6 gold, 5d6 silver, 50 percent chance of a gem worth 25 gold), but the real value is the Flail Snail. The glass it produces is hard to come by. The cart currently holds four sheets of Flail Snail glass, each approximately 2’x 3’, and each is worth 100gp intact. Broken, they’re valueless. The shell of the Flail Snail weights 250 lbs and has a lot of uses; an intact one can bring as much as 5,000gp. See the sidebar in Volo’s, page 144 for more details.

Complications: There are two complications of note. The Flail Snail on its own can be a real threat to low-level characters, especially squishy cloth wearers. Its shell carries Anti-Magic effects (see its entry) as well as its Scintillating ability. It’s dying scream can attract any number and assortment of wandering monsters in a dangerous place like the Underdark, which has its own number of complications.

The second one of note is based around the Deep Gnomes. Deep Gnomes in any community where they have manufacturing, especially around a rare and hard to befriend creature like a Flail Snail, will not take kindly to the harm of either their kin or the creature. This could lead to some serious consequences for the party. A wise group may take note of this. An unwise group may not.

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Mike Gould

I fell into gaming in the oddest of ways. Coming out of a bad divorce, my mom tried a lot of different things to keep my brother and I busy and out of trouble. It didn't always work. One thing that I didn't really want to do, but did because my mom asked, was enroll in Venturers. As an older Scout-type movement, I wasn't really really for the whole camping-out thing. Canoe trips and clean language were not my forte. Drag racing, BMX and foul language were. What surprised me though was one change of pace our Scout leader tried. He DMed a game of the original D&D that came out after Chainmail (and even preceedd the Red Box). All the weapons just did 1d6 damage, and the three main demi-humans (Elf, Dwarf and Halfling) were not only races, but classes. There were three alignments (Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic). It was very basic. I played all the way through high school and met a lot of new people through gaming. My expected awkwardness around the opposite sex disappeared when I had one game that was seven girls playing. They, too, never thought that they would do this, and it was a great experiement. But it got me hooked. I loved gaming, and my passion for it became infectious. Despite hanging with a very rough crowd who typically spent Fridays scoring drugs, getting into fights, and whatnot, I got them all equally hooked on my polyhedral addiction. I DMed guys around my table that had been involved in the fast-living/die young street culture of the 80s, yet they took to D&D like it was second nature. They still talk to me about those days, even when one wore a rival patch on his back to the one I was wearing. We just talked D&D. It was our language. Dungeons and Dragons opened up a whole new world too. I met lots off oddballs along with some great people. I played games like Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Car Wars, Battletech, lots of GURPS products, Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, Twilight 2000, Rolemaster, Champions, Marvel Superheroes, Earth Dawn...the list goes on. There was even a time while I was risiding with a patch on my back and I would show up for Mechwarrior (the clix kind) tournaments. I was the odd man out there. Gaming lead to me attending a D&D tournament at a local convention, which lead to being introduced to my paintball team, called Black Company (named after the book), which lead to meeting my wife. She was the sister of my 2iC (Second in Command), and I fell in love at first sight. Gaming lead to me meeting my best friend, who was my best man at my wedding and is the godfather of my youngest daughter. Life being what it is, there was some drama with my paintball team/D&D group, and we parted ways for a number of years. In that time I tried out two LARP systems, which taught me a lot about public speaking, improvisation, and confidence. There was a silver lining. I didn't play D&D again for a very long time, though. Then 5E came out. I discovered the Adventurer's League, and made a whole new group of friends. I discovered Acquisitions Incorporated, Dwarven Tavern, and Nerdarchy. I was hooked again. And now my daughter is playing. I introduced her to 5E and my style of DMing, and we talk in "gamer speak" a lot to each other (much to the shagrin of my wife/her mother...who still doesn't "get it"). It's my hope that one day she'll be behind the screen DMing her kids through an amazing adventure. Time will tell.

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