"Night Predator" is a fantasy mini-scenario for two or more players. It was originally created for RuneQuest/Glorantha, but is usable in any setting, and probably in any genre. It won't provided much of a challenge for extremely powerful parties with unusual oracular or combat abilities, but low- to medium-strength groups should find it interesting. The rating of physical danger is fairly high, but the crux of the adventure is a moral one.
The scenario was originally intended as a short prologue to "Lost Child", taking no more than an hour or two to run. Instead, it took a full five-hour session to complete.
As always, the flow of events in actual play is listed (where appropriate) in italics.
Something wild and fierce has been hunting in the environs of the village. Herd animals are missing, with only scraps of fur and blood to indicate their fate. Two large sheep dogs have been found messily slaughtered. Something must be done!
It should be easy to induce the PCs to hunt the Predator. Several of the wealthiest landholders of the village have joined together to offer a large reward for the creature. Whether they are residents of the village or simply passing through, the reward should be sufficient temptation.
The predator is a hunting-cat of maximum size for its species: a sabre-tooth tiger, if these exist in your world. Like Jaws, it is the ultimate of its kind -- a natural creature, but in every way superior. What's more, it has a particular reason to gather more food than it needs.
In play, the PCs were thanes of the village. One, a sheepherder, lost his favorite sheep dog to the predator. All considered it their duty to find the creature, though they did not turn down the reward. :-)
Since I was unable to find official statistics for sabre-tooths in the RQ3 books, I adapted the stats for tigers with the following results:
Jaws the Sabretooth Tiger, male sabretooth, age 7
STR: 68
CON: 24
SIZ: 56
INT: 06
POW: 18
DEX: 24
Move: 10
Total HP: 40
Fatigue: 92
RH Leg 01-02 01-02 4/11 LH Leg 03-04 03-04 4/11 Hind Q 05-07 05-09 4/17 Fore Q 08-10 10-14 4/17 RF Leg 11-13 15-16 4/11 LF Leg 14-16 17-18 4/11 Head 17-20 19-20 8/14 Weapon SR Attack Damage Bite 7 45% 3D6 + 7D6 Claw 4 65% 2D8 + 7D6 Rake 4 80% 4D8 + 7D6
Attack methods are as described for Tigers in the RuneQuest III Creatures book.
Skills: Dodge 65%, Jump 70%, Hide 50%, Sneak 50%
Armor: 4-point fur, plus sabre-like teeth for an additional 4 points on head
Special: As with many species of feline, his saliva acts as an antibiotic and encourages healing in wounds. If he is injured and escapes, he licks his injuries, healing two points in each wound over a period of 24 hours. This effect will not stop serious bleeding, and only works on his own species (i.e. the party may not capture and "milk" him for Healing).
Everyone is willing to talk about the monster, but their stories aren't very helpful. The first killing was two weeks ago; since then six herd animals have been taken. Most were medium-sized, but one of the missing animals was a fair-sized cow. Animals have been taken from lands on several sides of the village, more than 10 km apart within a couple of days.
The weather for the last week has been dry, leaving few tracks; local trappers have been unable to find the lair of the creature. All of the herd animals that were taken are completely gone. In most cases blood spoor was found in their customary grazing areas, but not in sufficient quantities to track very far. The dogs that were killed were not taken, but simply left. One was eviscerated by what may have been claws, while the other was simply torn in half by something sharp. Both dogs were large and fierce, but there was no sign of blood other than their own on their jaws.
There are any number of approaches that the PCs may select to catch the creature.
1. They may wait for another killing, and try to gather fresher clues. They don't have long to wait; a large goat is killed the next day, and if the party has informed everyone that they are hunting the predator, a young goatherd brings them to a bloody site on the west side of the village by mid-day. Depending on the success of their Search and Track rolls, the party discovers that the predator is an extremely large four-footed animal, strong enough to pick up a heavy goat and leap a 4-meter ravine. The tracks head northeast for 300 meters, but after that point dwindle and become very difficult to follow -- several critical Track rolls are required, over a course of ten kilometers.
2. The party may set up traps throughout the area to catch the creature. However, it's difficult to devise a trap for a creature with so many unknown qualities; size, weight, and shape can make a huge difference in the type of snare needed. The player devising the trap(s) should be required to describe either the physical structure of the trap, or the type of animal that he is assuming the creature is: if he guesses that it is a feline, and within five points of its SIZ (51-61), the traps have a (low) chance of success. That chance varies depending on the skill of the trapper and the degree of success, but even a critical by a master trapper (90% Devise) will have only a 30% chance of catching the sabretooth. Note that since the predator covers such a wide area, there is a comparatively small chance that it will fall into any one trap, barring some cleverness on the part of the PCs -- for example, putting all animals except those used for bait in protective barns. Even so, the predator does have access to wild game.
In play, the party staked out a wounded goat in a clearing and climbed into trees to wait for the beast. There was a 20% chance per night that the creature would come; since the roll was an 01, the creature came almost immediately. As they cast Ignite on several torches that they had previously placed around the area, the party was stunned by the size of the monster revealed in the light.
The ensuing combat was epochal. The party came down from the trees and charged the giant cat, which turned its attention to each in turn. No member was able to stand against a single successful swipe of its huge claws, and as soon as one PC went down the cat turned to the next. As the battle continued, PC after PC went down, each healing themselves just in time to rescue the last standing member. The cat was repeated injured, but never quite enough to disable a location. Finally, trailing blood from many minor wounds, it decided to leave -- taking the goat with it, of course. The party rested, and decided to follow the next day. The trail of blood from the wounds made tracking easy.
3. The party may arrange for Divinations to be cast. If they lack the ability to do it themselves, the Ernalda Priestess is willing to cast one Divination for them for free, for the good of the village -- but she will expect consideration from the reward as a courtesy for her efforts, should the party be successful. The result depends on the question asked, the way that it is phrased, and the degree of success of the INT roll. The nature of the sabretooth may be revealed, or the location of its lair, or possibly more -- but since the answer must be squeezed into seven words or a brief vision, the Divination is unlikely to completely solve the party's problem.
4. It's possible that the party will come up with yet another strategy. If it's an interesting one, please write to me and let me know about it! I may include it in an update of this page.
One or more clever PCs may consider the large number of kills that the predator has made and realize that even an enormous creature could not eat all that meat itself. They may even go further, and guess that the creature is getting food for others of its kind. Still, there is an excellent chance that the party will be surprised to find that there is not one, but an entire family of sabretooths in the area. The predator has been catching food for all of them.
The party may discover the family in several ways. If they track the predator to its lair, they discover a cave near a waterfall in the forest eight kilometers north-northeast of the village. There they discover not only the wounded predator, but a female and three cubs:
Jawina the Sabretooth Tigress, female sabretooth, age 8
STR: 54
CON: 21
SIZ: 44
INT: 06
POW: 14
DEX: 24
Move: 10
Total HP: 33
Fatigue: 75
RH Leg 01-02 01-02 4/09 LH Leg 03-04 03-04 4/09 Hind Q 05-07 05-09 4/14 Fore Q 08-10 10-14 4/14 RF Leg 11-13 15-16 4/09 LF Leg 14-16 17-18 4/09 Head 17-20 19-20 8/11 Weapon SR Attack Damage Bite 7 40% 3D6 + 5D6 Claw 4 60% 2D8 + 5D6 Rake 4 70% 4D8 + 5D6
Attack methods are as described for Tigers in the RuneQuest III Creatures book.
Skills: Dodge 65%, Jump 70%, Hide 50%, Sneak 50%
Armor: 4-point fur, plus sabre-like teeth for an additional 4 points on head
Jawnni the Sabretooth Cub, male sabretooth, age 2
STR: 52
CON: 20
SIZ: 38
INT: 06
POW: 11
DEX: 19
Move: 10
Total HP: 29
Fatigue: 72
RH Leg 01-02 01-02 4/09 LH Leg 03-04 03-04 4/09 Hind Q 05-07 05-09 4/14 Fore Q 08-10 10-14 4/14 RF Leg 11-13 15-16 4/09 LF Leg 14-16 17-18 4/09 Head 17-20 19-20 8/11 Weapon SR Attack Damage Bite 7 45% 3D6 + 5D6 Claw 4 65% 2D8 + 5D6 Rake 4 80% 4D8 + 5D6
Attack methods are as described for Tigers in the RuneQuest III Creatures book.
Skills: Dodge 60%, Jump 65%, Hide 60%, Sneak 60%
Armor: 4-point fur, plus sabre-like teeth for an additional 4 points on head
Jawanna the Sabretooth Cub, female sabretooth, age 2
STR: 50
CON: 22
SIZ: 36
INT: 06
POW: 09
DEX: 21
Move: 10
Total HP: 29
Fatigue: 72
RH Leg 01-02 01-02 4/09 LH Leg 03-04 03-04 4/09 Hind Q 05-07 05-09 4/14 Fore Q 08-10 10-14 4/14 RF Leg 11-13 15-16 4/09 LF Leg 14-16 17-18 4/09 Head 17-20 19-20 8/11 Weapon SR Attack Damage Bite 7 40% 3D6 + 4D6 Claw 4 60% 2D8 + 4D6 Rake 4 70% 4D8 + 4D6
Attack methods are as described for Tigers in the RuneQuest III Creatures book.
Skills: Dodge 65%, Jump 70%, Hide 65%, Sneak 65%
Armor: 4-point fur, plus sabre-like teeth for an additional 4 points on head
Jawshua the Sabretooth Cub, male sabretooth, age 1
STR: 40
CON: 22
SIZ: 32
INT: 06
POW: 18
DEX: 20
Move: 10
Total HP: 27
Fatigue: 62
RH Leg 01-02 01-02 3/07 LH Leg 03-04 03-04 3/07 Hind Q 05-07 05-09 3/11 Fore Q 08-10 10-14 3/11 RF Leg 11-13 15-16 3/07 LF Leg 14-16 17-18 3/07 Head 17-20 19-20 5/09 Weapon SR Attack Damage Bite 7 35% 3D6 + 3D6 Claw 4 55% 2D8 + 3D6 Rake 4 65% 4D8 + 3D6
Attack methods are as described for Tigers in the RuneQuest III Creatures book.
Skills: Dodge 45%, Jump 55%, Hide 45%, Sneak 45%
Armor: 3-point fur, plus sabre-like teeth for an additional 2 points on head
There are far too many possible resolutions to this scenario to list. The PCs may slay the family of sabretooths, in which case they may claim the reward. They may also realize that the hides of these creatures are worth considerably more than the reward itself -- if they are able to skin the beasts properly. The matter of hauling the extremely heavy hides through the woods to a civilized marketplace where they can find a sufficiently wealthy buyer could be a new scenario in itself. Since no one in the village is likely to have the money or interest to buy such expensive hides, a trek to a city is necessary.
In play, a Chalana Arroy healer hid outside the lair of the creatures with the party and cast Sleep spells on each animal. Since the cats were therefore under her protection, the party was unable to slay them; instead, they chained each cat with the intention of transporting them alive to a city, in order to sell them. It took many villagers to transport the animals through the woods to the village, and eventually the party decided to have a local trader take the animals in a caravan to the city and sell them on their behalf. The trader received 50% of the sale price, but nonetheless the sale yielded the PCs considerably more silver than the original reward offered (though that, too, was paid). The group contributed some of their funds to the village as thanks and recompense for their losses, leaving everyone satisfied...except the cats. Their fate remains for a possible future scenario.
