Children’s woe
(Idea from the “Random Road Encounters” table created by Paul Bellow)
The players come across a small camp. Four children, ranging from around 8 to 12 years old, are huddled around a fire, looking tired and scared. They are dressed in ragged clothes and it looks like they have been living rough for some time.
When approached by the players, the children will tell them their story and ask for help.
We have been traveling with our parents. But then we got attacked by a group of bandits.
Our parents fought against the bandits while we fled to the nearby forest.
Once the bandits left, we went back but they took everything they could carry, including our parents.
That was a couple of days ago. Since then we are traveling on our own.
We found this camp deserted but we probably can not stay here to long.
Our goal is to reach [CITY] where my aunt lives.
They appear hungry and are appreciative of everything the players offer as help.
Players are invited to stay with them through the night.
The name of the two girls are Elina (8) and Mabella (11).
The two boys care called Jurg (10) and Keos (12).
The CITY they are heading to should be a couple of days travel away.
They are in fact working together with a group of bandits which are waiting nearby.
The children will thank the players for their help and will offer them some fresh water that they recently fetched since this is the only thing they have to offer.
Unknown to the players, the children have poisoned the water beforehand and will not drink from it.
Shortly after they offered the players the water, the Bandits attack from 3 sides.
The children will flee in the fourth, free direction.
Every player that drank, must make a DC13 Constitution saving throw or is poisoned for 1 hour.
Depending on the level of the players, scale the number of bandits accordingly.
If most of the players are poisoned, reduce the number slightly.
Use the Bandit (CR1/8) stats-block for basic enemies and Bandit Captain (CR2) to add some variety.
For party level 1 and 2 there could be 1d8 Bandits (4: easy, 8: hard).
For party level 3 and 4 there could be 2d8 Bandits or 1 Captain and 1d8 Bandits (8: easy, 16: hard).
For higher level parties, feel free to use the stat-blocks of: Master Thief (CR5), Gladiator (CR5) or Assassin (CR8)
This encounter can be played on the following maps:
