View Single Post
Old 02-08-2021, 10:36 AM   #1
phiwum
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Boston area
Default Gargoyle hunting

Hey ho.

I've been thinking about gargoyle gallbladders, as one does. I'm figuring that some folk must go a-hunting for these things, though at $50 per, it's not a very lucrative endeavor. Gargoyles are also pretty darned tough, with natural armor, ridiculously good HTH damage and the ability to drop on the party wizard with impunity (assuming, of course, you've found a wizard so desperate that he'd join on a hunt).

I'm considering a little side story involving a group of such hunters (which is a nicer word than murderers). I don't want the group to be too large and I want their prospects for monetary gain to be reasonable. Perhaps there's a group of gargoyles that are temporarily lightly defended. Maybe the warriors are away. Let's suppose only the womenfolk (my gargoyles are patriarchical I guess) and the urchins are left behind with two guards. Still, untrained gargoyles have a 2d punch in HTH and so a garden-variety gargoyle is a tough beast. To make the hunt worthwhile, you need to get several of these in one go.

How could you do it? I've thought about netting at the entrance of their cave, but I'm not sure that gargoyles ought to be cave dwellers. Seems to me that they're comfortable on an apex in the elements. As well, forcing them out of the cave into the netting is not all that easy. Lone gargoyles are easily defeated by a small number of folks, but it would take a lot of time in the mountains to find enough for a profit. There's already a considerable cost in getting into the mountains so one or two gallbladders isn't worth a several day journey. (Gates would solve this problem, but I'm thinking of a group of down and out desperate hunters, not someone with the financial wherewithal to create a gate for long term financial gain.)

So, how would you do it? A small band of hunters, say no more than six, have learned of a lightly defended settlement of gargoyles and they want to cash in. What's your plan? (And no offense intended, but goblin witches aren't fitting into my picture here...)

Thanks.
phiwum is offline   Reply With Quote