Miniature Monday! Not too baaaaaaad

Miniature Monday is taking a stroll down on the farmstead today as DM Ben believes a few visual clues for our upcoming Troll Bridge encounter might help the party realize a can’t-win combat is not the best way to cross.

Brite Minis seems to have a supportless mini for nearly every occasion and sure enough, this time they delivered yet again. We needed some sheep to fill up a nearby field and printed them in a jiffy.

This sculpt was printed three times but then painted differently to display more variety on the gameboard. 3D RPG does this technique a lot. We’ll print out a model multiple times but then either do a subtle paint job (like different color shields on several city guards) or stark paint variations like the ones here. Our resident painter, Kimmy Utah, thrives on these techniques and you can see here, she didn’t disappoint again.

So why do we even need three sheep? Let’s briefly recap the Troll Bridge one-shot encounter. The party will come upon a bridge guarded by a Troll Hunter named Terry (as in he will “tear ye apart” if you don’t pay before crossing). He guards a key bridge leading into the city of Waterdeep.

Now, trolls aren’t the sharpest sword in the hilt (Int 10) so their toll requirements might be a bit odd at times. Ya see, ol’ Terry here will accept anything with a double letter in its name including coPPer, a trEE trunk, a dEEr carcass, a kiSS, etc. However, each player has to provide a unique toll item to cross.

DM Ben is a little concerned he might not role-play this encounter well enough and the players won’t get the hint on how the toll works. So, he’s gonna drop a few hints on the board including a couple of trees and of course, these innocent sheep. You can even make things a bit more interesting by having a protective ram nearby.

Could our troll go break off a huge trEE branch (to scratch his back) or snatch up a shEEp or two? Of course, but poor Terry isn’t really allowed to leave his post. That’s why he asks others to bring him things.

So how might the party go about trying to catch a sheep to pay their toll? Well, Terry wants his sheep alive so a spirited grapple encounter is certainly on the menu.

DM Ben is going to play it like so:

• First, catch ’em if you can: Player’s Athletics against a sheep’s Dex (with adv).
• Next, attempt the grapple: Player’s Athletics against the sheep’s Str (with adv).
• Lastly, one escape attempt: Player’s Athletics against the sheep’s Str (with adv).

Using at least one free hand, the player will try to pin the wiley wooly creature by making a grapple check instead of an Attack roll: a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. This mutton nabbing won’t be as easy as it sounds though. Our ewes get an advantage against any attempt to knock it prone or move it against its will. DM Ben is also going to give them an advantage on the Dex catch roll because they can be shifty little buggers to physically catch.

And up next, in this week’s Terrain Tuesday, Ben is going to show you some more elements for this Troll Bridge encounter including the bridge setup.