Ghost Town
Overview:
The general idea of this encounter is that your PCs are having to deal with two different battlefields that affect one another. One battlefield is the past and one is the present. The PCs will have to navigate moving between the two in order to complete this encounter optimally. The initial battle field exists in the present. This battlefield is getting populated by wraiths as humanoids die in the past battlefield. As the PCs figure out how to manipulate the past battlefield they can prevent the present battlefield from getting too dangerous. While in some encounters you want to make the mechanics clear from the beginning, this is one where you want them to discover them as the encounter progresses.
Initial Description:
You arrive at a group of small burnt out buildings. It looks like they were destroyed in an attack long ago. A chill runs down your spine as an intense fog rolls in. For a brief moment you see the village, on fire and full of people. The building closest to you collapses. You are pulled back to the ruined buildings. You see a group of wraiths, screeching twisting and angry make their way clawing and inviting you to join them in the afterlife as bright while spectral fire adorns the battle field. Roll initiative.
Enemies:
Wraiths: In the present there are wraiths that are spawning. Their goal is to destroy and take the essence of any living thing that approaches their graveyard.
Lizard men: In the past there are six lizard men attacking the village. The objective of the lizard men is to kill all the humanoids on the battlefield. They will not attack the PCs unless they are attacked. If they start attacking a townfolk they will kill them in two rounds
NPCs:
Townfolk: There are a 20 defenseless humanoids on the battlefield. They want to survive.
Objectives:
Main:
Survive - The main objective is to survive. While the PCs could opt to stay in the present and fight the wraiths that would be far from the optimal way to complete this encounter.
Side Objectives:
Stop the Fires - Each house will burn down in 1d10 turns. Each house that burns down in the past spawns 3d6 wraiths. If they can prevent the houses from burning they can prevent the spawning of wraiths
Stop the Lizard men - Each humanoid the lizard men kill spawns a new wraith. It takes the lizard men 2 turns to kill each humanoid.
Map:
Overview:
There is nothing remarkable about the battle map in and of itself. It is important to note that the present and past map are the same, it's just how the PCs interact with it that changes.
Key:
Black squares are houses.
Red pools are fires on the ground.
Green X's are Lizard Men
Yellow Circles are Town Folk
Blue Rectangle is where the PCs arrive
Special Mechanics:
The Changing Fog - Every 1d4 turns the characters feel the fog sink into them pulling their consciousness away. They can choose to resist or not. If they resist they need to make a DC 15 Charisma save. PCs that have failed or let the fog take hold see the past, while PCs who succeed the save stay in the present.
In the Present - PCs who resist and succeed at their skill checks remain in the present. They see only the burned out village and any wraiths that spawn. Other PCs still appear in the present and they can see any action the PCs make, though their attacks appear to hit air and attempts to put out fires seem to be trying to affect destroyed buildings
In the Past - PCs who have failed their save or who chose not to resist can interact with the past. This allows them to do things like put out the fires or protect the villagers who are under attack. They can see what is in the present, but hardly. The present is transparent and hardly visible through the image of the past. This means any attack against them by enemies in the present has advantage. Any attack they make against enemies in the present have disadvantage. Any skill check they make to interact with the present is made at disadvantage.
Fire- Any PC that walks into the fires takes 2d6 damage. If a humanoid falls into the fires they die. In the present the fires look spectral but are hot if you get close. (You could make the fire invisible to the PCs in the present if you wanted a "gotcaha"
The Past and the Present - The PCs are going to be split up between the past and the present. The fog is what allows them to travel there. In the past this area of the town is under attack by 6 Lizard men. The buildings are on fire and several town folk are being attacked. Each building that burns down in the past spawns 3d6 wraiths in the future. Each non-enemy humanoid that dies in the past spawns one wraith in the present.
Highlighting their Choices:
Make sure to highlight the following information so that PCs can see the impact of their choices. If a humanoid dies in the past make sure to immediately describe the spawning of a wraith. If they prevent a building from burning down make sure to describe how the building no longer looks charred and burned in the present, but has changed and looks dilapidated.
Extras:
How We Used it - In our current D&D campaign the PCs are involved in a plot that has carried itself out many times over thousands of years. We used the following encounter to drop some information about what was going on.
Easy Reskins - We made the encounter take place through time, but it would work through dimensions, or planes of existence as well.
Inspirations, Shoutouts, and Thanks - A huge shout out to the Runehammer game channel as he inspired having a battle across time in one of his videos.
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