Airship Down (Above the Clouds part 3)
Overview:
We are reaching the end of this series of encounters. In this final encounter the airship is crashing. It's falling into an important and populated structure. The fun here is making the PCs figure out how to save the crew, not hit the structure, and get off all before it crashes. They probably can't do all of those things. Be careful with this encounter because it could result in a TPK.
Initial Description:
BOOM! You watch as large chunks of the airship fly out of either side. You can see that cable between your ship and [villain]’s ship is beginning to stretch thin. Your ship begins to lose altitude. You see [important building or location below, preferably something that has innocent people and would be hard to replace] below your airship. You seem to have about 30 seconds (5 turns) till you hit the ground. What do you do?
Enemies:
The Villain: They are still around, but trying to get away. Their ship will pull away at the zero initiative on the second round.
NPCs:
The Crew: If they didn’t die in the previous battle they are still alive.
Objectives:
Main:
Stay Alive - Don’t die in a fiery crash.
Side Objectives:
Save the Crew - Try to save the crew.
Save the Innocent - Try to not hit the building the airship is about to crash into.
Get the Villain - Try and catch up to or capture the Villain.
Map:
Overview:
This map is the same as the last adventure. Y
Key:
Blue Triangle - Canons
Red One - Villain’s Ship
Special Mechanics:
Down, Down, Down - If the PCs fall off the airships then they hit free-fall. Short of a fly spell or some other safe way to fall they die. Give them 2-3 saves before they fall, unless they put themselves in a situation where it would be impossible for them to have more than one save (i.e. jumping straight from one ship to another or crawling along the bottom of the ship), in which case tell them the stakes if they start to make this choice.
If I didn’t say it - If you haven’t defined any part of the environment, let the players. This will help even out the odds. If anything they suggest or ask about the airship is logical and doesn’t remove the tension entirely (ropes or 1 feather fall token would be logical and keep the tension, an escape pod would take away the tension) just let it exist.
Your life before your eyes - The PCs have 5 turns to do something about falling. If they haven’t left the ship before that they are dead.
Extras:
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