The Snowball Brigade
I had a lot of fun running this short adventure for my friends a few years ago. After some revisions, I think it's an entertaining read!
The Hook
We're at the heart of midwinter here in the Sister Cities and you, hardy adventurers, have been tasked with a deliver of utmost importance! Chief Baker Giorgio Carvallio has asked you to deliver his freshly baked snow-apple fritters from his bakery (the sign over the door reads: Welcome to the Erupting Pie) to the Prince of Mortal's cathedral down the street (look for the Nogg stand! (Nogg is an Eggnog-like substance (and it's really good))).
If you succeed in this daring (and perhaps deadly) venture, you will be rewarded with free baked goods for the next two weeks, as well as free room and board in the cathedral's guest rooms.
Snow Apple Fritters. Delicate, hand-crafted, buttery. When you consume a lot of them, you feel complete. There are a total of 20 fritters.
But Wait
You're not the only ones who want the snow-apple fritters, for, much to Giorgio's chagrin, it's a snow day today. That means the children of the Sister Cities have the day off from work, school, and other such activities so that they can go out and play in the snow. Of course, no adults allowed.
And they're a wee-bit hungry.
You'll have to survive the onslaught of fritter-starved children on your way to the cathedral.
A Quick Note
This adventure is about children and adventurers playing with snowballs. No one is intended to actually get hurt or be endangered during this scenario. Don't hurt the children!
Running Up Mainstreet
When the adventurers have secured the snow-apple fritters and left the bakery, they can look down the street to see the Prince of Mortal's cathedral up ahead. It's only like 500 feet or so, no big deal. Then something happens:
A wet thwack to the brick building behind you alerts you to a child standing out on the snow-covered cobblestones. They can't be older than thirteen summers, and have a scarf wrapped tightly around their face and neck. Laughing, the child turns tail and runs into one of the adjacent alleyways.
Ahead, more children slip in and out of alleyways, rolling snowballs between gloved palms and building snow barricades against the sides of buildings. Some of them are watching you, but most are watching the snow-apple fritters with a kind of crazed-greed. Maybe this delivery won't be so easy after all?
The Street. It's as long as you want it to be, criss-crossed by other streets and dark, snow-filled alleyways. Most of the shops and buildings are locked and closed, but you might find one or two that you can cut through. Each major intersection represents a battle against the Children. I'd aim for two-three of those.
The Children. Are all members of the Snowball Brigade, an (elite) group of urchins, youngsters, and kiddos who all love epic snowball fights. They really want those fritters. There are too many children to count, but probably between 8 and 10 at each major street intersection.
- The Snowball Brigade is led by Calvin the Captain, a human boy with more ambition than practical experience. He likes to shout orders and commands to his "troops" while bombarding his foes from behind a barricade.
- "Brigade, do not give in until we've had those fritters!"
- The second-in-command is Margoska the Princess, an infernal-blooded princess who ran away from her tutors to play in the snow. She uses her limited knowledge of magic to propel batches of snowballs through the air while safely positioned on a roof.
- "Don't you dare tell Sir Veremy that I was here!"
- The glue of the group is Jal the Cannon, an orcish boy who hit his growth spurt early. He doesn't entirely understand why everyone's shouting and running, but he would love to try those apple fritters, pretty please. He's strong enough to carry a snowman around and use it like a club.
- "Does this mean I get to be captain now?"
Snowballs for Dummies
Here are some critical points for epic snowball fights:
- Making a snowball is trivial and takes no time.
- Throwing a snowball is easy but requires good aim.
- Everybody knows how to throw a snowball; you can use physical or magical abilities to throw and aim a snowball.
- It's easy to throw a snowball nearby (30 feet), but hard to throw a snowball far away (more than 30 feet).
- Snowballs can be prepared and thrown in different ways:
- Barrage. You can throw two snowballs at once, but aiming becomes hard.
- Embiggen. Your snowball instantly Knocks Out its target, but it takes time to gather enough snow.
- Calculated. Aiming becomes trivial and you can throw twice as far, but you might get Cold Fingers.
- Snow is cold. When you are hit by a snowball, you might get
- Brain Freeze. Pause for a breather or stumble in a random direction.
- Cold Fingers. Warm them up or else throwing a snowball becomes hard.
- Knocked Out. Three strikes and you're out.
- You could also choose to:
- Build a Snowman. Provides cover, making it hard to hit anyone behind with a snowball.
- Knock a Snowman Down. Mean and easy, but probably Knocks Out anyone standing behind it.
Finally, We Made It
At the other end of the street from the Erupting Pie bakery is the Prince of Mortal's cathedral. Out front is a table set up with hot, steaming mugs of Nogg. Standing beside the table are two priests.
The Prince of Mortals. A deity of luck. Symbol is a gold coin. Priests wear amber robes.
- Beval. Young human man, curly hair. He hasn't had any of Chef Carvallio's apple fritters since he was a boy.
- Florica. Young half-elf woman, blue eyes. She knows all of the children in the Snowball Brigade by name, and their parents too.
If any of the snow-apple fritters survived the journey, Beval and Florica graciously thank the adventurers and share the remaining fritters among everyone present, including the children.
Afterwards, Calvin salutes the adventurers, Margoska's tutors and maids escort her back to her palace, and Jal shakes everyone's hands twice. The party gets free room & board at the cathedral and free baked goods for two weeks.
Final Thoughts
I cleaned up a lot of the verbiage for this little scenario. It's not very complicated and it doesn't take longer than two hours to have a good time with. I originally ran the adventure using D&D, but you'll notice that I left out basically all of the mechanics. I wanted to favor the situation at hand rather than worry about exact numbers. Of course, I have the numbers, but they wouldn't help someone who wanted to adapt this game using, say, Mausritter.
I hope you enjoyed the read and it gave you some ideas for how to make silly little scenes in your roleplaying games.
See you next week!
Things on my radar:
- I released a game last week! It's a journaling game about managing a tavern, called From Dungeon to Table.
- I've got two other projects in the works, and in June I'll be starting a third. Look forward to more adventure modules and another small video game.
- Joseph R. Lewis has a series of short Shadowdark RPG zines coming to kickstarter.
- Witch Bolt released Marigold's Bookshelf! It's a cute little game where you listen to dungeon-synth-y music while exploring an alchemist's cottage.
- I had the opportunity to run the Cairn adventure Seven Silver Spheres for some of my cousins. I don't like how the adventure ends, but the rest of it was fun! I think it would work better if the players actually got some kind of reward instead of a sort-of gotch-ya moment.
- I really like Pointless Monument's other Cairn adventures though. Both the Ruin of Reputation and Fistful of Feathers seem much more exciting.
- I recently rewatched Smile and the first 45 minutes are still quite good and scary. The rest is whatever. 6/10. Smile 2 is much better and much scarier, by the way.
- Nope is a take on aliens I'd never thought of before. Great movie. 8/10.