Did I Say Encounters?

Remind me not to complain about encounters with nuisance creatures. In our regular Monday night adventuring session using The Fantasy Trip, our party had more road encounters than we normal do, and all without the help of our healer who was out of town on a business trip in real life.

First off we started with only two characters because we had left our magic user in a vanishing tower that only appears one day a month in our space and time. He was spending his time helping the mage Imago reorganize his laboratory and library in the tower that had been unused for over 100 years while trapped in a struggle with a demon. he also was trying to learn new spells and produce two scrolls.

We had a month of game time to do something, so we took jobs to make some money, and helped to train the lord's new militia. As the party's unofficial scribe I came up with a backstory for our healer, Jack Swifthand. In past sessions when someone is absent our GM declares that they are sick with dysentery and are stuck in bed within close reach of the chamber pot. But Jack was going to be sick for 30 days at least! No one wants dysentery for 30 days.

Jack was exposed to a toxic smog during the previous session so I decided that his bad cough would progress into pneumonia. To stretch the illness out he is being treated by the only other healer-of-sorts in town, the town barber, who treats him with poultices, leeches, and finally bleeds him. When Jack's friends realize that Jack is on the verge of death from this incompetent bumpkin, they send him running and start feeding the poor halfling a hardy soup and he slowly recovers.

Now to the encounters. Our GM rolls for encounters every 5 mile hex on the maps. Most of the towns are 20 to 25 mies apart. We usually get 1-2 encounters per trip.

When we went to the tower after a month's wait we take our friendly NPC ogre, Ralph. All is quiet on the outward bound day trip, but once we pick up our mage and begin the return trip we run into (1) a giant that we kill, (2) orcs that decide not to fight, and (3) an ogre that wants to fight Ralph. The party is too much for him and he surrenders. He turns out to be Ralph's third cousin, twice removed. We make friends with him and finally get back to town.

Two days later we leave on a longer trip. The first half is again quiet, but then we get three encounters in a row. The first is mostly a nuisance encounter with furry little creatures called Bandersnatches. Don't bother looking them up. Our GM created them from some other game system or possibly his own mind. They burst out of the woods and try to snatch our food bags and run. We lose one bag of food, but kill two. Then we run up on a party of goblins. We kill a couple and the third surrenders. Right after that we meet a troll. He is bad tempered and hungry. He charges us and knocks two of us down. We manage to get up and run, but he is as fast and catches us again. We spread out and surround him and by hitting him from all sides finally kill him. We immediately burn the body before it regenerates.

By this time we have gone past our normal quitting time and our GM refuses to roll for any more encounters. He declares that the road is clear for the remainder of our trip. We hardily agree and head home for the night.