An Adventure for Every Monster - Buffalo

Buffalo




Frequency Uncommon
No. appearing 4-24 (but more for the purposes of this adventure)
Armour class 7
Move 15”
Hit Dice 5
Percentage in lair Nil
Treasure type Nil
No. of attacks 2
Damage per attack 1-8/1-8
Special attack Charge (3-18 damage on impact and 1-4 trampling)
Special defences Head is armour class 3
Magic Resistance Standard
Intelligence Semi-
Alignment Neutral
Size L (5’ at shoulder)
THAC0 15
XP value 350 +8/hp

This adventure takes place in an area of open plains and rocky hills.

The party is enlisted to help the local noble’s retinue who are investigating reports of rustling on the plains. The rustling is actually being carried out by a gang of gnolls who are picking off the buffalo herders and slowly moving the buffalo towards an area of natural valleys where they have corralled them.

Whilst it appears to be a simple case of humanoids attacking and looting (as will appear to be the case when the party comes across the remains of some herders who have been killed), there is more to it than that. The plan of the gnolls is to lure the party and the noble’s retinue into a trap – there is a box canyon nearby and the gnolls have laid a series of clues that will point the party towards it. They have also constructed a crude camp at its end, where they have laid a set of mildly irritating traps to cause the party to pause and search the area. They have even hidden some small treasure caches in the area so that the party will think they have struck it lucky.

Unfortunately for the party, the gnolls intend to wait until the party has ridden into the box canyon before moving all their hoarded buffalo into place and stampeding them down the canyon to trample all and everything in it.



Once the noble’s retinue is destroyed, the gnolls intend to launch their attack on the noble’s castle and lay it waste.

Gnoll

Frequency Uncommon
No. appearing 20-200
Armour class 5
Move 9”
Hit Dice 2
Percentage in lair 20%
Treasure type Individuals L, M; D, Qx5, S in lair
No. of attacks 1
Damage per attack 2-8 or by weapon
Special attack Nil
Special defences Nil
Magic Resistance Standard
Intelligence Low-average
Alignment Chaotic Evil
Size L (7’ tall)
THAC0 16
XP value 28 +2/hp

The gnolls have upwards of a hundred warriors spread out across the plains and hills but the party is likely to encounter only a dozen or so at any one time as they are keeping spread out to avoid losing too many in one action.

The leader of the tribe, Yellow Fang rides a fearsome hyaenodon (AC5, 1 att, dam 3-12) from which he will direct the main attack on the noble’s castle. Yellow Fang is AC3, 22hp and attacks as a 3HD monster. He has a retinue of 7 warriors, (AC4, 20hp, attack as 3HD monster) who he is keeping in reserve for the big attack. One of these, however, will be in charge of the stampede attack.

Yellow Fang’s lair, such as it is, lies within a series of caves in one of the taller hills in the area. It is littered with buffalo bones and the skulls of butchered beasts are set around the main caves with oil lamps behind their eye sockets. If it is attacked before he has a chance to launch his raid, it will be filled with gnolls readying themselves for the assault. Yellow Fang has stationed his archers in position above and around the cave entrance to spot any attack from a way off and pin down intruders while his battle-axe and two-handed sword gnolls move in to engage in hand-to-hand combat.

If the party discover the lair after Yellow Fang has set off on his raid, there will be a few gnolls left to guard the treasure but the raiders will have taken the potions with them and Yellow Fang will have the tribe’s gems in a pouch around his neck.