HYPERBOREA / Flying attacks at night

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 10/14/2020 8:36 am

Ok, so I'm running Melan's Terror on Tridentfish Island. Set on the tiny island "west" of New Pictland and "north" of the Skarag Coast archipelago, basically the last thing before you hit the River Okeanos.

They are exploring the palace. It is night time and they decide to explore the roof. They have a bullseye lantern.

There are 4 winged, carnivorous apes that "nest" there at night.

They are sneaky bastards. Initially dropping stuff on folks.

I gave the party a chance to "see" them while the apes attack, mostly if the party wins initiative but a smaller chance if they don't.

I partly did this because the apes would be smart enough to "stay out of range" of the light but they still have to be close enough to easily target them.

Any thoughts on how to handle this better?

I think it's mostly the "at night" that is the main modifier to this thing

**Posted by Ghul** 10/14/2020 5:55 pm

What I would do is this:

- Do the players specifically state that they are looking up there, shining their light up there?
- If so, I would probably give them a 3-in-6 chance to spot the apes, modified (plus/minus) by 1, depending on how they described their vigilance, and perhaps more if they have something crazy like a spyglass.
- If the players have failed to notice the apes (bad roll) or they have not stated that their characters are specifically directing their light and their vigilance in the specific direction of the winged carnivorous apes, I would go straight to a surprize check. Due to the apes being above head, and the beneficiaries of being cloaked by darkness, I would improve the surprize chance from 2-in-6 to 4-in-6. Alertness ability (rangers, et al.) can also modify that roll.

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 10/15/2020 7:28 am

Ghul, thanks, I was kinda doing something like that.

IIRC, I was rolling 2d6 and on a 7+ (I think) they could spot them for sure if they won initiative.

Unfortunately, on the first round their ranger was still back in the hall leading to the outside so I didn't give them any alertness bonuses.

Even hamstrung as the were they were able to kill 2 (amazing rolls with bows and the unerring aim of flaming missiles) and severely wound another. This caused them to fly away and maybe fight another day.

A d6 roll is much easier to sort out/improvise :-)

**Posted by Ghul** 10/15/2020 6:43 pm

My pleasure.