As the party reaches [town name here] they hear a bass voice crow “BUH-GOK,” followed by trembling ground. Townsfolk begin sprinting down a side street in front of the party, seemingly away from something gigantic. A Dragonborn trips, its foot caught in the cobblestones.
She screams as a giant rooster head cranes down, inches from her face. She throws her hands up, prepared to meet her maker, but the colossal rooster stops, cocks it head to the side, and stares directly at the party, it’s hackle vibrating as it thinks. It resets and stomps after the rest of the fleeing folks, leaving the Dragonborn in its wake, unharmed by mere inches.
The Dragonborn gets her foot loose and hobbles over to the party. “Oh thank the gods, that was close.” As she dusts herself off, she makes a proper introduction. “I’m Bu’Faylo Wyldewing, the local blacksmith. Sorry about all of that but we seem to be having a bit of a problem with the local rooster Fowlrog. He’s the best alarm-clock rooster we’ve ever had, but he’s not usually this size.”
Heavy bass crowing is heard again down the street along with townsfolk screaming. “We’re at a bit of a loss about what might have happened, but yesterday he was standard size, today…” she flails her arms wildly, trying to impress the enormity of it.
The party can ask some follow-up questions and learn the at the edge of town is a sleepy wizard named Dozus Yawnswell. Bu’Faylo thinks Dozus might have something to do with Fowlrog’s abnormal change in size. At this time the party is welcome to attack the rooster if they feel like that is the best option, or they can go talk to Dozus.
You Snooze You Lose
Dozus home is on the edge of town and as the party approaches they can see several chicken coops along with a makeshift wooden mansion with “Fowlrog’s Lair” scrawled on a sign. The wood fences have been decimated and debris is all over the place, marked by oversized rooster footprints. A male wizard is outside, feeding the chickens in one of the imprints and will be startled if the party interrupts him.
“You really fluffed my feathers there!” He asks the party what they’re doing and why they’re on his property. When asked about Fowlrog he’ll shrug it off and so, “oh, that, he should be back to normal in a few weeks time. I messed up the spell a bit and over-indexed on size and duration. You see, I’m a heavy sleeper and I’ve missed several important meetings due to oversleeping. I enlarged Fowlrog last night before bed to make sure I was up in time for my meeting today, and it worked! His morning greeting got me right out of bed without issue.”
Fowlrog stomps around in the distance, slapping his comb into the local inn, crumpling the business. Dozus seems unbothered by all of this and calls it “collateral damage” for his very important meeting. “Not like any of them ever offered to wake me up. They just use me for my rootin’ tootin’ rooster.”
“Now, if you don’t mind, I need to go see a man about a horse.”
Well Fluff
At this point the party has a few available options:
- They can follow Dozus to his meeting where he is literally seeing a man about a horse. The horse is magical in some capacity as it is able to speak, but only draconic. Dozus intends to buy the horse and study it further. This ends up being more of a side bit and is likely what will transpire if the party is looking to get Dozus to perform a shrinking.
- They can persuade Dozus into returning Fowlrog to his prior size, though this will be pretty difficult to do as Dozus is extremely stubborn and notes it will take a lot of energy to shrink Fowlrog down. If they go this route they will need to trap Fowlrog into a corner and keep him still while Dozus does his thing.
- They can take matters into their own hands and dispatch Fowlrog themselves. Any attempts by the party to magically shrink the rooster themselves will prove futile as the enhanced magic from Dozus will keep the chicken at least five times its normal size. Any attack taken against the rooster will cause it to retaliate quickly and enter combat.
Holding Fowlrog For Shrinking
If the party elects to corral Fowlrog so Dozus can trap him, they will need to use their wiles or a series of STR checks to keep him grappled. This should be treated as combat, with the party taking their initiative to determine the best way to keep him in one space.
This will be no easy task as Fowlrog is a Large beast. As long as the party can prevent him from moving out of 10 feet in any one direction, they will be successful after four rounds.
Each time he breaks free of the 10 feet, the party must regroup and Dozus must begin his shrinking spell again.
If the party is successful, Fowlrog will let out one last deafening crow and shrink back to normal size. Dozus will scoop him up, look at all the damage in town and sprint back to his home.
Defeating Fowlrog Without Dozus
Same stat block as above, but it’s a direct fight. DMs can consider giving Feather Bomb as a Legendary Action or Beak Thrust as a possible reaction to make combat a bit spicier, otherwise it will be a standard battle.
The townsfolk will gather during the battle and watch as the party takes on the giant rooster.
Once felled, Fowlrog will return to normal size. Dozus appears and begins weeping, cursing the party for what they’ve done. He vows revenge on the party and sprints off to his home.
Shake Your Tail Feather
With the gigantic rooster problem resolved, the townsfolk will begin digging through the destruction to restore their shops and homes. Bu’Faylo will return to the party and thank them for their assistance. Running to the rubble of her blacksmith shop, she withdraws a Sickle Feather Sickle, a standard 1d4 sickle that does an extra 1d4 slashing damage to any creature that can fly.
Thanks to graycastlepress and thedungeonmaestro for their name contribution for the blacksmith! Other Dragonborn name options:
- Chia Seedera (galungero)
- Delilah Wingstop (graycastlepress)
- Nugget (especially if she’s a gold Dragonborn, from graycastlepress)
Follow us on threads if you’d like to participate in helping with names or ideas for our encounters!
