The first game I ever DM’ed was Wild Sheep Chase from Winghorn Press. It’s a wonderful one-shot about a wizard whose apprentice goes rogue and turns him into a sheep and he needs the party’s help to restore order.
While Trent and I were thinking of “sheep” encounters this week, my brain immediately went to Wild Sheep Chase, but if the sheep wasn’t actually a wizard and stole a wizard’s wand, wreaking havoc on the town. Below is more of that thoughtline.
As the party enters [town name here] they see a sheep bleating and bucking through town, a want in its mouth as it frantically attempts to attract the attention off passersby. Getting closer, the party sees the sheep zap a townsperson attempting to calm the sheep into a piece of shrubbery, and then another zap that sets the shrubbery ablaze.
If they get close, the party will also see the sheep is holding a scroll in its teeth. With a Dexterity check of 15+ they can pull the scroll from the sheep’s mouth without any ill-effects. If they fail, the sheep will zap them and require a Constitution saving throw of 10+ or take 2d6 fire damage.
The scroll itself notes, “I am a wizard and my apprentice is awful.”
Wizard in Sheep’s Clothing
There is no scroll for speak with animals or any way to communicate with the animal to get anything information-wise. Even if there is a druid, the sheep has INT of 1, so there’s no chance of extracting additional information.
If the party asks around, the townsfolk will note a wizard and his apprentice live just outside of town in a tower, but they don’t tend to frequent the town. Wandering to the noted tower, the party will be confronted by the apprentice, getting a bit forceful and asking them to leave as he and the wizard are running some critical polymorph experiments and need all outside forces to stay away.
The party will likely think the apprentice is lying and it is extremely easy to kill him. He overall is weak and is only a Level 1 wizard, so squashing him should be a piece of cake. Insight checks will prove that the apprentice is telling the truth.
At this point, whether the apprentice is still alive or dead, the sheep will have run off back into town. Once the sheep has run away, a wizard will emerge from a distant shed wondering what all the commotion was about. It turns out that nothing strange was happening and the note in the sheep’s mouth was actually from the wizard when he was frustrated with his apprentice a few months ago.
The wizard will become very concerned with the sheep if you mention a wand and he’ll go sprinting and screaming back to town.
Getting Fleeced
With the sheep back in town, running wild with the wind, the party and wizard return to a terrifying scene. Folks in town now have body parts that are three times what they should be, homes have been turned into pudding, and there are several sentient shrubs chatting around town.
Screams fill the air as the sheep continues to lay accidental waste to the town, and the party must get the wand back or stop the sheep before even more damage is done. At this point it is up to the DM how you would like to continue down the path, but if the party kills the sheep, they will have to then defeat the wizard who is beside himself over his favorite sheep’s death. If the wizard is then killed and the apprentice is still alive, the apprentice will attack the party.
This is hugely ridiculous and the original one-shot is way better, but this could be a fun way to shift things a bit if your party is too good at figuring things out and needs an additional twist.
