The Behrsdale Escarpment

A railroad bridge challenge

ben boyarko

Your party comes to an escarpment, a 1000 ft high cliff, where a railroad ramp snakes up the
dizzying heights on a perilous perch. Only after your party begins to make their way up, do they
see that a train is fast approaching. They don’t have the time to make it across.

Does your party run? Climb? Plummet to their deaths? What will they do?

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The Behrsdale Escarpment

The Behrsdale Escarpment is a 1000 ft high cliffside, where sheer rock rises up from the ground. If you
travel along the railroad, there is a steep, engineered rail pass that ramps up the side of the cliff. The
ramp is about 3200 ft long at an angle manageable for a train, but not particularly kind on horses or
similar animals.

This challenge encounter supposes that your party is attempting to scale the Escarpment, but you could
just as easily be trying to make your way down from the top.

If your party walks up this railramp (about 100 rounds for most players) a train will invariably come from
one direction or the other

From the time the players notice the train, they will have a limited amount of time until the train
reaches their position. This is 2d6 turns, plus a number of turns equal to the Perception skill bonus of
the player in the party with the best perception skill bonus. This number cannot be less than 2 turns,
even if the roll is crap, and the players all chose wisdom as their dump stat.

If the train is 5 or fewer turns away, then it is coming from the top, heading East. If the train is 6 or more
turns away, your party has seen it approaching from the Great Forest, and it is heading uphill.

Roll 2d4 to see the percentage of the ramp your party has passed before they notice the approaching
train. Rolling a 2 would mean that your party has made it 20% of the way up the ramp, for example,
while rolling a 7 would mean you’ve made it 70% of the way up the ramp.

Surrounding Area
Set in Kas, Ben Boyarko’s campaign setting, the Behrsdale Escarpment is a cliffside that is the
demarcation between the Great Forest to the East, and the Hephera Mountains to the West.

The Great Forest is a peaceful region filled with fey tricksters, judgy unicorn police, and sporadic human
settlements. Buster, the brass dragon, rules over this area with mirth, jokes, and a deadly serious focus
on maintaining the peace.

The Hephera Mountains are towering heaps of gravel and rough gemstone, where dwarves and gnomes
have historically made their homes deep under the solid layers of rock.

To the South, the warm Errdent sea is hospitable to travelers, even if what lives in it isn’t.

To the North, the Hark Mountains are a wild and frozen realm, where dangerous monsters roam all
about.
 Percentage Down the ramp Up the ramp Fall Climb
Passed
0% Easily jump down About 3200 ~ 1000 ft of sheer rock
to ground level ft
10% About 320 ft back About 2800 100 ft 900 ft of sheer rock
down the ramp ft
20% About 630 ft About 2500 200 ft 800 ft of sheer rock
ft
30% About 950 ft About 2200 50 ft to a ledge 700 ft of sheer rock
ft that fits 2 medium
sized creatures
40% About 1250 ft About 1900 400 ft 600 ft of sheer rock, the first
ft 10 ft of which have
handholds
50% About 1600 ft About 1600 500 ft A crevice in the rock face
ft 500 ft high
60% About 1900 ft About 1250 600 ft A tree, also 400 ft of sheer
ft rock
70% About 2200 ft About 950 ft 700 ft 300 ft of rock with
infrequent hand holds
80% About 2500 ft About 630 ft About 20 ft to a 200 ft of rock, with some
rusted length of good hand holds
scaffolding
(supports about
500 lbs before
breaking)
90% About 2800 ft About 320 ft 900 ft About 100 ft of exposed
rock with good hand-holds
100% ~ Easily climb 1000 ft ~
up to the
clifftop level
At 40% of the way up, there is a depression in the cliffside where one medium sized creature can move
out of the way of the approaching train.

At 60% of the way up, there is a scraggly tree growing from the cliffside. Here, two medium sized
creatures, or 4 small sized creatures can climb out of the way of the train. (DC 10 Athletics check to
climb)

At 50% of the way up, there is a crevice that winds its way up the cliff face. One medium sized creature
at a time can work its body into the crevice and climb by making an Athletics check (DC 12). This crevice
proceeds from this point all the way to the top, about 500 ft of a climb.
Tiny sized creatures can hide their bodies between the railroad ties to avoid the train, but must succeed
on a DC 8 STR check, or else be swept up by the air currents of the passing train, and take 4d10
bludgeoning damage as the passing metal slams them back against the ties.

Large sized creatures are frankly screwed by this challenge, unless they can fly, or if they can move really
fast.
Going the long way around
Your party might see this rail ramp, and be totally uninterested. The party could follow the top of the
clifs, or the bottom of the cliffs to find another way around. It’s about 50 miles south to the ocean,
where the Escarpment levels out a few hundred yards from the sea. Or, following the mountains to the
north, the terrain gets more and more hilly, until the Escarpment fades into the treacherous Hark
Mountains. In the North, there is an increased chance of encounters with random hostile monsters.

At any time, walking along the bottom of the cliff, more than a mile from the rail ramp, there is a 20%
chance that goblins have gathered at the top of the cliff to throw rocks on passersby. It’s a fun pastime
for them. And there’s another 30% chance that a wandering pack of gnolls will encounter your party,
looking for corpses that the goblins have provided with their game of “throw the rock at the passersby”.
These are not mutually exclusive chances.