NOTE: Originally supposed to be the druids of RHYL, not Pranin Moorswood. It would have come after the adventure on the blue wall where the lich lords fingernail was found (PCs summoned by the Hoarwind adventure) and it would have been a way to close out one of the main story arcs in the campaign. It was adjusted for a party of much lower level and place names were changed. Regardless of specific place, such a place would be able to call upon the Vexation of Nature.
Initial Scope: Transformation of Crestwold pt. 2 > Related to the original Druids of Pranin (pt. 1)
Cauldron rots stuff with nail in it – corrupting it. Eats through rope and sail.
Trying to Take the Cauldron
The members of the Druidhold of Pranin sense the foreboding nature of what the PCs bring. Defenses are triggered.
Journey to the deep moorswood will take 3-5 days at the pace with the horses being difficult (animal handling – dedicated) and weather (difficult terrain).
REST: Will not be possible to get a short rest until a day into the woods.
@ Night Trees Grow Wild! Trees growing dc 13 sanity or no sleep ; DC 6 next night; fail = no rest
TRIP
3 days to get there without a guide, through north edgewood 1.5 days with a guide to the Serpents Tail (Ssissllen’s path that is known to the druids). Or, one day east and south cut west into Westwinde spur where there is an old road winds southwest and then west to Southedge or into Deepwold.
Northedge
2,3,8,9 = abandoned because of the war (on edge of deepmoor)
= healing/rest at each active camp
Out of work teamsters now that the war is winding down. They dont know what the PCs have, but its worth a lot. Fred had the idea and is the bold one. He will hide behind cover, coordinating the attack. If he is killed, they scatter. He is the one that will bargain for their lives if the PCs understand who they are and try a non-violent option.
Perception check if the PCs bother, to see these are not bandits, but out of work townsfolk.
[#PC x 2] Bandits; 1 HD (8hp) / AC: 12 + 2 coverTactics: Out of sight of town, in the tall grass as cover west of the road or logged side of road along river. 2-3 will have light crossbows stolen from the navy warehouses. STEALTH +4 for ambush
Cold wind blows from the west. Nature DC 13
Dreams – “mine!”
D6+1 giant eels out of cauldron; poisoned on 3 grapples – until short rest
If the PCs try to follow the shore, 100% chance to encounter this. 3x Skum – It should be 6 that attack, but three will be taken out by 4each 15m long pythons sent to hunt them by the druids.
Note: Directed attacks CANNOT happen once the group is in The Deepwold (only random – if any).
Chance: 1-3 on d20 in edgewood / 0 on d20 in The Deepwold
[PC x 3] Goblins
2 Goblin Shamans (C2)
1 Ogre Skeleton
Tactics: At night, distract from behind, come in from all sides! Try and kill the PCs and then capture the wagon
Encounter Action
Ogre Skeleton turns on the goblins (Lich Lords take control!) – kills goblin shaman 1
Goblin shaman 2 = consumed in the summoning: [PC x 3] Manes demons; pit to hell stench, controlled by a shadow demon who cannot be seen without magical detection = whispers
Note: Directed attacks CANNOT happen once the group is in The Deepwold (only random – if any).
A voice that croaks and trails off…
Watch yourselves!
Beware, you may have guardians against many, but not me!
After days in the field, you notice that the weather seems to be playing a tug of war. During the day, the skies are clearer and less tempestuous. At night, everything drastically changes.
Each 3 hours check for > Navigation: Survival DC 20
TRAVELING: d8
1 = 90d left
2-3 = 45d left
4 = straight
5-6 = 45d right
7 = 90d right
8 = circle
Constant Random Happenstance: Vexation of Nature and…
Creatures and items of Green Healing can be found within. It might be good for PCs to see the perhaps a Millipede of Suturing scuttling through the underbrush, or a storm that splits a tree and there is Golden Nectar from the broken tree. This represents the subconscious side of the Moordaeth to help the Pcs.
Each grueling step has to be planned. Mist creeps through the trees, the wind brings a fetid scent occasionally, and rain constantly pours down between a drizzle and a torrent.
A multitude of Vexation of Nature + Chance: 1-4 on d20 in edgewood / 1-10 on d20 in The Deepwold
Or undead – skeletons IN the trees, etc.
https://explorednd.com/gameplay/blight-5e-guide/ – corruption at night, campfire toxic (stinking cloud)
Renegade Dryad of the Pranin Moorswood Nevissey w/ Blights of all kinds @ night
https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Dryad#content
Tactics: Camp on edge of moorswood = turns local things into blights created from foulness of cauldron and nail will try and attack both PCs directly and highjack wagon (separate horses and take wagon)
+1 character weave if the PCs dont kill the dryad. Druids will grant a Bless to be used by group any time. Invoke by anyone in current group.
Penalizes group in next encounter; Divine Sense/DC 10 Religion can reveal the onus; Religion check to use Connexion to negate it.
Contact: Standing at rest for a moment, you ready to continue when you hear a whisper on the winds: “Turn baaaaack” + fetid scent of the swamp; DC 10 PER = woman, north
Dream: Do not do this. Do not upset the order of things, you risk doing more harm than good to these lands. You know nothing of what you toy with. Sink the items in scar flow, I will hide them from all who seek them.
ENCOUNTERS – Connexion) Sanity DC 10 check or related opponents +1 AC (DC 10)
Contact: Slogging through the mud and roots, your pulse is up. Under the weight of mist, rain, and poor mobility, your muscles begin to burn. Just when your frustration and anger are ready to boil over, you hear a hissing. Lizards around you are speaking in a single sibilant voice: “Give me these things and you will live. With their power, we can restore the glory of this land.”
– Only PCs hear it; visions of success and victory, peace and law
Dream: Everything moves in cycles. If you would save your home, work for the king that once was. As my allies, we can make this land truly powerful! I have no allegiances to bind me, I can unite this land into a force for good for the many.
ENCOUNTERS – Connexion) Sanity DC 10 check or related opponents +1 AC (DC 15)
Chance: 1-4 on d20 in edgewood / 1 on d20 in The Deepwold (1-10 w/breast plate)
Shambling mound! Vines str 18 (50’ as long as its alive) 3 hits = -5 movement till Long rest
Drown; grapple and pull 10’ into nearby pool
K’ranth’s Breastplate – No resilience left (max 3!); magical. Can be used as an arcane focus (for occult – summonings, NOT divine); on inside its an sanded/etched out holy symbol of Elancil (defaced). The item is not cursed, but it is the breastplate of one of the Once-King’s chosen guards and used as an arcane focus/binding object. Anyone wearing it cannot attack the once-king. If the item has greater restoration cast on it, it restores the +1, and the +10’ swimming speed/+2 swim checks; Water Weird/Elementals must make a DC 10 Sanity save each round to attack the wearer. It grants the flaw: I have little respect for anyone who is not a proven warrior.
Red Slaad: Painted and disguised as a large toad, the swarm that attacks with it will seem to reinforce.
Swarm of frogs (poison)
A loud cacophony of strange sounds seems to come from all around you. It seems like every frog and toad in the area has begun to make noise and close in on your location. There is a shaking of brush and branches, and suddenly the air is filled with a swarm of frogs!
> Red Slaad from hidden – will go after the bearer of the breastplate if the PCs have it
Thunder booms! Elancil voice as the sound fades away… “I will reward you if you bring me these things”
Dream: I swear to you I will depart these lands and you can be the heroes of Dunstrand. End this war for good, simply sail to Tarmysia and deliver these items to me.
ENCOUNTERS – Connexion) Sanity DC 10 check or related opponents +1 AC (DC 20)
War band of troglodytes, ambushed by pursuing lizard folk once they attack
For once, the woods around you go quiet. It is greatly disturbing, and you sense something is wrong. You get the sense that you should not be here. There is some strange whistling in the distance. Your mounts begin to become agitated. The whistling is interrupted with an odd piping, coming from around you. You see the mud move in various patches around you, pushing up and revealing alien eyes and clawed hands. All around you, troglodytes crawl to ambush you.
AFTER > DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) to notice a black-green crusty ring around their eyes. Their eyes have deep crows feet as well. This is a sign they are being controlled by an ancient abomination called an Eereecloth of the sea-Kings known to mentally enslave creatures and control them across great distances.
As the sun sets, and night creeps in, you hear a faint voice. Its almost impossible to hear. You strain your senses trying to make sense of what it is saying. DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) “In the coming era, the darkness will either shelter you like a cloth, or drown you like the sea.”
ENCOUNTERS – Connexion) Sanity DC 10 check or related opponents +1 AC (DC 15)
In the distance you can hear drums. The drums beat with a frantic beat, like someone is running and pounding on them at the same time. The drums fade and come back several times, but never seem to come closer. By the time pre-dawn comes, they are more fervent.
DC 18 Wisdom (Perception) check to know they are not coming much closer – but now about 500m away
DC 15 Intelligence (History)/Lore: Orrish to know that the beat is a hunt or pursuit beat of the Orrish. If they do not intervene, the target will be killed.
[PC x 3] Goblins + 1 drummer/task master.
There is a meadow pond, going around will lose precious time.
> DC 12 Athletics/Swim check
There is an escarpment about 10m high. Trying to find an easy path will lose precious time.
> DC 14 Athletics/Climb check
There is a ravine about 4m wide. Trying to find an easier path will lose precious time.
> DC 16 Athletics/Jump check
Pursuing a world watcher! Drewson is a High King’s Ranger. R 8th
Spit! The dark worshippers are bold, not in a generation have they entered these woods. This is not the Orrish of Dwindor I normally encounter. See – they bear none of the Dwindor tribal marks. It must be the far reaching dark, rearing its head after so long once again. I know not why I was the target, it makes no sense. I carry no message. I bear no gift. I only seek solace in the deepwold for a few weeks. It matters not, I must leave and spread word of this – one more of several intrusions from the dark ones in the east.
He can teach “Bounty of the Woods” (healing) ritual. DC 10 Intelligence check + 24 hours to learn the ritual; HEROES FEAST: The bounty of the woods – Primordial Awareness gone until long rest (but can be done any time), 1 hour ritual. Ranger of High King. Intelligence of 14 and Divine Aptitude 1 required.
Carry my observations to the Briarwood of Moorthorne. I cannot offer you much, but I can give you these arrows – upon them is sap from a sacred birch of the pine tribes folk in the freelands.
6 light arrows; break when they hit or on 1 on d6 on miss. d10/5 + DC 20 Constitution save or the target loses half their movement rate for 1 hour.
Although your rest is not interrupted, you are bothered as you wake up in the morning. You feel as if the entreatments that were made at the beginning of your trek into Pranin Woods are echoing in your ears. You have come this far in defiance of their words, but still you harken to remember what they said and consider them once again.
Suddenly the forest goes silent around you. Looking around, dozens of eyes, snouts, ears, and heads are frozen in your direction. There is a large rustling, as if a massive animal is coming through the brush. Ahead, the trees part, and creeper vines pull back, and the large ferns lay down to reveal a humanoid. She is dressed in skins and painted. She is attended by a large snake at least 20 feet long. She makes no hostile motions and once the foliage has stopped moving, she beckons you forward. “We welcome the bearers of corruption. Come to the refuge of Briarwood of Moorthorne, be safe from the forces at your heels.”
I am High Druidess Adella. Know that we know of your journey, and all druids of Pranin have watched you. You bring a horrible influence, one that is warping life around it as we speak. The goodwill that you weaklanders bought in the war with Gwinn is sorely tested. Many enemies have eyes upon you. The woods have been assaulted from all sides in an attempt to get to you. Not only that but the evil that you bring awakens parts of the woodlands that is angry with the spirits of the Davrosian druids. We have been watched constantly by so many since you have entered and used our magics to try and fight several incursions here. Why, specifically, have you come?
IF ASKED WHAT THEY KNOW
Once in the deep woods, the cold lords of the grave have little to no power, so at least they have only been prying eyes. The unholy trio seek to take these things from you – we assume for advantage in their own war with the lich lords of the north. The Witch of Dwindor watches intently through her servitors, though her attempts are mostly foiled. She has silent spies everywhere though. Her designs, whoever it may be, are inscrutable. Other things stir that we are unfamiliar with. We thought neither of these can reach you in The Deepwold, but that which you carry amplifies their own evil powers. The Deep Mother has sent one of her greater ancient minions to the shore in Sabin Bay – one of its kind has not been seen in thousands of years. Its ‘children’ prowl the moorswood hidden from us somewhat. The salt waters of Scar Flow provide some cover… she tries hard to hide them, but we sense them. She is the only one of sufficient power to reach you in force and only because she has manifested directly to shackle her fell minion from the ancient fallen temple – she has violated The Godspeak.
We here in the Briarwood are not strong enough to accomplish what you seek, only the Moordaeth can do that. While we cannot process your desires, we can offer this place of power as a refuge. It is a day or so journey to the heart of the woods and The Moordaeth awaits at Cold Eye, the lake of stars, the eye of Ssisslenn. We can guide you there, but we here in the Briarwood are not strong enough to process what you desire. Rest for a while here, heal and be well. Come the morning, you will have a guide if that is when you wish to leave. If anything attempts to bar our passage, you will have our powers to draw on.
Screams shatter the peace of the forest as you are preparing to set out. You tumble to the ground bucking and shifting under you. The quakes you have felt over the last several months seem to be either more localized or have gotten much stronger. The worst of it subsides slowly. The ground trembles without pause for nearly a full minute after the initial violent shock. Suddenly, the ground erupts, mud covered white bones crawling from wounds in the earth like open graves! The soil vomits up giant skeletons of multiple creatures big and small alike. Those dozens that seem were once humanoid collapse into a pile of bones – the Briarwood’s life magic countering the animation power within them.
Vomits up skeletons of PC x1 giant lizards and a pair of ancient Minotaurs – bronzemen guardians.
https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Minotaur%20Skeleton#content (core attack only)
https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Giant%20Lizard#content
Bring the spirit of Ssisslenn – the PCs will be in awe gazing upon the form of the great snake father. Gaia and Darupet will be there as well, but say nothing.
Come, join with us in the ritual of our great father. Lose yourself to its power, give in to the primitive power. There may be pain, but such is the cost for any great progress in life!
IF PC PARTICIPATE >
Its wild, and primal, you begin to sway and move, eventually going into a dance of wild ecstasy and abandon. You dance with serpents, feeling them crawl over you. Their fangs are bared, their coils grip, and their eyes burn with forbidden knowledge!
PLAY DEATH AND RESURRECTION SHOW
Hundreds of animals provide a rhythmic beat, paws pounding, wings flapping. Music fills your ears and the druids begin a strenuous writhing dance that mimics that of a serpent. As the fire grows in strength, stoked by unseen animals, a shadow trails out from it. The snake father speaks from it as the shadow becomes form and towers above you, wrapping his body all around you: “I sense ___ (mood of druids) of The Moordaeth, my chosen on Helca in the settled lands. I am the speaker of the wyld, I am the clutch breaker, I am the dream stealer, I am that which steals the breath and burns the blood. The Moordaeth will command my scales, my fangs, and my muscles to strike upon the victims. These things you bring in offering, I will crush them in my coils, taking their power!” There are two other vague entities in the wings, you can see they are nebulous, and speak in unison: “Let thy power be released.” and they fade with the sound of a roar and rush of gale winds.
GIFTs/BOONs
The coils of the serpent around bulge and twist, cracking and breaking the offerings. In one gulp, their remains are swallowed by the maw of the serpent, its unblinking eyes staring at you the whole time.
Anyone sentient not in the pond at Cold Eye (where they are protected) within 1km when the nail is destroyed DC 12 Constitution Ritual Backlash save:
Fail: -1hp perm, -1 Sanity/-1 Essence; Lesser Restoration will never work on you
Success: +1 Sanity/+1 Essence, Lesser Restoration will restore a level of Exhaustion in addition.
Aboleth Pursuit – @end druids can have lizard folk guide to lair; can hide them from detection?
Monk: Perhaps training could be a reward for taking out the troglodytes?