While the Gloomy Forest is a dense, old-growth woodland, it also lies in the highlands of Brackleborn province. The underlying terrain consists of steep-sided hills, with deep valleys running between them. Climbing the hills involves rigorous activity that eats up valuable daylight, meaning the party has tended to follow the maze of gullies, culverts, and channels that characterize the forest at ground level. They haven't quite realized how many areas and encounters are up on the hillsides that they've simply wandered beneath without ever realizing it.
Some of these encounter areas are lairs, the denizens of which populate the wandering encounter tables. If the players can locate a lair and wipe it out, then that creature type might disappear entirely from the tables. While a lair persists, it also generates an additional encounter check if the party wanders within a certain distance of it. Thus, wiping out a lair of monsters can have long-reaching exploration benefits.
I've sprinkled lots of these encounter lairs across the Gloomy Forest map: peryton nests; an awakened grove full of intelligent animals, plants, and myconids; a bullywug village; an ancient cemetery; an ettercap nest; etc.
One such lair is the following owlbear den, a bit of content I cribbed from my old Frozen North campaign. With a few minor flavor changes from a Viking-style setting to a European/fey one, the content works just as well here. Reusing adventures is something I'd always avoided in the past...no idea why. It saves so much time and effort, and let's me revisit the adventure with a fresh perspective. With the right changes, I've even reused adventures for the original players and they didn't catch on.
As with most monsters in the 5e Monster Manual (particularly the classic monsters), I've had to de-neuter their archetypal special attacks. I don't know why 5e took away some of the core monster abilities (like the owlbear’s classic hug attack, or the rust monster’s ability to eat magic weapons and armor...it just makes no sense). I digress; my owlbears will hug the crap out of you. Changes to the core monster are described below.
Owlbear Den
This is the lair of a sleuth of owlbears—(8) “sows,” (6) juveniles, and a massive “boar.”
Lair Features
The owlbears’ den lies beneath a tall, steep-sided hill covered in boulders, heavy scrub, and fir trees. The lair entrance lies at the end of a washed-out gully, 60 ft. up the hillside and partially camouflaged by trees.
- A party following the cut of the gully treats the hill slope as difficult terrain.
- Traversing any other part of the rugged hillside is difficult terrain and requires a DC 12 Athletics check for every round of movement. Combined, a climber must spend 3 ft. for every foot of movement they make on the hillside.
- Fail = The climber’s Speed becomes 0 for the round and they must make a DC 12 DEX save or tumble (2d3 x 5) ft. back down the hill. If the Athletics check fails by 5+, the DEX save has disadvantage.
- NOTE: Every (10) minutes of such activity has a 1-in-6 chance of drawing 1d3 owlbear “sows” to investigate.
A second entrance further up the hillside is totally obscured by foliage (DC 20 to spot it from area B).
- The concealed opening is 45 ft. above the main entrance and leads to area F.
- Anyone climbing to this point can easily see the cave, which appears seldom used.
Inside, the lair is a naturally-formed cave system of rocks and packed dirt. Tree roots dangle from the ceilings.
- Ceiling height varies: caves 3–5 and 11 = 15 ft.; 6–7 = 20 ft.; areas 8, 12, and tunnels = 10 ft.
- Any large, destructive area effects will cause dirt and rocks to fall from the ceiling. Such effects that do more than 15 points of damage can trigger a partial collapse...
- Roll 1d20: On '20,' a (1d6 x 10)-ft. diam. section of ceiling over the target area falls, showering the area with rocks and dirt for 4d10 blud (DC 15 DEX save for half-damage).
- Each additional (5) points of damage increases the chance of collapse and the area d6 roll by 1, and increases damage by 1d10 (e.g., an area effect that does 20 damage triggers a collapse on 19-20, that is ((1d6+1) x 10)-ft in diam. and does 5d10 blud.)
Lair Activity
Owlbears are nocturnal, so the approximate time-of-day affects the state of their lair (active or inactive).
- 7:00–10:00 AM = All owlbears are present in the lair and awake (active).
- 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM = All owlbears are present but asleep (inactive).
- NOTE: Sleeping owlbears have disadvantage on Perception checks, but their Keen Senses ability cancels that penalty.
- 5:00–9:00 PM = All owlbears are present in the lair and awake (active).
- 9:00 PM – 7:00 AM = All owlbears are active, but half the sows are out hunting while the other half mind the nests.
- On 1-in-6, the boar is also out hunting during this time; otherwise, he is here waiting for his meal to return.
The Owlbears
Owlbear “sows” (females) are standard owlbears with the following addition to its Claws attack…
- If its claws hit by 5 or more, or on a critical hit, the owlbear hugs the target. The target is grappled and restrained (escape DC 15). Until these conditions end, the owlbear’s Claws attack automatically hits the grappled target, and its Beak attack has advantage against the target.
Juveniles (male or female) are standard owlbears with the following changes…
- Medium-sized; STR 16, CON 15, CHA 5
- AC 12, HP 27 (5d8+5), Speed 30; CR: 1 (200 XP)
- Multiattack: Beak (+5, 1d8+3p) and Claws (+5, 2d6+3s) (no Hug ability)
The “boar” (male) is a standard owlbear with the following changes…
- DEX 14, CON 18, WIS 14, CHA 12
- AC 15, HP 95 (10d10+40), Speed 40; CR: 4 (1,100 XP)
- Multiattack: Beak (+6, 1d10+5p) and Claws (+6, 2d8+5s) (plus Hug ability)
- Terrifying Screech (Recharge 5-6). Any creatures (other than owlbears) within 60 ft. who hear it must make a DC 12 WIS save or be frightened until the end of their next turn.
Loot. Each owlbear sow has 4d6 “good” feathers which can be used to craft specialty items. Each juvenile has 2d6 such feathers, while the boar has 8d6.
- Recovering the good feathers from a dead owlbear takes 10 minutes and a DC 10 Nature check (failure halves the number of feathers recovered).
- Each feather is worth 1 gp to a sage, wizard, or fletcher.
- They make exceptional writing quills (+1 to calligraphy checks or rolls to transcribe spells).
- (1) feather can provide superior fletching for 1d4+1 arrows that have 20% greater range.
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A) Toward the back of the gully, a worn path leads to a large hole in the hillside. Animal remains litter the ground—old bones and recently-gnawed carcasses. Large feathers are scattered everywhere.
- The owlbears drag their kills here to eat. Signs of their coming and going are everywhere (a DC 12 Nature check indicates a dozen or so creatures).
- Intruder activity in this area (including combat) while the lair is in an active state has a 1-in-6 chance per (10) minutes that 1d3 owlbear sows appear to investigate.
Monsters. (12) aggressive blood hawks lurk in the trees near the entrance and pick over the bones. They eventually attack anyone who lingers in this area longer than a minute or so.
- When half the birds are killed, the others withdraw into the trees (or fly away).
- They do not attack if owlbears are present and will retreat if they appear.
- NOTE: From 6:00–10:00 AM, roll 1d20: On 16-20, 1d3+1 owlbear sows make a great deal of commotion here, ripping apart prey and taking pieces inside to feed the others.
B) The hole opens into a tunnel that slopes sharply downward before leveling off again. A foul, musky odor wafts from below.
- At the bottom, the tunnel slopes sharply upward again to area C.
- Both slopes are difficult terrain and affect line-of-sight (a creature at the top of either slope has half-cover from an attacker at the bottom).
C) More bones and feathers litter the floor.
- If the lair is active, then loud screeching and the sounds of bestial combat can be heard from the east tunnel.
- If the lair is inactive, then the heavy breathing of multiple sleeping creatures can be heard to the west, north, and east.
Loot. (1) search for feathers can be made here (see area B).
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D) A nondescript cave except when the lair is active, in which case…
Monsters. A pair of rowdy owlbear juveniles tussles fiercely here.
- The young males fight frequently, so the sounds of combat won’t immediately draw the adults’ attention.
- Noisy spellcasting will draw the owlbear boar and 1–2 sows to investigate.
- If either juvenile is reduced to 50% hp, both flee to area E.
Loot. (1) search for feathers can be made here (see area B).
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E) In the center of the cave is a cluster of six nests made of bones, tree limbs, and furry bits of animal hide.
Monsters. The juvenile owlbears dwell in this cave.
- If the lair is active, then (2) owlbear juveniles are here (one male, one female) plus any that retreat here from area D.
- If the lair is inactive, then all (6) juveniles are asleep in their nests. They screech if attacked, drawing half the sows in the lair here at once.
Hazard. Fighting in or moving through a nest requires a DC 10 DEX save or fall prone. Owlbears are unaffected by this hazard.
Loot. (3) searches for feathers can be made here (see area 2). A search of the nests also turns up an old leather pouch containing a jeweled armlet worth 100 gp and a sapphire necklace worth 300 gp.
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F) Two 8-ft. high ledges (DC 10 Climb) ascend to a large cave with eight nests in the center. A tunnel exits to the south.
- The owlbears can traverse the 8-ft. ledges without having to climb, but doing so requires 10 ft. of movement.
- A 10-ft. high ledge on the north wall near the ceiling is concealed by a jutting rock (DC 14 Perception check to spot from below). It leads to area H.
- The southern tunnel corkscrews upward about 30 ft. to a concealed cave opening above area A.
Monsters. When active, any owlbear sows present in the lair—and not in area G (see below)—tend the nests in this cave, along with (2) owlbear juveniles (both female).
- The sows often become aggressive with each other, so their screeches and the sounds of combat lasting fewer than (3) rounds are unlikely to draw the attention of other owlbears in the lair (unless noisy spellcasting is involved).
Hazard. Fighting in or moving through a nest requires a DC 10 DEX save or fall prone. Owlbears are unaffected by this hazard.
Loot. (3) searches for feathers can be made here (see area 2). In addition, two nests hold helpless hatchlings, just a few days old; a third nest holds an unhatched egg.
- The hatchlings are already bonded to their mothers and will be difficult to train or control as they get older and fiercer.
- The egg, if tended properly, will hatch in (2) weeks. This hatchling will impress upon the first creature it sees and form an immediate bond. If cared for, the hatchling grows into a juvenile in (1) year.
- Both hatchlings and the egg can be sold for quite a bit to the right buyer.
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G) A natural ramp ascends to a 15-ft. high ledge where an enormous nest is piled against the fast wall.
Monster. The owlbear boar is almost always here resting when not out hunting (which is rare these days). If he is here, then 0-2 owlbear sows are also present (and will not be encountered in area F).
- While on the ledge, the owlbear has total cover against attackers from below unless it stands at the edge (half-cover).
- It only has half-cover against anyone attacking from the ramp (or no cover past the ramp’s mid-point).
- If the boar is attacked, its screeching roars bring every other owlbear in the den to its aid.
Hazard. Fighting in or moving through a nest requires a DC 10 DEX save or fall prone. Owlbears are unaffected by this hazard.
Loot. (3) searches for feathers can be made here (see area 2).
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H) The upper caves are not used by the owlbears, for they fear these areas. From the east, two 8-ft. high ledges (DC 10 Climb) ascend to a narrow shelf that appears to be a dead-end at first glance.
- The owlbears can traverse the 8-ft. ledges without having to climb, but doing so requires 10 ft. of movement.
- A third, 10-ft. high ledge on the west wall near the ceiling is concealed by a jutting rock (DC 14 Perception check to spot from below).
At the top of the third ledge, the skeletal remains of a long-dead explorer wearing shredded leather armor slumps against the wall.
- A rusted iron spike is hammered into the rock wall next to him, the frayed stub of a rope tied to it.
- Owlbear claw marks can still be seen scored on the lip of the ledge.
- The explorer’s skeletal arm points a broken spear haft down the passage to the west.
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I) The air gets colder as one heads down this section of tunnel.
- Anyone with a passive Insight of 11 or more feels a pervading sense of dread building with each step.
_____
- Directly above the pick, a 10-ft. high ledge near the ceiling is concealed by a jutting rock (DC 14 Perception check to spot from below).
Trap. If the pickaxe is touched, a horrific apparition appears and screams; everyone within 60 ft. must make a DC 14 WIS save or be frightened and flee the area for (1) minute.
- Frightened creatures must use the Dash action each round and will even jump off the ledges at area H, taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage that does not break the fear effect.
- Fleeing creatures may roll another DC 14 WIS save at the end of each turn to end the effect.
Monsters. The round after the apparition wails, (4) specters emerge from the cave walls and attack any creatures remaining in the cave. They appear dressed like ancient warriors wielding archaic weapons.
Loot. The robed figure wears a holy symbol and holds a +1 staff that can cast the light cantrip on itself 3/day (regains all uses at dawn).
- In his pouch is a spell scroll: protection from good and evil and a healing potion.
- Tucked into his belt is a copper dowsing rod and a scrap of parchment scrawled with a crude map depicting the hill’s location marked with an ‘X’. A handwritten note reads: “Beneath the hill of Yorim’s fall, his treasure there to lie; it may be found, deep in a cave, by searching low and high.”
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K) At the top of the concealed ledge is a secret cave. A rotting wooden chest sits against the far wall.
Loot. The chest contains...
- 2,000 gp in ancient finery and trade goods
- 500 old gold coins
- (11) gemstones (worth 1d3 x 50 gp ea.)
- A +1 shield
- (5) +1 arrows
- A gaseous form potion
- A spell scroll: hold person
- A scroll of protection from elementals
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