D&D 5E Fun Temperate Woods/hills encounters

[Gilladian]

My PCs will soon be undertaking a many-days-long trip with a mule train and horses through old-growth temperate forest (think appalachians into the adirondacks).

I can think of fun monsters to throw at them, but what would be some good non-monster encounters, or ways to take the ordinary monsters (goblins, owlbears, maybe a wyvern, some plant creatures, some friendly fey) and make them livelier, a little different, more challenging, etc... with terrain, weather, etc?

For that matter, the whole area was a highly settled and domesticated region, 400 years ago, so they'll be passing by the remains of ancient abandoned estates, farms, villages, even small towns and castles. Any imagery or encounters that you can suggest connected with them would be great!

My pcs are 5-6th level, but I'm not particular about the encounters being "balanced for them"...

 

[MG.0]

• How about travelling during a bad thunderstorm puts the party in the path of a landslide?
• Small arboreal monkeys with high stealth that play tricks on and steal items form the party - played for comedy, not to irritate.
• A ghostly village appearing over the ruins of an old settlement, along with ghostly figures going about their routine tasks. No combat, but maybe a mystery to solve.

Just some random thoughts.

 

[iserith]

Perhaps you can grab some ideas from this list of random encounters taken from my little dungeon adventure Barrow of the Evensong:

1-2. A mother owlbear, crazed and looking for her stolen egg. If someone has her egg, she attacks that person relentlessly and with advantage.

3-4. Four orcs, a scouting party for the army that is assembling in the East. They are looking for the legendary sword, Eye-Closer, on the order of their warlord, Grimgaunt the Orc-Wight.

5-6. Guy Lyrique, a wandering minstrel that was attacked on the road by a wolf and has wandered delirious through the forest for days. That was no normal wolf though - it was a werewolf and Guy has been infected with lycathropy. His change begins at an inopportune moment for the adventurers.

7-8. A bugbear and four goblins that have been tracking Gambol the blink dog. They think they can gain his power of teleportation if they eat him.

9-10. A centaur and a giant owl on their way to a fey wedding. They know of the barrow and suspect the adventurers might be tomb-robbers, so they're hostile until the adventurers prove otherwise.

11-12. A yuan-ti malison (type 1) following the pheromone trail left by Lily Guild. He knows the truth of her capture, but cannot reveal her true identity or the presence of the Snake Cult to unbelievers like the adventurers.

13-14. A band of mercenaries (a berserker and three bandits) working for The Drab Men who have now turned on their unreliable ettercap co-conspirator. They're here to kill Daddy Longlegs and the prisoners he's keeping and destroy any evidence of the plot.

15-16. A will-o'-wisp that tries to lure adventurers into an area of quicksand.

17-18. Three swarms of insects, nasty biting flies, that descend upon the adventurers' location to feed.

19-20. An ogre with a craving for fresh halfling or gnome for dinner. But any adventurer will do to sate his appetite for flesh.

 

[Gilladian]

Thanks! There are some good ideas in both of these responses, and I appreciate it. I like the fey wedding idea; maybe they'll just run into a whole wedding procession... accompanied by theiving pixies who need a wedding gift for the bride!

 

[John R Davis]

Maybe a PC accidentally catches a thrown bouquet and is surrounded by drunk suitors!

 

[Gilladian]

Actually, right now I have the "wedding scene" half-written and could happily take some advice before Sunday, when I might end up running it (or in a couple weeks, maybe).

The wedding is between a Pixie Princess and a Korred Prince. It is as much a ceremonial marriage to forge an alliance as anything else. However, in the middle of the wedding, an intruder arrives, announcing that the Korred Prince is actually betrothed to HER (and yes, apparently this is true). The new betrothed, however, (another sort of sprite or pixie), is a DARK fey! The Princess will demand to know what it will take for her to give up the Prince, because true love, etc...

WHAT would she want or demand of the Princess (and how could the party help fulfill the demand)?

 

[Azurewraith]

Actually, right now I have the "wedding scene" half-written and could happily take some advice before Sunday, when I might end up running it (or in a couple weeks, maybe).

The wedding is between a Pixie Princess and a Korred Prince. It is as much a ceremonial marriage to forge an alliance as anything else. However, in the middle of the wedding, an intruder arrives, announcing that the Korred Prince is actually betrothed to HER (and yes, apparently this is true). The new betrothed, however, (another sort of sprite or pixie), is a DARK fey! The Princess will demand to know what it will take for her to give up the Prince, because true love, etc...

WHAT would she want or demand of the Princess (and how could the party help fulfill the demand)?

Perhaps they could be sent on an adventure to check one of these ancient ruins for a mythic artifact that can reveal what ones heart truly wants and see who loves the prince more? You could all ways find a way to run the test in secret so maybe the PCs could fake the outcome

 

[John R Davis]

Some kind of stone circle in distant land holds the spirit of the dark feys long lost king in a prison. Do the party help the princess but free a long forgotten terror and mischief maker?

 

[Gilladian]

Hmmm... I wonder if I could sort of combine those ideas. Hidden in a (not too distant) ruin is a magic mirror, or maby a pool, that shows one's true desire (mirror of erised, anyone?). Of course, it has a deadly guardian. It will reveal that the pixie princess loves the Korred Prince, and that the Dark Fey Lady loves a Dark Fey Prince, but that he is ensorcelled into something, trapped somewhere, and in need of rescue. He could be trapped in the Barrens, a very deadly region not far away, which the party is traveling towards, and they could make it ONE of their goals to find and free the Prince when they get that far. Whether or not they actually DO free him is up to them... but at least they'll have the friendship of both Princess and Lady until they do or do not decide to perform the rescue.