First Encounters in the Luna Valley
The Demonplague is on sale in both PDF and print. If you’ve got a hard copy of the book, send me a shelfie on Twitter (because they make me happy)! Last week I gave you twenty new story hooks to bring your characters into the adventure. In this post I give you new encounters you can bring to your game the first time the characters enter the Luna Valley.
Encounters on the Way to Tomar’s Crossing
When the characters enter the Luna Valley for the first time, they’re likely headed to Tomar’s Crossing, the valley’s only surviving settlement, to get some answers about what’s happening in the disaster-touched valley. Depending on the story hook you used to bring your characters to the valley, they may not realize Tomar’s Crossing is the place to seek out answers, and these encounters can help point them in that direction.
The encounters which follow are meant to be used when your characters first enter the Luna Valley. They can be supplemented with the random encounters in the Luna Valley included in The Demonplague adventure.
Baryl Harb Abduction
The characters come upon several humanoid corpses, stripped of their belongings. A character notices the bodies smell faintly of adhesive with a successful DC 8 Wisdom (Perception) check and can tell the bodies have been dead for several days with a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check.
The bodies are stuffed with alchemical glue and laid here as a trap by hidden goblins. If the bodies take at least 1 point of fire damage, they explode with glue, and each creature within 5 feet of the body must succeed on a DC 11 Dexterity saving throw or become restrained in the glue. A successful DC 12 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check made as an action breaks free of the glue.
Two winter goblins and two winter goblin alchemists of the Baryl Harb tribe hide nearby. A character notices the goblins with a successful Wisdom (Perception) check opposed by the goblins’ Dexterity (Stealth) checks. When the characters are within 5 feet of the bodies, the goblins attack, fighting until only two remain then fleeing.
If the goblins defeat the characters, they stabilize anyone who is dying and bring their victims to Fort Frostfell. Captured goblins tell the characters they are capturing displaced people on the road headed for Tomar’s Crossing and holding those prisoners alive in Fort Frostfell for their master Dourkeg with a successful DC 9 Charisma (Intimidation or Persuasion) check.
Refugees on the Road
The characters hear battle in the distance and find three scouts and ten commoners from Safeharbor defending themselves from eight Black Skull bandits. If the Safeharbor refugees notice the characters, they call for help. If the characters do not intervene, the bandits capture the refugees and bring them to Gardong Marhold. If the characters intervene and are defeated by the bandits, dying characters are stabilized and brought to Gardong Marhold.
The bandits fight until three remain then flee. If the characters defeat the bandits, surviving refugees explain that the melt has destroyed all buy one settlement in the valley, Tomar’s Crossing. The refugees are on their way there and beg the characters for an escort. If the characters get the refugees safely to the village, the refugees reward them with a pearl worth 15 gp.
Hungry Wolf
A starving female winter wolf with two levels of exhaustion approaches the characters, asking if they are looking for “the only place of people left in the valley.” The wolf offers to lead the characters to this place in exchange for food. The wolf is dying, as many of her food sources have disappeared in the melt. If the characters give her food to eat, she leads them to Tomar’s Crossing. If not, the desperate creature attacks, fighting to the death.
If the wolf is guiding the characters toward Tomar’s Crossing and the characters run into trouble from another group of creatures, she hangs back, feasting upon fresh kills, and attacking the characters if she thinks they are vulnerable enough to die quickly.
Zombie Feast
The characters come upon two plague zombies devouring a trio of fresh human corpses. If the zombies notice the characters, they attack, fighting to the death. Undisturbed the zombies feast for 1 hour on the body then wander off in search of a new meal.
If the characters examine the bodies, they notice each adult carried several large bags, as if they were out in the valley looking to forage. A successful DC 12 Wisdom (Survival) check finds the humans’ tracks in the mud which lead to Tomar’s Crossing. The humans are refugees from Sweetwater that went off to find food for the camp and were killed.
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