I'm writing a mini campaign that involves my players exploring a frozen tundra, breaking through a frozen lake and finding a lost civilization in a lush rainforest. There's a city in the distance with temples and other structures. My enemies are mutated humanoids (former citizens) that have been corrupted by a dark magic. So, my real question is what are some fun encounters I can have them overcome while they make their way through a rainforest to the city? Then when they reach the city what could be some other exciting puzzles or encounters they can face?
hmmmm..... As they're crossing the tundra they should see the half eaten remains of a giant beast. (roll for some checks). it either looks like a strange beast, perhaps something not seen before (it's a dinosaur. Make sure it's definitely NOT one that would be found in a tundra. If you don't want a dinosaur, use a tropical animal, just make it huge). as they get closer they get the chance to ambush something you might find this far north (or south) (ice type monster, possibly a yeti), and they seem to have some weird looking foliage. (second clue about the rainforest).
Third encounter is a strange pit with a warm air emanating from it A bird like animal rushes out of it.
Now they should be interested enough to descend.
As they do, the pit/cave starts out dark but as they progress it gets warmer and the stones start glowing brighter till they stumble upon said rainforest.
From there, I might feature the Yaun-ti and some aztec/rainforest type creatures. The villagers start off friendly, but seem a bit off.
They players are encouraged to investigate and they find the villagers are doing something strange in the nearby pyramid. As the group investigates more, the villagers seem either encouraging the characters to go into the pyramid (for nefarious reasons related to converting the group), or the villagers start to suspect something in the pyramid is amiss.
In the pyramid you can set up a standard dungeon crawl with some puzzle lock doors (set some objects in the right spots to open up doors sorta thing, or press some butons simultaneously sort of thing. Very Indiana Jones sorta stuff), and I'd do an assortment of different monsters.
in the rainforest getting there, toss in some dinosaurs and some brightly colors bird monsters, and maybe this village here worships at the pyramid/temple to ward away the undead. Yeah, some of the villiagers and adventurers that died in the forest come back as ghosts or zombies (or pick another undead that's full of flavor), and that's why they do the thing they do with the temple despite it being somewhat ungood for them (or maybe, the secret t the pyramid the villagers haven't discovered is that the god of the pyramid is making the undead to trick the villagers into worshiping it....)
Once they find what's residing in the temple behind all the traps, it's either some sort of lich or high power undead thing OR, maybe it's an eldritch horror of sorts of a monster type that bears resemblance to the villager's curse that is in service to an ancient unknown god (Yeah, kinda taking it down a lovecraftian route...)
I'm writing a mini campaign that involves my players exploring a frozen tundra, breaking through a frozen lake and finding a lost civilization in a lush rainforest. There's a city in the distance with temples and other structures. My enemies are mutated humanoids (former citizens) that have been corrupted by a dark magic. So, my real question is what are some fun encounters I can have them overcome while they make their way through a rainforest to the city? Then when they reach the city what could be some other exciting puzzles or encounters they can face?
Thanks!
So, funny story, Tomb of Annihilation is about 80% made up of fun jungle encounters with strange monsters, including dinosaurs, which are mainstays in these sorts of tales. I would suggest looking that adventure over and picking out a few of the more entertaining encounters, maybe even looking over how the adventure handles exploring the lost jungle temple city of Omu near the end as inspiration for he temple city in your adventure.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Put in a small tribe of archaic Loxodon living in a primitive settlement, that don't trust "human" looking creatures (as you use mutated human enemies, you could use this to foreshadow them) depending on how convincing the PCs are that they're "not of the same tribe" that killed or abducted some of the Loxodons, they get a safe place to rest/information about a part of the jungle/history/or even just a healing potion or two (up to trade). Maybe the Loxodons have a short Side Quest or Test for them, like "Acquire the Pollen of a Great Gobbelup Flower" as an offer to *Loxodon Idol* to prove your sincerity, then make them fight a HUGE awakened carnivorous plant.
As an encounter/minigame they could also encounter a clearing full of awakened carnivorous Pitcher Plants (think of the Victreebel Pokemon) that are slow and only move towards noises (That's why i named them "Ear Plants" in my setting), so players either have to sneak or kite individual creatures to all reach the other side of the map. The Plants might swallow PCs, that fail to evade them. As a variant use a grove of "Tanglewood Trees" that snatch players with vines and suspend them mid air if they fail their perception checks or dex saves. All have fire resistance due to the dampness of the rainforest.
Hi all,
I'm writing a mini campaign that involves my players exploring a frozen tundra, breaking through a frozen lake and finding a lost civilization in a lush rainforest. There's a city in the distance with temples and other structures. My enemies are mutated humanoids (former citizens) that have been corrupted by a dark magic. So, my real question is what are some fun encounters I can have them overcome while they make their way through a rainforest to the city? Then when they reach the city what could be some other exciting puzzles or encounters they can face?
Thanks!
hmmmm..... As they're crossing the tundra they should see the half eaten remains of a giant beast. (roll for some checks). it either looks like a strange beast, perhaps something not seen before (it's a dinosaur. Make sure it's definitely NOT one that would be found in a tundra. If you don't want a dinosaur, use a tropical animal, just make it huge). as they get closer they get the chance to ambush something you might find this far north (or south) (ice type monster, possibly a yeti), and they seem to have some weird looking foliage. (second clue about the rainforest).
Third encounter is a strange pit with a warm air emanating from it A bird like animal rushes out of it.
Now they should be interested enough to descend.
As they do, the pit/cave starts out dark but as they progress it gets warmer and the stones start glowing brighter till they stumble upon said rainforest.
From there, I might feature the Yaun-ti and some aztec/rainforest type creatures. The villagers start off friendly, but seem a bit off.
They players are encouraged to investigate and they find the villagers are doing something strange in the nearby pyramid. As the group investigates more, the villagers seem either encouraging the characters to go into the pyramid (for nefarious reasons related to converting the group), or the villagers start to suspect something in the pyramid is amiss.
In the pyramid you can set up a standard dungeon crawl with some puzzle lock doors (set some objects in the right spots to open up doors sorta thing, or press some butons simultaneously sort of thing. Very Indiana Jones sorta stuff), and I'd do an assortment of different monsters.
in the rainforest getting there, toss in some dinosaurs and some brightly colors bird monsters, and maybe this village here worships at the pyramid/temple to ward away the undead. Yeah, some of the villiagers and adventurers that died in the forest come back as ghosts or zombies (or pick another undead that's full of flavor), and that's why they do the thing they do with the temple despite it being somewhat ungood for them (or maybe, the secret t the pyramid the villagers haven't discovered is that the god of the pyramid is making the undead to trick the villagers into worshiping it....)
Once they find what's residing in the temple behind all the traps, it's either some sort of lich or high power undead thing OR, maybe it's an eldritch horror of sorts of a monster type that bears resemblance to the villager's curse that is in service to an ancient unknown god (Yeah, kinda taking it down a lovecraftian route...)
Hope that helps.
So, funny story, Tomb of Annihilation is about 80% made up of fun jungle encounters with strange monsters, including dinosaurs, which are mainstays in these sorts of tales. I would suggest looking that adventure over and picking out a few of the more entertaining encounters, maybe even looking over how the adventure handles exploring the lost jungle temple city of Omu near the end as inspiration for he temple city in your adventure.
This is great! Thank you so much!
Put in a small tribe of archaic Loxodon living in a primitive settlement, that don't trust "human" looking creatures (as you use mutated human enemies, you could use this to foreshadow them) depending on how convincing the PCs are that they're "not of the same tribe" that killed or abducted some of the Loxodons, they get a safe place to rest/information about a part of the jungle/history/or even just a healing potion or two (up to trade). Maybe the Loxodons have a short Side Quest or Test for them, like "Acquire the Pollen of a Great Gobbelup Flower" as an offer to *Loxodon Idol* to prove your sincerity, then make them fight a HUGE awakened carnivorous plant.
As an encounter/minigame they could also encounter a clearing full of awakened carnivorous Pitcher Plants (think of the Victreebel Pokemon) that are slow and only move towards noises (That's why i named them "Ear Plants" in my setting), so players either have to sneak or kite individual creatures to all reach the other side of the map. The Plants might swallow PCs, that fail to evade them. As a variant use a grove of "Tanglewood Trees" that snatch players with vines and suspend them mid air if they fail their perception checks or dex saves. All have fire resistance due to the dampness of the rainforest.