The Road to Baldur’s Gate has led your party to the very edge of the Misty Forest. Fortunately, their road doesn’t take them through this ancient and mysterious wood, but strange things can happen even on the outskirts of this mystical realm. This week’s encounter is titled Misty Marauders, in which the characters find themselves awash in strange visions as they travel the length of the Misty Forest. In this series, a group of adventurers will travel down the Sword Coast for nearly two months over road and wilderness, from the gates of Waterdeep to the threshold of Baldur’s Gate. You may use this series as an introduction to the upcoming D&D storyline Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus, as an expansion to the caravan sequence in the first D&D storyline adventure, Hoard of the Dragon Queen, or piecemeal as standalone encounters.
You can keep track of this journey on this massive map of the Sword Coast, originally presented in the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide. The trip from Waterdeep to Baldur’s Gate covers about 750 miles of both road and off-road wilderness. A small party on horseback can cover about 24 miles per day at a casual pace, with just under two days off for rest per tenday of travel. All in all, this journey takes about a 45 days to complete for a small party of adventurers—assuming they’re well-prepared and no serious complications arise. And note, not every day of travel needs to be represented by an encounter; the characters may go for days with only minor encounters with passing merchants or travelers.
This is the fourth encounter along this journey. The previous encounters are:
Combat Encounter: Misty Marauders
This combat encounter is suitable for a party of 2nd-level characters. A party adept in stealth, deception, or even performance could defuse this encounter before it begins.
To most, the Misty Forest is exactly what it appears to be on the surface: a perfectly typical forest of ancient pines shrouded in mist that rolls off the High Moor to its immediate east. Some folk tales have spread of the spirits of the departed lingering in its boughs and taking shape as misty specters along the forest’s edge—but these are naught but fairy tales. The Misty Forest is truly the domain of Melandrach, King of the Woods, and the wood elves who follow his rule.
If you want more information on the Misty Forest, Melandrach, and the elves who dwell within it, you can read about it in chapter 2 of the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, and in chapter 4 of The Rise of Tiamat.
Encounter Summary
About four days after departing Daggerford and traveling down the Trade Way, the characters find themselves riding along the western edge of the Misty Forest. As the characters recall stories of elves and secrets hidden deep within its boughs, a bank of fog large enough to cover the horizon and blot out the sun billows over the treetops. Within seconds, the silvery mist subsumes the road, and before long, the characters smell an eye-watering odor, and hear distant cackling and whispering within the mist.
A pair of opportunistic troglodytes and their nose-less orog boss have taken advantage of the mist shroud to ambush travelers along the Trade Way. The characters can try to muddle through a misty, shadowy battle—or use the mist to their advantage and try to sneak, deceive, or spook their would-be ambushers.
You can also run this encounter using the D&D Beyond Encounter Builder!
Encounter Start
Four days after their dangerous encounter in Daggerford, the characters have traveled nearly 100 miles down the Trade Way, and are walking alongside the Misty Forest. Depending on how they resolved the Danger in Daggerford encounter, they may have had other misadventures on the way. When they pass within 100 feet of the edge of the forest, read or paraphrase the following:
You round a bend in the well-worn road and find yourself traveling directly alongside the edge of the Misty Forest. The early-morning sun clips the top of centuries-old pine trees, casting long shadows across the road, and tendrils of silvery mist reach out from the shady boughs of the forest.
After reading this, each of the characters can make a DC 13 Intelligence (History) check to recall a rumor about the Misty Forest. On a success, a character recalls one of the following tales of the forest; if Pip Kip is traveling with them cordially, the imp also relays one piece of information.
- The Misty Forest is an ancient land that even barbarians fear to hunt in. (True)
- The spirits of the dead supposedly linger in the forest, and sometimes emerge to harm outsiders. (False)
- The Misty Forest is ruled by an ancient elven king who kills all non-elves who enter the wood. (Partially true; King Melandrach has made the forest a domain of elves, but is not so barbaric as to kill all outsiders.)
- The forest contains a misty portal to the infamous realm of Ravenloft, and every 100 years, it emerges to engulf the unsuspecting and carry them away. (False… unless you want it to be true.)
- Monsters from the High Moor sometimes intrude in the forest to hunt. (True; some even pass through the forest to prey upon travelers on the Trade Way!)
The Mist Rolls In
After the characters have recalled and recounted this information about the Misty Forest, something strange occurs. Read or paraphrase the following:
A chill wind flows from the east, and the silvery tendrils of mist you saw curling out of the edge of the forest grow longer and longer, until a titanic fog cloud billows out of the forest. Within seconds, the entire world seems to be replaced by a swirling cloud of mist. The temperature has dropped so sharply that you can see your breath—and the fog is so thick that you can barely see more than 15 feet in front of you.
A massive cloud of fog bubbles over the tips of the pines and rolls onto the road. Within seconds, the characters are engulfed. Despite its mystical appearance, this fogbank is perfectly natural, and susceptible to effects that can whisk away or destroy fog, such strong winds or create or destroy water.
This fog is dense and thick, and about half a mile wide, with the characters directly in its center. Everything within the fog bank is lightly obscured, and creatures without truesight have their vision restricted to 15 feet in front of them. Any open flame that casts light pierces the fog while burning, but only casts light for half its usual radius. Effects that create light without a flame, such as the light cantrip merely reflect off of the glimmering haze, to no effect. Within this fog, creatures with the Sunlight Sensitivity trait or a similar trait are unaffected by sunlight.
Misty Marauders
After the fog rolls in, any character with a passive Wisdom (Perception) score of 12 smells a putrid stench coming from somewhere in front of them, through the mist. A character that notices the stench can make a further DC 17 Wisdom (Perception) check. On a success, that character hears that sound of talons scraping through soil, and of heavy armored footfalls not far behind. Three creatures are moving through the mist, no farther than 50 feet away.
Two troglodytes, led by Talbarrux, a clever orog are using the mist as a cover to ambush helpless travelers along the Trade Way. The orog wears a fearsome dread helm (from chapter 2 of Xanathar’s Guide to Everything) that casts supernatural shadows over his face and causes his eyes to glow red while wearing it. The helm has a T-shaped slit for his eyes, nose, and mouth, and a pair of huge, steel, bat-like wings extend from either side of the helm.
If the characters have a clever plan to sneak through the mist, allow them to attempt it before the marauders make their move. Stealth is one option; the orog and the troglodytes have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks made to spot the sneaking characters, because the fog lightly obscures them—though this applies in reverse, as well. Trying to spook the weak-willed troglodytes is another, though the orog is made of sterner stuff. In either case, you can represent this by making opposed checks, such as the characters’ group Dexterity (Stealth) check versus the marauders’ group Wisdom (Perception) check, or one character’s Charisma (Intimidation or Performance) versus each of the marauders’ individual Wisdom (Insight) check.
If the characters don’t immediately try to evade the encounter, the marauders sneak up on them. The troglodytes smell to high heaven, but sneak around and get behind the characters. Once the troglodytes are within 20 feet of the characters, they hide. They make their Dexterity (Stealth) checks with advantage, thanks to their Chameleon Skin trait, and the characters make Wisdom (Perception) checks to see them with disadvantage, because of the fog. Likewise, once the orog is within 30 feet of the characters, he dons his dread helm and his crimson eyes pierce the fog. In a low, rumbling voice he intones, “The god of mists demands tribute, mortals. Your weapons. Your valuables. All you possess. Drop it at your feet, lest the god of the mists claim first your lives.”
Talbarrux waits for a few seconds, allowing the characters to drop their valuables in a panic. If they don’t, the orog clicks his tongue and snarls, “Destroy them.” The troglodytes leap from cover and attack the characters (with advantage, if the characters didn’t spot them). Roll initiative, and any character that didn’t spot the troglodytes is surprised by them. The orog doesn’t attack on the first turn of combat, but instead plods menacingly forward, demanding that the characters submit. He attacks on subsequent rounds.
Escaping the Mists
Once the marauders have been defeated, tricked, or snuck past, the characters have only to travel for about an hour through the mist before emerging on the other side of the fogbank. Their journey continues—onward towards Baldur’s Gate!
Treasure
If the characters defeated Talbarrux and the troglodytes, they can claim their valuables. The orog’s dread helm is ripe for the taking, and the troglodytes each held a coin purse containing 15 gp.
Did you like this encounter? If you want to read more adventures, take a look at the other encounters in the Encounter of the Week series! If you're looking for full adventures instead of short encounters, you can pick up the adventures I've written on the DMs Guild, such as The Temple of Shattered Minds, a suspenseful eldritch mystery with a mind flayer villain (for 3rd level characters). My most recent adventures are included in the Platinum Bestseller Tactical Maps: Adventure Atlas, a collection of 88 unique encounters created by the Guild Adepts, which can be paired with the beautiful tactical poster maps in Tactical Maps Reincarnated, recently published by Wizards of the Coast.
James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, the DM of Worlds Apart, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and Kobold Press. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his partner Hannah and their feline adventurers Mei and Marzipan. You can usually find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.
My family started with the Starter set a year ago. I've been DMing adventures as side quests and one-shots in that environment all this time. My players are level 5, are rebuilding Gragmaw Castle with their share of the profits from the mine, and I think I just found their next encounter on the way through the forest to check on the progress...
I'm loving these low-leveled encounters that utilize under-appreciated and lesser-used monsters, especially in clever and unique ways.
I've said it before, but I'll say it again- I would love an article in which you explain your creative process for coming up with these.
True. So true.
Hi James,
I really love these adventures that you have written prior to the Decent into Avernus, It has helped me a lot as a DM.
I made a tweaked to the Orog in this adventure and was wondering what you thought.
Essentially I added a "frightening" aspect to the Dread Helm. The idea is that Talbarrux can use a bonus action to use "intimidating presence". Creatures within 5ft of Talbarrux must make a DC 13 Wisdom Saving Throw (8 + Talbarrux's +5 intimidation, I used spell save dc rules for this) or be Frightened of Talbarrux. A creature frightened this way can make a saving throw at the end of their turn.
So this encounter really didn't go as expected. First of all, my co-DM had an idea how to play the Misty Marauders. Instead of just thieves, he wanted them to be Robin Hood style. We almost had the orog use swashbuckler stats (we didn't in the end). The orog accused the party of being members of the bourgeois! Also, I forgot that the orog's name was Talbarrux, so we renamed him Lord Gundrick, as well as a bunch of other superfluous titles. While the Marauders fought unsuccessfully and laughably at first, thing's suddenly changed at one point. Remember how my party recruited Kendrei from the first encounter? While she got lightly nipped by a troglodyte at the beginning of the encounter, that same troglodyte later clawed at her much more ferociously, knocking her unconscious and giving her two death save failures. A third and final death save came not too long after that. Gundrick suddenly got good rolls with one of them good enough to knock our fighter out, and a nat 20 that could kill him right there. He gave our paladin one last chance to surrender and turn over their valuables. He pretended he would, but tried to double-cross Gundrick and stab him in the arm during the handshake. However, his rolls weren't good enough, so the attack didn't work. With this last betrayal, Gundrick brandished his greataxe and beheaded the fighter. With the player for our drow rogue not there today, and us saying he and his belongings mysteriously disappeared at the beginning of the day at the campsite, the paladin was the last remaining member of the party. Gundrick gave him one final chance. And the paladin complied this time. He gave all of his money (honestly, I might retcon and say it was more next session), and made a ran for it, while the Misty Marauders looted the two corpses.
So what of the fallen? Well, we decided that Kendrei is, like Sir Ardor, pretty morally ambiguous, so her soul went to the Astral Sea, where it was picked up by Captain Ardor's Githyanki Pirate Crew (see my comment on the previous encounter). To make things better, her dwarven friend Rorrey, who was killed by the players in the first session, has also made it on this ship. As for the fighter, he went to Avernus and became a Lemure. However, he was saved by Pip Kip. Pip Kip managed to sneak our fighter away from the River Styx, and he's now hdiing him out as a Lemure with all of his memories. Very illegal! If The fighter doesn't stay hidden, or at least play dumb, and he gets caught for keeping his memories, or Pip Kip gets caught for orchestrating this or knowing the Heaven-Hell Conspiracy (see previous comment), things could go south very quickly.
Before we move on to your next encounter, I think we're gonna do what we did last time, and do a custom encounter to move our personal story forward. And this time, it'll get pretty crazy. I'll say my current plan now, and I'll quote this later to say what we did.
So after running for a long time in the Misty Forest, the paladin will come across a cabin. Inside, is a big, burly man, who's either gonna be a druid, a ranger, or a mutliclass of those, who is the self-appointed Misty Forest Ranger. His cabin is to house those who have been hurt in the Forest, namely the victims of the Misty Marauders. In this cabin, our paladin will find the rouge, who got briefly captured by the Marauders at the beginning of the last encounter. There might also be another character for the fighter's previous character to play there. Anyway, once at the cabin, the paladin will fall asleep, and dream from Ardor's perspective once again. This time, it won't be a memory, but what's currently happening. Wraith!Ardor is flying through the Misty Forest on his vengeance quest, slowly setting the forest around him on fire in his path. He comes across the Misty Marauders. They try their usual bit. Gundrick, however, is now wearing the Elturgard plate that he got from the fighter's corpse, who himself got it from Ardor's burnt corpse. Wraith!Ardor is furious to see someone so unworthy wearing his armor. He tries to take the armor off Gundrick, but he instead possesses him, pushing Gundrick's ghost out of his body. Being the ghost of a human, Wraith!Ardor does not mind being in the powerful form of an orog. No Gundrick's body is possessed by a vengeful, fanatic sword wraith with fire powers. After burning the other Marauders to death, he sets of in his new body.
The paladin wakes up with Gundrick's ghost knocking on their door and revealing the paladin's dream to be real. Sure enough, Wraith!Ardor is making his way to the cabin in Gundrick's body. And forest fire surrounds him. And the Misty Forest Ranger just won't have that. He reveals his true nature: He's a werebear! He's Smokey the Bear! And he wants to prevent forest fires...
(They'll definitely be a lot of changes between now and when I run this in two weeks)
Hi James, I'm not sure if you'll see this because the article was written a while ago, but I had a question about some of the art you used. I like the third image, the one of the elf being pursued through a forest by what look like dwarves, and I'd like to use it in one of my homebrew pieces. However, I've been doing the best I can to find the artist but the only place I've found that image is this very page. At the moment I'm attributing it to Wizards of the Coast, but if you happened to have the name of the original artist that would be a great help!
I'm doing the same, but making Ravenloft be Innistrad.