The Tarak D&D Campaign - Back Into The Bad Woods

Welcome to the next post in a series where I describe the adventures during a 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I ran a little while ago.

In the last post, the players decided to go into the woods to deal with the brigand gang who had been terrorising passing merchants. Disguising themselves as traders, they "let" themselves be ambushed, and were able to capture a brigand leader.

With a certain amount of coercion, they were finally able to find out what had been going on. All of the problems of Tuadun were being orchestrated by a coven of hags, The Magpie Sisters, and one of them was the town's healer, Mother White.

Confronting Mother White

Having been told by Johann, the captured brigand, that Mother White was one of the hags our heroes decided to go and confront her. They want to find out if it was the truth, or if Johann was just spinning them a wild tale.

When they got there, they found her cottage shuttered up tight. Peering through cracks in the shutters, they saw that the place had been hurriedly emptied out. Mother White had left town and it looked permanent, which confirmed that the information they beat out of Johann was true.

Back Into The Bad Woods Again

The characters told Johann that if he led them to the hags' lair, they would let him go free. The fact that they don't have the authority to do this, and hadn't consulted Gerd Ardrix, the mayor, didn't cross their minds !

Johann agreed. Considering their treatment of him already, he didn't really have much of a choice !

After travelling to the woods and along the merchant's path for a while, Johann led them off at a tangent into deeper forest.

It started with brambly undergrowth which closed in behind the party to block their retreat. The bird life gradually diminished until there were only magpies, and lots of them. The air was filled with midges and biting insects, and the magpies mocked them every step of the way. Yes - it was actual Vicious Mockery ! The ground became treacherous and muddy (difficult ground) with stinking fetid pools. The trees had become warped and blackened. This was all far nastier than any woodland they'd dealt with so far.

At a convenient point on a causeway between two black pools, the party encountered quicksand – only DC10 to spot it or cross slowly but safely, but enough to make them stop and take stock of how precarious their situation had become.

This is where the “pet” attacked; another Hellhound like the one I described in The Tarak D&D Campaign - An Unpleasant Encounter, but this time accompanied by 6 mastiffs to get the benefit of Pack Tactics.

The hounds were mentally linked to the hag leader Claw, who was watching in magpie form. They knew where the safe patches are, and could pass ground that is too soft for the party.

Image created by AI in Nightcafe Studio. Sometimes, AI doesn't do what you expect. My prompt asked for a Hellhound and it's mastiff pack. What I got was this rather soppy pooch, but I couldn't resist posting him anyway 🙂

Introducing Clovermeld

The fight started off as a tough one of for our heroes, but they soon started to gain the edge, with a couple of characters focusing on the Hell Hound and pushing it to the northern end of the causeway and the others whittling down the mastiffs at the southern end.

As the last mastiff fell, that's where it all went wrong for them.

The inky black waters of the right hand pool surged, and a reptilian head emerged. The players correctly realised that it was a dragon, but promptly mis-identified it, assuming that they are in woodland so it must be a green dragon. It's not; it is Clovermeld the Black Dragon, which becomes rapidly apparent when he spewed a jet of acid all over Barrow, the party's battle priest.

At this point the party are a mix of second and third level characters, so I designed Clovermeld by mixing the stat blocks of Young and Wyrmling aged black dragons; his stat block is below;

Clovermeld - Image created by AI in Nightcafe Studio

Additionally, I gave him a couple of minor lair actions while he was around his pool, but they were designed to be minor annoyances rather than real problems.

The response of the party was (for me as DM) highly amusing. As Clovermeld launched himself at them with teeth and claws, they panicked and fled; a complete contrast to their normal approach of assuming they can kill anything they meet. A last gout of acid chased them off doing further significant damage, as Clovermeld sank back into the inky darkness of his pond well satisfied with the fear he had caused.

The flight was marred by one final incident. As Morson the Paladin passed Johann (who had been temporarily tied to a tree), he ran the brigand through killing him outright, without even a word. While it is true that Johann had deliberately led them into a trap, it isn't very good Paladin behaviour to just assume it and commit murder ! This would have consequences later on....

The party regrouped a mile or so away. I very generously allowed them to make perception rolls to spot a tree taller than it's neighbours as an obvious meeting point. After some hurried and much-needed healing, they high-tailed it back to town to try to come up with a better plan.

Also, as a DM note; I always name any dragon players meet. Even if the players never get to find out the name, I feel it gives them so much more flavour than just "you meet a dragon", and helps give them the individuality such iconic beasts deserve.

Next time..... they try to find the hags' lair for a second time....