The Tarak D&D Campaign - Enthor of the 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 arrived at the town of Delholm in the Duchy of Filrath. After some very successful trading, they went off to celebrate in a tavern that turned out to be the lowest dive in town. One barroom brawl later and they spent a night in the cells. In the morning, they were offered a job as a way to avoid punishment....

Finding Enthor

Our heroes had been briefed to find the rebel, Enthor of the Woods, and either persuade him to surrender to the authorities or to kill him.

They decided to try the negotiation angle first. They headed across to the Eastern edge of the Duchy where Enthor was reputed to be active, a journey of a day or so. Stopping at a village, they asked a passing local if he had ever heard of the notorious rebel Enthor, and if he had, where he could be found.

The peasant spoke of Enthor with respect, and it was clear that everyone around these parts knew exactly who he is and how to find him. The response should have been a clue, but the players were far too self-absorbed to notice. If they'd asked a few more questions, they would have discovered that Enthor is seen by the locals as very much a champion of the countryfolk against the oppression of their rulers.

It was an easy job for them to set up a meeting with the rebel. The time was agreed as noon the following day, where the Heim and Fraggar rivers meet at the edge of Heimial Forest.

Meeting Enthor

Image created by AI in NightCafe Studio

At the appointed time, the party ventured out to meet with Enthor. They found him standing on the far side of the rivers among trees some sixty feet tall. The rivers were little more than streams, so no great barrier.

The rebel himself was a strong-looking bearded man in late middle-age. He was dressed in brown robes and carrying a staff; it was clear that he's a druid of some sort.

Although the party totally failed to spot them hiding among the undergrowth, Enthor was backed up by a dozen very good archers (3rd level, 25 HP each, AC18, +6 to hit, damage D8+3) as well as a 5th level junior druid.

They also failed to spot that they weren't actually looking at Enthor at all. He was hiding out of sight a few yards away. What they saw was a Major Image spell cast to look and sound like him.

This is where I should explain a bit about this encounter. Enthor is a long-standing NPC in this part of the world, and is a very high level druid. Far higher level than the party could cope with. This is deliberate. Not every encounter can be (or should be) solved with violence, and this definitely falls into this category. The players had become far too comfortable solving problems by just hacking their way through, and it was time to show them it wasn't always possible !

I didn't have any specific script for this meeting. I wanted to see what the players would do. It was down to them to work out that the "kill him" option was a trap. But other options open to them included joining his rebellion, negotiating some kind of peace deal (which he'd definitely be up for), or just telling him to surrender and then walking away.

What I didn't bank on was immediate hostility. They summoned him to surrender, but made it a command rather than the start of a negotiation. When he didn't immediately comply, they announced that he was too arrogant to negotiate with and launched missile weapons and spells at the illusion.

Naturally Enthor responded. His followers popped up and did some damage with accurate archery. He himself cast a Reverse Gravity spell which caught two of the party's strongest fighters (Morson and Roland) and whisked them into the air. Meanwhile his apprentice cast Spike Growth on the ground beneath them, to make the landing more.... interesting.

When Enthor cut the Reverse Gravity spell, the two fell a considerable distance, landing on the spikes. I made them roll their own damage, and both were incredibly lucky. They both survived although just barely.

Enthor was clearly done with their crap. He told them clearly to leave his woods and not come back. Then he faded back into cover.

Aftermath

It took the party a while to realise the the encounter was over, and that it could easily have been a TPK (total party kill) if Enthor had used his full powers. After some debate, they decided that they had managed to seriously upset both factions in Filrath, and that they should high-tail it back to Tarak.

I have to say that I've rarely seen an encounter this badly mis-judged by a party. As a DM, I made sure they had all the information they needed to make sensible decisions. I'd been remarkably unsubtle with giving them hints ! But after dealing with hags and bandits, I'd seen a distinctly murderhobo tendency growing in them, and a growing (and incorrect) belief that anything I put in front of them could be, and should be, killed. I hoped that this encounter would make them more thoughtful. Just goes to show how wrong I can be !

Next time... back to Tuadun again...