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hangedman1984
2017-01-09, 09:21 PM
In the game I'm currently running (d&d3.5) I plan to have the party go through a spooky haunted forest and am looking for some weird encounters they may face. I have a couple ideas already, just looking to see what I might be able to harvest from the forum here. The encounters don't even have to be confrontational, just "weird".

Also any ideas for ways to lure a party off the road into the forest, especially after being specifically warned not to?

ellindsey
2017-01-09, 09:44 PM
What level are they?

hangedman1984
2017-01-09, 10:10 PM
Level seven

NRSASD
2017-01-09, 11:01 PM
So, you can run this a whole slew of ways. Something big, bad, and waaaaaaay over your pcs' level charges at them from the side of the road. If they stand and fight, it turns out to be an illusion. If they leave the road, the road disappears on them.

Something utterly bizarre and out of place just off the road, like a camel salesman offering free test rides. If they leave the roadway, both the salesman and the road disappear.

Some fantastically beautiful, valuable, or something in distress is just off the roadway. See above.

Kelb_Panthera
2017-01-09, 11:43 PM
Let's see.

Cross-reference CR 7 with fey type creatures and see what we get.


Nymph - comes with druid casting. Could be fun.

Elder redcap - little dude with a big scythe and magic sling. Creepy as a harrier

Splinterwaif knave (cr6) - the underbrush nips at their feet.

Lunar ravager - some spell-likes that make being eerie easy enough

Any ideas spring from these?

If you want it to be tougher, we can go higher CR or use multiples.

hangedman1984
2017-01-09, 11:48 PM
Well I was thinking less mechanics, and more weird strange unexplainable stuff

kopout
2017-01-10, 12:11 AM
You see a painted sign by the side of the road, it says "Love shack, 15 miles". Its up to you what the love shack actually entails when they get there or if its even there. I used a whole clan of ecstasy feeders (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/aberrations/ecstasy-feeder) who used it to lure in humanoids to feed on.

A troll comes out of the underbrush wearing what looks like a business suit made out of animal skins and puling a covered wagon with "onist jhons stuf en things" painted on the side. If allowed he introduces himself as "honest john" and attempts to sell poorly made items out of his cart saying things like "Am me have deal for yous?" and "me rending prices!" He doesn't get hostile unless attacked and leaves the road in the direction he was travailing after finish his business.

Kelb_Panthera
2017-01-10, 12:48 AM
Well I was thinking less mechanics, and more weird strange unexplainable stuff

But there's answers to your queries -in- the mechanics. (and for wierd it's hard to beat the fair folk)

Lunar ravager could try to lure them off the path with faerie fire.

Redcap(s) could simply drive them off of it for cover.

Nymphs and splinterwaifes can change the course of the path.

None of them have to be directly confrontational or even seen by the party.

You can amp things up with a set of standing stones, ala masters of the wild. The fey themselves can use backroads to move about, ala magic of faerun.

There's all kinds of interesting things in the rules. Just gotta know where to look.

Bohandas
2017-01-10, 02:03 AM
In the game I'm currently running (d&d3.5) I plan to have the party go through a spooky haunted forest and am looking for some weird encounters they may face. I have a couple ideas already, just looking to see what I might be able to harvest from the forum here. The encounters don't even have to be confrontational, just "weird".

*Multiple different kinds of fruit on the same tree

*the sky is the wrong color

*snow on a hot summer day

*itty bitty bee-sized wolves to compliment the giant bugs you sometimes get in fantasy settings

*An extremely distinctive looking tree that seems like it's following them/has several identical duplicates down the road

*a stone containing a geode shaped like a god's symbol

*a rock formation shaped vaguely like a god's symbol

*a growth in a tree shaped like a god's symbol

*elvish and/or gnomish pranksters playing tricks with low levle illusion magic and/or swindling the party with fake gold

*a clearing bounded by 12 almost identical trees forming a perfect dodecagon (i've seen this in both Twin Peaks and in one of the evil creature supplements in D&D with little explanation in either. I don't know why it's creepy but apparently it is)

*fruit that rots the instant it leaves the plant

*lots of dead animals. Like really a lot of them. Can't walk two yards without encountering one. Not all dead from the same thing eiother

*it's raining salt water

*herbivorous animals with blood around their mouths

*it sounds like it's raining but it's not

*dead bodies hanging from the trees

*trees shaped like dead bodies

*lots and lots of fog

*the order of objects in the distance is wrong. How is the moon in front of the mountain!?

*a puddle shaped like a god's symbol

*an insane elf whipping a tree

*the ever present stench of decay

*Conversely, not enough smell of decay, instead the whole forest smells of embalming fluid

*lush vegetation in winter and leafless vegetation in summer

*raining blood

*raining mud

*blue or violet soil

*all the trees have been stripped of their bark

*all the trees have been stripped of their bark on one side; all pointing towards the same epicenter

*rain reveals human bones just under the surface of the soil

*any animals killed appear to be made of fungus on the inside

*the smell of brimstone pervades

*fruit shaped like heads

*a thin trunked tree appears to have grown up through the body of some large still-living animal, which writhes in pain at it's base


Also any ideas for ways to lure a party off the road into the forest, especially after being specifically warned not to?

*Unexplained music

*A glowing tree

*gravity takes a sharp turn

*a giant castle that wasn't there before

Pronounceable
2017-01-10, 05:19 AM
The Great Modron March. Fey ain't got **** on modrons.

Dr paradox
2017-01-10, 05:20 AM
Rain of ash during the day. At night, they see the glow of a vast fire through the tops of the trees a few miles down the road. The ash piles up like a snowfall, and eventually the road takes them through the remains of a castle, manor, or village that plainly burned decades ago. Then the ash ghosts start showing up.

They come upon a glade just filled with cats of all varieties, lounging, basking, chasing butterflies. If they touch any of them, every cat's gaze suddenly snaps to them.

They find a tree with pieces of armor embedded in it, and a structure of trunk that resembles a face. It's a Green Knight, sort of a dryad that becomes obsessed with knightly romance to the point that it gets Don Quixote syndrome. This one has taken root.

As an alternative, have them come across a group of live Green Knights, re-enacting some courtly legend, but with makeshift, cargo cult pieces. They don't have a dragon, so four of them make a costume. They don't have a princess, so they make a scarecrow. But they're one hundred percent committed, and don't take kindly to people who suggest that they aren't actually knights.

They come upon a formless shade trapped in a split tree. It gropes at the seam with way too many fingers, begging and cajoling them to release it. It'll promise anything, boast of its immense powers, but will always dodge the question of how it got stuck in the first place, talking about treachery and foul witchcraft so on. If they start to suggest they want to leave it there, it will snarl and threaten that it'll escape eventually, and it'll hunt down their loved ones and yadda yadda eyeballs yadda flay their souls yadda yadda unless they release it. If they do release it, it flies off without honoring any pledge it made, to return at your convenience.

Stealth Marmot
2017-01-10, 10:33 AM
*bunch of stuff*

That is an impressive list there.

DigoDragon
2017-01-10, 10:51 AM
PCs encounter an unusual set of bare human-sized footprints on the ground. Following it leads to a spot where the two feet go around a huge tree on opposite sides and rejoin on the far side to continue on.

Segev
2017-01-10, 11:56 AM
Along a particularly twisty portion of the path, a good spot check notices a tree that has moved or disappeared or appeared where there wasn't one when they looped around from the other side. Later, a hollow trunk seemingly filled with gold can be seen just off the path.

A mimic dwells here and is stalking them, hiding as part of the foliage until it gets to a place it hopes to lure them off the trail and get them lost.


The path grows narrower as the trees close in closer and closer while they walk, until they step out past some bushes and realize the path has been climbing up through thick branches dense enough to support dirt, and now they're walking along near the top of the canopy.


A humanoid figure heavily backlit by light deeper in the trees is occasionally seen following them. They may hear somebody calling for help, or calling for them to come and trade, or such-like. It's really a peryton seeking a victim to isolate to steal its heart for its mate.

John Longarrow
2017-01-10, 12:48 PM
A school of fish flies by overhead.

At night, the party sees a fire off in the woods, forms dancing around it. They hear soft music on the wind and the sounds of laughter (stolen from The Hobbit)

Party sees what looks like a massive hoard of orcs moving through the trees on one side. Before and behind them they see warriors crossing the road and bands forming up, heading towards them down the road. None get withing 120' of the party though (illusions)

Party sees a fork in the road ahead. Not where the road divides, but a 7' tall wooden fork standing upright, tins into the ground.

Party rounds a bend and sees a bridge going over a brook. Seems normal until the get close and realize the brook is flowing not with water but with shadows.

Segev
2017-01-10, 12:59 PM
The party comes to a brook that neatly bisects the forest. Literally nothing is between the water's surface and the sky. The canopy is shorn as if with a great pair of scissors to keep it from doing so. The trail leads to a tunnel under the brook, rather than to a bridge over it.

Flickerdart
2017-01-10, 01:05 PM
Animals that the PCs slay end up carrying magic items, gold, and gems.

kopout
2017-01-10, 01:38 PM
*it sounds like it's raining but it's not
Building on that a listen check reveals the sound is actually backwards (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9gsb3PaxqI)

They've been on this road for quite a while, longer then it ought to take to cross this forest.

Every time they want to rest for the night they find a cozy cottage on the side of the road. The door is unlocked, the fire is built but not lit, there are exactly enough cots for the party, the well is clean and the pantry stocked.

Jumping on the brook bandwagon,

There's a brook running through the forest with a bridge over it, a really nice bridge. Not one of those that's just a couple squared off logs with planks nailed on top, this looks like it belongs in some nobles ornamental garden.

A stream runs up the hill side.

For some reason the road here turns to follow the a stream into the distance instead of crossing it. On the other side you can see the road coming back from wherever it went. The stream is placid, maybe five feet across and less than two feet deep, you could save a lot of time by just crossing here.

ComaVision
2017-01-10, 01:40 PM
*raining blood

*Slayer plays loudly from no apparent source

Advanced Phase Spiders, giant disappearing spiders will definitely freak the party out.

A tree with body parts nailed to it. Optional injured beast on a meathook that jumps off to defend what life it has left in it.

Unexplained lights off in the woods (potentially Will-O-Wisps).

A fully grown tree right in the middle of the path. There are several dangerous trees if you want to make it a combat encounter.

Flowers with a very pleasant scent that make the party do a Fort save vs. unconsciousness. They could wake up to small fey rooting through their gear or something more sinister.

A very lost and confused person that is very out of place with no understanding of how he got there (like a drow).

Gold or other valuables just off the road could lure the party away. Easily could be an illusion or a mimic.

EDIT:

A bridge spans a small, shallow, lazy creek. A Bridge Haunt (MMV) occupies the bridge, harmlessly pushing the party into the creek whenever they try to use the bridge.

John Longarrow
2017-01-10, 01:48 PM
A bridge spawns a small, shallow, lazy creek. A Bridge Haunt (MMV) occupies the bridge, harmlessly pushing the party into the creek whenever they try to use the bridge.

Except the bridge haunt has no arms or legs and is decked in black chain... Said haunt head butts party members off. Anyone who comments on the haunts missing limbs is quickly countered with "Its only a flesh wound"...:smallbiggrin:

thirdkingdom
2017-01-10, 03:40 PM
Here you go (http://www.rpgnow.com/product/152691/The-Dreams-of-Ruin?term=dreams+of+ruin&test_epoch=0).

Braininthejar2
2017-01-10, 04:04 PM
I think there is a Japanese monster that has an eyeball up its ass, and shows up at night to moon travellers.

Bohandas
2017-01-11, 02:20 AM
*Under the bark the trees are made of meat/flesh

*You know how some trees have love notes carved in them, these ones have death threats (some of which may be aimed at the party)

*there's an awful lot of sasquaches in this forest (take ape from monster manual, raise int to around the 4-6 region, change type to magical beast or monstrous humanoid, add +4 racial bonus to hide and move silently, and Blur at will as a spell-like ability)

*a forest fire made out of rapidly multiplying fire-element template (from Manual of the Planes IIRC) bunnies

*mugged by an evil dryad

* Prolonged observation over the course of months (or divination magicm) will reveal much of the vegetstion to be undead. It continues to grow despite a lack of leaves or chlorophyll.

*there's about 3 hours less of light per day in the forest that outside of it

*rabid animals

*the wild hunt/ghost riders

* a cactus that by all rights shouldn't be doing well in this climate

some guy
2017-01-11, 05:26 AM
I once made a d100 table on my blog for this: occurrences-in-weird-forest, part 1 (http://obliettesandotyughs.blogspot.nl/2011/07/occurrences-in-weird-forest.html) and part 2 (http://obliettesandotyughs.blogspot.nl/2011/12/second-part-of-d100-forest-table.html). The second link should also have the complete table as pdf format.

Edit: upon rereading, the table shows it's age (2011). Slenderman? Geez. Luckily, that's the only pop-culture reference in there.

Bohandas
2017-01-12, 10:51 AM
*Lotus seed pods. They're real and they look like something that H.P.Lovecraft would put in a flower boquet.

*Shadows point the wrong way

*a creature climbs out of a puddle way too small for it to have been in.

*a tree's growth rings are in the shape of some forbidden rune or evil god's symbol

*unseen children reciting a creepy nursery rhyme

Bohandas
2017-01-14, 11:57 AM
*the bark of the trees feels like skin

*the sky is the wrong color

*squirrels eating a dead animal

*they come across a character who seems like a goth or metal version of a Disney princess and whose singing attracts ravens and vultures

*purple leaves on the trees

*a veriety of plants that couldn't possibly all survive in the same environment

*what seems like a lush forest is just a ghostly vision of that part of the forest as it once was, upon interacting with the trees or waking after camping it is seen that most of the plant life is now dead

*the animals (like, a lot of them) all stop and watch you as you pass by

*the trees bleed

*the stones bleed

*Undead bees. Possibly their honey has some unpleasant paranormal property.

*beavers, possibly fiendish, eating the corpse of a treant

*dried blood on everything

*small out of the way shrine to a dark nature god

*it rains blood

*it rains bile

*it rains urine

*a cabin containing a copy of the Necronomicon in the basement

*fiendish beavers attacking a dryad

*bats everywhere, even in the daytime

*cultists conductig a dark ritual

*deranged Deliverance style rednecks

*deranged Cliven Bundy style rednecks

*a shallow grave by the side of the road

*the devil worshipping elves from the ballad of Tam Lin

Blackhawk748
2017-01-14, 12:50 PM
*lots and lots of fog


Hard to go wrong with a classic



*an insane elf whipping a tree


Sounds like marital issues :smalltongue:


The party comes to a brook that neatly bisects the forest. Literally nothing is between the water's surface and the sky. The canopy is shorn as if with a great pair of scissors to keep it from doing so. The trail leads to a tunnel under the brook, rather than to a bridge over it.

I don't know when, but im gonna use this.


*Slayer plays loudly from no apparent source

Clearly an encounter is about to start :smalltongue:

Ok to actually contribute:

1.Demonic cattle flying through the sky (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mynzbmrtp9I)

2. A Creepy cabin, theres nothing in it, but when the party leaves and heads down the road they see it again out of the corner of their eye. It continues to follow them.

3. The rain is green

Bohandas
2017-01-14, 01:50 PM
*ghostly vision of a city or village that used to be in the location before it was razed to the ground by some disaster

*flash flood

*flash blood flood

*raining treant sap

*small predators (or carrion feeders) feeding on the bodies of some small dead animal are seen with significantly greater than usual frequency

*small predators (or carrion feeders) are feeding on the bodies of some dead animal, but the animal is undead and twitches and moves despite the fact that it's chest is torn wide open and it's head is partly smashed and it's b0dy is beginning to decay

*The smell of smoke is everywhere, the air is stale, and flaming sinkholes occasionally open up in the ground. Possibly this is a red herring caused by a mundane underground coal fire like the one in Centralia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania)

*the leaves of the plants don't work right, seeming to actively suck in light rather than passively collecting it

*plants grow up and around the party while they sleep. they wake up and have to cut themselves out of vines and stuff

*in a mushroom heavy part of the forest the cult of zuggtmoy sacrifices a humanoid and leaves their body for the mushrooms

*the zuggtmoy cultists from above fighting a bloody battle with members of the tharizdunite branch of the splintered cult of elemental evil who have ambushed them

Yora
2017-01-14, 03:35 PM
You see a painted sign by the side of the road, it says "Love shack, 15 miles". Its up to you what the love shack actually entails when they get there or if its even there. I used a whole clan of ecstasy feeders (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/aberrations/ecstasy-feeder) who used it to lure in humanoids to feed on.


*An extremely distinctive looking tree that seems like it's following them/has several identical duplicates down the road

*trees shaped like dead bodies

*lots and lots of fog


Rain of ash during the day. At night, they see the glow of a vast fire through the tops of the trees a few miles down the road. The ash piles up like a snowfall, and eventually the road takes them through the remains of a castle, manor, or village that plainly burned decades ago. Then the ash ghosts start showing up.

They come upon a formless shade trapped in a split tree. It gropes at the seam with way too many fingers, begging and cajoling them to release it. It'll promise anything, boast of its immense powers, but will always dodge the question of how it got stuck in the first place, talking about treachery and foul witchcraft so on. If they start to suggest they want to leave it there, it will snarl and threaten that it'll escape eventually, and it'll hunt down their loved ones and yadda yadda eyeballs yadda flay their souls yadda yadda unless they release it. If they do release it, it flies off without honoring any pledge it made, to return at your convenience.


Advanced Phase Spiders, giant disappearing spiders will definitely freak the party out.

Yoink,yoink, yoink, and yoink. I am preparing a fey wildernesssandbox right now and I need stuff like this.
I just have to put a funny looking sign in the middle of nowhere, pointing down a path that leads to plenty of adventure but nothing that would even fit remotely to the sign.


*deranged Deliverance style rednecks

*deranged Cliven Bundy style rednecks

There's a little free adventure Come to Daddy, which I think is pretty neat.

Bohandas
2017-01-15, 01:36 AM
*someone has carved niches into some of the trees and placed the heads of humanoids and animals there

*fiends waiting at a crossroad

*people who have been enchanted to think that they're animals

*animals that have been enchanted to think that they are lawyers

*a huge number of worms moving en masse

*the moon turns odd colors, like red

*the stars are green or red or purple

*distant sound of drums with no clear source

*aztec style temple complete with altar for human sacrifice

*the rocks aren't irregular enough. They're all platonic and archimedean solids and kleetopes thereof

*vents and cracks in the ground that spew forth foul smelling gases as if the land itself had eaten beans.

Segev
2017-01-15, 02:31 PM
I don't know when, but im gonna use this.:smallbiggrin:

Thanks! Please do! It was my favorite of the ones I posted.

Yora
2017-01-17, 03:16 PM
For my weird forest sandbox I want to split the forest up into several different zones with distinctive types of forest landscape. Any suggestions on how to give different regions a different character, with varying degrees of weirdness?

Dr paradox
2017-01-17, 07:24 PM
For my weird forest sandbox I want to split the forest up into several different zones with distinctive types of forest landscape. Any suggestions on how to give different regions a different character, with varying degrees of weirdness?

There are a couple of ways. Varying densities of forest, mixed with different terrains. Heavily forested area full of gullies and canyons, a light forest spread over rolling hills. Atmospherics are another variable to add. Make that heavily forested canyon zone perpetually foggy, with rushing rapids at the bottoms of many of those gullies.

Also, wildlife, both encounter-worthy and not. The fog canyons might be home to hives of giant spiders. The barren uplands might be picked over by a colony of harpies in the cliffs that overlook them. The light forests of the valley floor might make the best grazing land for deer and elk, thus also attracting hunters like centaurs, and fey with affinity for such animals like satyrs. A certain craggy peak might be both a memorable landmark for pathfinding, and the nesting grounds for a family of griffons that hunt in several adjacent territories.

Finally, you'll need to sell the culture surrounding the place. Have a few zones where people live, either as hermits or in small villages, and make sure they have good names and stories about any of these places. Test out the mouth-feel of these names before committing to them. "The Low Breaches." "The Greenfell." "Carter's Bog." "Drymoor." It's even better if some of these names don't have clear relations to what the place is, because if you play it right, the players will subconsciously assume that there's a rich story behind it - maybe even a mystery to draw them in.

This is a neat thread to find, becuase I'm in the midst of running MY fey-tinged sandbox game, "The Wild March". Part of what I'm going for for this is to make it an actual settler's frontier, where the players use downtime to expand the town's resources, cut trails, et cetera, and most of the landmarks they find don't have names yet. They can either pick a name themselves, or hand it off to me so that I have the npc settlers name it. It's fun, because oftentimes it'll get named after the circumstances where they found it. A random encounter with a gold-hided boar led them to name the place "Bristle-Back Hill."

Good luck!

Bohandas
2017-01-18, 01:49 PM
*Something like those creepy effigies/fetishes/poppets from The Blair Witch Project

*blood in the trees instead of sap

*Sap in the animals instead of blood

*an animal with maggots for blood

*the wind sounds like pained groaning

Flickerdart
2017-01-18, 03:30 PM
For my weird forest sandbox I want to split the forest up into several different zones with distinctive types of forest landscape. Any suggestions on how to give different regions a different character, with varying degrees of weirdness?

The "true" true forest is usually surrounded by an area of tall grasses, bushes, and short, young trees that thrive in the sunlight-rich area. Inside the forest itself, areas that were recently devastated by forest fires could be full of dead and blackened trunks, with life starting to return in some places.

An area settled by ants or termites could have weak, sickly trees whose roots and trunks are full of holes, with termite mounds rising between them.

Segev
2017-01-19, 11:51 AM
Varying forest density can be a good way to do it. The difference between a European forest (well-maintained, generally, with minimal underbrush and through which men can ride horses) and a North American forest (such dense underbrush that you're almost more climbing through it than walking, unless you're on a game trail or road) is stark; so much so that the two continents' populations are often confused by the description of common behaviors in works taking place in the forests of the other continent.

South American jungles (oft called "rainforests") differ greatly from African jungles, as well.


A forest of trees denuded of leaves and shrouded in snow is a different place than a temperate wood.

For particular ethereal feeling, consider something that does happen IRL sometimes: ice that literally COATS the branches of the trees. It's pretty, where it isn't weighing them down into ugly, drooping deformities of the trees.

I once thought about a kind of tree that actually drew its water from an upended root system that slow-melted the ice at the core of the branches. It had a more fungus-like underground structure that didn't require photosynthesis.

Yora
2017-01-19, 12:00 PM
Varying forest density can be a good way to do it. The difference between a European forest (well-maintained, generally, with minimal underbrush and through which men can ride horses) and a North American forest (such dense underbrush that you're almost more climbing through it than walking, unless you're on a game trail or road) is stark;

We don't have forest. What we have is tree plantations. The only wild environments I've seen in Germany are swamps which are to muddy for logging.

Bohandas
2017-01-21, 06:22 PM
*lecherous satyrs and centaurs

*cultists

*Healing spells attract unpleasant sorts of living creatures; flies, rats, etc.

*Undead hands reach up out of the ground

*all of the animals are diseased

*all the trees and plants are blighted

*possessed animals

*The lecherous possessed trees from Evil Dead 1

*it's always night, even when it should be daytime

* the geometry of the forest is all wrong. Some places have a larger or smaller area than their circumference should allow. You may have to walk several times farther to go through a particular area than you would to walk around it.

*A cleric of Malar or The Devourer or Mastiphal preaches to the animals, and occasionally kills one to punctuate a point, like a dangerously unhinged version of St.Francis

eru001
2017-01-21, 06:56 PM
An arrow flashes through the air thudding into a tree. Sounds of battle and men shouting can be heard from just off the path. When the players rush to investigate the sounds intensify untill they burst into an empty clearing full of relatively tall grass, which is completely silent. No birds chirping, bugs buzzing or any other sounds of the forest can be heard. The sounds of battle are gone. No thing responds to any shouting by the players. There are no animals or creatures within about 40 yards of the clearing. Further investigation of the clearing reveals that scattered throughout the tall grass are old skeletons (just piles of bones, not undead), clad in the tattered remains of tabards and armor which look to be at least a hundred years old. It is clear that nobody has disturbed the clearing since whoever these people were died here.

Further investigation of the tree near the path turns up no complete arrow, but a rusty arrowhead stuck deep within the tree, it's shaft and fletching having long since rotted away.

Bohandas
2017-01-23, 03:22 AM
*wolves

*wolves howling constantly all hours of the day and night

*bats

*spiders

*eight legged wolves with bat wings and possibly some other traits of stock creepy animals as well (snake tongue? cat eyes?)

*Vaguely tree-shaped wads of slime

SomeNerd
2017-01-23, 03:08 PM
--What appears, from the outside, to be a perfectly circular river flowing constantly clockwise. The path crosses it twice. At the first crossing, the PCs experience a moment of disorientation, before finding themselves walking alongside a perfectly straight river. There is no second crossing before leaving the forest.

--(Alternate of the previous one) What appears, from the outside, to be a perfectly circular river flowing constantly clockwise. The path crosses it twice. At the first crossing, the PCs experience a moment of disorientation, before finding themselves walking alongside a perfectly straight river on their right. To the left, there is an empty expanse of plains. Occasionally, the PCs would see figures or buildings out of the left corner of their eye. At the second crossing, there is another moment of disorientation, and the PCs are on the other side of the circular river.

--The path turns into a hopscotch game that gets more and more complex and difficult to complete as you go. Several of the squares have bloodstains in them. As soon as anyone trips or otherwise fails to play hopscotch, the path reverts to normal (unless they've fallen off of it entirely)

--A section of the forest where all of the vegetation is plywood props, faced towards the north rather than towards the PCs. If the PCs examine themselves, they'll notice marionette strings trailing up from their limbs. PCs feel a minor compulsion to face towards the north when they talk, and to not stand in any location that would obscure them from view from anyone standing to the north of them.

--A tree that is growing golden coins instead of leaves. The gold coins cannot be removed without the permission of the tree's dryad. If removed by force, the person who removed them will forever be viewed with distrust and suspected of thievery by everyone they meet.

--Trees growing from other trees (either rooted to them or instead of fruit)

--Animals that, when you kill them, they split open and a smaller version of that animal jumps out.

--Roll will-saves for all the PCs. To anyone who fails, tell them they come to a fork in the road, and ask them which direction they go in. If they go left or right, they've walked off of the path, leaving behind a dinner fork embedded in the ground. (Anyone who succeeded just sees a dinner fork embedded in the path from the get-go)

--A staircase that leads to the forest's basement. It's full of giant rats, and killing all of them causes the innkeeper to give you five silver.

--When the PCs wake up, the previous day's events are remembered as though they happened a long, long time ago.

--There's a locked door just sitting in the middle of the path. There's nothing visibly preventing you from walking around it.

--A bustling village square. At nightfall, everyone in the square walks off into the distance in random directions simultaneously.

--When the party wakes up, there's an extra party member that they all remember being with them for the entire adventure. (Use as a way to introduce a new player)

--As soon as the PCs enter the forest, they entirely forget about everything that happened outside of it until they leave (although they do remember that they're trying to get to the other side)

--The path visibly narrows off in the distance, but never actually seems to get any narrower as you walk along it. Looking back, it appears to be significantly wider than it was when you walked along it the first time.

--The path loops back on itself. Following the loop and turning back the way you came takes you to a new section of the forest.

--Days and nights are each only ten minutes long.

--The path is still completely visible even in pitch darkness, or with your eyes closed.

--Flip a coin for each player. Any player who got heads sees an adorable puppy. Any player who got tails sees the rotting corpse of a mongrel. The dog in question will act like a living puppy around PCs who got heads, but can't perceive the PCs who got tails. To the PCs who got tails, it looks like the PCs who got heads are carrying the corpse around if they take the puppy with them. If the puppy actually does anything useful, it looks to them like the person who commanded the dog to do it accomplished the task by using the corpse as a tool in some gruesome manner. Also flip a coin for anyone else who sees it. (Might be a pain long term, so you might want to have it vanish or settle into only one state when they leave the forest)

--The PCs come across an ancient dwarven stronghold. The ground around it has been scorched into oblivion, it's full of levers the function of which is unclear, and it contains packs of wild dogs and cats that will fight viciously despite their organs hanging out from nasty looking wounds.

--Each 5' square of terrain has different weather.

--(Working off the previous one) a checkered weather pattern, alternating between rain and clear skies. It creates an 8x8 'board', several squares of which contain corpses of the dead, including what appears to be a king, run through by a knight's lance in a way that looks as though the knight struck him from above.

--A circular area upon which the word 'ice' is scrawled across the ground several times in varying handwriting and at various angles. The area has no unusual effects.

--The path forks (legitimately this time). Eventually, it meets up with itself again... but the issue is that when the party reaches the point where it joins up, they meet themselves coming up the other fork. They can freely walk through their doppelgangers, and will join up with them as they walk along the path normally.

--The party comes across one of their previous campsites; however, it appears to be several years old.

Bohandas
2017-01-23, 06:33 PM
*Animals which, on the inside, are already filled with maggots and worms and stuff as if they were dead (they may or may not be undead)

*there's an extra sun or moon in the sky

*rations and perishables rot unusually quickly

*any meat products carried ooze fresh blood (unless stored in an extradimensional space with a sealed entrance)

*the swaying of the plants and rustling of the leaves does not match the wind. Instead it seems to be in time with some unheard music.

*bile seeps from the cracks in the bark of the trees

*intermixed with the trees are animals hideously deformed into the shape of trees

*the trees glow green

*the PCs age at ten times the normal rate while in the forest

*any campfire that they attempt to make immediately goes out w8th a blinding flash as if affected by a Pyrotechnics spell

Yora
2017-01-24, 09:47 AM
Every time you use a divination spell you will spot a monkey staring at you with blank eyes from an unreachable spot as soon as you go outside.

Maglubiyet
2017-01-24, 09:52 AM
We don't have forest. What we have is tree plantations. The only wild environments I've seen in Germany are swamps which are to muddy for logging.

I thought you guys had the Black Forest? It's famous outside your country at least.

Yora
2017-01-24, 10:52 AM
Sure, almost a third of the country is covered in trees. But those aren't natural environments. We actually do have 35.000 hectares of not commercially used forest, but out of 11,400,000 hectares that's still only 3%, or 1% of all space. And for Central, West, and South Europe that's considered pretty high.

Winter_Wolf
2017-01-24, 12:17 PM
If you have Heroes of Horror there's a table of 100 "that ain't right" things to include that are generally creepy and easily can fall into forest settings. Other things that I like:

--random dilapidated shrine and thousands/millions of (harmless) tiny spiders crawling around the area. Lots of webs in the branches and a few husks of small birds and whatnot. (This actually happened to me on a countryside stroll in western Japan once, the ground appeared to be moving because it was crawling with spiders over EVERYTHING.)

--recently vacated campsite. The bedroll and shelter are still up but the fire is cooling embers and the campers are nowhere to be found.

--thick fog suddenly rises up and all sound is severely muffled, vision including dark vision or heat vision are basically worthless.

--compass (if present) starts spinning wildly. If the party presses on it returns to normal but if they stick around it continues to act strangely for a few minutes then settles firmly on "north". Can the group really trust it now, though?

--phantasm reenacts some scene, then disappears. It doesn't react to the PCs at all, plays out once, and doesn't happen again for at least 24 hours.

--dead silence. If you've ever been in natural forest when this happens, you know all you need to know about it.

--animal exodus. ALL animals running pell-mell definitely AWAY from something or TOWARD something.

--domesticated animals without owners. Not feral animals, just regular animals without their people. A house cat meowing for food; a small flock of sheep milling around; a few cattle just chilling in a small clearing; a friendly dog.

Bohandas
2017-01-24, 12:39 PM
--Flip a coin for each player. Any player who got heads sees an adorable puppy. Any player who got tails sees the rotting corpse of a mongrel. The dog in question will act like a living puppy around PCs who got heads, but can't perceive the PCs who got tails. To the PCs who got tails, it looks like the PCs who got heads are carrying the corpse around if they take the puppy with them. If the puppy actually does anything useful, it looks to them like the person who commanded the dog to do it accomplished the task by using the corpse as a tool in some gruesome manner. Also flip a coin for anyone else who sees it. (Might be a pain long term, so you might want to have it vanish or settle into only one state when they leave the forest)

This one's the best

Bohandas
2017-01-29, 04:18 AM
*diligent mapping will reveal that the trees in one area form a pentagram if viewed from above

*the veins in the trees' leaves form pentagrams and/or other occult symbols

*the nearby vegetation has completely changed when the PCs wake yp after making camp

*fur based clothing worn by characters becomes undead like in Ghostbusters

Efrate
2017-01-29, 08:23 AM
Each time they wske up its a different season. All evidence that its been a single night dissappears. Fire embers look ancient, that tree whose branch they bent looks dead etc. Animals and mounts seem to have aged a season, pcs havent, or alternately, are getting younger by a season.

Read the section in manual of the planes about the fey home plane and darker fey.

An irate pact devil is arguing with an invisible pixie. Devils wsrns the pc about msking deals. Both teleport/escape if threstened. If left alone they argue over something before the devil shouts fine before dissappearing in a flash of brimstone. The invisible pixie follows snd constantly offers help. Take it whichever way you want.

A tree oozes blood and a constant wind around it moves through the leaves causing human like cries and sobs. Its bark feels like dry scabbed skin. If the pcs attempt to heal it they take damage as their flesh cracks and bleeds as the tree seems to get better. It can be healed 50 hp. Any who heal it cannot heal their horrible disfurement but the hp damage is hesled normally. If whoever is disfigured attacks the tree they get back their form as the tree screams and gets worse. Dealing 100 points of damage kills the tree, its a human child afterwards, dead with no way of being brought back. Bloody tears stain her face. If fully healed the pc becomes the next tree. The girl is incoherant and talks in an ancient unknown tongue. She leads them to the remains of an ancient cottage. A small skeleton clutches a doll, no sign of what killed it. The child cannot leave the cottage once she arrives, but taking the doll to the party member frees it though they remain scarred. They have some of her memories now. If they return the doll the girls says thanks in common then falls over dead.

In the trees they see an exact duplicate of one of the party members, except in simple woodsmans garb. It flees never quite out of sight to a home that is an exact replica of the characters childhood home. Said home is horribly rundown. The faceless doppleganger is gone, but the pc instinctively goes unerringly to their room, and finds a note in their handwritting. "I am so sorry! But I had to! There was no other wsy! Forgive me! They took it from me, but it is done! I did it, may all the gods forgive me." Bloodstains are on the end of the paper, and on the floor, along with an old rusted knife/weapon of that pcs. Alternately, the letter is dated for the near future.

They find a pair of white gloves, the kind mary poppins would use to check for dust with some minor treasure. Each night whomever took the gloves/treasure finds all of his gear unpacked and stacked neatly. Written in the dirt in blood are the words "So filthy!" In that charcters handwritting, starting as normal then getting sloppier and crazier as it goes along. There are 13 lines and that pc has a circular scar around his non dominant wrist each morning. It looks fresh. Leaving the gloves causes them to reappear on another pc. This continues until they leave the forest, where they see the gloves folded neatly on a tree next to a severed hand that had been nailed into the furthest tree trunk. It is identical to whoever last had the gloves' hand. The scar on their non dominant wrist never goes away.

raspberrybadger
2017-01-30, 04:49 PM
Locals (possibly just little squirrels and such) looking really secretive and furtive about something. Some sort of fungus or something on further investigation. A secret society meeting in a circle with weird chanting, well off the path. Which raises further questions, with answers to be found even further off the path...

Locals (also possibly animals, asking only using body language) offering very vague hints, requests, or warnings. Then being horribly killed either by the unexplainable or the seemingly natural and accidental.

Segev
2017-01-30, 04:59 PM
Many humanoids in the forrest, climbing the trees, skulking low in the underbrush, even leaping across the canopy. Closer inspection reveals them to have animal-like features, and even to just behave like the animals they resemble. They're not naked, but they're Tarzan-level clothed, only. The creepiness ramps up when "wolves" are found eating a "deer."

Despite their humanoid appearances, they never act in any way different than animals would.

Braininthejar2
2017-01-30, 05:34 PM
Found it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirime

sktarq
2017-01-30, 07:17 PM
For European Forest use more the Polish/Belarussian forest primeval (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bia%C5%82owie%C5%BCa_Forest) (last lowland fragment in Europe actually) as a base.

For other weird stuff.

Vividly coloured non encounter fauna (the fabled white stag, but also Teal Squirrels, Pied Raven (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pied_raven) (a real thing), Crimson Jays, Green Chipmunks.

Have the clearing they set up camp in be smaller when the sun rises than when they set up

Have a fairy circle of mushrooms grow whenever they stop for more than an hour

Have the cobwebs catch dew in such a way that together they make a pattern but only if the PC's stand in an exact spot. Like in the pillar temple scene at 1:10 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddOTWvzk7IY)

Albino Parasitic Redwoods (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albino_redwood) and similar versions of other trees

The trail is made up of large pavers - but closer inspection shows it to be hard worn burl wood pounded with dirt. Which makes their regularity suspicious.

Plants an animals arranged in mathematical patterns (perfect octogon, the Fibonacci sequence in various trees along a path every so often).

A collection of tiny doors in a base of trees along the path. The area just outside the doors show use (dirt trails etc) The doors open just fine-to show the tree as normal inside. Miles from civilization.

An abandoned picnic. (the cut apples have yet to brown, perhaps champagne that still bubbles, insects are nearby but so not disturb the delicious sweats and meats) The is a card game going and the last card someone laid is the queen of spades or equivalent unlucky card. If they come back later the scene has been perfectly reset.

Known copycat birds (like lyrebirds etc) call out poor versions of pleading for mercy/torture/killing scenes in various languages is apparently nice parts of the forest. Or other inappropriate noises (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwxvjrbEkTg)

Tiny weeping angels knockoffs. Use either fey or demonic images. Each time they get closer until they appear on the person. And then the person feels covered in fine crystaline sand. Which is what the statues turn into anyway if the PC's do get their grubby mits on them)

Several Woodpeckers in various directions have their tempos match up for a well known funeral or evil militaristc musical (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bzWSJG93P8) bit for a few seconds and then go silent.

An animal known to be extinct runs across the path in a muddy location and disappears far too quickly. It leaves no tracks. (may be illusion from an immortal something that doesn't realize they are extinct, a ghost of the creature, have fun with it)

To really mess with the PLAYER'S heads have people still use spot checks for much of the weird stuff. Write out cards ahead of time to pass if people notice or not - especially on the smaller stuff. Have major failures produce results too. If you want to have them get even more weirded out have exceptionally high rolls allow them to see less illusionary versions of what the other pc's see just because it is on the card that only they got they don't know that. See if you can turn certain characters intelligence, awareness, and wisdom traits into a weakness. If you can mentally isolate the players and have them distrusting their own senses they are apt to do things like wander off the path when you present them with the right oppertunities.

eru001
2017-01-30, 09:37 PM
group of skeletal undead lumberjacks going about completely normal lumbejacking buisness (Flannel shirts and knit caps optional). They take no notice of the players and go about their buisness as if the players arent there, even if the players start attacking them.

Woodland creatures with human hands. Otherwise completely normal. Out of the corners of their eyes the player think that these hands are delivering rude gestures.

Bohandas
2017-01-31, 12:29 AM
*ghostly wailing

*chains hanging from the branches of the trees

*hellish heat inappropriate for climate and season

*the party are followed around by rats and snakes and such

*shimmering mirages even when it's not hot enough

Orcus The Vile
2017-01-31, 10:20 AM
Have a group that look like older versions of themselves ask them to throw a coin in a well.

Then some games later have them travel back in time to look for a special coin the party and but didn't knew about.

Yora
2017-01-31, 04:07 PM
Woodland creatures with human hands. Otherwise completely normal. Out of the corners of their eyes the player think that these hands are delivering rude gestures.

Cute looking humanoid animals. Who are total bloodthirsty psychpaths.

Segev
2017-01-31, 04:16 PM
A very well-dressed and polite child, who is a little upset because he or she is lost and separated from parents. Easily cheered up by a promise to help find them. Strangely, the child doesn't seem to want to leave the woods; in fact, insists the woods are home. If the party helps, the child eventually exclaims, "Oh! There they are!" and runs off into the woods. Trying to track the kid finds only the kinds of tracks one might expect from the wildlife native to the area.

Later, in a dangerous combat encounter, a pair of bears charge in and help them defeat their foe. Especially if the party is in danger. They lope off after the fight is done, and the party might notice their cub look back and wave briefly.

Bohandas
2017-02-01, 12:13 AM
*Crows with rat heads

*animals sewn together like the mad scientist's dogs in Human Centipede

Misery Esquire
2017-02-01, 01:51 AM
In the hollow paths between the ragged branches of the old forest where yew twins with elder and both are choked by vine, there is no sound. No birdcall, no animal skitter, even the wind in the dying leaves hidden far above seems muted. Pins of light that dare to venture into this umbral demesne reveal the floating dust of bark, the sparkle of mist in the air that encircles the blackened trunks making the dark way forward all the more unappealing. No grass or weed grows between the trees here, and desiccated twig and sapling crunch underfoot where life made its eternal attempts. It seems a wood appropriate for the dead that will not lie still, but even they forbear disturbing the quiet here, the quiet into which only the daring or foolish tread. You are not welcome here. The path closes behind, roots shifting in the dirt silently and never when observed but nevertheless the way back disappears for the unwary traveller. Only the steps to the heart are open. You will rue coming here. Arboreal arches lead deeper and deeper into the solemn gloom, no hand having entwined the shapes they form, the writhing tangles unpleasant to the eye and dead to the touch. Of course you didn't see them reach for you.

No one ever does.

(There is an exit to the north. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.)

Bohandas
2017-02-01, 02:41 AM
*the sound of a river where there isn't one

*an apparition of a child walks by and then fades away

*an area of chopped down trees that looks not so much as if the trees were felled by loggers then as if the trees were cut down with an enormous scythe

Segev
2017-02-01, 12:28 PM
The forest is unseasonably warm, yet the trees are already turning to autumn colors. Leaves fall and blanket the earth, but still thickly cover the branches, as well. Strangely, animals seem to be unable to shake off leaves, and the gold and red things also cling to your own garb.

To those who make a check (perception or Will save), the real horror is revealed: the forest is on fire, and the "leaves" are flames. The animals, like the party, that don't realize aren't even flinching as they burn to death.

eru001
2017-02-02, 10:32 AM
successful, high dc, perception check reveals that this section of the forrest is actually a clearing full of a large group of ninjas, who have disguised themselves as trees. They are now hositle. To eachother. There appear to be groups from d4 rival dojos. You are caught in the middle.

SomeNerd
2017-02-02, 01:58 PM
--Upon closer examination, the bushes are actually just green clouds

--Trees growing root vegetables

--The party comes across a temple that seems to be dedicated to one of them. The centerpiece is a sacrificial altar covered in old blood.

--The trees become less and less realistic the further they go into a specific area, eventually reaching a point where they're replaced with people in poorly made felt tree costumes. The people are entirely unresponsive.

--A bridge made out of paper

--The party comes to a valley where the trees have marks along them, looking similar to a tide line. A DC 25 Knowledge(Nature) check reveals that the markings are actually from fire, but wouldn't normally be this regular.

--A very large tree, around the base of which is an extremely shabby village of normal-seeming humans. The humans only speak Sylvan, and act entirely obsessed with tending to the tree. If the party climbs into the branches of the tree, they'll see that instead of fruits, it appears to be growing humans.

--An extremely overlarge bramble bush, at least the size of a mansion. Tunnels have been cut through it, and it appears to be inhabited, although the denizens quickly flee from the party into the brambles if spotted.

Yora
2017-02-02, 02:28 PM
although the denizens quickly flee from the party into the brambles if spotted.

That's where things get interesting! Crawl into a tight maze that is inhabited by something that has all the advantages and is obviously not welcoming you? But it's also really curious what you might find if you do...

Bohandas
2017-02-02, 02:49 PM
High DC spot or spellcraft check reveals that the trees are actually statues transformed with a combination of the spells wooden blight and either animate objects or stone to flesh

Winter_Wolf
2017-02-02, 03:53 PM
Spores. Party stumbles into a heavily fungi ridden area and either there's one type of very powerful hallucinogenic fungus, or the certain combination of species creates the same effect. Non-magical as such, but those who fail their saves (Will or Fortitude as you like) can be brought around with a cure poison spell or the like. Maybe simply the affected fall into a catatonic state, maybe they get manic, maybe they start attacking imaginary monsters or fall under the delusion that their own party is out to get them and it's kill or be killed.

Bohandas
2017-02-03, 02:31 AM
*banging on them reveals some of the trees to be made of metal

*The trees grow thickly togeher, dividing the forest into branching corridors like an unusually solid and tall hedge maze

*there's a small village within the forest. The odd thing is that it's a village he PCs have been to before that was definitely somewhere else.

Bohandas
2017-02-19, 01:00 AM
*The trees scream if their wood is chopped or branches broken

*Animals cannibalizing members of their own species

*swarms of flies

*swarms of bees

*The party members' faces seem slightly wrong

Bluepaw
2017-02-19, 11:52 PM
A clearing has several chopped-down trees, with stumps left behind. One of them has a barefoot teenage girl in a plain shift kneeling on it, her face in her hands, weeping inconsolably (the PCs could also hear her from off the path, perhaps getting them to leave the path to try to find the child in distress). If they ask her what happened, what's wrong, etc, she tells (without looking up) them that her home is gone and she has nowhere else to go. But if the PCs try to get her to come with them, she takes her hands from her face -- and they see that her eyes are made out of wood, and in her mouth are long wooden teeth. (She is a dryad of some sort whose tree has been felled, leaving her hungry for revenge...)

Segev
2017-02-21, 12:56 PM
A tree, with utterly delightful-looking fruit hanging from its branches. Should anybody eat of it, they immediately age one age category, gaining all stat modifiers as appropriate. They also are dazed for one round as they re-orient themselves; they remember living all the time that they just aged, and feel as if they'd just woken up from living out that part of their life, back here. They'd thought nothing of the fruit after eating it in their memory, but now...

At any point, they may use augury as a spell-like ability with a standard action casting time, as long as they phrase the query as having taken a specific action. If they go through with that action, the next time they try to use augury based on this event, they may use augury again as before at any time. If they take any other action than the one they asked about, however, the next time they try to use this spell-like ability, they have only a 50% chance of being able to (though they know if it failed). Each time they take a different action than the one they asked about, the next attempt at an augury has half the chance of working that the last one did, as the character's memory of events diverges more and more from the way things are now unfolding.

Bohandas
2017-03-07, 08:46 AM
*The trees are actually some other kind of plant growing in the shape of a tree. Like a stretched out cactus or something

*a fox tearing at and eating one of it's own forelegs as if the leg were a bunny rabbit or something

*they find a person's skin without the person in it. Like someone was skinned in one piece

Segev
2017-03-07, 10:41 AM
A herd of deer stalks a pack of wolves, eventually pouncing and bringing down an old and slow member of the pack.

Jay R
2017-03-07, 12:04 PM
Also any ideas for ways to lure a party off the road into the forest, especially after being specifically warned not to?

A trail of bread crumbs that goes across the path into the woods.

Bonus points if it leads to an nice old woman in a gingerbread house who is being bedeviled by a pair of monsters in the guise of children.

DireSickFish
2017-03-07, 01:13 PM
I asked a similar question but was looking for Fey stuff to include. Got some good results: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?370809-Fey-Tricks

One thing I did was have themselves from the future but tiny and unrecognizable give their past selves advice about how to proceed. Then when they got to that same point as their future selves I let them try to convince their past selves about any new ideas or changes they should make.

Excession
2017-03-07, 04:33 PM
In a small clearing beside the path, the PCs find a tavern constructed as if by a cargo cult. Everything is carefully crafted from local wood and plants, but it's just a bit off, as if built by someone that didn't entirely understand taverns.

If they enter, they will meet nervous dryad, who will try to act the part of the tavern keeper.

Over a hundred years ago, the dryad used to visit a tavern set up for travellers in the same location. She returned one day to find it burned down, a few people dead and the rest departed. Now she has rebuilt the tavern in the hope that her friends will come back.

With the forest considerably more wild than it used to be, the PCs are her first customers.

Segev
2017-03-08, 11:05 AM
In a small clearing beside the path, the PCs find a tavern constructed as if by a cargo cult. Everything is carefully crafted from local wood and plants, but it's just a bit off, as if built by someone that didn't entirely understand taverns.

If they enter, they will meet nervous dryad, who will try to act the part of the tavern keeper.

Over a hundred years ago, the dryad used to visit a tavern set up for travellers in the same location. She returned one day to find it burned down, a few people dead and the rest departed. Now she has rebuilt the tavern in the hope that her friends will come back.

With the forest considerably more wild than it used to be, the PCs are her first customers.

This one's kind-of heartbreaking. Well done.

Ninjadeadbeard
2017-03-08, 11:40 AM
I love ghosts. They always seem under-powered and under-utilized for the impact they have on my favorite myths and fictions, so I tend to make them a bigger deal when I need "strange" and "weird" encounters.


The party hears a whistling sound somewhere off behind them. No matter how hard they search, they can never seem to find the source. Over the course of several days, off and on, they hear it getting closer. Every once and a while it will start up, whistle on a bit, and then stop. Eventually the tone shifts, and it becomes clear the thing whistling is almost upon them. The party readies to meet the whistling person that's been following them, and it grows so loud it must surely be about to burst through the trees when...it stops. And a voice behind them (by about a hundred meters or so) screams like bloody murder. If they investigate, they find the path ahead runs along a cliff-face briefly. At the nearest bend, about where the scream must have come from, the road appears to have weathered down a bit, and a pile of fallen stones lay scattered across the forest floor below. If they make their way down the treacherous slope, they might happen upon an ancient skeleton and its horse, lost to a dark night long, long ago.
The party comes across an old hut just as night starts to fall. Black smoke flows up out of the chimney and smells of a cooked meal. Light and laughter can be heard from outside, and the whole place looks like a thoroughly lived in little tavern of some sort. Except that when they open the door, the light abruptly shuts off and the laughter ends. Inside there are only a few dusty skeletons laying about an empty and long abandoned house. The skeletons bear marks of battle, or perhaps more accurately, a slaughter. Everything outside and in now is covered in cobwebs and dust. But the fireplace is still warm.
As the party travels, a deep fog settles in no matter the time of day. As the party travels through the fog, something feels off. The forest now feels as though it's watching them. The fog feels so thick that it almost has the presence of another body. An extra pair of footsteps are heard if someone listens for it, or an extra plate of food has been set out at camp despite no one remembering doing that. While setting up watch orders, there will seem to be a gap, as though an extra watch was going to be set. The feelings will pass, as will the fog, in time.*


*I like deliberately getting the number of party members wrong as GM. When they eventually realize I'm saying "the five of you" instead of "four", the palpable panic on their faces practically makes the session alone. The fact that the ghost following them was just curious made it all the stranger, and more memorable for them.

oudeis
2017-03-08, 01:16 PM
In a small clearing beside the path, the PCs find a tavern constructed as if by a cargo cult. Everything is carefully crafted from local wood and plants, but it's just a bit off, as if built by someone that didn't entirely understand taverns.

If they enter, they will meet nervous dryad, who will try to act the part of the tavern keeper.

Over a hundred years ago, the dryad used to visit a tavern set up for travellers in the same location. She returned one day to find it burned down, a few people dead and the rest departed. Now she has rebuilt the tavern in the hope that her friends will come back.

With the forest considerably more wild than it used to be, the PCs are her first customers.


This one's kind-of heartbreaking. Well done.
Yeah, I got a little teary-eyed over this one, too. Now I have to include it in a game so I can make certain that she gets all new friends.

Excession
2017-03-08, 09:23 PM
This one's kind-of heartbreaking. Well done.


Yeah, I got a little teary-eyed over this one, too. Now I have to include it in a game so I can make certain that she gets all new friends.

I'm glad you both enjoyed it :smallsmile:

Mith
2017-03-08, 11:23 PM
This thread has inspired a few ideas that I could turn into a lowish level adventure:

*One can find a trail that leads off the road through the woods. The path reaches a clearing, and ends at a flat stone on the earth that has no dirt on it. Standing on the stone, a person hears a voice over there right shoulder. If they turn right to face behind them they teleport to a new location, standing on a identical looking rock face. If they stand on the rock and turn left, they will reappear at the first clearing. (A Natural Teleportation Circle with an invisible pixie/ghost messing with people)

*Walking through the woods, the party sees human foot prints on the ground, sinking a good quarter of an inch into the ground. Following the footpath, they will notice that regardless of what the path crosses, the foot prints always sink to the same depth. A Survival or Perception check will notice that the path is fairly narrow (~5 feet), but branches a way up that would usually hang over the path are broken. The path lead into a perfectly round clearing with a quarter inch trench around the circumference. The edge of the clearing is surrounded by a tall dense hedge with the path being the only break in the wall. The footprints lead right up to a tall menhir in the exact middle of the clearing.

If the party touches the stone, it will stand up and turn around. While there are no visible eyes, the party can feel a gaze upon them. If the party plays music either before touching the stone or after it stands up, it starts to dance. Any attempts to send an object into the clearing from the outside after the stone stands up is caught by the hedge. No spell can enter the clearing, although spells work inside the clearing. The party can leave the clearing at no interference. The hedge will even move out of your way and let you through.

If the party decides to fight the stone, I would give it a 40' movement speed, and make the circle exactly 40' in diameter. The stone can do a slam attack, knocking a target prone. It has a foot stomp/kick that can knock a standing target back or prone. If a target is hit by a stomp/kick attack, they make a DC 10 Con check or die as uarter inch footprint appears in their torso. I would fluff any near misses on the part of the stone to leave a footprint shape in the armour/shield of the character.

The footprints on the path or objects disappear the following sunrise.

Pauly
2017-03-09, 04:26 AM
A pack of wild boars run by, chased by a pair of Gauls and a very small dog. The big Gaul shouts "Romans!" And the little one says "Don't be silly, the last Romans left a hundred years ago."

The Gauls then pursue the boars into the forest.

Eldan
2017-03-09, 06:50 AM
A school of fish flies by overhead. A school of fish flies by overhead.

I had something similar, except it was actually a sperm whale crashing through the trees, followed by a leisurely party of fair folk hunters.

Eldan
2017-03-09, 06:51 AM
Animals that the PCs slay end up carrying magic items, gold, and gems.

One step further: a mid-sized predator attacks the party, and when slain, all its insides are rubies. It bleeds rubies, its entrails are strings of fist-sized rubies, etc.

Eldan
2017-03-09, 07:05 AM
Cute looking humanoid animals. Who are total bloodthirsty psychpaths.

And the opposite. Pale, muscular young men, clad only in bird masks, tattoos and loincloths, who are very helpful and cheery.

Bohandas
2017-03-09, 10:49 AM
Bonus points if it leads to an nice old woman in a gingerbread house who is being bedeviled by a pair of monsters in the guise of children.

A gingerbread house occupied by a creepy old elf lady. Is she a witch or is it xmas? the pcs must work through the ambiguity.

Bohandas
2017-03-09, 09:03 PM
As for being lured off the path, maybe a cat familiar is drawn off by a mysterious red dot

Jay R
2017-03-09, 09:21 PM
The sound of a baby crying off in the woods.

If investigated, the baby is sitting on a blanket near where a small battle between two groups of humans had been fought. Nothing indicates that there were any survivors.

Also, you can't find the path now.

Bohandas
2017-03-11, 11:13 AM
The path simply disappears except for the specific patch of it they're standing on. They're now surrounded by forest.

Bohandas
2017-03-12, 02:51 AM
*A house made of corpses

*a brook gives off steam

*trees and rocks and such are sunk into the ground at odd angles, as if someone had transmuted the ground into quicksand or some other semisolid or viscous liquid and then quickly transmuted it back before things could sink completely

*solid ground spontaneo8sly turns non-solid

EDIT:

*a river of magma

*a riber of blood

*a river of feces

*snow in summertime

*a climate-inappropriate sandstorm

*weird mirror symmetric trees with superfluous second trunks and roots growing above the branches

*the trees are clay sculptures

*the trees are standees

Jay R
2017-03-12, 01:04 PM
In a small clearing beside the path, the PCs find a tavern constructed as if by a cargo cult. Everything is carefully crafted from local wood and plants, but it's just a bit off, as if built by someone that didn't entirely understand taverns.

If they enter, they will meet nervous dryad, who will try to act the part of the tavern keeper.

Over a hundred years ago, the dryad used to visit a tavern set up for travellers in the same location. She returned one day to find it burned down, a few people dead and the rest departed. Now she has rebuilt the tavern in the hope that her friends will come back.

With the forest considerably more wild than it used to be, the PCs are her first customers.

In a world of magic, the cargo cult approach might work. As soon as the PCs arrive, there are enough minds thinking about it that her desired customers actually arrive.

Ghosts (or other undead versions) of her original customers, all ready for a tavern brawl. To them it's just good fun, but to the PCs, it could be deadly.

"Dangerous? Nonsense; we're just throwing punches," said the wight.

Bohandas
2017-03-13, 12:37 AM
*the landscape looks like a crayon drawing. The water is a vibrant semi-opaque blue and the trees have no leaves, just a jumbled mass of green above a featureless trunk

*the trunks of the trees seem to be twisted around. Features that would normally be approxomately vertical instead spiral around

*draconic templated animals with rudimentary spellcasting ability

Jay R
2017-03-13, 09:03 AM
A ring of mushrooms, about 2-3 feet tall, about the right size to sit on.

In the middle is a single mushroom, with a door, a couple of windows, and a smoking chimney.

IntelectPaladin
2017-03-13, 05:13 PM
Alright, I'll make what contribution I can.
Time to give my writing a field day.
When they wake up in their camp, they've found that they, their tents, their horses, everything is resting in what appears to be their campsite. Save for one detail..They're sleeping on the tree limbs.
The trees are upside down.
They realize that the world seems to have flipped over!
Whether or not their sanity has flipped over is up to them.
They can see the sky below them through the branches, paths made from branches are now
around them at their new ground level.
The sky is below them, and when they look up they can see the landscape in the distance.
They try throwing something up, it just falls back to them. And then, it falls through the branches,
Soaring into the sky below them as if it had been shot from a catapult.
Isn't that disheartening.
The party stares, and then looks around at eachother. What will they do now?
Alright, that's the best I can do for now. Good luck.
Thank you for reading this, and I hope you have a nice day!

Bohandas
2017-03-13, 08:01 PM
On a related note: If they look up instead of the sky they see a top-down view of the forest, themselves included, as if a giant mirror had been placed in the sky

Bohandas
2017-03-18, 11:35 AM
*an undead dryad bound to a paper mache tree

*trees spontaneously deconstruct into piles of finished wood and paper products when touched

*all of the plant life is shiny and reflective

*the clouds appear to be made out of something inappropriate for clouds to be made out of, like plants or something

*the local forest spirits obsessively micromanage the weather like the pegasi in My Little Pony

*they fall through a hole. gravity reverses halfway down. If they climb out the other side they find themselves in a foreat that's similar but technically oriented upside-down in relation to the original forest

*the clouds are on fire

*blood red fog

*green fog

*purple and blue fog

*multicolored glowing color-changing fog

*the clouds are orange

*the trees are blue

*the water is gray

*the Teddy Bears' Picnic

EDIT:

*the trees give off steam or mist

*fanged squirrels

*glowing leaves

*the clouds form occult symbols

*the rocks give off steam

*someone driving a big rock like a vehicle like in that one Spongebob episode

*inappropriate things are geodes on the inside. plants or animals or clouds or what appear to be manufactured items.

*a skeleton has been animated but has not reassembled itself properly, like in The Witch of Coos (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/American_Poetry_1922/The_Witch_of_Co%C3%B6s)

*Bucktoothed spiders

*spontaneously combusting trees

*sunflowers that track the moon

Bohandas
2017-03-25, 07:27 PM
*the color of everything distorts for just a second

*non-burrowing animals in burrows

*unidentifiable smells

*trees split open revealing creatures inside

*predators can't hunt effectively because they are outlined with fairy fire

Bohandas
2017-10-12, 03:22 AM
*peeling back the bark of trees reveals them to be made of worms

*animals and vegetation disappear in a pulff of smoke when touched

Eldan
2017-10-12, 04:07 AM
Don't know if I've mentioned this one in this thread yet, but my players once came upon a forest in the spirit world that was an ocean floor in the real world (the treetops were the surface). So they found plenty of fishes floating in midair, looking confused. Also, the wild hunt chasing a whale through the treetops.

WarKitty
2017-10-12, 04:15 AM
Honestly, if you want to creep out D&D players, have the critters be really really friendly. Weird, but friendly. Have the bobcat with the glowing red eyes come bounding right up to them, drop the corpse of an unidentified rodent at their feet, and rub up against their legs. Bonus points if there's something slightly off about the big cat.

It really confuses players when the weird stuff isn't hostile.

Eldan
2017-10-12, 06:07 AM
Heh, yeah. The Wild Hunt killed the whale, then invited the party home with them for wine and music in the treetops, actually. THen introduced them to their king, who was currently a flower. Nothing bad happened.

Segev
2017-10-12, 02:08 PM
Heh, yeah. The Wild Hunt killed the whale, then invited the party home with them for wine and music in the treetops, actually. THen introduced them to their king, who was currently a flower. Nothing bad happened.

Just... don't accept the flower-king's friendship pellets.

Bohandas
2017-10-13, 07:57 PM
*the wind seems to whisper with voices urging the party to kill themselves

*The wind seems to whisper with voices telling rude jokes about the characters' mothers

*skeletal animals. Not hostile, they act normal.

*It's dark when the sun is out and bright when it isn't

*The trees have fur

*plants and trees have bones inside of them

*Trees growing out of the sides of other trees

*ghostly trees; the ghosts of chopped down, burnt down, or lightning bolted trees grow near their stumps

*the grass is rigid and razor sharp

*Unseelie fey artificially enforcing every bad luck superstition the characters ever heard of (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmn-BX5IArQ#t=01m59s)

DuctTapeKatar
2017-10-14, 11:55 PM
Up ahead, crouched over carrion, a lithe humanoid figure looks back on them. Its face is horrifying, with deep, sunken red eyes, no cheeks to be spoken of, and needle-like teeth. Upon seeing the party, it opens its mouth, as if screaming, its head beginning to shake and rattle. Upon blinking, it disappears instantly, but they can always hear rattling in the distance behind them and at night might catch a glimpse of those red eyes.

A lonely spider-creature living in a small hovel to the side of the woods gives shelter to the party, as well as free back-massages.

A small canoe falls on the party. It has supplies in it, and shows signs of being in water recently, but nobody in it to speak of.

Upon examination, the road which they were traveling on was made out of skulls the entire time. And the first time they checked, it was plain cobbles and dirt.

All attempts to use a curse word or an insult is interrupted by a sudden blanket of falling rain.

A tree follows the party. Whenever they look back, they can see a dead willow in the center of the road. Inspecting it shows that a hollow in the shape of the face seems to be facing the way they were headed. At night, those who stand watch might see the tree lurking in the shadows, its face seemingly smiling and naked branches rustling, despite there being no wind.

A woman dressed in basically only a loincloth dances in a clearing, a large pond of blood at her feet and gashes in her wrists -- however, the blood is flowing into the wounds, not out of it. When she notices the party, she only talks about "the song." She begins laughing at anyone who attempts to play music, saying, "you can't match it, you simply just can't!" Attacking her does nothing, aside from creating another wound which the blood at her feet will flow into.

Bohandas
2017-10-15, 12:31 AM
Upon examination, the road which they were traveling on was made out of skulls the entire time. And the first time they checked, it was plain cobbles and dirt.

Works especially well in Greyhawk campaigns using Iuz as a villain (as he canonically had at least one road like this made)

Edit:
anyway...

*Someone has grafted trees together one on top of another to form 'the deciduous centipede'

*The squirrels are venomous and/or have stingers

Bohandas
2017-10-30, 12:32 PM
*fanged squirrels

This one I feel I should clarify. Depending on the intended tome these squirrels could either have true fangs in normal position for fangs if the campaign is serious or they could have abnormally pointy incisors if the campaign is more humorous