"Weird forest" encounters

[hangedman1984]

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]

What level are they?

[hangedman1984]

Level seven

[NRSASD]

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]

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]

Well I was thinking less mechanics, and more weird strange unexplainable stuff

[kopout]

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 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]

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]

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]

The Great Modron March. Fey ain't got **** on modrons.

[Dr paradox]

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]

*bunch of stuff*

That is an impressive list there.

[DigoDragon]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Animals that the PCs slay end up carrying magic items, gold, and gems.

[kopout]

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

Building on that a listen check reveals the sound is actually backwards

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]

*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]

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"...

[thirdkingdom]

Here you go.

[Braininthejar2]

I think there is a Japanese monster that has an eyeball up its ass, and shows up at night to moon travellers.

[Bohandas]

*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]

I once made a d100 table on my blog for this: occurrences-in-weird-forest, part 1 and part 2. 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]

*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]

*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]

*lots and lots of fog

Hard to go wrong with a classic

*an insane elf whipping a tree

Sounds like marital issues

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

Ok to actually contribute:

1.Demonic cattle flying through the sky

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]

*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

*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]

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 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]

*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.