```col-mdflexGrow=2.5===# Outline# Investigate The Wood When the party ventures into the wood, read or paraphrase the following description aloud.> [!read-aloud] **Read Aloud** > > > The wood has no definitive entrance, and the confusing criss-cross of roots, trunks, and limbs makes it impossible to leave by the same way you came. The stench of wet dog hangs heavy in the air. The ground, covered in wet leaves and other forest debris soaked by rain, squelches softly underfoot. > With dim light and only game trails that loop or stop at dead ends, the wood counts as difficult terrain. Ask the players to choose a navigator and have that player character make a <u>Wisdom (Survival) or Intelligence (Nature) check</u>, with the result determining the <u>number of times the player should roll on the Woodland Travel Troubles</u> table below: 1-5 roll three times, 6-15 roll twice, 15-20 roll once, >20 roll zero times but read result 8 on the table.**<center>Woodland Travel Troubles</center>**| 1d8 | Trouble Faced ||---|---|| 1. | **Footprints! Wait.** Those are your own footprints. The confusing nature of the wood tricked you into following a loop, wasting two hours of travel. || 2. | **Boar? Where?** One wereboar in boar form charges from the brush! If parlayed with, it shapeshifts to humanoid form and complains about the werewolves invading its territory. || 3. | **Illusory Terrain.** The party finds a large foggy pond blocking their path. Interacting with the fog and water, or making a successful DC 11 Intelligence (Investigation or Nature) check reveals it to be an illusion. || 4. | **The Howling.** The party hears a distant howl echoed by several howls, yelps, and growls from uncomfortably close by. || 5. | **Quicksand!** The player character with the lowest passive Perception drops knee-deep into a leaf-covered pit of stinking muck. Roll initiative! In three rounds the character is submerged and suffocating. Any player character can use their action to make a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check, saving the sinking player character on a success. Any three characters working together automatically succeed. || 6. | **Dead Drop.** The party comes to a long chasm, 50 feet deep and crossed by a 30 foot rope bridge. The first player character to cross the bridge must succeed on a DC 15 Dexteritysaving throw or stumble and destroy a section of planks, increasing the DC by 2, and so on. If the DC exceeds 20 and a player character fails, they fall. || 7. | **All That Glitters.** The player character with the highest passive Perception spots a set of ruined plate armor. Inside the armor is a leather pouch containing 30 silver coins. || 8. | **Cream Was Here.** The player character most concerned for Gredel's cows finds a tarnished cowbell etched with the name “Cream.” |After using one result on the Woodland Travel Troubles table, ==two sanguine werewolves== begin stalking the party. As long as the <u>party does no serious damage</u> to the wood or its inhabitants, these werewolves <u>follow about 60 feet behind</u>, unphased by any other challenges the party faces. A player character <u>looking for signs of werewolves or other tracks notices</u> the followers with a successful <u>DC 15 Wisdom (Perception or Survival) check</u>, and any player characters with a <u>passive Perception of 15 or higher notice them immediately</u>. **If the party does not confront the sanguine werewolves** after two more hours of exploration, they arrive at HotW: The Ruined Lodge, and the werewolves remain hidden outside the lodge. **If the party confronts the two sanguine werewolves** the werewolves attack and fight to the death. If the <u>werewolves are too powerful</u> and the GM decides to intervene, all the combatants may hear a distant howl that summons the remaining werewolves. Otherwise, the <u>dead sanguine werewolves shapeshift into their humanoid forms</u>, scarred and bent from years of beastial living. > [!read-aloud] **Read Aloud** > > > They wear rags of clothing, and one carries a torn satchel with scraps of raw meat and a leatherbound journal.Upon opening the journal: >[!read-aloud] **Read Aloud** > > > The first page is signed “Melluria,” and its entries begin about one year ago with the writer buying a plot of land in the wood and building a lodge for travelers. > > Then the journal covers many months of the day-to-day business of running the lodge, with a stand out entry listing the pros and cons of new expansions to the nearby city's mercantile district: better trade goods, more competition, etc. Entries from the last month describe The Howling's growing intensity, the lodge being stalked by werewolves, then being overrun. The final entries capture the writer feeling betrayed by her own body and impulses, and reeling with grief over the loss of her life as she knew it. In the last entry, the handwriting becomes totally illegible as she repeatedly scrawled about her hunger for raw meat. After facing the werewolves, the party hears a howl, and upon looking in its direction, they see HotW: The Ruined Lodge through the dense forest.``````col-md![[plots/howling-in-the-woods/table-of-contents]]```