Discoveries in an Old Forest

Notes: I made this to drop into the start of Death Frost Doom to give surviving players some adventure hooks and to flesh out the world. The forest in question is located quite near a settlement, but is very large and runs deep (all the way to Dolmenwood, if you want). If you would like a PDF of this (it fits neatly on two A5s), let me know and I'll send you one.

Discoveries in an Old Forest

1. Witch Shrine

Piles of stones and arranged sticks. Items laid out for the witch, as payment for services rendered or other purposes. An owl sits in a nearby tree, hooting, perhaps guarding the shrine. Items laid out quite recently:

1. Lock of grey hair, tied with yarn
2. Bundle of candles
3. Tin of tobacco
4. Shard of a glass mirror, well-polished.
5. A silver ring, worth 10 + d20 sp.
6. Scrawled letter on a scrap of paper, requesting help for child’s illness.

2. Dead Rabbit

A dead rabbit nailed to a tree d12 days or years ago. A bad omen? A warning? A trapper's joke? Provide no explanation, unless probed by magic.

Alternatively, there’s an object in its mouth or inside its stomach: a cult symbol, a rune-etched stone, some human teeth, a crusifix - whatever helps foreshadow the ongoing campaign.

3. Fairie Lights

Colored lights, like fireflies but larger and playful, dancing just outside of clear vision, always hidden by branches, darkness or swathes of fog.

These are fairies or pixies, luring travellers into the ancient, hidden parts of the forest where one is easily lost. What they will find is (an adventure module from your collection). If the PCs follow the pixies and get lost, there is a daily 1/6 chance that a pixie returns to help the PCs get unlost.

4. Signs of a bear

• Tree trunks shredded bare with huge claws. Signs of climbing. Brown hair.
• Elk torn to pieces, only head eaten.
• Hunting party mutilated, one missing a head. On bodies: food rations, bows and poisoned arrows (shafts broken).

In the forest lives a giant bear with an arrow stuck in its eye. The pain has made it into a mad killer, especially so in the winter. It does not hibernate due to nerve pains. Fearful hunters know its lair is somewhere up the mountain. If this result is rolled again, The Bear is encountered.

The Bear: 6 HD, 30 HP. Double claw attack causing d12 damage each. Likes to bite off heads: First it grapples at +4 Strength to pin its victim, on its next turn it bites their head off. Morale 9. If forced to flee, the bear will track you down later for revenge. Climbs trees and stalks.

5. Fairie Changeling

Changeling: A sick fairie doppelganger of an infant, given as a foul replacement for the healthy infant kidnapped by the fairies.

An infant’s cries are heard in the distance. There’s a 1/6 chance it is actually still alive. Any result beyond that is the number of days it has been dead. There's a tin box, 25 sp inside. On day 2, the mother returns. Upon discovering her dead child, she will try to kill the PCs, blaming them for ruining the changeling trade.

If the PCs leave the dead infant unburied, they will hears its cries every night until they return to bury it.

6. Witch's Dwelling

Either:

• A wood-framed cabin with walls of weaved sapling, sealed with moss.
• A fairytale cabin, beautifully crafted, smoke rising from the chimney. Probably an illusion.
• A dank cave.

Found empty. The Witch is in the woods collecting herbs for her dish, and/or having a shite. Back in 10 minutes. Inside there's a bubbling cooking pot, spell and potion ingredients, and a collection of books. Point of interest, some hard to spot:

1. A spellbook in scratchy, witchy handwriting, containing a random 1st to 5th level spell (Magic-User or Cleric).
2. Collected writings on demonology, in the local language, Latin, Greek and Sumerian. When encountering a supernatural being, there is a 1/6 chance that the book has an entry on it. 10 minutes to check. If found, roll d4 for the language used. The Referee decides the entry's content. Books on similar topics can be combined to increase the chance by +1/6.
3. A black cat lurks around, watching.
4. Boiling in a pot, a hearty stew containing bird beaks, frog bones and pickled eyes. Eating it heals aches (grants 1 HP, even exceeding maximum HP), dulls the libido and gives terrible breath. 1 hour later, save versus poison or vomit, losing all effects. Otherwise, effects last for 12 hours.
5. Black altar. Reviled by Clerics - grant XP for destroying it. Caked with old blood. Lingering acrid, chemical smell. Rune-etched dice for augury.
6. In ceramic pots: Cooking herbs, pickled animal eyes, bird beaks, small bones, human hair, feathers, urine jam, blood jam, vaginal discharge jam, dried feces, semen powder, dried purple hot peppers. Eating hot peppers makes you think you’re going to die. Simulate by deducting d4 HP once per minute, for 10 minutes. Because the damage is not real, keep deducting HP beyond zero.

The Witch: 3 hit dice, 7 HP. Poisoned dagger causes d4 damage, then save versus poison or become immobilized by muscle spasms for 10 minutes, unable to speak. Morale 8. Spells prepared: Spider Climb, Cure Light Wounds, Heat Metal. Has a pouch of Forget-powder in her pocket. She will attack the PCs if she notices thievery, or if threatened, attacked or blackmailed. Otherwise, she will show hospitality, offer food laced with Forget-powder, which she’s willing to ingest herself. She denies being a witch, but if exposed (not extorted), grants a free Augury, performed at the Black Altar.

If all PCs are paralysed, the witch will keep them dosed with poison and bury them alive, while reciting kind prayers to guide their souls across the Sea of Chaos to salvation.

The poisoned dagger has d4 doses left (after the Witch is done using it). If it gets wet, the poison runs off.