Overview
This logging camp spreads along the south shore of the
Neverwinter River, where a dozen
two-person tents are arranged on a sandy beach. Near a dock stands a cabin with logs stacked under an awning. Older cabins close by have been torn down to leave only stone chimneys and foundations.
Years after the eruption of
Mount Hotenow, the city of
Neverwinter continues to rebuild itself after the destruction wrought by that event. Loggers have set up camps along the river that flows out of
Neverwinter Wood, using the river to transport logs to the city.
One particular camp, located on the south side of the river, is run by a craven opportunist named Tibor Wester, the half-brother of
Phandalin’s townmaster, Harbin Wester. Tibor employs skilled loggers to find the best trees, chop them down, and haul them back to the camp to be sent downriver. He gets his supplies from Phandalin so that he doesn’t have to pay the outlandish “devastation tax” that Neverwinter applies on essential goods. The challenge lies in getting the supplies safely through Neverwinter Wood, which is why Harbin uses adventurers to make deliveries.
Tibor has a bigger problem than supply lines, however. His loggers have drawn the ire of priests of
Talos, who resent intrusions into their territory in Neverwinter Wood. The anchorites have hidden a totem in his camp that has attracted
ankhegs. The burrowing monsters caught the loggers by surprise, killing all twelve of them. Tibor survived by locking himself in his office, where he intends to remain until someone rescues him.
The ankhegs hide underground and rely on their tremorsense to detect prey. They burst out of the ground when certain conditions are met, as described in areas L3 and L6.
Camp Locations
L1. Cabins of the Rocks
These cabins have been mostly torn down, but their ruins stand atop a 10-foot-high escarpment of rock that the
ankhegs can’t burrow through.
L2. Old Chimney and Cabin
All that remains of this cabin is a ruined fireplace whose chimney has mostly collapsed, and a stone foundation that the
ankhegs can’t burrow through.
Anyone who searches the chimney finds a totem buried in its debris: thirteen tiny, androgynous stick figures dipped in pig’s blood, inscribed with tiny lightning bolt symbols, and tied together in a bundle with hair. Anyone who succeeds on a DC 15 Intelligence (Religion) check can discern that the totem’s purpose is to bring ill fortune to all who reside near it. Destroying the totem causes any ankhegs that haven’t attacked yet to lose interest in the camp and burrow away.
L3. Office and Tool Storage
This cabin has a wooden floor and is divided into two rooms. The larger room is cluttered with logging equipment (saws, leather harnesses for climbing trees, and so on). An
ankheg is hidden under the floor. The first time anyone crosses the room, the ankheg bursts through the floorboards and attacks.
Tibor Wester (NG male
Chondathan human commoner) has barricaded himself in the smaller office to the north. He has pushed his desk against the door and huddles atop it. When faced with any decision, Tibor makes the most cowardly, self-serving choice.
L4. River Dock
Rowboats can be moored here, though there are none currently present.
L5. North Camp
A dead campfire is surrounded by six
two-person tents, each containing a
bedroll and a
mess kit. Further inspection reveals that the tents and bedrolls have been partially dissolved by some kind of acid spray. Footprints and strange marks in the sand suggest several humanoids were attacked here and dragged away. Anyone who succeeds on a DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) check can deduce that the humanoids were killed and dragged down into the sand by burrowing monsters.
Ankhegs collapse their tunnels behind them, leaving no way to follow them.
L6. South Camp
This camp is similar to area L5, but three
ankhegs is hidden underneath it. When a creature steps within 20 feet of hole, a hostile ankheg bursts out of the ground in that square and fights until slain.
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