Overview
In a foggy clearing stands this crumbling two-story manse, hidden beneath thorny ivy. The large house is set atop a six-foot-high stone foundation, and the main entrance has a balcony above it. Pumpkins grow wild in patches around the manse, with several wild
boars feeding among them.
Many years ago, a
half-elf wizard interested in the exploration of ancient
elven ruins built a stone house in
Neverwinter Wood, not far from several ruins that piqued her interest. In the course of her explorations, the wizard disappeared, and the protective magical wards on her home expired. The house fell into disrepair, then eventually into ruin. Ivy has all but engulfed it in the years since.
Recently, a
half-orc priest of
Talos named Grannoc took over the ruined house and planted seeds at the bottom of its well. From these seeds, an evil tree grew to fill the well and began spawning
blights. The blights obey Grannoc, who uses them to defend his woodland manse and kill trespassers within the forest.
Woodland Manse Features
The manse is a dilapidated stone villa enveloped in ivy. Its common features are described below.
Ceilings
Ceilings on the ground floor are 8 feet high and flat. Second-floor ceilings are 15 feet high and peaked, with wooden rafters crossing below them at a height of 10 feet.
Doors
Normal doors are made of wood, and are so rotted as to be soft and easily breakable (no ability check required). Secret doors are made of stone and blend in with the surrounding walls. A secret door can be found by anyone who searches the surrounding wall and succeeds on a DC 10 Wisdom (Perception) check.
Ivy
The ivy enveloping the manse is poisonous and makes the walls difficult to climb. Scaling a wall requires a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check. A creature that comes into contact with ivy must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or take 1d4 poison damage.
Light
Most locations on the ground floor are dark, as the ivy blocks out the natural light except in areas that are open to the sky (such as the courtyard) or that have openings through which sunlight or moonlight can enter. Rooms and halls on the upper level are dimly lit by natural light that filters through holes in the roof.
Windows
Windows are 2 1/2-foot wide, 5-foot-high openings with wooden shutters but no glass. Those along the outside walls are covered with ivy, which must be cleared away before the shutters can be opened or closed.
Woodland Manse Locations
W1. Pumpkin Patches
Nine
boars graze in the pumpkin patches - one per patch. The boars ignore adventurers until they try to leave. If adventurers attack a boar, all of the boars retaliate.
A
detect magic spell reveals a dim aura of transmutation magic around each pumpkin. As an action, someone can carve open a pumpkin to reveal six servings of seeds within. Any creature that eats a serving of pumpkin seeds as an action regains 1 hit point. If a creature eats more than five servings of pumpkin seeds in 1 hour, it must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1d4 hours.
W2. Portico and Balcony
Stone steps climb to a portico with a stone balcony overhanging it at a height of 10 feet. Vines wrap around the balcony's support pillars and its crumbling stone railing. The ground-floor entrance features a double door with a
giant boar's head crudely carved into it. A double door stands closed on the balcony.
Anyone can climb up to the balcony with a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check. Both sets of double doors are free of ivy and safe to open.
W3. Downstairs Hall
This undecorated hall features a creaky and moldy wooden staircase.
The staircase climbs 10 feet to area W14. Its upper half has been weakened to the extent that it collapses under 50 pounds or more of weight. A creature on the collapsing stairs must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw to avoid falling onto a bed of wooden spikes planted underneath the staircase. On a failed save, the creature lands on 1d6 wooden spikes, each one dealing 1d6 piercing damage.
W4. Parlor
The door to this parlor has been smashed to pieces. The room is strewn with broken furniture - the remains of chairs, side tables, and a wine cabinet. A moldy circular rug covers most of the stone floor.
W5. Dining Room
The walls are covered with crude drawings in blood that depict boars chasing stick-figure humanoids. A fireplace dominates the south side of the room, and a smashed wooden dining table lies in a heap in the eastern half of the room, surrounded by six broken chairs.
Amid the ruined furnishings is a tarnished silver candelabrum worth 25 gp.
W6. Kitchen
Nature has run roughshod over this kitchen, whose furnishings are wholly decayed. The outside door was broken down years ago, and rats have chewed holes in the bottom of the door leading to the pantry (area W7).
W7. Pantry
Much of the roof above this chamber has collapsed. leaving debris scattered across the floor. Birds have made nests on the wooden shelves that line the north and south walls. Rats long ago devoured anything they could reach, and all other foodstuffs have rotted away.
W8. Courtyard
Stone steps lead down to a flagstone courtyard that has a pillared area to the east. Seven windows on the upper level overlook the courtyard, in the middle of which is a five-foot-wide stone well with thick vines erupting from it. Guttural snorts and yells erupt from the southeast corner of the manse.
Anyone who understands the Orc language can overhear the
orcs planning some son of attack.
The well, which is 30 feet deep, contains a Gulthias tree, the roots of which extend deep underground. With little room to spread out, the tree has grown into a malformed column of twisted wood with narrow gaps between its curling branches.
Hidden in the shaft are five
vine blights. The
blights form a descending column, with the closest one 5 feet below the well's mouth. With their blindsight, they can sense intruders in the courtyard. However, they emerge to attack only when they or the Gulthias tree take damage, or when Grannoc (see area W10) commands them to do so. Once the blights are out of the shaft, a Medium or smaller creature can climb down it, slipping between the branches of the tree with ease (no ability check needed).
The Gulthias tree is a Huge plant with blood for sap. It has AC 15, 250 hit points, vulnerability to fire damage, and no actions, reactions, or defenses. Like an ordinary tree, it's immobile. Unless it's completely uprooted, however, it regrows from its roots even if it's reduced to 0 hit points, regaining 1 hit point every 24 hours.
Any loud noise in the courtyard alerts the creatures in areas W10 and W18. They react as follows:
- Grannoc and the twig blights in area W10 investigate immediately. On their first turn, they enter the courtyard, whereupon Grannoc commands the vine blights to emerge from the well. Grannoc and the blights then use their actions to attack their nearest foes.
- The orcs in area W18 use their first turn to drop down into area W9. They barge through the door and join the battle on their second turn.
W9. Apprentices' Rooms
This room was once a bedchamber, kitchen, and dining room rolled into one. Four beds stand along the south wall, with shuttered windows and nightstands between them. Against the west wall are four wardrobes and a cabinet full of plain dishware and cutlery. Four chairs surround a small dining table in the northeast corner, and a trestle table strewn with pots and
cook's utensils stands near a blackened fireplace. All the furnishings are made of wood.
The ceiling in the southwest corner of the room has collapsed, filling the area below with debris and leaving a jagged hole through which the room above is visible.
The wizard who built the manse had four apprentices. When it became clear that the wizard wasn't coming back, the apprentices pillaged the library (area W11) and fled, taking their personal belongings with them.
Any loud noise in this area alerts the
orcs in area W18. On their first turn, they drop down through the hole in the ceiling. On the following turn, they attack.
Adventurers can move tall furniture underneath the hole and climb up it to reach area W18 without having to make an ability check.
W10. Wizard's Laboratory
The door on the east side of this room has been smashed down, but any light from the courtyard isn't enough to illuminate the room.
What used to be a laboratory lies in ruins, its furnishings broken and heaped against the walls. In the middle of the room, painted on the floor with mud, is a ten-foot-wide symbol depicting three lightning bolts joined at their tips.
Anyone who succeeds on a DC 15 Intelligence (Religion) check recognizes the symbol as that of
Talos, the evil god of storms. A cleric with the Tempest domain succeeds on the check automatically.
If adventurers managed to get this far without alerting Grannoc (CE male
half-orc priest), they catch him ritually performing an eerie dance while consuming the entrails of a dead
weasel.
Under Grannoc's command are twelve
twig blights. Anyone who watches Grannoc without alerting or interrupting him can determine that he's performing a ritual with a successful DC 15 Intelligence (Religion) check. Grannoc hopes
Talos will answer his prayers and rain destruction down upon
Falcon's Hunting Lodge. Any interruption spoils the ritual and incurs Grannoc's wrath.
Grannoc has a map scrawled on the torn-off flap of a leather satchel. It shows
Neverwinter Wood and marks the location of the
Circle of Thunder.
W11. Library
This area extends through both floors of the house.
This room has a 10-foot-high wooden balcony forming its upper level, reached by a wooden spiral staircase curling down to the flagstone floor. Tall, empty bookcases line the walls, their shelves mostly sagging and broken. On the lower level, east of two pillars, are four old desks with chairs tucked behind them. A few moldy books are scattered about.
One of the bookcases on the balcony conceals a secret door into area W12. Tugging on the bookcase causes it and the secret door to swing open.
The books found here are too old and damaged to be readable. However, the pages in one of the books have been cut out to conceal a tiny leather packet containing
dust of disappearance.
W12. Master Bedroom
A four-poster bed stands between two shuttered windows against the west wall. Other furnishings include a desk and chair against the north wall and an empty wardrobe against the east wall. A fireplace built into the south wall features an elegantly carved mantelpiece.
A
detect magic spell reveals an aura of conjuration magic emanating from the fireplace mantel. Anyone who searches it and succeeds on a DC 10 Wisdom (Perception) check discovers that the mantelpiece is actually a lid concealing a long, hidden compartment. The wizard who built the manse hid her
staff of birdcalls here.
W13. Magic Item Vault
This room has been sealed for years behind its secret door. Hanging on a hook on the far wall is a handsome cloak. Against the north wall sits a wooden
chest with tiny clawed feet.
The chest weighs 25 pounds and is magically locked. A
knock spell unlocks it, or the chest can be smashed open. It’s a Small object with AC 15, 20 hit points, and immunity to poison and psychic damage.
The garment hanging on the hook is a
cloak of billowing, and the chest contains an
immovable rod wrapped in a black cloth.
W14. Upstairs Hall
The walls of this L-shaped hall are lined with closed doors and shuttered windows. Between them are hooks where decorations once hung. A fireplace along one wall has an
ankheg head mounted above it. Natural light enters through a hole in the roof at the east end of the hall. The floor beneath the collapsed roof is strewn with debris.
The wooden staircase that leads downstairs is trapped (see area W3). The hallway leading to area W12 is dark. Twelve
stirges hang from the rafters here. The hungry stirges attack any warm-blooded creature that enters the area.
W15. Bathroom
This room has a conical roof and an open window to the north, through which ivy grows. A cast-iron tub with clawed feet stands in the middle of the room. Next to the tub is a rusty iron water pump that still works, drawing water from a hot spring under the house.
W16. Slanted Rooftop
Sections of this wood-shingled roof have collapsed into area W7, leaving gaping holes. The westernmost 15-foot-square section of roof collapses if 50 pounds or more of weight is placed on it. Any creature standing on this section of the roof when it collapses must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or fall into area W7 below, taking 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage on impact.
W17. Upper Corridor
This corridor is enclosed by two double doors and four open windows. Anyone can easily sidestep the ivy growing in through the windows to the east. If the
orcs in area W18 haven’t been dispatched yet, creatures hear their raucous talk through the southern double door.
W18. Guest Room
This room has been claimed by eight hostile
orcs in league with Grannoc. The orcs are sharpening their weapons in anticipation of an attack on
Falcon’s Hunting Lodge. The orcs have destroyed this room’s once-fine furnishings, leaving nothing of value. A hole in the southwest corner of the floor leads to area W9 below.
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