You trudge forward on weary legs, having traveled through untamed hills and wilderness since you left the inn earlier this morning. While the going has been tough, the reward may be worth it -- if the hunter's tale was correct. However, as the sun starts to dip low in the sky without any sight of your destination, questions of the old man's ability to draw a map start to creep into your mind.
Then, upon cresting the top of one more hill, you see it. An ancient ruin, highlighted in the orange and purple light of dusk, the dense and dark backdrop of the { Whispering Woods } behind it. The central building is majestic, two or three stories high and decorated in a manner that means it could only be a temple. Or perhaps a grand hall of government and nobility. Regardless, there is likely to be treasure in these ruins.
You step forward down the hill, a new wave of energy washing over you now that you've found your destination. But that is when the wind picks up ... and you could swear carries with it a moan. The unnatural moan of something that sends a shiver of cold foreboding down your spine ...
The ruins before the characters are of an ancient temple and its several out-buildings. The out-buildings can be considered to be small, in almost total ruin, and devoid of anything of interest. What the characters encounter within these ruins depends very much on whether they enter the ruins in the day, or at night.
Allow the characters a bit of time to decide whether or not they'd like to make camp or to look around the outskirts of the ruins (be sure to read The Ruins at Night beforehand so you can portray what they might see while scouting the ruins). Then, either sometime after they make camp or before they make their way directly toward the temple, have them interrupted by a visitor.
A Mysterious Visitor
Note: What follows is a short social encounter with wood elves. If your setting makes the appearance of wood elves seem nonsensical, unlikely, or too mundane, the encounter with wood elves can be replaced by an encounter with the ghost of an ancient priest or scholar from the temple. While the ghost would manifest differently, the information shared would be the same.
This encounter occurs either sometime after the characters have made camp for the night or as they attempt to enter the ruins without waiting for morning.
Several slender figures materialize before you, as if they simply stepped forward from the shadow-filled environment itself. Even as they appear, it is hard to make out individual forms, as their hooded cloaks shift and blend with the surroundings. It all gives the feeling of a mirage, an illusory vision. All are approximately the size of a young, adolescent human, though it is hard to tell for sure. There are seven figures in total, forming a protective half-circle that partially surrounds you.
Allow each character a chance to make one action before proceeding. If any of the characters choose to attack, the figures will simply melt back into the darkness and disappear. They have no desire to kill and know that the ruins have a good chance of doing that job for them with a group of such recklessly aggressive adventurers. If, however, characters somehow manage to kill or capture one of the elves, the rest will not hesitate to slaughter the whole party.
Wood Elf Statblock
Wood Elf Scout: Iskatel CR: 2
Medium humanoid, chaotic good
Armor Class: 16 (Elven Chain)
Hit Points: 34 (5d10+4) 5d10+4
Speed:
35 ft
Saving Throws: STR +5, DEX +6
Skills: Athletics +5, Deception +6, History +4, Perception +5, Persuasion +6, Stealth +6 (Advantage), Survival +5
Senses: Darkvision; Passive Perception 15
Languages: Elven, Orcish
Challenge Rating: 2
Spellcasting.
Attack +5, Save DC 13
1st Level (4/day): Beast Bond, Charm Person, Ensnaring Strike, Hunter's Mark
2nd Level (2/day): Misty Step, Pass Without Trace
Primeval Awareness. As an action, the scout can expend one spell slot (1 minute per level of spell slot) to sense whether any aberrations, celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, or undead are present within 1 mile (or within up to 6 miles if in forest terrain). This feature doesn’t reveal the creatures’ location or number.
Dreadful Strikes (Special). When htting a creature with a weapon, the scout can deal an extra 1d4 psychic damage to the target, which can take this extra damage only once per turn.
Favored Enemy (Goblinoids, Orcs). The scout gains advantage on Survival checks to track favored enemies, as well as on INT checks to recall information about them.
Favored Terrain (Forest). The scout's proficiency bonus is doubled for proficient skills when making an INT or WIS check related to it. While traveling for an hour or more in chosen terrain, difficult terrain doesn’t slow the scout's travel, they can’t become lost except by magical means, and they remain alert to danger even when engaged in another activity, can move stealthily at a normal pace (while alone), find twice as much food while foraging, and while tracking creatures, they learn the exact number, sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area.
Dueling. When wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, the scout gains a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.
Fey Ancestry. The scout has advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put them to sleep.
Mask of the Wild. The scout can attempt to hide even when they are in an area only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena.
Alert. The scout gains a +5 bonus to initiative, can't be surprised while conscious, and other creatures don’t gain advantage on attack rolls against the scout as a result of being unseen by them.
Cloak of Elvenkind. Wisdom (Perception) checks made to see the scout have disadvantage, and the scout has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide.
Boots of Elvenkind. The scout has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks that rely on moving silently.
Actions
Multiattack. The scout makes two melee attacks or two ranged attacks.
Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d8 + 5) slashing damage.
Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, ranged 150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage.
Assuming that the characters do not attack their visitors ...
One of the figures -- the one directly in front of you -- steps forward and simultaneously pulls the hood back from their face. Instantly, you feel as if this figure has transformed from an illusory image into a real, solid, being. It is a woman with almond-shaped, piercing blue eyes and long, braided, hair that glitters in the dim light like a silver coin. Her face appears mostly human, though with sharper, more slender features. She holds her hands out to her sides, palms facing you, as if to show that she is not threatening. She then speaks, her voice calm, but her grasp of common halting: "I, Aliandrasi. We not hunt. We speak."
Again, the players should be given a chance for each character to make an action. If a player asks about the woman's ears (to confirm whether or not she is an elf), they are hidden by her hair (a purposeful action on Aliandrasi's part). Assuming that they do not attack, Aliandrasi will continue. She is eloquent and intelligent, but can only speak the common tongue very rudimentarily, though her ability to understand others is relatively good. Her companions do not speak or understand common at all.
"Hunt temple at moon, too much danger. Hunt temple at sun only." The woman gives a nervous glance back toward the ancient ruins nearby. "Need help. Artifact below temple. Crown. Very danger. Beasts hunt it. Beasts not from nature. Beasts poison temple, destroy balance. Will not stop hunting. More come. You must hunt artifact. Bring it to us. We destroy it. Beasts will stop hunting. Poison ends. Balance returns. Will you help?"
Aliandrasi and the wood elves are hoping that the characters will agree to explore the temple and find the Transcendent Circlet, a powerful and dangerous artifact that was hidden beneath the temple by the ancient society that worshipped there hundreds of years ago. The magics of this circlet have started to attract magic-seeking creatures to the area and while the elves have been able to fend off several, more keep coming. The elves have therefore determined that the circlet needs to be removed from the temple. Knowing that the Transcendent Circlet can drive its user mad through the sharing of secret knowledge not meant for mortals to comprehend, the elves also believe that the right thing to do with the magical item is to destroy it.
The Wood Elves of Iskatel
The Wood Elves of Iskatel are a very reclusive people who live exclusively within the Whispering Woods north of both Fortunebound and Tarn's Rest. They almost never allow themselves to be seen. They are seen so infrequently, in fact, that anyone claiming to have seen a wood elf is thought a liar. The Whispering Woods are avoided by most people in the area, as one often gets the uneasy feeling that they are watched if they dare venture between the trees. And, in truth, they are being watched. The wood elves do not engage travelers, but simply help to ensure that the travelers will never find their way to the sacred and secret elven capital at the center of the forest. Thus far, they have been successful at doing so. Anything else that happens to travelers in the Whispering Woods is usually the fault of other fey in the area -- of which there are many. The Wood Elves know of the SpellWars and many even personally remember them. They are aware of how the forces of humanity exterminated their northern brethren. They know that to reveal their existence at all is to risk war and extinction. Suffice to say, it is quite rare that the elves would reveal themselves to anyone and they would not do it without reason.
Aliandrasi and her companions will wait patiently for the characters to answer the request. She will not answer very many questions as, firstly, she does not trust humans or those who associate with humans and, secondly, she does not know how to speak the common tongue very well. Her speech above has largely been memorized and practiced, using books translating between the common tongue and elven that are kept within a library deep in the forest. Many questions that the characters might ask can be met with a blank stare and her response: "No understand. My common - very small." She may even say such a thing when she actually understands a question as, again, she does not really trust humans and does not want to give them too much information (for example, she does not want to say what the circlet does or why it must be destroyed).
If asked why the elves do not enter the temple themselves, she simply responds "Cannot." The real reason is that they have already had an encounter with a previous Nothic that extracted knowledge from a scout and learned of the magics that the wood elves hold in their city. While they were able to kill this creature, they are worried that additional interactions will lead to a situation where their city is exposed and a multitude of evil, magic-hungry, beings will descend on them. Therefore, they would rather keep their distance.
Once the characters give their answer to the elves, they will leave. If the characters agree to find the 'crown' and turn it over to the elves, Aliandrasi points at a somewhat large boulder half-buried in the nearby grass and tells the characters to place the crown on that rock when they return. The elves will be watching, and will retrieve it from there. She does not offer any compensation or reward. This lack of offer is a sort of test (see Scenario End).
Experience Point Possibilities
- Successful peaceful interaction with the wood elves - 50xp / character
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