Illusion cantrip
Casting time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 hour
You change the color of one Medium-sized creature or a portion of it to the color of your choice for 1 hour. This spell can be removed through dispel magic or a similar spell that removes enchantments. If applied to the lenses of the eye, it will tint the vision of everything you see for the duration but will not occlude them.
Wondrous Item, common
Appearing as a wooden cooking spoon with a few dents or chips, this spoon has 2 charges. When you strike the spoon against a hard object like a tuning fork, you can expend 1 charge as an action and then hold it against any part of your body. The spoon speaks your overall condition, including a description of hit points in terms like, “Barely wounded,” “Severely wounded,” etc. and also speaks any active condition status effects. It does not reveal the source of the effect, such as a disease or curse. The spoon regains all expended charges daily at dawn.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 (-4) | 18 (+4) | 10 (+0) | 14 (+2) | 13 (+1) | 11 (+0) |
Innate Spellcasting (2/Day). The Tooth Fairie can innately cast Misty Step, requiring no material components. Its innate spellcasting ability is Wisdom.
Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 slashing damage.
Shortbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 40/160 ft., one target. Hit: 1 piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or become paralyzed for 1 minute.
Invisibility. The Fairie magically turns invisible until it attacks or casts a spell, or until its concentration ends (as if concentrating on a spell). Any equipment it wears or carries is invisible with it.
Large monstrosity, Lawful Neutral
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 (+3) | 13 (+1) | 16 (+3) | 7 (-2) | 12 (+1) | 10 (+0) |
Pack Tactics. The Dragoshark has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the shark’s allies is within 5 ft. of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
Water Breathing. The Dragoshark can breathe only underwater.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d10 + 3) piercing damage.
Breath Weapon (Recharge 5-6). The Dragoshark exhales lightning in a 40-foot line that is 5 feet wide. Each creature in that line must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 49 (9d10) lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Maps for The Search for Dread
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Maps for The Search for Dread
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Maps for The Search for Dread
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| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 (+1) | 14 (+2) | 15 (+2) | 6 (-2) | 8 (-1) | 5 (-3) |
War Pick. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d8 + 1) piercing damage.
Rubble Rumble (Recharge 6). If the Skeletal Miner is within 5 ft. of a mine or cave wall, it can slam its pick on the wall and send a shockwave through the ceiling, causing a collapse in a 20-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) bludgeoning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
The Shaggy Plague has afflicted a nearby village, and it’s up to you to save the people and prevent its spread, but the cure requires a rare plant that’s heavily guarded. Can you recover it in time?
This adventure includes themes of disease, bullying, extortion, betrayal, violence, and death.
A village is suffering from a plague, and Zilji Larka asks the party to help retrieve a rare herb that’s needed for a cure. The herb, known by sorcerer and apothecary Jaydrey, only grows in a particular mountain valley. As they near the valley, they encounter Orrelius and learn of a dragon in the area. The dragon has scouts who meet the party and learn of their quest. The party must get to the valley either by navigating rapids or exploring a cave. When they arrive, the young red dragon is there and demands the party pay tribute, or it’ll torch the needed plants. It offers them a quest to steal a gem from a nearby cottage at the top of a cliff. The cottage is an entrance to the lair of a silver dragon, the same dragon that gave Jaydrey her sorcerous origin. The silver dragon won’t relinquish the gem, so the party must find another solution. Once the party acquires the plants, they take them to the afflicted village, but on the way, they encounter werewolves but get help from a druid. On arriving at the village, while helping the suffering, the red dragon attacks with its dwarven minions, so the party must protect the village.
This adventure is designed for 3–5 characters, level 5–7, with a total of 18–20 levels.
This adventure can serve as a side quest or as an introduction to a campaign featuring a war between dragons in the mountains.
This adventure can occur in any population center with a nearby village and mountains within a few days’ travel.
As the party walks through a city or town, a small clockwork griffon the size of a raven swoops at the party, then climbs straight upward and begins plummeting to the ground. Zilji Larka comes running to catch it, and if the party doesn’t interfere, he dives to their feet and barely catches it. He pulls out a pair of tools, casts Mage Hand, and holds the griffon with the spectral hand while tinkering with the object.
“I thought I had that stabilizer fixed! Looks like it needs some more adjustments.” He stops suddenly and looks up at the party. “Oh! Hey! You look like adventurers! Maybe you can help me!”
He tells the party that the Shaggy Plague has struck his village, and he needs help saving them. It can only be cured with a rare herb, kindleroot, that grows in the nearby mountains, so he’s looking for someone to go find it for him. “I’ve researched it and know what it looks like, but I need to head back to the village and help my parents. I don’t know how much time they have left, and you can find it in time, I got some help from the local apothecary that should at least buy them some time. I have to take the chance. She can tell you more about kindleroot.”
If asked, he explains that the Shaggy Plague is so named, because it causes a fur-like growth to spread over much of the body, but after about a month, the hair begins to grow inward. It begins with pain in the skin, then it attacks the arms and legs and causes gradual paralysis, then the organs eventually fail. “Now you understand why I need to cure this.”
The apothecary is a long narrow wooden building that’s more window than wood, but the interior is darkened by the plants hanging across the windows and growing up from the windowsills. Shelves filled with salves, potions, and other jars line the walls below the windows, tinted green from the leafy curtains filtering the sunlight. The air combines aromas of soil, mold, musk, and alcohol. Characters sensitive to strong odors or with pollen allergies are triggered and must attempt corresponding saving throws.
At the end of the long aisle that comprises most of the interior, a halfling, Jaydrey Forewood, bounces among a distillery, a table with ceramic bowls filled with a variety of powders and creams, and a few potted plants from which she carefully takes trimmings. Once the party begins to approach her, she looks at them like a mother to children returning home from a long trip. She notes a feature of each of the party and compliments them, asking sincere questions about their journeys, where a particular scratch in their armor came from, or anything else she notices from their appearance or words. This continues until someone from the party asks about the kindleroot or some other topic. The party notices that, due to her facial cleft, when she talks, she replaces dental sounds like D, T, and Th with other sounds, which may take them a minute to get used to, but her welcoming attitude soon eclipses that distraction. (We recommend that the GM describe her speech impediment instead of attempting to reproduce it.)
When they mention the Shaggy Plague, Zilji, or kindleroot, she stops abruptly and tilts her head with compassion. She begins pausing as she speaks, trying to keep her composure. She expresses deep concern for them but notes that the kindleroot is difficult to acquire. She has a friend who’s trying to get it but hasn’t been able to, because it’s too dangerous. When the party expresses interest in harvesting it, her voice softens with concern, her eyes filled with both compassion and protectiveness. “That’s so sweet, but the world needs kind people like you, and if you try that, the world will be poorer without you.”
Because Jaydrey fears for their safety and doesn’t want to be responsible for their deaths, the party must convince her to give them the needed information. She can be convinced if they demonstrate the following:
commitment to follow through
commitment to environmental preservation
magical prowess to handle unexpected challenges
ability to survive harsh environments
compassion for those in need
The party can demonstrate those by multiple people communicating their values, by telling stories of past accomplishments as examples, etc. At first, she does not specifically ask about any of those points. She’ll just refuse, telling them she doesn’t want their blood on her hands. Once their pleas convince her on two of the points, if they don’t cover the others, she’ll ask pointed questions. “But what about…?”
Once they succeed, her face lights up with hope, and her skin shimmers silver for a moment. She gives the party a drawing of a kindleroot plant, which has huge, spear shaped leaves, which are usually light orange. It also grows tiny flowers, which can be orange, dark gray, dark gold, silver and gold. A patch of them on a breezy day looks like a bonfire. She needs the juice from the leaves and flowers of twenty mature plants to brew antidote to cure the whole village, but if they cut them carefully and leave the shallow roots intact, they will grow back in case of another outbreak or simply to preserve their beauty. She also sketches out a map to show them precisely where to look. (Show Map to Kindleroot) If the party asks how she knows all this, she tells them that she’s been there before and studied the plants there, but then she gets a wistful look on her face and says, “But it’s been a long time. Too long.” If the party asks about the house on the right, she says, “There’s a little house up there,” but gives no more information.
Jaydrey suggests that the party get some rest at the town’s local inn and set out in the morning. During the evening, Zilji talks to them at the inn about his home village, its location and the environment around it, and the kind people there, all the while tinkering with a clockwork moose that he never quite gets working.
Before they set out, Zilji arrives to see them off and gives them a handheld white porcelain clockwork bear. “I’ve worked on this for a long time. It’ll protect you from extreme heat and cold when things get rough out there, but I’m not sure how long it’ll last.”
Wondrous Item, Uncommon
This white porcelain bear figurine has 2 charges. While holding it, you can expend a charge as a bonus action to produce an aura in a ten foot radius sphere around the bear. All creatures within the aura have resistance to fire and cold damage for 1d3 rounds. The bear can’t recharge and makes a loud popping noise, cracks, emits a harmless spark, and leaks a clear acrid oil when its final charge is expended.
The pass into the mountains is two days from the town where the party started. The journey follows a well-marked dirt road, where the hills grow taller and longer as the mountains in the distance seem close enough to be over the next hill, yet never are, and each hill seems higher and longer than the one before, although that’s an illusion created by anticipation. The leaves on the trees gradually give way to needles on conifers, and the dirt underfoot adds the uncomfortable texture of growing rocks that announce the forthcoming cliffs.
Along the way, the GM may wish to include some encounters by choosing or rolling on the following table or skip to the next section. Use the Road through the Hills map if needed for these.
| d6 | Encounter |
| 1 | A loud rustling in the forest approaches the party as fast shadows move toward them. A pack of six wolves chase an elk, which weaves around trees and runs directly toward the party. As it runs at them, the elk charges at a random member of the party in an attempt to get past. |
| 2 | Three ogres are patrolling the road. They’re messengers for Cheruss (See Chase the Dragon) who bring him food. If the party offers them more food for less work, they’ll accept it in exchange. |
| 3 | Two eagles fly overhead. Then they fly over again. They seem to be following you for several hours, then they fly away toward the mountains. |
| 4 | A horse-drawn cart full of crates comes toward the party. One of the front wheels is missing, and a bugbear is carrying the axle with difficulty. If the party helps her replace the wheel, she thanks them profusely. She refuses to answer questions about the contents of the crates. They’re full of medical supplies for the ailing village, and she doesn’t want anyone to steal them. If the party helps, they will meet her in the village, helping the sick. |
| 5 | A goblin merchant approaches the party and offers them homemade skunk jerky, only 1 cp each, or 10 for a dozen! He won’t take no for an answer, insisting that nobles consider it a delicacy. It usually goes for ten times as much, but he has a surplus at the moment, so he’s willing to sell it at rock-bottom prices! |
| 6 | The party hears the sound of a baby crying. Over the next hill, a mule-drawn wagon approaches, the driver carrying the crying baby and clearly stressed. He asks the party whether they have any leather that his teething baby could chew on. |
When the hills become so steep that hopelessness begins to threaten the party’s morale, from the summit of the next hill, the party notices a river slicing through a nearly vertical mountain wall, a sparkling blue thread through the vertical eye of a colossal stone needle. Jaydrey’s map denotes this river. The party has arrived at last.
The river is fifteen feet wide and averages four feet deep with fifteen feet of land between the bank and the cliff on each side. The cliff extends 150 feet upward and curves gradually outward, widening into a large valley.
Those with a passive Wisdom (Perception) higher than 15 notice that, while the mouth of the valley has no trees except some high above, the ground is littered with dry branches that crack loudly as the party walks over them unless they succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity (Stealth) check.
Around the first curve, Orrelius waits on a ledge eight feet above the ground. If the party doesn’t make a successful stealth check, he hears them and says, “Greetings, travelers. What brings you to this valley?” If he heard them coming, he has already cast Zone of Truth, and the party feels its effects but must succeed on a DC 17 Charisma saving throw to avoid its effects.
Orrelius is suspicious of the party, but if they tell him the truth about their mission, he tells them that he believes that the plant they seek is in a valley further in, but he’s also heard credible rumors of a dragon in the area, although the reports have conflicted widely as to the color.
If any of the party are injured, he heals them. He then asks for directions to the afflicted village, hoping to provide help to the most afflicted until they bring the cure. “I can’t help everyone, but if I can soothe them and fend off the Reaper until you arrive, we may accomplish more than if I join you.” As the party gives directions, if they use visible landmarks in their directions, Orrelius asks for additional environmental details like precise directions, the density of the woods and types of trees around the roads, inhabited areas, and other features he may detect with his other senses. If they don’t know directions to the village, he asks for directions to town so he can find and ask someone there.
The roughly circular valley widens out to a half mile diameter, most of it densely packed with coniferous trees with a visible corridor on the opposite end. Once the party reaches the mouth of the corridor, Gwanla Marblerock, a dwarven spy, sees them and welcomes them. She claims to be gathering mushrooms and berries (technically true at the moment) and offers them some pine nut bread with mushroom jam. She casually asks what brings them to the mountains, and if they tell her, she expresses sympathy and wishes them well. She asks which direction they’re headed, and if they show her the map, she offers them directions to a safer passage through a narrow cave.
Gwanla works for Cheruss, the young red dragon, and the shortcut she offers to the party is a trap. Once the party leaves, she takes an alternate path to report back to Cheruss. If the party successfully spies on her, they see her slip behind a brush pile into the side of the mountain. The tunnel she takes is small and narrow, allowing small creatures to walk in it single file, but medium creatures need to crawl, and most large creatures cannot fit.
If the party follows Gwanla’s advice, they find an abandoned mineshaft in the left wall of the mountain before it curves inward toward the river. (Use the Gwanla’s Tunnel map) The walls and floor are wet with condensation, and a gelatinous cube fills part of the corridor and surprises unwary adventurers.
The mineshaft ends in an increasingly steep and slippery slope. Everyone must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check or fall prone and slide into a thirty-foot pit at the end, taking 3d6 bludgeoning damage. The pit is a cylinder, sixty feet in diameter. On the opposite side stands a fifteen-foot arch blocked by a large stone that, from inside of the pit, can only be moved with a successful DC 25 Strength check. The wall has a one-foot diameter window beside the arch.
If the party arrives here and makes any noise, Cheruss hears them and sends Gwanla (or another spy if Gwanla isn’t available) to check on them via the window. Once Cheruss hears the party’s status, he goes to the pit to talk to the party, rolling the stone out of the way. If the party attacks him, he uses his breath weapon against them and leaves. A few minutes later, four dwarven veterans appear, crossbows loaded, followed by Cheruss’s face appearing out of the dark corridor beyond. (Skip to Chase the Dragon)
If the party doesn’t follow Gwanla’s directions, they need to follow the river across the next valley. As they cross the valley, a hunting party of four saber-toothed tigers attempts to surround and ambush them. (Use Mountain Valley map)
At the valley’s far end, the cliff walls narrow until no dry land runs between them, and the river turns to rapids with only wet walls bordering it for two hundred feet. The party must find a way to get past the rapids. (Use River Rapids map)
Raft: Creating a seaworthy raft from trees requires a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check. Proficiency with carpenter’s tools adds the character’s proficiency bonus to this check. The raft has 40 hp. The raft moves twenty feet per round and requires a successful DC 17 Dexterity check to avoid hitting a rock. Proficiency with water vehicles adds to this check. Each round the raft hits a rock, the raft takes 1d8 bludgeoning damage, and everyone on the raft must succeed on a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check or fall into the water, taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage. Those who fall in the water must swim or use their action to succeed on a DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check to grab the raft, then use their action the following round to attempt to climb onto the raft, requiring a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check. Creatures with a swim speed have advantage on checks to grab and climb onto the raft. If someone on the raft uses their action to help, the person climbing on has advantage on the check, but the person helping has disadvantage on any check to avoid falling off in the event of a collision. Each round they are in the water attempting to climb aboard, they take an additional 1d6 bludgeoning damage.
Swim: Swimming the rapids requires a successful DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check each round to avoid drowning. Failure indicates that the character begins choking. See Suffocating in the Basic Rules, Chapter 8. The swimming character must also succeed on a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check each round to avoid hitting rocks and taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage. Creatures with a swim speed or webbed digits have advantage on this check.
Climb: Characters may attempt to climb the cliff wall to get past the rapids. Climbing the rocks requires a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check each round to avoid falling. A climber’s kit gives advantage on the checks. Climbing closer than twenty feet above the water gives disadvantage on the checks due to splashing water making the rocks slippery. Winds buoy non-evil creatures that fall. Such creatures descend at a rate of 60 feet per round and take no falling damage but still suffer the effects of the water current and rocks.
Once the party gets past the rapids, the canyon widens out again into a field as long as the first but not as wide as the previous one. The green grass is accented by orange blades, and the far left quadrant appears to be ablaze as the kindleroot plants flicker above the green blades. Against the left wall, smoke wisps rise from a large cave entrance. (Use Kindleroot Valley map.)
As the party approaches the kindleroot, four dwarven veterans, crossbows loaded, emerge from the cave, followed by a large red dragon. Cheruss the dragon glares at the party.
Cheruss likes his “fire grass” and won’t allow anyone to take it, especially for such a paltry reason as saving lives or ending suffering. “You want to end suffering? Point me to that village, and I’ll immolate the place!”
If Cheruss hasn’t learned the party’s purpose yet, he demands to know why they’ve invaded his domain. He doesn’t appreciate thieves who don’t work for him, and anyone who would steal from him is volunteering to be his next meal. At the same time, he constantly watches for ways to benefit himself in any encounter, and combat with even moderately formidable foes has no guaranteed benefit, so he manipulates the encounter to his advantage.
If the party tries to fight for the kindleroot, as soon as he notices them raising their weapons or making spellcasting gestures, he threatens to burn the whole field. He likes his landscaping, but it’ll grow back if he doesn’t burn the roots, and a season or three while it grows back is quick as a spark for a dragon.
He does not allow them to leave without paying a price for disturbing him, even if they give up on the kindleroot.
He considers negotiating with them. Atop the cliff in the previous valley, an old woman has a large ruby that he wants. She’s a powerful wizard, he says, so it hasn’t been worth the effort to get it himself, but he’d be willing to exchange it for the amount of “fire grass” that they need.
If the party attempts to get the ruby, they must get back to the other valley. If they came through the tunnel, they can go back the same way once they find a way out of the pit. (Cheruss won’t help them. He’d rather leave them there to die.)
The valley wall extends 150 feet vertically. As they climb, an eagle flies over and circles for a few minutes before flying back up the mountain. Winds buoy non-evil creatures that fall. Such creatures descend at a rate of 60 feet per round and take no falling damage.
After that, the climb changes to rough terrain for another 300 feet as the slope becomes more gradual. At this point, the party can see a large silver cottage, the eagle perched on the roof, and a nest with two giant eagles twenty feet away. All of the eagles watch the party closely as they approach.
Aside from the massive nest nearby and the mountaintop location, the cottage looks like an unassuming, well-maintained home. The windows, made of silvered glass, allow no one to peek inside. The single door is unlocked if the party enters without knocking.
Inside the cottage, shelves of trinkets, antiques, and other mementos line the walls among silver wall sconces and rows of old books and scrolls. Light comes in through the windows unobstructed. Portraits of humanoids of many different ancestries fill the remaining wall spaces with smaller ones on shelves. A successful DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) check notices that one of the portraits on a shelf shows a younger image of Jaydrey.
If the party knocks, a feminine voice calls, “You’ve come this far. It would be rude of me to send you away. Come in.” An elderly human sits with her back to the door, reading the handwriting on a yellowed sheet of paper. She holds it to her chest, sighs, and sets it down on a small table beside her. She picks up a glass of dark brown liquid, takes a sip, and says, “Welcome to my home. You must be tired from that climb. Sit, and I’ll get you some tea and scones. How may I help you?” She grabs a wooden crutch, gets up, and tends to her guests.
The woman is Layni, the adult silver dragon who is the source of Jaydrey’s sorcery, shape changed into human form. The cottage covers the entrance to her lair, a vast network of chambers below the mountain, which she accesses through a trapdoor in the back room. She has tolerated Cheruss and kept him from terrorizing the surrounding countryside, knowing he’ll eventually move away in frustration. Every item in her cottage has sentimental value to her, as each belonged to an old friend, most of whom are long gone, along with many of their civilizations. She values these items, all she has left of those she loves. She does not reveal her true nature unless necessary, and she answers any questions about her age or nature with a cagey response like, “Don’t you know it’s rude to ask a woman about her age?”
If the party mentions Jaydrey, Layni says, “Oh! You’ve met my daughter! My own blood!” She dismisses questions about the physical differences between human and halfling, assuring the party that love and commitment make someone family, not physical resemblance, and she answers every question with a corresponding question about Jaydrey.
If the party asks about the ruby, Layni gets suspicious and questions why they’d run errands for Cheruss. She knows he wants it and has no intention of handing it over to him to be just one more sparkle in his vault. If the party acts trustworthy, she’s willing to show it to them, opening an engraved brass coffer and producing a brass hair clip with a half-inch ruby setting attached to a red braid of hair. (The ruby is worth 5,000 gp.) “This is Sartyn. She lived under this very mountain long before your grandparents were born [present elves excepted]. Her descendants still live there.” (She refers to her mementos as if they are the owners, not because she’s confused, but because her memories of each are tied to the item.)
Layni wants to help the suffering village but can’t bear to part with the ruby. She’s open to suggestions on how to proceed but is reluctant to get directly involved. She would rather not “bully little Cheruss” and prefers to give the party the opportunity to solve their own problems. “That’s how you grow, my dear! You have so little time in your life, you need to use that time to develop your little mind and achieve your potential!”
If the party asks Layni to go with them, she agrees only as a last resort. She steps outside and changes to her true nature, a huge silver dragon who walks with a limp in her left hind leg. She speaks to the giant eagles in their language, to which they respond by flying up, then swooping down and picking up the party gently in their talons. When they fly to Cheruss’s cave, Cheruss threatens to burn the kindleroot, to which Layni says, “If you do that, I will freeze you so solid, they’ll sharpen blades on your eyeballs!” Cheruss insists that the plants are his property and will only part with them with an appropriate payment.
If the party negotiates for a different payment, Cheruss insists that the party could never give him anything he wants unless they’d like to offer one of their own for his next meal or provide him something he’d be unable to acquire himself. He is cruel and arrogant, so he meets too small an offer with, “That sounds like a fitting tribute to let you live. I accept it in exchange for your life. (He’s serious.) Now what can you offer that’s worth more than your lives?”
The dwarves working for Cheruss appear loyal to him, but they only serve him as an agreement that he won’t attack the rest of the village in the tunnels below the mountains. If questioned, they only admit the truth on a successful DC 20 Charisma check and then only if they believe that Cheruss can’t hear them. If the party convinces the dwarves to rally their community with the promise of assistance and helps them escape into a tunnel in the mountain wall, news of an uprising leads to Cheruss flying away, knowing he needs reinforcements to fight an entire community that’s no longer afraid of him. Layni is unaware of this arrangement, and if she learns that Sartyn’s family is being held hostage by Cheruss, she becomes enraged and chases him away, threatening him if he ever returns.
Use Road through the Hills map.
As the party takes their acquired kindleroot to the ailing village, they see a humanoid in a cloak with shaggy exposed arms limping toward them from the general direction of the village. It may appear to be a victim of the Shaggy Plague but is actually a werewolf with two more hiding in the woods nearby in wolf form. Once it gets within thirty feet of the party, it and the hiding wolves attack the party. At the beginning of the second round, another wolf appears from the woods and attacks the werewolves on its turn. This fourth wolf is Eilwynn Ilaras in wild shape.
Following the combat, Eilwynn uses Cure Wounds on anyone who’s injured. If she or a member of the party received a bite from one of the werewolves, her Baseless Emotion triggers as fear that the injury will cause lycanthropy causes a panic attack. She sits down and focuses on her staff, running her fingers over the runes and staring intently at them for 1d10 minutes. Assistance will not reduce her recovery time, and she will meet attempts to assist with appreciation for the concern and a request to give her a few minutes. After the panic subsides, she tells them that those wounds should get checked soon as a precaution. After the encounter, she offers to travel with the party to help them, as she heard about the plague.
When the party nears the village, a small collection of halflings and gnomes living in wattle and daub houses surrounded by a stream and farmland, Zilji and Jaydrey meet them on the road and eagerly take the plants to a nearby hut where brewery equipment awaits the final ingredient. Zilji then heads back into the village to tend to the sick.
If the party enters the village, they find Orrelius near one of the homes, wiping cold water on one of the victims. The voice of any party member will sound familiar, but he will ask for their names again to jog his memory., “I pray you have come to bring blessings to this village. I’m thankful to be a vessel of hope and healing here, but even with my gifts, the disease spreads faster than I can keep up, and many whom I’ve healed have fallen ill again.”
If the party mentions the werewolves to Orrelius, he casts Remove Curse on up to three of the bitten. He tells them where to find some wooden buckets and rags and asks them to take the buckets to the nearby stream, fill them with cool water, and tend to those with fevers.
The GM may consider the backgrounds and other abilities of the party and encourage them to use their skills creatively to help in various ways, such as cooking, repairing neglected items, foraging for more food, etc. Cure Wounds and other spells can reduce the damage caused by the disease and sustain those closest to dying or in pain. The cure takes a day to prepare, so the party can use the rest of the day to help. The villagers express their appreciation, and those currently healthy or in early stages of the disease eagerly help the party.
Late the next morning, a scream echoes through the village. “Dragon!” (Use Village Rescue map)
If Cheruss is still alive, he has come to assert his dominance over the weakened village. If he still controls the dwarves, three dwarven veterans come riding on saber-toothed tigers from the road and threaten the villagers, who attempt to flee for safety.
Orrelius has already expended all but his fourth-level spell slots healing villagers but first casts Spiritual Guardian, then the second round invokes Spiritual Weapon on his sword and hurls insults at Cheruss, attempting a contested Charisma (Persuasion) check to get Cheruss to focus on him. “The bloated iguana is so weak that it can only bully a dying village!” If he gets Cheruss within melee range, he uses his remaining fourth-level spell slot for an Improved Divine Smite.
Jaydrey prefers to continue working on the cure while Zilji stands guard at the brewery hut. After the first round, Jaydrey will step in if the outcome is doubtful, moving as far from the hut as possible, asking Zilji to guard and monitor the cure.
If appropriate, Eilwynn enters combat using Entangle on the mounted dwarves followed by Thunderwave if possible, then uses Shillelagh, shortbow, or Wild Shape.
As the battle ends, Layni swoops in, having learned that Cheruss was heading this way. When Orrelius hears another dragon, he welcomes the challenge and starts threatening Layni until he learns that she’s an ally. If Cheruss still lives, Layni chases him away and returns to the village.
Layni lands near the hut, changes shape to her human form, and calls, “Jaydrey, my blood?” Jaydrey runs out of the hut and embraces Layni. They go into the hut together, still tending to the cure while chatting.
That afternoon, as the cure nears completion, Zilji asks Orrelius and the party to find those in the most advanced stages of the disease and bring them out for the first doses of the cure. Jaydrey and Layni bring out small cups of glowing orange liquid and ask the party to distribute them. After drinking, pain and other internal symptoms gradually begin to subside after an hour, the fur begins to shed after four hours, and in the worst cases, the complete recovery takes up to a day.
The villagers invite the party to stay for a celebration, quickly assembling a feast as children reenact the battle, sometimes arguing over who gets to be which member of the party until they decide to take turns. As they repeat the drama, they add more dragons and tiger-riding dwarves so more can participate, and the story becomes increasingly embellished with each retelling.
A light is shining in the long-abandoned wizard’s tower, but is this good news or bad? And why is the ground so soft?
This adventure is designed for 3–5 characters, level 5–7, with a total of 20–24 levels.
A long-abandoned tower has recently had lights in an upper window. Hadarai Liadon climbed up to see what’s going on and saw items gathered for a ritual. A wizard is trying to open a portal to the Elemental Plane of Water to flood the area. The wizard was bullied and wants revenge. First, some mud mephits enter the city and start causing chaos. Local farmers near the tower report that their fields are too wet in spite of mild rainfall. The ground near the tower is getting waterlogged. A Mud Elemental enters town and seeks out the bullies. If the wizard gets the portal open, it will soon destroy the entire city, not only the flooding, but the water elementals that are coming through with it! But when the wizard sees that he’s endangered those who were kind to him, he has a change of heart. But is it too late?
This adventure can serve as a side quest or as a way to introduce characters in an existing community. The opening encounter will draw the party into the action, and if they’re not immediately interested, the mire mephits will annoy them until they have to act.
This adventure can occur in any city with a library and nearby forest and farmland.
The party may be in any public space, such as an inn, park, or marketplace. Hadarai Liadon bursts on the scene, swinging down from a rooftop or rafters if available, scarves trailing behind faer. Fae immediately starts asking locals, “Have you seen anyone head toward the old wizard’s tower?” Fae was in the trees in the woods near it and noticed a light coming from the window at the top. If asked about it, fae says fae climbed up the outside and peeked in, and while it was unoccupied, it had a pile of new supplies: bottles of something white, a book, a chest, a jar of pearls, and two barrels.
Ebus has secretly gathered them with the intent to open a gateway to the Elemental Plane of Water and flood the city.
Map: Muddy Buddies
Once the party has time to react to the news but before leaving the area, the closest pile or puddle of mud or body of water begins bubbling, and six mire mephits fly out, making flatulence-like noises and shouting vulgar taunts in Aquan. They fling putrid mud at anyone nearby, leaving the targeted local residents incapacitated with nausea. When threatened or noticing anyone preparing to attack them, they fight any aggressors to the death.
Julius & Gemma run the local jewelry shop, and their son, Lechlun, helps when not pursuing magic projects. The two story shop is a brick building with barred windows. The inside is lit like daylight, the entire ceiling magically illuminated. Several chests with shallow drawers line the walls, the drawers partly open to display shiny jewelry.
The couple sit at benches, cutting gems or piecing together jewelry, and Lechlun is sitting at a table with a candle burning and four large tomes open, writing with the charred end of a stick on a slab of limestone, then erasing with a damp sponge and writing more.
When anyone comes into the shop, Julius and Gemma welcome them warmly while Lechlun ignores the noise and continues his research.
If addressed, Lechlun typically raises a fingers a gesture to wait, finishes the section he’s writing, and then steps away from his work and greets his guest with a smile.
If asked about Ebus, Lechlun will speak favorably and sympathetically about him. “He’s a decent person, but trouble seems to find him. I’m used to people treating me differently because of my appearance, but he’s like a bully magnet.”
Ebus recently stopped into the shop and bought all of the abalone they had in stock, but they will only reveal this if specifically asked about Ebus’s recent behavior.
If asked about Wally and Eddie, Lechlun suggests staying away from them. “Those guys are just mean. Always have been. Only people they’re nice to are their wives and kids, and even with them, well, I wouldn’t treat people like that. I guess they think they’re funny, but I see the looks on their families’ faces — they don’t appreciate it.”
Lechlun is usually at the shop, but lately, he’s been leaving for several hours to go to a nearby granite quarry to mine for obsidian. His magic allows him to carve through rock without a pick. The shop has several drawers full of obsidian, both uncut pieces and jewelry.
Emmara owns the local library, which is supported by a nearby magic school and by sages and wizards who pay to use its resources for research. It also has meeting rooms available for rent and a large room that functions as a school for children.
If asked about Lechlun, Emmara will note that he used to spend a lot of time at the library and still comes in occasionally, but he has made comments about, “less study, more experiment,” and he has expressed frustration at not being able to find books related to his tradition, needing to write his own instead.
If asked about Ebus, she takes on a protective, condescending tone, like a parent concerned about their child. Ebus has always spent a lot of time at the library since he was very young. He was often bullied by his peers and found the library as a safe haven. Since then, it has become like a second home to him, where he spends long hours reading casually and studying. Emmara has spent many hours over the years offering a shoulder to cry on and a welcoming ear to absorb his sorrows. Any mention of Wally and Eddie will bring an angry frown.
If the party comes to the library during the day, Rohna will be in the classroom section with twenty children who are all busy working on painting and sculpting projects. As she moves from child to child, the arms of her wheelchair offer alternative brushes, grab extra boxes of clay and jars of paint, pick up dropped objects, and hold a cup of tea that she sips while encouraging and coaching the children. When a jar slips off the table out of her reach, she uses Mage Hand to grab it and put it back on the table, though not as close to the edge. At times, the party may notice the figures in the paintings seem to move, but only for a moment. If asked about this, Rohna will answer that art is a form of magic in itself that you have to make more than read.
Rohna has spent time teaching Lechlun and Ebus when they were much younger, before they began studying magic, but hasn’t had as much contact with them lately. Since Ebus used to be at the library every day, she has noticed that he hasn’t been there lately. “He always warms my tea for me, that sweet boy, and my tea and heart aren’t as warm when he doesn’t come in.” (She has a ceramic pot of steaming hot tea sitting on the counter with no heat source in sight. She can warm it herself, but she likes to let him do it for her as an act of kindness.)
If asked about Wally and Eddie, she’ll describe them as, “boys with many gifts that they’ve never learned to recognize.”
A pair of tieflings sit at a table outside the library, drinking tea, talking [in Infernal], and laughing. One with tan skin, ram horns, and a black goatee reaches over to the teapot on the table, and his fingers glow red until the teapot steams heavily. He pours more tea for his companion, who has purple hair and wildebeest horns and holds his cup in his toes as his arms appear constricted by his chest, his purple tail toying with the hand crossbow strapped to his leg.
If asked about recent events, they get nervous and defensive. [Precision doesn’t know that Ebus has caused it.] Precision will say sarcastically, “It’s always the Tiefling, right?” Ebus will say, “I’ve always been the target, not the aggressor. Maybe listen for the harshest voices in town instead of accosting us!”
If asked about Lechlun, Ebus will acknowledge that they were friends in school but drifted apart. Ebus was uncomfortable with the dark energies Lechlun was exploring. Ebus was more interested in exploring a variety of magical energies, while Lechlun focused on Oblivion magic.
Precision was traveling and arrived in town three days ago and is staying at the closest inn. He met Ebus shortly after arriving, and the two have met for tea for an hour each day.
Ebus claims to have been at home the rest of the time, researching and relaxing. (He hasn’t, and if followed, he will leave the next day to go to the tower.)
Maps: Wizard Tower 1, 2, and 3 (early)
The tower, two miles outside of the city in the forest, is a four-story stone ruin, abandoned for over a century, and generally considered unsafe by local residents, though most stay away from it regardless of its condition for fear that the wizard who used to own it left some remaining protective wards on it. The former owner’s identity is unknown to most, and even the elves who lived in the area at the time (Emmara arrived more recently, and Hadarai was a baby when he vanished.) only remember a mostly reclusive scholarly human who used couriers for supplies and deliveries.
As the party nears the tower, they notice that the ground gets gradually softer and wetter, the dirt turning to mud, and a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check notices that the side of the building facing the city is slightly wet.
The interior of the tower has a ten foot wide stone spiral staircase along the walls, the stairs eroded with time into an irregular graded ramp that a wheelchair can navigate with relative ease. The bottom floor is cracked stone with weeds forcing their way through the cracks. The other floors are rotting wood of dubious integrity, with large sections lost to time and termites.
On the first floor, a family of six badgers have carved through the stone opposite the entrance for a burrow. If the party gets within ten feet of the entrance, the badgers will attack, but otherwise, they will stay in the burrow and snarl at the intruders.
The second floor has a bookshelf with a large wasp nest near it. Attempts to examine the shelf will result in an attack by a swarm of insects (wasps). A successful Intelligence (Investigation) check while searching the rotting books on the shelves will locate the only useful information, a spell within one of the rotting books, Iz’zart’s Swarm Limb.
Iz’zart’s Swarm Limb
1st-level conjuration
You summon a swarm of fey spirits that take the form of a swarm of beasts of Challenge Rating 1 or lower shaped as an adaptive limb, responding to telepathic commands like the appendage it’s replacing. This spell cannot add an extra limb beyond those typical for your ancestry.
The summoned swarm is also considered fey, and it disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.
The swarm gets no actions of its own, but you can use its bite as an unarmed attack.
The swarm can detach on command as a bonus action. While detached, it retains its link and can attack and follow simple commands up to 30 feet away from you. If it moves further away, the spell ends.
The third floor is nearly impassable. Some rotting bedroom furniture lines what remains of the floor along the walls. Searching through the debris will reveal a rotten chest with 200 sp and 60 gp.
Only a fifteen-foot section of floor nearest the stairs remains on the fourth story. At the top of the stairs are stored three vials of salt, a book written in Aquan with information about the elemental plane of water, a chest full of abalone, a jar of pearls, a small barrel of sand, and another of water.
The stone roof is mostly intact, but a hole where a trap door once gave access to the roof is now only a pair of rusty hinges with no sign of the wood once attached to it.
If the party follows Ebus to the tower, he confronts them if he notices them and claims he came to check out Hadarai’s claim. If asked why he’s been leaving town each day or about purchasing the abalone, he claims that he’s been missing his parents lately and has been going to visit their graves outside of town, and while he was there, he noticed that their gravestones are getting weathered and bought the abalone to fill in the chips and beautify the stones at the same time. (He’s lying.)
If the party investigates the quarry, they will find a 200 foot wide, thirty foot deep pit of limestone with granite ribbons running through it. The side has a staggered ramp leading to the bottom with tracks once used by mining carts. Tunnels lead into the walls of the crater, and inspection reveals perfectly circular five foot diameter smooth cylindrical holes extending different distances as far as sixty feet into the darkest granite seams. Inside some of these cylinders, small sections have been roughly chipped away with a small tool such as a hammered chisel.
Map: Out of their Element
The next morning, the ground in town has become damp and muddy as if it rained all night, even though everything above ground is dry, and the sky was clear through the night. When the party is outside in or near the marketplace, they hear screams as a mud elemental appears near the marketplace and heads toward Wally and Eddie’s cart where they sell furs and venison sausage. The elemental will attempt to catch and kill them, smashing their cart in the process. Everyone else flees in panic, and if the party attacks the elemental, it will fight the party until it doesn’t consider them a threat, then it will continue to pursue Wally and Eddie.
While nobody noticed Ebus casting the spell to summon the elemental, if the party specifically asks whether anyone saw him, several people remember seeing him in the marketplace before the attack. Immediately following the attack, he left for the tower, as the gate guards can confirm. They note that he was carrying a twelve foot ladder.
Lechlun was still in bed during the attack, and Precision was eating breakfast at the inn.
If the party isn’t following Ebus by this point, Precision will cross paths with them and ask whether they’ve seen him. “I was hoping he’d come by and share breakfast with me at the inn, but he never showed up. He’s not at his house or the library, either.”
At this point, the muddy ground is getting wetter, and water begins flowing through the city. The party can easily trace its current as coming from the general direction of the tower and can follow it back, although the ground has now become difficult terrain. A party with additional mobility needs may need to take an indirect approach to the tower, curving around and approaching it from the side where the ground is dryer.
Maps: Wizard Tower 1, 2, and 3 (late)
When the party arrives at the tower, the stream has become a five foot deep river, flowing from the roof over the side of the tower. Ebus stands on the roof at the mouth of the extraplanar river, and when he sees the party, he yells, “You’re too late! The portal to the plane of water is open, and it will soon be permanent! Those who stood by and watched my torment all those years will finally know what it feels like!”
If the party tries to reason with Ebus, he considers everyone in the city to blame for allowing Wally and Eddie to bully him. Only reminding him that this will destroy the library and could hurt Emmara and Rohna will cause him to stop.
If the party tries to get to Ebus by climbing the tower, either inside or outside, he waits until they get to the third floor and uses his Aquatic Torrent ability, although if they attack him with ranged attacks immediately, he doesn’t wait. When Ebus is on the roof, he has full cover against any attacks, but attacks he makes against those on the outside or on the second or third floor inside have partial cover against him.
After any dialog between the party and Ebus, regardless of the outcome, out of the river at the base of the tower, a deluge dragon rises up and attacks the party. Note that Ebus is not controlling this elemental—it came through the portal with the flowing water and will attack the closest creature.
If, during the combat, the party tells Ebus that this will hurt Emmara or Rohna, he will stop fighting the party and join in the attack against the deluge dragon. If the deluge dragon attacks him, he will defend himself against it.
If anyone attacks the deluge dragon from inside or outside the tower, it will consider all creatures in the direction of the attack to be threats, including Ebus if applicable. The dragon reaches a height of thirty-two feet, and the tower is forty feet tall, but 40 hp damage against a section of the wall (AC 15) will topple the tower.
Depending on the strength of the party, if this encounter doesn’t provide enough challenge, additional water elementals may also attack, and if the party is outmatched, Hadarai, Lechlun, and/or Precision may show up to help.
After the third combat round, Emmara shows up, yelling to Ebus to stop, that the library is beginning to flood. A wave causes them to slip in the mud and fall into the dragon’s Deluge and begin to drown. Ebus immediately cries out for Emmara and focuses only on rescuing them.
If Ebus is unconscious before Emmara appears, Emmara will rush to Ebus and stabilize him if necessary.
Once Ebus stops attacking, the planar portal closes. This doesn’t stop any elementals, but the flooding tapers off.
Emmara asks Ebus to return to town to resolve this without more destruction, and he reluctantly and remorsefully complies, apologizing profusely to Emmara during most of the walk back to the city.
By the time everyone returns to town, Hadarai has seen what happened and has spread the word, which spread quickly through the city. The city guard asks Ebus to come peacefully to jail while they sort everything out, and Ebus agrees.
Wally and Eddie stand with their families in front of the assembled crowd. Their children cling to them, and Eddie’s son says, “Daddy, don’t let him hurt us!” Wally and Eddie both look terrified but are trying to hide their fear, unsuccessfully. Ebus looks at them, sees their fear, and looks horrified. Ebus hangs his head and says to himself, “This is what I’ve become. I’m so sorry.”
After Ebus leaves, Wally’s daughter cautiously approaches the party and says, “Thank-you. Mommy told Daddy that he and Uncle Eddie made this happen. Thank-you for making it not happen more.”
Most of the residents nod in appreciation and walk away, going back to their lives.
Precision says, “The guy without friends is going to need a friend after this,” and he begins walking to the jail.
Rohna, holding a sack with one of her chair’s arms, uses the others to begin picking up debris that washed into town. Lechlun and a few others nod and help.
Hadarai drops down in front of one of the party from a roof, hanging upside-down on a long silk scarf and smiling. With one hand, fae makes a grandiose gesture and says, “Well done! Here, I found this. Keep it as a memento!” Fae hands over a Ring of Water Breathing. The party member with the highest Wisdom (Perception) score will recognize the ring as one worn by Ebus when they first met him.
If the party stays in the city in the days following, they will notice Lechlun, Rohna, Emmara, Wally, and Eddie each going to visit Ebus in jail.
Medium humanoid (tiefling), Chaotic Neutral
Armor Class 12 (15 with mage armor)
Hit Points 40 (9d8)
Speed 30 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| 9 (-1) | 14 (+2) | 11 (+0) | 18 (+4) | 12 (+1) | 12 (+1) |
Saving Throws Int +7, Wis +4
Skills Arcana +7, History +7
Damage Resistances fire; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11
Languages Aquan, Common, Infernal, Terran
Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)
Innate Spellcasting. Ebus’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 12, +4 to hit with spell attacks). He can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will: Thaumaturgy
1/day each: Hellish Rebuke, Darkness
Spellcasting. Ebus is a 9th-level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 15, +7 to hit with spell attacks). He has the following wizard spells prepared:
Cantrips (at will): Fire Bolt, Light, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation
1st level (4 slots): Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Protection from Evil and Good, Shield
2nd level (3 slots): Levitate, Misty Step
3rd level (3 slots): Counterspell, Fireball, Fly
4th level (3 slots): Conjure Minor Elemental, Ice Storm, Stoneskin
5th level (1 slot): Cone of Cold, Conjure Elemental
When anticipating combat, Ebus casts Mage Armor and Stoneskin and will use his reaction to cast Shield if attacked before his turn.
Aquatic Torrent (1/day). Ebus can fill with water a 20-foot-tall cylinder with a 40-foot radius centered on a point he chooses within 150 feet. The area is heavily obscured, and exposed flames in the area are doused.
The water moves suddenly and quickly through the area to the lowest elevation at a speed of 60 feet, making it difficult terrain. When a creature enters the spell’s area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, it takes 13 (3d8) bludgeoning damage, falls prone, and moves 60 ft. in the direction of the water’s current. On a successful save, the creature takes half damage.
If a creature is concentrating in the spell’s area, the creature must make a successful DC 12 Constitution saving throw or lose concentration.
If the water is in an open space, it will spread to half height and double the radius the second round on Ebus’s turn with the same effects on all within the area. By the third round, it dissipates enough to lose its force.
Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage.
Small elemental, neutral evil
Armor Class 11
Hit Points 22 (5d6 + 5)
Speed 30 ft., fly 30 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| 8 (-1) | 12 (+1) | 12 (+1) | 7 (-2) | 10 (+0) | 10 (+0) |
Skills Stealth +3
Damage Vulnerabilities bludgeoning
Damage Immunities piercing, poison
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages Aquan, Terran
Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)
Death Burst. When the mephit dies, it explodes in a burst of noxious mud. Each creature within 5 ft. of it must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
False Appearance. While the mephit remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from an ordinary mound of mud.
Innate Spellcasting (1/Day). The mephit can innately cast Acid Arrow, requiring no material components. Its innate spellcasting ability is Charisma.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 3 (1d4 + 1) slashing damage plus 2 (1d4) acid damage.
Mire Breath (Recharge 6). The mephit exhales a 15-foot cone of noxious mud. Each creature in that area must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw, taking 3 (1d6) poison damage and becoming incapacitated due to nausea for 1 round on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Variant: Summon Mephits (1/Day). The mephit has a 25 percent chance of summoning 1d4 mephits of its kind. A summoned mephit appears in an unoccupied space within 60 feet of its summoner, acts as an ally of its summoner, and can’t summon other mephits. It remains for 1 minute, until it or its summoner dies, or until its summoner dismisses it as an action.
These small vaguely humanoid mud beings smell of stagnation and rise up from pools of mud to cause havoc. They lack wings and seem to fly by floating on mists of expelled miasma.
Large elemental, neutral
Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 114 (12d10 + 48)
Speed 30 ft., swim 60 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| 20 (+5) | 12 (+1) | 18 (+4) | 5 (-3) | 10 (+0) | 8 (-1) |
Damage Vulnerabilities cold
Damage Resistances fire; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, unconscious
Senses darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages Aquan, Terran
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)
Fired Brick. If the elemental takes fire damage, it partially solidifies; it loses its swim speed, but its attacks cause an additional 8 (1d6 + 5) bludgeoning damage.
Freeze. If the elemental takes cold damage, it partially freezes; its speed is reduced by 20 ft. until the end of its next turn.
Mud Form. The elemental can enter a hostile creature’s space and stop there. It can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.
Multiattack. The elemental makes two slam attacks. If both attacks hit a Large or smaller target, the target is grappled (escape DC 15), and the elemental uses its Engulf on it.
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage.
Engulf. The elemental engulfs a Large or smaller creature grappled by it. The engulfed target is blinded, restrained, and unable to breathe, and it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw at the start of each of the elemental’s turns or take 14 (2d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage. If the elemental moves, the engulfed target moves with it. The elemental can have one Large creature or up to two Medium or smaller creatures engulfed at a time.
Huge elemental, neutral
Armor Class14 (natural armor)
Hit Points161 (14d12 + 70)
Speed 30 ft., swim 90 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| 20 (+5) | 14 (+2) | 20 (+5) | 10 (+0) | 12 (+1) | 14 (+2) |
Damage Vulnerabilities cold
Damage Resistances acid; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, unconscious
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11
Languages Aquan
Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)
Deluge. Each creature within 15-feet of the elemental that is prone and does not have a swim speed must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to stand up. Any prone creature that fails this check and is unable to breathe water cannot breathe and takes an additional 4 (1d8) bludgeoning damage.
Water Form. The elemental can enter a hostile creature’s space and stop there. It can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.
Multiattack. The elemental makes two slam attacks.
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 23 (4d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage.
Breath Weapon (Recharge 5–6). The elemental exhales a watery blast in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 45 (10d8) bludgeoning damage and being knocked prone on a failed save, or half as much damage and isn’t prone on a successful one.