Planned Encounter: The Tree Sludge Robbery

         Welcome to the actual official end of the first month of this blog, and with its end a new type of post. This Wednesday I have a planned out combat encounter with loot, monsters, and special events during the combat. This is my first time with this type of content so the formatting may not be the best, but I believe that the material is good so enjoy and I look forward to seeing you in September.

Starting Point

  • *This encounter is built for a group of 4 level 2 characters*
    • But it could with all likelihood be difficult or easy for your group. Just read through the encounter and judge what you think is appropriate for your group.
  • This encounter starts along any road that is adjacent to a forest

Combat

  • Monsters: Feel free to change the number of monsters to fit your group.
    • 4 Sap-Lings
    • 1 Mini Sap-Ling: This is a small Sap-Ling that sits atop the shoulder of the Sap-King. It has the same statistics as a normal Sap-Ling except it has 5 hp instead of 13.
    • 1 Sap-King
  • Monster Behavior:
    • Sap-Lings: Half of the Sap-Lings will stay at the edge of the forest and launch their sap at the adventurers. The other half will use melee to attack.
      • If the Sap-King is dead and a Sap-Ling is below half health, it will flee.
    • Mini Sap-Ling: The Mini Sap-Ling will use the help action on the Sap-King on every one of its turns.
      • If the Sap-King is dead it will use any attack to harm the one that killed the Sap-King (It will not flee).
      • Sap-King: The Sap-King will be at the front, attacking with melee.
    • Rounds/Special Events: These will be special notes for each round of combat or when something specific happen in combat. If something, action or round, is not mentioned then look back at Monster Behaviors to figure out what a monster would do.
      • Round 1: All players with a passive perception below 11 will be suprised by te monsters jumping out from the woods.
      • Round 3: All alive Sap-Lings will target the highest damage dealing adventurer with their sap throw attack or with their slam attack if in range.
      • Bloodied Sap-King: When the Sap-King hits half health it will absorb the sap of surrounding Sap-Lings, excluding the Mini Sap-Ling. Each Sap-Ling within 10ft of the Sap-King losses 2 hp and the Sap-King regains 4 hp for each Sap-Ling absorbed from.

Loot

        After defeating the Sap-Lings your adventurers can loot the corpses. If they do, they will find:

  • Sap-Lings: The normal Sap-Lings have a chance to have a trinket from passed raids stuck within their sap.
    • Roll a d100 and on a 70 or above your player finds a trinket from the trinket table found on pg. 160-161 of the Player’s Handbook.
  • Mini Sap-Ling: This Sap-Ling has a gem that takes up most of the sap that comprises its body. If you want a specific gem, roll on the 10gp Gemstone Table found on pg. 134 of the DMG (Dungeon’s Master Guide). Otherwise, it is just a 10gp gemstone.
  • Sap-King: In the Sap-King’s body a number of gemstones can be found.
    • 1d4+2: 10gp Gemstones