Ideas for Swamp Encounters

[Shallown]

Not to long my current group will be slogging through a swamp as part of thier quest. So I am looking for encounter Ideas. This si what I have so far.

I am going to do one sunken old temple for them to explore. Not a huge dungeon crawl but something to play around in while searching for their ultimate goal. What will live there I have not decided as of yet or quite what its origins will be. But I like the image of the temple, sort of aztec in design, rising out of the swampy muck. I think a temple once used to worship demons when they ruled the world.

I haven't many other ideas. I do want to stear away from black dragons or any other color. Dragons are scarce in my game and they have run into one recently enough.


Just wanted some ideas to set the mood as well if you have any. I have a while to plan since they won't hit this point for like 3 more months maybe.

Thanks for any help

later

BTW they are going to be 13th -14th level by then party of 6 plus one nasty mount and one cohort of a level less.

again thanks

 

[Piratecat]

Man-eating frog demons, baby. It's ALL about the man-eating frogs!

 

[EricNoah]

I'm in the midst of putting together an adventure that takes place in a swamp, actually. I've been avoiding "common/standard" monsters as this is an Arcana Unearthed campaign.

Critters:

Vine Horror (FF)
Dire Toad (let's see, was this MotW?)
Half-fiend large monstrous centipede (it's got wings )
Bat swarm (3.5 MM -- you could use rat swarms or snake swarms, etc.)
and the BBEG is a variant sea hag I call a "swamp hag"

 

[Jin]

Shambling mounds are always good in a swamp...hmmmm...Swamp Thing...

Giant crocodiles, snakes, boars, & centipedes. Sinkholes.

I’d also suggest checking out AEG’s Wild. It has a chapter on swamps/marshes. The book as a whole is quite good.

 

[ErichDragon]

Yaun-ti would be good adversaries in a swamp. Add levels as needed to scale the encounters.

A High-level, evil, Ranger on a Giant Fiendish Dire Crocodile mount could be fun too.

 

[Piratecat]

A High-level, evil, Ranger on a Giant Fiendish Dire Crocodile mount could be fun too.

For extra joy, any toy store will sell a rubber alligator for $5. Find one that will scare the crap out of the PCs when used as a scale model, and go have fun.

 

[Shallown]

PC your idea has some merit I can buy some rubber frogs and paint them red and add little horns. Then gobble up characters. Yough part I only have one Size Small character so it will need to be big enough to suck in something bigger.

Thanks Eric I like the Vine horror and the idea of the centipede is a nasty visual.

I had plan to have some shambling mounds and I'll have to borrow Wild from one of my players. Won't he be surprised.

ED - I just used Yaunti so I want to avoid them but the ranger idea is Neat> maybe as a self appointed gaurdian to the temple who refuses to allow others to go there no matter what the reason a slightly unhinged sort of guy. I could even go for ranger/mounted character with like a windrider class from Masters of the wild. Of Course I'll use PC's Idea as well. I might even cut a little hole in the top to insert the ranger so That it looks sort of weird or paint a saddle on.

Thanks everyone. Keep the ideas coming.

Later

 

[JoeGKushner]

Do the encounters have to be seriously challenging to the party? At their level, it's easy to customize material and insure that they are challenged but if they're just moving through, perhaps taking it easy on them might be one thing to think of when placing monsters. Or as our local Scrollworks master wrote, "Let me be cool sometimes."

If dragons are out, how about undead? Undead, constructs, and outsiders can usually be found in just about any situation you care to put them into. If you're doing an ancient ruin, perhaps having evidence that the party isn't the first group to be there and that they are finding a druid getting ready to unleash a plague of sorrow upon the land in order to rectify the horrors that man has inflicted on nature recently may be the way to go.

Or have the party come across said druid's corpse as that plague of sorrow is some type of powerful demon/devil that when released, turned upon his liberator.

One thing that would help is what monster books do you have? How comfortable are you with using templates, levels, and other tricks of customization? Personally I don't have to do a lot of customzing of monsters due to the large number of monster books I have, but it's always nice to be able to break out the Book of Templates or something along those lines and really surprise the players.

 

[Painfully]

For some reason I keep thinking of jungles whenever I think of swamps so pardon me if I seem to cross over that line too often.

Anyway, I love that there can be all sorts of tricky critters hidden under that layer of murky water in a swamp and maybe fog. Leeches, frogs, snakes, gators, Kuo-toa, lizard men, and maybe a kind of mixed dark/sea elf that has adapted itself to the dim swamps, are all appropriate. Dire hippos!

Have you ever seen a nature special on lizards? I love the gecko's sticky tongue action. Gotta have some evil tongue somewhere in your swamp! What will the party's wizard do if he gets a kiss from one of these?! Haha, no spell casting for you!

Along the same lines as the frogs, your temple might be to an ancient Sladdi lord. Perhaps he was summoned back to his own plane and left behind a cult to watch over his tomb/temple until he could return. The temple of Ker-mit.

Flies, or mosquitoes are good. What kind of swamp would it be if it didnt have a few billion mosquitoes. You might use them as a kind of constant background pest, preventing good sleep, making characters roll to properly memorize spells, etc., rather then as an actual combat encounter.

Stirges or giant bats might also be appropriate. Beetles and bugs of all kinds should be plentiful.

A coatl (the snake thing with wings) turned fiendish, or lich! Can you say, "Aztec Temple of Horrors?"

The occasional man-eating plant would also be cool. Or maybe certain local plantlife gives off a sap or pollen with sedative or hallucinogenic effects. The local population might use it as a poison, a medicine, or as a kind of stimulant.

Maybe a priest from the temple caused some great rift with his diety long ago, and the land was put under into a swamp as a retribution. So the temple might suggest something very different than what is currently there.

Anyways, my 2 cents.

 

[Painfully]

And if you really want to throw the players a curveball, make it the tomb of a good person! And when they violate it all sorts of weird things could happen...especially to a paladin.

HaHA!

Maybe there is a seal that can only be broken by a good person. And when the party breaks it, they expose something that was protected from the outside.