PCs going to a jungle

Roman

First Post
I read the "My PCs are in a swamp. Now what?" thread and saw the excellent ideas you folks can come up with, so I hope to tap into the wealth of creativity that is this forum too. The situation is not entirely dissimilar to that in the above-mentioned thread.

The party is very high-powered stats-wise (I use a unique rolling method that leads to high scores [6 + 3d6, drop the lowest; and 12 + 3d6, drop the two lowest for constitution]), but not very good at using the resources at their disposal (such as spells) and not at all min-maxed in terms of feats and skills. I also starved them of wealth and in particular of magical equipment (magical equipment is very rare in my setting and cannot be bought - not even potions and scrolls), they are well below the recommended wealth per level, but they do have some weak magical weapons and thus can overcome DR/magic. It consists of the following members:

Half-Elf: Druid 10, Shapeshifter 2
Half-Elf: Wizard 12
Half-Orc: Barbarian 12
Elf: Rogue 8, Deepwood Sniper 2, Arcane Archer 2

All of them have also got the Half-Celestial template applied (don't ask).

There has recently been a series of related very large wars in which the druids (and the PCs) were intimately involved. One of the results is that the druidic organization is now very short of people and have asked the party to investigate an uninhabited (by civilized races) continent that has only recently been discovered (that is not strictly true, it would be more accurate to say that it has only recently been publicly discovered, but the point stands, as those that knew about it before tended to be powerful wizards and similar people who were not interested in it at all). All of the party is of the druidic fate (even though they are Half-Celestials - it's a very long story), so they gladly agreed to do so and hired a ship to get them there. The newly discovered continent is filled mostly with jungle - of which there is only little (but there is some) on the old continent. Now, what can I do with them when they arrive? :D
 

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I don't have any advice at the moment, but I'll be watching this thread eagerly too. I started a campaign in Freeport not too long ago, and I'm sure the party will eventually wander off into the jungle north of town.
 

sounds like the perfect place for a dinosaur ecology with lizardmen as primary inhabitants, maybe worshipping atavistic dragons. Maybe there are naga, or yaun-ti rulers of the lizardfolk or as a rival civilization. Maybe the pcs stumble across a group of lizardfolk rebelling againt yaun-ti or naga or dragonmen masters...then again maybe not.

Thullgrim
 

Jungles are almost always home to lost civilizations. If you wanted to bring any tech to your world, this might be the way to do it. The rediscovery of a nearly modern or even highly advanced ruin could lead to the wizards becoming interested in the continent. A race between the PCs and another sponsored NPC group to find said ruins could be fun.

And I second the idea of lizard-men and yuan-ti. I LOVE yuan-ti!

Gilladian
 

Take a bit of time to familiarize yourself with the way a realworld jungle works..so you can keep to some verisimilitude. Jungles arent often like they show on TV , all rough and clogged with vegetation. Vegetation is most dense at the edges .....there it is an impenetrable wall of tangled plantlife in many spots up to 30 meters thick...it is this way along the edge of rivers as well.... Also there will be trails throughout the jungle , these are naturally occuring game trails, but PCs probably wont meet many animals on them while they travel.....but, take care to note where your PCs make camp...jungle animals tend to move through their trails at night....could be a nice surprise to wake up in the middle of the night to a stampede of jungle pigs! There are lots of small details a real world jungle can provide to make your game a bit brighter , cheers. ;)
 

Velociraptors (feathered of course) make great jungle predators.

Also don't forget that Jungles are chock full of disease, vermin and other tiny nasties that in a fantasy world could be anything!

Oh and Naga are cool
 



My campaign is actually very similar - PCs are stranded on a lost continent devoid of civilization. Read my story hour, if you're so inclined.

The first thing they found was a temple devoted to a forgotten race of lizardfolk. The king and the queen were in a temporal stasis, only to be awoken by a golem guardian that activated once the PCs entered the final chamber.

After that, they met a small group of Gripplis (Tome of Horrors), who were set upon by trolls. They defeated the trolls, and befriended the gripplis. After that, they fought crazy fiendish spiders in a canyon to rescue an avatar of a fallen god (wait, it gets weirder). The avatar thanks them, and sends them on a quest to a modron enclave where the PCs find the modrons in a kind of civil war against each other. After that, they investigated a long-abandoned dwarven stronghold filled with wights, shadows, and other similar undead. Throughout this, they've encountered a fair number of Slaad, and they have learned that the continent is just crawling with them, but they don't know why. Also, they have learned that there was a battle between gods, and the avatar's god, and another evil god were both slain in this land, so there is a lot of residual magic leftover from that. The Slaad are searching for "something". Recently, they have left the dwarven stronghold, and went back to find the avatar and two other NPCs they met (a nymph, and a former PC) were gone. The former NPC turned up, and said that the Slaad took the others to the swamp. Turns out, the former NPC was now a vampire, and was leading them to a trap. They killed her, and met the other (a nymph vampire druid - nasty) in the swamp, but they never could find her, and she eventually fled.
I have considered utilizing some jungle areas as well, just haven't yet.

I think of vampiric yuan-ti when I think of jungles. Don't know why. Or lizardfolk. Jungles are also known for having tons of insects and vermin. Nothing says jungle better than a titanic toad (MM II). That would be fun. I have one statted out, but I might never get to use it. I might be able to use that in my swamp, actually. hmmm

Great stuff.
 

Yuan-ti empire holds Human and Halfling slaves. Dwarves are allied with the Great Wyrms of the hills (CN Red or LN Green). Elves rule the upper canopy, swinging from vines by their legs while firing arrows, or firing arrows from atop the backs of pteradactyls.

All three battle each other -- the human and halfling "conscripts", the dwarven legions (led by half-dragon dwarves), and the elven raiders. Destroying the yuan-ti empire would probably help (but good luck!). Once the yuan-ti learn of un-enslaved humans across the sea, they start sending raider ships to go get them. If they encounter enough resistance, they will start a full-scale invasion of the human's homeland.


Monsters & stuff:

- Anything with a Climb speed and a ranged attack is gonna be nasty.

- Make flyers do Tumble and/or Spot checks to race through tree trunks, or they risk crashing into a tree (Reflex save) (inspiration: Return of the Jedi).

- Slimes and oozes are fun, but unlikely. Use swarms instead.

- The Insectile template from Savage Species is fun. I'll post some of my icky spider critters in a bit.

-- N
 

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