What would be in a lush, cool, damp forest?

[mythusmage]

What they said.

Deer, bear, perhaps snow monkeys and sasquatches. From the Russian Far East you have racoon dogs and siberian tigers. For a legendary/paragon/dire brown bear you have the blue bear of Kamchatka. (Known from a single hide and now considered extinct. From the hide the animal was estimated at about the size of three ordinary brown bears.)

One thing to keep an eye out for is information on the temperate rainforest of southern Chile. At those latitudes the rainshadow is east of the Andes.

Now, being humid the air in the forest is going to rot leather and bowstrings and rust metal items. Food will go bad faster. As will many spell components. Add in lousy footing and vision and you've got a dangerous situation. Please note that under a forest canopy it may appear brightly lit, but the quality of light is more like that of early evening, even at mid day.

Sound is also very different in the forest. It gets absorbed and reflected. Often you can't really tell where a sound came from.

Last, but certainly not least, it is real easy to get lost in the forest. One party member could wonder off a short 50 feet, and lose his way back to the group. It happens in real life.

Properly run travelling through a forest should earn the party enough XP to get a 4th of the way to the next level. Maybe a 3rd if they're doing good or you're feeling generous.

 

[tetsujin28]

giant frogs

 

[demiurge1138]

giant frogs

What he said. And big f'ing snakes.

But seriously, I'd have a lot of amphibians, attracted by the moisture in the air, like frogs (including the giant variety) and salamanders. If you have any idea about Permian amphibians (some of which were similar in size and niche to alligators), they'd be a good match. Also, in the cool damp forests of Northern California, we have banana slugs - big yellow slugs a good 3-4 inches long. Giant carnivorous varieties thereof might also be fun.

Demiurge out.

 

[Tonguez]

What he said. And big f'ing snakes.

But seriously, I'd have a lot of amphibians, attracted by the moisture in the air, like frogs (including the giant variety) and salamanders. If you have any idea about Permian amphibians (some of which were similar in size and niche to alligators), they'd be a good match. Also, in the cool damp forests of Northern California, we have banana slugs - big yellow slugs a good 3-4 inches long. Giant carnivorous varieties thereof might also be fun.

Demiurge out.

I've always thought a giant Diplocaulus (the boomerang headed axolotl of the permian era)would be a cool creature to add in somewhere 9apparently they were only 3 foot though, 30 foot would be cooler)

and don't forget Froghemoth

 

[Pielorinho]

This page has got some great pictures of the Olympic National Park in Washington State; you might want to show the players a few of these to give them a feel for the area.

Daniel

 

[Abstraction]

Thanks for the help. With these engaging descriptions, the game came off beautifully.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Aaaaaarrrrrrrrgh! See what happens when I miss a thread? I posted pictures a few months back for this kind of thing...still have lots of pictures (my own or my girlfriend's) to post.