Owlbear Cave

Dusty Trail

The path is a dusty dirt trail that is well worn by creatures of various sizes. The journey is mostly uneventful for a couple miles until spot a new landmark, scratch marks on trees and rocks that resemble a large bear. These continue for another mile along with dark grey mushrooms growing along the sides of the trail. Roll a DC 12 Nature check to identify the type of mushrooms.

• Chimney Mushrooms
  • If a patch of Chimney Mushrooms is disturbed it releases a thick black cloud of spores that obscures all sight in a 20 ft. radius area. The area is heavily obscured, and any creature that ends its turn in the area must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or become Poisoned for 1 hour. The spores last for 10 minutes or until dissipated with magic or mundane means.

Cave Entrance

You come to a 60 ft. tall cliff face that stretches for as far as you can see side to side. There's a large cave entrance at the foot of the cave. You can spot the bones scattered just inside the cave before it continues in further and grows dark. If you approach the cave you can confirm that the bones are of chickens and you also now spot a moss growing along one wall of the cave. If you approach within 30 ft. of the moss it starts to glow and will glow brighter the closer you get. Roll a DC 12 Nature check to identify the type of moss.

• Luminous Flora
  • Creatures passing within 20 ft. from the moss must make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or become Poisoned for 1 hour due to the unpleasant smell. A 5 ft. patch can be destroyed with fire damage, or a 10 ft. patch with lightning damage.

3-Way Fork in the Cave Tunnel

After crossing the bone pit and glowing moss the cave continues deeper for another 30 ft. It grows cold and damp, you can start to see your breath and walls appear slick, and the light of day from the entrance behind you slowly fades. The tunnel comes to a 3-way fork where you can go left, straight, or right. You can detect the faintest hint of a sound and a smell, roll a DC 12 Perception check to identify the sound and smell.

• The sound is of the gnawing and chewing of flesh and bone. The smell is of decaying corpses. Both are coming from the right tunnel.

Right Tunnel

This tunnel leads east for 30 ft. before opening up into a large cavern. It's at least 50 ft. long by 30 ft. wide. Inside with its back to you is a male Owlbear gnawing upon a few dead chickens. In the northeast corner is another smaller cavern with a pile of rotting and decomposing bodies of chickens and other various animals, even a few humans with sacks strapped to them. There is a Swarm of Insects hovering above the rotting pile.

• The Owlbear is distracted so any stealth attempts gain advantage against its passive perception of 13.
  • MM p237
  • 700 xp
• Swarm of insects
  • MM p338
  • 100 xp
• 3 sacks each hold 10 gp.

Center Tunnel

This tunnel leads north for 30 ft. and then you spot puddles of mud laying in the corners of the floor. The tunnel continues north and you spot a 10 ft. wide mud pit impeding your path. Laying on the ground on the other side of the pit is a humanoid skeleton with a sack around its shoulder. 

• DC 12 Nature check to investigate the mud pit
  • Fail: you can determine that the mud pit is 10 ft. wide and appears shallow and easy to traverse.
  • Success: you can determine that the mud pit is 10 ft. wide, 10 ft. deep, and the bog is hazardous to step in.
• Bog Pit Hazard (50 xp)
  • 10 ft. square. Characters can jump feet = to strength score.
  • 10 ft. deep. When creatures enter the area they sink 1d4+1 feet & become restrained.
  • At start of each turn creatures sink another 1d4 feet.
  • Strength ability check DC 10 to escape.
  • If creatures outside the hazard tries to pull a restrained creature free they make a Strength ability check DC 5+feet sunk.
  • If fully submerged creatures can hold breath for minutes = 1+Constitution modifier, then they start choking for rounds = to Constitution modifier, then 0 HP & dying until air is available or dead.
• A Mud Mephit attacks anyone who jumps across or falls into the hazard.
  • MM p216
  • 50 xp
• The sack holds 7 turquoise gems that are each worth 10 gp.

Left Tunnel

This tunnel leads west for 30 ft. before steadily curving northwards for another 30 ft. The tunnel opens up slightly into a cavern where you can spot a female Owlbear sleeping next to 2 Young Owlbears in a nest. Around the corners of the floor near the nest grows a twisted and thorny bullrush. 10 ft. beyond the nest you can spot a patch of 2 different types of mushrooms, one has a pale blue stem with bright blue caps, and the other is a pale red stem with bright red caps. You can roll three separate DC 12 Nature checks to identify each type of plant.

• Cacophony Bullrush
  • If a sound louder than a whisper occurs within 30 ft. of a cluster of Cacophony Bulrush, it is rapidly amplified to an overwhelmingly loud cacophony for 1d3 minutes. This renders creatures within a 60 ft. radius effectively deaf. makes verbal communication impossible, and negates the Blindsight and Tremorsense abilities. It also produces ultrasonic sounds that disrupt a living creatures sense of balance; creatures who move more than 5 ft. in a round must make a DC 12 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check or fall prone. If a silence spell or effect is cast upon the crystal itself, these effects end. This hazard is treated as an object.
• Shockrooms (blue caps)
  • When a patch is touched it releases a burst of electricity in a 15 ft. radius area dealing 4d6 electricity damage. A successful DC 14 Dexterity saving throw halves the damage. After the mushrooms release electricity they are instantaneously destroyed.
• Magic Mushrooms (red caps)
  • If ingested the creature must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or become Poisoned for 1 hour. If successful then the creature spends 1 minute Unconscious while under the hallucinatory effect of the mushrooms. While unconscious the creature involuntarily casts Scrying innately without any components, except the DM chooses a target for the spell based upon the creature's deepest desires at the current moment. The vision of the target can be from the present, recent past, or near future.
• The sleeping Owlbears have a passive perception of 13, however the Cacophony Bullrush increases that to 18.
  • MM p237
  • 700 xp
• The Young Owlbears are medium size and have 29 HP and AC 11 with +5 to hit and +3 to damage.
  • 200 xp each

Plot type

Adventure