The Search Rules
The party must discover three clues before locating the hunting shack. The exact location of the shack is determined by the DM, somewhere deep within the Drowned Forest.
Search Clock:
Time in the forest is tracked in 6-hour segments (called search segment). Each segment represents several hours of travel, navigation, and investigation through the swamp.
Each 6-hour segment check for a random encounter. (see Random Encounters)
Finding the First Clue:
The first clue is found after 12 hours (two search times) of travel. Reveal the first clue.
At the end of investigating the clue, the party makes a Wisdom (Survival) check to determine how long (how many search segments) before they find the next clue.
Finding Subsequent Clues:
After each clue is found, the party rolls a Wisdom (Survival) check to determine how long it takes to locate the next clue. The result determines how many 6-hour segments (search segments) must pass before discovery.
Survival Check Result | Time Until Next Clue |
|---|---|
Nat 20 | Immediate discovery |
15+ | 6 hours (1 search segment) |
10–14 | 12 hours (2 search segments) |
5–9 | 18 hours (3 search segments) |
2–4 | 24 hours (4 search segments) |
Nat 1 | 48 hours (8 search segments) |
After each roll, advance the clock accordingly and apply encounter checks per segment (see Random Encounters).
Finding the Shack:
Once the third clue is discovered, the party makes one final Survival check using the same table to determine how long it takes to locate Taron’s Hunting Shack.
REST & FATIGUE IN THE DROWNED FOREST
Characters must rest once every 24 hours (after four search segments).
Failing to rest causes 1 level of exhaustion.
A Short Rest in the Drowned Forest requires at least 6-hours (1 search segment) in a safe or elevated spot (ruin, tree platform, or warded camp).
A Long Rest can only be completed if the party sets proper camp or uses magical shelter; otherwise, each PC must roll a DC 12 Con save or gain 1 exhaustion from damp, disease, or nightmares.
RECOMMENDED FLOW
Enter the Drowned Forest → set Search Clock.
Travel 12 hours (2 clocks) → automatically find Clue 1.
After finding a clue, Survival Check to find Clues 2 and 3.
When all 3 clues found → the party locates Taron’s Hut (see Hut Encounter).
Notes:
After each search segment (6-hours) make a Random Encounter Check.
After each encounter, reset the Random Encounter check.
Clues
Clue 1: Broken Trap
The ground here turns soft and dark, where the dry earth gives way to the edge of the swamp.
Half-buried in the mud are splintered wooden stakes and frayed rope, what’s left of an old hunting trap. Nearby, deep claw marks score the trees, long and ragged, far too large for any normal animal. A single leather tag dangles from one broken post, its surface marked with the initials “T.K.”
Location: Along the forest’s edge, where the swamp begins to swallow the last stretch of solid ground.
Discovery: Old wooden stakes and frayed ropes lie half-buried in the mud, the remains of a hunting snare long since broken. The air is thick with the scent of damp earth and stagnant water. Deep claw marks score the nearby trees, the gouges too wide and too deep for any ordinary beast.
Additional Detail: Dangling from one splintered post is a small leather tag, carved with the initials “T.K.” Toran Kester’s mark.
Impression: Whatever he was tracking here wasn’t just big, it was unnatural.
The signs suggest a hunter outmatched by his prey.
Clue 2: The Dead Croc
Lying in the stagnant water is a massive crocodile lying half-submerged in the shallows. Its belly is split wide, ribs jutting like broken spears, and its hide glistens with slick green moss that seems to twitch faintly in the dim light.
The air smells of rot and nearby, half-sunk in the mud, a glint of metal catches your eye, a broken knife, its handle set with a bit of mother-of-pearl.
Location: A few miles deeper into the swamp, where the reeds grow thick and the air hums with insects.
Discovery: Half-submerged in the murky water lies the carcass of a massive crocodile, its hide split open and slick with dark green, rotting moss. The stench of decay is strong, but underneath it lingers a strange sweetness like rot mixed with blooming flowers. The creature’s chest has ruptured outward, as though something burst free from within.
Skill Check: DC 14 Medicine or Nature.
Success reveals that the moss is rotting and dying, likely the remnants of a fungal infection that consumed the crocodile from the inside before it escaped.
Additional Detail: Half-buried in the mud nearby lies a broken hunting knife, its handle engraved with a small mother-of-pearl inlay, the unmistakable mark of Kester’s craftsmanship.
Impression: Whatever Toran Kester was hunting out here, it wasn’t just an animal. Something unnatural is spreading through the marsh, leaving death—and something worse—in its wake.
Clue 3: The Hanging Marker
The trail fades into thick fog and the gnarled roots of a massive oak, its limbs draped in vines. From one low branch dangles a cluster of charms; bones, feathers, and bits of shell, swaying gently and clicking together.
Something about the pattern feels off, as if the signal was made in haste… or meant to warn, not welcome. Beneath the tree, faint boot prints vanish into the swampy mist ahead, where the water deepens and the air grows colder.
Location: Near the Hangman’s Tree , a massive, ancient oak draped in vines, moss, and clusters of pale fungus. The air here feels heavier, the fog clinging to the roots like shrouds.
Discovery: The charms are a hunter’s marker, the kind used to signal a safe trail or resting place. But this one feels different. The arrangement is uneven, rushed a warning, not a guide.
Skill Check: DC 14 Nature check (Rangers add their proficiency bonus).
On success, the characters recognize that the sign’s structure is inverted a reversal of the usual safe-route charm, used only when a hunter has found something dangerous and wants to warn others away.
Note: Toran likely left this in his final hours, after realizing he was infected. His instincts as a hunter overrode his fear, and he used the last of his strength to mark this spot a desperate warning to stay away.
Additional Detail: Faint boot prints lead away from the tree, heading south into thicker fog and knee-deep water. The trail grows uncertain, swallowed by the mire, as if the marsh itself resists being followed.
Impression: The place feels wrong. Continuing feels like crossing a threshold, a point of no return. The air tastes of rot and stagnant water, and even the crows above refuse to land near the tree.