Chapter 8: Faunel - Vicious Alliances

The characters' original goal in Faunel was to sew corruption and incite conflict between the awakened animal packs. This would allow Gargauth to easily manipulate the pack leaders and bend the packs to his will. All it will take is a little war in the Outlands and Gargauth will pull the region into his new layer of Hell.

Mick's Meddling

The first thing that sets Faunel apart from the other gate towns is the characters have never been there. They sprung Mick and the Vile Hunt out of Curst and sent them to Faunel to do Gargauth's bidding. It's part of a three point plan.

1. Poisoning the Well. Mick's first order of business was to use a supply of the fiend's ichor to poison the pond that leads to the Beastlands. This has spread corruption among the awakened animals and put the guardian, Wrath, into a weakened stupor. Faunel is now growing detatched from the Beastlands, and he portal is only open at night.

This has also allowed Mick and the Vile Hunt to setup their camp inside the Beastlands. The chaotic wilds of the plane are navigable by Mick and his gnolls and provide a buffer from vigilantes that would sniff out their plan. Additionally, the awakened animals are afraid to venture out at night, when the portal is open, because of the next part of the plan.

2. Guerrilla Tactics. The Vile Hunt is there to rile up the packs and incite a bloody war that will tear down the social order. They don't have quite the numbers to do this on their own, so their secret weapon is a barlgura that is bound to Mick. The barlgura is able to use disguise self and phantasmal force to make it appear that different packs are attacking each other. They attack from stealth under the cover of night, always targeting small groups of animals or individuals. They purposefully leave a survivor behind to sew blame between the packs.

3. Weapons of War. The characters also set up a steady supply of celestial weapons into Camp Greenbriar. As the tensions in Faunel have ratcheted up, the explorers of Camp Greenbriar have taken to the blades. Mick and the Vile Hunt wield the weapons, and they have fully fallen under Gargauth's influence. It's only a matter of time before Camp Greenbriar does as well.

With the table set let's dig into the scenario.

Exploring Faunel

The approach to Faunel and Camp Greenbriar still works well, and Razak is a great intro to the scenario. His energy is great, but the character with the highest Insight should detect a note of wariness in his voice. If he's asked about Mick, the celestial weapons in Camp Greenbriar, or his concerns he will quickly volunteer the following information:

• Tensions are high in Faunel after the gate warden went dark and awakened animals came under attack.
• The survivors of the attack always describe a crimson beast that leaps from the darkest parts of the wilds. It's always an unusually large animal.
• The packs that vie for control of Faunel are blaming each other and on the verge of war.
• The explorers of Camp Greenbriar are on edge and buying up weapons like no one's business. These new weapons showed up recently to fill the need.

Investigations

The characters will most likely want to investigate the portal or the warden. They can uncover a couple of clues:

• A DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check uncovers an empty flask of fiend's ichor submerged near the shore of the pond.
• Divine senses or detect good and evil will sense a Fiendish taint in the water. Alternatively a DC 18 Intelligence (Arcana) check will reveal similar information.

Attack on Oka. While investigating the gate or exploring they hear a goat-like screech not too far from where they are. They will come upon the aftermath of the attack on Oka, who is ravaged by claw marks.

A DC 18 Intelligence (Nature) or DC 15 Wisdom (Medicine) check will reveal that the ibex died from bludgeoning damage and the claw marks were made after death. A DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check uncovers tracks that head in the direction of Razortooth Rock, but the trail becomes lost in a murky stream.

The Vile Hunt wants to mislead anyone investigating the attack into thinking that the predators of Razortooth Rock are responsible before making their way back to the pool after nightfall.

Razak will urge the characters to go with him to the Heart Delta to bring news of Oka's death.

The Three Packs

Meeting with the packs will still provide clues that lead to each other, but none of them know of Mick or the Vile Hunt.

Oddly, each pack contains awakened animals that agitate for sabotage and assault on the other packs. These animals will have oddly twisted horns, slitted eyes, and fangs where they shouldn't. These animals drank from the gate pond and were awakened in recent weeks, after Mick tainted the waters with the ichor.

Here are some other slight changes to the packs' respective stories:

• Ophelia is furious and ready for reprisal, which Razak says is unlike her. She'll give the characters one chance to talk with Ebonclaw.
• Ebonclaw denies attacking any of the sentient animals and believes Parvaz has spread lies about what they've seen.
• Parvaz has seen strange crimson predators coming from the pond, but doesn’t think Ebonclaw is responsible. He thinks Ophelia is hiring them to sew chaos and take the rest of the leaders out. He must be persuaded or bargained with to reveal this information.

If the characters don't pick up the final lead from Parvaz, they may reinvestigate the crime scene or the pond itself, at which point they should find tracks pointing them to the Beastlands.

If all else fails, after a long rest Razak will come to them and say that he saw a strange cloaked figure purchasing ammunition in Camp Greenbriar. Razak followed them into the forest toward the pond, but they were gone when he arrived. He thinks they may have gone into the Beastlands.

The Beastlands

The Beastlands is the embodiment of untamed wilderness. Animals prowl and hunt in thick forests where giant plants often awaken and become predators themselves.

There are some unique properties to this plane:

• This layer, Krigala, is always in eternal summer noon.
• Visitors are sharp and alert on this plane. The vigor of the environment infuses everything here.
• The DM's Guide has the mechanical details, but slaying a Beast on this plane may cause the killer to transform into the form of that Beast.

When the characters cross over this is what they see:

The blazing warmth of a high noon sun beats down on an arid grassland dotted with trees. High clouds bearing the faces of predator animals seem to gaze at you. In fact the entire plane gives you the sensation that you are being watched, evaluated, stalked.

A set of booted tracks lead away from the pool and into a deep jungle a couple of miles away. A successful DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check allows the characters to follow the tracks and reach the jungle in an hour. A failure means they spend 1d4 +1 hours going off course and trigger the Tyger, Tyger encounter below.

Jungle Trek

The jungle here is an outsized environment with towering trees, large colorful birds of prey, and giant apes that stare down at them warily. Everything is wet and humid.

Once in the jungle the characters find a recently made path carved by the Vile Hunt trailblazers. The jungle restores itself in two hours, so if they went off course they must make a DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check to find that faint path or they spend another 1d4 +1 hours lost in the jungle.

Crossing the Stream. Once they’ve established the path they quickly come across a deep ravine filled with raging water and a large tree forming a crossing. The ravine is forty feet wide and fifty feet deep and large mosses and vines hang down from the tree, almost to the water itself. A fall from the log deals 5d6 Bludgeoning damage or half damage on a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. The water carries creatures downstream at a rate of thirty feet per round.

Crossing the tree is easy, but once the characters are halfway across, the awakened vines attempt to grapple and crush the characters. Treat the entire mass of vines as a creature with an AC of 12, 80hp, and it’s immune to piercing damage. It makes three attacks per round with a +5 to hit and deals 2d6 bludgeoning damage and grapples the creature. Once grappled the creature can escape with a DC 13 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. A grappled creature takes 2d6 bludgeoning damage at the start of it’s turn.

Tyger, Tyger

Once the characters cross the log bridge, or if they become lost or harm an animal, they will find themselves suddenly surrounded by a pack of tiger spirits who count this part of the jungle as their territory.

The pack is lead by Daranti and Panja, two humanoids with the fur and heads of tigers. Use weretiger stat blocks, but they only posses hybrid forms and their bite does not inflict lycanthropy. They are accompanied by four awakened sabre-toothed tigers who prowl in the canopy above the characters.

They have recently come across Mick and the Vile Hunt ("loud hyena-kind") and question if the characters are part of that pack. They want the Vile Hunt gone from their lands, but know they are outmatched at the moment.

They are initially indifferent to the characters, but if the characters succeed on a DC 15 Charisma (Persuasion) check they will detail the numbers of the gnolls, describe a great crimson demon-beast, and point them to the Vile Hunt's camp only a half hour away. Failure means they regard the characters as inept hunters who must prove their worth. This creates one last DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check to find the camp, and if they fail they spend another 1d4+1 hours lost before they hear the gnolls cackling at the camp.

If they think the characters are part of the Vile Hunt or if the characters kill animals out of cruelty, they will descend on them and attack.

Raiding the Camp

The rest of the scenario can proceed as written, except the caged triceratops is replaced by the barlgura. There is also a crate with a half a dozen flasks of fiend's ichor that Mick uses to poison the gate pool.

Mick recognizes the characters, particularly the smuggler, and will talk with them. He's distrustful and annoyed that they are interfering with his operation. Here's what he's willing to reveal:

• He will confirm any of the plans that were put in place.
• There's a steady supply of weapons coming from Automata to Camp Greenbriar.
• He will ask leading questions sewn with lies about the next steps of the plan, i.e. "Is it time to move the operation to Ecstasy?" If the characters play along with his lies he attacks.

Any bargaining or persuasive attempts to dissuade Mick will be subsumed by Gargauth's corruption. Most paths will lead to combat with the Vile Hunt.

Leadership Qualities. I'm also changing one element to fit more with the themes of the adventure. Instead of being rewarded with Razak's ring, the characters will find that Mick possesses a femur bound in iron and carved with infernal runes. He uses it to command the barlgura to do his bidding. This is a rod of rulership that only affects fiends. Any fiend affected by the rod will hear Gargauth's voice in their head and be charmed by the devil lord. This property is an effect of Gargauth's connection to the rod and cannot be discovered with the identify spell.

Wrapping It Up

Once the characters have confirmed the plan to corrupt Faunel and pull it into Gargauth's domain, the mimir will light up once again:

The mimir chimes its eyes glow green. "Recalibrating multiversal space-time scenarios... Reality identified. Faunel anomaly corrected. You may proceed."

It will take a few days for the gate pool in Faunel to cleanse itself, and the animal clans will step back from the brink of war once presented with evidence of Mick's involvement.

If the characters haven't explored Automata or Curst they now have more leads pointing them there.