D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Strangling Serpent's Hoard

# Wilderness# Intrigue# Beast# Dungeon

The Snakavine Woods are a verdant labyrinth where colossal constrictor serpents, swollen with strange magic, have begun strangling caravans and dragging their treasures into the root-choked earth. Two desperate factions now vie for control of the crushed treasure chest rumored to be buried at the heart of the woods, each claiming the hoard is the only key to saving their people from different apocalypses. Veteran players will navigate treacherous alliances, moral compromises, and the ever-present coils of the serpents.

Chronicle Prelude

The players arrive at Vine's Rest, a crumbling frontier outpost on the edge of the Snakavine Woods. It is a tense neutral ground where loggers, refugees, and the representatives of two opposing factions eye each other warily. The air is thick with the scent of damp earth and fear.

Environmental Traits

The region is in crisis: the serpents' unnatural growth is causing the forest to strangle all trade, starving nearby settlements. The legendary treasure chest, believed to hold the source of the serpents' power or a cure for a spreading blight, is the only hope. Its recovery is the campaign's victory condition, but its true nature is a dark choice waiting to be made.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (10)

Archdruid Veridia
An elderly woman with bark-like skin and hair woven with living vines. Her eyes hold a sorrowful, fanatical light. She wears robes of moss and lichen, and the air around her hums with the deep pulse of the forest.
Factor Milo Varr
A stout human male in travel-worn but finely tailored clothes. His face is lined with stress, and his hands are never still. He carries a ledger and a Consortium signet ring.
Silas 'Vine-Sight'
A wiry human with sun-darkened skin, dressed in cured reptile hide. His eyes are constantly moving, scanning the canopy. He moves with a silent, predatory grace.
Mara, Survivor of Greyvale
A gaunt human woman with haunted eyes, clutching a tattered shawl. Her hands are stained with a faint purple residue. She flinches at sudden movements.
Sylvanus the Doubter
A younger druid, his vine-tattoos cracked and peeling. His expression is conflicted, carrying a satchel that seems out of place with the others' attire.
Tinkwright Fenwick
A gnome with oversized goggles pushed up on his forehead, wearing a leather apron covered in scorch marks. He carries a tool belt clinking with strange instruments and a voltmeter.
The Mother of Coils
An immense serpent, her scales a mosaic of iridescent green and gold, interwoven with thick, living vines that pulse with soft light. She moves with ancient, deliberate grace. Her eyes are intelligent and sorrowful, not bestial.
The Brood Mother
A massive constrictor, her scales duller than the Mother of Coils, marked with territorial scars. She is coiled protectively around a clutch of petrified eggs.
Vine-Choked Goblin
A small, green-skinned humanoid, its limbs partially entangled in animate vines. It hisses and spits, defending its territory within the Strangling Thicket.
Caravan Guard Skeleton
The bleached bones of a long-dead caravan guard, still clutching a rusted short sword. It animates with a clatter when living things draw near.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

The Reckoning of the Blood-Soaked Bracers

The Frost Worm Tunnel Collapse of Pale Cliff