Journal of Aldric Fenwyr
The candle's frail light dances against the ink-stained pages as I scratch out these words, though I know not why. Perhaps it is the habit of a scholar to document all things, even as death claws at the door. The wind howls, that dreadful wail that heralds the unnatural, carrying with it the scratching, scraping sound of the accursed things that prowl outside. Animated mockeries of nature, surely born of a dark druidic ritual. I had dismissed the stories as mere folktales, but now their wicked shapes loom beyond my window, their crooked limbs casting shadows like skeletal fingers that claw at the fragile barrier that protects me. Their eyes—hollow voids in their twisted bark—seem to stare through the walls, and I cannot help but feel their hunger.
The fist to fall was old Roderick. He ventured out, the foolish old adventurer, thinking a mere torch would ward them off. We heard his screams long after the flames had died, the sound of his flesh torn from bone. Now, his voice joins the wind, an echo of terror that rattles my nerves. I can still see him, standing at the tree line, torch raised high as the creatures slithered lurched forward on gnarled legs. His death, I think, was a warning. They are more than mere beasts. They are patient. Even now, they wait, circling the house, their sharp limbs scraping against the walls like a thousand nails. It is a sound that will drive me mad before the night is through. But I will not go out. No, I will not be a martyr to this madness. Not yet.
The door creaks. Is it the wind or something more? My hand trembles as I write, but I must finish. I must leave behind some testament, some record of my final hours. Perhaps one day, when these foul creatures have returned to the earth, someone will find this journal, stained with fear and desperation. But I do not believe they will leave. They are nature's vengeance, sent to reclaim what men like me have stolen. There is no escape, not from them, nor from the guilt that gnaws at my soul. As the last of my candle sputters and the darkness closes in, I hear the low creak of wood bending, breaking. They are inside. The scratching grows louder, nearer.
The end is clo…
Overview
Look at these little guys! So cute right? WRONG.
These little wooden monsters can wait for great periods of time waiting for an unsuspecting victim to come along. Resembling woody shrubs, the Twig Blight can hide almost anywhere that you will find foliage, which makes them excellent ambusher hunters.1 But what are Twig Blights and why are they here, and why do they look perpetually confused?
To figure out those answers2 we must turn our pages back a long time; to editions of DnD forgotten to time, when Gulthias the Vampire lord was staked by adventurers, his blood infused with the stake and from it grew the sapling that spawned the Gulthias Tree. A mad druid found the sapling, planted it in a hidden grove and helped plant the seeds that that the first blights grew. Yes, Blights are plant based, eco friendly, vampire “spawn”. This ever evil tree can infect other corrupted plants regardless of where they are in the multiverse, and from that plant can spawn Blights.
Their name is fairly apt for what they are, a blight3, but what do they want? Well simply put, to spread the corruption of the Gulthias Tree to everywhere. There is the set up for a campaign if I ever heard one, the corruption of a forest and the creatures that live inside it, the unrelenting spread of a terrible and hungry forest, the erasure of villages from the map, all because of a single corrupted plant.
Stats
Now lets see what out lil monsta can do.
The Twig Blight has low armor class and Hit Points, definitely not a boss type creature, but will absolutely fit in to the swarm or horde creature category.
The Stealth +3 will be fun letting the players feel paranoid, however, do to the creatures abilities this Stealth will only apply when it is moving which is ideal for our up coming combat examples
Damage Vulnerabilities Fire, I’m gonna level with you. 5e needed more creatures with vulnerabilities, just something to give your players a chance to shine in the spotlight by dealing outlandishly high damage in combat as they work their way through wave upon wave of foe. Now the doubling of damage from attacks that deal fire damage sounds great on paper, but with only 4 Hit Points it won’t have much of an effect here, but is always a welcomed guest.
Condition Immunities to Blinded and Deafened, I find this a little funny. I don’t know why, but I’m just imagining this little Twig Blight standing in the middle of Color Spray and idly blinking one eye at a time wholly unfazed, then softly shrugging.
60ft Blindsight will allow our little ambush hunters to make their moves in the dead of night when the moon is new and no light is to be found. Really, Ideal ambush conditions tbh.
False Appearance. This ability is what will allow you to set up your bush ambushes. This will only be used during the set up or if you have your little twiggy guys play an impromptu game of Red Light, Green Light with whomever is on watch.
Finally Claws. This, by itself, is not an impressive attack unless your party is under level 3. However, the way this creature block reads to me is not to have a few Twig Blights fight your early level adventurers, no, the Twig Blight hunts bigger, deadlier game. 3 points of damage to a 8th level fighter is nothing, but seven or eight of these attacks, now the fighter is looking at their Hit Points and realizing they can only take another two or three rounds of this before they drop. And that swarm mentality is exactly how we are going to use our little buddies.
Combat Example
Now our little twiggy friend will not last in combat, but that isn’t their true job. Their job is to make the adventurers lives hell. No rest for them, just near endless hordes of Twig Blights from the cursed forest.
For this encounter we are going to be throwing 110 Twig Blights against a party of 4 eighth level adventurers. Now does this seem absurd, yes, does this seem excessive, also yes, will this work, probably. We will be splitting the Twig Blights into five groups of twenty-two creatures. Each on will come in at the start of the turn before the first action is taken. An important thing to remember for this encounter is spacing. The first two round make sure to not clump too many of your Twig Blights together to avoid the dreaded Fireball. With that out of the way lets go into the premise.
Long have been the nights of late for the village of Ossai’s Rest. The trees have grown monstrous and hungry. First it was only cattle that went missing in the night, the farmers calling for adventurers to thin out the predators that lived in the surrounding forests, but it did little to end the nightmares. It wasn’t until the fire watchmen started disappearing that the concerns of the village grew louder. However, the cries for help came too late for Rolan Ayerfield’s family, the town was left in shock when the home was discovered to be filled with viscera and vines. Now four brave souls march into the heart of the forest, hopping to end this curse before tragedy takes all of Ossai’s Rest.
While your party is traveling through the forest, let them hear creaking branches and groaning trees, build up the atmosphere of a cursed forest. Then, when they finally decide to take a rest that is when the ambush happens.
During one of the character’s shifts on taking watch, have a Twig Blight make a Dexterity (Stealth) check versus the players Passive Perception. If the character fails their check, have the Twig Blight make an attack against the player at advantage, hit or miss initiative is rolled and —if your using a battle-map— place out the first of the 22 Twig Blights. Surround the camp entirely, we want the caster(s) to panic that there is no back line for them to stand at and fire their spells from the safety of. No this forest is hungry and it’s meal presented itself.
Now I know I said 22 each turn, but play this by ear. If for some reason none of the Twig Blights die in the first round, maybe don’t double the number of enemies. Add five or six, or more than 22 depending on how the fight is going. This is where I can’t tell you how to run it exactly, it is something you have to gauge in the moment and rely on your DM instincts for what is the best outcome. This is mostly because of what will be coming once 60 of the 110 Twig Blights have died, but for that creature you will have to wait for the next post.
Final Thoughts
Whether or not you decide to lean into the horror aspect of nature reclaiming itself from civilization, or just want to take an anti-capitalist stance in your DnD, the Twig Blight will be a fun addition to a campaign. It will help keep your players—and their characters—on edge and alert, swinging at shadows and mistrusting their own information. Honestly this has just been an excuse for me to plan out my next DnD campaign that I will be running for my home group.
If any of you from my home group are reading this, well its too late to say stop, but forget all of what I said here, nothing to see, move along. <3
Have you figured out I like ambushes yet?
Except the last question.
Blights are plant diseases or diseased plants, both work