Hunting the Boar • Odyssey of the Dragonlords

Kyrah and the two hunters are waiting outside the tavern an hour before dawn. The hunters are named Taneias and Javon (LG Scouts). The morning is cold and foggy, and the ground is soaked from a night of steady rain. The hunters lead the party away from the tavern and into the mist-draped wetlands to the north, where tangled roots and shallow pools stretch for miles.

As you make your way northward into the Heartlands, you pass the waterlogged remains of farms and hamlets, half-sunken into the mire. All bear signs of devastation: fences shattered, huts torn apart, and muddy tracks gouged deep into the earth. Swarms of biting insects buzz in the damp air, and carrion birds roost in twisted trees, picking at the bloated bodies of hunters and settlers left behind.

Tracking the boar requires a DC 10 Wisdom (Survival). The party has Advantage on this check due to the hunters. Success leads them straight to the boar’s lair. Failure instead leads them to a violent pack of three Boars, and only then to the boar’s lair as if they’d succeeded.

Kyrah’s Assistance#

Kyrah does not engage in combat but offers words of encouragement and poetic insight. She keeps her distance from danger and carefully records the tale for her epic. If the heroes face grave peril, she may sing to inspire or heal. Should a hero fall, she waits until the threat passes, then uses her Spell Scrolls of Raise Dead, invoking the grace of Mytros to return the soul.

The Boar’s Lair#

Eventually, the party follows the trail of carnage to a forested hillside where small waterfalls trickle down moss-covered rocks into a wide, murky pond. The trail leads to a twisted cypress that clings to the slope just above the pond. Among its exposed roots, where water drips steadily from above, yawns a dark cave.

You crest a rise and find yourself looking down upon a still pond fed by thin waterfalls that thread down the wooded hillside. The splash of water masks the guttural sounds coming from a cave nestled beneath a warped cypress tree. Blood stains the roots, and the air is heavy with the stench of rot and rage.

Setting Traps#

The party may choose to set a variety of traps for the boar. Each trap requires a successful Wisdom (Survival) check to assemble. The party has Advantage on this check due to the hunters. Failing the check causes someone to stumble and make a loud noise, at which the boar becomes alerted to the party’s presence. Possibilities for traps include:

Rope Snare. This trap requires 50 ft. of rope. It entangles the boar’s legs: its Speed is halved until the end of its next turn. Setting it requires a DC 13 Wisdom (Survival) check.
Spiked Pitfall. This trap requires someone to dig a hole 10 ft. deep and fill it with sharpened wooden stakes. When the boar rushes out of the cave it will fall in: it takes 3d6 Piercing damage and has the Incapacitated condition until the start of its next turn. Digging the pitfall requires a DC 20 Wisdom (Survival) check check.
Spiked Barricade. This trap requires setting up a row of sharpened stakes, angled toward the cave mouth. When the boar rushes out it smashes into the barricade: it takes 2d6 Piercing damage. Constructing the barrier requires a DC 12 Wisdom (Survival) check.

Encounter: The Boar Attacks#

At this point, have the party make DC 16 Wisdom (Perception) checks. Anyone who fails to make the check is surprised during the following battle. One of the hunters is killed as soon as the boar appears:

Suddenly, you hear a bestial grunt from inside the cave. A massive boar suddenly charges from the cave mouth, goring one of the hunters on its tusks! Tossing the body away like a ragdoll, the creature draws itself up to its full height. It’s an ancient black boar with a fiery purple mane, four sickly green tusks and mad yellow eyes.

The Anarch Boar (appendix B) has several spears and arrows lodged in its back, all the result of failed attempts to kill it. The boar is bleeding from these wounds, causing it to have the Bloodied condition and suffer one level of Exhaustion at the end of each of its turns in combat. Sensing that it is surrounded, it will try to attack each hero at least once. It fights until reduced to 0 Hit Points, leading to Death of the Boar.

Death of the Boar#

Once the boar is reduced to 0 Hit Points, it remains alive and conscious but can no longer move or act. At this point, it can be captured with a net and bound with ropes. Once captured, the boar locks eyes with the heroes and speaks its dying words directly into their minds. Everyone hears its booming voice inside their heads:

“Know this, mortals. Your sins cannot be atoned for. An ancient power sleeps in the heart of Thylea, and when it awakens, the age of Mytros will come to an end. Just as my broken body falls to ruin and decay, so too all mortal things will come to death and darkness. No prophecy will save you.”

The boar’s cave is only 50 ft. deep, and it’s full of stinking water, gore, and boar dung. If the heroes decide to wade into the disgusting mess in the cave and explore, there is some treasure to be found.

Treasure#

The two shredded corpses inside the cave may be searched. Between them, they have 25 GP and 37 SP. One of them carried a silvered spear. Kyrah points out that it is customary to bury or burn the dead, and that each body should have one gold piece placed inside its mouth, the expected payment for Lutheria’s barge.

Sacrifice to the Gods#

Once everyone has drawn breath and tended their wounds, Kyrah reminds everyone that the dying boar should be offered as a sacrifice to the gods. This is the way of things in Thylea, and it will be a great offense to both the gods and the people of Mytros if the beast does not die as a proper offering. Whichever god receives this sacrifice is quite thankful as a result.

The heroes should collect wood to construct a sacrificial bier around the beast. Then, they must decide which god will receive the sacrifice. Kyrah will remind the heroes that the Order of Sydon demanded that the boar be sacrificed to the Lord of Storms. She strongly recommends not making the offering to either Sydon or Lutheria, as such an act only emboldens their desire for dominion over the lands of Thylea. Refer to the Reactions to the Sacrificial Offering table.

Reactions to the Sacrificial Offering

Deity	Effect
Thylea	Beasts are Friendly to the party for one week. Each hero gains a Potion of Healing (greater).
Kentimane	Earthquakes. The Hands of Kentimane (appendix B, Odyssey of the Dragonlords ) can be collectively summoned by the party (no action required) to aid in one combat encounter.
Sydon	The weather is beautiful for one week. The Order of Sydon is pleased.
Lutheria	One random hero awakes with a Potion of Mind Reading in their hands after the Event: Dreaming of Lutheria (see Gods and Titans in chapter 2).
Mytros	Each hero gains one point of Heroic Inspiration and the party is protected from Lutheria’s madness during the first dream.
Volkan	Volkan grants the heroes one random Uncommon magic item upon meeting them.
Kyrah	Kyrah confesses her identity. She swears an Oath of Protection (appendix D) to the heroes.
Pythor	Pythor swears an Oath of Service (appendix D) to the heroes upon meeting them.
Vallus	Vallus grants the heroes a Scarab of Protection upon meeting them.
None	Hurricanes and earthquakes. The heroes are transformed into Goats for one day.

The Chosen Ones#

Whatever happens, the boar-slaying heroes are now celebrated as the Oracle’s Chosen Ones. The people of Thylea will expect them to travel to the Temple of the Oracle and discover what great destiny awaits them.

illustrated quote — The beasts of Thylea are not like those of other lands. Today, we lost twenty men to a great boar with tusks like spears. It spoke to us of death and justice, even as it devoured our comrades. —Rizon Phobas, Dragonlord (12 DA)