Mere Of Dead Men

Swamp Tiles

Every hex in The Mere of Dead Men is considered difficult terrain and as such the normal travel pace has been halved as seen below:

Waterlogged Tiles

These tiles consist mostly of water so without a Keelboat a party can not rest while inside of it. Crossing them without appropriate equipment makes each foot of Movement costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain), unless a creature has a Swimming speed. This means that for these tiles the travel pace is as follows:

If a character travels through a hex without equipment or a swimming speed a creature must make a Strength (Athletics) check or gain a level of Exhaustion. The DC is calculated by multiplying the hours the travel took times their speed (1 for Slow, 2 for Normal and 4 for Fast) or 8 whatever is higher. Characters wearing heavy armor have disantavtage on this check. The following examples are for all three speeds crossing one waterlogged Tile:

• Fast(4) * 4 Hours = DC16
• Normal(2) * 6 Hours = DC12
• Slow(1) * 8 Hours = DC8

Navigation

One person must serve as the navigator when traveling in the Mere. At the start of each travel lo

Battle Maps: 

River Barge [15 x 40] : r/dndmaps (reddit.com)

Mere Encounters

2d6 Event (see below for details)

• 2-3 Yuan-ti Scouts
• 4-5 Pit of Snakes
• 6-8 Quicksand and Alligators
• 9-10 Troll Brawl
• 11-12 Hydra Wranglers

Encounters in the Mere

The adventurers might have the following encounters as they search the marsh for the missing soldiers.

Yuan-ti Scouts

A yuan-ti expedition from the serpent kingdom of Najara has been exploring the Mere of Dead Men, assessing it as a location for colonization — and then to serve as a launch point for attacks in the north.

A yuan-ti abomination acts as an advance scout for these expeditions. The party comes upon him as he devours a large elk. The abomination does not wish anyone to know of the yuan-ti’s plans in this area, so he attempts to kill anyone who sees him. If there are five or more characters (including sidekicks), add a second abomination.

Pit of Snakes

The characters lose the trail and wander into an area where swamp gas has built up beneath the surface of the Mere. Characters who succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence (Nature) check realize the gas is present and understand its danger.

A pit of snakes opens to the right of the characters as they pass, and one giant constrictor snake, plus an additional snake for every character, including sidekicks, emerges from the pit looking for a meal.

Any magical or normal fire larger than a torch could ignite the swamp gas. Whenever a fire-based spell or effect is used, roll a d6. On a 1-2, the gas ignites. If the fire effect has an area, the area of the effect doubles. Also, treat all creatures in the area as being vulnerable to fire to approximate the extra damage done by the swamp gas.

Quicksand and Alligators

As the party loses the trail for a moment, they stumble into a dangerous part of the marsh with a 10-foot square, 20-foot deep pit of quicksand. Unless the character doing the tracking succeeds on a DC 18 Intelligence (Nature) check, they lead the party into it. When a creature enters the area, it sinks 1d4 + 1 feet into the quicksand and becomes restrained. At the start of each of the creature’s turns, it sinks another 1d4 feet.

If the creature isn’t completely submerged in quicksand, it can escape by using its action and succeeding on a Strength check, DC 10 plus the number of feet the creature has sunk already. A creature that is completely submerged in quicksand can’t breathe (see the suffocation rules in the Player’s Handbook).

A creature not sunk in the quicksand can pull another creature within its reach out of a quicksand pit by using its action and succeeding on a Strength check, DC 5 plus the number of feet the target creature has sunk into the quicksand.

While the party deals with the quicksand, a giant crocodile and its young (one crocodile per 2 characters) emerge from the swamp and attack.

Troll Brawl

While following the trail of the lizardfolk, the party comes across three trolls fighting over the remains of a lizardfolk who died at the hands of one of the rot trolls. The trolls claw and bite each other, trying to take possession of the tasty lizardfolk remains.

When the characters find the trolls, they are each at half their starting hit points. If the characters can remain quiet, the trolls beat each other up even more, until they are all down to a quarter of their starting hit points.

The first troll to die carries a sack, and in it there are three vials of acid (see the Player’s Handbook for details).

Hydra Wranglers

After hearing rumors of a hydra lairing in the Mere of Dead Men, a Waterdhavian circus owner hired a band of mercenaries to go into the swamp, locate the hydra, capture it, and bring it back to Waterdeep to be the main attraction in the circus. Little did the mercenaries realize that one does not simply capture a hydra.

The adventurers lose the correct trail and pick up on the trail of the mercenaries. When they arrive on the scene, several mercenaries are dead, and the remaining three are preparing to flee.

The hydra has a number of active heads equal to the number of characters and 30 hit points per character, excluding sidekicks. The mercenaries are of little use in the battle. They do, however, carry five vials of alchemist’s fire (see the Player’s Handbook for details) in order to deal with any extra heads that might spring up. At the end of the battle, the mercenaries offer the characters any vials left over, along with 50 gp for saving their lives.

Swamp Tiles

Every hex in The Mere of Dead Men is considered difficult terrain and as such the normal travel pace has been halved as seen below:

Waterlogged Tiles

These tiles consist mostly of water so without a Keelboat a party can not rest while inside of it. Crossing them without appropriate equipment makes each foot of Movement costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain), unless a creature has a Swimming speed. This means that for these tiles the travel pace is as follows:

If a character travels through a hex without equipment or a swimming speed a creature must make a Strength (Athletics) check or gain a level of Exhaustion. The DC is calculated by multiplying the hours the travel took times their speed (1 for Slow, 2 for Normal and 4 for Fast) or 8 whatever is higher. Characters wearing heavy armor have disantavtage on this check. The following examples are for all three speeds crossing one waterlogged Tile:

• Fast(4) * 4 Hours = DC16
• Normal(2) * 6 Hours = DC12
• Slow(1) * 8 Hours = DC8