We’ve Got an Egg Problem

The mysterious caverns below our party’s new-found Bastion continue to get bigger and bigger. This time, we’re calling on a legendary terrain maker to give us the scatter tiles we need for another home-brewed encounter.

DM Ben has a soft spot for peculiar nests and loves adding them to his campaigns. There’s just so much player angst that comes into play once they discover an unattended lair. All sorts of questions race through their minds: where is momma bear? Are those eggs about to hatch? Should we risk it and steal a few? And a DM always wants to get in its players’ heads.

This wide shot shows the extent of the starting caverns below their cabin in The High Forest. We love that false appearance of a little ol’ one-room shack in the woods, yet below is an expansive network of tunnels where the previous Night Hag was doing all her dirty work.

This new series of home-brewed encounters was also the perfect opportunity to try out our recently acquired Dwarven Forge Burrows terrain. As many of you know, many of their magnificent Dwarvenite sets can be extremely tricky to come by, often selling out in a single minute on re-stock day.

Still, we were fast enough with the mouse to secure enough terrain to create a cool underground refuge, which fits like a glove within this gameboard.

Then we had to ponder what sort of DnD monster would create such a place this deep in a cavern. Thankfully, many options exist, including Umber Hulks, large spiders, Carrion Crawlers, and Otyughs, to name a few. Ultimately, we settled on a classic – Bulettes.

Thankfully, WizKids has several great prepainted mini options from their Sand & Stone, Dungeons of Dread, and Monster Menagerie set releases. We’ll use the four-legged fellow as the mom who just laid her eggs. The other two awesome burrowing sculpts will come into play if DM Ben decides to up the CR level or does an additional tunneling encounter.

In a previous post, we shared that the Bulette lair’s access point was via a shallow waterway. DM Ben likes to hint at what might be lurking ahead, so he’s added two warning signs. 

Investigating the skeletal remains will reveal that the fallen adventurer was crushed. Bulettes have a Deadly Leap attack, and the poor guy just never saw it coming.

The other warning sign is that Night Hag wanted nothing to do with these vicious Land Sharks, so she boarded up the passageway as a reminder to tread cautiously whenever she had to go this way to reach the Corederite discovery area.  She would only pass through if she had down a potion of invisibility.

Dwarven Forge makes epic Cave Door Packs that can be swapped for different terrain inserts, such as wood boards or metal bars. Regardless of your terrain preferences, we highly recommend you grab a set for your collection. The different entrance markers are just so darn handy. 

Another cool thing about their Burrows terrain is that you can easily swap out different pieces, such as a stalagmite, a bare floor, or even some eggs. This level of terrain modularity always tugs at our heartstrings.

Now, this is a DnD RPG 3D Print blog, after all, so the beauty of using some of these out-of-print tiles is no biggie because we can simply print pieces that closely match our theme. Here, we used Milestone Heroes Cavern STLs to make all the hallway and cave-in pieces we needed to finish up this encounter area. Be sure to check out our cavern paint guide as well!

Regarding the encounter mechanics, DM Ben will use a random roll to decide if the momma Bulette is by her nest or if she’s out hunting for food.

• 1-8: Momma Bear is sleeping next to the eggs.
• 9-15: She’s out gathering food.
• 16-20: The Bulette is putzing around in the chamber.
• 18-20: Momma Bear is there & Poppa Bear will join in 1d4+1 rounds.

Bulettes are fearless, so they don’t worry about anything messing with their nests. Plus, their burrowing sense and speed means they can return to their lair reasonably quickly.

Lastly, a single Bulette (AC 17, HP 94, +7 att/4d12+4) shouldn’t be too much trouble for a six-character, level-five party, but the damage dealt from its bite attack can be a zinger. Depending on how the combat is going, DM Ben might have Poppa Bear join Momma Bear before it’s all said and done.

Our players haven’t utilized any fallback and re-group tactics so far, but if the DM is rolling hot while they’re rolling cold, this could be our first instance (especially if we include two Bulette monsters here).

Until next time!