When most people think of Thundertree, a young green dragon by the name of Venomfang comes to mind. But there’s a larger problem lurking within the ruins of the abandoned timber town, which is: Thundertree has a whole lot of twig blights. Twenty-four by my count.

What do we know about blights?

A Gulthias tree was a plant infused with supernatural evil, capable of spreading corruption to nearby plant life and generating malevolent creatures known as blights. A Gulthias tree could originate wherever a plant was contaminated by an evil force or sentience. A Gulthias tree left unchecked could infect the surrounding forest and cause blights to emerge from nearby corrupted plant life. The tree and its associated blights could turn a lush forest into a toxic, bramble-filled wasteland, growing with supernatural speed to overwhelm nearby roadways and settlements.

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Gulthias_tree

†If you’re thinking there’s a Gulthias tree near Thundertree, your partially correct. There’s actually two Gultias trees in the vicinity.

• 40 miles east of Thundertree, beneath the eaves of the Neverwinter Wood, a Gulthias tree grows out of a well in the court yard of the Woodland Manse.
• In the hills 25 miles northwest of Thundertree, a Gulthias tree grows in an underground grotto beneath the Sunless Citadel.

Whether the blights are from the Sunless Citadel or the Woodland Manse, they’re a long way from the tree that spawned them. In either direction, there are probably many, many more blights infesting the land. Like roaches, these are just the ones we see. And that could be a huge problem as the blights continue to spread toward the High Road and the Long Road, where there are populated settlements.

Venomfang could be in Thundertree for the simple reason that the Neverwinter Wood, his ideal habitat, is overrun with blights.

The adventure states that a druid that the characters encounter in Thundertree, Reidoth, “is currently most concerned by the fact that a green dragon has moved into the tower since the last time he was here.”

(Larry David noises) Ehhhhh…I don’t know about that.

A green dragon in a vast, wild woodland like the Neverwinter Wood…I mean, it would be weird if a green dragon didn’t live there. Right? Yes, a green dragon presents a danger to the denizens of the wood, but you could say that about any apex predator inhabiting the forest.

But two Gulthias trees? One locate in the Neverwinter Wood, and the other in rolling hills adjacent to the wood? Now there’s something that would concern a member of the Emerald Enclave, of which Reidoth is a member. Left unchecked, Gulthias trees at either end of the Neverwinter Wood presents a grave danger to the wood and everything that inhabits it.

If you need an adventure hook to get you to either the Woodland Manse or the Sunless Citadel, look no further than the twig blight infestation in Thundertree, and the druid who wants to destroy the abominations that spawn them.

Or you could take it even further and make Venomfang the quest-giver who, in exchange for their promise to destroy the trees that spawned the blights choking his domain, offers to share information about hidden locales within the wood – lost to time or, worse, best forgotten.

Place like Sharandar, Xinlenal or the Dread Ring.

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