If you didn’t get into the weeds with Forgotten Realms lore, you’d never know there’s a local tribe of werewolves in the vicinity of the Triboar Trail. Those barbarians that sacked Conyberry years ago? Uthgardt barbarians that style themselves as the Gray Wolf tribe – who just happen to be cursed with lycanthropy.

Being caught in the sites of the Gray Wolf tribe is like a Turducken of calamities. Let’s look at the menu of options for dealings with this truculent clan. Would you rather have your head pulped by a maul? Your throat torn out by a werewolf? Be carried off by the tribe to be afflicted with lycanthropy and assimilated into the tribe? Escape all of it, but find yourself shunned by society if you’ve been afflicted with lycanthropy, compelled by your nature to perpetuate a cycle of blood lust and savagery?

It all sucks. Like Turducken.

Anyhoo, just because it’s not found in the box set, that doesn’t mean you can’t add it into your stories. Think outside the box set is my motto. And so, that’s what I intend to do with my my wilderness encounter for wolves.

If wolves come up for your daytime wilderness encounter, consider the following encounter for the party:

Among the branches of a dense thicket, you come upon the gnawed carcass of a great elk, its body torn open, ribs picked clean and pointing toward the sky like pale bars. The clawed prints of predatory animals press deep into the mud surrounding the scene.

As with many of my daytime wilderness encounters, this isn’t a combat encounter. It’s an exploration encounter.

A successful DC 12 Intelligence (Nature) check determines the bite marks and scattering of bones clearly point to wolves hunting as a pack.

A successful DC 13 Wisdom (Survival) check spots something among the many tracks: the bare foot print of a small humanoid. If the check succeeds by 5 or more, it is discovered that the humanoid footprints appear to be clawed.

The humanoid footprint is that of a child, recently afflicted with the curse of lycanthropy, running wild under their first full moon with a wolf pack. We can talk about what that looks like for the upcoming nighttime wilderness encounter.

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