One-Page Monster Hunt: The Wetland's Nightmare

This is my first One-page Monster Hunt, The Wetland's Nightmare. It was created to be used with my Monster Hunter Monster Manual PDF | GMBinder Link creature, the Khezu. Much like a one page dungeon, the One-page Monster Hunt, gives the DM the bones they need to create this hunt for their own group. It does provide some meat, with suggested monsters and events that take place in different areas along with the Khezu's typical habits and where it might be.

What is this hunt about?

The Hunt takes the group to the Wetlands outside of the capital of Dundorma where this beast has been causing problems not only to travelers, but also to the ecosystem itself. They will need to track down the khezu traveling through different areas of the wetlands while dealing with the wildlife in the area .

Why an open area instead of a dungeon?

You have more free reign to properly end a game that normally couldn't

I think one of the biggest issues you can run into with dungeons, especially during a 1 shot, is that you are stuck following the path ahead until you reach the end and when you are running out of time do you fast forward to the end or try your luck with setting up another time to finish the last 2 hours of the game. With a monster hunt, if you are running low on time, the khezu could be hunting in the swamp in the next area they go to, it can fly over the hunters towards its cave pointing in them in the right direction, or it could dive bomb and try and attack the hunter in the back line while they aren't paying attention. You have options.

Its a living dungeon

A monster hunt is a living thing environment and you can adjust the map. It gives the DM the ability to adapt to the choices of the party. Does the group choose to not follow the easy path and struggle through more difficult part of the swamp?OK, then reorganize the map, just because they head east in Area 2 doesn't mean they can't end up in Area 4, or perhaps there is more than one Area 4 location, but one has a random encounter in it.

What is left for me to do?

As the DM, you wil still need to do a little prep, getting the creatures stat block from the manual, and deciding on how difficult skill checks will be and adjusting any encounters to what your party make up is. You don't want to be fighting 2d8 bullfango's when all you have is a bunch of single target characters. You will also need to determine what clues the clues do in the monster hunt and possibly if you need to include any more before you party encounters the Khezu. Most of all, have fun!

Can I use this with something other than your Monster Manual and Guide?

YES! My ruleset and monsters are to help bring the world of monster hunter alive in the D&D realm, but you can just as easily switch the Khezu with another CR 10 monster or any of the other creatures for that matter. It may take a few more minutes to set it all up, but this is here for you to use it in anyway you like.