Thanksgiving Adventure

It’s a Turky Hunt! Kind of… The fall harvest festival is in full swing. Unfortunately, the annual Cockitrice migration has shifted from its normal course and several towns and farms are in their path. Normally a Cockatrice bite wouldn’t be such a bad thing, just 24 hours of being petrified. With someone to watch over you, it is just a matter of time before you recover. But during the migration, hundreds of stone-eating creatures follow Cockatrice, feasting on their victims in preparation for a long. cold winter.

Now, dozens of farms and a major trading outpost lies in the migration path and thousands of people are in danger.

Notes for the DM

This adventure has been set up for multiple levels of play. Some of the encounters are drawn from sources other than the basic rules. In those cases, you will find notes regarding which book and page to find them. You will also find links to the books on Amazon, using the DMingDad affiliate links, which will earn me a small commission without costing you any extra.

This is a wilderness exploration adventure. The goal is for the player characters to find a way to get the Cockatrice migration back on track, catch or kill them. Along the way, they will meet some interesting characters that are impacted by the rampaging Cockatrice. Most of the encounters will start off grumpy then become more pleasant once the party reveals they are hunting the Cockatrice. If they succeed, the party may return to visit some of the people/intelligent creatures and receive rewards for their efforts.

At the end of the adventure, the party should be encouraged to return to the trading post where a large harvest festival is planned. The grateful townsfolk and NPCs will take the opportunity to thank the party for all their work and show them with food and gifts.

DON’T FORGET TO READ ABOUT THE DCICISTAURUS (STONE-EATING LOCUSTS BELOW).

Maps & Travel

The travel route of the Cockatrice is marked as a dotted line on the map. The normal migration route is farther west, through the heavy jungle. A single hex on the map represents 1 day of travel (24 miles)

Pace	Distance Traveled per…			Effect
Pace	Minute	Hour	Day	Effect
Fast	400 feet	4 miles	30 miles	−5 penalty to passive Wisdom (Perception) scores
Normal	300 feet	3 miles	24 miles	—
Slow	200 feet	2 miles	18 miles	Able to use Stealth

Random Encounters

Keep in mind that the Dungeon Master Guide says, “Assuming typical adventuring conditions and average luck, most adventuring parties can handle about six to eight medium or hard encounters in a day. If the adventure has more easy encounters, the adventurers can get through more.” (page 84)

In addition to the random encounters below, the party should encounter the monsters below that follow Cockatrice migration in hopes of an easy meal. These rock-eating monsters can be dangerous on their own but combined with hundreds of migrating Cockatrice, they can be deadly.

Umber Hulk – An abominable horror from deep beneath the earth, an umber hulk burrows into cave complexes, dungeons, or Underdark settlements in search of food—especially the humanoid prey it craves. Recently petrified humans are easy to drag down into their larders; a treat that is hard to resist.

Purple Worms – Voracious predators and scavengers who devoured whatever organic matter they come across; nothing is safe from a purple worm. They are capable of swallowing human to horse-sized creatures whole. They hunt by sound and are attracted to the sounds of the migrating Cockatrice.

Purple Wormlings – Purple wormlings are voracious feeders and attack just about anything they can wrap their mouths around. A wormling’s gullet can hold up to four small or one human-sized creature. They hunt by sound and they too are attracted to the sounds of the migrating Cockatrice.

Denzellian – These slimy sluglike creatures feed on refined and precious metals. The smell of high concentrations of refined metals like bags of gold/silver, large cast iron pots, or a suit of plate mail left unattended may attract these underground dwellers. A party of rich, well-armed adventurers may awake to find themselves broke, unarmed, and unarmored if they fall victim to a Cockatrice.

Dociostaurus (Homebrew) – These insects are the biggest danger to the party and local inhabitants. Stone-eating locusts, the Dociostaurus operates as an insect plague that swarms and feeds on the recently petrified victims of the Cockatrice. While the Dociostaurus feed the Cockatrice feed on them.

Low-Level (tier one) Forest Encounters

1D20	Qty	Name
1-5	1d10	Townsfolk A) Huddled around a fire a group of people with little to no gear share blankets. A crying child sits in his mother’s lap. They have been driven from their homes in a nearby village by the Cockatrice migration. B) A small village, barely a dozen buildings, lies before you with petrified citizens being tended to by surviving towns folks.
6-7	1d4 +1	Bandits + Bandit Captain
8-12	1d4+1	Tribal Warrior
13-15	1	Travelers / Locals
16	1d4	Boar
17	1	Giant Boar
18	5	Swarm of Rats
19	4	Giant Rats
20	2	Brown Bear

Mid-Level (tier two) Forest Encounters

1D20	Qty	Name
1-5	1d10	Townsfolk A) Huddled around a fire a group of people with little to no gear share blankets. A crying child sits in his mother’s lap. They have been driven from their homes in a nearby village by the Cockatrice migration. B) A small village, barely a dozen buildings, lies before you with petrified citizens being tended to by surviving towns folks. Townsfolk A) Huddled around a fire a group of people with little to no gear share blankets. A crying child sits in his mother’s lap. They have been driven from their homes in a nearby village by the Cockatrice migration. B) A small village, barely a dozen buildings, lies before you with petrified citizens being tended to by surviving towns folks.
6-7	1d4 +1	Bandits + Bandit Captain
8-12	1d6+1	A group of lizardfolk 2 Lizardfolk 8 Giant Toads 2 Giant Frogs At a dry gorge with a clear stream. there is a rainbow. The group is on a journey to find the source of a nearby river. In a fight they run and hide if things go badly Possibly… they have a Staff of the Python
13-15	1	1 Half-Ogre
16	1	Elvin Archer Wistong Zykrof, a crippled half-elf archer with knee-high boots. He loves painting his surroundings and he is currently speaking in a booming voice to some unseen person. He has made camp at a hidden, overgrown tower.
17	1d4+1	Loxadas They have stoped to make camp. They are on a mission to find a lost temple rumored to be in these woods.
18	1d4+1	Pack of Displacer Beasts
19	1d6	Phase Spiders
20	1d4+1	Gorgons At a rock-strewn ground. there is an overturned handcart They are investigating an unusual tree In a fight they fight to the bitter end Possibly… they have a Staff of the Adder

High-Level (tier three) Forest Encounters

1D20	Qty	Name
1-5	1d10	Townsfolk A) Huddled around a fire a group of people with little to no gear share blankets. A crying child sits in his mother’s lap. They have been driven from their homes in a nearby village by the Cockatrice migration. B) A small village, barely a dozen buildings, lies before you with petrified citizens being tended to by surviving towns folks.
6-7	2d8 +1	Bandits + Bandit Captain
8-9	1	Guardian Naga At the base of a waterfall, a cave can be seen just behind the torrent of water. Large bones are mingled among the rocks.
13-14	–	A ravine blocks the way. High cliff walls on either side of a raging river below.
15-16	1d6	Tribal Warrior
17	–	Druid and Acolytes 1 Archdruid (VGtM p.210 or Druid) named “Doubleneck” Ironhide (gnome) 3 Giant Apes In a grassy field, there is a herd of cattle. The group is picking mushrooms.
18	1	Bullywug (Monster Manual) Revbem is an insecure bullywug with a dented metal breastplate. He is argumentative and frustrated with his lack of progress truing to train his pet, a young Egale.
19	–	1d4 Yuan-ti Abominations (Monster Manual p.308) 1 Yuan-ti Anathema (VGtM p.202) named Hyath At a clearing in the forest there is a deep depression. In the center there is an ancient statue of a serpent battling a man. The Yuan-ti surround the statue chanting and hissing. In a fight they attempt hit and run tactics.Possibly… they have a Medallion of Thoughts
20	1	Adult Green Dragon Driven from its lair by the stampeed of Cockatrice, this dragon is in a foul mood and likely to attach with the slightest provocation.

Resolving This Adventure

This is an opportunity for your players to be creative. Leave the solution open and see what they come up with. If they are having trouble, have them encounter a chicken farmer who just happens to have a wagon full of wooden chicken cages, the perfect size for holding one to three Cockatrice. Or, perhaps they find their way to a small fishing village on the shore of the river/lake which has a bunch of nets that could be used to capture the pesky little flightless birds. Maybe your party has a portable hole they could use as a pit trap.