25 D&D Forest Plot Hooks

Here’s a list of 25 forest plot hooks for your Dungeons & Dragons or other tabletop roleplaying game!

I’ve left them deliberately a bit vague so you can mold and adjust according to your needs. Use this list of forest plot hooks as inspiration for your game!

See the rest of my plot hooks to use in your game.

1. A group of once peaceful and amenable Dryads are now driving travelers away from a certain part of the forest.
2. At night, what sounds like a harsh, animalistic, cat-like yowl echoes throughout the forest. Many of the villagers refuse to enter the forest.
3. During the six nights leading up to the new moon, a single, seemingly random child wakes up and wanders into the forest from a nearby village. The child always returns unconscious and unharmed in the morning. But, they have a strange mark on their skin that wasn’t there before.
4. Rangers of the forest report a hulking, wolf-like creature stalking them during the week of the full moon. Is it a werewolf or something else?
5. Strange, arcane markings are appearing on the trees in the middle of the night. The number of affected trees increases each night.
6. A dancing light flickers off in the distances between the trees. If you listen closely, you hear faint chanting.
7. The skeleton of a long-dead green dragon served as a waypoint for traveling merchants. But now, the merchants take the long way around the forest. They won’t or can’t say why, just that they won’t go back through the woods.
8. A nearby sprite village is throwing a raucous festival and it has…unintended effects on the surrounding forest.
9. A young man saw a bear, a fox, and a rabbit walking on their hind legs across a forest path. They seemed to be in the middle of a casual conversation.
10. A family’s dog goes missing in the forest. They come back the next day, unharmed…but able to speak. They don’t have any information other than a strange hooded man was gathering animals and granting them the ability to talk.
11. Blights are popping up across the forest, attacking anyone who enters the wood. The attacks started shortly after a peculiarly violent lightning storm.
12. The body of a unicorn is found with several, black arrows piercing its corpse. The unicorn was the forest’s protector, and its death is likely to bring suffering unless someone or something replaces it.
13. Animal faces are appearing on trees at the forest’s edge. Pigs, wolves, cows, crows, and others all appeared in the middle of the night. Each one is precisely and beautifully carved. But, anyone who approaches them is filled with a sense of dread.
14. After years of minor but good trade relations with a goblin village in the forest, the townsfolk were surprised by the sudden attack. Goblins on worgs raided the town stealing anything they could. What could’ve changed?
15. The pained howl of a deep voice resounds through the forest. The next morning, the body of a slain treant blocks the forest path. It has several notches in its trunk that look burned.
16. There’s been an increase in snakes appearing throughout the forest. There’s always been serpents, of course, but now you can’t go 10 feet without seeing one. And, they’re always aggressive.
17. A group of humanoids wearing blank white masks and long black, hooded robes won’t allow anyone to enter the forest. The fastest path to the nearest town is through the woods.
18. Locals fear a coven of witches (hags) has taken up residence in the forest nearby. Luckily, it’s not a coven. There are only two hags. Unfortunately, they hate each other and are trying to outdo the other in tormenting the villagers.
19. The great tree at the center of the forest is said to mark the health of the woods on a whole. Lately, some of the druids charged with protecting the tree have found long, sinuous fibers dangling from the tree’s branches. Nothing has approached the tree as far as the druids have seen.
20. Strange mushrooms have started growing along the forest path. They seem to stretch deeper into the forest away from the path. The mushrooms don’t seem to stop growing with some reaching well over 10 feet tall.
21. A group of travellers finds the carcass of a massive whale a few dozen yards off the forest path. The corpse is well into the decay process. They only found it because of the smell.
22. A group of humanoids clad in white emerge from the forest one day. Their leader claims they come from the forest village. But, no one has heard of their home or where they came from.
23. More feyfolk than usual are emerging from the forest. A local pixie town claims to not know anything about it. But, they did see a goat-man (satyr) playing pipes throughout the forest for the last few days. They don’t know where he is not.
24. The forest has become outright violent. Trees swing their branches at travelers, vines entangle people’s feet, and shrubs attempt to smother anyone along the path. No one knows what’s happened to bring on the forest’s wrath or how the foliage is doing this.
25. Long ago, a green dragon claimed the forest. It died centuries ago. But now, people are reporting a large, lizard-like creature stalking the forest. Is it a new dragon or something else?