This post contains information and D&D 5E stats for a vicious pig-headed bandit that haunts the slopes of Mount Erymanthos — located in the northwestern quarter of the Peloponnesian Peninsula of mainland Greece — in Skirmisher Publishing’s “In the Footsteps of Hercules” universal sourcebook! This material can be used in conjunction with that supplement or with any traditional RPG milieu, is compatible with Skirmisher’s affiliated Swords of Kos Fantasy Campaign Setting, and is part of a series of “In the Footsteps of Hercules” Bonus Content. It includes the hand-drawn maps storyteller Michael O. Varhola created for purposes of playtesting this material.

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Kapros, the Boar of Erymanthos

Kapros is a depraved bandit who lives on the slopes of Mount Erymanthos, in a cave that has an entrance in a stony hillock beneath the roots of a huge and ancient oak tree. He refers to himself as the Boar of Erymanthos and does, in fact, have a pig face, the result of a curse laid upon his mother before he was born. He is unpleasant and cruel and has a reputation for being a cannibal that is enhanced by his unsavory appearance. This entirely deserved, however, and in actuality he feeds his victims to the herd of pigs that occupy the area around his lair and then slaughters and eats the pigs as needed.

Kapros is very fat, but is also quite strong and has significant muscle hidden beneath his flab. He is a brutal combatant who attempts to knock down opponents and then carve them up with his “tusks,” a pair a daggers that he binds to his forearms with leather thongs.

Kapros’s associates typically include a half-dozen common bandits who are exceptional only in that they tend to be somewhat stouter than usual and who, being of a like mind with him, wear pig masks and adopt porcine mannerisms. He is also usually accompanied by a handful of peasant women who act as servants and consorts, and may also have imprisoned in his camp any prisoners he has for whatever reasons not yet killed. If a storyteller wants to make an encounter with Kapros more challenging or complex, he or she can expand the band in any number of appropriate ways, such as making one of the peasant women a witch with the powers of an Acolyte (Monster Manual, p. 342). At least one of the boars in the resident herd of wild pigs will also be aggressive enough to attack any intruders that annoy him (Monster Manual, p. 319).

Kapros, the Boar of Erymanthos

Medium Humanoid (Human), neutral evil

Armor Class: 14 (hide armor)

Hit Points: 67 (9d8+27)

Speed: 30 ft.

STR             DEX             CON             INT               WIS              CHA

17 (+3)         14 (+2)         16 (+3)         8 (-1)           10 (+0)         12 (+1)

Skills: Athletics +5, Intimidation +3

Senses: Passive Perception 10

Languages: Common (Greek)

Challenge: 2 (450 XP)

Charge. If Kapros moves at least 20 feet straight toward a target he can attack it as a bonus action by slamming into it, inflicting 6 (1d6+3) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature it must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.

Relentless (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest). If Kapros takes 8 damage or less that would reduce him to 0 hit points he is reduced to 1 hit point instead.

Actions

Multiattack. Kapros can make two dagger attacks (but only one attack with his handaxe, which he will likely throw, or his sling).

Dagger. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6+3) piercing damage.

Handaxe. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6+3) slashing damage.

Sling. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4+3) bludgeoning damage.

Equipment: Hide armor, daggers (2) strapped to forearms, handaxe, sling.

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Erymanthian Bandit

Medium Humanoid (Human), neutral evil

Armor Class: 14 (hide armor, shield)

Hit Points: 16 (3d8+3)

Speed: 30 ft.

STR             DEX             CON             INT               WIS              CHA

14 (+2)         11 (+0)         12 (+1)         10 (+0)         10 (+0)         9 (-1)

Senses: Passive Perception 10

Languages: Common (Greek)

Challenge: 1/4 (50 XP)

Actions

Javelin. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6+2) piercing damage.

Handaxe. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6+2) slashing damage.

Equipment: Hide armor, hide shield, javelins (2), handaxe, pig mask.

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Hunting and Being Hunted by the Boar of Erymanthos

Travelers through the area — such as those on the Footsteps of Hercules pilgrimage trail — may notice that they are being shadowed by figures in the woods on the slopes of the mountains if they make successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) checks, and those who roll 20 or better will notice that they have pig faces.

These bandits will not attack anyone on the road — fearing retribution from either the authorities or the gods for being so brazen — but will accost those who leave the trail and demand their possessions in exchange for their lives. If characters spot them from a distance and approach them, however, they may try to lead them into a trap in a ravine near their lair and will then surely attempt to kill or capture them. If Kapros is slain or knocked out at any point his followers will quite possibly flee.

Characters might also learn that a pilgrim or other traveler has disappeared and that their companions fear they have been abducted (those without companions simply vanish without anyone wondering about their fate). Two of three widows who are walking the pilgrimage trail, for example, might report that their friend was ahead of them and they saw her clamber down a slope to get her hat when it blew off her head but that when they looked they could not find her. She was, in fact, snatched by some of the Erymanthian bandits, who thought she was travelling alone.

+ Characters searching for the abductors or otherwise trying to locate the lair of the bandits might have to successfully track them; a DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check is recommended but the storyteller can make this more challenging or prolong the search process by increasing the DC to 20 or having it made at disadvantage because the bandits travelled through the shallow water of a streambed.

+ After an hour of hard going along a stream and up a rugged valley between Mount Erymanthos and one of its adjacent peaks, the characters will come to a narrow, wooded ravine that has a trail leading into it and which has a rotting pig head on a stake — its eyes pecked out by carrion birds — erected by it.

+ Once they have gone a few hundred yards down the wooded trail, the party will see a pig-faced bandit standing about 40 feet ahead of them, and it will squeal and dance and brandish its javelin for at least one round while its three compatriots sneak up on the party. Anyone who specifically says they are looking for threats can make a DC 10 check to see them coming from either side and behind; those who say nothing about other threats spot one and are not surprised if their passive perception is 15 or higher.

+ Characters who continue on will reach a narrow point in the trail where it passes through 30-foot-high steep slopes. Two bandits hidden atop these, on the western side, will set off a trap to roll boulders down on the party, and characters who make successful Wisdom (Perception) DC 15 checks will spot them. If the bandits set off their trap anyone below must make a Dexterity saving throw to avoid being struck by cascading rocks for 11 (2d10) bludgeoning damage; DC for this save is 12 for characters who opt to take easy partial cover and suffer half damage if successful and DC 17 for those who want to try to take better cover and save for all or no damage.

+ At the end of the trail is a muddy clearing surrounded by steep, wooded slopes that is occupied by the bandits and a herd of boars that will be aggressive toward outsiders as a result of their diet of human flesh. Features of the encampment include a fire pit; a number of pens where prisoners are kept until they are ransomed or killed; and a stony hillock that has an ancient oak tree growing on it and, between some of its exposed roots, the entrance to a cave beneath it.

+ A short passageway slopes from the cave mouth down into the hillock and opens into a small cavern that in a previous era was used as a smithy. It contains an anvil, a forge in its northeastern corner, and a large 20-foot-deep pit into which the bandits have been dumping dung and other detritus for many years, and has been invaded on all sides by roots from the tree. This large mass of dung keeps the cave nice and warm, but it has also produced a great volume of methane gas that has filled the domed ceiling and has grown somewhat unstable and is dotted with clusters of nitrate crystals.

+ Kapros and his associates know that they need to not have any open flame in the cave but outsiders might not. Flames, such as those from torches or oil lamps, will flare blue near the entrance to the cave, and any that are taken into or lit in the cave itself will cause the methane to ignite. If this happens, the first effect will be a fireball that fills the area and inflicts at least 1d6+6 fire damage, with a DC 10 Dexterity save for half damage. Immediately afterwards, the nitrates in the dung will explode with more lethal force, causing the cavern to collapse and inflicting 2d6+6 bludgeoning damage to anyone in the cave, with a DC 10 Dexterity save for half. In both cases, storytellers can increase the DCs by 1 and the damage by 1d6 for each level above 1st that the party is if they want to make this more difficult. Likewise, they can also rule that characters who fail the second save are buried under debris and need to somehow get out or be rescued. If they want to make it a little more survivable then they can also rule that anyone within a move of the entrance who specifies they are running for it when the methane ignites can receive advantage on one or both saving throws.

+ While the dung has helped keep the massive oak tree very healthy, the hollow nature of the hillock has also caused it to become somewhat unstable is it has grown and been denied adequate solid material for its roots to grow into. So, if the methane ignites and cave collapses, the hillock will implode and be reduced in height by about 10 feet and the oak will topple over (possibly requiring anyone outside to make a saving throw to avoid being crushed by it).

+ At the storyteller’s option, Kapros might have hidden in the old forge a hoard of treasure that includes money, personal possessions stolen from pilgrims, and even a few minor magic items. In the playtest scenario, this was a fairly significant encounter and the characters were on the verge of advancing to 3rd level but not yet received any treasure to speak of, so we gave them about 200 gold pieces worth of mixed coinage, a dozen holy symbols, a common potion, a scroll with the 2nd-level spell Enlarge/Reduce, a magical scarab that can transform into a Giant Dung Beetle, and a Decanter of Endless Water (all of which helped them in the next phase of the adventure, which involved votively recreating Hercules’s cleaning of the Augean Stables). They also had to figure out how to retrieve it from the collapsed cave …