Isle of the Unknown Wandering Encounters

[tombowings]

The mages and the monsters are already placed. Now it's time for some wandering encounters of a more mundane variety to make the game come to life. Here are seven to start us off. What can you come up with?


1. A lone and weary knight and his squire. The knight is wearing a white tabard with a red cross. He is a 3rd-level fighter (Armor: chain + shield, HD 3, hp 8, Move 90’) and riding a light warhorse (Armor: leather, HD 2+1, hp 6, Move 240’). The squire is on a donkey with his broken left arm wrapped in a sling.

2. 17 pilgrims in white cloaks traveling to the shrine atop the mountain in hex (XX) accompanied by the usual donkeys and mules. They also carry 90 GP worth of candles and incense. Their leader, a 1st-level fighter (Armor: none, HD 1+1, hp 7, Move 120’), wears a gold necklace worth 130 GP.

3. Three lost and worried travelers alone in the forest with their ox. There is one dagger between the three, and are without food or proper supplies. They are talking quietly, looking for shelter. They have a sack of 30 silver coins, but carry nothing else of value.

4. There is a rumbling sound, as three wooden carts, each pulled by two donkeys come into view. There are six armed men at arms (Armor: chain, HD 1, hp 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6 Move 90’) walking alongside the caravan. They are carrying hand axes and crossbows. The caravan leader (Armor: leather, HD 1, hp 2, Move 120’) is clad in traveling garb, but has a gold ring (30 GP) and the three carts are filled with fine, silk clothing, together worth 300 GP.

5. At evening or night, howls can be heard from a distance. The howls continue for 1-10 minutes, then stops. An hour later, there is a rustle in the bushes nearby, followed by a lone wolf (Armor: leather, HD 1+1, hp 5, Move 150’) moving into the clearing. If approached another wolf with appear from behind. Wolves will continue to appear until there is an entire growling pack surrounding the unprepared travelers.

6. A storm approaches. Within 2 hours winds have picked up to high enough speeds to make archery impossible. The mud makes travel by cart impossible for three days and otherwise slows travel to half speed. Unless they stop to wait out the storm, travelers will be unable to properly navigate and will move in a random direction.

7. A carrier pigeon (armor: none, HD 1-3, hp 1, Move 300’/fly) flies overhead, letter in hand. It is traveling towards the nearest village or town. The message contains words of treason. There is 1 in 10 a chance the pigeon will be shot down by an arrow.

[cleverkobold]

8. A bright light can be seen in the distance. If investigated, it will be revealed that two fatigued men wearing tattered clothes (Armor: none, HD 1, HP 5, 2, move: 120', valuables: 3 signal flares, 1 crowbar, 2 daggers, 1 week rations, a map of the adjacent hexes, and 12 gp between them) are standing atop a large rocky hill, surrounding them are 3 enormous lobster-like creatures (Armor: plate-equivalent, HD 2, HP 12, 7, 8, move 30'). One man is frantically waving a signal flare, while the other is struggling to light a second flare. The light seems to be keeping the lobster-things at a distance, but the beasts grow bolder with each passing moment. The men know of the entrance to a hidden crypt located in this hex.

I'll probably have more later.

[mannclay]

10. Four low level bandits are scouting the area making rustling sounds through large brush. One spots the party unless one in the party spots him first.

[ritt]

11. The ragged remains of The Seven Swords of Swanhook, a party of "Dungeon Crawlers" on their way home from the nearest funhole. Things have not been going well for them: Only four of the original seven remain. Two of them are able-bodied but currently at 1-2 HP, while the other two are insane, blind, currently turned to stone, faces eaten off by green slime, etc. (Get nasty and creative). They have no interest in going back and will offer to sell their gear and dungeon information to the PCs at fair prices in exchange for Our Heroes escorting them back to civilization. Each member is level 1d4-1 (0-level members are hirelings).

12. 1d6+1 members of the Eight Exalted Exiles of Erroth, a party of "Dungeon Crawlers". The Eight are not exactly "Evil", per se, but they are stereotypical sociopathic true-neutral "Murder hobos": If it's advantageous to them to trade treasure and info with Our Heroes they will, but if it's advantageous to just Sleep them and start slitting throats they will do that just as quickly. The Eight are pragmatic and paranoid and won't pick fights they aren't sure they'll win, but when they do fight they'll use every dirty trick in the book and then some. They have 1d3 spell scrolls that they don't need and are willing to sell or trade. Each member is level 1d4-1 (0-level members are hirelings).

13. The six members of the Immortal Knights of the Adamantium Madonna, an "Adventuring party" of losers, layabouts, fools, and drunks who have just decided to try their hand at dungeon-crawling because they can't hold real jobs. They are all 0-level humans with abysmal ability scores and crap equipment, and it will be obvious to Our Heroes that these sad cases aren't going to last a minute in the Dungeon of the Unknown. They'll offer to team-up with the PCs and split any treasure, but in an actual dungeon situation they will prove worse than useless (They're too proud to do hireling work like torch-bearing or loot-hauling, and will want to charge in screaming at any encounters). Cruel PCs might find them useful as monster-bait, diversions, etc.

14. A giant mole the size of a bear explodes out of the earth and tries to eat one of Our Heroes' horses or pack mules! The creature has the stats of a large bear and has an odd shimmering unreality to it, like the rear-projection effect from an old monster movie. It's tunnel leads back to underground tomb complex of the Forgotten Empire, if Our Heroes are willing to crawl on their bellies through fifty yards of cramped, lightless wormhole.

15. In day, reverse the dice and treat this as a "51". By night, it's a Goblin Market in full swing (See FIGHT ON! #13). If goblins don't quite fit in your setting make them a caravan of Pseudo-Gypsies.

16. 1d6+2 members of The Forsaken, an adventuring party whose members are all "Strangers" who hail from lands found on no map and who arrived at the Isle via shipwreck, cursed scrolls, strange machines, or weird time-space phenomena. Their leader is Ernhart Von Bauer, a dashing yet ruthless former Nazi tank commander (Level 6 Fighter). His lover is Exquisite Flower of Sublime Carnage, a blue-skinned neutral swashbuckler. Bauer has an MP-40 sub-machine gun with 1d100 rounds remaining. The other members are levels 1d6-1 (Level 0 indicates a hireling).

17. 1d3 Witch Cats -they look like common housecats, but have the size, temperament, and game stats as tigers. One is a calico whose hide will fetch (HP x 5) SP at auction if it's recovered relatively intact. Despite the name there is nothing magical about these creatures: They are simply rare, weird animals.

[ritt]

18. An egg the size of a beach ball. In 1d6+1 weeks a monster will hatch from it (Use Raggi's Random Esoteric Creature Generator or Poag's Exquisite Corpses to generate it, or just start with a platypus and keep adding Carcosa mutations to it until it doesn't look like a platypus anymore). There is a 2/6 chance someone has already laid claim to it and has posted guards (Use one of the adventuring parties above, or 2d6 0-level men-at-arms from the nearest settlement). This egg is valuable to different factions for different reasons: Wizards will want to eat it, tyrants will want to hatch it and raise the monster as an attack beast, clerics will want to destroy it as unnatural, sages will want to study it, the carnival will want to exhibit it, etc. Exactly how valuable it is will depend on the referee's discretion and the PC's canniness.

[ritt]

19. An armored coach with a ballista on top, drawn by a giant beetle, guarded by 1d4+1 0-Level men-at-arms. The coach is carrying a load of banned books to the Vault of Eternal Suppression in the City in Hex 2409. Most of the books are cheap porn or turgid political texts, but among the heaps is a near-mint copy of the first edition of Enid Blarfwaffer's homo-erotic novel Cat Without a Tail (1d4 x 100 SP at black-market auction), a surprisingly accurate urology text with pictures (100 SP to a surgeon), and a copy of The Black Analects of Thrice-Forsaken Shub bound in the skin of a little girl (Priceless. Contains 1d4+1 "Forbidden" spells, roll 1d6 for each for level).

20. A beautiful nude girl, half-elf and half Asian human, bound in an absurdly elaborate web of hemp rope and gagged with a mithril scroll tube tied between her teeth like a horse's bit. She writhes on a bed of weird flowers and Cretaceous ferns. She makes odd, animal-like whimpering noises and her eyes are totally dead, as if she's drugged or mentally impaired.

The "Girl" is actually just the protruding lure of a damselflower, a type of massive predatory carnivorous plant. It's about as smart as a dull human but is handicapped by a drug-like addiction to eating the flesh of heroes. Damselflower: Armor as plate and shield (It's a giant plant, only hits to the wood-protected and half-underground brain really hurt it), HD 5, Move 5', Roots can attack anyone in 15' for 1d6, Flytrap can attack one person in melee for 2d6).

The scroll tube is actually real (The damselflower is smart enough to incorporate props into it's lures). It's worth 200 SP for the metal and holds the deed to a modest house in Hex 2409.

21. A swarm of 4d6 little monsters that look like floating jellyfish with a single bloody eye from a human, cow, or pig suspended in their center.

Harvesters of Eyes: Armor as unarmored w/ shield, HD 0 (1 HP each), Move 20'(Levitation), Damage 1 HP. Anyone reduced to 0 HP by them is not slain but rather looses an eye. These pathetic little mutants can only see with eyes they steal from mammals, the eyes only last about a season and then they go hunting for new ones. They are about as smart as rats.

22. A freakish air-breathing octopus that crawls on land. It holds a sword (taken from human prey) in 1d8 of it's eight tentacles. Like the damselflower (320 above) it was bred (By who? Why?) to be addicted to the flesh of heroes.

Covetor of Blades: Armor as leather, HD 4, Move 5'(On land)or 20'(in treetops), Eight tentacles (only three can attack same person at a time) for 1d6 or 1d8 if wielding a sword. Will attack sword-wielders in preference to other foes.

23. A troupe of 3d6 travelling entertainers. Exactly what type of entertainer will depend on the size of the encounter and the referee's campaign. All are 0-level normal humans, but if there are ten or more of them and they are encountered outside sight of civilization they'll have one armed and armored escort for every five performers.

[ritt]

24. The Tyrant of the city in hex 2409 sometimes signs mercenaries up for contracts of service lasting hundreds or even thousands of years. Most foreign soldiers looking for work think this is a joke... it's not. Our Heroes encounter a patrol of 2d4 rotting, undead veteran soldiers, sent out to collect taxes and hunt for deserters. The soldiers want to die, so they'll insult and bully the PCs and try to pick a fight.

Old Soldiers: Armor as chain w/ shield. HD 2, Move as armored human, Damage as sword or crossbow. Their rotting carcasses take no damage from arrows and the minimum possible damage from other weapons unless the attack hits the head.

25. 2d6 normal, ordinary, decent, and kind people coming back from a pilgrimage... except they got hungry on the way and snacked on some weird mushrooms they found by the side of the road. Psychotropic poisons in the mushrooms have turned them into raving, 28 Days Later-style lunatics that will murderously attack anything they see. This psychotic state will wear off in 1d4 hours, and can be cured by any spell that cures poisons. The mushroom is rare (It only grows in monster poop) and only a PC that rolls his Bushcraft or less on a d12 will know of it.

Shroomies: No armor, HD 0, Move as unencumbered human, Damage 1d6 from tooth & nail with lunatic strength. Can't fail morale.

[leg1on]

26: Listen, you smell something?
A clade of d66 synesthesiacs journeys from one town to another.
Among them ... Roll a d5 twice (shift the second roll up or down one if your result is doubles):

1 = Hearing;
2 = Sight;
3 = Smell;
4 = Sound; or
5 = Touch.

... is perceived as ...

1 = Hearing;
2 = Sight;
3 = Smell;
4 = Sound; or
5 = Touch.