Travel encounters

For the game I'm running, I needed an encounter table for regular travel across the land. So I made  this one, which is fairly basic but should provide everything necessary. The first ten are mundane and don't amount to much, basically just more interesting than "nothing happens," the next five are significant but mundane, and the last five are supernatural.

1. A cloud looks like a flower
2. Bloodstains on the trees
3. Circle of mushrooms
4. Triangular patch of flowers near the road
5. Broken wagon
6. Bridge over a small river
7. A family of rabbits cross the path
8. Howling winds pick up momentarily
9. Light rain
10. A set of gravestones nearby
11. Bandits...
1. Blocking the road
2. Attacking merchants
3. Fighting each other
4. Poaching
5. Sneak up from behind
6. Pretending to be merchants
12. Assassins
13. Animals attack
1. Wolves
2. Bear
3. Frenzied deer
4. Boars
5. Monkeys
6. Ravens
14. A storm brews while the group travels atop a hill
15. Merchants approach carrying...
1. Silks
2. Weapons
3. Exotic foods
4. Slaves
5. Training
6. Plain tools
16. Kobolds attack
17. Undead attack
18. Fairies offer power, wish to steal youth
19. Spectral voices call out for help from a tomb
20. Unnatural omens

Ortish colony

Garren Styn is a colony town with high walls of stone brick, embellished with gleaming reinforcements of steel and patrolled by numerous guards with firearms and crossbows. The makeshift streets are likewise patrolled, and many of the foreign residents have armed themselves as well. Near the edge of town lies the Bitemark Tower, where Falarth, who is both the town's ruler and captain of the guard, lives.

The Orts are pale, mottled people with long sharp teeth and small round eyes. Their clothing usually leaves the arms bare, especially the upper arms, and fine Ortish dress often comes with elaborate armbands or gloves that go no further than the wrist.

They have come seeking a mythical city of silver, and Falarth currently holds 2d6 Tula captive to interrogate. He secretly harbors a deep fascination with native weapons and battle tactics, but otherwise holds little respect for locals or the land. They will offer a blunderbuss and abundant ammo to anyone who can offer a usable (or convincing enough) map to the mythic city, or a gun can be purchased for around 100 gold.

Besides the soldiers there are a group of merchants led by Sacruul, who do not support Falarth, but hope to profit from the natives being driven away. They plan to build farms in the nearby lands for valuable crops, namely an Ortish drug called blueheart. It is a cactus with heart shaped leaves and a mild numbing toxin which is highly addictive and turns the skin blue. Usually the leaves are cut in half and placed on the upper arm, near the shoulder. Sacruul will usually offer a leaf to newcomers who seem like they could make for reliable customers, but is highly allergic themselves.

Visitors are most welcome at the Red Sails inn, run by a former priest named Millimen. The priests generally have a good grasp of the common languages, unlike the rest of the colonists, but desire to bring converts back to Roaz, the Temple City. Millimen is also a skilled tooth-sharpener.

Encounters

1. A lone Ortish thief tries to knock down the strongest-looking member of the party, then grab something valuable and run off.
2. Guards demand the party's purposes in town. Their grasp of common is sorely lacking, but they are well armed.
3. A foreign priest demands the group 'purify' themselves through either humiliating rituals, hefty donations, or flagellation.
4. Blueheart addicts offer to sell some of the foreign drug for a high price.
5. A richly dressed, noble-looking Ort presents the party with a sealed package and tries to hire them to deliver it somewhere, but is impossible to understand without speaking fluent Ortish.
6. Some soldiers drag a young villager from the local area through the streets. The captive is shouting for help, but none of the Orts respond more than to glance at the noise.

Some monsters

Skullhound

HD: 3

Found in/number: dark parts of cities, violent roadways, 1d3

Appearance: as a hairless wolf (or other beast) with dark, translucent flesh and bones sharply visible, almost as if glowing. Similarly, a set of human bones rests in the stomach.

Voice: growling that sounds incongruently human.

Wants: vengeance. To hurt, kill, and die.

Morality: violent

Tactics: aggressive

Defense: 2

Speed: +3

Morale: 8

Attacks

1. bite or latch: light damage, +2 against prone targets.
2. flare of spite: medium damage to anyone looking directly at it.

Created when a wolf or other beast eats a person who was consumed with hatred and a desire for revenge. The hound's hair will fall out as its body turns darker and more clear, becoming an undead monster when it vomits its own soul to make room for the hatred.

Ashhand

HD: 5

Found in: the darkest unholy pits.

Appearance: a black hand reaching up from the ground, larger than a person and shedding black dust. Pulls itself ten meters out of the ground to the elbow at half vigor, and then 20 meters to the shoulder at 5 vigor

Voice: dusty cracking and grinding, muted immense roaring from below your feet.

Wants: to grab the holy, slaughter mortals

Morality: blasphemous

Tactics: varied but blind

Defense: 4

Speed: +2 (immobile)

Morale: 6

Attacks

1. slam: heavy damage.
2. grab: agility save to avoid. Next round, hard strength save to escape or take 2d6 damage. If it grabs a holy person, it will instead pull them down into the earth and not return.

Nobody knows what the full form of these demons might look like, but even as they are an encounter is always wildly dangerous. It is very flammable but immune to the flames, igniting it will add 1d6 fire damage to each of its attacks.

Curses as classes

These cannot be unlocked for new characters, and gain no proficiencies, skills, or starting items. Curses can deepen similar to gaining class levels, and replace class levels if they would otherwise exceed the limit of four. They can also be cured by fighting and evading the curse. There's no fourth level so that players can still have classes, but if you want to allow players to become outright monsters, feel free to add that.

Vampire

• Stat bonus: +1 will, -1 strength per level
• Deepen: drinking the blood of a living person you haven't already fed on counts as 10 exp.
• Cure: go 10 intervals without feeding.
• Signs: fangs, pallid skin, unnatural eyes.

Level 1: burning, bloodthirst

Level 2: drowning, regeneration

Level 3: ageless, hypnotism

• Burning: sunlight will burn your flesh. In direct sunlight, you take 2d6 damage per round. In open air during daylight, you take 1 damage per round even in shade.
• Bloodthirst: you must drink blood instead of eating food, regaining 1d6 vigor each time. Whenever you see a suitable victim and have not fed within one day (at level 1)/month (at level 2)/year (at level 3), you must make a will save to avoid attacking them immediately to feed on them. This save is made at a cumulative -1 penalty each interval since you last fed, as well as a -4 if they are bleeding.
• Drowning: if you enter or knowingly pass over running water, you must make a vigor save each round or lose consciousness.
• Regeneration: whenever you take a wound, you can turn into mist and return to your coffin or other place of rest, as long as the way is not blocked by airtight barriers. Each hour of rest restores one wound. Only sunlight or a stake through the heart can truly kill you, any other death will simply turn you into mist and return to your coffin, where your body will lie inert for one day before recovering.
• Ageless: you can live forever, with no need to sleep, breathe, or even feed, though you must still make saves to keep yourself from attacking mortals.
• Hypnotism: by staring into the eyes of any mortal creature for ten seconds, you can force them to obey a single word command, along with pointing to direct them. You are completely vulnerable to attacks while doing this.

Leprocist

• Stat bonus: +1 strength, -1 will per level
• Deepen: attaching the limb of a creature you killed grants 10 exp.
• Cure: let one body part per leprocist level fall off, and be taken care of for one month. This will not regrow the limbs lost.
• Signs: decayed skin, mismatched body parts, seams between parts.

Level 1: falling apart, metabolize

Level 2: preservative

Level 3: beyond natural, chaotic anatomy

• Falling apart: your face, arms, and legs will slowly decay and fall off over the course of a month, but you can replace them. Losing an arm decreases your strength by one, and losing a leg decreases your agility by one. Each limb you take from a creature increases or decreases your strength and agility if the creature was stronger than you or more agile, respectively. Once all of your limbs fall off, your head and torso will begin to take 2d6 damage per day unless fed and cleaned carefully.
• Metabolize: expend a body part, pushing it past its limits and ripping it apart to add 1d6 to any roll.
• Preservative: choose one of your body parts to remain intact as long as you have other limbs, similar to your head and torso.
• Beyond natural: attach additional body parts, including extra heads, up to a total of half your maximum vigor (or 6, whichever is higher).
• Chaotic anatomy: if each of your body parts is from a different type of creature, they will decay after a year rather than a month.

Midas' Flesh

• Stat bonus: +1 strength, -1 agility per level
• Deepen: hoard ten times the normal amount of gold instead of spending it. Stolen or lost money is not deducted, but spent or used money is.
• Cure: go one month per level without holding any money, except to give away for nothing in return.
• Signs: golden eyes, golden flesh.

Level 1: personal value, fool's touch

Level 2: weight of riches, gold to anything

Level 3: liquid assets, pure profit

• Personal value: stop rolling for vigor. Insted, each level of curse roll 1d20 for gold vigor as your body transforms. Each point of gold vigor is worth 10gp if ripped off of you, and if gold is taken from your body it takes a week to recover. You must consume a gold coin for each point of wear you wish to recover, instead of eating and resting normally.
• Fool's touch: touch an enemy to encase them in pyrite, immobilizing them for 1d6 rounds. Doing this causes you to take 1d6 damage if you've used it before on that day.
• Weight of riches: your golden body is immensely heavy. Anything weaker than stone will collapse underneath you, you will sink like a rock in any liquid, and it takes at least three people to carry you.
• Gold to anything: you can change your gold into any mundane metal or stone, though its shape remains the same. It takes about 20gp for each inventory slot of materials.
• Liquid assets: shoot molten gold from your hand at anyone within ten meters. Deals damage based on how much gold you expend; 1 damage for less than 10gp, 1d6 for 10gp, 2d6 for 100gp, 3d6 for 1000gp, and so on.
• Pure profit: your body is entirely gold, remove all non-gold vigor, and if you run out you will die and your body will crumble into 2d20 gold coins.

Lycanthrope

• Stat bonus: +1 agility, -1 will per level
• Deepen: each person your beast form kills grants 10 exp.
• Cure: spending a full moon completely restrained and imprisoned counters10 exp.
• Signs: wild hair and nail growth, hunger for raw meat.

Level 1: full moon, unnatural

Level 2: wilderness within, man or beast

• Full moon: on any night when the moon is full, you will transform into a powerful beast that goes on a violent rampage, targeting the things you care most about.
• Unnatural: mundane weapons and attacks cannot kill you, except silver.
• Wilderness within: you can make a will save to transform regardless of the time. During this time, whenever your beast form kills and eats a creature, you can choose to revert. Gain a cumulative +1 to this save for each night since you last transformed.
• Man or beast: when you are in beast form, you can make a will save to take control for 1d6 minutes. If people you care about are trying to help, gain +4 to this save.

Wendigo

• Stat bonus: +1 strength, -1 will per level
• Deepen: eating a frozen corpse of the same species grants 20 exp.
• Cure: each night spent without food and out of the cold counters 20 exp
• Signs: white skin, antlers, claws, unnatural eyes.

Level 1: flesh hunger, frigid phantom

Level 2: starvation, hunt

• Flesh hunger: whenever you eat a frozen corpse of your species, you regain all vigor and recover one wound.
• Frozen phantom: gain +4 to stealth when moving through snowy or frozen environments, gain immunity to cold weather and resistance to cold damage. Take double damage from fire, and you must make a will save to approach any fire larger than a candle.
• Starvation: eat a frozen corpse at least once a week or die.
• Hunt: you can see in the dark and perfectly mimic any voice you've heard.

Everyone else participating in this project. If you found your way here you should definitely check them out: Oblidisideryptch: https://oblidisideryptch.blogspot.com/ Archon’s Court: https://archons-court.blogspot.com/2019/08/glog-class-nanoweapon-poisoned.html Walfalcon: https://sameissharkinjapanese.blogspot.com/2019/08/glog-class-so-im-participating-in.html Ancalagon: https://slugsandsilver.blogspot.com/2019/07/curse-as-class-contest-ogre.html Lexi: https://crateredland.blogspot.com/2019/08/holding-out-for-hero.html Belac93: http://anxiousmimic.blogspot.com/2019/08/glog-class-oath-cursed-and-oath-rot.html Iemcd: https://benignbrownbeast.blogspot.com/2019/08/restless-dreamer.html Zoeology: https://princesses-and-pioneers.tumblr.com/post/186756775968/mirror-struck

Valker: https://parasitesandparadoxes.blogspot.com/2019/08/glog-class-doppelganger.html B44l: https://bugbearslug.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-abattoir-god.html