I've been considering this for a little while.
My Perlivash is going to consider himself a bit of a little fairy 'knight'. I noticed that while he normally flees in combat, he's willing to fight to the death to save Tyg, and I daydreamed a bit of a sense of valor for the critter from there. Tells the truth, tends to puff himself and be brave to comical proportions, and is saccharine sweet to 'ladies'. Yet he's too energetic and easily-distracted to commit to an actual noble quest, so it comes off more as a bit of a childish bravado.
And so, one of my random encounters will be with another Faerie Dragon, possibly his brother, who I am code-naming Black Tom for now. Black Tom has stockpiled the skulls and bones of dozens of creatures killed by hunters, and has them sitting on either side of a road in the Greenbelt. When travelers come by, he invisibly flies about above them, declaring himself to be "Black Tom, the scourge of the Greenbelt, the vengeful spirit and bringer of horrific curses." He rattles off a well-exaggerated list of misdeeds he's performed (quite likely listing some that are laughably fake), then demands tribute from the passers-by lest they invoke a similar wrath.
In reality, just as Perlivash sees himself as the shining knight, so too does Black Tom see himself as the lowly scoundrel. Willing to lie, but rarely on anything worth lying about. Happy to boast about his own wickedness, but without the actual malice to deal legitimate harm to people -- he may 'rough them up' for his tribute, but is not actually willing to kill for it, and prefers instead to perform acts that look a lot worse than they really are. Even if caught, Black Tom seems as intent to play the part of a nefarious villain complete with syrupy cliches than to drop the act -- until he begins getting bored, at which point he becomes increasingly pitiful and childlike.
I think you should tailor things specifically to your players.
For example, in my campaign one of the PCs (now deceased) was formerly involved with a revolutionary cell in Brevoy, but used his noble connections to avoid prosecution when the cell was caught, tried as terrorists, and hung to a man. And one day as he's exploring the Stolen Lands, out comes an Inquisitor of Abadar looking to hunt the man down for the good of the Issian nobility and justice, so they had to find a way to deal with him. (I was also about to implement a second side quest for him where some survivors of his cell appear and start to make a nuisance of themselves in their new fledgling kingdom, but the character was killed by the Lonely Warrior.)
Another character had written a love interest into his backstory, so I featured her pretty extensively. (She ran away from her overbearing father to join the PC at Oleg's, then was kidnapped - sort of - by her father's captain of the guard as the PCs were busy dealing with the Stag Lord, and the PCs had to return to Restov to rescue her, only it ended up being a duel of honor between the PC and the bad guy... long story short, the PC got married in the end.)
Another of my PCs (the Baron, now Duke) is a forlorn elf whose family has been on a quest to find more of the elf gates, so I added a broken elf-gate to the Forgotten Keep, and now he and his father are trying to study it to put it back together.
Take an element of the PCs background and start shaking things around. You'll come up with something.
Two
There are encounters for both 'kobolds' and 'mites', but we see little conflict between the two of them besides the dead bodies around the sycamore tree. I suggest we remedy this.
The possibility exists that the PCs can wander into a battle between the mites and the kobolds. Considering the fact that they fight each other as much as they fight the PCs, perhaps both sides should be boosted in number to account for a three-way fight so the PCs are sufficiently harrassed.
Normally, you would see 1d8 of either creature, so the PCs could expect to fight about 4 of them on average. Since the forces will likely be split, I'd recommend that this particular encounter feature 1d8 of both forces. If the average were rolled (4), then there would be four Kobolds and four Mites; then if they split their attackers evenly, you have two kobolds fighting two mites, while two kobolds and two mites menace the player characters.
Escalation:
The war between the kobolds and the mites has gotten particularly bloody. The kobolds have dug a small fort near a patch of wild fruit that they enjoy, and the mites are leading an assault against it.
The kobolds' encampment is on top of a hill at the forest edge, and kobolds are planted in tree boughs, capable of firing on anything trying to (slowly) run up the hill. In addition, they have created pit traps on the inside of their defensive berm so anything that breaches may still be felled before engaging their bowmen.
On the other hand, the mites have constructed a crude catapult and are capable of (slowly) loading it with themselves and launching their way up the hill. Such mites are 'heavily armored' with pillows, and wear stolen iron cookpots for helmets. Their device is theoretically dangerous to them, but their innate DR is capable of soaking much of the falling damage.
Three
The PCs, while wandering, come across a hunter with a kobold on a leash. The kobold has his nose to the ground and is crawling on all fours sniffing intensely. The hunter is laden with bulky bags.
If the pair is questioned, the hunter explains that he was a farmer, but that the kobolds had raided all his crops, leaving him with nothing. He was able to catch one of them, but since the kobold didn't have enough money to make back what he lost, he's been using the kobold's ability to track down moon radishes for food and, more importantly, to sell (not unlike truffle-hunting pigs).
Brief inquiry shows that the kobold is apologetic but nervous, and afraid to give too many details. If the PCs find a way to get him to talk, they might find that the man has been using the kobold in this way for over a year, and has since made back the money he lost from farming several times over.
While traveling, around the time that the PCs are likely to break for a meal or rest, they come across a cozy cottage with a lush irrigated farm adjacent to a nearby branch of the river.
If the PCs knock at the door, there is no answer from within. There may be an unpleasant smell coming from inside.
Alternately, if the PCs walk along the farm's edge near the river, they may find an injured child unable to move and crying for help. Even if the child can be calmed, he is unable to describe quite what it was that attacked his family.
There is a small partially-flooded earthen tunnel dug out beneath the farm house, connected to a hidden entrance on the river. The child is in front of the riverside entrance, being lazily watched by one of the Tatzlwyrms that put him there. The other entrance is through the collapsed floor of the kitchen, where the parents fell through and were later eaten.
The actual encounter can be handled in more than one way. If the PCs approach from the riverside, the Tatzlwyrms will likely pounce, their cruel lure a success. If they are approached from behind, the PCs may get the drop on them -- however, if the PCs are not careful as they trudge through the water, the alerted wyrms will likely flee the riverside cave and maneuver through the dense farm above, looking for a new ambush point. In this event, the child will be able to point toward the thick crops and tell the players where the bad-things went.
I rather like this idea. It has an element of suspenseful horror to it.
Two words for your troublemaker.
Prank war.
I'm thinking I'm going to have to read ahead into Rivers Run Red to think of something for the Troll encounter. It clearly ties well into Hargulka's whole thing, but I haven't gotten out of the first book yet.
Trying to decide how this should work.
An Issian aristocrat traveling with well-armed men; possibly escorting merchants, possibly doing something else.
They very well take the PCs to be brigands if they aren't flying goodly colors, and if they are flying goodly colors, demand they help escort the caravan because they've "been warned of many bandits in this area, in particular."
The most interesting complication to this situation is the reason it might not make a very good encounter. The PCs may very well show the aristocrat that they have a charter from Restov, and are already acting under high authority and have no time for his snooty demands. The trouble with this is -- the Issian aristocracy learning about Rostland's power-play that early could alter the course of the campaign quite a bit.
Of course, the PCs might just fight them, which has interesting consequences, or agree to escort the noble and his entourage, or some other option.
Oooh, I just remembered one! A possible encounter in a River hex.
As the PCs are crossing a river, a randomly selected player is bitten, and they find a hole gouged in one of their packs with a shiny valuable missing.
Swimming full-tilt down the river is a Greenbelt Mugger, a local monitor lizard that (I refluff so that it) is obsessed with collecting shiny things, and is notorious for biting people -- whether it does this to distract them while it flees, or if it just frequently misses, is unknown.
If the PCs can keep pace with the lizard they'll find its den nearby with their valuable, and likely with several other shiny bits (some worthless, some not).
I just had a fun encounter with the trapper Orlivanch. After coming across the traps (getting a horse tagged by one, finding a body in another), they came to Orlivanch's cabin and demanded to speak to him. He responded by showing that he's actually a Gunslinger and opening fire on them, using traps to slow their approach on his cabin. I pictured him as one of the militia types who is violently protective of his land.
Of course, they found his secret cellar with a few stuffed bodies. Seems he enjoyed stuffing and mounting the corpses of people who occasionally stumbled into his traps.
I just had a fun encounter with the trapper Orlivanch. After coming across the traps (getting a horse tagged by one, finding a body in another), they came to Orlivanch's cabin and demanded to speak to him. He responded by showing that he's actually a Gunslinger and opening fire on them, using traps to slow their approach on his cabin. I pictured him as one of the militia types who is violently protective of his land.
Of course, they found his secret cellar with a few stuffed bodies. Seems he enjoyed stuffing and mounting the corpses of people who occasionally stumbled into his traps.
That's a cool idea! I hadn't thought of the PCs encountering him alive.
I might take a look at the APG and see if I maybe couldn't rig him up as a Rogue. I seem to recall an ability to throw down more complex traps on the fly, perhaps.
In Rivers Run Red there is an encounter designed for when you roll Kingdom Events dealing with a Cult of Gyronna.
I altered that encounter in my regular game as well. The General's wife (and Grand Diplomat) got pregnant halfway through Rivers Run Red, so they hired the only midwife in town - "Goody" Niska. As the PCs never did any background check or really even attempt to make sure that nothing was going wrong, Niska set up a distraction on the night of the childbirth to replace the baby with a tiefling-born child (born from the unholy congress of one of her priestesses with a demon) and did a baby swap on the night thereof.
Well, we've gone through most of Stolen Lands, and the PCs are approaching the final location.
But that left me wondering, how can we still have Kobold encounters if the PCs have made peace with them?
And so, I have decided that Tartuk loyalists have broken off from the Sootscales and formed a splinter group, the Sharptooth Kobolds. For now they're roving around the Greenbelt (indistinguishable from Sootscales, but wickeder in demeanor) causing trouble and looking for a new hive.
This actually jives pretty well from the printed text, because I see now that kobolds are to blame for an event happening early in Rivers Run Red, and it would be just a little difficult to justify the reforming kobolds doing that (they're going to get into different brands of trouble).
Late-game, I'm planning on the Sharptooth Kobolds actually attracting the attentions of a Horned Demon, feeding their worship to the actual creature and obeying its commands. I expect this should be a pretty magnificent setup.
But that left me wondering, how can we still have Kobold encounters if the PCs have made peace with them?
Other options:
1. Not all the kobolds in the Stolen Lands need be part of the Sootscales; they can be passing through and unaffiliated with the Sootscales.2. They're kobold bandits.
3. Non-combat encounters. Perhaps the party comes across kobolds out on patrol to help keep the Sootscales' enclave safe from monsters?
In my setting the Sootscales were a splinter group of slaves from the racist Ivoryscale Kobold empire (in Meager Varn's territory). So, the kobolds in the moon radish patch were Ivoryscales.
Right now the party is trying to sort out the bad history between the groups.
Here is a thread with a lot of encounter ideas:
LINK
Since there only seem to be about 20 kobolds left among the Sootscales, I plan on have more kobolds arrive in the region...kobolds who will eventually learn of the Sootscale's sweet deal with the PCs and want to muscle in (likely led by someone a bit larger and tougher).
Since the overarcing plot involves evil fey, I plan on interconnecting the various evil fey with each other and with other Nyrissa-inspired villains. To start with, I've decided that since the party essentially wiped out the Mite tribe, Nyrissa will prod the remaining ones to approach the Stag Lord and become spies for him. They are going to start following the PCs and watch for weaknesses. (I expect the Mites will be caught, but it's worth the attempt).
I'm also integrating Realm of the Fellnight Queen, so the players have already met the reclusive alchemist/beekeeper gnome who is desperately searching for a way to stave off the Bleaching, and the early fey encounters in RRR (such as Melianse) have been merged with Fellknight Queen fey.
I expect the group will get invited to a wedding in the newly minted town of Tatzylford when they are the right level. If I get *very* lucky, I can graft Fellnight Queen right into a PC wedding instead :)
Other than that, I've more or less pre-rolled a large number of the random encounters beforehand, so I have some flexibility to reschedule them for better effect. For instance, one of the encounters in Hills was 2 Trolls, so I put a mated pair inside the gold mine, turning an otherwise standard 'Hidden Resource' hex into an interesting fight. (and it was easy to justify chunks of gold ripped out of the walls as treasure).
Another suggestion is to create a series of NPC Hunters and Trappers (Just name and a one-liner for personality). Hunters are one of the available random encounters, and it's more interesting if the PCs meet someone out in the wilderness that they either have seen before at Oleg's...or that they see later at Oleg's...it adds continuity.
The players seem to enjoy rolling the encounters themselves, so I merely pre-plan some of the random encounters.
When the players encountered the Owlbear, I had it catching and gobbling fish. They were about to pull away when the owlbear caught a Nixie, which led to a nice little meeting.
They encountered all three of the worst encounters last session as well, at level two. The Troll they ran from; the Shambling Mound tore their horse apart and happily lumbered off with the pieces; the Will-o-Wisp they were able to see and identify before it saw them, and they skulked off.
Since that happened in the same hex as the Barbarian Cairn, I decided to have his grave etched with will-o-wisp images, and to have his skull shattered and burnt; the will-o-wisp, I think I'll keep as an installation to the hex until the PCs do something about it -- it's "haunting the cairn," including frightening off any Tiger Lords that wish to visit it (which they are likely to do, given Drelev's penchant for Tiger Lord tombs). The PCs have already taken the ring which will be bad if discovered, but could also choose to fight off the cairn's wisp. An interesting complication.
For the Faerie Dragon random encounter, I used Black Tom above, and it was the best encounter of the session. They badgered the 'bandit lord ghost' until it got pitifully tired of the game, threw their coppers back at them and told them to go away, at which point they just died laughing. It's a shame, because I can't help but feel it's going to completely overshadow their meeting with Perlivash and Tyg.
Doing hunters and trappers beforehand will be important, I should think, since I'm going to have to make a slew (at least names and basic personalities) for shopkeepers, loggers, smiths and inn-keepers and it would be nice if not all the PCs' residents were completely new faces from Brevoy. It makes a lot of sense that some of their citizens will be ex-hunters and reformed bandits, clinging to the new opportunities available to them.
The way I see it, about 15 hunters frequent Oleg's in the spring/summer/fall. Most will go into a town and hole up for winter. You then have the various traders passing through, about 1 a week I feel is appropriate. There is a decent chance any day that there is 1-2 hunters and/or a tradder at Oleg's. Giving them a name helps build it up so it doesn't seem like Oleg's has no purpose out here.
One of my most important random encounters so far ended up being a werewolf. I rolled it up durring the day, and the players met and had lunch with a hunter on his way back to Oleg's. 3 sessions later, I revealed that he was more than he seemed (as a hook to delay them from going after the stag lord and investigate the unicorn, which I modified, since a player was missing). Now, he is one of their trusted town leaders, and makes a great Warden.
Okay, anybody from my group .... GET LOST!
PCs will encounter several trappers who swear they've seen a golden bull with horns of silver at a distance in certain hexes. When the PCs chase it down, they'll find the bull is actually a cow that has been repeatedly used by a rather demented Pixie as a laugh. Unfortunately, the Pixie has found her spellcasting has awoken the Bull to actual sentience and now the PCs have to deal with a 'Cows with Gun' style adventure as the Bull and his unwitting Pixie Cohort try to rally the local livestock against their Human oppressors. Standard Pixie and an Awakened Auroch for a nice, "Wait, what?" side-quest.
A colony of Pseudodragons have taken up residence around a certain hex, where their collective hatching grounds are located. One enterprising trapper thought he'd make a fortune collecting 'mid-git draguns' and instead has wound up trapped in the nesting grounds by enraged Pseudodragons and has managed to send his hunting dog back to the trading outpost with a message for help. PCs can either placate the miniature Dragons (and possibly even bring them into the fledgling Kingdom), slaughter them all, or leave the Hunter to his fate, well-deserved or not.
A powerful Skeletal Champion has risen from his grave, either an adventurer or a long-dead Barbarian War-chief, and has sought out the PCs because a band of Pixies and Nigs have defiled his sombre grave. PCs have an unusual encounter with an intelligent undead that does not want to eat them/kill them/make them into undead, and the Pixies and Nigs have 'defiled' the grave by prettying it up.
Take into account that what the Fae consider 'pretty' is probably nightmarishly garish to the view of the Undead in question. Returning his grave to a natural or respectable condition could net the PCs the Skeleton's treasure, advice on the lay of the land, or even the promise that in their darkest hour, the ancient heroes of the land will rise up and answer the call.
A powerful Skeletal Champion...
I am so using that.
Here are some notes on an encounter i plan to use in the early stags of the first adventure, next time i run it.
The wreck of the goldcrest.
Oliver and Lisbet Barcley, along with their two seven year old daughters have gotten themselves into danger. Oliver and Lisbet are Riverfolk, and skilled former adventurers, who fled daggermark with a price on their families heads, after their adventuring company tried to clean up daggermark.
The family lives upon a river barge called the goldcrest. They have for almost two years lived in the stolen lands, mostly on the tuskwater. Since the staglord took up residence they have had to move up the shrike river, to avoid his notice.
However this morning the goldcrest came a ground, on trap laid by Mites living near the bank. The family is now under attack, and have to risk the drawing the attention of the stag lord by calling for help.
The encounter begins when Oliver starts setting of rockets to draw attention, and possibly scare of the mites.
The PCs must battle a collection of mites, rescue the draught horse and move boat, before the stag lords men turn up.
Tyg and the Wyrm:
One of Tyg and Perlivash's favourate story-games is 'The Knight and the Maiden.' Perlivash plays knight, while Tyg plays maiden, getting her self into trouble, from which Perlivash must rescue her. Now normally, such trouble is minor, such as being 'stuck up a tree', or lost down a rabit hole, but this time, things have gotten very real. During one such game, Tyg managed to get herself caught by a vicious goblin-snake magician, who has collected her in a jar, stored away in its home in the routes of a dead tree. Perlivash went to rescue Tyg and was nearly killed by the goblin snake, only to be carries away by his brother Black Tom. Now he asks for the adventures aid in setting the 'princess' free.
PS. Troubleshooter, i hope you don't mind me building on your idea of black tom :D
I love it, actually. After Black Tom, my Perlivash and Tyg encounters just weren't as rich in comparison. Although I took one of the suggestions (above?) and had their final prank be Perlivash making Tyg Sleep while she tried to steal the cleric's winebottle and replace it with springwater.
So now the PCs are aware that the Narlmarches are home to Black Tom the "bandit lord", nemesis of Perlivash the "Shining Knight". Tyg has yet to acquire an official title, discarding the original "Great Singer" because it sounded dumb once the PCs said it.
So my players caught a look at some of the Kingdom Events, which was sort of my fault, and commented that they look like they would be really fun to actually roleplay through.
So among whatever random encounters I come up with, I might also be posting "Kingdom Event Encounters."
The following rules are probably shoddy. I've ... heard of firefighting concepts but never really studied them. A such, I welcome corrections and suggestions on the mechanics, although I'd like to point out that this is just one encounter (unless you choose to expand it, or complicate it for high-level play) and that the rules shouldn't end up being TOO complex -- rates of fire spread, statistics about flashpoints, and so on may be a bit too much.
The city has caught fire, and it is spreading throughout the city.
While the guardsmen and citizenry are focusing on keeping the fire from spreading from building to building, one of the buildings is already on fire and a distraught woman is wailing outside for her son [Possibly Tig Tannerson] who is caught inside. She begs the PCs to save her son. Begin tracking rounds at this point.
The building in question is two stories. Smoke and Extreme Heat should be ever-present effects unless somehow removed. Fire should always be present somewhere, although the whole structure doesn't have to be on fire. Other complications may be added as needed.
* Tig's health
Tig will remain conscious for ten rounds. Tig will remain alive for twenty rounds total. While Tig is conscious, his weak crying and general direction can be found with a DC 10 Perception check, modified for distance as normal. The roar of the surrounding fire penalizes this check by -5.
* Extreme Heat (page 444)
PCs take 1d6 points of Fire damage each minute (no save). Though the characters should not be inside for this long, they must make Fortitude saves every 5 minutes (DC 15 +1 per previous check) or take 1d4 nonlethal damage. Heavy clothing or any armor confers a -4 penalty on this save.
* Smoke (page 444)
Smoke fills the air, making it difficult to see. On the lower story smoke isn't as thick -- as per book, PCs must make Fortitude saves each round or spend the round choking and coughing, where two consecutive failed saves deal damage.
On higher stories, smoke is more dense, making vision impossible (see Navigation and Location below). The base DC to resist coughing is increased to 19.
PCs may crawl along the floor, granting them a +4 Circumstance bonus to resist choking. Their movement is quartered while doing this.
If PCs can locate windows, they can open them to let out smoke. When a PC starts its turn in front of an open window, she does not risk choking. Each time a PC stands in front of an open window, her Choke DC resets to +0.
* Navigation and Location
Creatures that cannot see due to effects such as particularly dense smoke are effectively Blinded and suffer the penalties, including making DC 10 Acrobatics checks to move more than half speed.
If Tig is conscious, PCs may find a path toward him with a successful Perception check each round. Otherwise, PCs may use Survival or Knowledge: Engineering & Architecture (DC X) to prevent themselves from getting lost in the haze. If any creature intends to move and does not succeed on at least one of these checks, it will move in a random direction until it hits another obstacle such as wall, a creature, or becomes aware of an adjacent fire.
PCs may automatically prevent being lost by keeping their hand on a wall.
A PC always becomes aware when they move within five feet of a fire, as the heat and glowing haze is enough to warn them before they step inside.
* Doors
Some doors (such as to Tig's room) in the house may be locked or may have become stuck due to partial collapses. Assume all doors to be Good Wooden Doors (DR 5, 15 HP, Break DC 18). By round ten, these doors have been warped and burned such that they are reduced to half their hit points and gain the Broken condition (Break DC -2).
* Collapsing floors, stairs
To be continued
* Healing the boy from unconsciousness
If the PCs find Tig before round 20 but he has gone unconscious, assume that he is at -1 HP. He loses a hit point each round that he is not made stable with a Heal check of the appropriate DC and his breathing becomes shallower.
Wow, that took ... a long time to write up. I'll have to come back and tinker with it, particularly since I don't have any actual distance to Tig's room worked up.
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This is the way to go TS. Good write-up - esepecially for being in the infancy stage of your creativity.
Just like this - I have taken the liberty to roll the absence/presence of events, and then on the chart to determine the outcome
Specifically for the purpose of having time to write up some of them. Some more than others. However, the bottom line is the extra prep time is so much more rewarding of an adventure and game.
The players are enjoying the campaign even more because of it. It's not just adventuring, and it's not just hand-waving events resolved w/ a single dice roll. It's made the whole kingdom more thriving and the building/mangagment of it more robust.
Also - if you have the old Shackled City adventure path - look at the attack of the umber hulk onto the city - it has some great info on staging a city-based emergency. Also the scenario when the city is falling apart and the volcano erupting. Some great mechanics to adopt and build on.
Add to the fire - some woman on a balcony holding a child. She wants to drop the baby down to the PCs......always good for a held breath or two type moment.
Robert
*spoiler*
After the party dealt with the mites vs kobol issue and the party was in kingdom building mode, I had a "Cave-in" situation. THe mites or our friendly aligator-like creatures caves trap the king. Basically, I made it a Kingdom event of sorts, it would cost them BP and a month to help out....
So I think you can take any of the hex adventures and expand or re-write...just have fun with it!....