Category Archives: Encounters

Encounters, Home Brew Hacks

Random Encounters More Than Monsters

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I was thinking the other day that we get lazy as GM’s some times. If you look at the random encounter tables in most books, it’s generally monsters. So why not throw a little twist in there. Other types of encounters or just other things to keep the players on their toes. With this little exercise, I’m assuming some sort of dungeon or hex crawl of your pretty much standard variety. Let’s roll.

1. Just roll on the standard table. Nothing special.
2. Random character gets the feeling that some one or some thing is watching. 2 in 6 chance that they are right. Roll an encounter.
3. Random character is sure that they heard something. 2 in 6 chance that they did.
4. Random character saw some thing move “over there”. 2 in 6 chance they really did.
5. Dead monsters. Uh oh. Was it another party of adventurers? Or an even bigger monster?
6. Escapee from a bad place nearby.
7. Clue to something interesting nearby.
8. Survivor of another adventuring party that wasn’t so lucky.

Yeah, I know it’s short and simple. But that’s all you need sometimes to freak out the PC’s and get some interesting things happening during a session.

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Adventures in Gaming, Encounters, Home Brew Hacks, Loot, Micro-Dungeons, Monsters

The Lair of Lennok The Wanderer Part II

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This last week the party of adventurers finished up The Lair of Lennok. Here’s what went down.
The Alchemy Lab: No monsters here but the PC’s got to play around with some potions. For loot, there was 500 GP worth of alchemical materials (See Make Potion in your DCC rule book) plus a spell book containing Make Potion. Additionally, there was a”portable” alchemy lab. By portable, I mean a large trunk that required two character to carry. Additionally, there were some curve ball potions that they messed with. Here are the fun ones:
The Little Blue Potion: Yep basically Viagra.
One Shot: One shot and you’re drunk.
Up All Night: The character stays awake and alert all night but gains no benefit from “rest”.
Sort of Invisibility: Drink it and you’re invisible but you’re also blind at the same time.
Stunt Flying: Like a potion a Flying but the drinker flies in a random direction each round.
Invisible Potion: What is says. The potion is invisible. That’s it.
Meteor Shit: Ever see Creep Show? Yep. Make DC: 14 Fort Save on a fail make DC:12 Fort Save each day or lose a point of Stamina and Agility.
Corruption: Make a Stamina Check: On a 20+ gain Minor Corruption. 11 to 19: Major Corruption. 10 or less: Greater Corruption.
Chaos Blender: Make a Fort Save until successful. The DC’s in order: 16/14/12/10/8/6. For each failure re-roll a random ability score and take the new number.
I also threw in some common things just to see what the PC’s would do. They included water, oil, vinegar, soy sauce, soap, and pee.

The Summoning Chamber: A large room with a summoning circle in the middle, a book stand with a large magical tome, and a woman chained to the opposite wall.
The Tome: Contains Demon Summoning spell.
The Circle: Contains the Chitinous Toad Demon with a Snake Tongue. The toad demon is invisible and any character breaking the circle causes it to appear and attack.
The Toad Demon: Init +0; ATK: +6; Damage: Snake Tongue (Reach 10′) 1d3+make DC: 10 Fort Save or be paralyzed for 1d4 rounds. Bite: 1d6; AC: 12; HP: 36; Saves: +3 for all; Move: 35; Special: Invisible, Snake Tongue, Swallow Whole on a crit, Demon Traits.
The Woman: She’s really a succubus. She’ll maintain her disguise and play a victim to get the PC’s sympathies. She’ll maintain this disguise until the PC’s don’t fall for it or she comes face to face with Lennok. Then her rage and hatred of the mortal wizard who bound her causes her disguise to drop. She cannot attack Lennok directly as a side effect of her summoning/binding but she can help or encourage the characters in other ways.
Lizza the Succubus: Init: +3, Atk: +5 Damage: by weapon or Claws -: 1d6+1; AC: 14, HP: 28, Saves: All at +4; Move 30/40 (flying); Special: Disguise Self, Charm, Demon Traits.

The Inner Sanctum:
Lennok’s Chamber: Richly furnished apartment. No monsters here but loot. Some spell scrolls (which were randomly generated thanks to the Purple Sorcerer site), miscellaneous swag worth 750 GP, and some really good food and wine.
Lennok’s Wizardly Chamber: And here’s the Boss Fight. We have the girl who was the subject of the quest tied to an operating table. I just generated a 0-Level character which I at the end of the fight I handed the questing player. “Here you go. You found the girl. You just need to keep her alive.”
Lennok: Once again thanks to Purple Sorcerer. Just generated a 6th Level Magic-User.
The Demon Golem Guardian: A Stitched together flesh golem with many demon parts. Init: +0; ATK: +7; Damage: 2d5; AC: 13; HP: 48; Saves: Fort: +6′ Ref: +0, Will: +2;Move: 30; Special: Demon Traits, Golem Traits.
Loot from the fight: Lennok’s spell book.
Also in the room is a magical portal. Press various crystals round its edge and portal opens to somewhere. As soon as Lennok dies, Lizza the Succubus goes to the portal, activates, and goes through. If the PC’s don’t pause to think, “What would be the first place a freed demon would go?” and follow her through the portal. Then congrats. The party just walked into Hell. Nope, my players didn’t fall for that one. The portal now becomes pretty much a plot device. Let the PC’s play with and make some sort decision to go thru and leads to the next adventure/dungeon. Remember, they have a 0-Level kid they have to keep alive.
As a final rant about this adventure, the final fight was more dramatic and exciting both for me and the players than I thought it would be. Between Choking Cloud and Ray of Enfeeblement, Lennok managed to take out everyone in the party except for the Elf and the Thief. The Thief used the Choking Cloud as cover, downed a potion of Invisibility and moved into position for a Sneak Attack. The Elf charged Lennok and used the nasty power of the magic sword they had found previously. As a refresher, the wielder may turn a normal hit into a critical hit but it costs one point of Personality and 1d3 HP (both permanent losses). This simulates the sword consuming the soul and life force of the wielder. The one-two punch of those two characters took out the Wizard quickly. There were many cheers around the table.

Next up. I need to write up some notes for their next adventure.

Adventures in Gaming, Encounters, Loot, Micro-Dungeons, Monsters

The Lair of Lennok the Wanderer Part I

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So I’m running my Dungeon Crawl Classics thru a little home brew dungeon. I figured the fun way to post about is in a simple serialized form. So as the party gets thru various parts, I’ll rant about it. It’s part session summary, part adventure write up. And sure I’m running with DCC but I know you’re smart and easily changed it over to whatever system happens to be your flavor of the day. And when this is all done, I’ll scan the map including my hand scribbled notes.
The Quest/Hook: One of the PC’s decided they wanted to get Patron Bond for a specific patron (Hecate from Angels, Demons & Beings in Between) Well. Sounds like a quest to me. The character goes on a week long vision quest and learns that they need to go to The Big City and find the person to teach the character the spell (which they do). The NPC agrees but there’s a catch. A child with the gift of Second Sight was born in remote village and someone has kidnapped the child. The party’s quest. Find the child and return her to the mentor (not the child’s parents). They agree and it’s off to the village and a little detective work. They finally track down where they need to go. A mysterious ring of stones deep in the swamp.
Getting into the Damned Place: Never said this was going to be easy. The only things within the ring of stones are two statues which animate into living beings as soon as the characters enter the ring. One is a dark robed figure. And the other a lithe elfin maid. The robed figure is the Guardian of Fate. The maid, the Guardian of Free Will. This turns in a roleplaying puzzle.
First, the guardians do not acknowledge the other’s existence. Such as Free Will saying, “Fate doesn’t exist.” Or Fate saying, “Free Will is an illusion.” Let the banter begin. Finally, the player characters will ask a question that will put them on the path to the solution. More than likely, “How do we find the girl?” or “How do we get into the dungeon?” or something like that. Free Will will answer with something like “You have to choose to find the gir.” Fate would say, “You have to accept your Fate.” Get it? To open the portal to the dungeon, each character must choose Fate or Free Will. For DCC here’s the side effects for making the choice. For Fate, the character’s Luck is increased by one and one random ability score is reduced by one. For Free Will, the character permanently loses one point of Luck but gains a point in any other ability score of their choosing.
Into the Hallway of Death: For most old school players, this shouldn’t be too much. But some of my players aren’t used to it so things got pretty tough for them.
Trap 1: Your standard pressure plate triggered flame jets. (DC: 12 REF Save or take 1d6 and be on fire!)
Trap 2: Pit Trap with illusionary floor: This was immediately after the Flame Jets. (Falling in causes 1d6 spikes to pierce that character each doing 1d4 damage) Plus any fools who are fire who happen to run forward….
Trap 3: At the end of the hall, standard poisoned arrow trap. (+3 To hit, Damage: 1d6+ DC: 10 Fort Save or be at -1 to all rolls for 2d6 hours.
The First Room: Or I should say guard room. Guardian Golem: Init: +1; Attack: +3 for d8 Damage; AC: 15; HP: 24; +2 All Saves; Special: Immune to Charm, 1/2 damage from non-magical attacks. Laser Idols (guarding the only other exit): +0 To Hit and does 2d3 damage when any one approaches within 5 feet of them. The only way to disarm them, it take out their ruby eyes (each worth 50 GP).
The Necromancy Lab: Wander further into the dungeon and they what is obviously a Necromancy Lab. Important Safety Tip: When you find three sealed coffins. Open no more than one at a time. Opening more could cause a TPK which nearly happened.
Coffin 1: The Elf Wight: Init +2, Attack: +3 doing d8+1 Damage; AC: 15; HP 18; Saves: R +4, F+3, W +4; Special: Undead Traits. Loot: Shield, Suit of Elvin Chainmail, The Necro Blade: When the wielder kills a living being with the sword roll 2d6 and heal that much unless doubles are rolled then the aforementioned living being is turned into zombie (not under anybody’s control). When the wielder successfully attacks an opponent, he may opt to turn a normal hit into a Critical Hit. The only cost is to permanently lose 1d3 HP and one point of Personality as the sword consumes the life force and soul of the wielder.
Coffin 2: Banshee: Init +3, Atk: +2 1d3 Stamina Drain; AC: 12, HP: 14, Saves: W +6, F +3, R +4, Special: Fly at 40′, Undead Traits, Cause Fear: DC: 12 Will Save or flee in terror for 1d6 rounds and make another DC: 10 Will save to keep from dropping whatever the character has in hand. On a roll of a Natural 1 on the first save make a DC: 10 Fort Save or die from fear. If successful then character still has some sort physical effect. Yes, this did happen and we know have an elf with white hair. Loot: Necklace (150 GP), Cursed Ring (I haven’t quite decided on the curse yet..)
Coffin 3: Bag of Skulls: 12 Skulls each with the following stats: Init: +2, Attack: +1 for 1d3 damage, AC 11, HP: 3, Saves: R +2, F +1, W +1; Special: Undead Traits, Fly at 30′. Sorry no loot here unless you count a large sack.
Note: The PC’s opened coffins 1 and 2 at the same time after having an easy time dealing with the Bag of Skulls.
And that’s as far as they got.
Till Next Time. Kill Monsters, Take their stuff, and HAVE FUN!

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Taking Up My Own Take 20 Challenge

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Yes, I meant to do this sooner but things just went crazy as they always do. So here’s the re-cap of the The Take 20 Challenge. Pick twenty monsters and build your little sandbox built around that. So here’s my take 20.
1-Goblins: I love what Paizo did with these little guys. A horde of little psychos without any regard for their own safety make great opponents for player characters. So I’m taking it one step further. Goblins are notorious swamp dwellers.
2-Giant Spiders: Ha! Old goblins ride wolves. These guys ride giant spiders!
3-Giant Bats: There are those few brave goblins who brave the airways astride giant bats!
4-Giant Snakes: If the goblins live in the swamp. There’s plenty of other nasties the players could run into.
5-Giant Gators: Yep, another swamp nasties to munch down on the party.
6-Zombies: Spooky foggy bogs. Plus everything is better with zombies.
7-Bugbears: Some more thugs to trouble the player characters. Plus they’re sneaky.
8-Will-O-Wisps: Did I mention that swamps are spooky?
9-Wild Boars: If you live in the South you know what I mean.
10-Gargoyles: Threats from the air always make combat more interesting.
11-Harpies: Airborne and nasty with a general disregard for the well being of adventurers.
12-Dopplegangers: Shapechangers can sew chaos in party. Plus the more disreputable characters might get framed for a crime they didn’t commit.
13-Hags: More spooky denizens for our swamp.
14-Minotaurs: I don’t know but it’s always fun to throw in now and then.
15-Nagas: Half snake half human.
16-Giants: Heavy hitters to crush some skulls.
17-Ghosts: Not only are swamps spooky, they just seem to breed tragedy. Chances are there’s been more than tragic death connected to the swamp.
18-Mummies: Yes more undead. They’re vulnerable to fire but if they are damp in a swamp?
19-Golems: These are always fun. Especially, to make those high level magic users feel a little less cocky.
20-Rakshasa: See Dopplegangers. Plus they can cast some spells.
So as you can tell, this for a nasty swamp on the edge of civilization. Now there’s plenty of beasties that can be thrown in here but this a pretty good spread across levels. Enough to keep the parties busy for at least a few sessions.