1d8 horrible wilderness encounters

Things to encounter in the horrible wilderness. Inspired by Goblin Punch, who is always a source of inspiration.

1d8 wilderness encounters

1. A great wolf (4HD, L, claws: 1d6 dmg) with its lower jaw missing, slowly starving to death.

2. A great elk (6HD, H, antlers: 1d6+knockback, trample: +1d6 dmg on charge attacks, mv 8), deformed by bulbous tumours spreading across its body.

3. A sounder of great boars (3HD, L, 2 armour, tusks: 1d6 + knockback, trample: deals +1d6 dmg on charge attacks, mv 9), driven to madness by foot-long leeches gnawing through their pelts (0HD, T, maw: 1 dmg, increasing by +1 per turn).

4. The severed head of a great wolf continues to hunt, moving by force of will (3HD, claws: 1d10 + bad luck: save or all rolls HARD until curse dispelled).

5. A giant bear-like creature (6HD, H, claws: 1d8 dmg + save or 1d6 poison) with a gaping wound in its side. Powerless to stop the gathered crows from eating its exposed flesh, it still lashes out at anyone approaching. Crows (0HD/3hp, S, beaks: 1d4, flurry of feathers: actions are HARD when attacked by the crows). Stuck in the wound is a bronze bog-folk spear: 1d10, long, impaling: prevents the target from using a single ability, for as long as the spear is stuck in their flesh.

6. A decaying unicorn, its white fur falling off in tufts and blood running from its muzzle (6HD, horn: 1d10 + piercing, cursed: a character suffering damage from the unicorn horn has a randomly determined ability deteriorate by -1 each round until successful save or dead, abomination: if killed, all characters gain +1 SPI).

7. A tall woman with raven wings like a trailing cloak of black feathers where her arms should be and skin crawling with parasites. She is capable of short bursts of flight, after which she crashes to the ground in a cascade of black blood and vermin, out of breath. Lady of Decay. 4HD, L, talons: 1d8 + piercing, black vomit: targets 6 squares in straight line, save or 1d6 poison damage, demonic: 2 attacks per round, mv 9. Limited flight: can fly for a single round, then crashes to the ground dealing 1d4 damage + no armour to anyone below and an equal amount to herself, roll 1d8 for scatter to determine her point of impact. Parasites: when the Lady of Decay suffers damage, any adjacent character must evade or be attacked by 1d4 parasites (0HD, T, maw: 1 dmg, increasing by +1 per turn).

8. Lord of Hunger. An albino elk with the face of an old man (8HD, H, antlers: 1d8 + knockdown, trample: +1d6 dmg on charge attacks, breath of flies: 1d6 + save or all actions HARD, range 12/cone, mv 9). It speaks with a tortured voice, offering power in exchange for humanity. If a PC accepts, the Lord drinks a pint of their blood draining their soul of 1d10 SPI. This grants the creature the ability to cast spells and makes it immune to all attacks from the person whose blood it drank until next new moon. If the PC survives, the creature bellows with sudden rage “Now you know!” and sets off to hunt. Until the PCs reach a sanctuary, encounters chances are doubled for wandering monsters.

The Hangman Trap

The road through the waterlogged forest curves slightly, yielding to a small cliff. A solitary tree in the bend towers high above the surrounding shrubbery. Dangling from its branches is a hanged knight, the toes of his sabatons just out of reach for a person standing underneath. You enter in the low-right corner.

Target 11

X = Dead knight, hanged from a large tree. A great helm covers his face and shield and tabard is missing, preventing identification w/o first lowering the body. A golden necklace gleams from the broken neck.

- - = Pit trap, meticulously hidden, covering area under knight and 2" radius (1d6 damage, no armour).

o = Bandits. 2HD, leather armour (2) & shield (1d4 / +2 defense), axes 1d8+deadly: reroll ones, bow 1d6. No real interest in fighting, only in taking things.

:: = waterlogged shrubbery, small trees, reed. Movement halved, provides half cover (full cover if crawling)

TT = cliff, STR to climb

Timer: 1d4, reinforcement. 2 more bandits arrive from the shrubbery, responding to a secret signal.

Bandit tactics (in order of preference): 

1. Hope PCs fall into pit, demand ransom for their lives

2. Reveal themselves, demand PCs surrender and give up their equipment for safe passage

3. Fire arrows from cliff to draw PCs there, signal to reinforcement to steal anything left behind (such as pack animals), then flee with the loot

4. Fight!

Giants lived here (1d6 locations)

Here are some more locations from my campaign prep. I'm thinking I might do a post a day to commemorate the last week of Google+.

Once, Giants lived here, as evidenced by... (1d6)

1. A stone hand, the size of a full-grown man and yellow with lichens, rise out of the damp moss. A unicorn grazes in its shadow. If the unicorn is followed, the it will lead the PCs to their original destination safely and within hours. A character eating its flesh gains +1HD but loses -1 SPI.

2. A pictogram of a very large figure, possibly a queen, chiseled into the side of a flat rock. The pictogram is partly overgrown by ferns and pine-roots; if cleared, anyone touching its crown will receive a blessing (1 reroll, to be used at any point), unless sworn to the New Faith.

3. A large heap of stones, possibly a grave of old. Among the stones live a large gulon (HD 2), its diet of ancient bones and cursed gold having rendered it near deathless. If reduced to 0 HP by ordinary weapons, it returns to life in 1d6 rounds.

4. A giant skull, overgrown with moss to the point of appearing as a boulder, where 2d4 owl-gnomes live (4HD, hatchets: dmg 1d6+piercing, agile: HARD to hit, small/-1d8 but fights as medium size). Cruel and cunning, they will use trickery and guises to lure travelers into their lair to be butchered.

5. Between unnaturally square boulders lives a bramble-beast (7HD, Bark skin: as plate, Crushing blow: 1d10+knockback, Huge +2d8), almost indistinguishable from the shrubbery it lairs in. 

6. Enormous bones reach up from the mire, shaggy with lichens and blackened vines. Druids congregate here at moonlit nights, divining the past and sinking sacrifices in the dark water. On such nights (1-in-6 chance), sleep is impossible in this square; on the following three nights, double chance encounter checks must be done.

1d4 blessed ruins

1. An old church, overgrown with moss. Inside is a magnificent organ with silver pipes, tended by shy monks who sneak in at night to play it when the Giant Bat (HD4, Bite: 1d8+poison, Flight, MV9, Huge: +2d8) that resides in the ruin is out hunting. In an unmarked grave is the corpse of Caelfarn, father of old Corwyn and agent of the Occ Empire, buried with his elfin maille (armour as mail, weight as gambeson) and blessed sword (1d8, +1d4 damage against unliving).

2. A small monument stands some twenty paces into a shallow lake, lined with bones. Blackened inscriptions on the monument declare that on this site, Holy Severinus converted 101 pagans to the true Faith.

3. Remains of a beacon tower, high as a light-house but abandoned mid-construction. The tower carries the royal insignia of Occ. In a stone sarcophagus, overgrown with weed, a knight of the second conquest lies buried - blessing the construction with his death. Five winged demons (3HD, claws 1d8, sightless) live in the upper half of the tower, defiling the holy repose with their droppings.

4. The ruins of an abbey amid a lifeless field. Its insides are black from fire, its treasures reduced to molten lumps of metal and wood. Only a charred statue of the God Mother remains, twisted by the flames. Worshipped locally as the Ash Lady, anyone kneeling before her in allegiance must make an unmodified death save. If the roll is below SPI, the supplicant gains the power to conjure flames from their blood. Each character can only attempt this once in their life. A squire (2HD, leather & helm, axe 1d8+deadly, shield 1d6) sits brooding by a small fireplace; loyal to Guiselbert the Bold he came for the idol's aid in freeing his master from the Black Knight, but has yet to find the courage to endure its deadly trial.