Random not quite encounters

[hymer]

As part of putting together some random tables, I'm trying to come up with some things that can happen while travelling in the wilds. Here's what I've come up with: The area is known for its sudden weather changes, btw.

Athletics: Roll 3d6. An appropriate obstacle can be bypassed by at least one person beating that DC, or the PCs lose an hour’s march.
Agility: Roll 3d6. An appropriate obstacle can be bypassed by at least one person beating that DC, or the PCs lose an hour’s march.
Survival: The PCs are at risk of getting lost. Roll 3d6. The PCs must beat that DC or lose an hour’s march.
Weather: The PCs must either halt for an hour to shelter from inclement weather, or make DC 10 Fortitude saves to avoid a level of Exhaustion.
Wear and tear: The PC that rolls the lowest on Survival has a mishap. Roll 1d8: 1-2 Footwear, 3-4 leg coverings, 5 shirt/vest/coat, 6-7 cloak, 8 bag. If magic or tools and supplies are available, it takes at most ten minutes to fix. Otherwise, improvisation or replacement is needed. If the character doesn’t have that item on, take 1 point of damage instead.
Dead creature: Roll for a creature type, but number is one. 75% chance it’s been plundered already, otherwise roll for carried treasure as normal.
Edibles: The PCs come across mushrooms, nuts, fruits, berries, shoots, leaves, roots, or similar that are readily gathered in a few minutes and lets them save 1d4 rations today.
Beauty: A great view, a meteorological phenomenon, a grand tree, the song of birds, or something similar. Any who stop to enjoy the beauty for a moment gain Inspiration.
Fresh tracks: Roll again for creature and numbers. The PCs can (if they have the Survival to back it up, particularly with flying creatures) follow the tracks and find the creature(s) in 1d4 hours.
Weather shift: Reroll the weather for the day.
Lucky Find: The PC that rolls the highest Survival finds something that can be used or easily fashioned into something useful. Roll 1d8: 1-2 Club, 3 greatclub, 4 quarterstaff, 5 1d4 sling bullets, 6 chalk, 7 ink pen, 8 whetstone.

Further suggestions appreciated!

[Democratus]

Severed Troll Arm: A troll lost it's arm here. It is slowly regenerating but it should be hours before it proves dangerous. It does mean that something may be nearby that can rip the arm off of a troll.

Abandoned Camp: It looks like someone had made camp here days ago. The camp was hastily abandoned. 1d4 camp items (bedrolls, mess kits, weapons) can be found by scouring the camp. There's also a chance to find a freshly buried sack of money.

A Shadow in the Sky: Night only. One character sees a strange shadow pass in front of the moon. Whatever it was, it did not have the shape of any creature they have seen before.

Tremors: The ground shakes for a few minutes and is still again. (A massive purple worm sped past the party 20' below ground and went on its way)

[kaoskonfety]

A massive circle of stone riddled with Abjuration magics in the middle 5 dead humaniods, their hearts cut out, one of them has a mummified heart placed in their chest where their freshly removed hearty should be. There are 5 used scrolls and and unused scroll and a small velvet lined jeweled box. Investigation will reveal the scroll holds a necromancy spell to keep the user alive once their heart has been removed for several seconds (2 rounds). The mummified heart fits perfectly in the box.

A cottage, ransacked and over turned with large amounts of fire damage. It still smolders.

A group of elves and fae, drunk and friendly. Drinking with them heals all wounds and grants the benefits of a long rest. Insulting them will result in being parnked by Pixies for the next year and a day.

[hymer]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys!

[kaoskonfety]

When the party sets camp for the night on a spacious clearing, a group of ghosts, apparently a family, materializes and relives their final moments, their death at the hands of some great taloned beast. After some extensive investigations of the local area and the scene it was a summoned demon that yet exists (summoning circles remnants with a partial name, conjuring materials etc. add more breadcrumbs as needed if the party actually shows interest), can be tracked down and slain, the family laid to rest... or the party might just go camp someplace else where the screaming isn't keeping them up.

The great X migration - great herds of beasts, perhaps fantastical, perhaps mundane carpet the land the PC's are passing though. This will vary from annoyance/interest (song birds, rabbits, Flumphs, Modrons) to challenging to navigate (bison, elephants, herbivore dinosaurs) to horrifying (Formorians, Army ants, chaos beasts, Ythrakk, striges) - adjust to taste but it should be clear the "combat" encounters are not for fighting, they are for running from/ surviving "the sky goes black from the wings of stirges"

A mountain - the PC's set camp take watches, sleep, in the morning they are suddenly within a short travel of a mountain that was definitely not there when they went to sleep (planar incursion such as Dragon Mountain, a random up welling of the land from some deep subterranean monsters, the draining of an underground sea that's left all the REST of the land several hundred feet lower)

A crashed Spell Jammer - A sailing ship, shattered to pieces as if it crashed at great speed, the crew, all dead (long enough the PC's can't raise them) an of a race unknown in the setting. No where near any body of water and with odd runes on the hull - can serve as a jumping point into Spell Jammer / mutli-plane game or as a weird ass random incident or include a survivor with a critical quest...

[MaxWilson]

As part of putting together some random tables, I'm trying to come up with some things that can happen while travelling in the wilds. Here's what I've come up with: The area is known for its sudden weather changes, btw.

Athletics: Roll 3d6. An appropriate obstacle can be bypassed by at least one person beating that DC, or the PCs lose an hour’s march.
Agility: Roll 3d6. An appropriate obstacle can be bypassed by at least one person beating that DC, or the PCs lose an hour’s march.
Survival: The PCs are at risk of getting lost. Roll 3d6. The PCs must beat that DC or lose an hour’s march.
Weather: The PCs must either halt for an hour to shelter from inclement weather, or make DC 10 Fortitude saves to avoid a level of Exhaustion.
Wear and tear: The PC that rolls the lowest on Survival has a mishap. Roll 1d8: 1-2 Footwear, 3-4 leg coverings, 5 shirt/vest/coat, 6-7 cloak, 8 bag. If magic or tools and supplies are available, it takes at most ten minutes to fix. Otherwise, improvisation or replacement is needed. If the character doesn’t have that item on, take 1 point of damage instead.
Dead creature: Roll for a creature type, but number is one. 75% chance it’s been plundered already, otherwise roll for carried treasure as normal.
Edibles: The PCs come across mushrooms, nuts, fruits, berries, shoots, leaves, roots, or similar that are readily gathered in a few minutes and lets them save 1d4 rations today.
Beauty: A great view, a meteorological phenomenon, a grand tree, the song of birds, or something similar. Any who stop to enjoy the beauty for a moment gain Inspiration.
Fresh tracks: Roll again for creature and numbers. The PCs can (if they have the Survival to back it up, particularly with flying creatures) follow the tracks and find the creature(s) in 1d4 hours.
Weather shift: Reroll the weather for the day.
Lucky Find: The PC that rolls the highest Survival finds something that can be used or easily fashioned into something useful. Roll 1d8: 1-2 Club, 3 greatclub, 4 quarterstaff, 5 1d4 sling bullets, 6 chalk, 7 ink pen, 8 whetstone.

Further suggestions appreciated!

A bloated carcass of a giant frog floats facedown in a pond. http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2012/05/on-missed-treasure.html

[hymer]

Thanks again, guys! :smallsmile:

[Lycanthrope13]

You smell the unmistakable aroma of fresh pie on the breeze. You follow the smell to a lovely little house, deep in the forest. The house is inhabited by a woodcutter, his elderly mother, his wife, and two small children. They show you the greatest hospitality, and allow you to spend the night by their hearth.

You awake the next morning under clean blankets in the burned out shell of a house. Investigation reveals a charred skeleton, hanging from a bare rafter by a chain around its neck, four weathered grave markers outside, and fresh bread, cheese, and jerky in your packs.

No plot hook. If they try to figure it out, they come up empty.