Random Encounters

[brian 333]

64: The Singing Stone

As the party enjoys a meal around their campsite, a strange music can be faintly heard. Following it to its source reveals a stone which appears to be making the sound.

The stone is not magical, and nothing sets it apart from the many other stones nearby except the sound. It is too large to easily move, and certainly too large to take with them. A speaker of dwarven may recognize the words, and someone who grew up with dwarves may recall the song as a dwarven lullaby.

Speaking to or around the stone will cause the singing to stop. "Who's there?" The female dwarf voice will ask.

She doesn't know the answer to many questions. She cannot see the people speaking to her, and she cannot say where she is. She claims to be lonely and she wants friends to talk to.

DM info: she is a dwarf teenager in her bedroom, unknowingly speaking through a 2 inch, (5mm,) vent drilled to the surface then concealed by clever placement of a boulder. The air flows out, and the vent is designed to divert rain and debris before it gets to the bedroom.


65: Flash Flood!

While traveling, a sudden downpour, (perhaps one at a distance if traveling through arid territory,) causes a sudden, rapid rise in water levels, resulting in a land where only the hilltops are above the flood. Every living thing in the area which cannot fly must seek higher ground. Some climb trees, others are fast enough to cross flooding ground to higher ground.

A strange phenomenon occurs at this time: predators don't predate, herbivores lose their fear. Only the ant swarms, displaced from their flooded ant hills, pose any threat as floating balls of ants flow with the stream, occupying any object, floating or otherwise, which remains above the flood.

The party may have to make a mad scramble to hight, only to find they have been joined by an alpha predator or two. Who will be the first to break the flood-truce?

Within a day the floods will subside. Other than an abundance of mud, sometimes with corpses of the flood victims in it, life will resume it's normal patterns. Roads, ford's, and bridges may be damaged or impassable, and communities will be hard at work recovering from the devastation.


66: Troll Bridge

The PCs arrive at a bridge across a ravine. The buttress of one side is a tiny cabin beneath the deck of the bridge, obviously intended for the caretaker of the bridge, with a little stone stair from the road down to the doorstep of the cabin.

The stone arch of the bridge is intact, but the wooden handrail and wheel-guard is broken in several places.

As the PCs prepare to cross this bridge in the middle of nowhere, the door of the cabin opens and from it emerges a troll. The troll is stooped, and coughs at irregular intervals. He wears farmers' bib overalls that are patched in many places with rags of different colors and patterns. Much of his (her?) skin is inflicted with boils and ulcers which have cracked, weeping scabs.

Spoiler: Healing Check DC 15

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The boils resemble Anthrax, a disease passed among cattle and other domestic herd animals, which can be passed to humanoids by direct or indirect contact. Farmers burn infected animals and the fields in which they graze.

Spoiler: Healing Check DC 20

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Cure Disease will work as will it's many forms, such as the Paladin ability, scrolls, and potions. Very few non-magical means exist which will cure the disease. Fire usually prevents further spread, but only if applied to anything and everything the disease may have touched, and watering holes must be quarantined for a minimum of seven years.

Spoiler: Fortitude Save DC 18

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Each character must roll a save or the symptoms of coughing and painful boils will begin to appear within 48 hours and every day thereafter a point of Con will be lost until death or healing takes place. Recovery of lost Con points will require 2 days per lost point unless a Restoration type spell is used.

"I cannot allow you to pass unless you pay the toll," the troll says in a raspy voice. It then coughs as though speaking caused it. "One copper per unshod foot, one silver per shod foot, one gold per axel."

Apparently, oxen, horses, farm animals, pets, and anything else that walks on the bridge must pay, or have payment made for them. Carried children or animals don't count, nor do creatures which fly over the ravine.

If the adventurers threaten, the troll asks, "If you are so tough, I can allow you to pass for free, but only if you do something for me. Each evening for the last two weeks, the Broo Brothers, Ramsey, Nan, and Billy, have come to tease me and cross my bridge without payment. If you can chase them away for me, I will allow you to cross for free."

Around sundown the Broo Brothers arrive. They will call out the troll and dare it to try to stop them. They are goat-headed humanoids. Nan is actually female, and her horns are small and slender. Ramsey is slightly larger, and his horns are thick and almost make a complete spiral. Billy is a very powerful male whose horns complete two complete turns, and are very thick at the base.

Nan goes first, and if opposed, she will try to butt whoever tries to hinder her crossing until one or the other is hurled over the side of the bridge to fall twelve feet into the ravine. Next will come Ramsey, larger and stronger than Nan. Finally, Billy will come. He is Size Large, very strong, and skilled.

If the adventurers try to use lethal force, Nan will Bestow a Curse of Incurability on the attacker(s), rendering the disease, if caught, incurable until the Curse is Removed.

The troll, if cured, will be thankful and allow the PCs to cross the bridge whenever they wish. (It heals faster than PCs once the disease is cured, and the sores visibly reduce by the round.)

The bridge belongs to Lord Taglimont, whose farmers use it in their daily commerce. The troll is part toll collector, part maintenance man, and part guardian. The Broos have interfered with trade and the troll fears his lord's wrath when word gets back. If the Broos are defeated, they will go away to find someone else to torment.

Spoiler

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They also are carriers of the disease. They are immune to its symptoms, but spread the infection. Killing them and burning their corpses would help the region contain an outbreak of Anthrax. Curing them of the disease will work, but only until they are re-infected by their clan's ceremonial infection ritual can be performed. (They worship a disease deity.)

Lord Taglimont may have small presents for the adventurers when he learns of their deeds. Killing the troll, Chauncey, will upset him. Actually curing the infection will move him to reward the PCs with the Order of the Sunflower, a title which comes with a gold-plated brass medal that is respected by those who owe fealty to the Lord.

He may also have a quest to go beneath his citadel to purify a tainted well. What that entails is another issue!