My players (with new characters) are continuing a long-running campaign. These new characters are running a mission of mercy for a temple, delivering food and supplies to commoners trapped in a combat zone. The background of the fighting: This was a civil war-ish conflict between two rival groups of nobles in a frontier province of a large empire. Superficially, mercenaries in the employ of one group killed the Duke who the other nobles owed fealty to, those nobles called the banners and demanded the mercenaries be turned over, the first group of nobles refused, fighting occurred, a small band of imperial legionnaires arrived to restory peace, shenanigans occurred, and now several villages and a large town have been sacked, the armies of both set of local nobles have been broken and scattered, the imperials have set up road blocks and check points through out the area, and loose bands of soldiers (deserters, bandits, or just conscripted men trying to get home) are loose throughout the area.
Into this my players are leading 6 wagons full of food, clean water, tents, clothes, shoes... and some adventurer's pack type bundles intended to arm partisans in the area (players are unaware of this). The intent of this extended mission is to give my players a "game of thrones" type dark fantasy look at what conflict and war does to the peasants and commoners. I have an number of encounters ready (camps of refugees; orphans being protected by a lone and wounded redemption paladin; merchant caravans trapped between road blocks and preyed upon by bandits; towns where maybe the well was poisoned or the fields and granaries were pillaged by foraging armies; harassment from the hyper-bureaucratic imperials at every checkpoint; etc.). My players are aware and down with the theme (this is a long term Cthulhu group so this kind of stuff is lighthearted compared to our usual material).
What I am looking for is monster ideas. I would like to sprinkle in a couple D&D type encounters to remind them that this isn't some medieval simulation but that there is a wonder and magical component. The thing is it has long been established in game that these lands have been settled for hundreds of years and the real wacky, big dangerous monsters have long been driven out. Other than some goblins and kobolds that use the creeks and swamps of the area to sneak around, there isn't much of a "monstrous" fauna in this area.
I'm looking for brainstorming ideas. What kind of monster might be drawn to this from other places? Or what kind of monster might be hiding in the small patches of forest between farms and towns, only to be drawn out of decades of hiding to menace the people? CR doesnt matter... it doesnt have to be something they fight... it could just be something the witness or hear about from frightened survivors.
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PC - Ethel - Human - Lvl 4 Necromancer - Undying Dragons * Serge Marshblade - Human - Lvl 5 Eldritch Knight - Hoard of the Dragon Queen
DM -(Homebrew) Heroes of Bardstown *Red Dead Annihilation: ToA *Where the Cold Winds Blow : DoIP * Covetous, Dragonish Thoughts: HotDQ * Red Wine, Black Rose: CoS * Greyhawk: Tides of War
What I like to use when I'm trying to come up with some fast encounters for a particular environment is in Xanathar Guide as a Forest Random Encounter chart broken out by CR Level. While there is no need to roll what the encounter is the monsters in the list may give you some good ideas of what may lurk in the forest.
One encounter I ran in a forest was the part was attacked by Goblin riding worg and with your delivering goods, you could always turn in into a chase/combat or having the creatures attempting to steal the good. In my encounter is more of a chase with the goblins jumping on the wagons trying to kill the party and take over the caravan.
intellegent creatures like goblin or orc or ogre or hill giant tribes (or whatever is CR appropriate) filling the power vacuum. Or human mercenaries calling themselves warlords filling the power vacuum for that matter. Depending on how long it’s been they could have a fortified position.
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My players (with new characters) are continuing a long-running campaign. These new characters are running a mission of mercy for a temple, delivering food and supplies to commoners trapped in a combat zone. The background of the fighting: This was a civil war-ish conflict between two rival groups of nobles in a frontier province of a large empire. Superficially, mercenaries in the employ of one group killed the Duke who the other nobles owed fealty to, those nobles called the banners and demanded the mercenaries be turned over, the first group of nobles refused, fighting occurred, a small band of imperial legionnaires arrived to restory peace, shenanigans occurred, and now several villages and a large town have been sacked, the armies of both set of local nobles have been broken and scattered, the imperials have set up road blocks and check points through out the area, and loose bands of soldiers (deserters, bandits, or just conscripted men trying to get home) are loose throughout the area.
Into this my players are leading 6 wagons full of food, clean water, tents, clothes, shoes... and some adventurer's pack type bundles intended to arm partisans in the area (players are unaware of this). The intent of this extended mission is to give my players a "game of thrones" type dark fantasy look at what conflict and war does to the peasants and commoners. I have an number of encounters ready (camps of refugees; orphans being protected by a lone and wounded redemption paladin; merchant caravans trapped between road blocks and preyed upon by bandits; towns where maybe the well was poisoned or the fields and granaries were pillaged by foraging armies; harassment from the hyper-bureaucratic imperials at every checkpoint; etc.). My players are aware and down with the theme (this is a long term Cthulhu group so this kind of stuff is lighthearted compared to our usual material).
What I am looking for is monster ideas. I would like to sprinkle in a couple D&D type encounters to remind them that this isn't some medieval simulation but that there is a wonder and magical component. The thing is it has long been established in game that these lands have been settled for hundreds of years and the real wacky, big dangerous monsters have long been driven out. Other than some goblins and kobolds that use the creeks and swamps of the area to sneak around, there isn't much of a "monstrous" fauna in this area.
I'm looking for brainstorming ideas. What kind of monster might be drawn to this from other places? Or what kind of monster might be hiding in the small patches of forest between farms and towns, only to be drawn out of decades of hiding to menace the people? CR doesnt matter... it doesnt have to be something they fight... it could just be something the witness or hear about from frightened survivors.
PC - Ethel - Human - Lvl 4 Necromancer - Undying Dragons * Serge Marshblade - Human - Lvl 5 Eldritch Knight - Hoard of the Dragon Queen
DM - (Homebrew) Heroes of Bardstown * Red Dead Annihilation: ToA * Where the Cold Winds Blow : DoIP * Covetous, Dragonish Thoughts: HotDQ * Red Wine, Black Rose: CoS * Greyhawk: Tides of War
What I like to use when I'm trying to come up with some fast encounters for a particular environment is in Xanathar Guide as a Forest Random Encounter chart broken out by CR Level. While there is no need to roll what the encounter is the monsters in the list may give you some good ideas of what may lurk in the forest.
One encounter I ran in a forest was the part was attacked by Goblin riding worg and with your delivering goods, you could always turn in into a chase/combat or having the creatures attempting to steal the good. In my encounter is more of a chase with the goblins jumping on the wagons trying to kill the party and take over the caravan.
Dire wolves
Harpies
Otyugh
Carrion crawler
other things drawn to the corpses to feed or loot
intellegent creatures like goblin or orc or ogre or hill giant tribes (or whatever is CR appropriate) filling the power vacuum. Or human mercenaries calling themselves warlords filling the power vacuum for that matter. Depending on how long it’s been they could have a fortified position.