Random Encounters in Ironguard

Ironguard Keep is my version of the venerable B2: Keep on the Borderlands.  Being on the borderlands, the wilderness surrounding Ironguard can be a dangerous place.  

As such, here is what the PCs can run afoul of in the wilderness around Ironguard Keep.

Wilderness Encounters – West of River

d20	Day	Night	Twilight
1	Owlbear	Troll	Wild Hunt
2	Goblins	Vampire!	Twk-Men
3	Hunting Party from Keep	Chaos Cultists	Blink Dogs
4	Chaos Cultists	Goblins	Faerie Knight
5	Bandits	Orcs	Royal Stag
6	Twk-Men	Goblins	Awakened Animal
7	Sprites	Owlbear	Leprechaun
8	Twk-Men	Ettin	Sprites
9	Keep Patrol or Keep Scout	Hag	Green Knight of the Wood
10	Maria Revenant	Maria Revenant	Fey Hunting Party
11	Keep Patrol or Keep Scout	Gnolls	Faerie Dragon
12	Hunting Party from Keep	Ogre	Sprites
13	Giant Bees	Wolves	Hag
14	Bandits	Zombies	Cheshire Cat
15	Brownie (JitG)	Werewolf	Satyr
16	Sprites	Goblins	Brownie (JitG)
17	Twk-Men	Zombies	Faerie Knight
18	Griffin	Wolves	Fey Hunting Party
19	Stirges	Ghouls	Twk-Men
20	Special	Special	Unicorn

Yes, I've modified the wilderness map from B2 to have the river running roughly north-south, with the Keep being on the West side.  The party never ventured across the river, but were set to do so with a treasure map they'd recently acquired.  Which is good, because the East side of the river is equal parts more dangerous AND a bit incomplete.

Wilderness Encounters – East of River

d20	Day	Night	Twilight
1	Special	Special	Wild Hunt
2	Ettercap	Ghouls
3	Chaos Cultists
4	Giant Toad	Eyeblight	Awakened Animal
5	Goblins
6	Twk-Men	Bugbears	Fey Hunting Party
7	Hill Giant	Ettercap	Eyeblight
8	Dryad	Troll	Dryad
9	Goblinoid War Party	Giant Owl	Fey Knight
10	Harpy		Royal Stag
11	Goblins	Zombies	Bandersnatch
12	Goblinoid War Party	Goblinoid War Party	Royal Stag
13	Revenant	Giant Wolf Spider	Chesire Cat
14	Eyeblight	Ogre	Hag
15	Peryton	Will o’ Wisp	Eyeblight
16	Twk-Men		Giant Owl
17		Wolves	Fey Knight
18	Giant Owl
19	Giant Bees	Ghouls
20	Special	Special	Wild Hunt

See - incomplete! I was planning to finish it when the PCs headed that direction.

Random encounters can flavor a world more effectively than a lore dump or in-game history book that players either find and ignore or the DM reads aloud and the players ignore.  With the addition of a twilight column, a distinct touch of Faerie/Fey/weird is included.

The West Side table has some non-Monster Manual encounters.  For those of you that may be curious, the entry Brownie (JitG) is Jack-in-the-Green, coming to me by way of the Jethro Tull song, and to him through British Isles myth.  The PCs have encountered him and once traded a butterfly collection (actually vampires on enchanted pins) for a hat made of a large acorn cup.  

Speaking of pinned vampires, the vampire entry comes from our Sorcerer unpinning a 'butterfly' from a collection he had purchased.  It then ran amok in Ironguard Keep, until the PCs slew it (with help from the sentient sword, Glory).

Maria Revenant is the returned corpse of the first PC slain -  a druid named Maria that was drained by stirges and left drained and forgotten - until the PCs returned to that locale some weeks later and our Sorcerer decided to 'go check on her.'  It seems her corpse was tainted by the rising Chaos, so she returned as an angry Revenant - pointing and loudly claiming 'you left me!'  After some clever PC actions, lucky dice rolls, and a harrowing escape, the PCs evaded the Revenant and she landed on the wandering monster table.

Twk-Men are here from Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories, and just like in those books, they flit about on dragonflies and trade gossip for salt.  The players enjoy these encounters, especially when the gossip may involve PC actions.  If nothing else, these rumors (always three of them) help build the world and provide further plot hooks. 

The Chesire Cat springs from Wonderland (more the Disney cartoon), the Green Knight is the same one that challenged Gawain, and the Faerie Knights come to us from Spenser's Faerie Queen.  (guess which subject I studied overly much in college?)

(Sean Connery as the Green Knight from the 1973 movie Sword of the Valiant)

Special is a nested d20 table of 20 odd things, of which the PCs only found the door to Ynn, which was briefly explored by the Dwarf BlueJay, played by our now deceased friend. RIP, James.

Special: Roll on this table, DM choice, or roll on the Twilight Table.

d20	Event
1	Adventuring Party from Keep
2	Smell of woodsmoke leads you to woman stirring a large cauldron over an open fire.  She is muttering to herself as she periodically throws something into it.  (MacBeth witches speech -  Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake; Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg and owlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good.)
3	Living Spell - Eberron rules?
4	A shallow, spring-fed pool… looking in, your reflection reaches up and begins strangling you and tries to pull you under.
5	The foundations of a cottage or cabin, it’s lonely chimney reaching for the sky, it’s door still intact and closed. The door leads to Ynn (pdf)
6	Smell of pleasant smoke leads you to shady glen, with a hookah-smoking caterpillar on top of a mushroom; turns into butterfly when done with conversation.  It won’t share its smokes, but maybe its mushroom couch is magical if eaten.
7	Dragon flies overhead, red towards the mountains or black towards the swamp or green to the eastern forests.  Be glad it doesn’t see you.
8	Goodberry bushes grow along the trail, intermixed among the blackberries.
9	A clearing with a red and white checkered blanket on the ground, a basket upon it, and a trio of skeletons seated upon it, enjoying a picnic.  They beckon you to join.  The food tastes good, but is nutritionally void and nonfilling.
10	Sobbing and weeping is heard.  Following it to its source reveals a woman in a stained white dress, cradling a knight bearing ghastly wounds.  She looks up and is crying tears of blood. (guilt ghoul)
11	Step into a hunter’s trap, either a snare or a pit.  Noise is made.  Trap setters arrive.
12	(Were)bear cub trapped under fallen tree; freeing it earns allies among local werebears and druids, slaying it earns their enmity; leaving it alone keeps them neutral but suspicious.
13	A shed snakeskin hanging from the fork in a tree.  The skin is close to 100’ feet long and between 10’-15’ round.  It’s tracks run to the north.
14	PCs are being stalked by a frumious Bandersnatch
15	Deer spirits approach; if the sign of the druids is made and fresh blood offered, the spirits lead PCs to a treasure (the remains of another traveler with minor loot).  Otherwise, they attack.
16	Laughter and music in the distance; following it leads to satyrs and maenads drinking, dancing, and XXXing.
17	Entmoot! A gathering of treants (1d4+2) are discussing issues.  Axe and fire wielding trespassers are near the top of the list.
18	Singing, voices, and laughter are heard. Cooked food smells wafts through the air.  Following nose/ear leads to a shaded clearing with a rough cut long table, set for twelve and yummy food.  Currently at table are a large rabbit in clothes, a man in a funny hat, and a blonde woman in a blue dress.
19	Sound of burbling leads to a Jabberwock near a TumTum tree.  It’s hungry, yet very polite and wears a dapper vest.
20	A sinkhole opens up beneath your feet, dropping you into a pool of water in a cave.  At least one passage winds out from cave into the darkness.

Reading through it, entries 4 and 10 spring from Ford's Fairies, a free bestiary worth picking up for ideas alone.  It needs converting to 5e, though.  Entry 15 comes from the excellent Echoes from Fomalhaut #6.  

Basically, the wilderness is a dangerous place, so be ready to run.  

Given that the campaign is now on indefinite hiatus, I can modify the encounter table based on this article at Papers & Pencils. 

Which of course, means WIZARDS! I need to find my notes regarding these, so will save the new table for another post.