#dnd encounter

[canadian-witch]

Isometric ready-to-use dungeon set now on roll20 and drivethruRPG

Includes a multi-room multi-level dungeon with a combat arena, icey ruin and water temple variation, as well as tokens for each location so you can play immediately and a blank if you'd rather decorate yourself!

Patrons have early access and access to exclusive tokens that will never be available on roll20 <3

[rudokstavern]

Nightmare Engine

This Monster is part of our upcoming Adventure Zine Scions of the Fabled Kingdom, soon to be launched on Kickstarter!

If you like our work, you can support our project on Patreon, you will also get a ton of exclusive rewards, such as Handout Cards, Compendium and Adventure PDFs, Encounter Maps, Tokens and more.

Painted with Watercolors

[montreal-derogatory]

[latenight-dnd]

Hey yeah so I talked to the locust and. I’m sorry dawg but they said your crops were ASS. Like, they sucked. Your corn fields? Straight up nasty. Normally they’ll eat anything, but they told me your crops were just really bad. They didn’t even ruin them really, like, Dave across the road is fucked, he has nothing left. But you might have enough to survive the winter. Sorry.

[cassimothwin]

What Crooked Roots released 1 year ago today!

Never did I imagine the dominoes that would fall after my first TTRPG product went live. Thank you to anyone who has purchased it, left a review, or told your friends.

To start the celebrations, the digital edition is 50% off! Find it here!!

Inspired by the settings and themes of The Wicker Man, Over the Garden Wall, The Ritual and many other folk horror tales, comes What Crooked Roots: 15 folk-horror themed roleplay encounters created for Fifth Edition.

Focusing on western tropes and anxieties, What Crooked Roots flips some expectations and reinvents others for a fresh but familiar series of scary scenarios. With a haunting range of encounters that vary in length and difficulty, you’re sure to find something that lingers with your party well beyond their travels…

Explore cursed corn fields growing something wicked.

Meet beekeepers who hide a secret.

Unearth forgotten, haunted groves.

Crack a black egg or see if it hatches.

Hear the whisper of something following in the shadows.

Feast on the fruit with human teeth inside instead of seeds.

Flee the Groat Man as it hunts you through an abandoned village. 

And much more!

[jaypea00101010]

Clay Golem with a Black Pudding as armour

Clay Golem heals from acid damage

Black Pudding acid damages anything it touches

[wizard-legs]

Yo-yo wizard!! I did this a while back last year before I was posting here but I still love this gif!! Thinking I might have to do some more doodles of this guy soon <|:~]

[grimvestige]

Little mockup of a spooky "tree" for my campaign that definitely wasn't used to brainwash child soldiers :)))))

There's this fun eldritch infection called the palehallow that is spreading throughout the planet, and in little concentrated pockets there's quite literally 'hearts' of it. While this isn't the heart itself, it is a bunch of veins coming up from it.

Thankfully, this thing is burnt to a crisp now due to the casters in the party just shooting lightning bolt at it repeatedly.

As always, timelapse under the cut, and reblogs help artists a bunch on tumblr ^^

[nepaklusti]

Yo I've been getting back into Dark Sun again so here's some encounters to spice up the ridiculous amounts of travel that's needed in Dark Sun.

A group of masked people are carrying a large Palanquin. Within the Palanquin is an old elf woman wearing brown robes (the symbol of a tribeless elf, for those unaware). She will readily speak with the players, offering them tea. The masked people carrying the Palanquin obey her every order, and serve her and the players (if she wills it) without hesitation. The elf woman is an incredibly powerful psionicist, and the masked servants are all telepathically controlled by her. She will not tell the players this. If they treat her well, she will reward the players with either a psionic boon of some kind or a wild talent. If she is angered in any way, she will attempt to enthrall the players.

2. An Aarocokra flies down from the skies above the players. It wears a large backpack making its flight incredibly awkward. It only speaks Auran, but is desperate to trade and will attempt to communicate through gestures if needed. However, it refuses to use currency or any standard for of barter. It sells all manners of odd trinkets, and will only accept other odd trinkets in return. It has 3 magic items of your choice, and 2d6 items from the Trinkets table. 3. A ruined temple, barely even standing and half sunken into the sand, stands in front of the players. It is dedicated to a god who no one remembers. No one, except for a single Raaig within. The Raaig is a dwarf named Thimm, who believes any Dwarf or Mul players to be various other followers of this forgotten diety, somehow still alive after all this time. If the party has no dwarves or muls, he allows the players to stay in the temple, which he believes to still be fully intact, if they convince him that they are followers of his god. If they do so, he will watch over them as they sleep and protect them.

4. A migration of Cloud Rays passes through the same area as the players. As this is happening, a group of 2d4 brigands also meet the players. They each wield a tied harpoon and a spear. They will use their harpoons to climb up on top the cloud rays, and will attempt to harpoon one or more of the players to drag them away, surely to enslave them. The players could also try to get atop cloud rays, and can try to psionically communicate with any Cloud Ray they are on top of, which can be accomplished with a DC 14 wisdom check. If this is failed by 5 or more, the Cloud Ray that is communicated with will go into a violent rage, angered by the players trying to enter its mind.

[atlas-the-sage]

The Oncoming Storm

By Sage

An encounter for my players at sea on a ship, but written so it can be adapted, and it is available at any level; you just have to lower or raise DC and damage. Warning Note: Please ask your players if they are okay with horror themes and if they are okay expressing a fear they have.

The players wake up from their rest to the drizzle of darkened clouds; if any player is currently outside, then have them say how their character wakes up to rain on them.

Anyone who looks above sees white clouds fading into the distance, gray ones setting in with the day, and the drizzle they feel is them entering into the body of a coming storm.

Soon after all players are awake, have each of them make a smell-based perception check with a DC of 18. If they get under a 10, then it is all as normal; if they get above a 10, yet still fail, they can sense the rain is deep with the smell of salt; if they succeed, then they will know that the coming storm is one of acidic rain; if they get below 20, they can smell an unnatural acid.

Now have players make any checks necessary for where they are to protect it from high winds and bullet-like rain. An example of this is my encounter. I'm doing it on a ship in the deep ocean, so I will have them do investigation checks for holes, strength for tightening all ropes, finding something to cover any holes, securing anything that can fall on the ship, etc.

After this is done, time has passed, and they are now fully in the storm, and the vapors have taken hold. You see, it's not a normal storm; no, it’s one that is filled with a crack in the very plans themselves. Because of this, the rain is filled with a hallucinogenic toxin. The players will then make a con save; if they fail their perception, they do it at a disadvantage; if they succeed, then they do it normally themselves; if anyone is under 20, then they all make it normally. The check is made at DC 16; I personally need to adjust this for my players since they all have high con, so please note theirs before just using the 16; if they succeed, then they just feel the rain is boiling hot and will burn them; if they fail the check, they are trapped in the toxin.

Now this part is where you're needed to ask if they are okay with using their own fears. Either way, they make a DC 100 roll. Depending on what they get, you will describe their own personal experience with it. Please be careful with how you make each one.

Ok with fear

1–20: It is their personal fear.

21–50: is their character’s biggest fear.

51–70: Is this a chaotic illusion? Have them roll on the wild magic table. I personally suggest a d10000 one; it will change what happens in their illusion.

71–90: Is altered perception? They see reality as changed for the better, so well, in a storm, they may not notice that there is even rain or maybe that it looks sunny.

91–100: They are in their most euphoria, what the character sees as the best thing to ever happen to them.

If they are not okay using their own fears, then they just use 1–50 for their characters fears.

Anyone trapped in the effect cannot feel anything outside of their illusion. So the players and/or NPC’s around them must find a way to get them out; the way each one gets out is up to the DM, but I do suggest having them do something personal with the person they are rescuing, like having a talk about brotherhood, their backstory, or something. That or they do something really creative. Besides, depending on what illusion they are under affects how hard it is to free them; the slight illusion is the easiest, the nightmare and chaos are a challenge, and the player's fear and euphoria are very hard to overcome.

Well, under the illusion, the storm is going on around them, so depending on how you are handling the storm, they will have to fight through it. An example of this in my encounter is that they are in very choppy waves, so they will have to make athletic or acrobatic checks to not fall over and slide around the ship. Well, this will affect their illusion; it doesn’t wake them up, though it can make it easier to help wake them. Any checks made well in the illusion are made at a disadvantage. As well, the rain is still happening, so everyone, not in the illusion, must roll initiative, and with each turn, they are helping people caught in the rain. At the end of the turn order, they will take 1d4 fire damage. As a precaution, I’d say let one person make the check no matter what, even if it’s a NPC, so they can help everyone.

As examples of what is happening in the illusions, here are a couple of the ones I’m planning to use.

The Endless: The player is in the same place they were, but everything has stopped; there is no storm, no sound, no movement of the wind, and the waters are unmoving and calm. Yet there is no one but you, and just in the endless expanse of the ocean, in under a second, the ship has not moved; everything has been still. No matter what, there is just nothing but you. Now months have passed; there is still good, but all there is or ever has been is you; every game and book has been done and gone; fishing does nothing; and you have completely lost sight of how time is moving. But in the void of quietness, you feel something—in its endless presence and pressure, a sound—finally something! But as soon as it’s there, it’s gone; nothing is back; the loneliness is back; but maybe there's hope? Now, finally, months later, the food and wine have been used up, yet as you starve, you can’t die, yet you feel it curn away at your muscles and bones. You are so weak, yet that’s not the worst part. No, the worst is the noise. You can hear it now constantly all around you; it’s suffocating. You can pinpoint what it is or even what could make it, but it’s pure static in your brain. Every moment, every second, you hear it out there, yet why won’t it kill you? In between each part, I’m going to let my player say what their character is doing or feeling, really amplifying the silence each time.

The Fathomless: A npc my group loves is an alchemist goblin that they thought was a corpse in a shipwreck, but apparently she had survived by chugging potions of fein death, letting her survive for a bit under the water deep in the ocean, but the whole time she was awake and could feel everything. So I’m going to have her relapse into this fear by making it so she notices and feels it but never gets saved and is trapped, slowly dying in the abyss of the ocean. My players are going to have to deal with the outcome of her recovery.

My final notation is that after everyone is out, the storm will suddenly disappear, and then I’m going to have them do, of their choice, a survival, nature, religion, history, or Arcana check to see if there's any known storm to do this to them; they will find out no matter what that isn’t, and this came from an enemy that is now hunting them for taking his property, and that was just an aftereffect of his rampage on the island that they see in the distance, all meant to scare them.

[developerideabin]

DnD Encounter Idea

The group gets a quest to stop an evil necromancer who's trying to raise the dead in a graveyard by using a pearl which has been said to put the dead into a trance. The group heads out and eventually finds the necromancer in the graveyard, but they are to late.

The dead have already risen and the necromancer is only one step away from completing his nefarious plan. He hoists the large orb up into the air. The orb looks odd, like a thousand sided die with mirrors on each side. As he has fastned the orb in place, he casts "Dancing Lights" and the enitre graveyard lights up. The graveyard turn into a disco, with the unded being hypnotised and dancing to the beat.

It turns out our cast misheard the questgiver, and that they were supposed to stop the "Necrodancer" in the "Raveyard"

[agathielart]

An arboreal griffon is a ferocious avian carnivore with the sleek body of a leopard and the head, forelegs, and wings of a green woodpecker.

These creatures are chiefly known for their characteristic behaviour. They mostly forage for small and medium sized mammals on the trunks and branches of trees, and often communicate by drumming with their beak, producing a reverberatory sound that can be heard for miles. Their diet also includes birds, eggs, tree sap, scraps and carrion.

They mostly nest and roost in holes that they excavate in tree trunks, which they defend fiercely. They sometimes come into conflict with caravans when they make holes in wagons to feed on goods, but perform a useful service by their removal of invasive species on trees. I drew this for my GM who wanted to homebrew some griffins! This one is based over a green woodpecker and a leopard. You can find the homebrew on DnDBeyond

[rudokstavern]

Sage in Iron

“When dealing with fey, nothing is the way it seems, and sometimes unlikely forms are taken, either by choice, or by necessity.” 

This Monster is part of our upcoming Adventure Zine Scions of the Fabled Kingdom, soon to be launched on Kickstarter!

If you like our work, you can support our project on Patreon, you will also get a ton of exclusive rewards, such as Handout Cards, Compendium and Adventure PDFs, Encounter Maps, Tokens and more.

Painted with Watercolors and Acrylics

[grayraccoon]

I have to remember to tell the story of a percy Jackson inspired dnd one shot that I ran recently soon

[rhokisb]

How A Bard Kills a Giant

The party encountered a Bullette herder recently (A Fomorian with 3 Bullettes) at the base of the mountain while they were trying to take a long rest. 4 of the 6 had their armor off when the attack happened.

The Bard (The Always Fresh, Never Frozen, Fiddlin' Fucking Fred) gets up, mad as hell, and casts Phantasmal Killer against the Giant. When asked what the Giant sees, the Bard scratches his head and shrugs, "I dunno what he's afraid of, but I would assume it's school."

The Sorcerer, also mad as hell, casts a Wall of Fire around the same Giant.

So this Giant, while it's Bullette's rage against the machine of this party, stands there in a circle of fire being burned alive while memories of a school he never attended haunt him. At the end, as the Giant was 100% gonna die, I asked for a roll-off to see who kills the Giant so we could end the session.

The Bard wins. I ask how he kills the Giant.

"I dunno, I would like his torment to be so bad from the psychic damage its taken from its days at school."

"Describe a day at school."

"Alright, well first he gets there and the principal starts making fun of him, calls him the Hunchback of Nostradamus, cause his hunchback is so big he can see his future; then he would make it to gym class, but he can't get changed into his basketball jersey because his hunchback is just so big, and some people call him the turkey smuggler because he looks like he's got a whole ass frozen turkey under his jersey, the one folds over so you never know what number he's playing. Then the basketball comes to him, but you know he can't see too well, so it hits him on the side of the head, which then gives him a bruise on the other side so he REALLY can't see for the rest of the day. Then he gets to social class, and he can't read because he's an illiterate hack......and then lunch, I don't know; he sits there by himself with his swollen, dumb basketball eye, still wearing the jersey because he can't get that off because of the smuggled turkey. It's not really like a smuggled turkey it's just like a backpack with a turkey in it. Yeah...then he's gotta go home to the trailer park after and that's not good for anyone, let alone the Hunchback of Nostradamus: didn't see that in his fucking future I bet.....then he dies."

Edit: Yes, the Bard got an inspiration for this one. 1000% inspiration.

[aellostomb]

“The thief” for my home brew DND campaign