#wilderness encounter

[oldschoolfrp]

Aerial ambush on a remote mountaintop (Chris Beaumont cover art, White Dwarf 6, April/May 1978)

[dailyadventureprompts]

Ally: Embry & Asher of the Royal Commission

artsource

It's a lonely life being a cartographer in service to the crown, but Embry Mharkos wouldn't trade it for anything. Tasked with sketching out the region's peaks, river systems, and outlying settlements, he'll gladly join the party for a chance to see the sights. In addition to picking up the bill for provisions and pointing them towards points of gossip,  Embry will take over the logistics of running the party’s camp and use his geographical knowledge to help plan routes through the wilds.

Before you ask, yes, the dog has guild accreditation. What are you going to do about it? In reality, Embry used to travel with a man named Ashar, a senior surveyor and rather unplesant drunk who fudged his findings and took a rather predictable fall off a cliff after failing to secure his belaying line. Embry was just going to report his death to the commission field office when a random stray began following him through town. Thinking about all the provisions TWO paychecks could provide, he claimed to be taking over paperwork for his old partner and started forging Ashar's already illegible signature. He doesn't really think of it as lying, Asher's been with him far longer than the old man was, and he makes for a much better conversation.

Adventure Hooks:

Knowing the party for the dungeon delving thrillseekers they are, one of the first places the cartographer is going to point them towards one of the most impressive local delves: The skeleton of an ancient dragon half impaled on the peaks of a nearby mountain.

There's an isolated settlement of orcs Embry has wanted to make contact with for a while, since they've had decades to map the territory's outermost wilderness. Sadly last time he got close he made a rather bad impression on one of their hunting parties, who thought his scouting the precursor to some kind of attack on their territory. Perhaps the party can help him smooth things out, maybe by making some kind of gift to the village elders?

One night Asher starts barking and making a general racket, going as far as to drag one of the party out of their tent by the sleeping bag before running off into the darkness. The source of his distress? The distant cries of a fellow traveller bound to the trunk of a tree, left to die of exposure by a cult operating out of a nearby village. Asher was nearly sacrificed by the cult when he was a pup, and has gained a sixth sense when it comes to detecting their influence.

After the party have gotten to know him a bit (or gotten nosey with the coded letters he's always writing in addition to his usual map sketches), he'll reveal to them that he's been on a secret mission the entire time they've known him: In addition to his duties as a surveyor, Embry is an agent of the local marquess, who's convinced her husband is involved in some kind of scheme and sent him along with a few others to investigate. More than a few of the rumours he's had them check out were pretenses to this spycraft,

[squirmydads-creations]

The dire toads await their next random encounter.

When I was at the shop picking up new paints I saw this pack of D&D pre-primed dire toads on the shelf and I thought, "I've never seen dire toads come up in a random encounter in any game that I've played or heard about." And the toads said to me, "If you paint us, we will get used in an encounter." I said, "That's fair." And brought them home and gave them some color.

[burtontracks]

Naked 30 – 12

wilderness encounter – beauty

[oldschoolfrp]

"The piranha bird is a one-foot long, garishly colored bird always hungry for fresh meat." (Jeff Dee from D&D module B5: Horror on the Hill by Douglas Niles, TSR, 1983)

[oldschoolfrp]

Nekrozon: "Found only in the wilderness (usually in swampy areas), the terrible nekrozon resembles a huge buffalo with a long neck and boar's head. The gaze of a nekrozon is a 60' long magical death ray." (Jeff Easley illus, from Dungeons & Dragons Master DM's Book compiled by Frank Mentzer, TSR, 1985)

The nekrozon clearly began as AD&D's catoblepas, reworked for the legally distinct D&D rule system that was developed parallel to AD&D for two decades.

[oldschoolfrp]

Sasquatch dwell deep within dark woods and in high mountains. (Jeff Easley illus, from Dungeons & Dragons Master DM's Book compiled by Frank Mentzer, TSR, 1985) You'll find them everywhere in the US Pacific Northwest, mostly on tourist souvenirs, beer labels, chainsaw log art, and hanging out in Portland coffee shops.

[oldschoolfrp]

Hellhounds roam the war-torn lands on the western edge of the Republic (Keith Parkinson, D&D Expert adventure module X4: Master of the Desert Nomads, TSR, 1983)