In the dark depths of the forest lurk many strange and wonderful situations.
What
will your adventurers stumble into as they roam and ramble their way through the
gloomy, leaf shrouded domain of druids and wild elves?
Here are fifty encounters for forest and woodland fantasy settings. Think of them as
idea seeds, ready to sprout when your players bump into them. They can be used as
either decor or the start of a mini-adventure.
D100 Encounter
An old crone, with deep set wrinkles, hobbles out of the bushes and asks to tell
1-2
your fortune using the bones of a freshly killed squirrel.
3-4 Squirrels rain nuts down upon you. Somehow, you have angered them.
5-6 An old lady is gathering mushrooms. As soon as she spots you, she shouts at you to
get away from her spot.
A family of gnomes are having a picnic. Their children are playing a loud game of
7-8
hide and seek.
9-10 A young couple can be seen skipping through the trees.
A territorial marker of some sort can be seen carved into a nearby tree. To what tribe
11-12
might it belong?
13-14 The faint noise of beating wings catches your attention. In the far distance, a large
dragon can be seen flying.
While passing a hillside, you stumble upon a large nest, within it are three giant,
15-16 spotted eggs. A shriek can be heard from above you! Suddenly, you realize you have
invaded a griffin’s roost.
Ahead, the trails splits into three ways. Guarding this divergence is a fat gnome in a
wizard’s cape. He declares that one way leads to certain death, another to great love
17-18
and the final to great wealth. He demands 5 gold coins to say which path is which. He
is lying, they all bend back around to form one path after a mile.
Talking Rabbits. These creatures are rarely encountered; however, this is the
19-20 adventurer’s lucky day. They delight in frolicking in sunny glades and telling each
other jokes, also they love to sing deeply irritating songs out of key.
21-22 You find a large patch of cranberries, a good portion of it appears to have been eaten
recently. A further investigation reveals a chubby, lazily satisfied raccoon.
A dirty, old man tries to beg food off the adventurers. He will talk about his time as
23-24 an adventurer when he slew devil beasts and giants. If asked any questions, he will
immediately forget the topic and ask for bread or pea soup.
25-26 Suddenly, scent of death fills the air. Somewhere close, an animal must be decaying.
27-28 Four vampire bats are drawn by the heat of bodies, they will wait until the
adventurers are asleep before snacking.
29-30 A pair of very hungry badgers start to follow the adventurers. Is that trail-rations
they can smell?
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D100 Encounter
31-32 Three bandits around a campfire telling bawdy jokes to each other. They are down
on their luck, with no treasure and just two rabbits to eat between them.
33-34 In the centre of the path a giant moose stands. It refuses to get out of the way.
35-36 A sleigh rests on the forest floor, abandoned near a patch of evergreens.
37-38 The smell of burning grass enters your nostrils. A forest fire?
39-40 A flock of wood pigeons explodes into flight from a bush near you. What startled
them?
41-42 A horrendous scream erupts from nearby. It is shrill and full of pain. A rabbit has
been caught in a snare.
43-44 Four men with ill-sorted and poorly fitting armour are wandering around with a
large piece of parchment and shovels.
A big wind picks up, several branches snap off and fly towards you. Quickly dodge
45-46 them or take light damage. The wind then drops and it is like nothing had
happened.
47-48 Bellowing sounds of snoring can be heard from a distance. They come from a large
giant, who has fallen asleep in a nearby clearing.
49-50 You come upon a small lake. Three pairs of human-sized clothing are laid out on the
shoreline, their owners are nowhere to be seen.
51-52 Your attention is drawn to a nearby spring. Within it floats the body of a young man,
three arrows piercing his back.
53-54 An old woman can be seen on a nearby hill, seated in a meditative pose.
55-56 A striking, purple-leaved tree is visible at a distance. If approached, the faint sound
of laughter is heard.
57-58 A lone, hanged-man is swaying from an oak tree.
A group of small sparrow-like birds are sitting in a bush nearby. They are all singing
59-60 their hearts out, but if you listen carefully their twittering sounds awfully like “go
home, go home, go home”.
61-62 An impressively sized anthill is found among a nearby patch of pine trees.
You find yourself in an area strung with large, rope-like spider-webs dangling from
63-64 tree to tree. After a brief moment of silence, shuffling and skittering sounds can be
heard.
A woodland cabin can be seen in the distance. It looks surprisingly cosy and
65-66 welcoming, with separate rooms for kitchen and six beds. Although no one is there,
a fireplace is cracking in the guest room. Should the party rest here, they magically
age a year for each hour of stay.
A flash of light appears, and the sound of an explosion breaks the air, followed by a
67-68 wave of falling trees. As the light dims, a number of dwarves can be seen, conducting
tests on some strange gunpowder creation.
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D100 Encounter
69-70 A swarm of fireflies surrounds a random member of the party.
71-72 A beehive is smashed onto the floor, there is a trail of honey combs and big paw
prints leading off into the undergrowth.
73-74 Next to a large patch of purple capped mushrooms is a large orc, who is rolling
around on the floor, giggling.
The party walks past a forest clearing, with a number of broken trees near a crater.
75-76 The crater is 20 feet across and a strange, metallic rock can be found in the centre of
it.
77-78 You meet Boggo, a frustrated Halfling gentleman who is very interested in being
escorted to the nearest instance of civilization.
79-80 It appears that some uncultured band of miscreants have left a heap of empty wine
flasks, paper wrappings and potion bottles in a nearby clearing.
81-82 Unbeknownst to you, forest mice creep into your pack and eat your rations. You find
happy, fat mice sleeping off their big meal during your next rest.
BANDITS! Pay the gruff halfling outlaws 50 shiny gold coins or return from whence
83-84 you came. There are five bandits, armed with short bows, hand axes and wearing
leather armour covered with sticks and leaves for camouflage.
A raven starts to follow you, calling out in perfect Common “You’re lost! You’re lost”.
85-86
As you journey further it calls: “You’re doomed! You’re doomed!”.
A short-haired black dog runs up to the party, barking cheerfully. He will run around
87-88 the group, lick their faces and seek to play incessantly. The dog will disappear once
the party rests. If they had treated it well, a large gemstone can be found where the
dog was last seen.
89-90 A dead crow is nailed to the tree. One wing hangs limply, the other points down the
path.
You find a deserted wooden shack. Inside is a body of a young man in noble
91-92 clothing, along with a number of camping supplies and a travel bag. There is also a
journal, which details his disillusionment with city life and the desire to find solace
in nature.
93-94 Ahead is a ring of mushrooms. A heat haze hangs over it, shimmering in the wane
woodland light.
Shani, a fiery-haired Elven woman approaches the party, greeting them in a friendly
95-96 manner. She will trade some game and be helpful in answering questions, though
her affinity for puns might soon become tiresome.
You come into a clearing where a standing stone juts awkwardly from the ground.
97-98 Atop it is a pixie who shouts obscenities at anyone who comes within twenty feet.
Anyone who approaches the stone within ten feet suddenly finds themselves turned
around in the opposite direction.
99-100 A hawk swoops through the trees and is startled by your presence. It drops a small
semi-conscious pixie. They will be very grateful if they are healed.
4
Hello, this is a chance to say a little about Green Bird RPGs and introduce ourselves
to the world. We are three people with a great love for games and in particular RPGs.
With thirty years of RPG experience between us, we felt it was time to give something
back to the community and have some fun doing so. We are writing supplements for
D&D Fifth Edition, which will be published through Dungeon Masters Guild, plus
other OGL / OSR material. The material is designed to be dropped into your pre-ex-
isting campaign setting with but a few tweaks, adding colour, character and adventure
to the world you are playing in. We aim to provide high quality content in settings
and play-tested adventures, with brand new monsters and magic items. These will
come with hand-drawn illustrations and maps. In this, we hope to assist you in offer-
ing your players the experience they deserve.
You can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
@GreenBirdRpgs
https://www.facebook.com/GreenBirdRPGs
Cheers, Richard, Davis and Katrina
Written by Davis Lodzins & Richard Thompson
Illustrated by Katrina Latve
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, Forgotten Realms, the dragon ampersand,
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©2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC, PO Box 707, Renton, WA 98057-0707, USA. Manufactured by
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