A talking raven & other hijinx - Strahd Session 2

Possible spoilers. 

Yesterday our 5e group reconvened in Barovia.  Twas quite funny.  The morning after speaking with Madame Ava, we got up stretched had a bit to eat and then started talking to the locals.  Whilst gathering some information we found out that the Village of Barovia wasn't too far.  We made the decision to go off and see what we could find there.  (a bit meta) I figured that it would be a good place to start.

All of the players other than me had basically forgotten all of their notes, specifically the premonitions from Ava.  Thankfully I could slighlty make out some of my notes.  (note I'll start taking notes on my tablet during play so I can actually read it!).

As we were walking to Barovia we saw a strange sight!  I skeleton riding a Skeletal horse.  Weirdness.  It passed us as we did the ye old hobbit hide behind a tree schitck.  We decided much to the chagrin of my wife that we would follow the skeleton.

A few hours passed and we stumbled up on this rather large bridge.  On the bridge were a few gargoyles.  The bridge looked mildly rickety, so my silly barbarian cleric decided to run across it.  Successful athletics check!  (My rolling was sub par at best yesterday, those darn wiz dice were not my friends).  The illusionist decided to turn himself into a skeleton as well and follow the skeleton across the bridge.  Thankfully nothing weird happened.  But we were all concerned about the gargoyles.

We noticed that the bridge spanned a waterfall, to which I had a premonition about a vampire and a mage duelling it out here.

We decided against really doing to much exploring around the bridge.  I have no idea why, but the DM was looking at us like "seriously?" lol.   We did however notice that a raven was sitting and watching us.  I cast "speak with animals" and had a very entertaining conversation with the Raven (which i kept calling a crow for some reason).

Note: It is always fun when something like this happens, it gave me some fuel for the next time I"m gming and a player wants to speak to an animal.

The raven gave us some useful information, and appeared to be following us to see what we were up to.  Our GM kept sticking his nose in his armpit like he was fluffing his feathers. so awesome!

Anyways, we decide to make a bee line back to the village of Barovia, as we stand in the shadows of a road leading to a castle.  At one point my wife's character was like, why don't we go off to that castle??  to which META we were all like NOPE we will probably die!

I am guessing she was a bit frustrated as far as where we were going next, since we were a bit A.D.D. about what we were doing.

Cue encounter!

A bunch of wolves & direwolves caught us by surprise on the road back to the village.

Rather than being in the background my Cleric decided to charge into the fray and was casting offensive spells left and right.  To which I got my butt seriously kicked!

Lying prone on the ground, the other players managed to take out the rest of the wolves, while I was making death saving throws.  As I stated earlier my dice were not rolling the best, and for the save's I grabbed my friend Adam's big d20s!  Which I should have started with in all likely hood.

And that is where we ended for the day.  We went off to a awesome taco joint and i had a giant burrito and a jartos (mmmmm Mexican soda pop!)

And to top off the fun day, my buddy Adam bought me the 5e PHB for my birthday.

So I'm guessing I'll be making some characters for the rest of the day!  I find that the easiest way for me to learn a new system is to create characters.  So first up a dragon born sorcerer, and then a bunch of other weirdo combinations.

YAH!

Oh and here's a epic table that could be used for Strahd, or maybe something else. http://draconicmagazine.com/articles/random-table-1

I'm manically happy!

I bought myself a birthday present!  (It's not my birthday yet, but a few days from now).  I've been toying with buying "Blacksand" and "Titan" for a long time.  I used to have them when I was a kid, and I honestly miss them so much.   I finally took the plunge!  and the really good news is that they may get here while I'm on vacation! WoooO!

I honestly can't wait to run Blacksand, it's going to be crazy fun!

The question that is now coming to my mind, do I run it with the new AFF 2.0 rules? or do I convert it and run it basic fantasy.  I haven't quite decided yet.

OH MAN! Seriously over the moon here.  T minus 4.5 hours and I'm home drinking a beer.

The funny thing about being a nerd when your 36 is that everything that you loved as a child is being marketed to you, honestly its the best time to be alive.  The new Turtles movie is out.  Of course on my list is to buy up some old He-Man toys when I have some money (or the new versions that are super friggin cool!) 

Not to mention the new versions of AD&D 2e reprints that are bad assery!  (although I probably won't buy em since my original versions are still in decent shape.)

Happy Friday Kids!

*Strahd tomorrow

The Gods Must Be Crazy d20 table

Change is a part of life. 

1.  All of the local farmers crops have been growing five times the size as normal! Giant carrots anybody?

2.  Lakes, Rivers and streams have been deluged with a new species, they seem to be able to talk, and think for themselves.

3.  Manic weather of late, one day snow, the next day rain, the day after that it's beautifully sunny out.

4.  There have been large rumblings in the mountains, a scout was sent out to check it out.  He found that two god's had materialized and were playing a game of catch.

5.  A large city has materialized off the coast, it was long forgotten, but it appears that the oceans have subsided a bit.

6.  Humans are being born with strange mutations, never seen before.

7.  The power of cleric's has increased ten fold in the last few months.  The ability to heal and spells known.

8.  Trees of gold have sprouted!  Leading to a huge economic crisis.  Local authority's have decided upon a new system for commerce.

9.  All horses and riding mammals have unexpectedly left their keepers, whether they seek greener pastures, or the will of the Gods has yet to be determined.

10.  A new moon has appeared in the sky, it has caused major havoc to ecosystems.  Floods and earthquakes have begun.

11.  A strange mist has crept up into the world, villagers have tied ropes from house to house in order to make their way around.

12.  Seven gilded swords have been found, they have strange runes written upon the hilts.  None can read them.

13.  All ability to fly has been suspended, birds, dragons, griffons wander the roads on foot.  Spells fail.

14.  Gravity has been increased so much that people have a difficult time getting up in the morning.

15.  Things have randomly started changing colour.

16.  All daughters in the last year have been born as hermaphrodites.

17.  Meteor's have descended smashing specific strongholds.

18.  A extremely large tome has been found, it measures 30 feet by 20 feet.  Within it are recipes for soup, among other things.

19.  Consistently every night howls in the distance get louder.  Something is driving the wolves mad.

20.   Days and nights have been cut in half, 6 hours of each, the calender has almost doubled in length.

The moment you realize you should

Probably blog about something but nothing is really coming to you.  So you do a bit of surfing and find a few interesting links instead.

Here's a list of some Old School Zines - http://rendedpress.blogspot.ca/p/old-school-zines.html

Here is an interesting blog about Old School Roleplaying - bit of a introduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isb4RQjHt8E

Aquelarre — Translated Introduction This looks rather interesting - http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/184527/Aquelarre--Translated-Introduction?src=newest_free_titles - This Introduction represents the first completed pages of our English translation of the classic Spanish RPG, Aquelarre.

I got mildly excited about this - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17445?src=DTRPGFB

World Builder's Guidebook (2e)

Never read it before, have any of you? 

I quite like the Adventures in Filbar series, I've got some good ideas from it for my own campaign. 

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/184642/FVS8--Penchant-for-Adventure--3?src=newest_free_titles

Oh and I'm going on vacation soon, so there's this stupid meme. 

Hopefully I didn't loose you.  I have a bit of writing to do while I'm on vaycay.  This weekend we are playing some 5e Curse of Strahd!  I was hoping for some "Deck DnD", but it appears the weather is not going to cooperate at all.  Balls!

In the next few weeks the old school group is going to reconvene, they will probably finish up "The tomb of gardag the strange".  To which I'm not entirely happy with the adventure as it stands.  Regardless of some of the cool reviews I've got for it.

It appears that the old school group quite likes wandering around the country side (hex crawlin!), and whatever comes up comes up.  So I am thinking that I need to incorporate a whole bunch more of that!  I have a few ideas cooking, just a matter of sitting down and writing them.

That's about it for today.

Here's a metal version of an Adele song.

This week is writing mode!

My Wife asked me recently "had I written anything lately?".  My answer was YES!  But what she was really asking was had I written anything that I had released on drivethru, and the answer is no.  I've been working diligently on this campaign.  I had a bunch of encounters on the road written, and the players managed to bust thru most of them a few sessions ago.  So I'm going to have to go and write some more stuff!

Unlike most hex crawls, this one nothing is really written.  I'm going to spend sometime working thru the rest of the hexes.  I did do a bit of a start on it, but some of its been thrown out as the campaign takes shape.

I think once, we get thru this whole thing and it actually is written I'll put it out there.  So far there's lots of interesting things coming up.  The big bad guy has taken shape thanks to some help from the comments on the blog.  The horde of Hobgoblins are going to be riding "War Toads", ala Zak S's "War Snails".

I still have to come up with an idea for Wiazrdly figure.  I'm thinking a NPC that hangs out with the PCs probably.

After I killed Tindleweed in the last campaign, he created a new character, that's basically a BEEFCAKE!  Which is going to be fun to watch him play.  He actually asked me the following: 

"Can you give me +2 to my strength, if I -7 to both my Wisdom and Int?".  LMFAO.  I gave him a bit of a deal on it, I think It was -2 to both. 

I've been looking at the adventure i started with +Thaumiel Nerub of +D-oom Products , and I need to get back to that.  Thankfully I'm on vacation next week so I'm going to attempt to hunker down.

As well I need to work on a bunch of random tables and pop em into google drive for when I play.  Just quick and easy things like halfling, dwarf and elf names.

Yup this is a WHOLE lotta A.D.D. type post this morning.

5 days till vacation.

6 days till we re-convene our 5e group for some more Strahd awesomeness

Massive member-old school session 5

Just finished up a session, super funny as usual. The title comes from silly discussion prior to the actual game. We reconvened in the tomb of gardag the strange. The players decided to go thru the west door Into a set of stairs. And they triggered a trap. To which the half ling cleric fell down and almost died.

After some rope heroics they managed to get oxana on solid ground and promptly went north. They found a zombie in a iron maiden. Killed it and went to the next room. The room contained green slime and after a previous encounter they decided, f*** that room. The PC's found a large cavern and we're immediately set upon by a insect swarm. One of the players lit a torch and attempted to smoke em out. After that room they found what appeared to be a bit of a treasure hoard. Piles of the clothes, rope, a whip,armour. The wizard twindleweed saw a fly tunic in the pile and decided it was his.

Prior the dwarf thru a rock into the room to see if by chance it was an illusion. The wizard ran into the room and promptly fell down a hole. RIP twindleweed. The player's looted the room, and had a silent drink to the memory of their wizard friend. Then looted his corpse. The thief grabbed the whip. To which I said, that whip belongs in a museum.

The PC's went off to another room and found a bunch of humans half dead tied to a pole. The low wisdom thief yelled What ho!

as per usual.

And a bunch of morlocks appeared, blood thirsty.

next session it should be that we are finishing up the tomb and after that hopefully the players will take a look again at the newsletter I gave them and see if they can find a Quest from there I still need to work on some NPCs and finish up elerds keep.

I think I will probably use one of the maps that Dyson has drawn for the cape keep along with the latest DMG to create all of the background information Merchants tavern's exedra

This is what happens when a player rolls on the background chart

Received this from one of my old school players.
You can download the "mildly plausible backgrounds" here.

Private message to the DM, I wrote a passage in the book of Twindleweed where paranoid old Twindleweed tries to figure out what to do about his god problem. He comes to the solution that he should secretly pledge his allegiance to Loki and have the Knights of the Free Lord of Never Winter Wood do Loki's bidding in exchange for protection from the wrath of Odin. The following is that passage: I suppose at some point I’ll need to address the mastodon in the room. Or should I say the one-eyed mastodon in Valhalla. My issues with Odin leave me troubled, despite him not killing me yet at any moment my life could be forfeit and while I’m sure Valhalla will be a nice place I’m not quite ready to give up the sins of the flesh just yet. Flinklitior has recommended that I make peace with Odin, make an offering and see if I can get back into his good graces.

While this would solve my problem of impending doom around any corner by the hands of an omnipotent being, it is unsatisfactory because I hate Odin. How dare he abandon me, for such a crime of indulging myself? I replaced the offering, all bee it with a substance of far lesser value, but he never takes the offerings anyways. All of the herb would have stayed there to rot until some priest got tired of the smell. My problem truly lies with Odin’s omnipotence; his power is unmatchable by any being in this realm of existence. However it occurs to me that his power is not unmatched in all realms. His omnipotence is over me however not over all things, the other gods for example are not bound to his power, they fight each other as men and elves and dwarfs do in this realm.

Perhaps this is my answer, if I was to pledge my services to another god in exchange for protection from Odin I could live free of my fear. But whom shall I contact and what do I have to offer? I need a being who would agree and see value in my service, for if I am refused Odin will hear of it and I will be stuffed and cooked over the sun for all eternity. Loki the trickster god, he is always plotting and scheming.

My services could useful to him. He would see me an asset perhaps and lying to fellow gods is certainly something that he may do. But what do I have to offer? Well the Knights of the Free Lord of Never Winter Woods are a good start, Flinklitior may be a dope but he a royal dope. I have his ear and he looks for me for counsel, I could have the Free Knights do Loki’s bidding. Perhaps this will be enough, I have to hope so as the alternative is making peace with the vial horse turd Odin.

Well, let it be known Loki. I have a proposition for you. Come forth and hear my offer for you.

Dem's barbarians in those hills! - Old School Session 4

Just finished up a really fun session the other day.  I decided in my silly wisdom to level up all the PCs to level 2.  Mostly so I can throw bigger bad guys at em.  The one thing I did which was highly stupid and it was partially because I was distracted at the time, was allow ability score re-rolls.  Here's the kicker, I had read that some DM's do this with old school play, but they only allow ONE attribute re-roll per level up.  Basically the gist is you get to re-roll the stat with 3d6, if the result is better than your current score you use that.

major moron DM move- I let them re roll ALL THE FRIGGIN ABILTY SCORES!

Alright, so bad move.  I told the players afterwards, that's not happening again.  Next time they level up they will have to find an appropriate trainer as well as they get to re roll one stat only.  WHOOPS! Shit happens chalk it up move on.

Another thing we noticed whilst playing basic fantasy, is that every thing in the game is basically roll 20, higher the better for the most part.  Except! the thief skills, those are still the traditional way, roll under and its a success, we are talking about re-writing that table to be the opposite.

On to the adventure, one of the players was working that evening, so we decided he shacked up a with someone for the balance of the adventure.  The players read over the "brymassen howler" and decided to go in search of the barbarians.  ah player paranoia!  I had actually intended for the barbarians to be good guys.  oh well.

So the PCs's go off in a westerly direction towards Elerd's keep (see previous map post).   I had originally planned on using a specific set of encounters for the road to elerd's keep, however they shot holes in that idea.   The PC's stumble upon a statue of Odin on the side of the road.  Written in common was "pray for guidance".

Only one of the PC's decided to do this.  I had him roll a 20.  If it was over 15 he would get a certain vision, under a different vision.

I took him aside and told him what he saw.

Hordes of hobgoblins destroying the countryside, all of them had patches that were circular with a red toadstool in the centre, they were lead by a fierce hobgoblin warlord.

One of the PC's backgrounds is "shunned by the gods".  he's actually been keeping a journal of what has happened from the perspective of his character, which is friggin awesome!

I decided a small bolt of lightning would hit about a foot from him as he walked away.  :)

The PC's go off the grid and walk north into some hills close to the forest of Autumnwood.  from a far they see a pile of dust and a rather large humanoid.  One of the PC's hands me a scrap paper of what his character is going to do.  Basically a quick close up to see what's happening.

He notices that a group of barbarians are fighting a hill giant!

I quickly write up stats for the barbarians and the PC's now become barbarians fighting the giant.

As well, their actual PC's watching what is happening.

This whole thing was supposed to go the other way.....   I had thought the PC's would help the barbarians, but instead they decided to fight them, and help the giant! AHAHAHAH! oh well.

So here's the battle, the PC's players are firing arrows at the barbarians, while they are playing barbarians fighting a giant.  yes it was confusing as old hell, but a PILE of fun!  In the end the barbarians died of grievous wounds but not before one of them said to find their father. 

The intention was for a rift between to competing tribes of barbarians, one leader is the father of the other one!  I'll see what I can do about re-working that storyline.

Now the player i mentioned that wasn't able to show up, well he showed up in the midst of the barbarian fight on a horse he "borrowed" from brymassen.  (gotta roll with the punches).  So I filled him in, and then I took him aside and asked about the altar to odin.  He decided he would pray, he rolled under 15.  (I seriously jumped for joy at this!  although I could have just told him the other story, its great that it worked out the way it did).

He saw.... 3 witches killing a barbarian, cutting out his heart and eating it.  (things have taken a turn to the weird, I'm liking it).

The player promptly had a side bar with the other player that had a vision.

player who was at the game the whole time, saw the first vision came up to me and said....

"I have chills literally.... see my arm... your fucking on tonight!".

The PC's talked with the giant and found out where a tribe of giants are.  (remember this for later shane!).

After a brief rest, the PC's decided to head off to the tomb of gardag....

one player said "this sounds really heavy metal".  I said "yes it will be".

That's where we left off for the evening, after one of the PC's got zapped by the front door.

a few brief side notes: 

While the 5e is screen is basically no help with OSR stuff I like it, because I can see the players, rather than the usual 8.5 type screen.

EDIT:  Because of it being a bit short, and having one fairly tall player, he is able to see over the screen.  The player was double checking my math while we were going.  

I have a few older screens, one second edition one and one from a boardgame (not dragon strike, but dragon something).  I plan to create a home made Basic fantasy screen with a few of the more important things on it.  I've talked about this before and have sort of done it but not finished.  now is the time!

last time we played I had printed off some Dyson Logos sheets from the basicfantasy.org site.  This time I decided to go with the James West ones,  to which I owe him a snapshot of.  I'm on it buddy, sorry its taking me so long.

And now I have to re-write encounters for the road to elerd's keep whenever that happens.

The Fairy Mists

In the not to distant future, the PCs will be plunged into the Fairy Mists, a world between worlds.  There they will be looking for an ancient artifact that was lost during the time the god's walked the world.  As it is with everything, there is good and evil in the world, this holds true for the Fairy mists.  If you think of it as a reflection, there will be good fairy's, bad fairy's, unicorns, alicorns, somewhere in the mists the PC's may fall thru the reflection into the evilness that awaits.  There they may find their death, the artifact, themselves.....

Such that it is, random events will occur within the mist, here's but a sampling of what to expect.





Random Events In The Mist. 

1.  An interesting tea party, with a similar cast, but a twist.

2.  The black mist!  A cloud of noxious vapour that pursues.

3.  A clearing of dancing skeletons.

4.  A pool of brackish water, with healing properties.

5.  Giants who speculate about the stars and philosophy.

6.  A large tome, 8 feet wide by 4 feet deep.  Untold secrets are contained within.

7.  A large chessboard complete with golems as pieces.

8.  A magical lute that plays songs by itself, listening to it may cause good or harm.

9.  Character doppelgangers, its as if they are looking in the mirror, complete with repeating everything they characters say and do.  

10.  A black cat crosses the PC's path, and then another.

11.  A group of evil nymph's playing in a small snow fort.

12.  A grove of fifty foot tall mushrooms.

13.  The forest path winds upwards, around, sideways and down.

14.  A wonderful old lady who sings magical songs, they cheer up the PC's and are able to rest without interruption.

15.  A trans dimensional door on the side of a tree.  The issue, the door is 4 inches wide, and 6 inches tall.

16.  A treant that believe it is a comedian performing stand up.

17.  A thunder shower of sorts, what falls is gumdrops.

18.  A herd of woolly mammoths the size of house cats stampedes at the PCs.

19.  A god trapped in the mists, believes he is the reincarnation of one of the PC's relatives.

20.   A chariot made from a pumpkin lies in the middle of the road broken down.

game prep

I spent most of last night, sitting on the deck with a glass of tea working out encounters for the campaign.  As I had created that newsletter for the players there are a pile of adventure paths in which to take.

1.  Find the 3 headed beast
2.  find the shipwreck

Both of which will lead to Monkey Isle, which may also lead to the Slave pits module A1 I believe?

3.  Find Hamona's great great grandfather's dagger - Tomb of gardag
4.  Escort Arnof's trading company to Elerd's keep
this is a mixture of a bunch of things.

First off Elerd's keep is essentially morgan's fort, however I'm using the area map from the chaotic caves (sans the caves).  I am also replacing some bad guys.

Secondly, the PC's may meet the elves of autumnwood, who recently suffered a defeat by a hobgoblin horde (main story line).

Of course there is a pile of little encounter on the road to Elerds keep.

including a wizard who appears out of nowhere as a giant toad, and then transforms into wizard!  of course she will have a pile of rumours, and as well discuss the hobgoblin menace, and the need for the elemental stones.   To which one of the players already has one. 

I know pre planning encounters can be a waste of time, but it makes me comfy.  It's still not technically a rail road, but an overall scope.  The players have a pile of choices at this point, and I'm only writing from one session to the next, so as it stands I have a pile of ammo dependant on the players choices.

Players map for campaign

I decided to ditch the previous hex map as a hand out and just give the players this.  I used a mapmaker set from Arion Games - Download here.

It's rough but will do the job for the time being.  I was having all sorts of problems with GIMP this morning, and I don't know why.  It's time for a restart me thinks!

I'm already noticing some issues within the map. But good enough for now.  Each hex is 6 miles on this.  So it worked out that it took the PC's a day to get from Brymassen to the Balding Minotaur Inn.

Speaking of Arion games, I notice they have a quickstart for Malestrom RPG.  Going to check that out today.

 

The Typical Fantasy Campaign Takes Shape

I posted last night about what peoples favourite version of fantasy is.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/113598345409044633851/posts/1zmyeRmEUPk

The reason was mostly out of curiosity.  I find that when I start writing things tend to fall into a very specific place.  The evil wizard, the war hungry orcs, fire breathing dragons, good hero's!  You get the picture.  Regardless of the books I read (appendix N type stuff), I tend to just naturally go with the above.  Here is the outline for my current campaign.

War!  Orcs have been pillaging the general populace, they come from the north and something drives them.  Originally I thought super evil black dragon, and now I'm thinking a human warlord who's character is based on Cobra Commander.

Enter the hero's.  Just a few "almost not quite peasants" out to save the countryside.  At some point they may run into "the order the magi" cue major LOTR plot device.  The quest as such is to find 4 elemental stones of great power (really shane? that's totally elemental evil with a generic twist).

Of course this is the overarching storyline.  Within the hex crawl I'm writing there's a pile of side adventures.  I plan to include a lot of the Adventure Anthology within the world.  Check www.basicfantasy.org for more info on the adventure anthology.

In this recent post I set out a few clues to further adventures for the PCs.  http://3toadstools.blogspot.ca/2016/05/players-newsletter-1.html

Last night I wrote about the 3 headed beast, and the twist is that it is the thing that sunk the merchant ship.  If the PC's defeat the beast, and or get on the ship they will find a letter written by a prisoner in the brig.  The letter details a long forgotten island.  (monkey isle or isle of dread).

Of course the PC's may decide to make their way to Elerd's Keep.  The twist of course is that Lord Elerd is in fact a very old vampire.

I haven't quite decided if it will be the morgan's fort campaign, or keep on the borderlands at this point.

I also sat and wrote a few encounters if the PC's decide to make their way to morgansfort.

There are a lot of balls in play on this, I am guessing that spears will be broke, shields will be shattered, PC's will die thruout the whole thing.

Here is the letter:

I’ve been trying to get this damn merchant captain to understand, but he just doesn’t.  This is the last time I write this story, if you are reading this I hope that you believe me.  You see I was a pirate first mate.  We had been trailing this merchant ship, easy pickings!  All of a sudden the winds started blowing, a huge storm cropped up.  The sea’s spewed forth, knocking us backwards and forwards.  We barely made it thru the night.  We found the island, but just barely. Searching the shores with a lantern we stumbled upon a small village.  It was near the southern shore, nice humans that took care of us for a few days.  The captain decided that we would try a bit of pillaging while we were here.  We were met with some maniacs all covered in paint!  The temple we looted was ancient!  I’d never seen stone work like that.  We saw another high mountain and what looked like a Volcano smoking in the distance, we decided it was best not to go to shore.  We saw strange lizard’s that we had never seen before along the shore.  Huge gargantuan creatures!  We also saw a dragon, or what looked liked a dragon.  The captain decided that it was best to leave the island alone and we soon left.  I want to go back, I know there is more to explore.  I found a coin with a human face and a sheaf of wheat on it.  I talked to a wisened man in a tavern about it, he’d never seen anything like it.  Possibly a elder civilization.  

A.D.C.  

The 2nd day of the melting.

And here is the possible encounter list on the road to Elerds Keep.

The Road to Elerds Keep

Its 36 miles to Elerds keep, straight shot.  The PC’s can travel 12 miles per day, 2 hexes.  The journey should take 3 days to get to Elerds Keep.

Daily encounters

Day 1 - Barbarian Encounter - The PC’s notice off in the distance a battle going on between a few individuals and a giant!

5 barbarians - Fighter Level 3 - HD 3, Great swords, etc 1d12

Hill Giant - AC 15, HD 8 (attack +8, 2d8 damage)

If they talk to the barbarians, one of them is the leader of the Elken tribe, Haz Halack, he wants to off his brother who leads an opposing tribe called the “Skulkers”, his brother’s name is Grim Halack

Day 2 - Nothing happens during the day however, in the evening roll on the pestilence table.

1.  Bedbugs keep you awake, loose one point of Constitution until you have a decent rest.

2.  Provision's get rot from Insects, they are inedible.

3.  Stung by a wasp, and it turns out your allergic! - 2 Constitution -1 Strength, - 1D4 HP's

4.  A large swarm of Insects circles your head, making it difficult to sneak and remain hidden. - 15% on all sneak rolls.  Chance of being seen becomes 3 in 6.

5.  FIRE ANTS! Swarm the campsite, lighting anything remotely flammable on fire.  AC 7, HD 2.

6. A butterfly appears out of nowhere, it leads you to a location where there is a small sack of gold.  

7.  Strange worm burrows into your sack/backpack, before you realize it all of your stuff has fallen out on the ground.  

8.  Insects lay eggs in your ear while you are asleep, In 1d6 days you will suffer from a delirious state, stumbling about.  - 3 Intelligence, - 2 Dexterity.   

9.  Termites! have struck, any chest/wooden object you are carrying has holes in it.  

10.  Luminescent moths fly around campsite, lighting up the surrounding area. - 15% on all sneak rolls.  Chance of being seen becomes 3 in 6.

Day 3 - (Close to water, 0308) There is a small wood mill located along the river here.  The millwright Leeland Stonesand has been having trouble with a local bandit gang, he sent off his wife & daughter to bring wood to Elerd’s keep, but has not heard from them in a fortnight.

The bandit gang is not normally humans, but werewolves!  It will take a day or so to search the lands surrounding the mill to find their lair.  The PC’s will be able to find the 2 ladies tied up in a small cottage.  They will also find or hear evidence of the werewolves, but will probably not encounter them.  Bandit werewolf gang name?

Gang is located at 0209

Random Sighting - At some point if the PC’s are close to the forest they will see smoke rising.

Elves

If the PC’s attempt to go along the forest they are met with Elven mercenaries patrolling the outside of edge of autumn shade.  1HD 1d6 short swords, bows.  

The Elven village is located at 0405.  King Kendel Krisnorin is the leader.  The village has been sacked by an Orc tribe, it lies in ruins.  

Witches

0305 Hills - There is a coven of witches, they have been plaguing the countryside sacrificing animals & farmers to Loki.  They have been trying to bring him back into the world.  The witches have one stone of elemental power, that of Fire, and it can bring forth a powerful fire elemental. - Treat as 2HD humans, 2 1st level spells each.

0306 Forest - A small group of mischievous fairies live within this part of the forest.  They will play tricks on adventurers and attempt to charm them to steal their gold.