DF: Supernatural Outdoor Hazards

[mlangsdorf]

I want to torment the PCs in my DF game with some supernatural, outdoor hazards while they're traveling. I've thought of 4 and would like some other suggestions.

The 4 I've thought of so far are:

1) Good Omen. Someone in the group witnesses some startling natural event, and one member may make a team Religious Ritual roll to give the effect of Blessing 1 for a few days.
2) Bad Omen. Someone in the group witnesses some ominous natural event, and one member may must make a team Religious Ritual roll or the entire group suffers a minor Curse effect for a few days.
3) Rain of Frogs. Small amphibians fall from the sky. Weather Sense to detect, Survival at a penalty to find shelter. Groups in the open have to spend a few hours dodging toads and frogs or take multiple 2d-4 hits to the torso, arms, and head.
4) Pollen Field. The PCs run into a field of magical flowers with hallucinogenic properties. Survival to detect, and roll HT to resist the poisonous effect if the PC push through it. Breathing the pollen causes a Tipsy affliction, or possibly Hallucinating on a failed HT roll.

Any other suggestions?

[simply Nathan]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

4) Pollen Field. The PCs run into a field of magical flowers with hallucinogenic properties. Survival to detect, and roll HT to resist the poisonous effect if the PC push through it. Breathing the pollen causes a Tipsy affliction, or possibly Hallucinating on a failed HT roll.

Poppies.

5) Poppies will make them sleep! As 4, but the effect is sleep, not hallucination.

[Stone Dog]

The Fire Swamp will "attempt" to cast Fire Jet on anybody moving through it at seemingly random intervals.

The casting is preceded by a distinctive popping sound (+4 to Per checks to detect). All somebody needs to do to avoid the fire is to move out of the hex in question, which is fairly easy as the popping noise only lasts for about a second or so before the Jet is cast.

It is possible that these castings are caused by a spirit trapped somewhere in the swamp. If that spirit is freed, the swamp will become much safer for travelers.

[tantric]

Hazards and obstacles - even things that are completely innocuous can derail the party that spends hours investigating them.

6)Lightening strikes a near-by tree. This can cause all kinds of craziness, from a spontaneously generated Ent to a bleeding stump. The wood, especially from an Oak, will be very valuable in making wands.

7)A perfectly circular patch of dead vegetation.

8)A *spiral* of mushrooms (Amanita muscaria, of course, and there may be Redcaps lurking nearby). A trail of mushrooms leading into a thicket would also work.

9)The corpse of a large herbivore, frozen solid despite the warm temperatures, only now starting to thaw.

10)A Yara-ma-yha-who or even one of its victims. In my world, Yara-ma-yha-whos are undead Dryads.

11)Also, I use Undead Animals, aka Inanimals. When a living animal is subjected to the same process that turns a human undead, it becomes an Inanimal (so named because it is cut off from the Animus, the animal group soul). They become monsterous and perverted version of their former selves. Blooderflies, for instance, are large, black butterflies with transparent wings that have mutated into blood suckers. Shrieks are Shrike bird Inanimals. They are Ostrich sized things with naked heads and long impaling bills and evil eyes. They have hand-talons - they can stand on one foot like a stork and hold (usually someone) in their prehensile toes. Shrieks impale their victims on the Manfruit Trees, which nourish them and keep them alive while bleeding them dry. Some of the blood falls into the nests of the baby Shrieks built underneath the trees, who hold open their evil little maws and shriek for blood.

12)A brier patch and a tar baby. Or #11 could be the work of Aint Mammy-Jammy Bigmoney De Witch Doctor.

[PK]

Elementals. Small, weak elementals form naturally in places aspected to them, and they can be rather capricious in nature. Don't have 'em attack the party -- even one delver should make short work of a weak elemental -- but have one decide to torment or follow the party for some reason.

A fire elemental might come out of the campfire at night, setting bedrolls alight.

An air elemental could drop down from anywhere, and blow the partys' scent to attract vicious wildlife.

An earth elemental could start a small rockslide as they cross a pass.

A water elemental could actually initiate direct hostility and have a chance of winning -- provided the party is swimming across a river.

(Find the templates for each type of small elemental in GURPS Magic, at the end of the elemental college.)

[Stone Dog]

These might not be the same elementals that are available as familiars in DF:5, but...

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

A fire elemental might come out of the campfire at night, setting bedrolls alight.

A salamander could stalk the party for weeks, devouring their campfires every night and keeping them cold. Damn little thing scuttles into the tiniest places. It would take an additional power to show that it feeds off fire, but it could be done.

An air elemental could drop down from anywhere, and blow the partys' scent to attract vicious wildlife.

Or screw up foraging. Or just hang around and whistle. Maybe it doesn't want to mess with them, it just wants to watch their interesting escapades, but it starts to sing in a high soprano very loudly. The songs are complimentary and well done, but the damn thing keeps doing it at times that attract attention.

An earth elemental could start a small rockslide as they cross a pass.

Eventually the party will have a cart of some sort. A wicked minded talus could just hang on to the cart wheels and make a constant bumping, forcing checks for repairs often enough that more random encounter rolls are made.

[tantric]

To the Rescue:

Upon entering a clearing, the PC's find a dire skunk stalking a wounded baby bird, as the mama bird dive bombs and attacks it, trying to draw attention away. If they chose to help, they will find that the baby's wing is broken. It is almost old enough to fly and has enough feathers to have successfully glided down from the nest, though not without injury. The birds are Jade Mockingbirds, which look like North American Mockingbirds but mint green instead of gray. They are common in the area and noted for their fierce attitudes. To further assist, they may try to return the baby to its nest. Mama bird is hysterical and will attempt to dive bomb her baby's rescuers (reaction checks for those with animal speech, etc at -4).

Should they make it to the nest (30' up, much higher than normal mockingbirds, thus the subspecies) they will find it occupied by a much larger baby bird, clearly not of the same species. The interloper is a Dweomerpeat Cuckoo. Cuckoos are nest parasites that lay their eggs in other bird's nests. When the eggs hatch, they out grow their pseudosiblings and kick them out. If the cuckoo chick is rescued, it will gleeful imprint on anyone who feeds it. At this point it is capable of eating crushed insects and soft berries.

Dweomerpeats are a special subspecies of Cuckoo. Adults are fully sapient, this baby is about as smart as a cat. They are naturally drawn to mages. If they hear the same spell being cast more than three times in the period of an hour, they will attempt to repeat it. Thereafter they will try any time they hear that spell. They can learn any spell that doesn't have a material component. Unfortunately, they are very strong willed (Will 14)and literally Cuckoo. They learn to understand human language to a degree, but rarely make any attempt to communicate directly. They use their spells mostly to wreck havoc and create distraction so that they can steal bright and shiny objects, which they hide in secret caches (in no case will they give up their treasures to their 'parent').

[tantric]

As the group goes deeper into the forest, the trees get bigger and bigger. This is an old growth forest and there is almost no undergrowth. Soon the trees are truly titanic. BOOM! Out of the blue, they are accosted by a chipmunk the size of a rottweiler and nearly as ornery. The trees aren't getting bigger, they have been shrinking!

The party is the victim of Brownie or Leprechaun or whatnot that has a bone to pick with the Big 'Uns. Now he is twice the height of the tallest party member, and in a fightin' mood.

[Crakkerjakk]

What about if the earth elementals brought them raw gold and gemstones!

Boy that'd really show those nasty adventurers.

EDIT: More seriously:

The Wild Hunt

Supernatural predators (esp large ones, like dinosaurs)

Predatory plants! Maybe creeping bloodsucking vines a la The Ruins.

A forest that hates humans and keeps moving around and changing the trails to keep them trapped inside it.

Haunted grave mounds that just look like hills when the travellers seek shelter one evening.

Old battlefields haunted by the ghosts of the combatants.

Ancient stones that lure a sentry away from the campsite during the middle of the night. Some entity is trapped within and seeks release...

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

3) Rain of Frogs. Small amphibians fall from the sky. Weather Sense to detect, Survival at a penalty to find shelter. Groups in the open have to spend a few hours dodging toads and frogs or take multiple 2d-4 hits to the torso, arms, and head.

I like the idea, but isn't the damage kinda high? Even half that seems a bit much, to me.