Knoll of the Dead: Atmosphere, Hazards, & Random Encounters

Last week was about The Astral Web, so we’re back to the Knoll of the Dead this week.

This post is about the general atmosphere, hazards, and random encounters within the knoll. All these are meant to give the knoll a spooky and dangerous feel.

General Atmosphere

The lair is a knoll of dead, twisted, thorny vines that reeks of decaying flesh. The thorns drip a thick, black “sap.” The vines constantly rustle with (un)life. Looking into the vines will reveal (roll 1d4):

1. 1d3 skeletal rats scurrying in the vine.
2. Same as above, but zombie instead of skeleton.
3. A skeletal songbird building a nest.
4. A zombie songbird groaning.

Hazards

Reaching into the vines runs the risk of being scratched by the thorns. Make a Dex save (add armor bonus) to avoid all damage. If the save is failed, the character takes 1d6 hp damage from the poisonous sap (save for half damage).

Burning the vines produces a poisonous smoke that causes 1d6 hp damage every turn a character is exposed (save for half each turn).

Random Encounters

Every turn that the characters are in (or adjacent to) the knoll, the DM will roll 1d6. If the party splits up, each sub-group will get its own roll. On a “1” the group will encounter a wandering monster. Roll 1d8:

1. Noise from the walls/ceiling. Roll on the noise table above.
2. Zombie/skeletal bird flies past the characters (it won’t attack).
3. Human footprints (bare feet).
4. Spray of black, poisonous sap falls onto a character. If the character has an open wound, take 1d4 points of damage (save for half), otherwise symptoms will resemble a really bad case of poison ivy.
5. 1d3 live/zombie/skeletal (determine randomly) giant rats.
6. Skeletal/zombie fox (1d6-1 hp).
7. Skeletal wolf (1 HD).
8. Zombie boar (2 HD).

Conclusion

That’s it for this post. Next time will probably be the specs for the monsters.

Note that this is part of an ongoing series. If you’re interested in the the previous posts:

• Part 1 was a play report of the players who went through the knoll.
• Part 2 was the map of the Knoll.
• Part 3 was an overview of the adventure.

See you next time!