The Forest, CR 2 – Random Encounters for Dungeons & Dragons: Fifth Edition

by jmgariepy · February 12, 2016

Day 73. Last week we surprised and ended a party of orcs. Among them was a six-legged, panther-like creature with strange appendages growing from its back. The orcs fell to our sudden strike, but the panther somehow evaded and took to the safety of the trees. We looted the bodies and paid the cat no mind. That was a deadly mistake.

The next morning, the party warlock stepped too far away from the camp to relieve himself. We heard a curse, then a scream. When we found Xevregol in the overgrowth, it was too late. Claw marks covered his body, and his throat was torn wide.

Devel, our dwarven cleric, was the next to fall. And fall she did; right off the side of a fifty foot cliff. Before descending, I personally double checked her ropes. She had both a runner and a safety which would tighten if she began to fall. As we watched from the bottom of the cliff, Devel appeared to launch herself over the side before crashing into the rocks below, her severed ropes pooling on top of her.

With only two of us left, Pheziff and I took no chances. We stuck by each other’s side. When it was time to sleep, we stood guard at the other one’s feet. And that’s where I found Pheziff when I woke one day—curled in a ball, toyed with by some malevolent beast.

I assumed I was next to die. To lure the beast, I pretended to sleep. But after two sleepless nights, I eventually passed out from exhaustion. When I awoke, I was staring into the eyes of an elk. I stood with a start to realize that only the upper torso of the elk was in bed with me; the lower half having been ripped to shreds. Each night I slept, and each night a new prize was left in camp. Numerous rabbits. A harpy. A pair of gnomes. Each of them barely eaten, yet destroyed none the less. Only once did I see the shadow of the fowl cat as I woke in the dusk, its body as gaunt as ever with tentacles balancing in the wind. I moved. But by the time I stood, the creature was gone. I never asked if it meant to protect me, or torture me. Perhaps it intends to do both.

Displacer Beast by Thundercake

Appropriate random encounters for

Eight first level characters
Four second level characters
Three third level characters
Two fourth level characters
Or a lone fifth level character travelling through the forest.

For more information on random encounters, when they are appropriate, and how often they should occur, see the Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG), page 85. For more random encounter charts, go to the Random Encounters for Dungeons and Dragons: 5th Edition page.

When determining a random encounter, roll 1d12+1d8 and consult the chart.

d12+d8	Description	Relationship to Players	Result
2	Very Rare	Deadly Encounter	A perpetually angry wereboar.
3	Rare	Hard Encounter	A thieve’s guild of forest dwellers, including 7 bandits, a pet giant badger, and a blood hawk.
4	Rather Unlikely	Hard Encounter	A displacer beast hunts amid the foliage.
5	Unlikely	Hard Encounter	Two hobgoblins, leading their 3 goblin minions.
6	Uncommon	Medium Encounter	A centaur berserkaer (Identical to a normal centaur, but with the ability, “Reckless. At the start of its turn, the berserker can gain advantage on all melee weapon attack rolls during that turn, but attack rolls against it have advantage until the start of its next turn.)
7	Plausible	Medium Encounter	An ankheg bursts through the earth.
8	Common	Medium Encounter	Two orcs and their pet wolf are on patrol.
9	Most Common	Friend or Foe Medium Encounter	A druid, who normally considers herself to be a pacifist, is convinced the party is up to no good.
10	Most Common	Easy Encounter	A harpy is a little too confident her tree will protect her.
11	Most Common	Easy Encounter	Now that their nest is disturbed, six flying snakes take to the air.
12	Most Common	Common Roleplaying Encounter	Four elf guards escort a gnome prisoner through the woods. The gnome begs the characters to intercede, even as the elves insist the gnome is a thief and must be tried for his crime.
13	Most Common	Common Beneficial Find	If a character makes a DC 10 Nature check, they realize they stumbled into a patch of Lungwort. There’s enough here to make four cups of tea. Each cup provides a +2 bonus to save check against a disease (The bonus is not cumulative.)
14	Common	Piece of Flavor	As you descend the far side of a hill, you notice a large tree that’s been scarred, top to bottom, by foot wide claw marks.
15	Plausible	A Trap!	A random character must make a DC 15 Perception check, or (failing that) make a DC 15 Dexterity check. If they fail both checks, a snare trap tightens, lifts the character off the ground, smacks them into some nearby branches for 2 damage, and leaves them hanging 20 feet in the air, upside down.
16	Uncommon	Uncommon Roleplaying Encounter	A troop of nine kobolds confronts the party, but they aren’t looking for a fight. Instead, they’re interested in purchasing weapons and armor to defend themselves. The Kobolds carry 100 gold worth of assorted small gems, and will buy anything that will suit them for double book cost. The troop only has one member that speaks Common, though, and his starting offer is insultingly low.
17	Unlikely	Environmental Hazard	The sound of pounding hooves and snapping branches fill the air. In one round, a spooked elk will smash through the treeline and ram into a random character (+4 to attack. 13 damage. Target makes a DC 13 Strength check or is knocked prone.) A successful Perception or Nature check at DC 17 can give the character enough sense to know where the elk will break through the trees, and get out of the way before it attacks. No matter what happens, the elk bolts on its next turn. Whatever spooked the elk doesn’t come after it.
18	Rather Unlikely	A Barrier	Unless the character at the head of the party makes a DC 10 Nature or Survival saving throw, they step into a 10 foot by 10 foot patch of quicksand. (DMG, p. 110)
19	Rare	A Lucky Find	A couple of goblins are struggle with a makeshift sledge through the woods. When they see the characters, they run. On the busted old sledge is twenty bricks of copper, each one worth 10 gold and weighing 10 pounds. Now how do we get all this metal back to civilization?
20	Very Rare	Incredibly Fortuitous Find	The corpse of what was once a man dangles from a forgotten length of spider webbing. There is very little of value on his possession except for a single scroll, which reads, “To my Nephew Orphric. You’ve been estranged from the family, and weren’t there for me during my dying days. Consequently, I thought to leave you nothing. But it occurs to me that I own a perfectly good, albeit small, farmhouse going to waste. And I figured that if you were to end your wanderlust, you could make something of yourself. Directions to the farmstead are written on the back. Do not lose this deed; since I doubt anyone would recognize you back home, and this is the only evidence in existence proving the farm is now yours. Your late uncle, Albercron.”