Encounter Tables

by zone, scaled by party tier — roll on a Wandering Danger result of 1 or 2

How to use these

The Wandering Danger die decides whether something happens; these tables decide what. Roll once per watch when travelling or camping, and once every third turn when delving. On a 1 (Encounter), the party meets it now. On a 2 (Sign), roll anyway and describe the traces instead — tracks, a carcass, smoke, a sound — as a warning of what's in the area. On a 6 (Opportunity), use a Wonder or Traveler entry as something useful rather than threatening.

Always make a Reaction Roll for anything that could plausibly talk, trade, or ignore the party. Many entries below are only fights if handled as fights.

The kind column tags each entry. For what beats a given kind and what its appearance means, see the Bestiary — this document owns what appears where and in what numbers; the Bestiary owns kinds and weaknesses.

Party tier	Scaling
Novice (levels 1–4)	Use listed numbers as written. Single big creatures appear as sign, at a distance, or already occupied with something else.
Adept (levels 5–10)	Double group numbers, or add a leader/elite. Single big creatures engage directly.
Master (levels 11+)	Triple group numbers and add a leader, or substitute the greater cousin (wolves → dire wolves, ghoul → ghast pack, hag → coven).

Adjust for party size: fewer than three, use the tier below for numbers; five or more, use the tier above.

Village & Fields settled ground

Mostly mundane, lightly wondrous. Violence here is the exception and should feel like an intrusion.

d12	Kind	Encounter
1	beast	Wolves at the stock pens by night — 2d4, bold from a hard season.
2	beast	A boar in the barley, enormous and unbothered; the field is being ruined by the hour.
3	human	Deserters or road-thieves, 1d4+2, working the lanes and claiming to be the lord's men.
4	human	A tithe-collector or bailiff from the lord's seat, unwelcome, escorted, and asking who the strangers are.
5	wonder	The offering-stone at the field's edge has been overturned. Nobody in the village will touch it.
6	wonder	Lights over the fen or the far pasture. The villagers watch from doorways and go back inside.
7	fey	Small folk in the granary — nothing stolen, everything moved. An offering will settle it; violence will not.
8	fey	A hedge-lane walker met at dusk who asks a small favor and offers a small gift. Both cost more than they look.
9	undead	Something is coming up out of the churchyard or the old barrow at the field's corner. 1d3 ghouls.
10	traveler	A peddler with news of three other villages, half of it wrong, one piece of it vital.
11	traveler	Refugees from a hamlet further out, with a story nobody in this village wants to hear.
12	human	Rival marked folk, here for the same bounty and not pleased about it.

The Wild Road between settlements

d12	Kind	Encounter
1	beast	Wolf pack shadowing the party for a mile before committing — 2d4.
2	monster	Fen-drowned at a ford or wet crossing, 1d4+2 — mindless, hungry, no reaction roll.
3	monster	Giant spiders strung across a wooded stretch of road, 1d4.
4	goblinoid	Goblin raiders off the road, 2d4, more interested in the baggage than the fight.
5	goblinoid	A hobgoblin patrol, 1d4+2 — standard-bearing, screened, drilled, and openly assessing whether this is worth it.
6	human	Bandits at a pinch-point, 1d6+2, who would genuinely rather be paid than fight.
7	imperial	An imperial bridge or milestone, still sound after a thousand years, the king's mark cut over the old one — and something using it as a lair, a toll post, or a shrine.
8	wonder	The straight road runs on past where it should end. Following it is a choice.
9	fey	A crossroads meeting: an elven wanderer, unhurried, on business of their own, willing to trade a truth for a truth.
10	undead	A wraith or barrow-wight bound to a stretch of road where something bad happened. 1.
11	traveler	A merchant train or pilgrim band, nervous, hiring guards at poor rates.
12	weather	Weather closes in hard. Shelter must be found, and the only shelter nearby is already occupied.

Deep Forest past the treeline

d12	Kind	Encounter
1	beast	Dire wolves or a hunting bear, 1d3 — territorial rather than hungry.
2	monster	An owlbear, 1, with a den nearby and a reason to be defensive.
3	monster	Foglights over a boggy hollow, 1d4 — they lead travelers off the path and wait.
4	goblinoid	A goblin warren's outer sentries, 2d6, well dug in and expecting trouble.
5	fey	A dryad whose tree is threatened by charcoal-burners; her patience ran out last season.
6	fey	A nymph at a pool who will answer one question truthfully in exchange for something the asker values.
7	fey	Redcaps or malicious small folk, 1d4+2, who are simply hostile and want no bargain.
8	fey	A hag's territory — bones on thread, a path swept clean, and terms available to anyone desperate.
9	wonder	A clearing out of season — snow in summer, blossom in autumn. Nothing attacks. Something is watching.
10	wonder	An offering-shrine kept up by no village anyone can name, with fresh gifts on it.
11	human	A hermit, outlaw, or hedge-witch living out here on purpose, and not glad of company.
12	elven	Grown stone under the leaf litter, following the grain of the land — legible as built only once the pattern repeats.

Mountain Reach

d12	Kind	Encounter
1	beast	A cave bear or mountain cats, 1d3, defending a den on the only good path.
2	monster	Harpies above a pass, 1d4+1, patient and well-fed.
3	monster	A troll under a bridge or in a scree hollow, 1 — and a local custom of paying it.
4	goblinoid	Hobgoblin outriders, 1d4+2, mapping the passes to imperial survey pattern for a company that needs somewhere to winter.
5	goblinoid	Orc or goblin miners who have broken into something they should have left alone.
6	human	A dwarven village's patrol, correct, formal, and wanting to know the party's business in their hills.
7	fey	A spirit of the stone or the pass, offended by something recent and specific.
8	wonder	A cairn that has been maintained for centuries by nobody the party can find.
9	weather	Whiteout, rockfall, or a storm that makes the high route impassable for a day.
10	undead	The dead of an old campaign, still holding a position that no longer matters. 1d4.
11	imperial	An imperial watchtower or road-cut, repaired once during the king's push, abandoned since — and lately reoccupied.
12	dwarven	A sealed adit or gate freshly opened by frost, weather, or somebody's shovel. It was sealed deliberately.

Coastal Reach

d12	Kind	Encounter
1	monster	Fen-drowned or drowned dead washing in on the tide, 1d6.
2	monster	Something large in the shallows that has learned boats mean food. 1.
3	beast	Seabirds or shore-beasts mobbing a carcass — and what killed it is still nearby.
4	human	Wreckers, smugglers, or a fishing crew doing something they'd kill to keep quiet.
5	fey	A selkie or sea-spirit with a grievance about a bargain the village has been cheating.
6	fey	A nymph of a tidal spring, visible only at low water, with a warning and a price.
7	wonder	The tide goes out further than it should and stays out, exposing something.
8	wonder	Bells heard offshore in fog, from no ship and no steeple.
9	traveler	A ship's boat put ashore with survivors, cargo, or a passenger nobody will explain.
10	undead	A drowned crew that comes ashore on a particular night, 1d6, looking for a particular person.
11	weather	A storm surge cuts the party off from the village until the water drops.
12	elder	A tide-locked shrine or drowned foundation, reachable for only a few hours. Older than the Empire.

Ruins & Dungeons underground

Roll every third turn of delving (a turn is 10 minutes), and again whenever the party is loud, lit, or forces a door. Watches are for above ground; turns are for below it.

d12	Kind	Encounter
1	vermin	Giant rats, bats, or stirges, 2d6 — a nuisance that costs resources, not lives.
2	monster	Giant spiders in a collapsed section, 1d4, with old cocooned remains worth searching.
3	undead	Ghouls roused by the party's noise, 1d4+1.
4	undead	A barrow-wight or bound spirit that speaks before it fights — and can be answered.
5	goblinoid	Squatters — goblins, or worse-organized things, who got here first and made it home.
6	human	A rival delving crew: alive and hostile, alive and desperate, or very recently dead.
7	hazard	Structural failure — a floor, a ceiling, or a flooded passage that changes the route.
8	hazard	A ward or trap still working exactly as intended after centuries.
9	fey	A guardian bound to the place by an old pact, testing intent before permitting passage.
10	wonder	A memory-echo: the place plays back a scene from when it was in use.
11	wonder	Offerings left by generations of villagers — proof this pact has been paid before.
12	monster	The thing the contract was actually about, met early and out of position.