D&D 5E 100 Wilderness Events

[Gilladian]

Wow, there are some great ideas here! Since the journey my PCs are contemplating is in mountains in late fall....

16. You round a flank of the mountain, and are confronted with an old rockfall. A wide, scree-covered slope, with a topping of snow and ice lays before you. You can try to double back and find another route, or cross here to the flatter side you see beyond.

 

[akr71]

17. As you travel down the forest road, the sound of swift running water reaches your ears. You have been making good time - you did not expect to reach the river for about another hour or so. As you come to the riverbank, you realize that the heavy rains of the last few days and the rising water levels have washed out the bridge. Your map shows there is another bridge a bout a days travel up-river and a place to ford the river about 3 hours down-river. With the rising water levels, you are uncertain what condition the ford will be in.

 

[Draegn]

18 You trip on a vorpal vole hole and lose your head.

 

[rgoodbb]

19. A Yeti howls through the blindness of the snowstorm. It's howl is returned by another standing right behind you...

 

[CrimsonCarcharodon]

20. You stumble on an owlbear nest, full of eggs. The mother owlbear is nowhere to be found.

 

[Gilladian]

20. You stumble on an owlbear nest, full of eggs. The mother owlbear is nowhere to be found.

Or maybe you fought and killed it a mile back...

 

[Eltab]

21. The canopy of the forest is so thick near where you camped that in the morning it is holding a fog cloud near ground level. It's hard to see any distance, and you have a better chance to get lost as you travel.

22. In an Arizona-like desert: You see a bank of clouds ahead. They mostly scud on by, but any high mesa or hilltop gets a torrent of rain on it as the clouds pass.

23. In a Sahara-like desert: the terrain changes ahead of you, as far as the eye can see. It may go from stones/pebbles to sand, or boulders atop baked mud/clay, or vice versa.

24. Desert: the stones and piles of rock ahead of you look man-carved - statues, houses, &c in a blocky and heavy-set style. When you get up close you cannot find any tool marks ... but it cannot be just the wind, can it?

 

[CrimsonCarcharodon]

25. A storm of incredible power hits with little warning, blanketing the area in howling wind, torrential rain, and deafening thunder. The storm threatens to flood the area, or in higher elevation, to blast the area clear with lightning.

 

[ScaleyBob]

26. The PCs come across a Waterfall. Off course there's a cave behind it with either some monsters, or some treasure.

27. A massive wind storm hits. The PCs need to tie themselves down, or find some permanent shelter to avoid being blown away or badly hurt by the weather.

 

[Eltab]

28. Prairie / Savannah: The grass hides the fact that the land slopes down to a creek or seasonal rill. The grass gets taller near the water as the land drops, but the upper surface of the grasslands is flat and smooth (or as close as nature gets). The only visible sign of the water is the thin dark-green ribbon of grass amid all the pale-green or yellow. If you get into an encounter near the water, you have to deal with visibility-blocking grass in every square.

29. At sea: "Dark skies at night, sailor's delight. / Dark skies at morning, sailor take warning." You see a bank of clouds rising from the horizon and moving diagonal to your path of travel.

30. Grasslands / prairie: You see "the Black Hills" ahead. When you get closer, the color is actually dark green pine trees widely spaced. The weather changes somewhat (but noticeably) while you stay in the wooded hills.

31. Desert: You top a ridgeline and see a shallow valley with a string of oases in it. There is an underground river here. The river peters out near a salt flat on the "downhill" end - that area looks as if you drained the Dead Sea. The desert nomads may or may not be happy to meet you just here; the oases may be Top Secret or a holy site.

32. Mountains: You are following a path that zigzags up a valley. It finally reaches the high end. You are standing on a promontory that gives you a spectacular view back down the valley to the foot of the mountainside. Any village you passed before climbing the mountain looks ant-sized.

33. Mountains: you find the abandoned ruin of an old hermit's home. It may be a cave or a building. There may be something interesting squirreled away therein, or you may find a souvenier of the hermit's life, or the ruin may be just an empty shell. For an unknown reason, no wild beasts have moved in (that you can quickly find).

34. Mountains: You locate a 'hidden valley' which has no line-of-sight to the rest of the world. There are travel paths out; you just were on one, going the other way. Somebody might live here who likes their privacy, or it might be untamed wilderness.