Things That Don't Go Bump In The Night

Goodness In The Moonlight

Illustration by Luis Perez

Through history man has feared the night and monsters have been linked with the darkness. This is apparent in some of the traditional monsters like vampires which fear the sun, and werewolves whose change is brought on by the fullness of the moon. But not all things that make their home in the world after the sun goes down are evil, and today we’re going to look at some of those friendlier faces you might find after the sun slinks over the horizon.

So you’ve chased your players with angry ghosts, snarling trolls, and some of the worst undead you can find all though the night. But now you want to give them a reprieve, a safe haven from the more grotesque and brutal things brought out by the setting of the sun. There are creatures from as small as fey to as powerful as gods that make the moonlight their home. But which ones will fit your setting?

Golarion itself has nine divine beings that have the moon or the night in their portfolio. Of these only three are evil, giving a large portion of the night to good or neutral beings. I’ve already done some write ups on followers of Tanagaar and Ketephys but members of the churches of any of these moon-bathed deities can be the perfect respite for your players. The vigilant protectors of Tanagaar, or the tenders of the spirit world Tsukiyo of the Tian deities, or the Empyreal Lord Ashava may lend succor to your bedraggled party.

Speaking of spirits, the shaman class has opened up the idea that there is more to the spirit world than just vengeful ghosts and haunts. Although they have yet to really expand upon this (and I hope they do) some third party products already have. With spirits and lonely spirits being in the portfolio of two of the good gods of the moon, if you are going straight Paizo then Ghosts are going to fit the bill. Since the Ghost template doesn’t change the alignment of a creature a wandering spirit may very well lead your players away from danger, and not even know she’s dead. These kinds of spirits can also be helpful in moving your plot forward so you can really play around with them if you like.

One of my favorite goodly—although mischievous—creatures which lend aid to PCs are faeries. Although they tend to be reclusive the fey, especially pixies, have a deep-seated curiosity. Although none of the fey Eldest have night or the moon in their portfolio, these minor godlings as well as the creatures under their purview may be a welcome sight when the slavering beasts are coming in the darkness. She may not want to talk to the PCs but a dryad may use her mastery of the forest to disguise their trail. Brownies might leave something behind in camp that is useful while everyone is asleep. There is much the wee folk can do to aide your players without even being seen.

Although werewolves are often known for their evil ways not all lycanthropes are. The oft misunderstood werebear is a perfect guardian of the night time. Deadly to their enemies, which includes many of the other were-beasts, they are known to be friendly to lost travelers and many are worshipers of the Empyreal Lord Ashava. Strictly speaking not all of any lycanthropes are evil, so even a werewolf that has managed to keep his feral heart tamed could be a nighttime aid to your party.

So when you’re running your game of terror and constant peril, remember to give your players a brief respite. A friendly face after being chased through the woods by lord-knows-what can add some great role-playing opportunities. No matter what kind of creature you use, make sure every bump isn’t some murderous creature. And make sure your players aren’t the shoot first and ask questions later type.

What creatures have you used to aid your party in times of distress? Have you ever presented them with creatures that are normally evil but in that instance were allies? How have you presented the night to your players throughout your campaigns?

Like many writers, for me the night is an inspiring time. If the CRB has inspired you the way the moon and darkness inspires me, please consider contributing to my Patreon. If you’d like to converse further join the CRB communities on Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, and Twitter. My inbox is always open on all platforms.

The opening illustration was created by a fine artist Luis Perez. You can find him on Twitter and on Instagram at luisperezart.

Into the Woods

So you’ve set the scene and added the clues, but the forest is still just a place you walk through to get to the real adventure, right? Wrong. The forest can very much be the adventure, as can any other tract of wilderness. What kind of adventures can you have in the forest, though? If you’re not delving in ruins or tunnels what is there to do? Lots.

One of the easiest adventures for players of all levels to get in on is stopping creatures that are no longer acting the way they should. Most predators won’t attack people unless they absolutely must. Even magical beasts and low intelligence aberrations are still just doing what comes naturally. So whether you’re low levels and the town is having a problem with wolves attacking cattle or you’re high level and a much larger predator like the reptilian seb has begun hunting logger, there’s always a place for hunting the overreaching carnivore.

Once you’ve killed the beastie though the questions becomes why? What drives one of these predators to hunt outside their territory? Or kill without feeding at all? Sometimes there’s a corruption in the forest and this is one of the other most common quests to go on in the woods. Sometimes the answer is powerful magics that have leaked into the surround area causing chaos. Being a natural place, the forest might also connect to an elemental plane or the lands of the Fey. Maybe some mortal force is causing this mayhem, such as a deranged ranger or druid.

There are other more intelligent creatures that might use the forest as a lair. Bandits are easily one of the first bad guys early level players might go after. Wooded areas are prime spots for bandits to hide from authorities. In pretty much every D&D setting and, even on Paizo’s Golarion, there is at least one forest filled with Lycanthropes. Dragons may also make their lairs in the root systems of massive trees; the chromatic green dragon from D&D and Pathfinder in particular is known to roost in the forests.

I think my favorite encounters for forest settings are the fey, though. From the simply mischievous to the deadly and malign, the Fey can give many reason to venture into the woods. With varying levels of power and a vast array of interesting magical abilities they can be a fun encounter for any level group. The great thing about Fey is they don’t have to be combat encounters, many Fey have courtly–if alien–ways about them and negotiating with the faerie folk can lead to interesting twists for your players.

Lastly, many a magical potion or spell requires a special component to complete. These ingredients are often found in far flung forests; within their deepest, darkest hearts. The quest for one of these items is another adventure that could challenge players of any level. Most rare ingredients are not only rare because they don’t grow in quantity, but also because the place they inhabit are hard to get to or infested with dangerous creatures. Ravenous plant monsters or steam jungles full of long thought extinct dinosaurs may well stand between you and that one last item you need to cast a powerful spell and save the kingdom.

And that about closes out this series on forest adventuring. Hopefully it entices you to make the woods more than just an obstacle to getting from point A to point B, with random things leaping out at your party. These are just a few ideas on what you can do in the woods, and as always I’d love to hear about your wilderness adventures. Until next time make sure to leave out that trail of breadcrumbs.

The CRB is a labor of love but also a second full-time job. Content blogs rely on the people who enjoy them to keep making it viable to put out that content. Please consider becoming a patron of the CRB today. For more from me and my thoughts on gaming check the CRB out on Twitter where I live tweet my weekend games. The CRB is also on Tumblr where I post some great and inspiring fantasy art as well as large commentary about my gaming experiences. Like the CRB on Facebook where I share all upcoming news about the blog. If you’d like to get the CRB right when it posts, try out Kindle Subscriptions which will push the CRB right to your Kindle. 

When Animals Attack

So we’ve made your forest a more vivid locale for your players, and now it’s time to have that pack of wolves just jump out at them. But why? Wolves on the whole don’t just attack travelers going through the forest. Maybe they’re protecting a nearby den of cubs or something has been killing off the game and the wolves are starving. This not just true for wolves—even magical monsters have to have some motivation for attacking.

In most standard medieval fantasy games the characters do a lot of traveling. Even if there isn’t a ranger or scout in the party, someone needs to be able to follow a trail in the woods. Unless, of course, your woods are just full of constantly lost parties. One of the reasons the whole “X creature jumps out at you” doesn’t work for me is there should be some kind of foreshadowing. Most creature leave some kind of hint of its trail and the players would have noticed it, in some cases even without a tracker.

Carnivorous creatures will leave carrion, usually away from their lair but not always. When you come across a decomposing deer carcass you should be able to determine there are carnivores in the area. With a good tracker you can tell the difference between the marks left by the creature that made the kill and those that have just been scavenging from the fallen prey. If you’re trying to foreshadow a monster that doesn’t kill for food then an animal corpse with only the bite marks of smaller scavengers or even only the kill marks and maybe some vermin like maggots will tell a different tale. The fact that most GMs never describe these things boggles my mind.

Many animals leave marks to denote territory. For some this can be a very pungent scent delineating the edges of their territory. In other cases claw or bite marks in trees may signal “this is mine”. Even intelligent creatures that are territorial will leave landmarks such as fallen trees or small cairns of rocks. Every time an owlbear just jumps out and attacks I wonder why the players didn’t find fur or feathers caught in tree bark, or large claw marks or beak imprints in trees at its territorial borders.

Rivers, brooks, and streams bring much needed water to pretty much any creature that needs sustenance. From rabbits to big cats to dragons, if it eats and breathes it needs to drink. When traversing the forest one of the quickest ways to determine what kinds of creatures you might find is to see whose leaving prints at the local watering hole. Sets of different prints will show a thriving biome in the forest. Sometimes when you’ve got one superpredator like a wyvern or baby dragon you may only find one set of prints, and this means trouble.

The sounds of other animals will also give a clue to what’s going on in this area of the woods. When you have the shrill of birds moving back and forth through the trees you know you probably aren’t in any immediate danger. A good tracker might know the warning calls of many different animals and when hearing them can put the party on alert. When the forest goes silent a defensive posture is probably the best course of action.

The environment of the forest itself should be giving off many clues to the goings on within its confines. And sure, maybe your party is fresh-faced and lost in a wooded area they’ve never been in, but when seasoned adventurers can have creatures just jump out at them for no reason it makes the whole proposition seem off kilter. Fleshing out your encounters to actually mean something really helps with the immersion for your players, which of course is one of the reasons I steer clear of random encounter tables.

Hopefully you’ve gotten some ideas on how to enhance your encounters when traveling through the woods. These ideas can be applied to just about any wilderness environment, so don’t fret. If the CRB is helping expand upon your gaming experience please consider becoming a patron for as much or as little as you’d like. Check out the CRB on Pateron. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter where I live tweet my weekend games, and on Tumblr where I share inspiring art and thoughts on all things gaming. If you’d like to get the CRB pushed straight to your kindle check us out on kindle subscriptions.

See the Forest for the Trees

An owlbear jumps out and attacks you! A wolf pack jumps out and attacks you! A gang of kobolds jumps out and attacks you! Many times adventuring through the wilderness can just seem like a string of encounters with no sense of meaning or depth. In most faux- medieval settings the spaces between town and cities are fraught with danger and inspiring in their beauty. As GMs or writers it is our job to really make these places come to life for our players or readers. One of my favorite places to both find adventure and travel though to get to an adventure site is the forest.

Description is one of the first ways of doing this. When you tell your group they are walking through the forest, sure, an image comes to their mind of trees. The thing is that there’s more than just one type of tree and visuals are not the only things that make a forest a “forest”. Forests here in the northeast are vastly different than forests in the northwest. The jungles in the southern hemisphere are vastly different than the boreal forests of Canada.

Once you’ve picked the type of trees you’ll be using you’ll need to describe lighting. Tree type will determine the amount of light, and trees with smaller root system will grow closer together. How you describe this can set the mood of an encounter. During the day is the forest bright or does it seem like overcast with the sun just barely poking through the few empty spaces between the branches? Forests of deciduous trees that drop their leaves in the fall may allow more light, but now you have to describe the eerie look of the barren branches swaying in the wind.

Now that you have light and trees, we need add sounds and smells. Little touches like babbling brooks or rushing rivers can add to the atmosphere of the forest. Describing the how the wind plays through the branches can also give you players a better feel. A light rustling of the leaves gives a different feel than a harsh whistling. For smells, depending on the season, you can have fresh or dead fruit or berries. Wet moss can be an awfully pungent aroma as well. If you’re trying to give off that eerie feel, the decaying stench of rotting meat from a half eat animal carcass can do just that.

All in all there are many ways to add to the description of your forest, or any other outdoors setting. Making these places feel like more than just a place to pass through will not only heighten the general experience for your players while doing so, but also make the comforts of cities seem more luxurious. The next installment of this series will focus on actual encounters in the forest and how to enhance them.

If the CRB has inspired you to have your players go trekking into the woods please consider becoming a patron. These donations are how us bloggers can continue to put out the content you love. The CRB has also taken to other forms of social media to bring you more of my thoughts on gaming. I’m on Twitter where I live tweet my weekly games for your enjoyment. I’m also on Tumblr where you can see some of the artwork I find inspiring as well as hear thoughts about my gaming experiences. Perhaps you’d like the ease of getting the CRB sent straight to your kindle, try us out on Kindle Subscriptions.