The Mythic God Generator (and a new contest!)
From John Large
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0646
A Brief Word From Johnn
Wanna Be A Video Game Designer?
My friend Pablo Farías Navarro from Australia has a cool Kickstarter called Complete Mobile Game Development Course.
Pablo is creating an online school and will teach you how to build 15 different types of mobile games for iOS, Android, and Amazon.
I don’t normally promote Kickstarters in Roleplaying Tips because I get so many requests to do so and I want the newsletter to be focused on GMing tips, not ads.
But Pablo will be teaching us beginners how to build an RPG, a town simulation, and a virtual pet.
When I saw that a bunch of ideas immediately came to mind. I could build some cool things for my tabletop campaigns. The RPG could be akin to player handouts and challenges, or a way to do things between sessions like shop at the village. The town simulator would help you flesh out the PCs’ home base. The virtual pet? Well, what about a virtual NPC?
I think once we have these skills we are only limited to how we can enhance our games by our ideas.
The only requirement of the course is basic HTML and CSS knowledge. Pablo is adding a beginners JavaScript course for those who have never coded.
Here’s the link for more info.

New Contest: Mythic Gods
It’s time for another fun Roleplaying Tips contest! Today’s article gives you a quick and easy generator for creating Mythic Gods. Use these divine NPCs in your campaigns to drive adventures and encounters in a way that makes your world seem tied together and connected with major events.
To test the Mythic Gods Generator and see how you like it, and to get some examples of Mythic Gods to share in future newsletter issues, I’m launching a contest starting today. I’m also planning a Mythic Gods book, and would love to see your creations in it, as well!
To enter the contest, create one or more Mythic Gods using the template explained in John’s Mythic God Generator later in this issue:
Name:
Portfolio:
Myth:
Manifestation:
Rituals:
Rewards and Punishments:
Loot!
Each god you create and enter gives you +1 chance of winning. I’ll roll dice to determine winners, so each entry increases your chances.
Winners, you can choose a Roleplaying Tips product of your choice:
- NPC Essentials
- Faster Combat Guide & Course
- 3 Line NPCs
- Holiday Essentials
- 200 Story-Exploding Character Hooks
- Campaign Seeds
How To Enter
Contest entry deadline is March 2, just one week away.
- Read John’s Mythic God Generator below for divine inspiration.
- Then create some deities using the template and adding details to make your god unique.
- Then visit this form to enter the contest.
If you have any questions, just holler. And may my dice roll for you!
Cheers,
Johnn

The Mythic God Generator (and a new contest!)
The Mythic God Generator lets you create quick and interesting deities for your setting. You then use these divine NPCs to build linked adventures and encounters. What this generator won’t do is give you a cumbersome stat block for your gods, since it focuses on the important details of how the gods affect your campaign world and setting.
Use the Mythic God Generator on its own if you need a deity fast. Perhaps the PCs explore a forgotten continent or unfamiliar land and you need to come up with some gods on the fly. Maybe they stumble across the temple of a long forgotten dead god, or find a strange altar deep in a dungeon.
Follow the six steps below and note down your results to define your deity:
- Name – Pick a name thematic to your setting.
- Portfolio – What dominion does the deity hold sway over?
- Myth – What is the most well known myth associated with the god?
- Manifestation – How do the god’s worshippers depict the deity?
- Rituals – What ceremonies and offerings does the god expect?
- Divine Rewards and Punishments – How does the god reward true believers and punish those who work against it?
Here are each of these steps in more detail:
Name
Give careful consideration to the names you choose for your deities. After all, this is how you and your group will refer to them for the duration of your game. Appropriate and consistent names can also help your gods gel together as a pantheon.
Unfortunately, there is no random table or chart that will create plausible and consistent names for your deities, as you should use names in theme with your unique setting. However, there are some things you can do when creating names if you struggle to come up with them on the fly:
- Google Translate
Pick a foreign language using Google translate and then enter words that either sum up your gods or are part of their portfolios. Translate them all into the same language and then use the translations as names. This has the benefit of also keeping names sounding consistent.
- Role-Based Names
Give gods a descriptive name based on their portfolio or actions they often take. For example, The Stormbringer. Some suggestions for this are offered in the next step.
- Earth Mythology
Recycle existing deity names from a culture unfamiliar to your players. Or create names based on deities from real world mythologies. There are plenty of books and websites that offer great inspiration. I recommend the Behind The Name website because it contains a huge list of mythological names.
Portfolio
In many RPGs and in most mythology, gods and goddesses hold dominion over certain aspects of creation. For example, Ares in Greek mythology was a god of war, and Hel in Nordic mythology was a goddess of the underworld. These aspects of reality that a god has influence over are known as their portfolio.
You want to create a portfolio so each god’s identity, responsibilities, and powers are easy to conceptualize, plot, and roleplay. A portfolio also gives you and the players a sense of a god’s power level and place in the grand scheme of your campaign world. For example, a sky god sounds more powerful than a rain god because the concept of sky encompasses more.
Pick a portfolio for the god. Use the table below if stuck for ideas.
d10 | General Portfolio | May Have Influence Over | Suggested Suffixes For Names |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Creators/high gods | These gods tend to be heads of pantheons or the first gods who began the creation of a campaign world. They tend to be withdrawn from day-to-day affairs. | Most high, allfather, the creator, supreme one, great one. |
2 | Mother/Earth deities | Generally benevolent, these goddesses tend to be forces of creation and renewal, although they can also have a destructive side, clearing away the old to make way for the new. | Allmother, world mother, mother earth, mother nature, Gaia. |
3 | Sea and sky | The sea and sky are often some of the first things created in real-world mythologies, so these deities tend to be older and quite powerful. They can also be mercurial and changeable in their whims in the same way the weather conditions in their domain can rapidly alter. | Lord of the Deep places, Windrider, Windwalker, Master of the Oceans, Seaking, Thunderer, Rainmaker. |
4 | Animals and hunting | Many mythologies contain gods that change into animal forms. However, gods of hunting and animals are naturalistic and often savage, feeling more at home in a forest hunting than resting in a divine palace. | Lord of the Hunt, Claw God, Beastlord, Lady of the Forest, Greentooth. |
5 | Fertility and agriculture | These gods and goddesses tend to arise when humanity or other civilised species begin to farm and tame the land. They hold dominion of the growing season and survival of crops, making them very important figures for most agrarian societies. | Ploughlord, Lady of the Fields, Court of the Seasons. |
6 | Love, childbirth and the home | Love has been a great force throughout human history, inspiring hope, despair, and some of the greatest works of literature. Deities who hold dominion over the human heart are both widely praised but also potentially feared for the power they hold. The more caring and nurturing side of these deities is often seen when they protect the young and the home. | Heart’s desire, Lord of Longing, Young-bringer, Hearthguard, Lord of Hearth and Home. |
7 | Fate and fortune | There are many things in life (especially in worlds where magic exists) that cannot be explained. People ascribe such phenomena to the vagaries of fate or the whims of fortune. | The lucky, Prophet, Lord of what is known, Lady of the Veils, Master of the unknown way. |
8 | Trickster gods | In many real-world mythologies there are odd figures often used to justify seemingly random or haphazard events. These tricksters exist to stir things up and create chaos. Their actions seem random and cruel, but sometimes they do have a deeper hidden meaning. | Lady of Chaos, The Mad, The Trickster, Lord of Madness, Chaos Incarnate. |
9 | War | Conflict and violence is almost inevitable in life, from a minor scuffle to larger wars that engulf nations and involve hundreds of people. People invoke their gods of war hoping they will secure them victory in whatever challenges they face on the battlefield. | The Bloody, The Red-Handed God, Lady of Pain, Lord of Suffering, Master at Arms, Lady of Honour and Duty. |
10 | Death and the Underworld | What happens after you die has puzzled and frightened mankind since the earliest days of civilisation. Most nations and people have their myths about what happens when the soul passes on, so it is not surprising there is often a god or goddess who rules the realm of the dead. | Half-rotten, Lord of the Dead, Lady of the Damned, Shadowborn, Worm-eaten. |
Myth
What is the most well-known myth associated with the god?
We know gods from the myths and stories told about them by their worshippers and the rest of society. Through these stories we catch a glimpse of a god’s character and how they behave towards normal people.
By establishing a popular or well-known myth about your god, you begin to build up a framework of stories about your pantheon. This adds a great deal to your background and also provides you with a ready-made answer when a PC asks, ‘What do I know about Krask the goddess of the rains?’
Below are a number of frameworks or seeds you can use to create the basic outline of a myth for deities. Replace sections [underlined and in italics] with information from your own campaign to personalise the myth. Then use the seed to flesh the myth out later on, when you have time – just get the seed crafted for now.
World Creation
[The god] uses [a part of themselves/something they constructed from the raw matter of the world/remnants of a previous creation] to create [an important part of the world].Monster Creation
A [mortal protagonist] steals [an item or power] from the gods. [The god] curses the mortal for daring to steal from the gods, transforming them into [a monster].
The Quest
[The god] requires a service to be performed for them in [your world’s name]. But because they are forbidden from interfering by [ancient pact/the laws of heaven/the intervention of the other gods] they empower [a mortal] to undertake the task on their behalf.Fate
[The god] is dying due to a [curse/the passage of time/a prophesied event/an attack from another god]. The god [accepts/rails against] their fate and [passes peacefully/struggles but ultimately succumbs/temporarily fends of their doom/is able to overcome their doom] by [accepting their place in the cosmos/adopting a sense of fatalism/recruiting others to help it escape its fate/creating a proxy to die in its place/procuring the services of atrickster god to help it/hiding from its fate].
The Villain
[The god] becomes enamoured of a [mortal] and procreates with them, creating a [hideous monster/demi-god/a great hero or powerful villain].The Test
[The god] sets a series of tests for [mortal]. If the mortal passes, they will be given great power and may go on to found [a religion] based around [the god].The Metaphor
A [natural part of the world] is actually [god] [crying/angry/love/fighting/running/hunting].
Manifestation
How do the god’s worshippers depict the deity?
When a god is worshipped it will typically be portrayed in artwork created by its worshippers (unless deliberately not depicting the deity is a tenet of that religion). If all gods in the pantheon are depicted in a similar way, you create consistency in your pantheon. You also now have a tool to reveal different faces of a god seen through the eyes of its religions and cults.
Use the table below to see how the god is often depicted. Note, various religions might portray a god differently. The result from the table is just the depiction most people in your campaign world would be familiar with.
d6 | Depiction |
---|---|
1 | Deity is portrayed as a human. |
2 | Deity is portrayed as an animal. |
3 | Deity is represented by an abstract symbol or sign. |
4 | Deity is represented by a natural force, such as a crashing wave or fork of lightning. |
5 | Deity is represented as a combination of two of the results on the table. Roll twice and apply the results.For example: If you roll 1 and 4 you may choose to have your sea deity be a bearded man whose hair is the white foam of a crashing wave. |
6 | Deity is not depicted at all, since to do so would be an insult to the god or goddess in question. |
Rituals
What ceremonies and offerings does the god expect? How often are they expected?
Most gods in RPGs require some form of offering or sacrifice from their worshippers or common folk who wish to placate them. For instance, a fisherman going out in stormy weather might offer a prayer to the god of the sea that he return home safely. A farmer might burn a small part of his crop as an offering to the gods of the fields that his next harvest be equally as bountiful.
We chose to emphasise this in our Mythic God Generator because the idea of rituals and sacrifices provide such rich fodder for roleplay. The idea of stopping a nefarious ritual or of trying to obtain a rare item for an important sacrifice (to name just two) provides ready-made ideas for scenarios and quests for all PCs.
Roll once on the table below to determine the preferred offering of your god and then again to determine how frequently the god demands such offerings.
Roll | d6 Preferred Offering | d6 Frequency Demanded |
---|---|---|
1 | Offering of produce associated with the god. Such as fish for a sea god, crops for an earth goddess. | When a person is about to embark on a venture that involves the god’s portfolio. |
2 | Offering of precious gems or rare items. | Every morning. |
3 | Burning of incense or fragrant herbs. | Every evening. |
4 | Prayers to the deity. | Before or after meals. |
5 | Blood sacrifice. | Only at religious festivals. |
6 | A living sacrifice. | Once a year on a day or night holy to the deity. |
Divine Rewards & Punishments
How does the god reward true believers and punish those who work against it?
In a roleplay game, a god normally provides certain benefits to those devout worshippers who run its temples and sing praises to it. Conversely, they also punish those who blaspheme against them or oppose their worship. Such blessings as punishments are a staple of real-world mythology and offer plenty of potential for roleplaying, being one of the few reliable methods of communicating with (many) gods.
As a GM, having some idea when you create your gods of how they might choose to reward or punish mortals allows you to play them consistently and also to show the divine hand at work in your setting.
Roll or choose from the table below for the god’s primary method of rewarding the faithful and for their preferred method of punishing those who fall from their favour.
d6 | Result | Notes |
---|---|---|
1 | Good health. | A physical affliction. |
2 | A boon related to the god’s portfolio. | Madness. |
3 | Material wealth. | They are pursued by a divine servant of the god. |
4 | Magical abilities. | A quest, test, or ordeal. |
5 | A divine companion. | Cursed and transformed into a monster or creature. |
6 | Great knowledge. | An ability related to the god’s portfolio that comes with a powerful downside. |
Example Deities
Below are three deities created using the tables above as examples of how the Mythic God Generator can be used.
Name: Criador the Allfather
Portfolio: Creator/High God
Most well known myth: A creation myth where Criador used his own body to create the world, leaving him as an ephemeral spirit.
Manifestation: Since he has no body, Criador is presented by a simple circle showing he is both everything and nothing.
Rituals: Burning of incense or fragrant herbs every morning.
Reward: Those who earn Criador’s favour – usually master craftsmen and those who work to build things or who sacrifice of themselves – will occasionally when struggling with a project find themselves visited by a divine servant of Criador in the guise of an ancient carpenter who will discuss their problem with them.
Most people who have been visited by the woodworker come away with a tremendous insight into their current situation and often a solution.
Punishment: Most often those who have great skill but who turn it to dark or selfish ends find their ability becomes ever more supreme, but that everything they create invariably brings misfortune and ill-luck to those who touch it.
Alternatively, they might receive a divine companion or ability with a dark side.
Name: Sorte, Lady of the Grey Veils
Portfolio: Fate and fortune
Most well known myth: The previous god of fate, Fortuna was dying as his prophesied time reached its end. Fortuna accepted his fate and passed peacefully. The other gods worried the forces of fate and luck would rage out of control. But from the fading light of Fortuna’s dying being, a last ember flared into life and from it stepped Sorte, fate reborn.
Manifestation: Sorte is portrayed as a faceless female figure wrapped in a black cloak that contains all the stars of the night sky.
Rituals: Prayers once a year on a holy night.
Reward & Punishment: Those who have Sorte’s favour find themselves untroubled by illness and the general vagaries of fate. Those who earn her wrath find themselves dogged by small gnome-like creatures, servants of the Lady of the Grey Veils capable of manipulating the forces of probability.
Name: Coração Heartguard
Portfolio: Love, childbirth, and the home
Most well known myth: When a newborn child cries for the first time in their home, it is said the sound is actually Coração signalling to all that a new life has entered the world and it is under his protection.
Manifestation: Coração is portrayed as a great cat who curls up near the door of homes to protect them from intruders.
Rituals: Prayers every evening.
Reward & Punishment: People who earn Coração’s favour find themselves blessed with the knowledge to protect those they love and care about, being able to sense when a family member of a loved one is in trouble no matter how much distance separates them.
Those who have angered Coração find they gain a similar ability to sense when their loved ones are in danger or threaten. However, no matter what they do or how much they struggle to help them, they invariably arrive too late to prevent the danger.

Side Quests For Busy Groups
From Delos Adamski
If your group is anything like mine (post college and married) you don’t get a lot of time each week to play. My group tries to stay focused on the main story and the very idea of side quests are left out. We have a hard enough time dealing with finishing off the BBEG due to time constraints that we never even think of leaving the beaten path and do something else.
I feel in doing this my group doesn’t get to see as much of the world as I would like.
So here’s an idea that will allow side quests for all and won’t eat up a lot of table time. This will be used whenever the party would have some downtime to pursue personal goals. Ideally, you could do this once a session (at the beginning if fiction allows) but stick with the fiction and don’t force downtime just to use this.
This idea can be used for either personal character goals or for those random plot hooks you set up but don’t lead to anything earth shaking. The side quest is optional and is a gamble for the PC. If they do well, the PC will walk away with a boon for the next leg of their journey. If they do poorly then resources will be spent and the PC will be worse off, but that’s the risk adventurers take.
As I write this I realize this is a rehash of the D&D 4e skill challenge. Some people (myself included at one point in time) hated those skill challenges for their abstract and odd pacing, but hear me out. This could potentially add something neat to your game.
Step 1: The Goal
The first thing you need to figure out is the goal of this side quest. Now this can be as big or as little as you want, but I’m going to give you some guidelines to get you started. The goal should be:
- Something only one PC could conceivably accomplish by themselves
- Something that will help but not solve one or some of your current plot hooks, or just be important to the PC in question (personal quest)
- Something that could go wrong/bad
A few ideas for a side quest could be:
- Forge an orc-bane weapon to take on the Orc Lord
- Find a map of the old fortress the PCs are going to infiltrate
- Discover what happened to the paladin’s sister
- Look for herbs an alchemist could use to make into healing potions
Basically, the end goal should be an item or information. These make great side quests that could help the chances of your heroes, but just remember to not let them side quest straight to the final solution/weapon that would make your final encounter super easy.
Ideally, the PCs should come up with what they want their side quest to be. All you need to do in this step is just figure out exactly what they are wanting.
This is also a great way to hand out loot and items of consequence (i.e., magic swords and the like) to the players without having all of your encounters filled with them. It also lets the PCs add to your world.
For example, I’m going to use the side quest of “The paladin wants to travel back to the home of her order and retrieve a holy relic to help fight the Lich King’s minions.”
Step 2: The Obstacles
All side quests should have something the hero needs to overcome. If you can’t think of anything that would prevent the hero from doing what she set out to do, then it’s not a quest and you should just say “Yes, and…” and move on. If you can think of some things that could possibly stop the heroes, then you should start writing them up.
Aim for 3 obstacles for each side quest. If you can only think of one or two, that’s ok. Just make sure the reward is proportionate to the lack of challenge. These obstacles can be darn near anything you can think of.
For my example I’d use the obstacles of:
- Traveling there
- Convincing the people in charge
- Passing some sort of ritual test
Now we just need to give obstacles some life. So now they are:
- While traveling, the paladin is beset by a terrible storm that risks forcing her back to where she was
- The hierophant of the temple never cared for the paladin due to political reasons and will look for any excuse to keep her from obtaining more fame, even at the expense of the temple
- To be deemed worth of wielding the Sun Shard the person in question have to face a trial by literal fire and meditate in a sun powered furnace for a day
Alright now we have something for the paladin to do.
Step 3: Ask “What do you do?”
This is where it gets interesting. Instead of having some predetermined skills to roll, let your player come up with something awesome. A few of these will probably be super obvious and may only have 1 or 2 options, but be sure to let your players be creative. If you think it’s possible to accomplish what they want to do, then come up with the most appropriate roll. For example:
While traveling, the paladin is beset by a terrible storm that risks forcing her back to where she was. The paladin could:
- Convince a horseman through intimidation to get her to where she wants to go
- Just muscle her way through it and don’t stop for anything
- Use her unwavering faith to see her through the storm
Now as the GM you need to figure out what single die roll will cover that kind of attempt. Since this is a side quest and there are potentially a few other people at the table that want to do their side quest, you should try to do each obstacle as one roll. Now you want to figure out a target number they need to hit. This will be system specific, so I’ll defer to your judgement at this point, but you should have a “success” target, a “success with complications” target, and the “failure”.
Keep in mind to only tell the player the first obstacle and not all of them.
Have the player make the most appropriate roll and see how they do.
If they succeed, tell them how easy they surpassed the challenge.
If they succeed with complications, then you tell them how they succeed, but maybe give them a choice to either expend some resource to succeed or you instead raise the difficulty of future checks.
If they fail, ask them if they want to push on or turn back. If they turn back then they are done, but if they push on raise the difficulties of future checks and spend some resource that makes sense (HP, adventuring gear, spells used, etc.).
If the player succeeds or presses on, go on to the next obstacle and repeat.
Step 4: Success!
Once the player finishes up the final obstacle you hand out the reward.
Now under this system, a player will succeed if they throw enough time and resources at this side quest, and I think that’s ok. It’s a side quest, and if it’s important enough for the player to force their way through, then reward them for the trial. Just remember any resources used during the side quest will not be available immediately afterwards.

d20 Wilderness Encounters
Spoiler alert: players in my campaign, please stop reading. 🙂
Here are some encounters I’ve got planned next time the PCs head out into the wild. Maybe you can use them in your campaign too.
d20 | Encounter | Description |
---|---|---|
1 | Missing Children | Men from a nearby thorp seek help finding their kidnapped children. An evil druid cult is the likely culprit. |
2 | Mounted Patrol | Military or agents from the villain are scouting this place out for (1-2) rumours of gold, (3-4) a powerful hermit to ally with, (5-6) a lost artifact. |
3 | Orc Slavers | A groups of brutal slavers returns from a raid. They have (1-2) d20 commoner slaves, (3-4) d10 humanoid slaves and d20 human slaves, (5) a captured noble family, (6) d3 agents posing as slaves to discover the orc hideout. |
4 | The Prize | A lone tree grows on an outcropping overhanging a cliff. Stuck in the tree is a cloak that glows faintly. The outcropping is eroded and will crumble if too much weight moves onto it, sending tree and anything else down the cliff. The cloak is (1-2) covered in glowing lichen, (3-4) a trapped cloaker covered in phosphorescent minerals, (5-6) magical. |
5 | Caravan | An organized and well-armed merchant caravan takes up the whole road or trail. The merchants are (1-2) evil spies, (3-4) aggressive and threatening unless the PCs buy their wares, (5-6) magic sellers. |
6 | Statue | A 50′ tall statue has tipped over and been covered by flora. The statue is hollow. Its arms, legs, and head make a great 5 Room Dungeon. |
7 | The Chase | Goats bleat past the PCs at full gallop. Three ogres in pursuit crash through the foliage and stop when they spot the PCs. Unfortunately, the ogres are also fleeing, and something even nastier is close behind them! |
8 | Good Knight | The PCs first spot the squire, who squeals and runs back to his master if he can. Nearby, a knight takes rest and refreshment. The knight quests for a rare beast. |
9 | Goblin Snare | Several giggling goblins hide waiting for the PCs to trip their snare, which they have baited with bacon. The goblins think they’re so smart they’re chuckling aloud at their own cleverness. However, (1-2) it’s a ruse because there are pit traps just before and after the snare, (3-4) another creature is using the goblins as bait to ambush the PCs, (5-6) a terrible monster gets to the bacon first. |
10 | The Bounty | Relatives of one of the many people a PC has killed in battle have hired a bounty hunter to bring him back dead or alive for judgement. The bounty hunter carries a drawing with the PC’s likeness on it, plus a gold reward amount. The hunter has hired local natives to help him quietly stalk the party, waiting for an opportunity to isolate the bounty and take it. |
11 | Hatchling | The PCs come across a massive egg. It’s black with scarlet patches. The shell is at least four inches thick. The egg (1-2) has hatched and the hungry creature pounces on the PCs, (3-4) is hatching right now and will birth a terrifying monster soon, (5-6) has a secret opening and contains a horrific 5 Room Dungeon. |
12 | Lost Traders | Halfling craftsmen, lead by an over-confident but exasperated dwarf guide, bushwhack through the wilderness looking for the road. Hopelessly lost, the dwarf wants to murder his clients who (1-2) wander off in a random direction and get into trouble, (3-4) try to pick someone’s pockets, (5-6) refuse to walk any further and demand a hearty meal. |
13 | Ghost | An NPC the party murdered was not given last rites. His ghost has now risen and stalks and harasses the PCs. If the party can find the body – or at least some of its remains – and give proper burial and rites, the ghost will stop bothering them. Unfortunately, the body has been dragged off by (1-2) cannibals, (3-4) a monster, (5-6) a witch. |
14 | The Nest | High up on a cliff ledge the PCs can spot a large nest. Hungry baby birds chirp within. The momma bird (1-2) flies overhead and hasn’t seen the PCs yet, (3-4) Is dive-bombing the PCs from behind, (5-6) is a wyvern about to return. From the nest gleams a bit of treasure. |
15 | The Shrine | An ancient and forgotten shrine awaits discovery. The shrine venerates (1-2) a good deity, (3-4) a neutral deity, (5-6) Orcus. Inside are several small rooms with traps guarding (1-2) a holy treasure, (3-4) a treasure map, (5-6) a vial of Plague. |
16 | Ask Me | The statue of a god stands peacefully in a clearing. A spring feeds crisp, cool water to a shallow pool covered in small lillypads. At the base of the statue in a language one PC knows but never gets to use is inscribed: “Ask and ye shall be answered.” The statue will respond to one question a day with (1-2) a lie, (3-4) parts of a disastrous prophecy, (5) fortune cookie answers, (6) the truth. |
17 | Dinosaur Graveyard | Huge bones half-buried jut from the earth, making the terrain difficult. The graveyard extends for acres, and various humans camp and monsters lair in this area. They use the bones for tools, building materials, and art. Larger carcasses have created 5 Room Dungeons, forming natural caverns in the ground. |
18 | Dwarven Miners | The PCs hear a grim song in bass voices rumble the trees followed by a loud metal “ting!” every few moments. Up ahead, a cadre of dwarven miners attack a large rock with their picks. They seek to break it open because there’s a pocket deep inside, and in the pocket is a (1-2) trapped brother, (3-4) huge gold vein, (5) magic item, (6) terrible monster. |
19 | The Bridge | High above a deep channel and raging river spans a (1-2) disintegrating stone arch bridge, (3-4) rotting wooden truss, (5) decaying logs, (6) decomposing ropes and planks. In addition to bridge condition, crossing is dangerous because (1-2) of gusty winds, (3-4) monsters dwell in the cliff sides, (5-6) of traps laid at the centre. |
20 | The Tower | A three level tower lurks behind a thick copse of trees, making it hard to find. The tower is (1-2) abandoned, (3-4) a monstrous lair, (5) the home of evil humanoids, (6) the villain’s lieutenant’s headquarters. Treat each level as a 5 Room Dungeon. In the basement dwells a (1) crypt of restless spirits, (2) monstrous brothel, (3) insane wizard, (4) mine with evil dwarves ruled by mind flayers, (5) sleeping dragon, (6) the villain. |