Potable Potions Plentifully Presented with Purpose and Precision

Potions are cool.  You give them out, they get used, they're gone.  Plus they break easy, they interact with each other... there's so much capacity for chaos in the hyper-magic fluid you have rammed in your fanny pack.

I wanted to make myself a big list of potions for my own use, so I ganked a whole bunch from Goblin Punch.  He already wrote up most of the potions someone would need in the most sensible way I can conceive writing them.  So I stole that too... but that's what we're here for right?  When the stealing was done, and the obvious spectrum of healing potions were added to the list, I still needed to write up a few dozen of my own potions, so here those are in GP style, to enhance and completely ruin your pcs' lives (particularly if they're the sampling types).  Drink up!


32 Potions

1 – Animal Friendship – at will 'Animal Friendship' spell (DC 13) for one hour. Looks like fur or feathers. Smells like droppings or guano. A small sip makes a bird sing overhead, a squirrel dart past, or fish leap out of water.

2 – Strength of the Plain - Strength increases, roll d100: 01-50 Str21, 51-75 Str23, 76-86 Str25, 87-95 Str27, 96-00 Str29. Lasts 1d4 hours, anything strength related suffers -1 for one hour after. Looks like marbled flesh or stone in red, white, and pink. Smells like a gym. A small sip lightens your load, eases your aches, and energizes.

3 – Mind Reading - Gain the effects of 'Detect Thoughts' (DC 13). Looks like dense purple liquid with a cloud of pink in the center. Smells like eucalyptus and rain. A small sip imparts an (obvious) emotional echo from a party member.

4 – Inebriation - Anyone who drinks even half of this potion becomes catastrophically drunk (-4 to everything) for six hours. Three hours of splitting headaches persist afterward (-2 concentration, intelligence checks, initiative). Looks like red-gold liquor. Smells like a dead cat. A small sip gets you insta-buzzed.

5 – Secret Serpent Tongue - You get a +4 to charisma checks for one hour. Looks like sparkling gray and blue sand in water. Smells like egg yolk. A small sip makes someone nearby give you an innocent compliment.

6 – Liquid Illusion - If you drink it, you will believe the most horrible thing you can think of is growing in your stomach and going to soon kill you. This is false, there is no further danger, and lasts six hours. If poured out, it exists as a semi-solid smoke or phlegm that forms into a crude monster shape of your choice. The smoke-phlegm creature mock attacks a target of your choice for one turn. It seems to be damaged by weapons and non-bite attacks, but cannot be hurt. A creature biting the decoy must make a constitution save or be choked to death, it will then discorporate. Looks like roiling green-black smoke. Smells like a cellar or cave. A small sip will give you deja vu.

7 – Antimagic Water - Cancels all spells affecting you and suspends and magical constant effects natural to you or emanating from your person if consumed. Makes you immune to lasting magical effects for the duration and save against other spells at +2. Lasts 1d6 hours, then you shit out all your magic gut bacteria for an hour and save against magic at -1 for a week. Dispels magic if poured onto objects. If poured over yourself, makes you immune to all magic, in addition to the consumed effects with a duration of 1d6 turns (10% chance of magic rash setting in 1d4 weeks afterward). Looks like water. Illusions cannot be seen through its transparent liquid (effectively a seriously distorted 'True Seeing' lens). Smells like bleach doughnuts. A small sip makes a random magical effect on yourself to “flicker”.

8 – Oil of Fiery Burning - Impossible to drink. Deals 1d4 damage to anyone opening, then dexterity check to close or it explodes. 6d6 damage on explosion or thrown impact (dexterity save for half damage). Looks like iridescent molasses. Smells like - it's on fire! A small sip is nearly impossible and completely insane.

9 – Insight of the Center Eye - You get a +4 to wisdom checks for 1d6 turns. If you use wisdom for spells you may cast one spell without using a slot, of spell level no higher than half your character level. Looks like a nebulous, blue-black, star-dusted sky. Smells like heavy, bitter incense. A small sip makes you remember something important a mentor, or parent imparted to you long ago.

10 – Epiphany Philter - You get a +4 to intelligence checks for one 1d6 turns. If you use intelligence for spells you may cast one spell without using a slot, of spell level no higher than half your character level. Looks like cloudy gray fluid with something softly glowing obscured in the center. Smells like ozone. A small sip gives you a great idea about something that is no longer pertinent.

11 – Rubber Soul - You become rubbery in body and spirit, your joints seem to move oddly and your skin seems shinier. All ranged physical and magical attacks against you bounce off and affect the attacker 25%, or another random individual otherwise. Close range attacks of either type always ricochet back at the attacker. You can fit yourself through spaces as if you were one size category smaller. Your melee attacks deal -2 damage each, while your ranged attacks deal +2 damage each. Lasts 1d8 rounds. Looks like opaque, pink and fibrous like erasers. Smells like moist grass. A small sip makes your tongue rubbery, bouncing off your teeth and the roof of your mouth. You talk like a drunk or someone on Novocaine for a few minutes.

12 – The Gateway - Unless you have prepared yourself with fasting and meditation beforehand, you will spend 1d4 hours madly feverish and violently vomiting, all your stats are -3 for 1d6 days. When you peak four hours in, you are projected into the astral plane via an ineffably ancient dream structure. You will not pass unless you defeat, impress, or bargain with the ur-beast guardian spirit/archetype/demon/whatevs. The guardian cannot kill your body, but can reduce you to a permanent comatose state if it “kills” you in the astral. Those injured by the guardian must succeed a wisdom save when they exit to the material plane or take 1d4-1 permanent intelligence damage (minimum 1). Looks like murky orange-brown tea or juice. Smells like the breath of a great predatory beast. A small sip tastes like rotten bark, coffee, and shit. The next time you sleep you will dream of the guardian who mocks your indecision, and begins to consume you before you wake. You are now afraid of the potion, the guardian, and the gateway: you are ever aware of the potion if it is within 50', and without special compensation any attempt you make to battle the guardian is at -2.

13 – Stench - Your every secretion become a pungent and overwhelming 'Stinking Cloud' effect centered on you. You are immune to your own secretions. Last for 1d4 hours, much less if you drink a lot of water, wine or beer. Doubles wandering monster frequency for duration. Throw to create a 'Stinking Cloud' where it breaks. Looks like layers of yellow, green, and brown silt or smoke. Smells like a kind of sulfuric-grandma-maggotflesh-dysentery-henhouse-landfill – before your brain cuts the connection to your nose to spare you (can't smell or taste for 1d6 turns). A small sip makes you repulsively flatulent or gives you awful BO for one turn.

14 – Sterility - You become permanently unable to have children. No effect on immature creatures. Looks like opaque red globs suspended in clear yellow fluid. Smells like alcohol and semen. A small sip tastes like sweat and bad wine, and makes your testicles or ovaries ache briefly if you are able to breed.

15 – Demon Blood - If you succeed a save (wisdom, spell) you acquire a demonic power or attribute (regeneration, at will power, great strength, etc.) for incorporating the blood into your own, but you are forever marked with an unnatural taint. If you fail the save a greater demon begins to manifest within you and will eventually consume your body and spirit as it reforms its own. Looks like brown-black silt at the bottom, a layer of dark red sludge, topped with a layer of bubbling red. Smells like sulfur and split carcasses. A small sip tastes like rotten meat and clotted blood.

16 – Angel Lymph - If you succeed a save (wisdom, spell) you acquire a celestial power or attribute (regeneration, at will power, great charisma, etc.) for incorporating the lymph into your own body, but you are forever marked with a supernatural aura. If you fail the save a greater angelic being begins to manifest within and around you and will eventually consume your body and spirit as it reforms its own. Looks like bunches of dozens of tiny membranous yellow lights floating in a cloudy white liquid. Smells like light wine. A small sip tastes like liquid baklava.

17 – Magical Intensity - Any spells you cast with a variable component have that component maximized. Lasts three rounds. Looks like layers of chocolate pudding. Smells like gunpowder. A small sip makes your fingers twitch, and gives you a feeling of building magic within you.

18 – Scent Neutralization - Your scent is completely neutralized for 2d4 hours. Looks like dark gray silty water. Smells like nothing. A small sip tastes like black licorice, and neutralizes your scent for 5 seconds (weirds the hell out of dogs).

19 – Vicious Visage - Your face painfully contorts into a horrifying grimace for the duration, terrifying any fear-affected creature who meets your gaze. You may cover your face to spare others. Lasts 1d6+2 rounds. Looks like water, your reflection is always hideous within. Smells like rubber. A small sip is so sour you make a terrible face for a moment.

20 – Eidetic Memory - You have a perfect memory of anything you experience for the duration, you can make accurate maps, memorize the contents of entire books, etc. Lasts 1d4+1 hours. For 1d4 turns after you will be unable to remember important information. Looks like gray mucous. Smells like a childhood memory. A small sip tastes like rancid butter and makes you feel like you're forgetting something...

21 – Elixir of Energy - For one week you are nearly tireless, requiring only 45 minutes of light sleep a day to function. You are capable of making 300% progress on nearly any downtime type activity (spell research, item creation, construction, investigation, etc.), but you receive no bonuses in combat. When the effect wears off, you will remain exhausted until you spend an entire day eating and sleeping. Looks like frothy neon green, constantly in motion splashing and swirling. Smells like paint thinner... and apples. A small sip is bitter and awful.

22 – Poetry - You may only communicate in poetic verse or song, this makes it impossible to cast spells with verbal components. You are unable to be quiet, and will always orate in the fullest possible voice. Finally, adds +2 to any check involving poetry or song. Lasts 1d4 hours. Looks like the distorted reflection of lines of black text on white, you can almost make it out... Smells like, Spring becomes summer / the scent of blossoms floating / stirs a deeper need. A small sip causes you to rhyme off the next thing you hear.

23 – Ruinous Riches - Save vs. petrification/constitution/whatever, if you fail one of your limbs becomes an amount of gold and gems equal to its volume, if you succeed you permanently lose 1d8 hp, which becomes a quarter of a cubic foot of material per hp. The transmutation is clean and leaves no wounds. Looks like glittery golden goo. Smells like blood. A small sip will make you spit out a diamond tooth, or slough off a nacreous fingernail.

24 – Vomitous Birth - In 1d4 rounds you violently and uncomfortably spew forth 1d6 creatures, one per round. The creatures are bizarre, misshapen and unfinished in appearance, every one different, some may resemble you in a small way. They begin as single hit die creatures and grow one hit die per round for two rounds. They are non-intelligent and do not take orders, they will attack anything that attacks them or you first. Otherwise they will remain near you (like ducklings) unless driven off. Looks like many grape-sized, spheres of clear jelly, with pulsing dark nuclei. Smells like a terrarium. A small sip tastes like ham and oatmeal and makes your stomach loudly growl.

25 – Worthless Corpse - As per 'Veins of the Earth'. Lasts 1d8 turns. Looks like gray and white-yellow dust. Smells like moldering corpses. A small sip tastes like ashes, makes your cheeks sink and your skin turn grayish for a few minutes.

26 – Forgetfulness - You forget the last 1d4 (infinitely exploding) days. Looks like cool purple-blue swirls. Smells like something you've smelled before but can't put your finger on. A small sip makes you forget what the potion tastes like.

27 – Delicious - Drinking the entire potion is the greatest gastric event of your life, you will be unable to move, take any action, or even properly think for 1d6 rounds (injury will restore sense), it is that good. All other food and drink will be pale and disappointing compared to the Delicious potion, and you will do anything to acquire more if you are convinced it exists somewhere. If you refuse to pursue more of the potion you are aware of, you suffer -2 to all rolls as your every thought is corrupted by daydreams of it. Looks like sparkling water ever so slightly tinted pink. Smells like nothing. A small sip is potentially worse than drinking the whole thing... save (wisdom, spells) or you are still addicted AND you're still carrying a bottle of the stuff that you are now madly possessive of. Absolute worse case: everyone in party gets a sip.

28 – Cerebral Parasite – This potion is a growth/collection medium for a kind of astral parasite, drinking it removes many of your astral mindform's natural defenses, creating a perfect place for an Endless Astral Worm to lay an egg. The egg will fuse with your astral mindform, begin to absorb it, and grow. You will become more and more intelligent, less charismatic and gain up to two bonus wizard spell casting levels over the next 1d6 months before permanently transforming into an illithid (your character is forever lost). Looks like clear light green gel. Smells like minty bleach. A small sip makes you feel ambiguously vulnerable for a moment.

29 – Space Hands - Your hands become as a gray clear crystal that reflects no light, for the duration they are completely indestructible. Once per round you may reach a hand through the dimensions and pull out something (gonna need a whole other table for this) random, some will be held/wielded some thrown into this dimension. If you succeed an unarmed attack on a foe you may initiate this power within their body, dealing 1d10+4+damage modifier and any damage appropriate to the random object. Lasts 1d4+2 rounds. Looks like a layer of deep blue on the bottom and a layer of bright orange on top. Smells like a catcher's mitt. A small sip makes you want to punch a wall.

30 – Liquid Tool - These come in a variety of forms: (3) tents and a stocked campsite, a battering ram, a siege tower, a covered wagon, (30) iron swords, a great pile of climbing gear, (5) highly unpredictable firearms and (60) uses of ammo and powder, etc. Looks like it's crammed full of wood or cloth or metal. Smells like wood, cloth, metal, gunpowder. A small sip makes you spit out some unraveled rope, a small chunk of iron, splinters, etc.

31 – Undeath - You die, swiftly and painfully. If you are 4^th level or lower, you return as a mindless form of undead. If you are 5^th level or higher, you return as an intelligent form of level appropriate undead. Looks like black oil. Smells like mold. A small sip hurts you deep inside, save (constitution, poison) or a random internal organ dies and returns to functionality as an “undead organ”, the character is unaware. The organ functions well enough, but can be turned/destroyed and creates all sorts of problems for clerics/paladins.

32 – Immacula's Elixir - Heals all damage, poisons, diseases, regrows any lost organs or limbs, erases scars, restores lost levels. For the next 1d4 turns, your status cannot be affected (you cannot be petrified, poisoned, diseased, put to sleep, etc.) and any wound received immediately heals. If you are older than prime physical age, you grow younger 1d20 years. Looks like shimmering rainwater with a green glowing seed inside. Smells like rain and young shoots. A small sip tastes like sugar, dew, and lime, erases weariness and quenches your thirst for a time.

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Been playing a bit in-setting, which is helping me grow my information in the right directions, but saps my time to post here.  It all feeds the same dark beast though.  Working on like five d100 encounter tables by terrain at once.  Thought I'd finish one of those first, but trying to roll for random treasure in 5e just made me super disappointed and I had to fill an obvious hole.  First time playing 5e... it works, I've seen worse for sure.  Lot of poor design in the rule books, there are all these things I have to struggle to look up, or help new people look up because they are bizarrely hidden.  The lack of summon monsters is annoying, but I always end up making my own summon monster spells/tables anyhow (I love it).  Till next time, careful sniffing that philter.

Random Encounters by Terrain - Forest/Jungle

The second "d100 encounter by terrain type" table in my series, this time for forests and jungles.  You saw the one for plains and grasslands, right?  There are MANY more to come, but these things are great beasts, and I have this self-destructive tendency to make every entry another table!  Related to this is also my wildlife overview and super fun image dump post, check that out too if you're into prehistoric megafauna.

Forest / Jungle - 33%/day

01-02  Webbird Flock - usually detected by their sunlight-blocking webbing before they are seen.  Webbirds are an environment transforming species that turn normal forest and jungle areas into lightless cave-like spaces that encourage different plant growth.  They have plump, hairy bodies and ragged, hairy moth wings.  Their fist-sized heads have small, dull, black eyes, a dozen feathery forward and backward curling antennae, and a cluster of jointed tiny hooks for a mouth.  Webbirds will attempt to lay grubs in warm-blooded M+ sized creatures.  If the creature is wounded, they may land on the wound and lay eggs, if not they will land and bite for 1 dmg and lay eggs next round.

03-04  Coelophysis Pack - 3' high furry/feathery therapod scavengers.

05-06  Primates (1d6)
  1.  Feenees - panda patterned lemurs, if unmolested they may follow the PCs and alert them to danger, or lead them to fruit, edible plants and clean water.
  2.  Darrenhaust's Marmoset - tiny leonine grey monkeys, seemingly fearful and shy, will attempt to steal anything small enough in a moment of inattention, preferably objects that are bright colored, shiny, or have a strong smell.
  3.  Hounahoun - a simian sage, attended by animal-shaped nature spirits.  Exceptionally wise and exceptionally bored, only somewhat kind.
  4.  Black-bellied Slingers - large, aggressively territorial monkeys, create a riotous din and pelt intruders with sticks, stones, fruits, and feces, will not fight unless cornered.
  5.  Snatchers - carnivorous apes, attempt to stealthily drag a single victim into the canopy to be devoured.
  6.  Grand Apes - giant blue gorillas, intelligent and generally peaceful, if taciturn and indolent.

07-08  Boskbeast (Shambling Mound) - animate heap of rotting vegetative matter, always hungry for intelligent beings.

09-10  Wood Wyrm (Green/Thicket Dragon) - exceptionally large, wingless dragon with massive forelimbs.  Juveniles and younger are climbers, adults begin to grow a grove of trees and other plants upon their backs, ancient wyrms are an ecosystem unto themselves.  Green dragon breath is a pollen or spore that puts breathing creatures to sleep and outright kills the weakest ones.  Not particularly intelligent for dragons, sleep most of their lives, and swallow their favorite treasure.

11-12  Weird Bugs (1d4)
  1.  Drag Flies - blue-lit fireflies attracted to warm blooded creatures.  Do no harm, but their presence attracts sight-based predators.
  2.  Carapace Ticks - can be as large as a dinner plate, obviously drain blood, but in numbers they improve their host's AC, and may provoke an adrenaline surge if host is critically injured.
  3.  Quest Moth - hypnotic wing patterns geas intelligent creatures into "questing" for the moth's inaccessible orchid, and defending the insect from attack.
  4.  Quiet Cricket - a large cricket that produces a 20' globe of silence when it "sings".

13-16  Fasinaa Group (1d10)
  1.  Hunters
  2.  Bandits
  3.  Trading Group
  4.  Liar of Tsugumi
  5.  Sorceror
  6.  Ranger
  7.  Property Master
  8.  "Paladin" of Tyrant/Skraosh
  9.  Cultists
  10.  Druids

17-18  Hokopojo Troop - a troop of monkeys inhabited by the dark jungle spirits called Hokopojo.  They are brightly colored, walk on their hands with their feet and tails in the air, and have upside down heads.  While walking on their hands, their hideous, leering faces are right side up.  They possess many magical tricks, and groups of them may stack themselves into living totem poles to become a greater dark spirit.

19-20  Vaath - two sets of long multi-jointed moving legs, two sets of short manipulating arms on a long, lithe body.  The entirety of its arrow shaped, four-eyed head opens sideways into a needle-toothed mouth, filthy with deadly poison.  Inside the head is a 10' extensible tendril/tongue, capped with a razor edged scoop about 1.5" across, which it uses to burrow through its prey's body into its head, to lay a single egg.

21-22  Giant/Huge/Colossal Spider (single/group) - suitable giant spider encounter.

23-24  Ogres (1d6)
  1.  Freshly Cursed: hateful, sadistic, a great parody of an iele, berserker.
  2.  Freshly Cursed, Mage: a great mad spellcaster, random magic specialization.
  3.  Second Gen.: Warrior
  4.  Second Gen.: Priest
  5.  Second Gen.: Sorcerer/Wizard
  6.  Second Gen.: "Paladin"

25-26  Sabre Jaguar (single/pair) - a huge camouflaged cat with a dismembering bite.

27-28  Forest Roper (1d4)
  1.  Plant - many tendrils, regenerates.
  2.  Fungus - releases spores to put prey into a trance, slow tendrils.
  3.  Meat - a standard roper.
  4.  Elder - double size, clever, able to create minor illusions, and use 1d3 touch spells.

29-30  Slicer (Phononychus) Pack - the largest, and most dangerous raptor species.  Powerful forearms also have a killing digit.

31-32  Fissure/Lair/Tree Structure
  1.  Lair of nesting creature.
  2.  Deep fissure in earth, may be old or newly opened.
  3.  Tree structure, occupied by npcs.
  4.  Tree structure, abandoned.

33-34  Suitable Elemental (Rain / Earth / Wind / Life)

35-36  Sonihadrosaur (pair/herd) - mid-sized (for hadrosaurs) duck-billed dinosaurs with an elaborate fluted crest on their heads.  Adults inflate their resonating crests to release a Sonic Honk in a 100' cone every few rounds.  Fiercely protective of non-sonic young and nesting sites.  Can be subdued by "banding” the crest, binding it with a leather belt or metal band.

37-38  Mantrap Plant - passive flytrap variant uses attractive pollen to lure creatures into its acid-secreting leaf traps.

39-40  Face Eater (Shapeshifter Spirit) - a dark jungle spirit that robs the civilized of their individuality, and preys on the relationships between them.  The Face Eater attacks in the dark, attempting to extinguish light sources, or lure its chosen victim away from them.  It naturally appears as a wet, hairy, black humanoid shape, about 6’ tall, its head is just a mouth full of huge blunted teeth.  It will eat a person’s face, then masquerade as a perfect copy of them.

41-42  Giant Army Ants - forward column of 1' long, red-black ants.  20% are 2' soldiers with massively oversized mandibles.

43-44  Bloodthorn Patch - blood drinking thorn bushes in direction of party movement.

45-46  Iele Group (1d6)
  1.  Hunters
  2.  Trading Group
  3.  Ranger
  4.  Explorers
  5.  Random Priest
  6.  Random Mage
 
47-48  Treant (Fig / Rubber / Kapok) - an ancient druid, attended by various nature spirits with animal forms.

49-50  Mutant Troll Pack - slightly undersized trolls that mutate as they regenerate.  Already mutated to climb at 3/4 walking speed.  During regeneration of massive damage they can fuse together into larger abominations or break into smaller, independent, ruined parts.

51-52  Marsupial Lion (Thylacoleo carnifex) - ambush predator, drops from tree limbs onto the back of prey, severs spinal cord with its diprotodontian incisors.

53-54  Ollgrad - small, bloodthirsty (literally) root people.

55-56  Giant Constrictor/Venomous Snake - intelligent venomous or giant constrictor snake attack, snakes always have an angle.

57-58  Suitable Nature Spirit (1d4)
  1.  Predator Spirit - a possessing spirit that fills a creature with the urges to hunt, to kill, and to become a master of territory.
  2.  New One - a newborn spirit generated in an area of concentrated life.  Living potential, prized by the lawful wizards as a component in permanent magical items and high-level spells, it is a crime against nature to imprison one.
  3.  Ea'ea - an instilling spirit of growth and energy.  Can transform any living thing into a force to be reckoned with, at a cost.
  4.  Waiwie "Tilted Scale" (Chaos Spirit) - from a distance a glowing dragonfly, closer just branching luminous nerves.  A spirit that takes/erases elements of law and society from an individual and replaces them with natural elements (Example: the Waiwei steals your money and replaces it with meat or seeds, or maybe erases the Fasinaa language from your mind and replaces it with the tongue of flowers or birds).

59-60  Coatl - the great feathered serpent, appears from nowhere and assumes any size or form.  A true ally, a cunning guardian, the arbiter of your unworthy spirit.

61-62  Moa (single/pair) - giant, non-aggressive, flightless birds.

63-64  Giant Beetle (1d6)
  1.  Tiger Beetle
  2.  Deathwatch Beetle
  3.  Rhinoceros Beetle
  4.  Bombardier Beetle
  5.  Boring Beetle
  6.  Slicer Beetle

65-66  Vegetable Basilisk - physically similar to a true basilisk at a quarter of the size.  Somewhat slow, but well camouflaged, and a good climber.  Turns victims to wood, which it will save to later consume.

67-68  Thesselhydra - four-legged, pincer-tailed, hydra with circular central mouth.

69-70  Giant/Huge/Colossal Centipede - suitable venomous centipede encounter.

71-72  Unbound Lesser Demon (1d4)
  1.  Phlymerous - plots for power.
  2.  Jaquidah - a maddener.
  3.  Rhaek - hunger and hate.
  4.  Slassym - dealer of flesh.

73-74  Poisonous Frog (1d6)
  1.  Bloodmask Frog - red face, black or yellow body, neurotoxic and quickly fatal.
  2.  Moon Frog - light blue and white, causes intense hallucinations for 3d6 hours.
  3.  Opal Frog - darkly iridescent skin, vomiting and diarrhea for 1d6 days.
  4.  Vrian's Peeper - light green body with orange head, very small, paralysis for 1d20 hours.
  5.  Firefrog - yellow, orange, red and purple, severe itching rash for 1d4 weeks.
  6.  Mist Frog - purple to dark blue, anesthetic numbs random body part.

75-76  Theever - oviraptor-like magical dinosaurs, non-aggressive but curious and will steal food and items from PCs through 'Misty Step' usable once every three rounds.

77-78  Thunder Storm / Flash Flood - wild thunderstorm in exposed/elevated areas, flash flood in enclosed areas.

79-80  Ettercap - soft-bodied, humanoid arachnid people.   Ettercaps are the much more numerous males of an unnamed species, and Aranea are the females.  Unmolested by, and may domesticate webbirds, found in the same areas.

81-82  Aranea - sorcerous, shape-shifting, spider women.

83-84  Naga - the “oldest masters”, they are selfish, secretive, and suspicious.  They can be civilized folk, cold-blooded killers, slave takers, or enigmatic guardians, depending on the day.  The Naga have their own small city-temples, but they are not fond of each other's company.
 
85-86  Choke-creeper - strangling vine monster.

87-88  Forest Elephant Herd - a herd of undersized, small-eared, woolly-backed, forest elephants.

89-90  Jungle Wraith - the mad, eternally frustrated spirit of a traveler, killed in but not native to the jungle, robbed of its afterlife by the trickery of dark nature spirits.  They can be fixed, but they can not help.

91-92  Giant Mantis - giant praying mantis, constantly voracious and often difficult to spot.

93-94  Clearing (1d4)
  1.  Empty Clearing - perfect campsite.
  2.  Pond - 50% chance of additional encounter.
  3.  Ancient Metal Ruins - 20% of above ground entry point, still sealed.
  4.  Shrine, Temple, Altar - holy site of appropriate goddess or demigod.

95-96  Shriekers - the classic alarm sounding, random encounter attracting, oversized fungus.  There are over a dozen species, each with a distinct morphology, so they may look like: giant puff balls, tall thin mushrooms, brightly colored tree growths, etc.

97-98  Myconid Group (1d6)
  1.  Trading Group
  2.  Brainfarmers and slaves
  3.  Fungus Zombie Shepherds with zombies
  4.  Diplomat and guard(s)
  5.  Alchemist and assistants
  6.  Pariah - cleric or wizard

99-00  Special *

Races: Chrichoral

The Chrichoral are a small avian race that lives exclusively in the Aika Aitat, the high mountain peaks between the Mumattoba and Yarmir tarns.  Their faces resemble ravens, crows, jays, mynahs, starlings, or oxpeckers, with various combinations of black, grey, white and blue coloration.  Chrichoral wings have two clawed fingers and a thumb creating a small delicate hand, which can be used to fly, or manipulate small objects, but they cannot be used to wield most weapons. Their feet are more dexterous and stronger than a man's hands, and able to throw a javelin in flight.  At 2.5 to 3.5 feet tall, they are the smallest race.  Their wings span 6 to 9 feet, and they weigh somewhere between 8 and 20 lbs.  They are true omnivores who eat fruit, seeds, certain fungus, insects, small vetebrates, fish, and meat.

In the Aika Aitat, the Chrichoral reside in their aeries atop four mountain peaks.  Their crowded, cacophonous cities contain few who aren't of their race, they are accessible only through flight or weeks of near impossible climbing.  Cunning, charming, and dexterous many are thieves, scouts, and bards.  They are adept at vocal mimicry and pattern recognition, with excellent memories, but short attention spans.  The Chrichoral can be sarcastic, boisterous, prattling, songful, lecturing, and muttersome, but they are almost never quiet.  They primarily worship Se'vensaera, their Sky of Choices, who they view as a "divine world" a goddess who is their precious realm removed from the terrestrial races.  The Chrichoral consider the surface Tyrant's world, a stagnant prison.  Eating carrion is something they are capable of, but only practiced by the Jajis, who have dedicated themselves to Skraosh and consume flesh for visions, spirit knowledge and other power.

Chrichoral naturally distrust other species, and only deal from a position of strength and control.  They generally hate combat, they communicate, they escape, they out think, they don’t fight.  This comes both from their small size and hollow bones, and their culture that emphasizes superiority through outwitting and out maneuvering opponents physically and socially.  Few become focused warriors or fighters, and those who do adopt a hit-and-run or ranged attack style.  They favor small spears and javelins, daggers and stilettos, chakra, and "foot razors".  Magic is common among their race, they have many ancient and contemporary styles, only rivaled in scope by the Fasinaa.  Their mages are air elementalists, Storm Crows, summoners, Songstealers (their oldest school of magic), omen speakers, token crafters, rune scribes, Beetle Mages, illusionists, egopomps, Necrostrix, transmuters, and chaos wizards.  Chrichoral are entirely uncomfortable in places where they cannot take flight, they become distressed in enclosed spaces and underground, mobility is life.

Old one, legit NPC.

Compared to the iele and the three saurian races, the Chrichoral have a very low population.  Females usually lay only a single egg, so siblings are uncommon.  The rare instances of "triplets" are considered fateful and blessed, particularly all male or all female sets, though the children hatched grow to be the smallest and most frail adults.  They believe themselves to be the oldest race, and are thought to have been a primitive people in the age when the saurians were one, the age before the Greatest Ancients.  Adolescents and young adults naturally seek to venture out into the continent to collect experiences, tricks, treasures and stories to make a name for themselves when they return.  These youngsters wear few clothes/adornments and are forced to carry little to keep themselves mobile outside.  Meanwhile the old birds back in the cities drape themselves in gaudy jewellery, elaborate hats, draped fabrics, and innumerable tiny tokens of bone, gem, feather, scale and gold, heavy with social importance... to Chrichoral.

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Back on track, 5/7 races defined: Chrichoral, Fasinaa, iele, Goboda, Shem.  Only the Mororca saurians and the Umash remain.

Random Encounters by Terrain - Plains

 Part one in my series of the main random encounter tables for the different terrain of the Furthest Lands continent.  I like variety in my random encounters, so we're going d00 style.  The plains, particularly the Gragot Plain have the highest encounter % of terrain types.  Players must take steps or be regularly beset.  This table is not meant to serve as the true monster entry for any creature within, I'll make those with nice illustrations at some point.  See the previous post on Wildlife for pictures of the prehistoric animals on this list.  Enjoy.

Plains - 50%/day

01-02    Manticor - spirit cursed iele, usually lawful/poachers/defilers, now always hungry for other people.

03-04    Wild Thunderstorm (Sunhold) / Rainbow and Eye of Calm (Stormseat) - 1d4 hours of opposite weather.  During Sunhold, a sudden thunderstorm, during Stormseat, a period of light and peace.

05-08    Diatryma Flock - 9' flightless raptors, males have bright fan tails, frequent tall grass, can be tamed/ridden.

09-10    Bulette (single/group) - sinuously long, fast burrowing, and battering ram powerful.  They may rise up from beneath in a nearly undetectable charge, or approach visibly along the surface to herd prey.  Visually - leopard seal + graboid (yeah, from 'Tremors').

11-13    Mororca Groups (1d6) - the primitive, carnivorous, mostly quadrupedal saurian race
  1.  Hunters
  2.  Warriors
  3.  Trading Group
  4.  Barbarian
  5.  Shraosh/Naudde/Tyrant Shaman
  6.  Druid/Ranger

14-15    Giganotosaurus (single/pair) - large therapod dinosaur, 30% chance of pair, 10% chance of rider.

16-17    Ankheg (single/group) - mainly herbivorous, but territorial, irritable and occasionally hungry for meat.  Hugely fond of certain large root vegetables also cultivated by farmers.

18-19    Ogres (1d6)
  1.  Freshly Cursed: hateful, sadistic, a great twisted parody of an iele, berserker.
  2.  Freshly Cursed, Mage: a great mad spellcaster, random magic specialization.
  3.  Second Gen.: Warrior
  4.  Second Gen.: Priest
  5.  Second Gen.: Sorcerer/Wizard
  6.  Second Gen.: "Paladin" (any kind)

20-24    Diprotodon Herd - commonly domesticated van-sized wombats.  Suitable as a feint before a surprise natural encounter.

25-26    Fissure/Cave/Lair (1d4)  30% chance of connecting to the Beneath
  1.  Deep fissure in earth, may be old or newly opened.
  2.  Lair of underground nesting creature.
  3.  Cave, cleared and habitable.
  4.  Cave, cleared but occupied by npcs.

27-28    Dromiceioseismos Herd - huge (50') flightless birds, non-hostile but dangerous if harassed.  Sometimes attract the largest of predators to an area.

29-30    Kitemouth - huge aerial gulper eel, swims through the air as if it were water, naturally invisible until its mouth opens (around 1,500').  Consumes entire herds of animals or the largest possible prey items.  Will not target a party of adventures, but will target a caravan.  Swallows and retreats, remaining visible while digesting.

31-32    Shard Leech Scree - razor-edged stones used as the shell of a land mollusc, 4"-14".  Hide in areas of loose rock waiting for man size or larger prey, throw themselves en masse at a target, pierce flesh and release a mild paralytic venom, drink their fill of blood, fall out of the target, and move away from the remains. 

33-34    Suitable Elemental - (Rain / Flash Fire / Wind / Lightning / Earth)

35-36    Ollgrad - small, bloodthirsty (literally) root people. 

37-38    Lancet Stirge Flock - naked birdlike creatures with elongated, saw-edged lower jaws, cat size.  Function as stirges but can pin targets in numbers and interfere with movement/spellcasting.

39-40    Umash Group (1d6) - the baboon-faced race of the Tomada Yoma.
  1.  Dervishes
  2.  Hunters
  3.  Trading Group
  4.  Elementalists
  5.  Priests of the Sisters of Mysteries
  6.  Common Nomads

41-42    Kereza Antelope Herd - M-sized antelope with jagged, branching horns, favored food item of many races.  Non-combat, may lead to predatory encounter.

43-44    Chancas Elk Herd - L-sized elk with black, white, and grey fur and huge blocky antlers.  Non-combat, may lead to predatory encounter.

45-46    Biniki Antelope Herd - S-sized antelope with slender, dagger-like horns.  Non-combat, may lead to predatory encounter.

47-48    Quendapil (Herd Nucleus, Tyrant Kitty) - a brown-furred, cat-sized, boneless creature with six stubby pink legs, and a pink underbelly.  It seems to have a "head" portion, but no eyes, nose, mouth, or ears.  It breathes, but through unseen stoma.  It has powerful psychic abilities that allow it to mass dominate large numbers of low INT creatures.  These dominated creatures view the Quendapil as either their only precious offspring, or an external part of their own body.  They will die for it.  They are also taking low-level emotional cue commands and will act as its limbs.  The Quendapil feeds on the protective instincts of those in its power and seeks to expand that network as much as possible to get the most nourishment and feel the most secure.  The larval form of another creature?

49-50    Iele Group (1d10)
  1.  Hunters
  2.  Trading Group
  3.  Random Priest
  4.  Random Mage
  5.  Bandits
  6.  Ranger
  7.  Cultists
  8.  Xiphid
  9.  Mercenaries
  10.  Explorers

51-52    Shem Formation - 4-10 Shem hunting for or returning with captives.  Often accompanied by Bloat Cages (1-4), ground slaves (5-50), or aerial slaves (2-20)

53-54    Mutant Troll Pack - slightly undersized trolls that mutate as they regenerate.  May be already mutated or normal when encountered.  During regeneration of massive damage they can fuse together into larger abominations or break into smaller, independent, ruined parts.

55-56    Megalania - 20' komodo dragon, follows prey infected by an initial bite attack for weeks.

57-58    Hungry Jinxers - round-bodied scavengers with kangaroo legs and stiff tails.  Their collective marked target becomes increasingly unlucky as they are followed.

59-60    Giant Trapdoor Spider - giant spider living in a camouflaged tunnel.

61-62    Treant (Baobab) - an ancient druid, attended by various nature spirits with animal forms.

63-64    Flash Fire/Flash Flood - short-lived spirit or elemental fire creatures are often birthed/released/woken by the passage of a flash fire or on its leading edge.  The same is true for elemental water creatures and floods.

65-66    Giant Termites - worker unit or soldier unit.

67-68    Megatherium - giant ground sloth, territorial, aggressive.

69-70    Trade Caravan - (eastbound/westbound)
Guards (1d6)  Wares (1d10)
  1.  Iele rangers
  2.  Crichoral scouts
  3.  Fasinaa beast hunters
  4.  Goboda wayfarer priests
  5.  Iele mercenaries
  6.  Iele wizards

Wares (1d10)
  1.  Fish - dried foodstuffs, living specimens
  2.  Meat, Furs, Leather, Horn
  3.  Vegetables/Fruits - staple foodstuffs, exotic delicacies, potion-like magic types
  4.  Weapons, Armor, Tools
  5.  Textiles, Clothing, Jewellery
  6.  Spell/Item components
  7.  Animals - herding caravan, menagerie,
  8.  Money - Diamond chips, Gold coins
  9.  Amask steel, Copper rings, other metals
  10.  Magic treasure + 1 roll on Guards table

71-72    Nature Spirit (1d4)
  1.  Siccarada (Grass Spirit) - a sweet green smell, a rustling, sunlight between blades.  The softest, most luxuriant touch, or skin separating razor cuts.  Alternately serpentine and porcupine.
  2.  Prey Spirit - a possessing spirit that fills a creature with the urges to flee, to hide, and to procreate.
  3.  Ea'ea - an instilling spirit of growth and energy.  Can transform any living thing into a force to be reckoned with, at a cost.
  4.  Waiwie "Tilted Scale" (Chaos Spirit) - from a distance a glowing dragonfly, closer just branching luminous nerves.  A spirit that takes/erases elements of law and society from an individual and replaces them with natural elements (Example: the Waiwei steals your money and replaces it with meat or seeds, or maybe erases the Fasinaa language from your mind and replaces it with the tongue of flowers or birds).

73-74    Andrewsarchus - large, aggressive mammalian carnivore.

75-76    Watering Hole - roll another 1d3 encounters, interacting with each other.  At the height of Sunhold, most creatures will endure each other's company, but peace is tenuous...

77-78    Indricotherium - massive rhino-giraffes.

79-80    Nimbus Fisherman - huge jelly-type creature which surrounds itself in clouds, and dangles its stinging tentacles to the plains below.  Usually encountered with symbiotic scavengers.

81-83    Gorgonopsid Pack - wolf-sized or larger pack-hunting protomammals.

84-85    Fasinaa Group (1d6)
  1.  Hunters
  2.  Bandits
  3.  Trading Group
  4.  Liar of Tsugumi
  5.  Sorcerer
  6.  Ranger

86-87    Venomous Snake - intelligent venomous snake attack, snakes always have an angle.

88-89    Sauropod Herd - (largest varieties) occasionally territorial, may serve as environmental hazard, may attract largest predators.

90-91    Giant Ground Bees - giant bumblebees.

92    Gorefex - a colossal "seasonal" monster, emerging to feed once every few decades.  Spoken of in rumors, always the thing caravan leaders worry about, the ever-present plains boogey-monster.  Encountered most often in a hibernation phase. 

93-94    Giant Tiger Beetle - rapid-moving, scissor mandibled, giant predatory beetle.

95-96    Weird Plants (1d6)
  1.  Razorgrass Field - 5'+ serrated grass in direction of party movement, causes bleeding wounds if moved through, difficult to cut or burn.
  2.  Krangee Seeds - sticky burr-like seeds the party may pass through.  The seeds need to be digested by a predatory animal to germinate.  They release an odor after being separated from the main plant for 10 minutes which attracts predatory animals.
  3.  Jemmies - red-orange fist-size blossoms with thick petals.  Their citrus sour scent compels creatures to spread the yellow pollen to other, distant fields of the flowers.
  4.  Lo Plum Grove - trees bearing delicious intoxicating plums.  Highly potent, no ill effects beside impairment and a light hangover.  25% chance of drunken animal encounter.

97-98    Kyanbolo ("Bird Dragons") - 20' tall, grey furred/feathered wyvern-shaped creature.  Feathered wings, great toothed jaws.  They have incredibly large and powerful talons, which they wear pieces of armor, magic rings, and bracelets on.  They make nothing and seek out magical items, both to use and to elevate themselves socially.  They eat many races, but they despise the Chrichoral and merely murder them violently and brutally.

99-00    Special

Wildlife of the Furthest Lands

Wildlife

    The wildlife of the Furthest Lands is diverse to the extreme.  The continent itself is quite large, but it could never account alone for the tremendous variety of animal and plant species.  The natural life here can be divided into three groups:  "common" current earth animals, "prehistoric" earth animals, and "strange" animals of my invention.  Within each group there may be normal and magical individual species (ex. hadrosaurs of several types exist, but one type can create a small sonic boom by inflating its elaborate fluted crest and honking), knowledge is important.
 

    Common Animals

This is just a short list of some common animals of the Furthest Lands that are identical to those native to our own planet. 

Wombat, Possum, Arboreal Wallaby, Glider Squirrel, Fruit Bat, Nectar Bat, Macaque, Orangutan, Common Mouse, Mouse Wallaby, Commerson’s Dolphin, Right Whale, Civet, Sea Lion, Dugong, Tapir, Babirusa, Markhor, Emu, Kiwi, Grebe, Sparkfoot Booby, Black Swan, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Pigeon, Cockatiel – Cockatoo, Budgerigar, Kakapo, Morpork, Bee Hummingbird, Kingfisher, Honeyguide, Iguana, Ground Bee, Tree Python, Death Adder, Frilled Lizard, Skink, Goanna, Lungfish, Grouper, Remora, Angelfish, Marlin, Barracuda, Tuna, Puffer Fish, Box Jelly

    Prehistoric Animals

 
Glyptodon (Hoplophorus) - found in deserts and scrubland, larger fantastic varieties exist as well. 

"Let's make the size comparison figure look like he has a death wish."

Diprotodon - herds of these van-sized wombats are found all across the continent in the plains and scrubland.  Commonly domesticated as beasts of burden, rarely as mounts.

Andrewsarchus -large mammalian predators of the plains.

Diatryma - and a variety of flightless raptor species, some are domesticated and used as mounts.  Types are found in the plains, jungles, deserts, and wastes.

Archaeotherium - huge boar-like opportunists, found in the plains, deserts, and wastes.

Dimetrodon - generally not a problem, but territorial.  The variety called the Solar Dimetrodon is found in deserts, storing sunlight in its shining sail.  It can use this power to give itself a kind of energy boost, or blast an opponent with stored sunlight.

Giganotosaurus - bigger than a tyrannosaur, 'nuff said.

Gorgonopsid - replaces wolves as medium-size plains/scrub pack hunters.  Never thought anyone else would bother with these until I played FF13.  God damnit Square.

Hyaenadon - pack hunters of the deserts and wastes. 

Indricotherium - you get these and the rarer herds of Dromiceioseismos (heheh) instead of elephants.

Koolasuchus - a really giant salamander capable of swallowing a man whole.  When I was a lad I was obsessed/terrified with a similar animal called Eryops, but my old buddy just isn't big enough for my purposes here (swallowing people).

Megalania - 20' long komodo dragons, with equally filthy mouths.  Found in the plains, scrubland, and jungle edges.

Megatherium - giant ground sloths of the plains, scrubland, and forests.

Moa - giant flightless jungle birds.

Sauropods (various) - large varieties in the plains, smaller varieties in the less dense jungles.

Thylacoleo carnifex (Marsupial Lion) - forest and jungle ambush predator.

Hadrosaurs - many varieties of hadrosaur are found in marshes, forests, and plains.

Marine Life - hey, don't go swimming.

Look at this!  This is totally awesome!  Go check out some prehistoric animal artists on DeviantArt or something!

   Strange Animals

There are many, many species of antelope, apes, monkeys, marsupials, birds (3,000 species), smaller therapods, pterosaurs, insects (50,000 species of beetles), etc. that are purely of my imagination but not worth individual description unless they come up in game. 

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All images in this post are NOT my work, if that wasn't obvious.  I needed to drop too much visual information here to make myself and it was readily available (plus sickness, so sick, so long, unngh).  My motto/mission statement/rules/whatever is "Only use your own art.  No text only posts." but I feel this is a reasonable exception to part one.  I hope you enjoyed it, we'll be back to normal next time.  Till then, Cool Rain Welcomes You Home.