War-Torn Magic City Encounters

Adventurers taking cover from [17]

War-Torn Magic City

For OSR Adventures

Roll 1d20

[1] Street-Sweeper elementals create narrow passages of intense upward draft to clean rubbish from the street; have become way too intense after years without intervention.

The street-sweepers are not hostile unless you liter. These ones are trying to collectively lift a dead cow off the road, and are totally flabbergasted they can't do it.

Street-Sweeper Elemental (2 HD, +2 to hit, attack by throwing rocks and sharp things, draft knocks away all your arrow and crossbow bolts) The number that appear are 1d4 on small streets, 1d6 on the main roads.

[2] Several deactivated killer automata are under a pile of rubble, their tension coils ran out long ago. If rewound, they will revert to (2), and be hostile to the party. Their parts can be scrapped for [3].

2d6 deactivated automata.

[3] Coil-Locked door to a noble mansion. It was locked during the war, and has rusted shut in several places. The lock could be picked, but only if the right parts are used. Tension coils from Killer Automata [2] and (2) would suffice.

The door once opened leads the way into a dungeon filled with the treasure of a noble family and their magic familiars and clockwork guards.

[4] Angry Windows. These windows have been enchanted to cast hexes on anyone who tries to break them with rocks or enter them, but after many years of isolation they view anyone holding rope or a ranged weapon/rock as being a potential burglar.

Angry Windows (1 Hit Point (die when smashed), cast 1d4 Magic Missile, Color Spray limited to one target, or a Bestow Curse that lasts 2 turns.)

Appearing; 2-10, depending on size of house.

[5] Residents of the city actually trading and doing business on a street corner. Often they stop to talk to the thin air, trading money with nothing. That's actually because some of the residents have made themselves on exist on the astral plane, in hiding until order is restored, or because they were already killed and their soul is trapped in the magic city.

[6] Escaped animals from the city's finest menagerie. Roll 1d6

1. Lion Pride (2HD, 2d4+2 lions. Each of the 2d4 lions is female with +1 AC, group always has 2 male lions that get +1HD and can roar to save vs fear or be unable to attack it.
2. Gorillas (4 HD, 1d4 appearing. Low morale) Strong but doesn't want to fight, will posture and beat chest instead.
3. Eagles. (1HD, flight grants +3 AC, 1d8 swoop down to attack) Seem strangely coordinated; may pick up a halfling and try to fly away to a nest to feed hatchlings.
4. Electric Eels (1 HD, deal 1d4 damage but stuns on roll of 4, 1d12 appear) Only appear on a flooded street or in a storm drain, etc.
5. Psychedelic Peacocks (2 HD, 1d6 appear, deal 1d4 damage pecking, if you see their full splayed tail you take -1d4 Wisdom damage)
6. Giant Snails. (3 HD, +4 AC from shell, slow but acidic slime deal 1d6 a turn, deals 1d12 if you're caught under them. 1d6 appearing) Stupid and aimless.

[7] Spillage from a nearby potion factory has swept toxic magical waste onto the nearby street. City animals (like rats, pigeons, cats, dogs) who drink the sludge get an extra HD, grow larger with rainbow colored fur, and have a hatred of mankind.

If you drink it you just get a stomach cramp, but your eyes and ear permanently change into a random unnatural color. You can also use the sludge to power oil lanterns, which causes unnatural light; Whenever you roll for random encounters roll twice and take worst result.

[8] Fat noble laughs on street corner and gives out sweats and chocolate to anyone who comes by that are messed up; deals 1d4 damage to anyone who eats them, gets offended if you don't and will try to shove them your throat. Twitches strangely when alone. Sometimes throws out (fake) gold coins and beads, roll a save to avoid tripping on them.

Killing him reveals he is made of gelatin and is an artificial construct, meant to give out treats to children and improve relations with the nobility and commoners of this city. He's so rotten on the inside that the animals and monsters of the city just ignore him.

[9] Initiate Paladins of the Town Guard. (2HD, chainmail, +2 to hit vs criminals, high morale, 1d8 appearing) If an 8 is rolled then they are being lead by a true Paladin of the Guard, having +1 HD and full abilities.

These initiates have studied city law and will follow it like a religion, having gained minor paladin powers from it. Each of them can once a day lay hands on a person but only heal 1 HP doing it, plus they get a bonus to saving throws equal to the number of tickets they wrote today once (assume 1d4).

Their equipment is aged and worn, and most of the “initiates” despite normally being young are all in their fourties. They've obviously been at this a long time trying to restore order and aren't doing a good job of it, but are not hostile unless to the party unless they break a city ordnance.

[10] Pet Tiger roams the street, looking malnourished but still dangerous, huge, and confident. It has a collar on its neck which reads 'kitty'. If anyone in the party is a little girl it will protect them fiercely, but otherwise just roars at them to defend its territory, an old bombed out dress and shoe store.

Within the rubble of the store is a tiny silver tiara, several gold coins, and an automaton doll which can dance like a ballerina. The corpse of a young girl sits under a pile of rubble, crushed to death long before you ever arrived here.

[11] Automaton clockwork pie truck rumbles down the street slowly, having a sign on the side that says “wind me please” underneath its hand crank. It also has a supply of charcoal that is about half full.

If winded up for at least a turn, the clockwork truck will get to action and will open doors along its sides to insert in meat, fruit, and bread, of which any combination will make a pie out of. The compartments are big enough to stuff a goblin or halfling into, and they will be quickly silenced by slicing knives and burning ovens.

Each HD worth of creature put inside will make a ration out of. Fruits that are tough or unappealing can be made more delicious by going through the pie machine. If a party makes pie, the smell will attract attention (roll on random encounter table).

[12] Gigantic high rise apartment built on top of a sliding hill, animated by humongous gears and cogs to allow a bridge to be raised to any level (so the residents wouldn't have to walk up stairs to get to their floor.

The gears of the building have been blocked by the bloody remains of several huge beasts of burden. If removed, the building could be moved again, or used as a humongous weapon if used in such a way, more or less 'throwing' everything on a 20 ft wide platform anywhere in the city.

[13] Prisoners of the city's magical prison, now escaped and turned it into a fortress. Each of them wears a tiny scrap of blue fabric, the warden's uniform, chopped up and given to all the inmates. This prevents the rope and chain golems in the prison from capturing them and locking them in a rusted old cell. The golems don't know any better and think anyone not wearing the warden's uniform are prisoners, and haul them into cells.

Escaped Prisoner (1HD, +1 to hit, crafty but protective of uniform scrap)

Binding Golem (3HD, +3 AC, doesn't deal damage, each time they attack save or be immobilized in a mass of coiled ropes and chains)

[14] Magic Chain-Gang. Four orderlies force a line of people to march together. The people are collared with a large steel mantle, a golden thread connecting them, with leather hoods on their face.

The line of people cannot see, but the magic bindings that hold them allow them to collectively cast magic spells. The orderlies give commands and the members of the line cast the spells by force, or else are whipped and hit with canes. The spells they know are Disruption Blast, which is a d6 version of magic missile that only works on constructs and elementals and the other spell is Repair Foundations which instantly repair structures, sidewalks, and parts of city architecture equal to about the output of a few workers over a long day in a few seconds.

The chain gang is always looking to add new members to it, and all their current ones are tired and groggy. The chain gang also only takes non-Wizards, as the bindings allow the magic to be cast by nonmages, which is why they're so tired. They can't collar a mage because once they do he would be able to control all the magic down the golden line and turn against the orderlies. The Orderlies might attack parties without magic users, or ask the magic users in the party to give up their mundane counterparts to add to the chain-gang.

Chain-Gang Orderlies (2 HD, strike with 1d4 canes and whips, has several restraints on belt)

[15] Battling Graffiti on a nearby wall. The artwork of two distinct styles changes and morph into different monsters, soldiers, and magical effects to try and destroy the other separate style drawn by another artist on the wall so they can have free reign to create. The graffiti will no doubt create an art society with a feudal hierarchy all their own within the fictional worlds they create once they win this 'war'.

Offers to paint arrows leading to treasure if the party gives them paint to work with, which will allow them to push the other paint off the wall and collapsing into useless puddles of paint on the ground. If paint is given, the graffiti will return to fighting after drawing an arrow leading to [3].

[16] City park being patrolled by an army of ents, sentient forest fires, domestic pet wolves, and ambulatory cider presses who will instruct the party to leave if they won't give up their weapons to enter. Fighting them will lead to a random encounter with some of the guardians every turn you're in the city park forest.

At the heart of the city park is a few put together shacks and hammocks, some of the city's residents living there in relative peace. Some of them have started a nature cult and don't want to return to the urban lifestyle even if the city gets back to where it was before.

[17] Local city gang, once all urchins and filthy orphan pickpockets are all grown up and have risen to some amount of power in the chaos and finding groups of survivors and visitors to extort for money and booze. They ride atop tiny magic clouds which helped control the city's weather but are now being used by the gang to fly around.

Even with missile weapons the party will be unable to easily fight the gang members unless they find their hideout, which is a huge clocktower that displays the time, date, weather, and political climate (EXTREME ERROR) using clockwork machinery. The bottom stairs of the hideout are all bombed out, making it perfect as the urchins are the only ones who can fly to the top level unless you climb there or repair the stairs or elevator.

 Cloud Rider Urchin (1 HD, +2 AC, can 'kick' his cloud to unleash a 1d8 thunderbolt to anyone directly underneath. when they retreat, they make their clouds release water just to drench the party and make them cold and unhappy, laughing as they return to their hideout.)

[18] Animated tannery on the prowl. Has long run out of cow skins to make into leather, so is starting to attack any creature it can to convert into raw skins. Eats creatures and 'shits' out disgusting tanned hides behind it.

Animated Tannery (3 HD, +2 to hit with machine maw, follow skins to sneak up on it. Made of wood and flammable)

[19] Medium sized building with a huge device poking out the window. Is actually a huge ballista-sized crossbow, set up by a sniper who fires it out any Cloud Urchins ([17]) or monsters who get close. If befriended, he'll state he needs some food for him and his wife and child (this is a lie, his wife and child are dead, but he doesn't want people to hold out on him because he's running low). If food is given he'll give sniper support, firing 1d8 huge crossbow bolts at enemy anywhere within 5 city blocks or hexes of the tower. He can fire once every exploration turn.

[20] Weird public square with a fountain of a famous water god spitting up water. The whole place has a feeling of being really eerie and weird. You cannot scoop water out of the fountain, and instead must reach in with your hands to take a drink or step in to drink.

The fountains water looks clear and is exactly like regular water, but has a random effect or acts as a random liquid for everyone that uses it. Roll 1d8

1. Lamp Oil. You are now dangerously flammable until you wash off.
2. Tastes delicious and gives you hiccups. Heals 2 points of stat damage if you have any when you drink it for the first time.
3. Acidic. Drinking it causes death, touching it 1d6 damage per round.
4. Slimy and slippery, but seems to make you more evasive. You have a 1 in 6 chance to drop weapons and lose your footing, but get +2 AC for as long as you are coated.
5. Water directly touching you turns red. If you drink it, your skin also turns red. No other effects, but red skin lasts 1d6 days.
6. Levitation liquid. Makes you capable of floating upwards at half your walking speed and glide around without taking fall damage, but your carry weight is halved. Must drink to get effects.
7. Animal Magnetism, literally. You get +1 to all reaction checks, but animals can sense when you're nearby, including dangerous ones that want to eat you.
8. Water helps patch up holes in your equipment and clothes, but only stuff owned by you is effected.

Wandering Monsters Table

Roll 1d6

(1) Undead Couriers (2 HD, +2 to hit, 1 in 6 chance one of them has something dangerous when thrown (bomb, chakram, biting ferret) that will thrown it in first round of combat.)

Appearing; 1d8 If encountered at night double the number, but found in an allyway pressed against each other 'sleeping' and waiting for sunrise. Not hostile when 'sleeping'.

(2) Killer Automata (2 HD, +2 AC, immune to fire, poison, and mind control. Clockwork soldiers, some of which have metal heads shaped like animals or symbols of the noble families)

Appearing; 1d6. 1 in 4 chance they have a Clockwork Weapon

(3) Letters of Rejection (1 HD, +1 AC, flying letters that reject everyone from local Wizard college by burning REJECTED into their flesh with a 1d4 unnerving laser per round. Wizards in the party are instead OVERQUALIFIED but hireling Wizards have a 1 in 6 chance to be accepted, and instead are given a golden key to the campus library, which is currently overrun with ghouls and ghosts and shit.)

Appearing; 1d8

(4) Loose Experiment (1 HD, metal jaw bites for 1d8 damage, when dies casts a random spell with itself as the target.)

Appearing; 1d4

(5) Flying Bricks (1 HD, +2 AC, deal 1d6 damage, floats at about eye level. Once defeated they drop the floor and are just normal breaks again.)

Appearing; 1d20

(6) Old Clockwork Titan (4 HD, +4 AC, sweeping blade deployed once per round at a random target deals 1d12 damage if it hits; you can give up your attack to dodge it.)

Appearing; 1