Why Is The Orc Tribe Attacking Our Village?

 Welcome wizened wanderers! This week brings with it a new season and a new article about orcish invaders from the outlands! Below you'll find a gigantic D100 table filled with all kinds of reasons for your next band of monstrous humanoids to come along and attack the PC's home turf. Use it to help generate ideas for your next adventure when you're looking for more than a just another monster attack. Once you've got those orcs sorted, try out last week's article on magical weather phenomena that you can throw at your players. If you like this article, try reading this D66 table of forest encounters to spice up the rest of your campaign. 

*Fire in a Farmhouse, Egbert van der Poel (1621–1664)

Why Is The Orc Tribe Attacking Our Village?

A vast horde of orcs sweeping over meager village walls, burning houses, killing townsfolk, looting all that can be taken - this is what often comes to mind when we think about orcs in our fantasy RPGs. Orcs are a classic fantasy monster race, invented by Tolkien and solidified into pop culture by Gygax and Arneson’s inclusion of the monster in their original game. A raid by a savage host of orcs can be a true challenge for a low- to mid-level party. Beyond the challenge though, what drives the story of your orcish monsters? It’s all well and good to want to include orcs in a campaign, but beyond a few random encounter rolls, what else can you really do with them? Below is a table you can use to generate an overarching reason for your orcs to be attacking the PC’s place of residence. The table is framed as an attack on the PC’s village but can easily be adapted to suit other locations and monstrous humanoids as well.

D100	Why are the Orcs Attacking our Village?
1	They seek a scroll that bears the oldest version of the orcish creation myth on it, a sacred relic. It was stolen from them by the village burgomaster’s men for his personal collection.
2-3	They seek an ancient brazier of fire elemental summoning that their shaman had a prophetic dream about. It is in the possession of the town’s fussy sorcerer, though they haven’t figured out yet how to use it. The orcs seek to use the brazier to enact revenge on the local human duchy.
4	They seek the ancestral sword of a legendary orcish warlord (Sword +1, +3 against magic users. Once a day may cast Darkness centered on the sword) that was stolen from them by the secretly evil, dashing town blacksmith. The smith is planning on replicating the powerful weapon for his henchmen.
5-6	They seek an ornately carved stone idol roughly the size of a human head that they worship as their god. The orcs were tricked into believing the village’s guard captain stole it, when in truth it was a chaotic magic user who took it in order to drive the orcs away from their land so that magic user could search for a fabled lost dungeon in the area.
7	They seek the gold and silver headdress of a legendary orcish king. The headdress was pilfered from them by a foreign scholar who passed back through the village not two days ago.
8-10	They seek the ancient battle standard of a legendary orcish queen that was stolen away from them by a local minor nobleman’s son. The idiotic aristocrat thought it would grant him some amount of cache back at court.
11-12	The village’s rich burgomaster sold the orcs’ spoiled supplies and now they want revenge.
13-14	The village’s guard captain arrested and publicly whipped a number of orcs who came to the village to trade after they got into a drunken brawl with some locals. The townsfolk involved were let go without consequences and now the orcs want retribution.
15-17	The runoff from the village’s tannery has polluted and fouled the downstream water supply that the orcs rely on and now they seek justice.
18-20	A local group of adventurers leaving from the village attacked and killed a group of local orcs that they had come upon, including women and children. The orcs want revenge for this heinous act and hold the village responsible.
21-22	The orcs were fooled into thinking the villagers had attacked them and carried off their children. In truth a necromancer and his small host of undead servants carried out this dastardly deed so that he may reap the bodies of the dead that will surely follow for his “research”.
23-24	The orcs were shown illusions of their gods commanding them to attack the village. In truth, it was a small cadre of evil magic users who were looking to syphon geomantic energies from the region and wanted the two groups  to be too distracted with each other to notice or interfere.
25-26	The orcs have been fooled into thinking that the elemental creatures that have been attacking their people of late were under the control of the village’s fussy sorcerer. In actuality they are being manipulated by an outpost of dark elves who seek to disrupt the surface world in preparation for their pending conquest.
27	They were commanded by their god Leegrak the Farseeing to attack the village and to ritually blind the residents in tribute.
28	They were commanded by their god Fer’Goraz the Oathbinder to attack the village and cut off the right hand of every able-bodied adult so that they may fulfill an ancient prophecy.
29-30	They were commanded by their gods the Blood Sisters to attack the village and fill a massive copper cauldron with the villagers’ blood so that the Sisters may use the ritual to regain physical form.
31	They were commanded by their god Rhugo Blacksky to throw the village’s babies into a massive pyre in order to honor him and avoid his ire.
32	Their leader is being ensorcelled and commanded to attack the village by his dark elf consort who secretly works for the local dark elf underkingdom. The consort aims to use the orcs to fight the surface world on his behalf.
33-34	Their leader is being ensorcelled and commanded to attack the village by a demon who wish to see as much blood shed as possible for his own dark amusement.
35-37	Their leader is being ensorcelled and commanded to attack by an ancient but recently reawakened vampire who wants to use the orcs to enact revenge for a centuries-old grudge he has against the region’s human population.
38-39	Their leader is being ensorcelled and commanded to attack by a bored and mischievous arch-fey who has fallen into this world and grown bored with it after centuries of being unable to leave.
40-42	Their leader is being ensorcelled and commanded to attack by the leader’s brother and rival. The rival brother has sold his soul to dark powers to gain the magic to entrap his sibling’s mind. He now commands the orcs to attack so that he may spread his own glory far and wide.
43-44	They are being driven from their ancestral lands by an evil kingdom nearby which wishes to expand their territory into the marches the orcs call home.
45-46	They are being driven from their ancestral lands by an expansionist  tribe of gnolls who seek new lands to plunder and terrorize.
47-49	They are being driven from their ancestral lands by a growing fungal infection that brings with it tribes of sentient mushroom folk and other fungal terrors.
50-51	They are being driven from their ancestral lands by a plague of undead who have risen up throughout the marches that the orcs call  home and now seek mortal life to extinguish.
52	They are being driven from their ancestral lands by an ever-expanding underground kingdom of dark elves who send waves of spider-like horrors to attack them.
53-55	They are being driven from their ancestral lands by a dragon who has recently migrated to the region from far away.
56	They seek to enslave the villagers so that they can be used to build a fortress for the orcs to live in.
57	They seek to enslave the villagers and sell them to slave markets in the nearby evil kingdom that borders this region.
58-59	They seek to enslave the villagers in order to use them to build a vast tomb complex for their orcish sorcerer-king.
60	They are being paid to raid by a rival human town that wants to become the dominant economic center in the area.
61	They are being paid to raid the village by a rival kingdom in order to destabilize the region and weaken their enemies for eventual invasion.
62	They are being paid to raid the village by a local bandit king who wants the locals to be so afraid of the orcs that they flock to him for protection.
63-64	They are being paid to raid the village by a decrepit necromancer who wishes to harvest the souls of the dead to use to revitalize his physical body.
65-67	They are being paid to raid the village by a secret society of scholars who wish to drive people away from their secret library that lies within a few day’s march from the village. The scholars horde knowledge jealously and have told the orcs little of their actual plan.
68-70	They are being paid to raid the village by the town’s priest (in actuality, a con man masquerading as a priest)  who has been prophesying danger to the town for the last six months and has paid the orcs to be that danger so that the priest may convince the villagers to rely on him for guidance and protection.
71	The entire orc tribe is under the magical influence of a vain and selfish lamia who wants the villagers for food.
72	The entire tribe is under the magical influence of a powerful elven enchanter who wants the valley that the village sits in for themselves.
73	The entire tribe is under the magical influence of mischievous satyr who is using the orcs to attack the villagers because he is bored.
74	The entire tribe is under the magical influence of an ancient dryad who wishes to see the villagers driven away so that they no longer threaten the dryad and their trees.
75-76	The entire tribe is under the magical influence of a chaotic trickster god who wishes to see more mayhem and chaos in the world.
77-79	They have been forced into attacking the village by an ancient dragon that covets the village’s gold. If the orcs don’t carry away all the village’s wealth, their children will be devoured by the fearsome monster.
80	They have been forced into attacking the village on behalf of a powerful cult of necromancers who seek more bodies for their craft. If the orcs fail, they will kill the tribe’s leaders and use them instead.
81	They have been forced into attacking the village by a group of hill giants who have threatened to take all the orcs’ food if they don’t raid the village for them instead.
82-83	They have been forced into attacking the village by a powerful demon that has recently been set free. The demon seeks souls to feast upon and will devour the tribe if they do not bring him villagers to appease his hunger.
84-85	They have been forced into attacking the village by a local lord who wants rights to the land and is trying to drive the villagers away so that he can press his claim to the king. The lord has kidnapped the orcs’ children and holds them hostage until the orcs carry out his dirty plan.
86	They seek a wand of fireballs (four charges left) that has been hidden within the walls of the village’s tavern by the innkeeper’s magic user brother. The orcs’ leader was told of this by the brother’s duplicitous associate.
87	They seek a silver medallion shaped like a monstrous eye with an iris of obsidian. It is in truth a medallion of ESP 30 feet and the personal property of a vanquished orcish king. An orcish trader saw it upon the softspoken tavern keeper’s chest the last time he was in town and now the orcs want this relic back. It has been in the tavern keeper’s family for the last four generations.
88	They seek the enchanted hammer of the dwarven hero Glint Feldsparr (war hammer +2, glows a deep purple within 30 feet of an invisible or ethereal creature.) who left it in the village a generation ago and never returned. The orcs seek the hammer to protect themselves against the ghosts that haunt the entrance to a nearby dungeon they wish to plunder.
89	The orcs wish to expand their current territory so that they may rule over the village and take regular tribute from it.
90	The orcs wish to expand their current territory to take advantage of the rich and fertile farmland the village has access to.
91-92	The orcs wish to expand their current territory to reclaim the old borders of a legendary orcish kingdom that used to occupy the area centuries ago.
93	They wish to expand their ruling territories in order to seek political recognition from a bordering human nation.
94	The orcs seek to expand their territory in order to fulfill their shaman’s vision of a homeland for all orc-kind.
95	The orcs seek to expand their territory and conquer the entire region for themselves in order to vanquish the worship of the humans’ gods.
96-97	The orcs have been driven mad by the corrupting energies of a forgotten shrine to chaos that remains hidden in the wilderness near the village.
98-99	The orcs have been driven mad by the corrupting energies of a broken fey artifact that is now starting to leak nightmares directly into the campaign world.
100	The orcs have had their minds replaced by the tattered minds of ancient mages who were once trapped within a device in a nearby dungeon as punishment. After activating the magical machine the orcs had their minds swapped with the ancient magi who seek to destroy the world for what was done to them.

Magical Weather Phenomena

 Well met curious travelers! This week the shift in seasons brings with it a change in weather, that's right, magical weather! The article this week is about magical weather phenomena, the sort of weird weather that crops up when traveling through magically infused landscapes. If you like this article then you might like the snowy blast of winter chill found in the snowbound hex generator, or if you're looking for another table to add some spice to your campaign take a look at the D66 religious taboos table instead.

Magical Weather Phenomena

The universe is replete powerful magic, and it is often true that such powerful magics bleed into the mortal world. Such magical auras and geomantic energies have been known to seep into the atmosphere surrounding sites of overwhelming magical power and to create all manner of magical weather. When travelling through magically infused landscapes during the stormy parts of the year, there is a 10% chance each day of magical storms blowing in to hamper your players’ plans.

1	Fingers of blue lightning slash sideways across the sky. Odd metallic crashes of thunder follow briefly after. Anything the blue lightning strikes turns to salt. This weather lasts for 1d4 hours. (When travelling through the storm there is a 1-in-20 chance every 30 minutes of a party member or pack animal being struck. If struck, the target must make a Death save. If they fail, they are turned to salt.)
2	The earth lurches and shakes violently as warm rain spatters down from above. A dull hum permeates the air as pillars of obsidian the size of tree trunks start erupting from the earth at random. This storm lasts for 1d6 hours. (All Turn Undead rolls made during the storm are made as though the caster is two levels lower than they are to a minimum of 1st level.)
3	The frantic and hungry souls of a thousand tortured sufferers swirl through the air in a miasmatic cloud. The cacophonous shrieks and wails of these fetid souls pollutes the air with fear and confusion. Exposure to the cloud can drain one of their will to live, causing players to lie motionless on the ground until they die of starvation. The cloud of lost souls lasts for 1d4+1 hours. (If PCs don’t attempt to actively lift their spirits through activities such as singing or telling each other jokes they will have to make a Spell save after every hour of exposure. If they fail, they lose the will suffer terrible ennui, leading to a -1 penalty to all Death saving throws for the next 24 hours.)
4	A choaking cloud of thick bone dust rolls across the landscape like a drawn funeral shroud. The gritty dust made of ground-down bonemeal is composed of a thousand different species. The clouds of bone last for 1d6 hours. (Without proper skin and breathing protection against the dust, travelers who make their journey through the bone cloud suffer a hacking cough for 2d4 days. This loud wheezing cough will make stealth all but impossible and adds a +1 penalty to dungeon encounter checks.)
5	Slow motion green lightning grows from the ground to the sky, fading out as long peels of rumbling thunder crash down. Dark clouds gather, but no rain falls. Anyone who touches a tendril of lightning suffers 2d6 damage as the current flows through their body. The storm lasts for 2d6 hours, and during that time all ferrous metal is highly magnetic, hampering armored combat. (-2 to attacks if wearing metal armor)
6	Swirling flakes of what looks at first to be fluffy snow falls down from thick pinkish clouds, but what is actually falling is cotton candy. The sticky gunk floats down to earth into quickly growing drifts. Travel through the area takes twice as long due to the mounds of soggy cotton candy that are accumulating. The storm lasts for 2d8+1 hours. (The day after the storm, buzzing clouds of insects will descend on the countryside to pester all who live there.)
7	Fluffy storm clouds start rolling in, and with them comes the scent of the ocean. After a short time, a light sprinkle of rain will begin. The misty rain is soothing and helps to clear away fatigue, but the rain brings danger with it too. Any spellcaster caught out in the misty downpour must succeed at a Spell save before successfully casting a spell or waste their action (but not the spell). This lasts for as long as the spellcaster is wet from the downpour.  After 1d4+2 of precipitating, the rain will cease.
8	A hazy mist that glows in pulses of green, red, and yellow descends upon the landscape. With it comes the scent of ozone and a buzzing static charge that clings to all things metal. Sound echoes differently within the haze, making distances seem to shift. Travel through the haze is impossible at night, and it is so thick that all light sources are halved within it. For every hour traveled through the haze during the day there is a 3-in-6 chance of getting lost, even on well-maintained roads. The hazy cloud lasts for 3d6 hours.
9	A driving snow crashes upon the countryside. With it, temperatures suddenly plunge to near zero. The snow scours exposed skin as the chilling frost permeates the air. Beautiful flower-like blooms of ice dot the landscape. As the party travels, these crystal structures grow until they are the size of trees. The ice blossoms are very sharp, causing 1d4 damage to those careless enough to brush against one. The frozen snowstorm lasts for 3d4 hours.
10	A dark angry cloud the size of a cottage follows the party, pouring rain down in a deluge. As the party travels, thick tongues of red lightning will crash down around the party. No one is ever hit by this terrifying spectacle, but horses and other animals have a 2-in-6 chance of being spooked by it and attempting to flee. The angry little cloud only lasts for 1d3 hours.

 

You Come Upon a Lone Farmstead in the Woods

Greetings sleepwalkers! Welcome to this week's blog, a forest farmstead encounter generator! This fun set of tables will help you create a lone farmstead in the woods, replete with fields, farmers, and fun findings to challenge and intrigue your players! This blog article would make a great companion to the D66 table of woodland encounters from June. If you're looking for other interesting tables check out last week's D66 table of religious taboos, or try another location generator, like the wizard's tower generator.

*Medieval plowing with oxen (from a 14th century manuscript)

You Come Upon a Lone Farmstead in the Woods:

A Forest Encounter Generator

Dark and misty woodlands filled with gargantuan primeval trees, briar-choked deer paths meandering underneath the thick canopies of ancient timbers, the waiting silence at the forest’s heart - woodland journeys are replete with the grandeur and oddments of the forest, and it is not just the realm of animals, tree spirits, and elementals. Many peoples live in the forest, be it elf, man, or savage orc. Such folk rarely congregate together in large groups though, as farmable land within forests remains relatively scarce. Thus, a chance encounter with a lone farm deep in the woods is a more likely occurrence than coming upon a large farming community.

Below you will find a series of tables that you can use to create an interesting encounter location populated with all manner of inhabitants, monsters, and a host of other weird and wonderful things. Use the tables to flesh out the lone farm’s layout, its current inhabitants, and what interesting twist might be lurking just behind the PCs first impressions.

 

The Fields

A lone forest farmstead usually occupies a clearing cut into the forest when the farm was first built. Depending on the success of the farmer and their family, they may have an extensive system of fields, orchards, apiaries, barns, and other outbuildings. Use the table below to determine what the fields around the farmstead look like. Take note of any features that PCs or monsters may use to gain a tactical advantage in combat, such as stone field walls, trees, buildings, etc.

D10	The Fields Around The Farmstead
1	A small stone wall surrounds an acre of field and creates a barrier between the farm and the forest proper. Half the field is sown with wheat and the other half has been set aside for garden vegetables. Two scarecrows made of rusted plate mail, straw, wood, and cloth are propped up in the wheat field.
2	Two separate fields, each marked by waist-high stone walls, are occupied by over one and a half acres of wheat and corn. A small granary on stilts, roughly 10 feet in diameter with a 15-foot-tall conical top, has been built near the farmhouse. A small covered well has also been dug near the farmhouse door. Chickens and ducks can be seen ambling through the rows hunting for bugs.
3	Over five acres of apple trees surround this farmhouse. A wooden palisade as tall as a man has been built surround the entire orchard. A tall thin building with a peaked roof used to store apples has been constructed halfway between the palisade and the farmhouse. A small barn is also visible on the property, and an ancient stone well can be seen here too.
4	A knee-high wall of fieldstones surrounds a quarter-acre of farmland and six beehives on wooden platforms sit within. Two additional fields, two acres apiece, occupy the other side of the clearing. Each field is separated by fieldstone walls. One field lies fallow and the other is packed with the twisting vines of gourd plants. A barn the size of the entire farmhouse and a small pig pen with a few happy sows snorting away are the only other visible buildings.
5	A system of five-foot-deep ditches separates these four acres of orchard, wheat fields, and beehives from each other. Two small barns, one made of stone and the other of weathered old wood can be seen on the other side of the farmhouse. A large covered well and two large stone benches are arrayed outside the farmhouse’s front door. A lone donkey drinks from a stone watering trough to the side of the stone barn.
6	Six acres of grazing fields occupy the clearing, with wooden fences surrounding the whole area and dividing the interior into three separate sections. Sheep occupy two of the three fields, and two large slate-roofed barns and a small well with stone-cut animal troughs are the only other constructions here besides the farmhouse.
7	Two little fields, no more than a half-acre apiece, occupy the area in front of the farmstead. Short fieldstone walls surround them. One field has been planted with corn, the other cabbages. A back field over 2 acres large lies behind the farmhouse and contains a myriad of garden vegetables including green beans, peas, carrots, and turnips. There is a small barn and stable fenced in behind the farmhouse.
8	The entirety of this four acre farm has been given over to apiaries and wildflowers. Bees buzz throughout the clearing and the smell of honey wafts on the air. A long one-story barn runs behind the farmstead, and a small covered well sits next to it. On the outskirts of the clearing a massive, weathered stone head the size of a small wagon rests on its side, overgrown with moss.
9	The fields that surround this farmstead are roughly eight acres in size, and most of that has been planted with grapes attached to wooden arbors. The area nearest to the farm has a small wooden fence surrounding it and a host of garden vegetables growing inside. A small well and a two-story barn and stable can be found behind the farmhouse.
10	Three large fields, each roughly two acres in size, occupy this clearing. A series of dilapidated wooden fences surround the fields, and in many places they have completely fallen away. The fields themselves lie fallow and overgrown. A stone barn with a collapsed roof is the only other building besides the farmstead here.

 

*"Anderwood Corner", Picture was drawn by Walter Crane and engraved by W. J. Linton, probably in 1862.

The Farmstead

The centerpiece of any farm is its farmhouse. Many a small dirt-floored hovel has, with dutiful work and prosperous luck, been transformed over the years into a multistory stone villa fit for a dynasty. Whether a doughty adventuring party comes upon a one-room shack or a three-story mansion can inform all sorts of assumptions that a crafty referee can use to bring adventure into their campaigns. Use the table below to generate a farmhouse to put at the center of your fields.

D10	What Kind Of Farmhouse Is It?
1	A small one-story wooden farmhouse, roughly 10’ by 15’ with a fireplace of river stones and a single shuttered window. The outside walls and roof are covered in cedarwood bark.
2	A three-room one-story wooden farmhouse approximately 15’ wide by 25’ long with a roof of green glazed tiles. The roof overhangs the front of the house by seven feet and is supported by four wooden columns carved to look like snakes are coiling around them.
3	A simple turf house dug into the earth, approximately 15’ by 15’ with a roof of green sod. Large river stones have been placed on the edge of the roof where it meets the ground. The door is painted a golden orange color.
4	A robust two-story wooden farmhouse with a wrap-around porch. The building is 50’ wide by 55’ long. The columns that support the second story balcony above the porch are smoothly carved and painted with bright patterns of flowers and grasses, while the rest of the house is painted a brownish red. The roof is shingled in green-gray slates.
5	A modest log cabin with a small second story, roughly 20’ wide by 35’ wide with a thatched roof. A large brick chimney makes up an entire wall of the house.
6	A three-story wooden tower stands about 15’ by 15’ wide and 50’ tall with a peaked roof of red glazed  tiles. A small stove pipe is visible on the eastern side of the building. The sturdy wooden door to the farm tower is banded in iron and has been painted with the face of a medusa glaring back at would-be visitors on it.
7	A sunken farmhouse fashioned out of an ancient rock-cut tomb. The stone it is cut from is approximately 50’ feet in diameter, but the farmhouse itself is comprised of only three rooms. The stones around the doorway are carved in a weathered and unreadable script.
8	A modest one-floor farmhouse made of mortared fieldstones is approximately 15’ wide by 20’ long with a thatched roof and a number of glazed windows. An elaborately styled chimney on the western side of the house is tiled with a mosaic that depicts rose, ivy, and hawthorn branches winding their way up it.
9	A sprawling single-story sandstone farmhouse, roughly 55’ wide by 65’ long with a central courtyard and pillared arcades. The roof is made of glazed red tiles. To either side of the green painted door are two weathered marble statues of lamia standing at attention.
10	An impressive two-story chateau of mortared sandstone and granite roughly 30’ wide by 50’ long with dark gray slate roof shingles. The roof overhangs a second floor balcony, and both are supported by two massive granite pillars carved with elaborate fluting and pediments. There are many windows around the mansion, all of them glazed.

 

Does the Farmhouse Have any Secrets?

Use this handy table below to determine if there are any secrets about the farmhouse that a PC’s search of the interior may uncover.

2D6	Are There Any Secrets In The Farmhouse?
2	Stuffed in a green glazed jar next to the bed is a battered copper ring (ring of protection +1)
3-5	An excellent bottle of wine (20 gp) has been concealed inside a lidded cook pot.
6-8	No, this is just a simple farmstead. What you see is what you get.
9-11	A small horde of coins (3D10 gp) has been hidden in a small hole dug under the bed.
12	The ancient, gnarled walking stick set next to the door is actually an enchanted club that deals an extra +2 damage to Constructs and Undead.

 

Who Dwells Here?

Folk inhabit forests for countless reasons. Whether to flee oppression, avoid suspicion, find solitude, or to be closer to their gods, they seek the seclusion of the trees. Use the table below to generate your farm’s inhabitants. Some may seem like perfectly typical forest dwellers, and others might seem like odd inclusions in this setting. Use your imagination to help fill in the gaps and explain what circumstances may have brought them here.

D12	Farm Inhabitants
1	A modest family of humans including a grandmother, her daughter and daughter’s husband, their teenage daughter and adult son, the son’s wife, and their infant son. The grandmother, her daughter, and granddaughter all have heterochromatic eyes, one green and the other reddish-brown
2	Two young elf couples live here and work the farm together. They sometimes employ a few halfling field hands.
3	An elderly human couple live here after their children all left. They do have an even-tempered guard dog named Pooch.
4	A small collection (2d6+3) of dwarves live together in this farmhouse. They are all from the same clan and are distantly related to each other. It is impossible to tell the men from the women here.
5	A collection of two extended halfling families (2d6+2) occupy the farm and can often be heard singing to each other at night. A great gray wolfhound named Gary guards both families from danger.
6	A small clutch (3d4) of lizardfolk have their farm here. They wear leather pants and carry wicker backpacks around the farm. The matriarch of the lizardfolk has piercing golden eyes.
7	An odd collection of humans, goblins, halflings, and bugbears work the farmstead. They are all children of the same virtuous adoptive mother who raised them here in the woods.
8	A small family consisting of a mother, father, young daughter, infant son, and the father’s three brothers who help out as farm hands live here. The father has a bad limp and keeps to himself mostly.
9	A family of gnomish cottagers occupy this farm. The house is filled with two sets of grandparents, a mother and father and three young gnomish children, and a young boy and his two older sisters. The grandparents brew mead flavored with herbs gathered from the forest.
10	An ancient and weathered old woman and her mute teenage servant are the farm’s only inhabitants. The servant’s face has a pleading, guilty quality to it.
11	A simple family of orcs can be found here. A mother, father, and their eight nearly grown children farm the land. The mother is jovial and inclined to sing.
12	A human man and his orcish mate dwell in the farmhouse with three human servants. The couple eloped and left their families to be together - the human from his minor noble house, and the orc from their warrior tribe.

 

*"The Heronry at Vinney Ridge", Picture was drawn by Walter Crane and engraved by W. J. Linton, probably in 1862.

What Does it Seem Like is Going on Here?

Though many dwell under the forest’s loamy canopy, not all are as they appear to be at first notice. Still, your player’s first impressions are often what entices them into adventure. Through the forest undergrowth, what appears to be happening and what actually is happening are sometimes two different things. Use the table to generate a first impression of what is happening at the farm clearing. This will give you an idea of what is unfolding when the encounter itself starts and is just a jumping-off point for further interaction.

2d6	What Is Going On?
2	The fields and farm buildings are under attack! A small (2d4) band of [1. Orcs 2. Gnolls 3. Bugbears 4. Mudmen] are viciously trying to batter down the door to the farmhouse. The vile monsters are ransacking the farm fields as the farmhouse is being attacked.
3	Half the farm’s able-bodied inhabitants are working the fields, and the others are guarding the perimeter with wooden spears and rusted helmets. This farm’s inhabitants are cautious of raids from monsters and the like. They are devout, however, and are greatly swayed by the presence of lawful priests, clerics, and paladins.
4	Some of the farm dwellers are standing near a half collapsed wall, arguing about the best way to rebuild it. They seem nervous but are still quite friendly and will invite players to join them for their evening meal. The inhabitants speak only in whispers, but they won’t say why.
5	A few gathered farm folks stand near a freshly dug grave in prayer. They are bruised looking and weary. They have just buried a beloved family member. They won’t say how they got their injuries or how the deceased person died. They can be enticed to talk and/or trade but insist on doing everything on a table that they’ll bring out from inside the farmhouse.
6-8	A typical day on the farm. All able hands are at work sowing, reaping, tending, and mending what needs to be. Work songs and the occasional laugh perfume the air. The inhabitants of this farm are friendly if cautious and will offer what meager shelter and food they have for the evening. These folk are helpful and goodhearted, although not the most learned.
9	Two of the farm’s residents are chasing a small herd of deer out of the fields with brooms while they yell and holler. The farmers are happy to talk and trade with the player’s characters, although they do ask for help with the local deer population in return for any trades.
10	The fields are pockmarked with small burnt craters and the roof of the farmhouse has been caved in. Though there is a good deal of blood in the house, there are no bodies to be found at first glance.
11	Tension lies like a wet cloth across the clearing. There are signs of fieldwork being done, but no one is visible in the fields. The farmhouse windows and doors are shut tight and the inhabitants seem cautious and guarded. They will threaten violence if pressed, though this is but a scared bluff. In truth they are fearful of outsiders and will take some persuading if they are to be of  assistance.
12	A dead farmer lays facedown in their field. A smoldering pile of rubble is strewn next to them on the ground. The farmhouse door lies ominously open and smoke is beginning to trickle out of it.

 

What is Actually Going on Here?

Things in the deep woods are not always what they seem. What adventurers first assume to be going on when they come upon a lone farmhouse can sometimes be much more sinister than what appears at first glance. Use the below table to figure out if there is something more going on than meets the eye, and what that is.

1d12	What Is Truly Going On?
1-6	Everything is as it seems here. There is no twist, just humble folk who may need a hand.
7	The some of the farm’s inhabitants are secretly doppelgangers who have taken the identities of some of the farm’s true residents. At least one may try to accompany the PCs after they leave in hopes of taking over one of their lives.
8	The farm’s inhabitance are actually murderers who killed the true owners and have taken over. They will try to drug PCs who accept their hospitality so that they can sacrifice them to their dark gods.
9	The farm’s inhabitance are part of a secret cult to an altruistic god of Law. They will repay any kindness offered to them by way of their god’s blessing.
10	One of the farm’s inhabitants is a Hag in disguise. She has ensorcelled the others who live there and uses the farm as her secret base of operations.
11	The farm’s true inhabitants (roll again on the Farm Inhabitants table) have been away from home. In their absence, the current residents came to squat there and take the farmer’s food. The original inhabitants will return sometime during the PC’s encounter though.
12	The farm’s inhabitants are actually escaped fugitives lying low here in the forest until the heat dies down. They may be known to the PCs if they are infamous enough (2-in-6 chance).