You Come Upon A Ruined Vehicle

 To paraphrase Gandolf, I return to you now at the changing of the tide. I had to step away from the blog last year due to life events. I'm back now, though my output will have to reduce for my sanity's sake. I hope to continue creating fun stuff for you all in the months ahead!

Today I bring you a little encounter generator for adding some weirdness and mystery to you campaign. this is just one part of a bigger project I've been working on for generating interesting wilderness encounters. in the months to come i intend to share it and more with you. 

You Come Upon A Ruined Vehicle By The Side of the Road

 

There are more than just wandering monsters to encounter when travelling through the wilderness. Below you will find a handful of tables you can use to whip up a quick encounter for your players as they traverse the wilds of your campaign in search of adventure. This encounter showcases odd vehicles or vessels alongside themes of mystery and exploration and is best placed in mountain, desert, or barren hill terrain types.  Enjoy!

To create this encounter you will need to take three actions.

1) Roll on the Vessel table to determine what sort of vehicle or vessel the PCs encounter.

2) Roll to see if the party is alone when they come upon this sight.

3) Consult the table below that details the vehicle stats of those vessels that can be made working again.

D12	The Vessel
1	A longboat made of an entire block of carved granite. This vehicle was once enchanted to fly. It still bears a few rotting feathered oars and a series of mostly intact silk sails in its hold (worth a total of 400 gp). The rudder of the ship is broken in two but the magical runes used to keep the vessel aloft are still carved into it, and it may be able to be re-enchanted.
2	This was once a massive wagon with four axels. The wagon box is huge at nearly 15 feet square. It is made of moss covered timbers reinforced with rusting iron bands. There are a number of arrow slit-like windows around the entire wagon box. A strong looking door lays open as the whole thing has fallen on its side. It has become half covered in earth and moss. A team of oxen must have had to pull this large war wagon. Inside can be found a profoundly rusted tapered metal tube a few feet in length (a small hand canon), and a bunch of wet and molding black powder.
3	This horrific contraption looks like a metal platform built on top of 13 long and gangly metal legs. The whole rusted hulk is covered in brambles, lending it an air of some monstrous metal spider. The control levers and a small bench seat are the only things built on to the platform. The platform itself is big enough for six human-sized individuals to comfortably stand on it at one time.
4	A moss covered, segmented marble snake-like sculpture without a head. In place of a head, a marble seat has been carved, and a large green crystal (200 gp) is embedded in front of that. The marble stone segments of the snake body are fixed together with gold and copper chains an inch thick. (500 gp worth of metal can be salvaged). This vehicle is entirely intact. It can be driven by sitting in the driver’s seat, placing one’s hand on the crystal and imagining the direction you want the vehicle to move in.
5	This wooden vessel that resembles a long sailing boat is approximately 120 feet long and 20 feet wide at its widest. The entire top deck of the vessel has been covered over in a broken lattice of glass similar to that of a greenhouse, though most of the glass is now shattered. Besides the two main masts, there are two smaller masts curiously protruding from the underside of the vessel pointing downward at 45 degree angles. Below deck underneath the steering wheel there is a metal throne with arcane symbols etched on it. From here, a trained mage could levitate the entire vessel and even (legend says) take it to the stars and into other planes. Any character with arcane training who sits on the throne must save versus spells or be flooded with memories of interdimensional battles with other worldly creatures. This will exhaust their mind, preventing them from casting spells for the next 1d8 hours.
6	This vehicle seems to be the cap of a humongous acorn 12 feet in diameter. Inside the acorn cap are two holly branches woven into oars. This is some sort of faery boat. It is impervious to fire, nigh unbreakable, and can be floated across lava, acid, or almost any other mundane but dangerous liquid. A large river stone with a natural hole worn in the middle has been set inside, tied to the acorn cap with a rope of woven grasses for use as an anchor. The entire vessel weighs 500 pounds.
7	This large stone statue is carved out of gray-green basalt and is roughly 15 feet tall and 8 feet wide. It has been fashioned in the likeness of an armored dwarf with a long plaited beard, although the whole thing is now covered in moss and vines. There is a compartment in its back big enough to fit two dwarf-sized individuals. Besides some small benches, this little recess contains rusted control levers for making the great stone statue walk. The dwarven runes that imbued this artifact with power have been partially weathered off, rendering the great machine an inert statue.
8	This odd looking craft is 120 feet long and 20 feet wide at its widest. It is cigar shaped and made out of rusted metal. Affixed to one end are three bent metal fins. Halfway along the metal cylinder is an oval metal door with a wheel that must been turned to open it (Stuck Door Check). There are three compartments in this vessel, though they are laid out one on top of the other. The entire vessel is lying on its side. The compartment towards the fin end of the vessel is filled with odd metal contraptions with circular dials painted in an unrecognizable script. The middle chamber is empty save for a stool bolted to the floor. The chamber on the end opposite the fins has two seats of rotting upholstery bolted to the floor and a large array of dials, buttons, and switches. There is some fuel left in the tanks. If syphoned out, it can be put in a bottle and made into an incendiary much like lamp oil, though it deals 1d10 damage to the target, and half damage to anyone adjacent to the target.
9	This vehicle is a 10 foot diameter sphere of translucent reddish crystal. There is a small, circular hatch that allows entrée though there is no visible means of opening the hatch (it pushes inward). Those inside will find it’s actually quite easy to roll the sphere along by walking. The sphere and those inside it are impervious to normal damage, and float when falling from a great height (like the spell Featherfall), and float on water. The sphere can only hold up to two people before it becomes too cramped to control properly.
10	This strange vehicle resembles a rusted metal millipede, with 25 small metal legs on each side. It is roughly 15 feet long, and its body is 7 feet wide. The front end though is a large corkscrew of metal. Two small windows on the front allow those inside to see, and a 3’ square hatch on the back allows entry to the interior of the largely brass contraption. Inside are three rows of benches and an elaborate collection of knobs, levers, dials, and switches. Though the dials are written with gnomish script, they are not in any known gnomish dialect. 1d6 of the knobs have gems on their ends, each worth 75 gp each.
11	This vessel is long, approximately 150 feet long, consisting of three 28 foot long carriage-like contraptions and a larger 65 foot long control engine, all made of various metals hooked together. This long metal snake is lying on its side with vines and small trees growing out of some windows. The interiors of the three smaller cars have been ripped up and torn out a long time ago. The larger car still has a large, rusted furnace, levers, dials, and a broken stool. Hidden inside the fire box of the furnace is a piece of obsidian polished into a smooth, egglike shape. A glyph of the elven word for fire has been etched into it. If this word is spoken out loud within 10 feet of the stone, it will heat up sufficiently to burn wood and cause a fire to form for one minute before it cools again. This can only be used three times a day.
12	This gliding vessel resembles a large Roc constructed out of delicate carved wood and stretched silk. The wingspan is about 25 feet long, although the body of it from beak to tail is only 10 feet long. Many of the silk panels stretched over the wooden frame are ripped or missing. Within the body of the bird vessel are three seats, one in front of the other. With the foremost seat in front of a corroded copper steering lever. Dwarvish runes are still visible on the interior wood struts.

 

 

 

2D6	Is the party alone?
2-5	There are 1d10 corpses strewn about this location. [Roll on an appropriate Human or Humanoid encounter chart to determine type.] They seem to be 1d6 days old. [The die explodes on 6s.]
6-8	There doesn’t seem to be any signs of any recent activity here.
9-12	Oh no, the party is not alone! [roll on the appropriate combat encounter for your terrain type.] The encountered party is usually covetous of the vehicle that has been encountered.

 

 

Table #	Vehicle type	Miles per Day	Movement Rate	Max Load (Coins)	Notes
1	Re-enchanted Granite Longboat	18/9	90’ (60’)/45’ (15’)	7,000/14,000	This vessel can fly. It requires an arcane magic user of level 3 or more or a group of magic users whose combined levels equal 3 total to be concentrating to keep the vessel flying.
4	The Snake-Like Sculpture	24/12	120’ (40’)/60’ (20’)	4,000/8,000	Those who sleep within 15 feet of the vehicle dream of fondly of snakes.
6	Enchanted Acorn Cap Boat	12	60’ (30’)	3,000	See table description above.
10	The Metal Centipede	12/6 or 6/3 Burrowing	60’ (30’)/30’ (15’) or 30’ (15’)/ 15’ (7’)	4,500/9,000	The vessel and anyone inside are immune to mundane sources of heat.