Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Troublesome Elves

A encounter table Inspired by this post on elves at Elfmaids and Octopi.  I agree elves should be made more of a nightmare or exotic menace than they have been generally presented many an RPG game and campaign. The Following is a minor contribution to that end.


Troublesome Encounter with Wicked Elves
1d50

1
A Spelte Vaettir Herald decked in elaborate Orachalcum Armor arrives to demand tribute that has been unpaid by the locals for decades.
2
An angry flock of blood drinking owls descends on a field during harvest while a half dozen Spelte Vaettir watch and wait.
3
A Spelte Vaettir Harvest Knight and a score of lesser kin we idling a host of exotic pole-arms escort a train of Drolde slaves carrying goods back to their domain.
4
A maiden and a Harvest Elf Green Jack engaged in a romantic triste.
5
A dozen intoxicated Harvest Knights on a rand are sweeping the countryside; anyone foolish enough to join in will likely be swept away and never seen again.
6
A Harvest Knight on a black steed delivers the body of a missing nobleman’s child.
7
Nearly a dozen Spelte Vaettir have stopped by a forest pool to bathe, leaving their arms and armor on the shore. All the gear is likely magical but will rust away as autumn leaves and vanish by the next spring.
8
A raiding part of Harvest Elves is racing across the area, woe to any who try to sate between them and their goal. The raiding party will be heavily represented by those of level in classes such as fighter, druid and Ilusionist.
9
A band of Harvest Knight and Green Jack are battling a larger but less prepared number of Rotwood Elves. Both will gladly except help but the rewards they offer may not be that they seem,
10
A Green Jack with a pair of Trow servants is traveling to a local village to samples the goods of the local ale wives.
11
A Spelte Vaettir bound in crude iron chains is being dragged along by a trio of trolls.
12
A pair of oafish villagers carrying piles of goods are pursued by a number of jeering harvest elves who will surly set upon them at any time.
13
A pair of Trelfs in brass leaf-scale armor guard a door in a hillside.
14
A Drolde and pathetic Drauth haggle with a small band of Boggarts over some Drolde-wrought arms and lowly Drausckap.
15
A Drauth slowly growing larger in a stone grotto surrounded by a thorn hedge.
16
A Drauth handmaiden skulking away carrying a babe in arms having left a false changeling in place in a nearby village.
17
A trio of beautiful Drauth Maidens will invite travelers to enjoy their company and passions for a night. All will probably go well unless one of their guests is foolish enough to depart with a token or flask of Drauth wine.
18
An entombed Drauth screams in madness and rage so loudly it can be heard above the ground. 
19
A Drauth Warrior (his sword stollen) sits against a tree bound by iron chains.
20
A Drauth Wizard and famulus summoning an elemental in a stone circle.
21
Rotwood Elves decked in heavy (but filthy) robes and breathe-masks are spraying the wood with a mist of spores from strange bellows.
22
A Rotwood maiden is harvesting hens of the wood, she may attempt to seduce one or two human men back to her lair.
23
A crone seemingly talking to herself is gathering mushrooms in the forest. She is begin guided by an invisible Rotwood Elf.
24
A half dozen Rotwood Elf swordsmen will nto allow any to pass over a small bride across a stream without a challenge and contest. They will lose easily if the contest is not to the death, their gear is infested with spores that will sprout madly in 2 or 3 days consuming all organic matter it is in contact with (treat as green slime).
25
A small band of Rotwood Elves is tracking a thief who made off with a number of potions. They will split the goods with any who aid them.
26
A pair of fungus ridden zombies led by what seems to be a child is seen carrying armloads of goods along a remote trail. The child is a glamoured Rotwood Elf or perhaps a Drauth that has stolen some of their secrets.
27
Four sickly jaundiced elves seek assistance in healing a wounded companion. They bear a goodly amount of Drauskap arms (recently won in battle).
28
Rotwood Elf bandits in fungus laced trees will drop down foul grenades of choking spores and flesh-devouring molds to any who pass that will not readily surrender adequate wealth.
29
A stange languid Elfin Princess in procession with Mushroom Headed Bug-a-bears, fungus ridden dwarves, and mold covered centaurs who is waited on by seemingly sickly elfin maidens will attempt to add any who bother her to her ranks of servants,
30
An aggressive patrol of Rotwood elves accompanied by a fungus laced Treant and a drug-addled Traelf warrior will attempt to destroy or capture any in their territory who do not offer proper recompense for trespassing.
31
A pair of Moon-Elf knights mounted upon ghastly steeds are racing each other across the countryside, neither will appreciate interruption.
32
A Moon-Elf Magus and Crystal Sevitors leading a frothing Wamp back to a moon-gate.
33
A Moon-Elf exploratory party decked out in exotic lunar garb, sporting breathing tubes and a host of oddly devices is collecting terrestrial samples in floating bubbles.
34
A circle of witches engaged in an orgy with a number of Moon Elves will attempt to seduce any who stumble upon them but woe to those who join in as their blood will be spilled to nurture the children to be born afterward.
35
A large band of Moon-Elves constructing tripedal warmachines. They will be ready at the next full moon.
36
Molemen slaves recently escape through a Moongate with a smattering of Moon-Elf devices, they will attempt to barter a single device and knowledge of how ot use the Moongate to get gretater wealth (and likely be captured by Moon Elves in their own domain).
37
Moon-Elf Nobles visiting their Terrestiral Cousins riding upon palanquins carried by a host of molemen. They are guarded by a platoon of Moon Elves mounted upon Giant Moths.
38
Two Moon-Elf hunters are tracking a Mothman in the wood. The Mothman is actually a MoonElf lycanthrope of sorts they wish to capture alive. they may pretend to bribe terrestrial men into as siting them.
39
A Troop of Moon-elves setting up elaborate lunar cannons to blast their way into a gate leading to a Hurdle-Folk hill.
40
A mysterious gateway in the wood leads to Moon-Elf graveyard on the moon. Woe to any who are not prepared to breathe the rarified lunar air or deal with the scampering Lunar Ghouls that lurk in the dark corners of the Graveyard.
41
A Liger stalks a pair of hapless lost Moon-Elves.
42
A small Band of Moon-Elves and Wood Elf cousins hunt a pair of Were-wolves. If they are bored or annoyed by humans in their way they may just add them to the ranks of the hunted.
43
A Troop of Wood Elves hunting for the woodmen who did slay their Dryad queen.
44
A score of a Sprites burst from a trunk of a tree. They will be hungry and seek to drink the blood of any animals they encounter for the next three nights. They can be calmed by Wood Elves. 
45
A hollow-backed Elfin maiden sitting in a wooden glade will attempt to seduce any male who enter the glade. Her breast milk is poison that will enthrall those who drink. Elfin men and women are immune to the charms of this Wood Elf vampire (of sorts).
46
A wild hunt of Wood Elves and Enchanted Beasts led by an Oak Lord sweeps through the countryside all variety of men and animals are considered fair game if they lack Elfin charms that would allow them to join the hunt.
47
A Small Band of Wood Elves battles a cult of Witches emboldened by troublesome Drauth.
48
In a secreted glade a Wood Elf Master Archer with a golden bow challenges any bowmen he meets to a contest of archery, the winner is acknowledged to be the champion and will be given the golden bow and will be cursed to stand in the glade until someone can best them in a fair contest of archery.
49
A Trio of wicked Wood Elves is using a kidnapped maiden to hunt a Unicorn. 
50
A troop of Wood elves will taunt and harry any who have trespassed onto their territory. They will use magic and be a nuisance but not cause violence unless met with violence.

Spelte Vaettir (Harvest Elves): Self proclaimed masters of nature’s bounty demanding tribute from the younger races. Harvest elves are tall (6-1/2 ft) and very slight with sliver-grey skin not unlike moonlight, despite their slight frames they are powerful and violent typically decked in autumnal colors of deciduous forest and fields.

Trelf: Tragic crossreeds of Elf and Troll that favor the elfin parent.

Trow: Originally slave soldier half breeds of dark elves and troll.

Drolde: Brutish magically fostered crossbreeds of dark elf and troll that despite their barely sentient nature are capable of fashioning exotic and exceptional large arms.

Traelf: though tot be a cross breed of Elf and Treant that protest the faierie domains but also possibly a stage in the Dryad/Treant life-cycle.

Drauth: A wicked, jealous,greedy, and gluttonous race of dark elves that primarily dwell beneath the earth. These shape changing folk are naturally gaunt (even skeletal) and workers of awful violence made even more terrible by their Drauskap (the magical craft of the Drauth).


Rotwood Elves: Not all elves of the woods are bound to the green some are jaundiced or grey servants of the riotous rot of fungus that would overrun the woods of the world.  Their alchemy and magic is shaped by their intimate knowledge of the spores and molds of the wood.

Moon-Elves will appear to be nearly naked in their scant translucent robes and bizarre crystal helms. They are visitors from remote domains upon the moon and sport exotic devices and goods for trade and defense along with beasts and slaves from their homeland.  They will treat men with any but the strongest of magical skills as simple brutes to be ignored or used at their whim; it is rumored they bend and shape men with wands that emit lycanthropic rays.  (inspired to be weirder than i originally thought by this  http://chaudronchromatique.blogspot.com/2016/02/moon-elf-of-yngarr-with-herhis-oculus.html)


2 comments:

  1. Very evocative. Good job with the elf subtypes, its like a campaign in a nutshell.

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  2. Wonderful stuff. I've been thinking of putting some sinister, uncannier elves in my campaign for awhile.

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