Encounters of the Frozen North
This guide offers lists and inspiration for generating encounters in the Frozen North; an icy landscape where nomadic tribes hunt on open plains and towns huddle together against the howling winds of the land.
Roll on all three lists to generate a random scene in your game including a backdrop, a monument, and an encounter.
Backdrop: dice: [[Encounters of the Frozen North#^backdrop]]
Monument: dice: [[Encounters of the Frozen North#^monument]]
Encounter: dice: [[Encounters of the Frozen North#^encounter]]
Backdrop
Choose from or roll on the following list to generate a backdrop for your encounter. Think of this like the background of a stage play.
| Backdrop |
|---|
| Frozen bridge |
| Icy shelf |
| Frozen river |
| Cracked lake |
| Dark forest |
| Dead village |
| Narrow ravine |
| Rocky hill |
| Old cemetery |
| Elven grove |
| Snow-covered ravine |
| Ancient battleground |
| Abandoned watchtower |
| Collapsed mine entrance |
| Hunting ground |
| Abandoned farm |
| Icy mesas |
| Winding creek |
| Hotspring geysers |
| Glacier shelf |
| ^backdrop |
Monument
Roll on or choose from the following list to generate a central monument in the location. You can choose whether these monuments have a direct effect in the encounter.
| Monument |
|---|
| Murdered body |
| Sacrificial altar |
| Wrecked ship |
| Elven archway |
| Floating obelisk |
| Collapsed dwelling |
| Ruined hut |
| Glyphed totem |
| Carved rock |
| Faceless statue |
| Giant cairn |
| Standing stones |
| Ancient megalith |
| Old bonfire |
| Impaled corpses |
| Dragon skull |
| Deep shaft |
| Frozen alien |
| Bottomless crevasse |
| Dark effigy |
| ^monument |
Encounter
| Encounter |
|---|
| Paranoid dwarven explorers with pack mules |
| Angry mammoths fighting over a mate |
| Mage and golem exploring the icy tundra |
| Assassin hunting her quarry |
| Gnolls on the hunt for human flesh |
| Perytons seeking prey |
| Friendly priest engaged in worship |
| Direwolf-led wolfpack hunting moose |
| Bandits posing as displaced settlers |
| Orcs hunting for the muderer of their lord |
| Friendly goliath traders |
| A fiendish vendor of magical items |
| Elvish travelers from another world |
| Lost baby snowy owlbears seking mom |
| Remorhaz hatchlings near a dead parent |
| Ancient white dragon with dead rider flies by |
| Mass grave bursting with crawling claws |
| Chimera hunting goats |
| Imprisoned shadow demon whispers secrets |
| Horde of manes seeking holy blood |
| Imps guarding an unholy monument |
| Snowy displacer beasts huntign lost barbarian |
| Young white dragon seeking a new domain |
| Duergar huntign party seeks an artifact |
| Ettercaps and giant spiders within a trap |
| Icy ghouls feed on a giant’s corpse |
| Frost giant scout checking on local settlements |
| Displaced goblins seeking food and shelter |
| Stray flesh golem walking towards mountains |
| Psionic-infested griffin seekts its own death |
| Coven of hags wants to make a deal |
| Gith hunting party seeking signs of illithids |
| Winter wolves on the prowl |
| Bodies infested with intellect devourers |
| Invisible stalker hunts one of the characters |
| Winged vampire kobolds seeking blood |
| Were-polar bear seeking solitude |
| Drow assassination squad hunting someone |
| Ice mephits protects an arcane monument |
| Disguised mind flayer seeks its companions |
| Ogre trappers hunting massive game |
| Oni disguised as halfling seeks help |
| White pudding formed as icy pool |
| Revenant seeks its murderer |
| Skeletal barbarians rise with fire in eyes |
| Specters haunt the monument |
| Ice troll hunting for food |
| Haunted monument surrounded by wisps |
| Enchanted pool filled with water weird |
| Wandering yetis |
| ^encounter |