The Three Wise Necromancers

 

Genderless, gentle, soft spoken and caring, the three wise necromancers are looking for the incarnation of an important religious figure and they come seeking the figure's blessing. The twist is that this religious figure can only be revealed after being raised from the dead and brought into unlife. Their gifts are compensations for bringing someone into unlife. People, who are not the prophet they seek, come back from the death with a vision or a few words that will guide the Necromancers toward the mysterious prophet's time of death. Sometimes they visit people who are getting close to their death, when they do they may want something in exchange of their gift, they never ask, but you always know - you just hope that you won't feel it when they bring you back. The people from the hills say that you don't have to take their gift and they'll never force you, but they only come when they have exactly what you need or exactly what you want. People from the marsh say that one brings good advice, one brings fresh fruit and the last brings tea.

Folk tales from the river towns say that if you put the kettle on, they will sit with you and share tales about undead people they know or that you once knew. How to use them in games?

• Use them to foreshadow incoming danger and to built dread or tension.
• Use them to bring news of deceased characters or NPCs
• Use them to bring a deceased character to unlife and to give them a personal quest to seek the undead prophet.
• Use them to setup a local religion and prophecy.
• Use them to make dying interesting by revealing clues each time a character die.

Written with comments from Marielle, Fred, Mystic Dan and Fighting Man.

Spookyfication

I spookyfied the OSE (Old School Essentials) Level 1 random table using some Halloween keywords. 

I rolled an Halloween flavor for each entries and I mixed the results to create Halloween themed variants of these level 1 encounters.  

Halloween flavors table (d12) 

1. bat|vampire
2. crow|scarecrow
3. witch|cat
4. ghost
5. skeleton|zombie
6. pumpkin|turnip|lantern
7. owl|alien
8. demon
9. monstrosity
10. candy|masked
11. twisted tree|dead leafs 
12. patchwork bodyparts 

LEVEL 1

1. Acolytes of the Black Cat (cultists who use a living black cat as a holy symbol)  
2. Scracrow Bandits (remain still until the ambush) 
3. Balefire Beetles (greenish flames) 
4. Bat Dwarfs (molerat like dwarfs who eat metal and use echolocation) 
5. Vampire's Gnomes (thralls of a subterrean vampire)
6. Skeleton headed Goblins (cackle a lot) 
7. Shambling pile of rotting leaves (Green Slime but as a mass of decomposing leaves)
8. Halfling's monstrosity (an hairy giant foot with eyes, who smell tobacco) 
9. Murdered hornets (Ghosts of giant hornets ) 
10. Twisted Roots Gecko (unded gecko with roots that grow inside them) 
11. Dead leaves orcs (orcs who use dead leaves as camouflage cloaks)  
12. Pumpkin Shrews (glowing shreews who live in giant pumpkins) 
13. Kobolds disguised as (roll a d12 on this table) 
14. Bone caged demon (tiny demon caged in a skeleton's ribcage)  
15. Witch Snake (human headed snake, witch's familiar)  
16. Cotton Candy Spider (colorful "tim burtonesque" spider who weave suggary webs) 
17. Crows Sprites (sprites riding crows) 
18. Alien Stirges (stirge faced grey humanoids who drink blood)    
19. Bodyparts Traders (buy, sell and stiches used body parts) 
20. Masked Wolves (wolves being controlled by weird masks) 

 

Wandering Merchants

Itinerant merchants seem like a obvious interesting random encounter but we rarely see them in random tables.

Ordinary merchants are ok but fantasy or surreal ones are more intriguing.

I tried to design some with Carys. We each drew four merchants (and later Carys drew a extra one), then with help of Brian we wrote 6 items for each merchant.

You can find the resulting PDF here.
https://theunburnedwitch.itch.io/wandering-merchants

Bonus content: a itinerant merchant generator

The merchant... (d10)

1. is a headless artificial construct or a golem
2. is a monster wearing pretty clothes
3. have been cursed with a animal head and can't speak humanoids languages. 
4. wear a veil and speak softly 
5. wear a old suit of armor and a sealed helm
6. is a insect using mimicry to vaguely look human 
7. is wearing baroque clothes from a other plane
8. wear a beautiful and elaborate magical prosthesis 
9. is a unknown humanoid specie wearing common clothes
10. is chained to a strange familiar

and is selling... (d10)

1. Dentures and wood noses
2. Keys and doorknobs 
3. Traps and whistles 
4. Gloves and ribbons 
5. Belts and girdles
6. Tiny chests and boxes
7. Optical devices
8. Achronistic items
9. Clockwork pets
10. Miniature idols 

Each time the group encounter the merchant they have a unique special item to trade or sell. If you need to improvise a item, ask one player to describe something that attract their attention, then ask a other player what kind of special property the item could have. If you need more details ask a third player, etc. Take notes and tweak their answer a bit using "yes but" or "yes and". 

If you are using the merchants from the PDF roll on their items table to determine the item. This way the players can wonder what the merchant will have the next time they will encounter them.

Potoo Island's building blocks

I am taking a break from drawing to work a bit on Potoo’s Island.

So this project is partly based on a joke and on a dream, I don’t really know where I want to go with this, I only know that I love potoo birds and that I want to craft something fun and strange based on them.

So I did some researches on the potoos and I took a good quantity of notes. I want to do something with the legend about the potoo being the spirit of a woman who fell from the moon and who call her moon husband at night.

Since I have no clear directions, I will begin by generating encounters to populate the island and then I will try to make sense of what will emerge. I will try to use the monsters building blocks method I posted earlier.

My building blocks will be things related to the potoo and the island.

Building blocks (d8)

1. Potoo bird 
2. Bugs (beetles, moths, grasshoppers and termites) (preys) 
3. Small birds (preys that potoo swallow whole!) 
4. Falcon (predators) 
5. Monkey (predators) 
6. Shipwrecked humans (who probably messed up the balance or ecology of the island) 
7. Rotting wood, tree stumps and mushrooms (thing that potoo camouflage as) 
8. Something fallen from the moon or the sky (reference to the legend) 

I also wrote some monsters archetypes to combine with the building blocks.

Encounter types (d12)

1. Sentient humanoids 
2. Mutated specialist function 
3. Strange chimera and hybrids 
4. Wild or primordial beasts (ancient ones may speak) 
5. Spirits (linked to a element or concept) 
6. Guardians (linked to a special location, gain advantage or power from it) 
7. Corrupted, cursed or undead 
8. Monstrous hoarder (accumulate stuff) 
9. Mimics, shapeshifters 
10. Deforestation, destruction of the environment 
11. Influenced or affected by a other building block (like falcons trained by humans or a ancient potoo spirit who hate humans) (Roll a d10 on this table to determine archetype and d8 on the building blocs table to determine relation) 
12. Roll two d10 on this table and mix the results, double result give a unique champion encounter with +1HD) 

I also crafted a random table that spotlight traits or aspects of the potoos. I will roll on this table when I need inspiration.

Potoo's aspects (d10)

1. Big eyes 
2. Big mouth, eat things whole 
3. Eerie call, induce fear or sadness 
4. Camouflage 
5. Stillness (or the need to avoid movements) 
6. Nocturnal, sleepy or lazy during day 
7. Eat insects and small birds 
8. Don’t hunt on the ground, mob defense 
9. Mate for life and lay a single egg, camouflaged hidden egg. 
10. Can be cartoony or spooky

I will probably start by generating creatures for each Hit Die I want to feature on the island. Then I will assign HD to areas of the island and craft random tables around these.

My template will probably be something like:

Area HD (d6)

1. Encounter from area’s HD 
2. Encounter from area’s HD 
3. Encounter from area’s HD 
4. Encounter from lower HD 
5. Encounter from +1 HD 
6. Encounter from +2 HD 

I will post next what I will have generated with these tables.

(cartoony)

(spooky)

Slumber City

This is a contribution for a city generator project that Anxiety Wizard is working on.
Anxiety Wizard generated this map using his system with my city set: 

Slumber City

A long time ago, to repel a large invading force, the mages of the city casted a powerful mass sleep spell, they lost control of the spell and now it essence is bound into the city itself. The city now stand at the edge of the waking and slumber worlds.

Truths

• Slumbering: because of the sleep essence infused in the city, people are often dozy and regularly fall asleep, sleeping is greatly respected, waking up someone is badly view.
• Slumberland: the city coexist in the Slumberland, people who fall asleep in the city continue their daily routine in the Slumberland. Work in the Slumberland is considered on the same level as working in the waking world. The farther you venture beyond the city walls the more strange and alien the Slumberland become.
• Sleepwalkers are people who are stuck between both world, they exist in both and do everything in a sleepwalking mode, it is hard to communicate with them in either worlds.
• Architecture: baroque and highly influenced by the strange architecture of the Slumberland. There is a lot of import and export between the two worlds. Sandmen do most of the import and export as they can physically travel between both worlds. Dreams gates can also be summoned but are unstable.

Landmarks d10

1. Gigantic rock carved in the shape of a sleepy moon.
2. City hall build with meteorites stones imported from the slumber world
3. Clockwork dome containing mechanical spheres following the movement of the planets and the stars.
4. Giant clock tower that stopped after midnight, strange events sometimes cause the big needle to advance.
5. Multi story baroque hostel made of beds
6. Slumber sanitarium for the sleepwalkers, immense marble hallways and high coloms.  
7. Quiet lake always reflecting the night sky. Dream creatures can be spotted at night.
8. Royal statues of the sleeping royalty, sleeping beauty style, gigantic sculpted bed.  
9. Giant hourglass building with stairways and offices.
10. Gigantic sleeping monster, felt asleep while invading the city. It dreamself is tiny.  

Neighborhoods d30

1. Sleeperhood, everyone felt asleep during their daily routine. People are paid to take care of them but it is forbidden to move them.
2. Sweet dreams hood, sleeping here give better dreams, higher priced.
3. Nightmares hood, sleeping here give bad dreams, low rent.
4. Boring dreams, sleeping here bring super boring dreams. People develop odd habits.
5. Houses for insomniacs, shunned or pitied by everyone. Paid by city council.
6. Bed crafters guild and prestigious families.
7. Hypnotists convention, lots of little shops.
8. Secret coffee shops, operate like speakeasy.  
9. Sandmen neighborhood. Mysterious but friendly, locals avoid them.
10. Cats neighbors, own houses. Waking a cat is a crime.
11. Dreams selling market, dream gates summoners, sandmen unwelcomed.
12. Runaway dreams and Slumberland refugees. Spontaneous dream gates.
13. Dreams theater, lot of artists, opium cafe, bordello.
14. Dream powder makers. Lots of bakeries.
15. Clockwork craftsmen, lots of clocks and mechanical hourglass.  
16. Academic neighborhood, occult psychology, Slumberland history, astronomy.  
17. Astronomers, every houses have a telescope. Night lights are forbidden
18. Swarm of fireflies, some large ones are sacred, fireflies temples.   
19. Silent neighborhood, noise is forbidden, lots of pianists (who work elsewhere).  
20. Sleepwalker’s families are honored and their house are decorated.
21. Painted shadows on walls. Old woman’s shadows shop. Orphans shadows catchers.  
22. Nocturnal birds market, elaborate cages. Best pillows and mattresses.  
23. Moon masked people own shops, sell selenites goods and services.
24. Windowless houses, people avoid each others. No one speak of their dreams.
25. Best Paprika spices, exported in the Slumberland.
26. Best lanterns crafters and candle makers, frown upon torches.   
27. Force sleepwalkers to wear tiny bells and coloured ritual outfits based on a slumberland monster that haunt the neighborhood.
28. Pyjama market, import silk from the Slumberland.
29. Statues of famous sleepwalkers and Slumberland creatures. Sculptors are highly respected and feared.  
30. Street lamps lighted by a single person who is treated like a king.

Encounters d100

1. Sleepy people disturbing circulation or activities because of their sleepiness.
2. Chain sleep: 1d6 people fall asleep, on a 6 roll a other d6.
3. Someone try to exploit or steal from a sleeper.
4. 1d6 sleepwalkers interacting together.
5. Faded dream self of someone stuck in the waking world.
6. Someone thinking they are still in Slumberland (or the reverse).
7. Helpful or simply pleasant dream creature from a sweet dream.
8. Someone being tracked down by their nightmare (real or imaginary).
9. Someone having too many boring dreams and being full of strange ritualistic habits.
10. Insomniac begging for dream powder
11. Bedcrafters guild members delivering a masterwork bed
12. Bedthiefs heisting a bed, working for the thief guild.
13. Pillows fight, bystanders are horrified for the pillows.
14. Bed crafters apprentices offering their services to repair beds.
15. Depressive Hypnotist, their hypnosis always go wrong in some manner.  
16. Random people under the control of a criminal, delusional or rogue hypnotist.
17. Coffee beans dealers making a secret delivery or city guards looking for coffee beans accompanied by a coffee sniffer.
18. Sandmen speaking their sign language or smoking colorful pipes.
19. Sandmen tracing a dream gate using colored sand.
20. Sandman kid, mother or elder observing the characters.
21. 2d6 cats holding council.
22. Cat with human condemned to serve them for 1d6 moon cycles for waking them.
23. Old cat lady under the cat council’s protection.
24. Dreams sellers trying to catch a escaped dream or nightmare.
25. Someone asking a refund from a dream seller
26. Dream sellers bullying a lone sandman
27. Runaway dream creatures in need of help or hungry.
28. Dream mage and their entourage headed to summon or stabilize a official dream gate.   
29. Guards cleaning up a sandmen’s dream gate. (removing the sand).
30. Lonely dream or nightmare lost in the big city
31. Family of Slumberland immigrant searching for a place to settle.
32. Spontaneous dream gate, very unstable. May lead to bad dream weather.
33. A small dream theater performing in the streets, one of the performer is interested by one of the PCs
34. Misfit group of rogues delivering opium.
35. Sleepwalker teenager running away from a local bordello.
36. Dreamworker selling their erotic dreams for cheap.  
37. Street painter who can paint your dream self or even alter it if you are willing to visit their workshop.
38. Orphan having stolen a dream powder loaf of bread
39. Oh! Oh! A dream powder application or delivery accident, save vs sleep!
40. Someone consuming dream powder to fall asleep.
41. Dreampowder gang using custom powder to steal from people.
42. Jovial dreampowder apprentice bakers offering sample pastries decorated with dreampowder sugar.
43. Orphans working as clockwork oilers, some of them are still very clumsy.
44. Clockwork construx, may be sentient and sad for not being able to dream.
45. Clockwork construx, malfunctioning, damaged or rusted.
46. Clockwork merchant driving a wheeled stand, sell tiny clockwork pets and devices.
47. University students, stressed or distracted by their studies or assignments.   
48. Lonely student being bullied by… (roll again on this table)
49. Teacher of (d6) in need of assistance: 1) occult psychology, 2) Slumberland history, 3) celestial astronomy,  4) dream botany, 5) sleep chemistry, 6) clockwork mechanic.
50. Students distributing their newsletter or journal.  
51. Passionate astronomer trying to install a telescope in a unusual location.
52. Lunaphiles offering to tell your lunar horoscope
53. Mercenaries hired by a biter astronomer to dismantle street lights and other source of light pollution.
54. Out of control light devouring creature summoned by a cabal of occult astronomers to fight light pollution.   
55. Swarm of large fireflies, may follow adventurers for the night
56. Procession of fireflies worshipers with beautifully crafted lantern and fireflies jars.
57. Giant firefly hunting moths and smaller fireflies.
58. Firefly mimic using her light to attract a human mate.
59. Swarm of large moths or other nocturnal insects.
60. Large dream powder moth, grumpy and don’t want to be disturbed.
61. Mothman drinking from dreams.   
62. Pianist needing help moving their piano.
63. Members of the Silence Guild trying to keep people quiet so that people can peacefully sleep.
64. A lone sleepwalker try to join the group, it is hard to communicate with them but they are a good team player.
65. The family of a sleepwalker take good (or bad) cares of them, some people give them offerings (or tax these offerings).
66. People respecting, pitying or mocking a busy sleepwalker.  
67. A drained shadowless person desperately try to stand in the shadow of other people.
68. Escaped shadows playing, running, crying or hunting in the street.
69. Shadow catchers kids tracking down rogue shadows.
70. Shadow grabbers stealing shadows from tourists.
71. Large nocturnal bird spying, hunting, guarding or delivering something.
72. Bird catchers delivering a rare nocturnal bird or trying to catch one.    
73. Large sentient nocturnal bird, talkative during the night and dreaming during the day.
74. Moon masked people doing business in sign language. (1 chance on a d6 of this being about something occult, criminal or romantic).
75. Sélénites, tall alien inhabitants of the moon, speak only in sign and phases language. Probably tourists or scholars but there is a chance on a d6 that they have some occult, criminal or romantic goals.
76. Grotesques moon beasts buying merchandises, eat dream beings and despise Sélénites.
77. Veiled agoraphobe looking for shelter.
78. Paranoiac person scared of imaginary dream beings.  
79. Contagious dream or nightmare that spread like the flu.
80. Paprika imbued dream mage. Protect dreamers and dream beings, helpful but fear their own past trauma or self doubts. Friendly with sandmen.   
81. Merchant delivering paprika peppers to a spice maker. May be targeted by pepper thiefs or small dream beings who love the taste of pepper.   
82. Street dealer selling paprika spice cut with dream powder or dream sand.  
83. Fully geared professional lantern keeper offering their service. Full refund if their lantern ever extinguish.   
84. Magic lantern hanging in some strange location, it prismatic light have strange magical effects.
85. Garden of candles full of oddly shaped candles and moon cakes offerings, dream sprites like to hang out here but there is a chance on d6 that the garden hide a wax homunculi or a corrupted dream being (that devoured the sprites).
86. Sleepwalker brightly costumed as the bogeyman monster.  
87. Slumberland bogeyman in search of a lone prey, the bogeyman is sacred and no one want to hurt it.
88. Spontaneous monster festival because someone spotted the bogeyman, people wear grotesques masks and paint grotesques effigies on their doors.   
89. People having a open door pyjama party, everyone are welcomed if they wear a pyjama.
90. Someone wearing a impressive tailored pyjama or a custom self made one.  
91. Old person transporting a large collection of colorful cloth ballots on their back.
92. Silkworm people delivering their goods, may be targeted by silk thieves, silk eaters or worms hunters.  
93. Strange sculpture, oddly disturbing or calming.
94. Sculptor, feared and respected for their strange powers stolen from the Slumberland.
95. Animated sculpture doing a task for a sculptor, silent, strange movements.
96. Decorated streets lamps, local people are cheerful and more friendly.
97. Street lamp lighter, respected chosen one, geared to ward off light devourers and shadow beings that are maybe stalking them.  
98. Street lamp hosting a colony of life draining glow wisps.
99. Sleepy mage specialized in sleep spells. Work for the city mage guild, apprentices may be assigned to the city watch.
100. City watch investigating a recent serious crime. May use a sleep mage or a sanctioned sleepwalker detective.

Island and random encounters tables speciation.

This is inspired from this youtube video about how species fill vacant ecological niches on isolated islands. For exemple how kiwi birds took on the role and characteristics of rats in the absence of these mammals.

Let try to apply this on random encounter tables. Now random encounter tables are not really ecologies or biomes but since we are familiar with their content it can be fun to generate interesting variants.

Let use the the Forest/Wooded encounters from the Labyrinth Lord's Wilderness Monster Encounter Table.

Forest/Wooded encounters (1d20)

1. Bee, giant killer
2. Boar
3. Bugbear
4. Cat, Panther
5. Cockatrice
6. Dryad
7. Dragon, Green
8. Elf
9. Ghoul 
10. Hobgoblin
11. Werewolf
12. Brigands
13. Orc
14. Roc, small
15. Spider, giant crab
16. Troll
17. Unicorn
18. Wight 
19. Wolf
20. Wolf, dire

Let remove half the encounters so that the "surviving" monsters can fill their "niches".

We roll 10d20: 20 - 11 - 2 - 17 - 20 - 5 - 12 - 12 - 6 - 4 (re rolling doubles: 7, 10)

1. Bee, giant killer
2. Boar
3. Bugbear
4. Cat, Panther
5. Cockatrice
6. Dryad
7. Dragon, Green
8. Elf
9. Ghoul 
10. Hobgoblin
11. Werewolf
12. Brigands
13. Orc
14. Roc, small
15. Spider, giant crab
16. Troll
17. Unicorn
18. Wight 
19. Wolf
20. Wolf, dire

Now let see who fill these empty niches

For each absent monster we assign a random survivor who will speciate to fill it empty niche, we will combine the two monsters to create a new one. This new monster use the survivor stats bloc and switch 2d3 characteristics with the monster it is replacing.

Characteristics table (d12)

1. No.Enc
2. Alignment
3. Movement
4. Armor Class
5. HD (size) 
6. Attack type
7. Damage
8. Saves
9. Morale
10. Hoard class
11. Special ability or vulnerability 
12. Appearance  

If we make the rolls we end up with:

1. Boar wight 
2. Panther trolls  
3. Cockatrice elves 
4. Dryad bugbears 
5. Green dragon ghouls 
6. Hobgoblin wolfs 
7. Werewolf bugbears 
8. Brigands giant killer bees 
9. Unicorn giant killer bees 
10. Dire wolf wolf (??) 

What happen to the original survivor monsters?
Let roll on the adaptation table to find out:

Adaptation table (d8)

• 1-2 Dwarf variant (-1 HD, step up No Enc.) 
• 3-4 Giant variant (+1 HD, step down No Enc.) 
• 5-6 Random characteristic variant (roll on the characteristic table and modify this characteristic to create a variant)
• 7 Stunted variant (roll on the characteristic table and nerf or dilute this characteristic)  
• 8 Hyper variant (roll on the characteristic table and boost or intensify this characteristic) 

If we make the rolls we end up with:

1. Giant giant killer bee
2. Hyper Bugbear (Hyper variant: boost number encountered!)
3. Dwarf Elf
4. Giant Ghoul 
5. Dwarf Orc
6. Dwarf small Roc  
7. Giant giant spider crab  
8. High Damage Trolls (Hyper variant: boost damages!) 
9. Giant Wight 
10. Climbing Wolf (Random characteristic variant: movement type) 

Our final forest island random table: 

d20

1. Giant Wight 
2. Boar Wights (tusked wights who search the ground with their big groin) 
3. High Damage Trolls (ouch!)
4. Panther Trolls (stealthy four legged trolls)  
5. Dwarf Elves
6. Cockatrice Elves (use petrification to craft stuff out of petrified victims) 
7. Hyper Bugbear (larger No. Enc.) 
8. Dryad Bugbears (tree linked female bugbears) 
9. Werewolf Bugbears (bugbears who turn into dire wolves) 
10. Giant Ghoul  
11. Green Dragon Ghouls (greedy scaly toxic breath ghouls) 
12. Dwarf Orc
13. Hobgoblin Wolfs (weapon using bipedal wolfs) 
14. Dwarf Small Roc (mounts for the dwarf elves or orcs)   
15. Giant Giant Spider Crab 
16. Giant Giant killer bee (they are getting quite big!)
17. Brigands giant killer bees (killer bees who ambush people to hoard their stuff) 
18. Unicorn giant killer bees (white bees who produce magical honey for maidens) 
19. Dire Island Wolves (cosmetic variant Dire wolf) 
20. Climbing Wolves

Hollow Hermit

A man who was once able to walk between worlds have lost everything. After a long voyage, back in his homeland, he tried to meditate to feel again the touch of the other worlds. But he only felt emptiness... Lost in his meditation he became a portal to the hollow world. Now he generate hollow matter and hollow goblins who play with hollow yoyos and who cause a lot of problems by absorbing stuff.  

Adventurers must stop the hermit meditation before he generate too much hollow matter and create more hollow creatures. 

If someone gently touch his skin with their bare skin: roll a reaction test. 
On a very bad result he implode and everyone in a radius of 2d6x5 units must save vs breath weapon to avoid being suck into the hollow world.
On a very good result he cry and close all the holes created by the hollow matter. The hollow creatures become normal creatures eager to learn and to have new experiences. 
On a bad or good reaction the hollow creatures hesitate for d6 rounds (they only defend themselves). Other results have no effects.

Killing the hollow man stop the flow hollow matter and the hollow creatures will loose 1hp by hour until they die, leaving empty husks.

Hollow man: as a cleric two level above the group level. 
He can't cast any spells but he can empty himself to summon more hollow matter.
While connected to the hollow world he regenerate 1d3 hp by round by slowly draining matter and emotions around him. 
Magic resistance: 2% by hit points (the spell is suck in a hole)

Hollow matter creation: by taking 1d6 dmg he can create a 1HD hollow creature.
For each additional d6 dmg he take, he can summon creature with a additional HD up to his own level. 
Or he can take 1 point of dmg to make a hollow matter attack (he can do up to 3 hollow attacks by round). Hollow matter creatures have a magic resistance of 2% by current hit points.

Hollow matter: being hit by hollow matter cause d6 dmg and destroy one point of AC. 
Plus the target must save VS death to avoid feeling the emptiness of the hollow world. 
On a failed save the target feel empty and is infected by a hole connected to the hollow world that drain 1 of his hit point each day (natural healing still occur).
This hole work like a bag of holding. But you have 1 chance on 6 of pulling back a 1/2 HD hollow creature instead of the wanted object. (make a reaction test to see the hollow creature behavior). 
Someone who die by hollow matter drain vanish and only leave a hole behind.

Hollow goblins:
Number encountered: start with 1d4+1 but augment the die after each goblin encounter or after each day.
HD: 1
Armor: none
To hit: -2 to hit during the first round since their senses suck outside of the hollow world.
Attacks:

• Hollow yoyo: d4 hollow matter dmg. Range: as a throwing axe.
• Hollow touch: d6 hollow matter dmg.

Magic resistance: 2% by hit points (the spell is suck in a hole)

Treasures: you can risk putting your hand in their holes to find stuff that was absorbed in the hollow world...

If doing so Roll a d12:

1. Something suck you in: save VS death to avoid being suck into the hollow world. 
2. Something alive: you pullout a 1/2 HD hollow creature, for 1d6 rounds 1d4 of it siblings follow it out. (test reaction)
3. Someone or something is touching you: roll a reaction test to see how it is touching you... 
4. d6 useless objects 
5. Something big that you can't pull out
6. Something useful like a tool or a weapon 
7. Coins worth 3d6 GP   
8. Something precious: a crafted item worth d20x10 GP 
9. Gem: a single gem worth d100 x 10 GP, on a 01 or 00 results something want it back... 
10. Minor magic item stuck in something gooey (open door or other tricks to pull it out) 
11. Sculpted hollow sphere that can contain something abstract 
12. Something totally alien that is not harmful right now, but can be dangerous later.

PCs camp events

The camp setup I posted was interesting, but it main flaw was that the events were concerning more the NPCs than the PCs. So I re-thinked the setup, and I think it better to just focus on the PCs and their retainers and followers.

Base chance of having a camp event: 1 on a d6.

Check for events:

• For each 12 hours of rest at the camp. 
• Each time that the group come back from the dungeon.
• If after leaving the dungeon area, the group return from the town: there is a automatic event. 

Who is at the camp? 

• Player characters only: roll a d8 on the events table
• Retainers/NPCs only: roll a d20
• Mix of PCs and NPCs: roll a d20
• Only one retainer or NPC: d12
• No one: roll a d8 

Rolling the same result:

Depending of the result, if possible escalate the situation instead of introducing a duplicate situation (use the descriptors in [brackets]). The situation descriptors in brackets should probably also be advanced by the GM, maiybe after each passing day.

NPCs looking for the camp:
NPCs or monsters who are looking for the camp have 3 chances on a d6 of finding it (this is reduced by bad weather and by efforts to hide or camouflage the camp) (leaving a lot of people or stuff behind can raise the base chances). 

Camping NPCs:
Random NPCs will camp in the area for d6 days. NPCs who explore dungeons will camp until they venture into dungeon. They will always post guards at their camp. 

NPCs venturing into the dungeon:
When venturing into the dungeon NPCs will:

• Find loot, roll a d6: (1: none, 2 nearly nothing, 3-4 minor loot, 5 good loot, 6 they emptied one treasure room). 
• Have losses, roll a d6 (1: some wounds, 2: one casualty, 3: 25% casualty, 4: 50% casualty, 5: 75% casualty, 6: TPK)   
• Test morale to venture again in the dungeon if they have suffered more than one casualty.

Table 1: Camp Events (d8 or d20)

1. Weather change 1-2 for the best, 3-6 for the worst: [Annoying wind] [Hindering sandstorm] [Deadly sandstorm].  
2. Adventurers: [Arriving and making camp] [Scouting and preparing a expedition] [Venturing into the dungeon]  
3. Bandits: [Arriving and making camp] [Scouting and bickering] [Venturing into the dungeon or setting a ambush for the PCs]  
4. Raiders: [Arriving and making camp] [Scouting and resting] [Attack the PCs camp or ambush the PCs]  
5. Someone traveling or lost in the desert arrive at the camp. (Roll a random NPC) (Can possibly become a new retainer or follower or can be a troublemaker) [NPC arrive] [NPC is helpful or cause minor trouble] [NPC offer to follow the PCs or cause major trouble] 
6. Wandering fauna: [Lurk around the camp] [Attack a guarding or patrolling character] [Venture into the camp in search of food or preys] 
7. Wandering humanoids from the dungeon: [Lurk around the camp and test the morale of the retainers] [Steal something or ambush a guarding or patrolling character] [Attack the camp to capture a retainer or to loot the camp] 
8. Wandering monsters: [Lurk around the camp and test the morale of the retainers] [Attack a guarding or patrolling character] [Attack the camp]  
9. Someone is lost. Someone went outside the camp and never came back. It may be possible to find his or her tracks. (2 on 6) +1 for guide or track wise characters. 
10. Someone found something useful or interesting. Some usable gear, some defensive position or a clue about the dungeon (work like a rumors). 
11. Moral is getting low. Test the loyalty of everyone left in the camp. On a fail they loose 1 point of morale. If the last venture went bad, test the retainers moral to see if they are willing to leave the camp. If the last venture went super well raise the morale of 1 NPC that passed the test.  
12. Strange dreams or visions. A NPC is blessed or tormented by dreams. Test morale to see if the dreams are positive or negative. This will affect the attitude of the NPC. If the NPC dream again and get the same result, add or remove 1 point of morale.
13. Getting away. Test loyalty of every retainers in order of loyalty. On a fail 1 NPC will leave the camp. [talks about leaving the camp] [try to talk the others into leaving the camp] [leave the camp alone or with others]
14. Want something: the NPCs want something or want to improve how things are done. If the PCs disagree, the retainers ask for a raise of salary. If the PCs disagree for the raise of salary, test loyalty.  
15. Friendship: two random NPCs became good friends. The one with most morale raise the morale of the other one by 1 point. The one with most loyalty raise the loyalty of the other one by 1 point. (if equal randomly distribute the point). If one of them die, the other one loose 2 morale. If the PCs screw one of them, the other one loose 2 loyalty. 
16. Strife: conflict between two NPCs left at the camp. Lower the morale of one NPC by 1 and the loyalty of the other one by 1. Now those NPC don't like each other. They have -1 ML when fighting beside each others. 
17. Strife: a fight erupt between two NPCs left at the camp. Test the morale of the lowest morale NPC. On a fail there was a fight between this NPC and a second NPC. Both take d4-1 dmg. The most damaged one lose 1 loyalty and 1 morale. If both are left alone, test for loyalty to see if they attack each other again.    
18. Strife: someone have stolen something. Test loyalty of the NPC with less loyalty. On a fail they steal from a PC. On a success they steal from each other and accusation fly around. The NPC who got something stolen loose 1 point of loyalty if the PCs do nothing about the thief. 
19. Conspiracy VS the PCs. Check the retainers loyalty. Those who fail hope to loot the PCs and to leave the camp. Add a penalty if there is a big tempting loot to steal from. [Secret meetings] [Preparations] [Execution of the plan]
20. Found a micro dungeon: if someone vanished from the camp, they come back and have found a small micro dungeon that maybe a new entry into the main dungeon. If no one vanished, someone is missing and will come back during the next event.