d100 Auldwood Streams & Creeks

Stuff for hex crawling in the great woods. 

d12 Crossings

1 Narrow point easily hopped over

2 Several large rocks to hop over

3 Prehistoric monoliths placed over live a small bridge far from the original location

4 Stoney waist-deep crossing easy on foot or horse

5 Small crude stone bridge quite ancient

6 Clearing with shallow stony crossing often used for ambush or illegal toll

7 Small toll bridge, the more traffic the stronger and better staffed

8 Gorge with crude bridge d4 1=branch or log 2=d3 ropes tied across 3=swing on vines or ropes across 4=wooden slats and rope with rope handrails

9 Hop between two rocks or a natural stone arch some height above the waters

10 A small ferry operated by a local or demihuman or humanoid

11 A large ferry able to cross with carriages ad wagons over the water with several staff

12 Large well made stone bridge you would barely notice a difference from road to the bridge. Bandits may operate an illegal toll station or the law as a legal one. Extra structures d4 1=fortified toll station 2=internal chambers for stockpiles 3=remains of sweatshop 4=prison cells long abandoned. Creatures may occupy these if abandoned by humans

d10 Quick Creeks
1 Treasure Streams

2 Fishing Streams

3 Tricky Streams

4 Industrious Streams

5 Beastly Trail Streams

6 Monster Trail Streams

7 Faerie & Sylvan Streams

8 Weird Streams

9 Haunted Streams

10 Holy Streams

d100 Auldwood Streams & Creeks
01 Silver Creek - beloved by elves and there have been silver mines in some cliffs attracting miners and sometimes their pollution angered the faerie folk. Old folk came here to make weapons to fight lycanthropes

02 Gold Stream - shimmering stream where some pan for gold which also attracts bandits 

03 Copper Creek - has a brilliant blue-green tinge and some of the rock pools have deeper colour. The creek cuts through stone and has exposed copper people have mined for thousands of years. The oldest mines are haunted and also used as tombs

04 Amber Stream - where many have found amber and some even dug into it and found some. People have come forever to this place and the amber from here has turned up in faraway lands. Their are old tombs and some prehistoric people made amber golems to guard the dead

05 Lead Creek- quite toxic, local people and orcs here are well known to be extra brutish and dull-witted clods 

06 Greenstone Creek - where some look for jade among the river stones and some large pieces have been found here. Some local water spirits do not approve of its removal and must be appeased

07 Glowstone Creek - well known as a source of mutagens and green stones and sand that alchemists make into glowing green glassware. Horrible creatures are spawned here and some rock pools are the most devolved tentacled protoplasmic horrors. The stream glows green in the moonlight. The creek flows through a mountain and the cave within is believed to be home to a vast living ooze god and glowstone crystals and lethal auroras

08 Ruby Creek - where from time to time red ruby hellstones are found that corrupt the finder with malice, paranoia and lust. Murder is often a result and such stones are destroyed by the church

09 Marble Creek - where chunks of marble cut masonry and rubble are found from the ancient civilisation of the sky giants who lived like gods. There are remains of great stone heads and areas with submerged mosaics you can find on its path

10 Opal Creek - where fabled icy blue moon opals are found and much desired by lunar and elemental water cults. There are even ancient stone shrines along the creek path and some say the birds and frogs and fishes watch for opal thieves and inform the spirits
11 Salmon Stream - where great salmon each year come following their golden king. Fishermen and bears come and berries are common on its shores

12 Pike Stream - where monster pike attack small dogs and children and fishermen come to funt them. A few vanish every year

13 Carp Creek - a wide slow muddy creek stirred up by huge carp. Unknown to many some of them are a breed of divine dragon infants who spend a few centuries here growing up in fish form. If caught they will offer a treasure if spared and if harmed the spirits will tell the dragons parents who did it

14 Cod Creek - where gigantic cod live big enough to gobble up a goat in one gulp. They are quite ancient and will cast spells on anyone really bothering them. If you can communicate with them they know lots of history and about underwater and aquatic faerie lands

15 Catfish Creek - where giant magical catfish live that if caught will promise to convince a spirit to aid you. Old folk wonder workers used to come here to get spirits onside by fishing

16 Sturgeon Stream - where people come to catch these fish to extract their eggs for the rich packing them in salt and making fine delicacies for the rich often smoking it.  

17 Magicfish Creek - many strange magic fish live here and wizards and alchemists especially fish for them to fathom their secrets. Eating them has many random weird effects but some books and fisherman journals give hints as to what types look like and what magic effect they have

18 Redfin Creek - these cunning fish are a challenge and well-regarded by fisherfolk who at best get a few a year. Eating a fish has been known to cure lycanthropy if the victim has yet to murder a person

19 Lungfish Creek - a muddy creek that seasonally dries up. Some are very large and may be under shallow mud and will nip any who disturb them

20 Lamprey Creek - good fishing but swarms of lamprey and some huge ones, many fish caught here have lamprey bite wounds. There is always at least one giant lamprey in the creek at a time since a great lamprey demon god was maimed here and driven underground

21 Chasm Creek passes into a sinkhole through hill and out a gorge with a waterfall and travellers on water are in great peril. There is often a crude rope bridge crossing

22 Cauldron Creek has sections of rocky rapids that resemble the bubbling surface of a witches cauldron and is dangerous for water traffic or crossing

23 Fang Creek - fast flowing with jagged spiked stones under the waterline

24 Nine Falls Creek - has many surprises quite steep drops and waterfalls with several caves

25 Clam Creek - populated by giant freshwater clams which can nip off a person's foot

26 Rubble Creek - frequently winds down slopes and full of broken masonry from some shattered ancient ruin

27 Plague Stream - boggy manky water with swarms of mosquitoes and a diseases miasma that can infect travellers with yellow shakes, swamp pox or bile fever

28 Traitors Creek - many winding rocky beds make travel by boat difficult but it should be possible for a skilled pilot or a guide. However far more people die here than should, even experienced boat folk and some gossip claims some spirit is to blame

29 Thorn Creek - many areas of the creek have rapids and most of the banks are covered in thorn bushes and brambles. Some animals, halflings and even faeries take advantage of this

30 Vanishing Creek - drops into cavern sinkholes several times and through flooded underground rapids that are very dangerous. Some adventurers who fell in said they found an underground kingdom with precious stones below. Most bodies are never found
31 Fishtrap Creek - many ancient stone walls and dams make it easy to herd and trap fish. Various fishermen keep ancient spots in their families for generations. Many fisher shacks follow the stream

32 Mill Stream - named after several mills built on the stream by a wise noble but several are now abandoned and haunted

33 Log Stream - lumberers use this to ship bundles of wood downstream, giant beavers sometimes ambush these and dam the stream

34 Tanner Creek - poisoned with leatherworkers' workshop, often tainted in colour and strange-coloured dead sludge pools

35 Alchemist Creek - polluted with mutagens long ago by an alchemist

36 Shippers Stream - used by locals with canal boats pulled by ponies and some sections through widened caverns

37 Hunters Creek - marks the border of a great reserve protected by a hunter cult. To hunt here you must get approval from the hunter's lodge. They are protecting various magical beasts found here

38 Brewers Creek - pure spring used by a famous brewery and tavern. The village also has a clay pit and pottery workshop and glass blower making bottles for the brewery. Many traders use the bubbling gentle stream said to have a good mood by boat folk

39 Masons Creek - cuts through an ancient quarry where masons come still to cut blocks for jobs. There are some tunnels where a certain valuable stone was removed long ago and some of these may have new occupants

40 Goat Creek - a route used by goat herders and wild goats where water flows with rocky and stony banks where the goats have an advantage over predators. Still, goats come and preditors try. In the past times, a witch and her goat folk minions came here seasonally. Goat keepers like to get wild goats to mate with their stock and may capture some goats and merge them with a herd. Goat hunters like to try but humans cant cover rocky cliffs and gulleys as easily

41 Wolf Creek - a popular run for a large pack of wolves with many sub-packs in the area. Their howls can be heard by night and some say a werewolf might be among them and lives in a shack by the creek

42 Bear Creek - a popular creek for many bears to fish and also for seasonal berries. Most avoid the creaks in bear season

43 Lion Creek - known that several caves by the creek are homes for cave lions who move around the creek. There are a few outcast loners who may be desperate old ones who will be hungry enough to become maneaters. Sometimes several young males live together

44 Toad Creek - winding through clay cliffs where many hidden giant toads dwell. Giant bugs like this stream which keeps the toads on their toes for surprise attacks on these snacks

45 Flower Stream - where giant spectacular flowers can be seen and are highly prized. Many wish to see them but giant bees defend the flowers along with local dryads and tree folk

46 Serpent Stream - cuts through black basalt cliffs. They say there are doors to hidden vaults of the sorcerous serpent folk from prehuman times. Sometimes they release a thunder lizard or giant snake lose as a guardian. Many reptilian monsters have been killed here by heroes

47 Squirrel Stream - a species of giant intelligent squirrel folk live along here who even wear clothes and use tools along with their dumber giant kin they use as mounts and pack beast. There are huge oak trees with colonies of these creatures

48 Duncat Creek - a giant shaggy wildcat with glowing green eyes has been seen here for generations and will hunt lone humans or lure humans into perilous encounters and terrain

49 Black Dog Creek - a huge black dire wolf who has gained some additional powers of shadow and darkness using pacts. Some who see it by night it may later visit in their dreams and feed off their fear. Will send dream of its great power to intimidate them in the future (see it within 24 hours of a dream visitation and save or flee 1-4 hours)

50 Salamander Stream - stream of great misty trees and marshy banks. There are many giant remains of trees here rotting away attracting giant fungus and bugs. Giant salamanders and newts like to live here in woodpiles and eat the giant bugs
51 Hook Creek - winding through stone cliff caves with many deep gauges and scratches in the rock. A breeding colony of Hook Horrors lives here and rogue males wander the creek bed

52 Foul Creek - a narrow poison creek surrounded by a slowly growing wasteland. Upstream a basilisk has made a lair fouling the purity of the land

53 Gorgon Gully Creek - where a winding stream in the hills is frequented by a great metallic beast with poison breath

54 Shambling Green Stream = thick vegetation around twisted marshy creek makes it hard to see or find. There are giant mounds of rotting vegetation and bubbling marsh gas arises in many places. Shambling plant creatures move hidden among foliage and kill animal creatures made of living meat

55 Slime Stream - full of rafts of weird algae and slimes and various other slime creatures spawn here and it is sacred to chaos cults

56 Crackle Creek - comes from a huge crack in the earth and mutant cave creatures and weird creatures regularly wash out from caves in floods. A  few explorers have gone missing

57 Griffon Creek - a colony of griffons come here to drink and people with horses avoid it or pass the trails with the quickest passage through
58 Wyvern Creek - two rival colonies of wyvern battle around this stream one clan are red and the other is black. Some say each family were a knight clan who would not stop fighting so an archbishop cursed them all

59 Wyrm Stream - a great black wyrm lives in the stream often under the mud but sometimes basking in the sun near crossings awaiting a snack to pass

60 Dragon Stream - seasonally smells of sulphur and reptile and is avoided by most creatures as it means a green dragon is awake and hungry 

61 Wee Folk Stream - where small faerie folk like brownies, pixies, nixies, and sprites live and frolic. Some leave tiny offerings by various stones fo the faerie don't prank them or cause trouble. Sometimes they help someone in trouble who finds themselves at a crossing

62 Dryad Stream - many dryads live along this stream and are related. They will sometimes quarrel over lovers or swap them and many poor souls are living in the woods thralls of these women. Some wizards make good money charming them and bringing them back to civilisation then charge money or servitude if they cannot pay

63 Old Tree Creek - passes through dense ancient trees and some are great treefolk who are sleeping guardians who keep loggers away 

64 Centaur Creek - a tribe of centaurs mark this as their territory and are mostly hidden. 

65 Green Man Creek - frequented by wild folk with green plant-like fur that live in area and often hunt with clubs and bows. They may occasionally try kidnapping someone if their population is shrinking. Some people lived among them for years and a boy was found with antlers. Surgeons saved and shaved him and he joined the church

66 Song Stream - a famous water nymph attracts many satyr souters and you can sometimes hear their otherworldly music as they serenade her. They get angry and jealous of anyone else talking to the nymph and often fight each other

67 Goblin Creek - surrounded by giant fungus and bugs where goblins have travelled between two sinkholes for aeons. One of these caves is the site of a goblin market each full moon where all kinds of traders and beings visit. Humans should avoid this fabulous location 

68 Elf Stream - passes through extraordinarily beautiful woodland and even the light seems more glorious. This area is used as a waypoint for elves from faerie land. There are various faerie rings, small stone circles and holes in the trunks you cn squeeze through to get there and back. There are sad stories from a few people who came back years or decades later. Some wasted away without faerie food or found their families all dead years ago

69 Unseelie Stream - surrounded by rotting dead trees and vile poisonous fungus. Various dark faerie folk live here and are quite malicious. Occasionally a missing traveller here returns as a zombie or werewolf or a wight or ghoul. They live in tree stumps, toadstool cottages and caves

70 Seelie Stream - peasant herbs and berries line the shores and there are various small faerie folk living in trees and in mushroom cottages. Best not to anger them but they can be appeased with gifts
71 Corpse Creek - undead giant beavers appear whenever corpses are left near the creek. Floods drown many people and livestock every few years and the evil beavers build them into dams to make lakes of filth and corruption for other horrors. When the water goes foul or bodies are found an expedition is called to end the beavers

72 Treasure Creek - shiny coins and gems are sometimes seen in the water but really it is a trick by some spirit who tries to wrestle and drown those who enter the water. Some say the spirit has a grotto cave where the real treasure and all the bodies of her kills are

73 Troll Creek - there are statues near it of elder high trolls with troll script, all long lost from the world. Once a year a troll of the modern sort goes to the headwaters of the stream flow and spends a few days cutting off body parts and throwing them into the water to wash down and grow. Locals know the howls of trolls and try and organise a hunt. Some have tried to kill this troll but it has many identical siblings to replace it  

74 Glass Stream - large and deep with good flow this contains an aquatic faerie land where river spirits and animals converse and are subjects of the Nymph, a lesser goddess who has a shapeshifting marine dragon as a lover who does her bidding. Fishers are driven off by nixies and other beings and locals just take water and leave cakes

75 Chaos Creek - foul bubbling water is known to cause mutations and sickness and attract degenerate mutants and slime creatures. Chaos cults sometimes come here to gain the mark of chaos then go on violent rampages

76 Steaming Creek - winding rocky stream with several thermal steam vents and heated pools can be found. Some are popular to relax but more isolated ones used by animals, hidden peoples and supernatural beings

77 Serpentine Stream - locals know some kind of snake monster or demon lives here. It is home to a serpentine naga shapeshifter who sometimes assumes human form if bored. People shun it so wildlife are thriving. A few cultists came here and have been charmed and live nearby now

78 Spider Creek - thick foliage around banks and tree branches are filled with millions of large spiders attracted to the clouds of insects attracted to the boggy creek. In some places you can see larger web-lined tunnels into hedges and bushes so nobody comes here at night 

79 Black Creek - a toxic stream from a wound in the earth that eventually drops into a deep sinkhole again. Vegetation and animals on its banks are tainted by evil and united against intruders. Swarms of bugs, angry deer charges, squirrels throw rocks and huge rodents attack, intruders 

80 Wizard Stream flows from a cliff-carved stone skull home of a wizard who died in some accident creating the stream. A gateway to the elemental plane of water was made and pure water flows forth into a bog around the skull, gathering nutrients then flowing onwards to a healthy creek. Elemental beings are found sometimes and frogfolk and fishfolk say the place is holy
81 Hag Stream - boggy seasonal creek where a hag is said to dwell. She is said to eat attractive youths it can trap with illusions

82 Black Hill Creek - has cut through peat bogs and several barrows and undead lurk in the slow black waters grasping at those who come to drink including ghouls, wights and shadows

83 Kelpie Creek - spirit appears as a horse or maiden to lure victims into the water to devour

84 Banshee Stream - the spirit of an angry elf maid haunts this stream making passage difficult for males who she hates the most

85 Gallows Creek - At the old major crossing is a great gallow tree where for generations people were hung and left here. A few remains are taken but some say the tree has become evil and has a malicious spirit. Sometimes skeletons are seen walking the shores at night and many have nooses. People began using a new path to avoid the tree but people are still hung there without incidents. Some trying to steal bodies have been haunted by the tree spirit 

86 Charnel Creek - long ago a great massacre occurred on a flat area upstream and hundreds of bodies were thrown in. Sometimes at night people see the stream flow red with blood and hacked-up body parts. Others have seen mutilated angry spectral beings searching for their missing corpse parts so they can rest

87 Witch Creek - was once where witches met and later when hunters drowned witches and any women they disliked. Some say these men were turned into the crows that swarm here. By night it seems windy and vegetation seems to scratch at those moving here. Weird mists and lights have been seen so most shun the creek now

88 Blood Stream - at times has flowed with blood shocking locals. An investigator found a bloody wound in some vast buried creature and sewed it up and nobody has gone up there since. Animals drinking from the stream when bleeding are said to become extra protective and united against outsiders and locals speak of blood bonds and make blood pacts evoking some daimon called Xor

89 Odd Frog Creek - a holy place for frog folk as many types of valuable magic frogs live here. Some humans gather them but risks of giant amphibians or angry frog folk fanatics put off most people. Plus it takes an expert to understand what up to a hundred breeds of frogs can do

90 Furble Creek - many small beast folks live along this stream in tiny cottages much like halflings might but from a variety of common forest animals. They are wary of humans as some have come here to bully them before
91 Quicksliver Creek - a stream that blocks the passage of undead and lycanthropes and planar beings who cannot cross it

92 Mistloe Creek - a popular place for druids to gather their favourite herb as trees here are dripping with golden boughs of the herb. There are quite a few stone monoliths, dolmen and woven plants made into scarecrow figures. These are guardians who keep intruders away

93 Saints Creek - made from a spring where a saint touched his staff into a rockface. Once per day those who drink from it heal 1HP

94 Thunder Creek - a river god axolotl dwells here and loves storms, rain and having people fear them. Lives in a faerie palace at the creek bottom and with courtiers may adopt human form. Travellers leave gifts and prayers for the spirit but newer travellers don't know the custom and have been making it angry and hungry. He may raise or lower the river level and create rain or storms. Those who seek shelter in the caves become their playthings

95 Demon Creek - has a sinister reputation but in fact it holds down several demons trapped in stone jars under the riverbed. The river spirit may adopt the form of a fox or a turtle spirit folk and works to keep away the demon cultists always coming to free demons. Cultists seek the jars and may try to trick dupes into getting the jars for them. Locals avoid the area 

96 Maiden Stream - where some say a benevolent spirit of a drowned maiden lives but really she is a much older minor river goddess who on location will send a hero on a quest and present them with a magic item. She makes them swear oaths for these boons

97 Cold Creek - seemingly always cols and in winter freezes over and can be hidden by snowdrifts as a dangerous hazard. A frost spirit of winter blows chilling winds across the creek and at people camping or passing. In winter it is more obvious and may take human form for some mischief or to seduce someone

98 Faerie Stream - a hidden cliff bend features a faerie doorway and the stream forms a staircase where under certain times a powerful faerie enters the world to help the seasonal transitions with ancient songs. Many faerie and sylvan beings come for a great dance or orgy. Those passing the stream don't swear and leave offerings in fear of angering fey folk

99 Wildhunt Stream - several nights a year the wild hunt manifest and follow this stream to keep the mortal and faerie world divided. Mortals who see this may be judged and hunted, if caught they can be killed or maimed for one year when they will return to take away the wound if the victim is repentant

100 Slain Stream - some have seen by nights of great battles warrior maidens of the gods on winged horses gallop above the stream path. Then they go to some battle to claim worthy souls for the next apocalypse. Only a few old people have seen this from a distance and none want their gaze upon them. Some see them as an omen as trouble in the region while barbarians come to see them and compose poetry