Barking Alien Challenge day16: Direct Threats + 2014 DMG Random Dungeon

Some of the bigger menaces to the world in the grand scheme of things

There are always jerks out to dig up past evils to get rich quick

It mostly goes wrong

d12 Direct Threats
1 Cults are thriving in part due to failures of civilisation and the big religions. Many adopt cults for power or thrills or sex, and many do it to spite law and order as an act of rebellion. Many villages have a secret cult. This is a new golden age of cults as the empire has fallen and the church of light has faltered under its current direction. Inquisitors have mysteriously not inspired people to quit cults

2 Ancient elemental cults still exist but the great elementalist heresy united them into several civilisations in the past. Elemental templars carry on these traditions. While not evil they seek conquest and to unite all pantheons and gods within their elemental religion. At least they fought necromancers. In recent years, they have taken refuge on the Dragon Island of Zorda

3 Necromancers stole secrets of the prehuman slaves of the age of darkness and ruled much of the world. Everyone hates them, yet necromantic cults exist because they tempt mortals with immortality and power over the living and dead.

4 Dragons of two rival spawing pits have in the past caused problems. One on Forbidden Island, next to Exile Island. Magic has maintained prehistoric monsters and cultists tribes in isolation around the volcano spawning pit that connects to Tiamats Lair in Hell. The other on Zorda is maintained by the pre human dragon cult and protected by dragonfolk and draconic templars. They trade with the wizards of Zorda and dragons operate fuedal domains within Zorda's system with wizard towers and knights castles. Dumb dragons without speech and magic are drivemn from Zorda and go on to menace other lands. Their are lrsser spawning places too like the lake near Chagrinspire. Vast hordes of dragons dwell in the two main pits enough to change the world. The most powerful dragons have minions and domains 

5 Wizards are in most civilisation but are responsible for the age of necromancy and the elementalists. Many worked with dragons or demons. Authorised schools and university control their graduates to some degree and wilder wizards move to isiolsated places. Arcane magic is costly to learn. Some learn from faerie but that has a price of their authority. Hell offers the cheapest way to learn and open secret doors to students to study in the grand library of the hells a demiplane connected to all the hells. It does cost your soul however. Demon cults also teach arcane magic as a means of liberation and abandoning human ethics. The wizards of zorda are the most powerful but also the laziest and vice addled. They operate a police force to capture criinal wizards they sometimes send to other lands in secret. WIzards love secrets and many commoners are suspiscious of wizards

6 The age of Darkness and the 7 monster kings ruled and their slave armies covered the world. Mostly they were abhumanoid beast folk but late in their reign they made humans and orcs the most recent species of thinking peoples. Both rebelled and allied with demihumans in destroying the age of black magic. The barbarians destroyed necromancers and elemntalist empires also and continue to hate arcane magic and literacy. Remnants of this age like dungeons are everywhere. Their are several famous ruined cities and Shadelport was built on one. The one to the north is vast and alien but ships come to raid it for alien treasures. The gods of the outer darkness with various death and darkness gods enslaved the world once and remnants may wish to try again. Every 3 generations a dark lord or lady is born in the world who amasses an army of undead and orcs and abhumans and claims the old powers of darkness from beyond. They all seek ancient power but heroes always stop them

7 The slavers are a world wide criminal enterprise so rich it has bribed kingdoms. They like to move slaves to far away lands so they have no hope of escape. The slaver lords came from different backgrounds but the elite operate from a volcano island base. They are widley hated and feared and in many lands slavery is a death sentance. Debt based servitude and criminals serving off a sentance is more acceptable and local. The slavers guild was vast while the Empire operated but most continant nations are now banning them

8 The secret empire of the West uses drugs to spread influence across the world from a hidden underground city. Other states on the surface struggle and fight each other under the influence of the immortal emperor. Agents are involved in the drug trade world wide

9 Auldwood expands yearly, and so does the fae influence. Other non-humans use it and benefit in their struggles against humans. Goblins are often settled on borderlands to slow humankind. Faerie are reluctant to parley with short lived child species but do deal with dragons and reptilians and other demi humans. Humans are crude ape simpletons whos grubby craft efforts are embarasing copies of faerie. The bright and dark faerie are more connected than people say. Others say all the various elf king and queen rulers are actually the same two divinities and people worship them as fertility deities

10 Chagrinspire was part of a machine to unmake reality built by gnomes and it failed a thousand years ago. They say the place is returning to life and the plan to destroy everything in the name of peace and mercy is operational again. A vast prehuman gnome city in the deep is where the project began but was always a minority of the city. Gnomes with their airships raided all over the world for people, treasure and magical ingredients. They ignored the empires of the day so they united to destroy the tower. Millions died in that war and the technology of that age is mostly forgotten

11 The Warring East are a region of colonies of the empire. A dense rich area constantly at war with kingdoms and city states. They are the biggest users of black powder and battlefield magic currently but turn it on each other. Maps seldom last more than a few years and are wrong when published. Others fear this land will unify or a faction will dominate with new weapons then conquer the cult filled jungles or northern wastes or beyond. Mostly this is a fear of their marshal spirit and willingness to war. Agents of this kingdom explore ancient places for magic or superior technology they can use

12 The great wastes of the central continant swarm with barbarians, nomads, orcs and abhuman beast tribes who love to fight but often unite to destroy literate civilisation. Everyone fears the thought of a uniting leader. They shun most of the civilised gods and modern religion prefering old nature religions and nature preists. Many serve as mercenaries or raid the borderlands. They tend to like softer living and tolerate outsider magic and writing as they assimilate. These populations have helped revitalise ailing kingdoms. 

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Random Adventure testing tables in DMG 2014
Playing with various dungeon generators for dungeon arts and sciences.
Just doing a comparison.

Reminds me i like usinf d12 and d100 and some d20s
I like to roll say 4x d12 different colour when i crunch through tables so every catagory with different dice is something I try to minimise. D12 is good amount to grasp d100 is for more in depth and specific results.

Some adventure gen results from 2014 DMG - i mashed some results together
Lots of results lined up niceley

Dungeon Goals: Parley with a faction in the dungeon to find missing explorers, gather information
Villains: Humanoid cultists (goblinoids) + serial crimes
Allies: Raving lunatic
Patron: Local ruler - Mayor seeks adventurers to get rid of tavern ghost
Introduction: Ghost appears scaring people, but offers a quest to help it rest
Climax: Portal opens
Framing event: arrive on dark ship at a shrunken decayed cold fishing town
Twist: can't kill the villain, but they want to kill you

So, arrival from sea on battered lost ship the Seaspray, starving after being lost in mysterious fog-shrouded seas. Everyone is hungry and desperate, some crew and passengers died on the voyage.

The village is decrepid and aged. It surrounds a small canal to the sea with wharfs and boats on the shore. Unused goods and empty houses seem common. The streets are muddy and their are icicles on buildings and snow on roofing. Villagers are rude. The guild hall of the fishermen is the best repaired building in town. The Haunted inn is called the Lonely Dwarf. The Dwarf built the place to make friends but died alone. Shortly after the ancestors arived victims of shipwrecks. Otherwise their are fisherfolk shacks, a wharf, old warehouses and a ruined church. The older generations built catacombs for storage and defence under the village but modern folk have forgotten them. Evil cults have used the catacombs too. The sobbing Dwarf ghost is hear in the catacombs too.

Locals survived in part because fish folk taught some the arts of sea survival so they all survived. Some are members of the fishers guild and in dark ceremonies kiss fisholk for gold and worship the sea and elemental water gods.

Mayor wants to meet visitors - please stop ghost - offers some fish gruel and rest in her stable

The Lonley Dwarf Inn is closed due to recent haunting by the Ghost of Old Willum. It is a scrawny man in seadog clothes, with rotting flesh and scratched skin, but luminous and transperant. It moan and screams. Old WIllum wants people to get a secret treasure location from a faction leader of local goblins. The ghost was a theif who worked with goblin boss and was poisoned in the inn by a goblin spy. The goblin goblin boss Gorgo has hidden the treasure and the ghost wants revenge and his share to pay the adventurers so he can rest. In fact he is just less angry and seen and heard rarley and less hostile

The villagers like the goblins who protect the village from forest horrors and orcs just by being a buffer and not enemies. People dont want the goblin boss hurt but they want ghost stopped. If Gorgo cant be killed the ghost wants all the treasure (half for adventurers and rest spent restoring the Lonley Dwarf Inn). Gorgo doesnt want to give any up but mightbe coerced to give out his map or a fake to an orc or kobbold home. He might ask you get rid of some kobolds setting up a new base nearby.

The boss hid the treasure in the catacombs in a monster lair by the sea cliff enterance covered by high tide. It cant be seen by ships and locals dont know about it,

Catacombs
Catacomb under the coastal village for storage and refuge when it was much bigger. Now the village is empty run down buildings, but all are connected to catacombs by cellars. Creators descendants barley use them or remember entrances. 

Map
Anything will do or draw six letters on a piece of paper all touching for a simple map and place the goblin area and the cult area and the monster lair. Draw line to the beach cliffs, one line to the goblin village and one beyond to the wilderness.

Place some x marks for enterances to houses above
1in6 houses above inhabited and angry villagers
Rest roll d6 1=junk 2=antiques under sheets 3=giant vermin 4=giant spider 5=old drunk knows some stories and friendly for booze 6=mutant fish folk hiding from everyone and cant let witness live (and a bit hungry).

The treasure is in a cave entrance of the catacombs in the cliffs and only available low tide a few hours. A giant crab lives in the cave or other creatures. Meat will distract it.

One Passage goes to goblin village and another to wilderness beyond some orcs sometimes find.

Goblin Area
1 Goblin dog kennels
2 Storage shelves and crates, barrels of beer
3 Workshop with Smith and some goblins
4 Trophy room of goods stolen and looted from the village, and some orc heads
5 Feast hall where the goblin boss eats with minions
6 Throne room for goblin boss

Cult area
1 Workshop where cults make tallow candles from fish fat
2 Storage of cult paraphernalia and ritual supplies
3 Room with a pool where fish cult summoned fish folk with a bell and a bucket of chum, summoned fish folk expect a sacrifice to eat or carry away
4 Lair with a steam mephit guard
5 Cult guards and exit to the basement of the fishing guild
6 Cult victim cells 

d12 Other catacombs encounters
1 Loose rubble deadfall save or d4 damage
2 See a pretty scary spirit - pretty harmless or 1in6 a poltergiest
3 Wandering zombie or d4 skeletons
4 Chest of village junk d4 1=empty bottles 2=set of tools 3=ceramic dinner set 4=retired sea captains journals, locket with lock of hair and a bottle of rum

5 Swarm of rats or giant rats

6 Lone fish folk - exploring surface for thrills

7 Goblins - d4 looking for food or loot

8 Local cat looking for rats

9 Selkie - hiding from fish folk (possibly in human form naked) cant speak surface common

10 Lone orc scout - looking for way to attack village

11 Horrible choker hunting - local preditor came on a boat

12 Shadow - dead spirit of muderer