Wandering Monsters

An important aspect of fantasy spelunking is the unexpected danger of random encounters. Whenever a party is actively exploring, a wandering monster check should be made every 10 minutes, or in the event of an attention drawing spectacle. If the party is doing everything they can to elude detection, including using stealth to hide with little movement, muffling all sounds and dousing extraneous light, then wandering monster checks should be made every hour.

To check for wandering monsters, roll 1d8. If the result is an 8, roll again on the wandering monster table. This will direct you to the correct subtable for the encounter. Finally check for surprise by rolling 1d6, surprise on 1-2. Distance between sides should be based on the natural fit of the dungeon, with opposing sides being closer depending on the level of surprise; i.e. If both parties are surprised, the enemy should appear around the nearest corner or at the edge of the light source. in other cases, the monsters might tumble out of the very walls upon which the pc’s are leaning.

Wandering Monster Table Level 1
1-2 - Vermin
3-4 - Creature
5-6 - Humanoid
7 - Undead/fiends
8 - Special

Vermin Table (d8)
1 - Giant/dire rats (2-5)
2 - Rat Swarm (6-24)
3 - Giant/vampire Bats (3-18)
4 - Stirges (2-8)
5 - Carrion crawler
6 - Giant Spider
7 - Fire Beetles (2-7)
8 - Giant Centipedes (1-6)

Creature Table (d8)
1 - Giant Badger
2 - Rust monster
3 - Great Cat – Snow Tiger (1-2)
4 - Hell Hounds (1-4)
5 - Cave Bear
6 - Gelatinous Cube
7 - Ankheg
8 - Owlbear

Humanoid Table (d8)
1-2 - Orcs (3-12)
3-4 - Goblins (4-16)
5 - Kobolds (2-12)
6 - Gnolls (2-12)
7 - Human bandits (2-12)
8 - Adventuring party (2-5)

Undead/fiend table (d8)
1-2 - Skeletons (1-20)
3-4 - Zombies (1-12)
5 - Ghouls (1-8)
6 - Ghost
7 - Wight
8 - Devil: Imp

This is an excerpt from the dungeon complex The Ruined Fortress of the Evil Overlord Level 1: The Main Storey

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