Random Encounters

These quick-play encounters are designed to breathe life into the roads, taverns, and camps of your Dragonbane campaign. They require minimal preparation and can be dropped into almost any session when travel slows down or the players visit a local inn. As Game Master, use these events to test your players' wits, drain their resources, or introduce unexpected choices without derailing your main plot, helpful when not all players are available for play or when the party needs a bit of recovery time.

Ventriloquist and Puppet

The rowdy chatter of the tavern dies down as a traveling performer takes the small wooden stage. He is a twitchy, sweat-slicked human man carrying a large, iron-banded leather trunk. From it, he pulls a wooden puppet. The dummy is exquisitely carved but deeply weathered, its paint hairline-fractured with age. It is dressed in a miniature velvet frock coat and a lace cravat - attire that hasn't been in fashion for over a century. As the show begins, the atmosphere transforms. The puppet is devastatingly witty, delivering sharp, biting satire about local lords, current taxes, and recent events. The tavern is in stitches, but a keen observer will notice a dark, exhausting dynamic playing out on stage.

The Secret Dynamic: The performer, Gideon, is not a ventriloquist; he is the victim. The puppet, Lord Bartholomew, is a sentient, parasitic artifact from a bygone era that feeds on the emotional energy of a captive audience. If the players watch the performance closely, they can attempt an Awareness roll every half hour to notice the following progression:

• 30 Minutes: Gideon attempts to bow and wrap up the set. The puppet cuts him off with a viciously funny insult, forcing Gideon to keep going. Gideon’s smile looks slightly forced.
• 1 Hour: Gideon’s voice is growing hoarse. His right hand (holding the puppet) is trembling. Whenever he tries to pull his hand away, his arm muscles visibly spasm, locking him in place.
• 2 Hours: Gideon is pale, weeping silently, and hyperventilating. The puppet is performing wildly, spinning its head and laughing. The puppet’s eyes seem to be tracking the crowd independently.
• 3 Hours: The show finally ends. Gideon collapses onto the stage, completely drained and utterly terrified, while the puppet sits perfectly still, a smug, wooden grin plastered across its face.

Gideon (The Exhausted Puppeteer)

Gideon is a gaunt, hollow-cheeked human in his late twenties, though the deep shadows under his eyes make him look much older. He wears a once-fine velvet performer’s vest that now hangs loosely on his shrinking frame, damp with a cold sweat that never seems to dry. His hair is unkempt, and his knuckles are white, scraped, and raw from gripping the control bars of his puppet for hours on end. The most disturbing thing about Gideon is his gaze. He rarely looks at his audience; instead, his eyes are wide, bloodshot, and locked in a terrified stare downward at his own hands, as if he is a passenger trapped inside his own body. When he speaks for himself, his voice is a raspy, exhausted whisper, contrasting sharply with the booming performance voice he uses during the show.

Gideon by Tillerz using MJ

Kin: Human
Attributes: STR 10, CON 9, AGL 11, INT 11, WIL 12, CHA 13
Hit Points: 9
Willpower Points: 12 (currently drained to 2)
Skills: Performance: 15, Sleight of Hand: 13, Evade: 10
Conditions: Exhausted (Bane on physical rolls) and Fearful (Bane on mental rolls) . He will beg the PCs for help if approached privately, whispering that the puppet threatens to choke him in his sleep if he stops performing.

Lord Bartholomew (The Cursed Puppet)

The puppet is a masterfully carved masterpiece of dark cherry wood, standing about three feet tall. He represents an aristocratic gentleman from a century ago, dressed in a faded crimson frock coat, a heavily frayed lace cravat, and tarnished silver-buckled shoes. While Gideon looks starved and broken, the puppet’s painted features are impossibly pristine, coated in a thick, lustrous lacquer that gleams under the tavern's candlelight. Its face is fixed in a sharp, mocking grin, with glass eyes that are a piercing, unnatural shade of sapphire blue. As the show goes on, these glass eyes seem to catch the light completely independent of Gideon's movements, tracking individuals in the crowd. When the puppet "speaks," its wooden jaw clacks with a heavy, aggressive snap-snap that cuts right through the noise of the tavern.

Lord Bartholomew by Tillerz using MJ

Kin: Monster / Artifact
Attributes: STR 4, CON 15, AGL 14, INT 13, WIL 17, CHA 16
Hit Points: 15
Willpower Points: 17
Armor: 3 (Hardwood body against bludgeoning; 0 against Fire)
Movement: 2 (Can only waddle slowly on its own; relies on a host)
Skills: Persuasion: 16, Performance: 16, Spot Hidden: 12
Monster Attacks / Abilities:
Instead of regular attacks, Lord Bartholomew rolls on this table on his turn if a fight breaks out:

• Vicious Satire: The puppet targets one PC with a scathing insult. The target must roll WIL. Failure gives them the Angry or Fearful condition (puppet's choice).
• Command the Crowd: The puppet uses Persuasion to turn 1d4 tavern patrons against the PCs, convincing them the party is ruining the show (just roll Persuation: Dragon: 4 patrons, sucess: 1d4 patrons, failure: 1 patron, Demon: no patron).
• Mental Shackle (Costs 2 WP): The puppet targets a PC within 10 meters. The PC must make an opposed WIL roll against the puppet's WIL. If the PC loses, they are paralyzed for one round as the puppet briefly overrides their nervous system.

Tavern Patron

Kin: random
Attributes: STR 10, CON 10, AGL 10, INT 10, WIL 10, CHA 10
Hit Points: 10
Willpower Points: 10
Skills: Brawling: 10, Evade: 8
Attacks:

• Heavy Beer Mug (Improvised Weapon): Skill Level 10 / Damage 1d4 bludgeoning
• Fists: Skill Level 10 / Damage 1 bludgeoning

Resolution & Outcomes

If the PCs decide to intervene, the encounter can go a few ways:

• Destroying the Puppet: If attacked, the puppet shriekingly commands the tavern crowd to defend it (using its high Persuasion skill to convince the drunk patrons that the PCs are lawless thugs spoiling the fun). If broken or burned, Gideon is freed, though the wood ashes emit a foul, sulfurous stench.
• Breaking the Curse: A player can attempt to out-wit the puppet in a battle of barbs (Opposed Performance or WIL rolls). If the puppet loses three times in a row, it loses its hold over the crowd's energy, goes dormant for 24 hours, and releases Gideon.
• The New Host: If Gideon dies or is completely broken, Lord Bartholomew will actively look for a new "partner." He might target a high-WIL or high-Charisma PC, offering them fame and wealth in exchange for "just a little bit of cooperation."

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Travelling Merchant

Meet Peppo Quackfast, a mallard merchant hauling his two-wheel cart with a stubborn donkey. He quacks bargains aggressively. Characters might encounter him on a lonely road, perhaps after his donkey has flatly refused to cross a muddy ditch.

Appearance
Peppo is a rotund mallard with brilliant emerald-green head feathers, a perpetually scrunched-up bill, and bright yellow boots. He wears a well-worn, grease-stained leather vest overflowing with pouches, and sports a comically oversized flat cap. He smells faintly of marsh weeds and linseed oil.

Peppo Quackfast by Tillerz using MJ

Kin: Mallard
Profession: Merchant (Heroic Ability: Treasure Hunter)
Attributes: STR 8, CON 11, AGL 12, INT 13, WIL 10, CHA 15
Hit Points: 11
Willpower Points: 10
Skills: Bartering 15, Awareness 13, Persuasion 15, Evade 12, Knives 12, Spot Hidden 13
Innate Abilities: Natural Swimmer, Ill-Tempered - By applying the Angry condition to himself (at the cost of 3 Willpower), he gets a Boon on any roll except INT-based skills.
Attacks: Cleaver (Knife skill 12, damage 1d8 )

Regular Goods:
Peppo’s cart holds up to 50 weight units of typical adventuring and trade supplies:

• Rations (1 week, 10 rations) – 10s/set
• Torches – 7c/each
• Oil flasks – 5s/each
• Small tent - 30s
• Sleeping fur - 15s
• Backpack - 40s
• Ropes (10m) – 15s/each
• Knives – 7s/each

Random Curious Goods:
Roll 1d6 for something strange or esoteric Peppo dug up on his travels:

1. A Mug of Ever-Cool: Keeps any ale poured into it perfectly chilled, even in desert heat. (Cost: 20s)
2. A "Dragon-Scare" Whistle: A loudly pitched bone whistle. "Might frighten away small wild beasts or trigger a demon roll from a dragon!" (Cost: 15s)
3. The Snail-Hide Pouch: A water-resistant pouch made from a giant beast skin. Holds up to 5 small items and protects them from moisture. (Cost: 30s)
4. Canned "Bog-Fog": 3 corked glass bottles containing a greenish mist. If thrown and broken, it creates a visual distraction (5m radius) for 1d6 combat rounds. (Cost: 25s per bottle)
5. The Magic Compass: Beautifully crafted, but it only ever points north when the carrier has had a very good night's sleep. (Cost: 40s)
6. A Suspiciously Shiny Ring: It looks like a wedding band, but its engravings slightly shift when no one is directly looking at it. (Cost: 45s)

Rumours Peppo Has Picked Up
Roll 1d6 or pick one. None of these need to connect to anything; Peppo just collects gossip on his travels.

1. A toll bridge a few days' travel from here changed hands overnight. The old toll-keeper is gone and the new one charges in eggs, not coin.
2. A standing stone past the third milestone hums on foggy nights. Peppo won't go near it. "Smells like lightning," he says. Possibly ley line waystone?
3. A hermit living above the treeline trades suspiciously fresh oranges, despite there being no orange trees for a hundred miles, and pays well for old boots. Specifically old boots.
4. A travelling judge roams the area and settles disputes by making both parties race geese. Loser pays double.
5. A miller's wife downriver has taken to speaking in a voice that isn't hers after dark.
6. A caravan Peppo used to run with vanished between two waypoints he's used a hundred times. No bodies, no cart tracks, no raiders claiming credit.

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