Spiderfell Ecounter table

[bonz_of_baton_rouge]

I have a group of PCs that have been given a mission on the Roesone/Spiderfell border.

A group of Gnolls attacked an outlaying village and kidnapped a bunch of villagers. (Got the idea from Roesone sourcebook) So I have decided that the villagers and PCs are too go no further than about five miles into the Spiderfell. I have the following monsters on the list right now. (Note all I have is Monster Manual 2ed-Revised [Black cover] for deciding on monsters.) Is this a good list of monsters that might be found in the early parts of the Spiderfell and do you think I should add any to the list that I might have missed?


Common
Hairy Spiders
Large Spiders
Huge Spiders
Common Bats
Vulture
Fire Beetle
Huge Centipede
Centipede
Fyrefly
Pernicon
Rats
Giant Rats
Goblin
Kobold

Uncommon
Giant Spider
Stirge
Blood Hawk
Praying Mantis
Giant Tick
wolves
leech,swarm
leech, Giant
Normal-Poisonous Snakes

Rare
Flying Spiders
Gnoll
Bugbear
Ghoul
Hobgoblin
Mongrelmon
Orc
Skeleton

Very Rare
Sword Spider
Ankheg
Megalo-Centipede
Ettercap
Homonculous
Velvet Ants
Mud Man


Thank you in advance for any information or ideas.

[kgauck]

Why are hobgoblins and bugbears rare, while goblins are (appropriately) common?

[AndrewTall]

Hmm, from an ecology point of view I'd expect that spiders have eaten many of the listed creatures - back in school we had an experiment, place an opened newspaper under a bush, shake the bush, pour the bugs that fell onto the newspaper into a glass dish. Count the bugs... We dawdled on our way back to class and most us wound up with the count of one big spider...

Generally BR excludes orcs, I'd consider splitting the goblinoids between tasks - hunters, foragers, war parties, villages, etc - and have most of them mixed type.

I'd add swarms of small spiders, perhaps a living web type creature, various sentient plants and some of the creepier fey - it's an ancient forests pulsing with mebhaighl after all...

I tend to assume that there is some sort of goblin realm in their, so I'd add 'civilisation' - hunters, their hunting traps, traders, etc - the latter highly illegal of course as far as Anuire is concerned but some people just have to try the latest exotic mushroom or goblin poison/narcotic. You also get fugitives avoiding Anuirean law the dangerous way...

I read somewhere that the Spiderfell exists under a near permanent cloud - so fungal types might be surface dwellers, myconids anyone?

[bonz_of_baton_rouge]

Why are hobgoblins and bugbears rare, while goblins are (appropriately) common?

I listed them as rare but I might move them to uncommon. I choose rare because I figured the bugbears and hobgoblins would more likely be leaders of parties of goblins. Also like Andrew mentioned in his post.

Andrew: You are correct reading on the Spiderfell (Ruins of Empire) it does say that cloudy weather hangs permanently over the Spiderfell. So I will add some fungus type creatures. In regards to the spiders eating the creatures which one do you think I should drop or change. I was thinking the centipedes, beetle, rats, and snakes would be eating by the spiders but also I figured that humanoid creatures would also fall victim to the spiders. I also might move them to uncommon to account for the fact that there are not many of them. I am using the orc's as baby orogs for another adventure later on using the Tarkel Deeps in Roesone, Bellamie Province. (I have decided that a tunnel leads from the Tarkel Deeps to the Spiderfell.) Yes there is strong magical influence in the Spiderfell but you mention the fey. I thought they were tied to the elves are am I mistaken on that and instead they are related to the Shadow world? (Must reread the source book on the Shadow world.) I was thinking of adding some fungal type creatures because of the weather of the Spiderfell. I will remake my list and post it up when finished.

Thanks for the help :D

[AndrewTall]

I was using 'fey' as a catch-all term, so anything from brownies to treants, many of them would be quite capable of ignoring spiders and the like, although I wouldn't want to talk a treant who'se been rotting for a few centuries into forgiving me my axe...

I assume that the spiders replace most large predators - wolves, foxes, minks, stoats etc - spiders are terrifyingly efficient predators. They also come in far more varieties than most people guess - not all of them need webs to hunt... of course nothing stops you adding lots of insectoid creatures, all those spiders need to eat something.

As the spiders are drawn to the Spider himself, I'm guessing they (mostly_ ignore the goblins - as long as the goblins similarly leave them alone, and the spiders don't get hungry. I've been wondering about the various spider-people, the Spider presumably mates with goblins from time to time, or goblins get bitten and mutate, etc, so such a race could exist.

One of my non-canon conceits were arboreal goblin towns, spider riding goblins, goblins trading with dodgy humans all sorts of narcotics, silks, slaves, etc, etc. I also split the province into two outer provinces and the heart of the wood as otherwise it's a huge province, the transition from outer (goblin dominated) to heart (ruled by the spiders, mystical, tainted by the shadow-world) being the 'this is where everyone else vanished' part of the journey...