Encounters: Ruins / Dead Cities
Lost mandala cities, sealed districts, forbidden ruins
Roll: 1d100 Tone: Silence, memory, deliberate danger HD Range: 0–7+ HD Primary Sources: Old-School Essentials (OSE), Gods of the Frozen North (GFN)
Visibility: Varies by district — open plazas expose, narrow streets conceal Sound: Carries strangely; echoes distort direction and distance Themes: Institutional memory, failed containment, things still performing old duties, the cost of abandonment
| d100 | Encounter | Stats / HD | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01–03 | Empty streets, wind through broken stone; no movement visible | — | Referee |
| 04–05 | Faded murals depicting the city at function — mandalas, processions, breath-sink intake | — | Referee |
| 06–07 | Prayer wheels still turning in the wind; some have been turning for decades | — | Referee |
| 08–10 | Collapsed structure — save vs. Breath or take 1d6 damage | Hazard | OSE |
| 11–12 | Abandoned camp; supplies ruined, personal effects present, no bodies | — | Referee |
| 13–14 | Bones arranged deliberately — a warning pattern or a ritual conclusion | — | Referee |
| 15–16 | Survivor graffiti or carved warnings — legible, specific, recent enough to matter | — | Referee |
| 17–18 | Sudden silence; pack animals refuse to enter the next street | Omen | Referee |
| 19–20 | A door that has been opened from the inside recently | Omen | Referee |
| 21–22 | Shrine remnant — sealed, inactive, but circumambulation path still worn into the stone | Location | Reisa |
| 23–24 | Undermined street or sinkhole — save vs. Paralysis or fall 1d6 × 10 ft | Hazard | OSE |
| 25–26 | Cult scouts (1d4 Dervishes) moving cautiously, mapping something | Dervish HD 1 | OSE |
| 27–28 | Beastmen looters (1d4) | Gnoll HD 2 | OSE |
| 29–30 | Snow goblin scavengers (1d6) | Goblin HD 1 | OSE |
| 31–32 | Vermin swarm obscuring movement through a passage | Swarm | OSE |
| 33–34 | Frozen corpse clutching a key, map, sealed document, or relic | — | Referee |
| 35–36 | Gargoyles (1d4) — motionless on architectural features; indistinguishable from decoration until the party commits to the space | Gargoyle HD 4 | OSE |
| 37–39 | Ancient ward backlash — roll on sub-table | Hazard | GFN |
| 40–41 | Cursed object — a sealed box, a phurba lodged in a wall, a mirror facing a doorway; the monastery that trapped it here is gone | Object | GFN |
| 42–43 | Shambling mound (1) grown through masonry | HD 6 | OSE |
| 44–46 | Taiga wights (1d4) bound to former citizens — still performing duties: patrolling, tending a dead fire, standing at a post | HD 3 | GFN |
| 47–48 | Black widows (1d3) nesting in vaults | HD 4 | GFN |
| 49–50 | Cult ritual site: 1d4 Dervishes, guarded by 1d6 Beastmen | Mixed | OSE |
| 51–52 | Mummy (1) — a preserved official or keeper still tending a duty no one else remembers | HD 5+ | OSE |
| 53–54 | Dire wolves (1d3) denning in a ruined hall | HD 4 | OSE |
| 55–56 | Spectre (1) haunting a specific chamber or threshold — does not leave it | HD 6 | OSE |
| 57–58 | Troll (1) occupying the best-preserved structure | HD 6 | OSE |
| 59–60 | Treasure finder (1) moving through the ruins in a partial trance, following something | NPC | GFN |
| 61–62 | Polar bear (1) roaming ruins | HD 6 | OSE |
| 63–65 | Shrine remnant guardian (1 Taiga Wight variant) still turning away the unworthy | HD 4 | GFN |
| 66–67 | False guardian — a malevolent spirit presenting as a protective presence; grants small favors as bait | HD 5 | GFN |
| 68–70 | Black unicorn (1) lingering near sanctified ruin | HD 7 | GFN |
| 71–73 | Taiga dragon (1) coiled among shattered spires | HD 7+ | GFN |
| 74–75 | Named ruin guardian tied to this city | Unique | Referee |
| 76–77 | Ward failure spreads — a new district becomes hazardous; something that was contained is no longer | Event | Referee |
| 78–79 | Cult excavation (2d6 Dervishes) working methodically; they have found something | Dervish | OSE |
| 80–81 | Signs the city is not entirely empty — fresh fire ash, a recently disturbed lock, a candle still warm | Omen | Referee |
| 82–83 | The ruin reacts to something the party carries — a relic, a sealed torma, a mandala document | Event | Referee |
| 84–85 | Massive structural collapse reshapes the area; a passage the party used is now gone | Event | Referee |
| 86–88 | Escaped containment — something that was sealed here has been free long enough to be comfortable | Unique | Referee |
| 89–91 | Wraith (1d3) — former practitioners whose deaths left them bound to failed duties | HD 4 | OSE |
| 92–94 | The city remembers — ley energy activates something: a light source, a mechanism, a voice | Event | Referee |
| 95–97 | Bleed from adjacent region (Taiga, Hills, Ice, Coast) | — | GFN |
| 98–99 | The party is not the first here this week — evidence of a prior group, not all of whom left | Omen | Referee |
| 100 | Campaign-level revelation or catastrophe | — | Referee |
Ancient Ward Backlash Sub-Table (1d6)
When a ward fails, triggers, or is deliberately disturbed:
| d6 | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Stone collapse — save vs. Breath or take 2d6 damage; area is now impassable |
| 2 | Poisonous gas — save vs. Poison or 1d6 damage and –2 to all actions for 1 turn |
| 3 | Psychic shock — save vs. Spells or flee the area for 1 turn; the character cannot explain why |
| 4 | Spatial distortion — movement halved, mapping unreliable, compass spins for 1 turn |
| 5 | Release — whatever the ward was containing is now free; the referee determines what this is |
| 6 | Resonance — every other ward in the district triggers simultaneously; roll 1d4 additional backlash results |
Encounter Notes
19–20 — A Door Opened from the Inside
A door in an otherwise sealed building stands slightly ajar. The hinges are not rusted — they have moved recently. The threshold shows disturbance in the dust on the inside, not the outside. Whatever opened this door was inside the building and came out.
This is an omen, not a creature encounter. The referee should decide before the session what opened the door: a wight performing an old duty, a contained spirit that has finally worked free, a survivor from a prior expedition, or something the party brought with them without knowing it. The door is the signal. The content is campaign-specific.
35–36 — Gargoyles
1d4 gargoyles positioned on cornices, column capitals, or wall niches — indistinguishable from architectural decoration. They were placed here deliberately, as guardians, and their instinct is to wait until the party is committed to the space before engaging.
A character who specifically examines the stonework before entering (states they are looking carefully) has a 3-in-6 chance of noticing that one of the figures has slightly worn edges inconsistent with the others — it has moved. A character with dungeoneering experience or relevant background detects this on a 4-in-6.
Gargoyles only attack creatures who have entered the space they guard. They will not pursue into an adjacent space. A party that retreats immediately — before fully entering — may disengage without combat. A party that backs slowly out while maintaining eye contact with the figures has the same option, at the referee's discretion.
Use OSE Gargoyle statistics. They do not respond to negotiation.
37–39 — Ancient Ward Backlash
Roll on the sub-table above. The ward that triggered may be visible (a carved symbol on the floor, a sealed doorway with markings, a circle of stones), or it may have been entirely invisible — activated by the party crossing a threshold, speaking a specific word, or carrying an object that resonated with the ward's purpose.
A Demon Hunter detects active wards within 60 feet automatically. A Druid or character with Rootstone Keeper knowledge can identify the purpose of a ward (containment, exclusion, alarm) with a successful WIS check (DC 13). A Cleric can deactivate an inactive ward safely with one turn of work. An active ward cannot be deactivated without first determining what it is protecting against.
40–41 — Cursed Object
A sealed wooden box with a hasp that will not open by normal means. A phurba lodged in a wall socket at eye height, blade inward. A mirror positioned to face a specific doorway, covered by a cloth that has partially slipped. A hand drum sitting upright in the center of a cleared space, which someone cleared deliberately.
The monks or Keepers who placed this object are gone. The ceremony that kept it dormant has not been performed in years or decades. The object has been building pressure in proportion to how long it has gone unattended.
Apply the Cursed Object rules from the Taiga encounter notes. Additionally: in a ruin context, the object has had time to affect the immediate environment. Animals will not enter the room. Dust patterns around it are disturbed in a ring, as if something has been circling. A character who sleeps in the same building as it dreams of a specific location — always the same location — which is where the object wants to be taken.
A Demon Hunter with a Torma can capture it. A Rootstone Keeper can re-seal it with a Thread Cross ceremony. Neither of these resolves the question of what was trapped in it or what it will do if it reaches the location from the dream.
44–46 — Taiga Wights Performing Old Duties
1d4 taiga wights moving through the ruins, but not hunting. They are performing functions from when the city was alive: one patrols a specific route and turns back at two points that were once checkpoints; one tends a dead fire pit, going through the motions of feeding it; one stands at what was once a gate, periodically looking outward in both directions; one moves between specific buildings in a sequence that was once an administrative round.
They will attack if the party interferes with the duty or enters a space the wight is guarding. They will ignore the party entirely if the party simply observes. A character who follows one of them for a full turn without interfering learns the layout of one district of the city — the wight's route is a map of what was important here.
A Cleric who turns them causes them to stop and stand still for the duration. They resume the moment turning ends. They are not guarding against the living specifically — they are continuing a function. The distinction matters if the party wants to use the city without combat.
51–52 — Mummy
Not the Egyptian archetype — a preserved Velkari or mandala-city official whose body has been maintained by the residual ley energy of the ruin and whose duty continues past death. They are performing a specific function: receiving visitors at what was once an official threshold, tending a sealed archive, guarding a specific object in a specific room.
Use OSE Mummy statistics for mechanics (fear aura, disease touch, regeneration except to fire and magic). The behavioral difference: this mummy is not hostile by default. It is performing a function. Characters who approach the threshold it guards and perform the correct acknowledgment — a road bow, a statement of purpose, a willingness to wait — may be admitted. Characters who simply enter without acknowledgment are treated as intruders.
If the party can determine what the mummy's function was and perform it correctly (a Druid or character with relevant knowledge has a 3-in-6 chance of recognizing the protocol from context clues), the mummy will lead them to what it was guarding and stand aside. It has been waiting for someone with the right credentials for a very long time.
What it guards is the referee's determination. It should be significant.
55–56 — Spectre
A spectre haunting a specific chamber or threshold — it does not leave this space. It was once a practitioner of significant ability whose death left them attached to an unfinished duty or an unresolved moment. The spectre does not understand that it is repeating itself. It experiences a loop it cannot perceive as a loop.
Use OSE Spectre statistics. The behavioral note: the spectre interacts with the party as if they are participants in its final moment. It may address a character by a name that is not theirs — the name of whoever was with it when it died. It may hand them something that is not there. It may issue an instruction that made urgent sense decades ago.
A Cleric who turns it does so normally. A character who figures out what the unfinished duty was and completes it — or who addresses the spectre by the correct name, says the correct words — causes it to stop looping and fade. This requires investigation: what was this person's role, what were they doing, what was left undone. The answer is somewhere in this district if the party looks.
59–60 — Treasure Finder in Trance
A figure moving through the ruins with odd deliberateness, pausing at specific walls and floors, pressing a hand to stone, continuing. They are a treasure finder tracking something in the ley residue of the city — a specific object, a sealed room, a concentration of relic energy that has been building since the city died.
They are not dangerous. They are also not fully present. If spoken to they surface slowly and respond accurately, but they are tracking something the party cannot perceive and will return to the trance within a few minutes.
They know the ruins well through trance-knowledge — not from exploring but from reading the city's residual structure. They can tell the party which buildings still have active ley remnants, where the ward failures are concentrated, and whether the party is being followed (intentional pursuit registers as pressure in the landscape).
What they are seeking: roll 1d4. 1 — a sealed torma that the city's last Keeper deposited before evacuating; 2 — a relic fragment from the breath-sink that was never properly decommissioned; 3 — the archive of the city's Keeper hierarchy, preserved in a sealed room; 4 — they are not sure, only that something here has been calling to them for months.
If the party accompanies them to the find and ensures their safety while they retrieve it, the treasure finder will share whatever they learn about the object — and about the city — with the party. They are the best living source of information about this ruin's final days.
66–67 — False Guardian
A presence that presents as a protective spirit — a dharmapala, a Keeper-bound guardian, a familiar spirit from the city's functional period. It is helpful in small ways: it warns the party away from a ward backlash that would have triggered, it guides them around a structural weakness, it answers one question about the city accurately.
It is a malevolent spirit pretending to be a beneficial one, building trust before asking for something. The ask comes after 1d4 genuinely helpful interactions: take this object out of the ruins (the object it wants moved is dangerous), enter a specific sealed room (the room contains something the spirit cannot reach itself), perform a specific ceremony (the ceremony releases it from a constraint it has been under for decades).
Detection: a Cleric who casts Detect Evil immediately identifies it. A Demon Hunter using Relic Sense detects wrongness in its presence within 30 feet. A Rootstone Keeper or Druid who observes it for one full turn has a 3-in-6 chance of recognizing that its behavior does not match any known guardian tradition — it is helpful in ways that real guardians are not, and it always steers the party toward a specific location.
If confronted before it has made its request, it drops the pretense and attacks using Spectre or Wraith statistics (referee's choice based on how long it has been free). If confronted after making its request and being refused, same result.
80–81 — Signs the City Is Not Entirely Empty
Evidence accumulating across the session: a fire that burned within the last 24 hours in a protected alcove; a lock that has been opened recently, the mechanism clean of rust inside; a candle stub still faintly warm; a footprint in dust that was not there when the party passed through this area an hour ago; a sealed door that was ajar earlier and is now closed.
Someone is in these ruins who does not want to be found. They are not the party's enemy by default. Possible identities (referee's determination): a survivor from the city's population who has been living here since the evacuation; a Keeper who refused to leave when the city was sealed; a treasure finder who arrived before the party and is now hiding from them; a cultist who separated from their group and is afraid of both the party and whatever drove them to hide.
They will not approach. If the party leaves clear signals of non-hostility — food left in the open, a fire lit in a visible location, waiting quietly — there is a 2-in-6 chance per turn of waiting that whoever is here will eventually make contact. They have information about this city that no document contains.
98–99 — The Party Is Not the First Here This Week
Evidence: a camp more recent than anything else in the ruins, with gear that has been searched through and partially taken. A trail of disturbance through dust in a specific direction, ending in a chamber that shows signs of a significant encounter — overturned equipment, scorch marks, something broken. One member of the prior group, still alive, unable to speak, staring at something the party cannot see.
The prior group found something. Most of them did not leave. The survivor can be stabilized (Cure Disease clears a magical condition; standard healing addresses physical damage) and will eventually be able to communicate, but what they communicate will be fragmented and not entirely coherent. They remember the approach. They do not remember what happened in the chamber. They remember the thing they found. They cannot describe it without becoming distressed.
What they found is for the referee to determine. It should be the most significant thing in this ruin. The party is now walking toward it with more information than the prior group had, which is not necessarily enough.