OpenFray

Appendix A

Encounter seeds

Nineteen encounters from level 1 to level 20. Each leads with the concept it is built around, then gives its terrain and its roster. In this library the terrain is usually the encounter — most of these creatures cannot chase, and the fight only exists because of where it happens.

XP totals are raw sums for budgeting against the 2024 encounter tables. They assume a party of four to five.

The walled kitchen garden

Levels 1–2 · 300 XP

Concept

Nothing here can chase. The fight exists because the party has to cross, and the beds decide where they walk.

Terrain

60 feet by 40 feet, brick on all four sides, one gate. Raised beds run the length of it in three parallel rows with 2-foot paths between them, so the whole floor is a corridor grid — there is nowhere in this garden that isn’t within 10 feet of something rooted. A cold frame against the north wall gives Half Cover to anyone willing to crouch behind glass. The gate is the only exit and the party came in through it.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Grinning Gourd21/4Flanking the central path, one at each end
Maize Sentinel31/4Clustered in the north bed so Stand of Stalks is live
Weeping Onion21/8In the path itself, where they have to be stepped over

The ash field

Levels 2–3 · 900 XP

Concept

Open ground with no cover is usually a gift to a party. Here it is the problem: the Rollrinds have clear lines and the party has forty acres of nowhere to hide. Fire thrown into the middle of the group starts a chain reaction.

Terrain

Last year’s crop burned and nobody replanted. Forty acres of black stubble, ankle-deep and crunching, with sightlines in every direction and absolutely no cover — a low stone wall on the far boundary is the only thing to put between a person and anything. The ground is flat, which matters, because things roll well on it.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Rollrind41Scattered in the stubble, motionless, indistinguishable from unburnt pumpkins
Emberpod21/4Rooted at the far boundary, in range of everything

The alarm hedge

Levels 2–3 · 350 XP

Concept

Killing these is easy. Killing them in under three rounds, quietly, without letting a single Rustling Alarm land, is the encounter.

Terrain

A cache — a strongbox, a body, a cellar door — sunk in the middle of a hawthorn ring 30 feet across, with a single gap on the east side that has been deliberately planted shut. The hedge is too dense to push through without an axe and too tall to see over. Whatever the plants are rattling for is about 400 feet north, and it is awake.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Maize Sentinel41/4Ringing the cache, spaced so at least three are always in Stand of Stalks range
Speartip Row31/4Filling the planted-shut gap, in Serried formation

The buried row

Levels 2–3 · 300 XP

Concept

The Snaproot patch punishes anyone who moves like there’s nothing underfoot, and the Numbknot makes the whole bed slower to cross while they work out why. Nobody here can chase — the only danger is walking through it carelessly.

Terrain

A kitchen-garden root bed gone to seed, 30 feet by 20 feet, marked off with a low picket that keeps nothing out. The soil is loose and freshly turned in patches that don’t match any planting pattern a farmer would choose. A well sits at the north end, its cover long since rotted through.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Snaproot41/4Buried across the bed in a loose grid, points up
Numbknot11/2Rooted at the well, where the air already runs cold

The quiet acre

Levels 3–4 · 500 XP

Concept

The party spends the first two rounds looking for something to hit. Tremorsense, a shovel, or an area spell solves it; standing still and squinting does not.

Terrain

A plowed field on a still day. No birds. The furrows are fresh and the soil is turned, so tracks mean nothing and the ground is Difficult Terrain in patches anyway. There is a hedge along the south edge and a scarecrow post in the middle with nothing on it.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Blightspud41/2Buried in a rough square, forty feet on a side
Podswarm11/2In the south hedge, waiting for something to disturb the field

The shed

Levels 3–5 · 1,250 XP

Concept

A confined room where the party will naturally stand shoulder to shoulder, and a Scythe that punishes exactly that. The tool rack is described in detail on the way in, and never mentioned again.

Terrain

A stone potting shed, twenty by fifteen, one door and one shuttered window. Benches down both long walls, tools racked above them, sacks of feed on the floor as Half Cover. It is cramped enough that a Medium creature cannot pass another without squeezing, and everything in it is above head height until it isn’t.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Animated Shears21Racked over the left bench
Animated Spade11Against the door frame, digging as soon as the fight starts
Animated Hoe11With the Spade — one knocks down, both hit harder after
Animated Scythe12Hung from the rafters. It goes on round two, not round one

The bedded field

Levels 4–5 · 2,250 XP

Concept

A free win, built to be recognized as one. The encounter is the decision, not the fight: this is the only chance they will ever get at three Stage 2 creatures that cannot move, and it expires at the thaw.

Terrain

A fallow strip behind a ruined farmhouse in late autumn, hoar-frosted and completely still. Three shapes are rooted in a line, dug in for the season, and none of them have moved for weeks. Open ground, good light, the party has all the time they want.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Stalkstrider13Bedded down — Rooted, Stage 2 statistics
Bramblehead14Bedded down
Tearmonger12Bedded down

The Scarecrow’s circle

Levels 5–6 · 2,200 XP

Concept

Two lessons in one field. The Scarecrow will not leave its circle, so withdrawing works — but the Creepers are in the way and cannot be beaten by fighting. And the wheat is dry, and fire is the obvious answer, and fire is what makes a Wick.

Terrain

A wheat field gone to seed, waist high, with a single post at the center and a 300-foot circle of trodden ground around it that nothing else grows in. The wheat is Lightly Obscured above 4 feet and burns extremely well. The field boundary is visible from anywhere in it, which is the point — the party can always see how far they’d have to run.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Scarecrow15At the post
Bindweed Creeper21In the trodden ring, where the party will retreat to

The broken fence

Levels 5–6 · 4,500 XP

Concept

The Stalkstriders will split the party in two and the Vinelasher will pull one half apart. Fire is the answer and the party will find it.

Terrain

A boundary field at dusk. A drystone wall runs the north edge, chest high and climbable; the rest is open pasture with three hay bales for cover and a gate hanging off its hinges to the west. The grass is long enough to hide a rooted thing and short enough that nothing is truly concealed.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Vinelasher14On the wall, using the height and its 20-foot reach to pull people off cover
Bramblehead14Center, walking straight at whoever is heaviest
Stalkstrider23Working as a pair, cutting the field in half with Sow the Row
Tearmonger22Rear, shedding onions as they take hits

The ley bottom

Levels 6–8 · 3,500 XP

Concept

The caster’s spells fail on the only footing that isn’t waist-deep water, the exit is held by something that takes their air, and somewhere in the reeds a party member is being quietly turned around. This encounter is built for a party that has become comfortable.

Terrain

A hollow where three fields meet and the water never drains. Standing water ankle to knee deep across the whole floor, reeds high enough to break line of sight, and a persistent wrongness — compass needles drift, and it is colder here in summer than it should be. The only dry ground is a raised causeway running east to west, 5 feet wide.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Chimeweed31Rooted along the causeway, so the dry route is also the silent one
Drownbulb14In the deepest water, blocking the eastern exit
Fondvine15In the reeds, out of sight, working

The frostbite hollow

Levels 6–7 · 4,700 XP

Concept

The Rootlance wants the party to charge the path and the Gingerlings want them to chase it off the path. Both instincts are wrong. This is the encounter where standing still and letting the enemy come is the correct, unfamiliar answer.

Terrain

A dip in the land where cold pools on even the warmest day, hedged in by dead brambles that never quite finished dying. The ground frosts white past the treeline and stays that way. A footpath cuts straight through the middle — the fast way across, and the wrong one.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Rootlance14Planted at the mouth of the path, waiting for someone to run
Gingerling25Circling wide, using the hedges for cover, never standing still

The drill ground

Levels 7–8 · 5,100 XP

Concept

The Pikelings hold and the Scorchvine goes around. Charging the block is the wrong answer and Set Against the Charge will explain why. Somebody taught them this, and the fight is built to end with the party asking who.

Terrain

A long level strip that was clearly laid out on purpose — turf cropped short, edges squared, a mounting block at one end. 200 feet by 60 feet, no cover anywhere on it, and a treeline 40 feet off the western edge that the party will want and will not be allowed to reach.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Pikeling43A block of four in Formation, holding the center
Scorchvine16Flanking wide and fast around the block

The sunken field

Levels 8–9 · 5,400 XP

Concept

Drag Under takes a character out of the fight and the Tanglepods make rescuing them expensive. The party has to choose between the person and the problem.

Terrain

A waterlogged bottom field below the level of everything around it, reached down a muddy bank. Difficult Terrain across the whole floor, standing water in the ruts, and a drainage ditch running its length that a Large creature can lie down in. The banks are steep enough that leaving is a climb.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Hollowman15Below ground, surfacing and submerging, never where it was
Tanglepod25Holding the bank, stopping anyone reaching whoever gets dragged under

The garden wall

Levels 8–10 · 8,300 XP

Concept

Two Patient creatures, one of which can walk the line on its first turn — both roll initiative with Disadvantage, a tell worth rolling where the party can see it without knowing why yet. The Gardener will talk first if allowed.

Terrain

A walled kitchen garden gone feral, four acres inside 8-foot brick, espaliered fruit still pinned to the south face. Gravel paths in a formal cross, box hedging waist high, a glasshouse along one wall with most of its panes gone. Every path is a sightline and every hedge is a place to be on the wrong side of.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Gardener18Somewhere with a plant within five feet of it, which is everywhere
Under-Gardener15Opposite corner
Pruneling41/2Hidden, going for packs and components
Bramblehead24Slow, in the way, buffed by Tender of the Plot

The crowned acre

Levels 10–12 · 8,900 XP

Concept

The party cannot see, cannot move at speed, and cannot avoid the Sentinels because they will not know they are there. Fire solves the field and lights up everything in it, including them.

Terrain

A field of maize 12 feet high that has not been harvested in three years, rows still faintly visible, a mile square. Heavily Obscured almost everywhere. There is a wagon track through the middle that offers the only reliable sightline, and taking it is the obvious move and the wrong one.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Harvest Crown111Anywhere. It will find them
Maize Sentinel61/4Rooted through the rows, invisible until 15 feet
Stalkstrider23Walking the wagon track

The deep furrow

Levels 11–13 · 7,400 XP

Concept

Spire of Roots means the Deepspire always knows exactly where the party is within thirty feet, seen or not. The Snaproots aren’t separate creatures so much as extensions of it — killing them doesn’t slow it down, but ignoring them costs blood with every step. Early rounds favor the party if they can keep it moving; once the crown snaps, standing still stops being an option for it and starts being the only option for them.

Terrain

A single vast taproot has cracked a hillside field into a star-shaped web of 30-foot fissures, radiating out from a point the party can’t yet see. The soil beyond each crack is Difficult Terrain, and the whole hillside knows they’re standing on it before they do.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Deepspire111At the center of the star, mostly underground
Snaproot41/4Scattered along the fissures, part of the same root system

The churchyard siege

Levels 12–14 · 13,500 XP

Concept

The party arrives mid-fight beside a CR 12 ally that will not ask for help and will cast Litany on them whether they help or not. Every plant that dies here gets back up, including the Reliquary’s own defenders, so killing things is actively counterproductive until the Blight Mother is down.

Terrain

A walled graveyard on a hillside, two acres, yews and leaning stones. The wall is 4 feet and easily crossed. The ground is half open graves — Difficult Terrain and worse, since things are coming out of them. At the center, a garlic tree 40 feet across has grown up through the chapel foundations, and it is losing.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Reliquary112Center, holding, at roughly half Hit Points when the party arrives
Blight Mother17Uphill, behind the yews, raising everything that falls
Gravegourd24Working the flanks

The long winter

Levels 13–15 · 13,600 XP

Concept

Torpor doesn’t need to catch anyone — Creeping Numbness does that for it, and Rhizome Sovereign means the two Gingerlings on the table at the start won’t be the last. The party’s instinct will be to disengage and regroup at range; Deep Winter means Torpor’s Speed can’t be slowed in return, so the gap never actually opens. The fight rewards standing and finishing it, not managing distance.

Terrain

The cold end of a field that shouldn’t have one — frost inward from a boundary hedge that gets thicker every year, air so still that breath hangs in it. At the center, the ground has stopped supporting anything but itself. Nothing here has moved quickly in a long time.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Torpor113Center, patient, already aware they’ve arrived
Gingerling25Raised fresh from the soil as the fight goes on, not present at the start

The last valley

Levels 18–20 · 63,200 XP

Concept

The Rend numbers are not the threat. Sovereign of the Soil is: two Stage 3 creatures with Advantage and +6 damage, and Call the Beds every other round replacing whatever the party clears.

Terrain

A shallow valley eight miles from anywhere, terraced by no one, every terrace under cultivation. The floor is a mile of tilled soil and the sides are stepped beds rising 200 feet. There is one way in and it is downhill. Nothing here is wild and nothing here was planted by a person.

Roster

Creature№CRPlacement
Perennial122Center floor, already aware, already talking
Harvest Crown111Upper terrace, under Sovereign of the Soil
Green Multitude116Lower terrace, same