Random encounters

1d24 to determine time until next random encounter.

Encounter Type (1d20) Trade Route: swap Creature & Travellers
 * 1-10: Creature (even=any terrain-appropriate;odd=EL-adjusted terrain-appropriate)
 * 11-15: Nature
 * 16-17: Unique Encounter
 * 18-19: Travellers
 * 20: Roll twice more on this table

Perception checks for each group, modified by group size and creature size, determine spotting distance (result x10ft).

Creature

 * Dunes (sandy wastes, dust sinks)
 * Forest
 * Mountains
 * Plains (verdant belt, scrub plains)
 * Rocky Badlands
 * Rocky Plateau (boulder fields, stony barrens)
 * Swamp (mud flats, salt marshes)
 * Underground (caves and dungeons)
 * Urban (buildings and streets)
 * Wasteland (obsidian waste, salt flats)
 * Water (above and below the surface)

Dunes (sandy wastes, dust sinks)

 * ground: mekillot dunes (<750ft high), wave dunes (50-100ft), crescent dunes (avalanches on one side, but can go around them), star dunes (good landmarks). all are good for ambushes.
 * weather: sandstorm
 * flora: salt brush, ocotillo, tough grass, purple plant (mekillots and inix save vs murderous rage)
 * animals: wild erdlus, mekillots, inix

Forest

 * weather: moist air, daily rain
 * flora: firs, birches, bamboo, rhododendron

Plains (verdant belt, scrub plains)

 * ground: twisted cacti, thorny brush, lone trees.
 * flora: scuppernong berries (elven wine), oleracea leaves (eaten raw or cooked), faro cacti needles (ground to flour), poisonous purple plants, purple-spotted plants (non-lethally poisonous to halflings and dwarves)
 * animals: herds of wild beasts, most monsters (increased frequency) especially Jozhal and gith,

Rocky Badlands

 * ground: windy canyons, tall mountains inhabited by monsters
 * flora: serrated silver-white leafed bushes (deadly to all - slice up intestines), thorny spherical bushes (deadly to kanks)
 * fauna: All. Tembo, belgoi, and silk wyrms are common.

Rocky Plateau (boulder fields, stony barrens)

 * ground: difficult terrain and loose footing dangers (except for roads)
 * flora: cactus incl. 3 dangers
 * animals: wild erdlus, mekillots, inix
 * predators: braxat, tembo, belgoi

Swamp (mud flats)
Little open water remains on the surface of Athas; most is buried underground. In a few places, water seeps upward, saturating the land to create mudflats. Most common near or in dust sinks (especially the shallows of the Sea of Silt), mudflats hide beneath the churning dust, revealed only when the winds clear an area and expose the soupy mess to the air. Uncovered mudflats usually dry out in short order, leaving behind hard, cracked clay that might or might not be solid enough to support a traveller’s weight.

A few mudflats manage to survive, sometimes through cultivation and sometimes by happen stance. These areas are lush with vegetation, including desert grasses, thorny bushes, and small trees. Where mudflats stand in silt basins, low islands of dense vegetation rise above the dust. These mudflats are rarely large; most measure only a few hundred feet across. Tangled underbrush and mucky ground make travelling through these areas difficult but not impossible. In general, mudflats offer little to travellers; there isn’t much standing water, and dangerous predators hunt creatures that subsist on the greenery.

Swamp (salt marshes)
Salt marshes and shallow, ephemeral lakes can form in and near salt flats, dust sinks, and sandy wastes. Most are only a mile or two across, but a few—such as the Salt Meres or the Maze of Draj—extend for as much as hundreds of miles. The water, too salty or alkaline to sustain life, is undrinkable. Many salt marshes dry out completely in the months of High Sun, and some remain dry year-round if the following Lowsun comes and goes without rain.

A salt marsh contains low grasses, reeds, or brush. Ankle-deep channels of briny water encrusted with caked salt wind through the marsh, sometimes opening out into large, shallow lakes. Here and there, tough stands of scrub or the occasional tree stand above the grasses. Few creatures can digest the tough vegetation, but the marshes buzz with tiny insects that can drive a traveller half mad.

Wasteland (obsidian waste, salt flats)

 * ground: brackish or poisoned oases
 * flora: none (very occasional hearty weed or dwarf cactus)
 * animals: none

Anywhere

 * 1) Crackbone Hollow
 * 2) Oasis of Ebon Drik
 * 3) Lame Courier
 * 4) Spire of Sisyphus
 * 5) Dangerous Cargo
 * 6) Market Tomb

Sandy Wastes

 * 1) Petrified Forest
 * 2) Hazy Shade of Winter

Village

 * 1) Markings

Travellers
Anywhere: wanderers
 * Dunes (sandy wastes, dust sinks): merchants, raiders, slave tribes, hunters
 * Forest: halfling headhunters, druids
 * Mountains: --
 * Plains (verdant belt, scrub plains): nomadic herders, elves, defilers, druids, hunters
 * Rocky Badlands: hermits, raiders, hunters
 * Rocky Plateau (boulder fields, stony barrens): hunters
 * Swamp (mud flats, salt marshes): --
 * Underground (caves and dungeons): --
 * Urban (buildings and streets): (almost) anyone
 * Wasteland (obsidian waste, salt flats): --
 * Water (above and below the surface): --