City

Towns and their streets, from a village green to a walled city and its harbour, with taverns, markets and alleys. There is food, a bed, news and work, but also the watch, taxes, thieves and people who remember strangers. Danger here comes from crowds, laws and grudges more than from beasts.

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Hazards

  • Crowds. On market day the streets are packed shoulder to shoulder. Chasing someone through them is slow work. D&D 5e: A space taken by a creature that is not an ally (and is not Tiny) is Difficult Terrain, so a packed street costs double movement. Our addition: pushing through at full speed is a DC 12 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check each round.
  • Cutpurses. A bump, an apology, and the purse is gone. D&D 5e (House rule): Our rule: once a day in a crowd, a cutpurse targets the party member with the fattest purse. Its Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) +5 against the target's passive Perception; on a success, the purse is gone. Spotting it in time allows a chase.
  • The watch. Drawn steel in the streets, a brawl, a break-in: the watch comes, and it does not care who started it. D&D 5e (House rule): Our rule: any fight or crime in a street brings 1d4 + 2 Guards in 1d6 rounds (2d6 rounds in a village, where there may be no watch at all). Persuasion DC 13 or a fine of 1d6 gold pieces settles a small matter; blood spilled means a cell and a judge.
  • Fire. Wooden houses, thatch and narrow streets: a fire in town runs from roof to roof faster than people can carry water. D&D 5e: A creature that catches fire takes 1d4 Fire damage at the start of each of its turns. It can spend an action to drop Prone and roll to put the flames out; dousing or smothering also works. Our addition: smoke-filled houses are Heavily Obscured.
  • Town sickness. Bad wells, crowded rooms and rats in the harbour. When a fever comes, it goes through a street in a week. D&D 5e (House rule): Our rule: during an outbreak, each character makes a DC 11 Constitution save each day spent in the stricken quarter. On a failure it gains 1 Exhaustion level that a long rest does not remove until a DC 13 Medicine check, a Lesser Restoration or a temple's care cures it.

A scene

  • Bazaar. Voices in a dozen languages. The air is thick with spice, animal musk, and sumptuous foods. Colour everywhere: shimmering silks, glittering trinkets. Each alley hides another. Every smile masks an agenda, and a price. The bazaar gives and takes in equal measure. What are you here to find, and what will find you first? The full generator on the blog
  • Baroque Noble Party. Crystal clinks against crystal. Violin music weaves through perfumed air, laughter, and whispered schemes. Silks rustle and candle smoke drifts over the Baroque noble party. Every smile conceals calculation. The event glitters with opportunity and danger. What bargains will be struck before dawn? The full generator on the blog

Adventure hooks

  1. The town crier has been paid to read out a proclamation that is false, and the party can tell from the details. Who paid him, and why now?
  2. The bakers are on strike and the city has three days of bread. The guild master asks the party to find out who has been quietly buying up all the flour.
  3. A knight wants to marry a merchant’s daughter, and the merchant wants proof of the lands he claims. The lands exist, says the knight, but they are under water, except in a dry August.
  4. A ship has come in from the south with sickness aboard. The harbour master wants it held off; the captain’s cargo is promised to a lord who does not wait, and the lord has sent men to unload it tonight.

What may happen

  1. A town crier reads out a reward for a band of travellers. The description is close enough to worry.
  2. A brawl breaks out in the tavern over a game of dice. Everyone is expected to pick a side.
  3. The notice board by the well: a lost goat, a job guarding a caravan, a warning about the old mill.
  4. A ship comes in with torn sails and half its crew. The harbour master will not let it dock.
  5. A child offers to carry bags, find an inn, or tell what the strangers in the green cloaks were asking.
  6. It is a feast day: the streets fill with music, masks and cheap wine. Anyone can be anyone tonight.
  7. A hanging in the square at noon. The condemned shouts that he is innocent and names someone in the crowd.
  8. A merchant offers a bargain too good to be true: a sword, a map, a horse.
  9. A toll at the gate, double for armed strangers. The guard can be argued with, or paid a little extra.
  10. Someone in the tavern recognises one of the party from long ago, and owes them money, or the other way round.
  11. In the village, doors close as the party walks by. Somebody has been taking children, or sheep, and strangers are blamed.
  12. Two guilds block a street over who may sell there. Both want hired help.
  13. The curfew bell rings. Taverns close, the gates shut, and the watch starts asking names.
  14. A captain needs a cargo loaded before the tide, no questions asked, paid in silver.

Creatures

To bring back

Black Cat Whisker, Boggle Oil, Rat Heart, Black Powder, Centennial Ginkgo Living Leaf, Doppelganger Brain, Fixed Nitre, Gargoyle Fang, Human Heart, Kenku Beak, Sacred Basil Leaf, Cranium Rat Brain, Crystallized Tears, Death Rattle Breath, Master Artisan Brain, Scarecrow Spark, Golem Life Spark, Oni Liver, Succubus/Incubus Blood, Lycanthrope Fur, Rakshasa Palm, Tarrasque Carapace Piece, Vampire Dust

Other sites

Dungeon, Crypt, Graveyard, Ruin, Sewer, Fortress, Mine Works, Temple, Laboratory

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

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