The canopy is cathedral-high. There is no sky here, only a dappled mosaic of branches, leaves, and wounded memory. The trees themselves are enormous, bark like armour, roots like buried fists, savagely grasping the earth. They do not move. But their guardians do. The treant forest watches you; it remembers; it broods. Shadows and other servants stalk and silence trespassers. What are you? How long before the forest decides?
Treant Forest
This is our eighth entry in the all-in-one encounter generator series building off a MGS tracks. These generators offer GMs a [virtually instant] tool to create a small adventure or series of encounters. This tool is for anyone needing ideas quickly or just want something to build their original ideas off from.
The series takes inspiration from Ben Milton and Kevin Crawford with their—respectively—Knave 2e and Without Number series. Their books are wonderful worldbuilding and encounter inspiration; I heartily recommend checking them out if you have the opportunity!
How It Works
The process is easy: get a d20, d12, d10, d8, d6, and a d4. Roll them all at once. Then, look up the results on the tables below. Combine results where it makes sense to. The tables go from atmosphere (d4 environment, d6 aspects) to scene (d10 features, d20 creatures); narrative developments (d8 complications, d12 secrets) come last.
Additionally, there is always the option to pick and choose results as you like; do whatever suits the creative flow. More complex encounters can come from multiple rolls (or picks) and linking them together. To reiterate, do not feel you must link every result into one encounter. Ideas may play out better as separate events rather than a contrived mess.
The track for this article is Treant Forest. It’s available on the MGS store here. Alternatively, it comes as part of the 50 track album RPG Ambiences Vol. 9 which you can find here.
Here is the generator:
Treant Forest Roll Tables
d4 – The Environment
1. Concentrated silence – the forest is absorbing sound: footsteps muffled, voices don’t carry. The forest is listening carefully.
2. Migration – the trees are moving. Paths shift or disappear completely. New gaps appear, the old blocked by a wall of bark and brush.
3. Primordial royalty – these trees predate any kingdom. Their bark has carvings no living scholar can read. It is a privilege to walk here. Intensely dangerous, too.
4. Restless giants – deep groans travel through the soil. The ground trembles to slow, hulking rhythms. Things larger than a treant are on the move.
d6 – Treant Forest Aspects
1. Heartwood sap – thick amber resin weeps from wounds on the oldest trees. The smell is heady: warm, sweet, and luxurious. A taste shows something the PC did not want to see.
2. Labyrinth – root systems of the oldest trees breach the surface everywhere, forming walls, bridges, and dead ends. They shift every night. This is not subtle.
3. The choir – wind moves through the branches in tones that feel instinctively familiar. Nearby treants stop to listen. Whatever they were going to do has now changed.
4. Bioluminescent moss – after dusk, dappled turquoise light pulses from every surface. Beautiful and deeply disorientating. In the glow, faces of the forest become more visible.
5. Graveyard – huge toppled trees, centuries old, lie across each other in a massive tangle. Treants do not come here. Something is growing through the dead wood with unusual speed.
6. Marks of war – deep gouges in the tress, scorch marks and embedded metal everywhere. The treants have not forgotten. New bark grows around the scars, not over them.
d10 – Its Features
1. The elder throne – oldest in the forest, this treant hasn’t moved in decades. It communicates through sap and pressure. It is waiting for an arrival.
2. Carved ring – a circle of standing treants, trunks almost touching. Something feels very wrong entering here. Leaving is much harder.
3. Offering mound – travellers across the centuries have left gifts here: coins, weapons, bones. Some have been accepted, others crushed, none relinquished.
4. Wound – a massive scar in the earth where a treant was brutally killed. The soil is ashen. Young trees grow around the edge twisted and warped, leaning away from the site.
5. Seedling grove – a large school of tender, young trees grow in a clearing. The treants guard them with vigilant and vengeful care.
6. Speaking bark – trees bear old script. The messages are ongoing, the carvings fresh but without explanation. They are a warning.
7. Tangle – an enormous mass of roots, branches, and vines are swallowing a building whole. Entry is still possible, just, but the forest will wipe away the memories within soon.
8. Pilgrim’s road – a dirt track worn smooth by centuries of use. The treants have always permitted it, until now. Why do they feel wronged?
9. Listening post – a high platform, ancient though only now starting to creak. It overlooks several treant paths. Thick notebooks remain in careful piles.
10. Gate – two treants stand opposing each other, their highest branches interlocked overhead. It’s an entrance, a boundary, and a warning.
d20 – The Creature(s)
1. Elder treant – finalising a question. Considered for an age. Calm, patient, and vengeful.
2. Treant herald – carrying a message. Wounded but cannot stop. Will not stop. Desperate.
3. Woodcutter – sitting with back to a tree. Axe down, done, finished. Spiritually shattered.
4. Old druid – communing with plants. Trying to relay a message. Starving. Resolute.
5. Young treant – approaching the PCs. Curious, naive, unaware how fragile people are. Enthusiastic.
6. Lost scholar – mapping treant movements. Has a great theory, dangerous method. Too absorbed.
7. Judge treant – shadowing the PCs. Ancient legal authority. Notes party actions. Meticulous.
8. Bark witch – trading wooden trinkets. Tolerated by treants, but has gone beyond their agreed bargain. Calculating.
9. Injured treant – stumbling slowly, listing badly. Its wound is not natural, nor old. Suffering.
10.Priest – leading small procession. Wish to offer gifts, but the treants show no sign of acceptance. Uncertain and nervous.
11. Exile – eating worms. Knows more about the forest than anyone. Cannot leave. Resigned.
12. Warden – patrolling forest path. Has no power here and knows it. Still maintains pretense. Kindly.
13. Child of the forest – mimicking a treant’s walk. Barely speaks. Needs help. Feral.
14. Treant shepherd – guiding young treants away from the party. Stressed, but controlled. Wary.
15. Old enemy – moving from shadow to shadow. Hated by treants, with good reason. Determined.
16. Seed trader – selling rare, unidentified specimens. Two overly interested buyers. Oblivious to the danger.
17. Petitioner – chanting at the base of a tree. Waiting for an audience. It’s been 3 seasons. Devoted.
18. Treant amnesiac – roaring a battle-cry. Repeating old events, fighting old wars. Confused and dangerous.
19. Grove tender – caring for seedling grove under supervision. Trusted, gentle, overburdened with responsibility. Terrified.
20. Newly awakened treant – processing everything simultaneously. Conscious only a few hours. Overwhelmed.
d8 – The Complications
1. Judgment. The forest has reached a verdict. An old wrong needs righting. Help or get out of the way. It won’t tolerate an alternative.
2. Reroute (re-…root). Treants shift and paths close. No aggression, they simply stand there, guiding the party to somewhere specific. The forest’s needs come first.
3. Hunt. A creature runs into the party, pursued by treants. The latter will not distinguish between the guilty and bystanders.
4. Old fire. Evidence of deliberate, recent burning. Treant grief is simmering into rage. Mass retribution is coming, soon.
5. Tremors. Something underground is damaging roots en masse. The forest is in pain and disorientated. Things are getting unpredictable.
6. Slow surround. Treants have been encircling the party for hours, closing in. Something needs resolution before they will move aside.
7. Delegation. People have arrived to negotiate with the treants. They want logging rights, a road, and something worse. The treants are listening. The region will change forever.
8. Final migration. The entire forest is moving. The treants and their charges are leaving permanently. Whatever is driving them away watches with a smile.
d12 – The Secrets
1. In a tree hollow, a glowing ring. It’s on the finger of a skeleton the tree won’t relinquish.
2. Nailed to a young tree, a sealed letter. It’s a Last Will. There is no sign of the writer.
3. Buried in a soft earth mound, a gleaming sword. A noble family’s crest on the hilt. They disavowed all connection to the forest 20 years ago.
4. At the base of a treant, a holy relic. Amongst other offerings, all refused save one child’s carved figure, clutched by the roots.
5. Wrapped in bark, a peace treaty. A century old, the terms are still in effect. The treants await the final payment patiently.
6. Etched into a singular stone monolith, a treant census. Names and ages are in an old language track the forest’s population until 10 years ago.
7. Beside a forest path, a root belonging to no tree. Pulses with power and fear. Pulses faster if carried northeast.
8. In a discarded backpack, a vial of heartwood sap. Taken unwillingly, the owner is hunting for it now, slowly and unerringly.
9. Hastily scrawled onto a tree trunk, a map to a portal. The gateway is one-way. Its guardian is terrible and always hunger.
10. Growing in an old graveyard, a singing sapling. Barely audible. It’s singing a name, over and over. Passing treants stop to listen.
11. Tangled up in brambles, a military standard. The unit fled here. The forest took them. The standard tremors when they approach.
12. Between two trees, a pair of boots. Only the plants hear their footfalls. The soles are still warm.
Example Encounter for Treant Forest
Roll Results:
d4: 3 – Primordial royalty
d6: 1 – Heartwood sap
d10: 5 – Seedling grove
d20: 13 – Child of the Forest
d8: 7 – Delegation
d12: 5 – Peace treaty
My Idea:
The canopy is cathedral-high. There is no sky here, only a dappled mosaic of branches, leaves, and wounded memory. The trees themselves are enormous, bark like armour, roots like buried fists, savagely grasping the earth. They do not move. But their guardians do. The treant forest watches you; it remembers; it broods. Shadows and other servants stalk and silence trespassers. What are you? How long before the forest decides?
Awe is in the air. All around, ancient trees weep sap with a sumptuous perfume.
A Child of the Forest approaches, shambling in a comically small treant impersonation. They need help. Gestures becoming more and more frantic, they lead the party to a seedling grove. The grove desperately needs water, but the treant guards are too fearful to abandon their posts; there are dangerous creatures on the loose with orders to destroy the grove.
If the party can divert a water source to run alongside the grove, they will save the seedlings. If needed, the Child can show the location of a stream, though the journey is dangerous.
On the way there, they will run into a delegation looking to negotiate with the treants. The delegation see how the forest reacts to the party and ask the PCs to persuade the treants to their terms. The delegation wish to go to war against a rival faction with the treants’ aid. In the long run, it will lead to great prosperity for the area, but at great cost.
The Child knows where a peace treaty is, but has no idea what it is. The treaty is between the delegation’s faction and rival, preventing either from allying with the treants. The treants never learned of this. Once trusting, the Child shows the location to the PCs; its their favourite play area.
Using These Tables
A couple of tips when using these tables:
– Try using awkward results before tossing them away. Often it’s the unexpected combinations that build the most memorable stories.
– Modify the tables as you like. Change them; add to them; mix them up. GMs will know what will work best for their own group.
Finally, if you’re curious about the other generators, here is a list with links:
Bazaar
Baroque Noble Party
Old Fort
Temple of the Stars
Ship in Blizzard
Snowing
Forest River
Have a lovely day!
