# Things you find on the road?



## Hand of Evil (Jun 7, 2011)

Okay, want to make a list of items found on the road.  This is not city street, but the road that goes from one city to the next city?


Broken / Flat wheel
Broken Wagon / car
Shoes
Sundry items (bottles, pots, pans, etc)
Other Travellers
Rest stop
Hitch Hiker
Signs


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## IronWolf (Jun 7, 2011)

9. Accidents (wagon slipped off trail, etc)
10. Diners (out of the way tavern, Inn, etc)
11. Dead carcasses


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## TarionzCousin (Jun 7, 2011)

Is it time for someone to post the Random Harlot table again?


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## Umbran (Jun 7, 2011)

My first thoughts are pretty pseudo-Medieval...

12. Shrine
13. Old campsite
14. Dead horse
15. Dead livestock
16. Thrown horseshoes
17. Some guy with a cart selling vegetables
18. Begging leper


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## steeldragons (Jun 7, 2011)

In the vein of "Other Travelers", the following thread might provide with some possible ideas/encounters...some that might spark small side-adventures found "on the road".

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/304939-101-npcs-99-npcs-wall-2-a.html

--SD


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## El Mahdi (Jun 7, 2011)

TarionzCousin said:


> Is it time for someone to post the Random Harlot table again?




You enter a 10' by 10' room.  In the room is an Orc and a Saucy Tart.  

_What...!!!!_




Hand of Evil said:


> *Things you find on the road?*




19. Fallen tree or large tree limb.
20. Washed out or flooded section.


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## Dioltach (Jun 7, 2011)

21. The guys from Top Gear engaged in one of their challenges.


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## the Jester (Jun 7, 2011)

22. Halfling taco wagons.


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## Hand of Evil (Jun 7, 2011)

23. Dead armadillo / Opossum but what is the fantasy version?


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## the Jester (Jun 7, 2011)

Hand of Evil said:


> 23. Dead armadillo / Opossum but what is the fantasy version?




An osquip.


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## Gilladian (Jun 7, 2011)

Road repair crew
Group of pilgrims
Group of mercenaries
Group of refugees

Campgrounds (occupied or not)
Travelers (gypsies, circus, tinker, etc...)

River Ford
Toll Bridge (Troll Bridge)
Toll Gate
Ferry
Canal beside road

Mountain pass with Guard post
Mountain pass, undefended

Avalanche or Mudslide
Storm debris/fallen trees/limbs

Ruins
Farms
Smithy
Roadside shrine
Hermitage


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## Jimlock (Jun 7, 2011)

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbfVmzF7N4g]YouTube - ‪Knight Rider Theme Song (Intro Instrumental/Orginal) - Stu Phillips‬‏[/ame]


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## ExploderWizard (Jun 7, 2011)

Four men in nondescript clothing. They do not appear to be tarrying nor are they running. They carry a variety of weapons and do not appear to be acrobats.


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## BriarMonkey (Jun 7, 2011)

A Gazeebo.


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## Diamond Cross (Jun 7, 2011)

Jerky.

And plus after playing WoW it makes me wonder how humans ever got those roads built through some of those hostile regions they go through.


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## Mallus (Jun 7, 2011)

Buddhas (false).


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## Ed_Laprade (Jun 7, 2011)

Picnickers
Fruit tree
Berry bush


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## TarionzCousin (Jun 8, 2011)

A shepherd or farmer moving his flock/herd from one field to another.


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## Ravilah (Jun 8, 2011)

A knight in black armor forbidding anyone to pass the bridge.

Two peasants arguing about the role of class in a pre-Marxist feudal state.

A trial-by-mob intent on burning a witch.

A three-headed giant that argues with itself.

A hapless page with an arrow in his chest and a note on the arrow.

A dead cow (with a castle far in the distance...)


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## tuxgeo (Jun 8, 2011)

An immense, golden holy symbol of one of the active gods, of a size probably five feet wide by ten feet long, half imbedded into what was until recently a smooth and well-cropped expanse of turf. The holy symbol rests inside a recently-formed indentation in the ground, about a foot deep, that is shaped suspiciously like a five-foot by ten-foot holy symbol of one of the active gods. 
The head of a sheep (that apparently didn't move out of the way fast enough) protrudes from underneath one edge of the holy symbol, tilted at an angle against the incline of the indentation. 

Birds chirp. The wind wafts gently. There are hardly any other sounds.


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## Hand of Evil (Jun 8, 2011)

Tourist Trap -- Oh the images but thinking of Gator Farms, Snake Pits, Tar Pits, Bat Cave, Cracker Barrel etc.


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## TarionzCousin (Jun 12, 2011)

tuxgeo said:


> An immense, golden holy symbol of one of the active gods, of a size probably five feet wide by ten feet long, half imbedded into what was until recently a smooth and well-cropped expanse of turf. The holy symbol rests inside a recently-formed indentation in the ground, about a foot deep, that is shaped suspiciously like a five-foot by ten-foot holy symbol of one of the active gods.
> The head of a sheep (that apparently didn't move out of the way fast enough) protrudes from underneath one edge of the holy symbol, tilted at an angle against the incline of the indentation.
> 
> Birds chirp. The wind wafts gently. There are hardly any other sounds.



We ignore it and go around, continuing onward down the road. WE WON'T BE RAILROADED! We scoff your obvious plot point! We want to find the most delicious custard in all of Greyhawk!


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## Dioltach (Jun 12, 2011)

A naked poet, trudging.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 12, 2011)

Mallus said:


> Buddhas (false).




Buddha (real)


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## le grand fromage (Jun 12, 2011)

Something Mary Gentle-esque? A corpse in a cage or gallows reciting its crimes?
A Hitchcockian flock of birds silently watching you pass by?
The prints of an enourmous clawed beast crossing the trail then disappearing abruptly - (Hyppogriffe that flew away)?
Or ,as happend to me last weekend, the sound of something large but out of sight and moving rapidly away in the woods - probably deer but I'm not ruling out Owlbear.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 12, 2011)

The Mimes of Moria.


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## Doug McCrae (Jun 12, 2011)

Potholes


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## Dice4Hire (Jun 12, 2011)

An old man with 7 canaries


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## Olgar Shiverstone (Jun 12, 2011)

Wandering bards, some feral, some not.


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## Diamond Cross (Jun 12, 2011)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2H8DcUbFKI"]YouTube - ‪Randy Travis - King of the Road‬‏[/ame]


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## Kaodi (Jun 12, 2011)

Hand of Evil said:


> 23. Dead armadillo / Opossum but what is the fantasy version?




23a. Live armadillo with built in leprosy action.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 12, 2011)

Diamond Cross said:


> YouTube - &[URL=http://www.enworld.org/forum/misc.php?do=dbtech_usertag_hash&hash=x202a]#x202aRandy Travis - King of the Road&#x202c‏[/url]




I see your Randy Travis, and raise you: Some Wilburys, Traveling; Bob Seger, _again_; Metallica, roaming wherever; and Willie Nelson and his mobile greenhouse/smokehouse


(Somehow, I was _unable_ to edit out the archer...)


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## Jimlock (Jun 12, 2011)

A Prince


(or the artist formerly known as...)


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## AdmundfortGeographer (Jun 13, 2011)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> (Somehow, I was _unable_ to edit out the archer...)



That's okay. I'm not gonna complain.


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## RainOfSteel (Jun 13, 2011)

A speed-limit sign that has been knocked down.  Instead of a number, it shows the symbol for infinity.


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## domino (Jun 13, 2011)

A piece of ladies' underwear.

Or men's too, but I've only ever found ladies'.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 13, 2011)

Jack Kerouac...


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## Mark CMG (Jun 13, 2011)

A broken pair of glases.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 13, 2011)

A glass Coke bottle.

(Those _crazy_ gods!)


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## cmrscorpio (Jun 13, 2011)

A very large, powerful herbivore that does not want to move.

A solitary zombie shambler that the PCs could easily kill without breaking a sweat.


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## AdmundfortGeographer (Jun 13, 2011)

The fresh, wet corpse of a whale.

A giant fork. [Couldn't resist]

A sinkhole opened up directly where the road passes, the bottom unseen in the dark, but human screams emanating.

Two trees (not native to the region says the druid) on either side of the road with branches crossing out over the road effectively arching above the road, passing between triggers a one-way teleportation . . . Many years later the heroes could encounter the *same* pair of trees somewhere else in the world a few more times. Eventually the teleportation brings the heroes to another world or plane, maybe to an audience with a meddling god.


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## TarionzCousin (Jun 13, 2011)

Eric Anondson said:


> A giant fork. [Couldn't resist]










Kermit: Bear left.


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## AdmundfortGeographer (Jun 13, 2011)

I'd give you XP, TC, but I gotta spread it around. That is *precisely* what was in my head, and the song is stuck there as well. "_Movin' right along . . ._"


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 13, 2011)

TarionzCousin said:


> Kermit: Bear left.




Waka waka waka!


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 13, 2011)

A traveller in black...


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## Relique du Madde (Jun 13, 2011)

An IED.
Hunter S. Thompson.
Willie Nelson, Canned Heat, and Dave Dudley among others.
An autobot.
An other road.
A chicken.
Gridlock.
Immigrants.
Mad Max.
Helios 
Some guy named "Jack."


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 13, 2011)

At an intersection, a well dressed fiend with a golden fiddle...


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## Ulrick (Jun 13, 2011)

Things you find on _The Road_, huh? 



Spoiler



A father and son with a little push cart trying to make it to the ocean.

A forest burning for no apparent reason.

A gated tunnel where a bunch of perverted cannibals come out and try to kill and eat you. 

A house just off The Road, in the basement are human livestock for said cannibals.

A nearly blind man who's starving but can tell tales of the times before. 

A gas station with a pop machine with a single can of Coke inside

A man and a woman hiding on the second floor of a nearby building, the man shoots you with an arrow. 

Another traveler who tries to steal your clothes. 

A pile of clothes and a can of Spam.



The initial sense of depression and dread that turns to boredom because The Road is so long...


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## CapnZapp (May 29, 2018)

El Mahdi said:


> You enter a 10' by 10' room.  In the room is an Orc and a Saucy Tart.



So *that's* where Monte Cook got his inspiration!


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## Flexor the Mighty! (May 29, 2018)

Friends of the road are always there.


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 29, 2018)

Alfred’s, Arnold’s & Able’s Roadside Cart Assistance.


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## Umbran (May 29, 2018)

The Biggest Ball of Twine


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 30, 2018)

A guy collecting twine, who won’t reveal why he’s doing so...


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## Eltab (May 30, 2018)

Pavement.  For variety, it could be asphalt, concrete sheets, cobblestones, Roman-style fitted blocks of stone, or a layer of gravel.

A work crew laying new pavement.
A work crew digging drainage ditches along the sides of the road
A work crew building a bridge over a small drainage tunnel

The foreman, back where the work crew started, taking a nap.

A couple of bandits well-hidden behind some bushes but arguing loudly if they should ambush the approaching work crew when they get up close.


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## Eltab (May 30, 2018)

Burma Shave -style advertising signs along the side of the road.


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 30, 2018)

A work crew, painting bricks yellow before putting them in place in the road...


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## MNblockhead (May 30, 2018)

A chicken, in the middle of the road, suffering an etiologic crisis.


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 31, 2018)

Darmok and Jalad, on their way to Tanagra.


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## Eltab (Jun 2, 2018)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> At an intersection, a well dressed fiend with a golden fiddle...




Only if you are in Georgia and have a Bard along.

There has to be a tree stump nearby.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 2, 2018)

Eltab said:


> Only if you are in Georgia and have a Bard along.
> 
> There has to be a tree stump nearby.




Hey, fiends have access to all kinds of Prime material planes, not just ours!


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 2, 2018)

Howe’s Bizarre Bazaar


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## Eltab (Jun 2, 2018)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Hey, fiends have access to all kinds of Prime material planes, not just ours!



That would explain why "that chair right there" seems to have just materialized out of thin air.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 2, 2018)

Eltab said:


> That would explain why "that chair right there" seems to have just materialized out of thin air.



Expecting a visit from Ron Glass?

[video=youtube;BoQ6ZC8EUQ0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoQ6ZC8EUQ0[/video]


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## Riley37 (Jun 5, 2018)

Ulysses Everett McGill and the Soggy Bottom Boys.

A guy with an oar across his shoulders, travelling inland until he meets someone who doesn't know what an oar is.

A girl, a lion, a straw golem and a tin woodsman, pursued by flying monkeys.

A pair of riders, one with a flag painted on his jacket, the other dressed in primitive-style buckskins, searching for Freedom and the Faerun Dream.

Two wanderers, one skinny and incessantly foul-mouthed, the other fat and silent.

Harold and Kumar, on their way to the Castle.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 5, 2018)

Maximilian the Mad, former watchman, now seeking revenge on the bandits who killed his family.  His chariot is heavily modified.

A phantom tollbooth.

Some halflings, journeying back to the shire after a terrible war.

Procrustes, a rustic bed-maker.

Granny’s Apple stand.


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## Eltab (Jun 6, 2018)

A fork - the kind you eat with.  Somebody's initial is engraved on the handle end in fancy font.
Search the area nearby to find a banged-up box with the rest of settings for 6 scattered all around it.


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## Eltab (Jun 6, 2018)

In a mountainous region:

The side of the mountain is carved to make room for the road.  The road is good quality here; broad curves not hairpin turns, no steep slopes, wide enough that two wagons can pass with some room to spare, a sturdy stone ledge on the downslope side.  
Carved into the upslope cliff is a proclamation in several writings.  If you can translate one, it says:
_I, Darius, the Great King, have built this road that you may journey with ease.  Remember me before your gods, and pay my tax collectors the proper respects._


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 6, 2018)

Eltab said:


> In a mountainous region:
> 
> The side of the mountain is carved to make room for the road.  The road is good quality here; broad curves not hairpin turns, no steep slopes, wide enough that two wagons can pass with some room to spare, a sturdy stone ledge on the downslope side.
> Carved into the upslope cliff is a proclamation in several writings.  If you can translate one, it says:
> _I, Darius, the Great King, have built this road that you may journey with ease.  Remember me before your gods, and pay my tax collectors the proper respects._




...with a scrawl of graffiti, “Darius who?” where the good road section ends.


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## Eltab (Jun 6, 2018)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> ...with a scrawl of graffiti, “Darius who?” where the good road section ends.



The improved road should end at a tax collector's toll booth, now that I think about it.


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