A Stone’s Throw Away

This morning, it suddenly dawned on us that we need a Hovertrain Wandering Monster table to accommodate long rests and extended train trips! So, let’s do an inaugural entry and start to give Dungeon Masters something to roll against!

Our job makes complete sense. While Hovertrains are certainly faster than traditional DnD forms of travel, we’re still talking about the players traveling across immense swaths of open territory. Gone are the days of weeklong-plus travels, but The Forgotten Rails usually spans multi-day distances.

We’re incredibly excited to create some memorable Hovertraain map points. These are mysterious travel stretches to which locals have attached colorful nicknames and where fresh, exaggerated rumors constantly swirl. Great buzz names like “Sniper Pointe” and “Ambush Alley” aren’t on any official charts (because that’s bad for business), but everyone knows the dangers are very real. Plus, having official and unofficial Hovertrain map versions will be darn fun.

Today’s featured miniatures come from the magical creators at STL Miniatures and their Snow Trolls set. We needed some muscle here, and these suave STLs leaped off our 3D printer. Despite the chilly set theme, we colored them up to be more mountain-ish. The key attribute here was insanely muscular arms.

So, let’s set the scene. Not on any official map, there’s a stretch on The Forgotten Rails that has seen more than its fair share of low-level “avalanches.” Locals have dubbed this area “Raining Rock Ridge,” as several terrified passengers have reported several large boulders inexplicably plummeting from the mountain cliffs above. Naturally, the rail line considers these events “occasional minor landslides and natural events,” but that goes against numerous eyewitness accounts.

So, that’s where our new 3D-printed monsters come into play. Meet the Boulder Boys – a pair of large, bored trolls who like to play an ongoing game to see who can hit a passing Hovertrain with a single, large rock toss. They’re quite competitive and rush to secure the perfect boulder anytime a Hovertrain is spotted from their mountainside perch.

First, there’s Kraunch. He’s the cranky hot head of the two and loves to cause trouble. Our mighty green specimen rarely uses a weapon and prefers to tear his opponents apart with his mighty claws. He’s a bit bossy but would do anything to protect his dear friend.

And then there’s Amogos. He’s not the sharpest tack in the box, but he loves to take a swing with his mighty haymaker club whenever possible. Never one to turn down a dare from Kraunch, this lumbering troll gets immense satisfaction beating him in “playful” games.

Regarding mechanics, the group will follow standard Long Rest rules, where everyone rolls a d6. If anyone rolls a six, then it’s time for the DM to go to our random wandering monster table and determine a result. This is entry 1, so DMs will need to give us some time to build out the results, but we promise many more fun and engaging random Hovertrain events in future posts!

For this rocky event, the DM will roll a d20 twice (one for each troll). On a 15 or higher, a subsequent percentage die will mean one of the following:

• Direct Hit (super bad “derailment”) | 0-10%
• Sudden Swerve (extreme turbulence) | 11-25%
• Near Miss (just a good scare from your window) | 26-40%
• Part Problems (must recover critical dislodged part) | 41-50%
• No Snooze for You (lost Long Rest due to all the calamity) | 51 – 70%
• Train Delay (extra travel time required) | 71 to 85%
• Hard Stop (leaving your seat) | 86-100%

And then we can easily assign rollable consequences to each like so: Direct Hit (10d10 damage, Reflex save for half), Sudden Swerve (3d4+1 damage, Reflex save for half), Near Miss (nothing happens beyond accelerated table heart rates), Part Problems (searching means a roll on the Wilderness Trek Wandering Monsters table). No Snooze (no long rest | take one level of exhaustion), Train Delay (add an extra day of travel), and Hard Stop (1d12+4 damage, no reflex save).

Special thanks to Discord members Bob, Bree & Arcadius Prime for sharing their creative ideas.

And just like that, we have our first Hovertrain Wandering Monster table entry in our rearview mirror – pic pun intended! There are plenty of future one-shot opportunities here, too, including a large bounty on the Troll’s heads or an intentional re-route of the Hovertrain to their lair.

Now, all we need to do is update our table!

Until next time!