Hauts des Nomens - Rencontres Aléatoires
- week earlier we would have stood in the center of a quaint farming village at the edge of a sea of yellow grass. Cobblestone paths still bore the remnants of lives that once played out here : rustically-made hogsheads, their contents spilled and devoured by crows; an upturned cart, shattered like a ship upon a merciless coast; a dropped dolly, button eyes vacant, dress torn. But of the owners themselves, there was nothing. Even their riches remained amid the rubble of crushed daub and fallen thatches. Perhaps that was the most telling. Every roof, every tower, every shed lay crushed and collapsed, as if smashed by the fist of an angry god. My porters would stay to search for the residents—and their treasures—yet by my command we move on, for greater than desire for riches is my fear of that wicked god’s return.
- —From The Record of Truan Iolavai
Ehe Pathfinder Bestiary enters the wild expanses of savage Iobaria this month, revealing several of that grim land’s denizens and dangers. Amid the ruins of empires lost to plague and ages of decadence roam the savage children of the realm’s dark history. While the steps of civilized humanoids are far from unknown in this realm, the prints of hooves and claws mark the passage of mysterious Iobaria’s true masters. Whether these strange beasts and beings intrude into adventures in the Stolen Lands or adventures seek to discover the mysteries of their ancient homes, the passage to Iobaria, Casmaron’s deadly north, stands open.
Wandering Monsters
With this volume’s adventure, a whole new region of the Stolen Lands unfurls before explorers : the Nomen Heights, part of the rocky eastern frontier of not just the River Kingdoms, but of all Avistan. Beyond the barrier of the Tors of Levenies, a lesser range of the Icerime Peaks to the north, spread hills that gradually descend into the plains of Iobaria. There, amid the tall grasses, roam fiercely proud tribes of centaurs and hide the ruins of watchtowers that once guarded the borderlands between west and east.
Those proposing to explore the Nomen Heights should expect many hardships, from rockslides and barriers amid the nearly vertical cliffs of the tors, to those savage beasts capable of surviving amid the stones of the Stolen Lands’ most rugged expanse. GMs who seek to bring a heightened degree of both danger and realism to their adventures in this new land should look to the environmental rules in Chapter 13 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, especially those related to hills and mountains. While the Tors of Levenies are small enough to have relatively little snow, making avalanches unlikely, landslides in the form of collapses (see page 415 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook) are not uncommon. Windstorms, often devoid of rain, also whip across the eastern plains, especially imperiling any caught climbing or in other precarious situations during such times. Depending on the time of year—typically during the fall and winter months—rains from Casmaron’s great central sea and even snow might create their own hindrances to exploration. Yet all of this says nothing of the deadly beasts that inhabit the region, any number of which might cut even a well-prepared expedition lethally short.
As the eastern half of the Nomen Heights borders on the realm of Iobaria, numerous creatures from that realm are regularly seen in this part of the Stolen Lands. GMs seeking to expand their encounters might look to Bestiary entries in coming volumes of the Kingmaker Adventure Path for more beasts and denizens of that deadly realm.
Nomen Heights Random Encounters
| Lake/River | Mountains | Plains | Hills | Encounter | CR | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–6 | 1–3 | — | — | 1d4 tatzlwyrms | 4 | Pathfinder #31 |
| 7–14 | 4–11 | — | 1–8 | 1 grizzly bear | 4 | Bestiary 31 |
| 15–17 | 12–17 | 1–4 | — | 1d4 cockatrices | 5 | Bestiary 48 |
| — | 18–26 | 5–10 | 9–14 | 1d4 giant eagles | 5 | Bestiary 118 |
| 18–26 | 27–35 | 11–23 | 15–27 | 1 manticore | 5 | Bestiary 199 |
| 27–35 | — | 24–31 | 28–36 | 1d4 spriggans | 5 | see page 28 |
| — | 36–42 | 32–34 | 37–42 | 1 wyvern | 6 | Bestiary 282 |
| 36–41 | — | — | 43–46 | 1 will-o’-wisp | 6 | Bestiary 277 |
| 42–49 | 43–47 | 35–40 | 47–55 | 2d4 worgs | 6 | Bestiary 280 |
| 50–64 | — | 41–51 | 56–43 | 1d6 elk | 6 | Pathfinder #31 |
| — | 48–53 | 52–55 | 44–45 | 1 chimera | 7 | Bestiary 44 |
| — | — | 56–59 | 46–51 | 1 bulette | 7 | Bestiary 39 |
| — | 54–63 | — | 52–57 | 1d6 gargoyles | 7 | Bestiary 137 |
| — | 64–70 | 60–63 | 58–62 | 1d6 cyclopes | 8 | Bestiary 52 |
| — | — | 64–75 | 63–67 | 2d6 centaurs | 8 | Bestiary 42 |
| 65–70 | — | 76–80 | — | 1d4 blodeuwedds | 8 | see page 78 |
| 71–83 | — | 81–87 | 68–75 | 1 mastodon | 9 | Bestiary 128 |
| 84–91 | 71–78 | 88–93 | 76–82 | 1 roc | 9 | Bestiary 236 |
| — | 79–84 | — | 83–86 | 1d4 stygiras | 9 | see page 86 |
| 92–98 | 85–91 | 94–100 | 87–93 | 1 peluda | 10 | see page 84 |
| — | 92–96 | — | 94–96 | 1 great cyclops | 12 | see page 82 |
| 99–100 | 97–100 | — | 97–100 | 1 silver dragon | 14 | Bestiary 110 |