Shadowfell Non-Combat Encounters, NPCs and Hazards for 5e
Shadowfell Non-Combat Encounters

Shadowfell Non-Combat Encounters, NPCs and Hazards for 5e

Duncan Thomson
"A lizardfolk shaman claims to be an oracle of death and makes predictions about the group"

Tables for Non-Combat Encounters, Quick NPCs and Hazards & Obstacles for the Shadowfell. Result is from Shadowfell Non-Combat Encounters.

Non-combat by terrain - feywild | jungle | road | ruins | sea | shadowfell

[Photo by Sergio Ibannez on Unsplash]

Shadowfell Non-Combat, NPCs & Hazards

The Shadowfell is home to dangers and curiosities that don't involve fighting. A noble who thinks they rule the Shadowfell or a scout with a small vicious dog may be hunting rats. Meet NPCs from a blunt priest trying to deliver a letter to a cursed knight who has lost their faith. Deal with poisonous clouds, magical darknes sand wagons piled with coffins.

A pdf of these and other Shadowfell tables is at the DM's Guild as Shadowfell Encounters

Shadowfell Encounters Random Tables on DM's Guild Unusual Encounters Bundle on DM's Guild

Shadowfell Encounter Tables - creatures | locations | non-combat | enhancements

Shadowfell Non-Combat Encounters

1d8+1d12Shadowfell Non-Combat Encounters
2 A cursed vampire is unable to harm others and must help instead
3 A mage (replace suggestion, fireball, cone of cold with phantasmal force, major image, seeming) wants opinions on gruesome illusions
4 A duergar is proud of the squat gray hut they have built. Have plans for many other functional buildings with few features.
5 A ghost possesses a flying broomstick talks of sweeping sins of the world. Easily released by sweeping up something with the broom
6 A cursed mezzoloth is offering its services in return for the chance to shed blood. They have an enemy nearby.
7 A spirit naga is a merchant of a variety of undead. Flees if confronted
8 A commoner in nightclothes thinks they arrived via a nightmare
9 A pair of kenku are herding a flock of skeletal geese
10 A dirty scout with a small, vicious dog is trying to catch rats
11 A gaunt tribal warrior with a scythe is harvesting dead and rotting plants. Is planning on making a special brew from them.
12 A smily ghast is desperate to try a homemade board (or card) game
13 A lizardfolk shaman claims to be an oracle of death and makes predictions about the group
14 An awakened dire wolf (Int 10, speaks Common) is playing with the illusion of a large spider
15 A pair of satyrs are ask to be cheered up from the depressing gloom.
16 A thri-kreen is experimenting with colorful food that has no taste
17 A bone ooze (ochre jelly stat with no attack) wants to be a pet and communicates by illusions
18 A lunatic noble carries a sickle and is convinced they are a ruler of the Shadowfell.
19 A flesh golem with many mismatched limbs silently offers various parts of its body.
20 A horned devil trades in souls and has exactly what the group needs.

Shadowfell Quick NPCs

1d4+1d6 Shadowfell Quick NPCs
2 Usha is a talkative skeleton (Int 16, History + 5) scholar with a scarred cat familiar. They love old stories and hope to restore an arcane ruin
3 Naal is a squinting commoner undertaker with long false nails. They are fascinated by stone carvings and love jokes involving death.
4 Maral is a shaved dark elf mage with an uneven walk. They sell bone charms in many styles and dream of travels beyond the Shadowfell.
5 Lia is a sinister berserker (AC 16) smeared with ash and in bone armor. They search for a lost brother and play sad tunes on a flute
6 Natali is a fawning wight who is stylishly dressed. They believe they are still alive and offer to help with everything
7 Ulfgar is a fierce priest wearing clothes made of raven feathers. They speak bluntly and have a letter for one of the characters.
8 Tana is a stooped knight covered in weeping sores. They have lost their faith and talk of a curse that has led them to make bad choices
9 Vladislak is a long-haired druid carrying a large sword of ancient design. In a raspy voice they speak of dreams involving dead dragons
10 Circu is a toothless elven spy covered in warts and always hooded. They are writing a book about a subject of interest to the characters.

Shadowfell Hazards and Obstacles

1d8+1d12Shadowfell Hazards and Obstacles
2 A phantasmal fog (treat as weird spell)
3 Something dangerous concealed by a hallucinatory terrain (or mirage arcana)
4 A mass of shadows (or crumbling tomb) which is a portal to the Feywild (or lower planes)
5 Lightning and strong winds (DMG pg 110)
6 A portal to the Astral Plane or an area of thick webs (DMG pg 105)
7 Thunder and thick fog
8 A bone statue which can cause a curse (or geas)
9 Heavy rain (or snow) (Heavy Precipitation - DMG pg 110)
10 A large area of magical darkness or a ghostly cloud of harmless insects that cause light or heavy obscurement
11 An area of quicksand marked by skeletons
12 A ghostly (or whispering) mist descends around party
13 An area of razorvine (DMG pg 110) or a body infected with rot grubs (VGtM)
14 An abandoned wagon piled with coffins or an area protected by forbiddance
15 An area of noxious (or flammable) mist (treat as stinking cloud)
16 Wall of gloom, magical darkness that causes fear to those going through it
17 Necrotic fungi that produce spores that animate the dead (or cause hallucinations)
18 An area of chilling darkness (as Hadar's doom but larger) or an area of dead magic (functions as antimagic field)
19 Poisonous death cloud (treat as cloudkill)
20 Localized earthquake - as spell

More Encounters

A pdf of these and other Shadowfell tables is at the DM's Guild as Shadowfell Encounters

Shadowfell Encounters Random Tables on DM's Guild Unusual Encounters Bundle on DM's Guild

If you liked these there are D&D Generators at Chaos Gen, a monthly random tools Newsletter and an instagram of Random Tables.