Hexplorations: Village Secrets
Today’s installment of our series of Hexplorations is a chart of 36 potential village secrets. While we’ll probably do another chart to determine the size of the village, how old it is, what industry they are focused on, etc., we thought we’d start with this chart of secrets! Roll a d6 for a column (or pick a subject of interest), then another d6 for the row.
| d6 | 1 (Kid Issues) | 2 (Village Drama) | 3 (On the Farms) | 4 (Monsters) | 5 (The Occult) | 6 (Magic) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A boy is missing. In fact, he’s run away from abusive parents. | The village’s one tavern is having money troubles. It waters the ale and cuts corners. | A pack of wolves have been after one farmer’s sheep. He’s lost three in a week. | The crops are failing. A farmer upset a nearby treant or dryad. | A group of villagers regularly meet at midnight to worship a banned god. | One farmer’s scythe is a forgotten magic heirloom. It slew a demon. |
| 2 | The PCs spot a kid being bullied coming home from the village’s 1-room schoolhouse. | Two villagers are squabbling over a property line. One paid off the city survey office. | A boy is working off a debt for damaging a farmer’s wagon. But he’s often in the barn with the farmer’s daughter. | A pack of orcs or kobolds just ran through the village. They didn’t harm anyone just grabbed a pig or sheep on the way. | A storm of locusts has hit the village. The crops have been decimated! Why? | Each year a friendly druid would bless the fields. He has now passed and the farmers need a blessing for this year. |
| 3 | The kids in the village talk to a “friend” in the well. It isn’t just their imaginations. | The town’s mill burnt down a couple days ago under suspicious circumstances. | One farmer’s pigs got loose again. His neighbor is angry a field was ruined. | About once a week a dragon swoops down and carries away a sheep or even a cow. The villagers run for cover each time. | One resident can’t let go of her dead husband–she hasn’t reported him dead, let alone buried him. She prayed to a dark god for his return. He just sat up. | One farmer’s field always produces 2x more than any other. He doesn’t know it is on a ley line intersection. A wizard just figured it out… |
| 4 | The local school teacher asks the PCs to visit the school and tell some likely tales. | There was a tie at a baking contest. Everyone in the village has picked a side. | The farms are having issues with moles or hedgehogs. The farmers are coming up with a plan, but would like advice. | A golem went berserk and trashed a path through the village. It is gone now, but the PCs can follow its path. The village could use a hand cleaning up. | The village is built directly above a cave where sacrifices were made generations ago. Someone has just found the entrance. | One villager has a number of common magic items (vase where plants never need be watered, crate that stays cold inside, etc.) Why/How? |
| 5 | Boys playing in the woods found a sword stuck in a huge rock. They couldn’t get it out. | At last week’s wedding, another couple announced their engagement–upstaging the newlyweds! | A snake oil salesman sold most of the farmers in town a miracle fertilizer. It is causing a fungus on the plants instead. | Some villagers feel tremors from time to time. Perhaps a bulette, purple worm, or some other burrowing creature is here? | One villager is hearing voices. His god is telling him to take his oldest child as a sacrifice. | All the villages in the area have a sacred stone, said to possess magic abilities. Several villages’ stones have gone missing. |
| 6 | The kids were playing a game and one got tackled. Both kids are injured. | One of the village’s boys has a striking resemblance to a different father. | The mill the farmers use is infested with rodents. They’re planning how to clear it out and clean it out. | Kids playing in the woods found a sword stuck in a rock. They lifted it out. It wasn’t a rock, and now the creature is healing… | The nicest house in town is owned by a retired adventurer. He’s been rather rude lately… a sentient magic item is starting to influence him. | One villager is a wizard. Due to abuses, he was forced to forget his history & magic. A few villagers watch him for the wizard council. He occasionally half-remembers isolated things. |
