The natural relationships between monsters sometimes go overlooked. Exploiting these relationships can justify other interactions and create a chain of logical encounters to generate a buildup of excitement.
Orcs and ettins, or goblins and wolves illustrate existing relationships to scale up the danger. Seeing one may not necessarily lead to another, but even the hint of a partnership could lead to some great tension or scene building.
Eyes Have It takes something relatively easy to deal with — aggressive plant life — and ties it in with aberration creature types to present a bizarre new threat to adventurers. These dangerous plants generate exclusively from dead remains.
These small details add depth to the fungal creature and perhaps elicit curiosity in the characters and players.
The key element of this encounter is the aberrant nature of the plant, linked in a way that could spell the undoing of the aberrant fungi source creature — a natural reaction to an alien species into an environment they’re not adapted to for survival.
This not only builds on the theory of the natural ecology between monsters in some cases, but has a basis in actual biology.
Encounter Type: Combat
Map: Dungeon ruins
Lighting: Dynamic lighting
System: 5E
Length: One shot
Installation Type: Addon
License: Roll20 End User License Agreement
(Personal Use Only, Do Not Distribute)