On Roads Untrod: Wilderness Encounters as Hexcrawling Challenges

 Dungeon random encounters, it is said, are meant to deplete resources, communicate specific ongoing threats in the immediate vicinity, and contribute to the challenge of the classic dungeoncrawling procedure. It can pay to think about how random encounters when hexcrawling or otherwise traveling throught the wilderness relates to the resources of that subgame and its procedures. For this reason, I try to track rations, don't allow characters to heal HP without spending days resting, ensure they sometimes rest regardless, and take other common measure. 

To aid me in a hexcrawling project I'm working on, and as a good exercise, here are all the planned random encounters in the hexcrawl's various regions and ways I have brainstormed for them to be relevant on the level of a hexcrawl. Now, much of the time the PCs might only interact with an encounter in passing, or might fight and completely beat them, and because of that these behaviors won't always come up. But coming up with these ahead of time will, I hope, help the encounter tables to keep play dynamic and keep the encounters relevant long after they've concluded.

• Angel- Force morale saves from crusaders. Convert hex of one terrain type into one of another. Cause fair fortune— find the way, enjoy positive encounters, safely traverse infrastructure. Provide bread.
• Aristocrats with incendiary grenades- Provide oil. Bluster their way past tolls.
• Assassins- poisoned blades do 1 damage each day come midnight and cannot be healed without a specialist in a settlement. Track the party and attack if they camp in a disadvantageous location. As an insurance policy against suicide missions, carry letters from their employers, which may change the part's relationship with an NPC. Offer to assassinate a target for a fee.
• Automaton peacocks, musicians, and courtiers- Follow the party, causing additional encounter checks.Emerge from or enter into hidden hex features.
• Baboons- Lead the party along safe routes or into traps. Stalk the party for 1d2 days, then attack. Screech horrifically, triggering hireling and mount morale checks.
• Bandits with hand-trebuchets- Press-gang into service. Show hidden routes. Outbid hireling contracts. Refuse to allow PCs in the hex.
• Basilisk- turn hex with vegetation into a wasteland. 
• Blinded knights- Track you by scent, following slowly but tirelessly for up to 1d6 days. Reveal surprising truths about imperial politics. Emerge from hidden hex features.
• Bread rioters- Steal food. Show secret routes through urban hexes. Purchase weapons. Turn urban hex into ruined hex. Bar entry into hex with barricades and fires.
• Centaurs- Grant friends a ride to their destination. Give travel advice. Forbid travel near their ancestral glades.
• Charioteers and their fanatics- Give hotties a ride. Track those who have insulted them at speed. Sell overpriced food.
• Chimerae- Give sage advice. Force morale save from hirelings and mounts.
• Crew of Chalchos- Share lotus-flower rations. Give good travel advise. Travel together and get lost. Give party a ride to a random coastal hex.
• Damascus steel automaton warriors- Cordon off hex. Prevent party from leaving hex. Call for reinforcements. Conspicuously guard a hidden hex feature. Provide fine weapons.
• Devil- Force morale save from mounts. Convert hex of one terrain type into one of another. Cause ill fortune— get lost, suffer more encounter checks, destroy infrastructure. Provide cigars.
• Dire animal- Sunder a building. Leave tracks to or from a hidden hex feature.
• Djinn- free space
• Doppelgangers- Stalk for 1d6 days, waiting for a victim to split off. Provoke hirelings to test morale or turn the PCs out of rampant paranoia.
• Dragons- Force morale save from hirelings and mounts. Convert wooded hexes to cinders. Abduct and host an interesting PC. Destroy bridges and towers.
• Drow- poisoned blades do 1 damage each day come midnight and cannot be healed without a specialist in a settlement. Track the party and attack if they camp in a disadvantageous location. Offer to assassinate a target for a fee. Provide poison.
• Dryads- Win over hirelings. Call out for nearby allies. Offer fruit from the branches.
• Eunuchs- Forbid PCs to travel through the hex without the right paperwork. Transform urban hexes into mazes. Guide party to where they think they should go. Serve as advisors for a fee.
• Fairy- Trick party into entering a portal to a nearby hex. Charm or spook hirelings. Ensorcel you to lose your way. Provide floating dust.
• Feral dogs and kine- Be susceptible to domestication. Instinctively show the best route through the hex. Bite to transfer a disease that does 1 CHA damage each day come midnight and cannot be healed without a specialist in a settlement, ending in undomestication.
• Fevered zombies- Force morale save from hirelings. Bite to transfer a disease that does 1 CON damage each day come sunset and cannot be healed without a specialist in a settlement, ending in zombification. Swarm in such numbers as to block off ingress or egress through the hex. Convert urban hexes into ruins.
• Foreign spies- Give directions. Mislead. Share foreign cuisine.
• Full-on war machine- Force morale save from hirelings and mounts. Destroy constructions or build with incredible strength. Follow party, slowly but surely. Bring on encounters with engineers and grease monkeys. Give a ride to the front.
• Ghost- Confide location of hidden things in the hex. Haunt PCs night after night. Possess hireling. Provoke morale tests. Rebuff travelers from the hex. Bring on fog that makes the party lose its way. Provide ectoplasm.
• Giant- Force morale save from hirelings and mounts. Pick up party and carry them somewhere else. Feed a giant morsel. Convert any hex into clear terrain.
• Giant snails and their giant snail knights- Provide slow but sure mounts. Provide slime. Serve as retainers.
• Giant toad- Give a great bellow that triggers another encounter roll. Temporarily flood hex. Carry prey to another hex.
• Gladiator- Serve as a retainer. Guide through urban hexes. Teach a combat trick.
• Gnolls- Track fleeing PCs for 1d4 days, attacking by night. Steal food. Guide through area. Serve as mercenaries.
• Gnomes- Lead through hex. Offer mushrooms. Send off unliked offspring as hirelings.
• Goblin nouveau riche- Get lost guiding PCs. Offer bits and bobs. Send off troublesome rivals as hirelings.
• Great serpent- Force morale save from hirelings and mounts. Cut off travel with massive bulk. Give PCs a ride through water features.
• Griffon- Serve as a mount to a worthy PC. Track quarry in proportion to their sin, then dive bomb out of nowhere in the middle of the day.
• Hag- Give out advice for strange fees. Bedevil and make you lose your way or transport you to a nearby hex. Freak out hirelings. Heal. Provide potions and unwilling apprentices.
• Harpies- Befoul rations. Serve as unreliable flying porters. Track for 1d12 days, bullying and dragooning each day. Point out your location to others, causing more encounter checks.
• Hero king (stats as T. Rex)- Force morale save from hirelings. Build or destroy a great deal in a single day. Share the prophecy in which they are implicated.
• Hippo- Destroy party's vessel. Territorially guard crossing in a hex.
• Hyenas- Follow for 1d3 days, learning PCs' names and calling out to them in the night. Freak out hirelings while unseen. Guide the party to a landmark after they've gotten lost.
• Manticore- Lead party to hidden features in the hex. Offer the foolish the chance to ride on its back. Impart a barb that inflicts 1d4 poison damage each day, unable to be removed saved by a trained healer. Provide barbs.
• Messenger birds- Carry rumors from nearby hexes. Send letters to nearby hexes. Reveal hidden features in the hex.
• Mimic- Reveal hidden features in the hex. Provide adhesive.
• Minotaur- Serve as a specialist in engineering. Convert remote hexes into mazes. Threaten to hunt if the party doesn't turn back. Impart the history of a nearby ruler. Help the party solve logic puzzles and mysteries. Provide worked stone.
• Mutant- Offer strange prophetic insight. Beg to serve as a hireling. Show the way past a nearby hazard. Provide goo.
• Nymphs and Satyrs- Heal and provide rations. Entice party into a days-long bacchanal. Warn about nearby dangers. Provide wine.
• Ogre- Carry party to their lair. Perform herculean labors or smash up the path the party needs to take. Gatekeep.
• Ooze- Reduce hexes to wastes or monocultural pools. Provide goo.
• Predatory plant- Bar travel through hex. Force the party to take a particular route. Provide fruit.
• Proletarian ghouls- Bite to transfer a disease that does 1 Con damage each day come sunset and cannot be healed without a specialist in a settlement, ending in becoming a ghoul. Serve as ravenous hirelings. Guide through alleys and around corners.
• Questing beast- Lead a hunting party of 3 or 4 other random encounters. Flee towards hidden features of the hex. Locate water.
• Rebelian raiding parties- Slash with a wickedly curved blade that won't stop bleeding for 1 HP every day until treated by a trained healer. Serve as mercenaries. Provide stupid hats. Give a warcry that scatters hirelings. Build wooden fortifications. Guide through Rebelia.
• Rebellious soldiers- Beg for food. Lead brazen trespasses into imperial redoubts. Lock down hexes. 
• Rhinoceros- Force morale save from mounts. Cure  curses. Serve as a mount to the innocent. Guard secret features of hexes.
• Roman legionnaire wannabes- Convert clear hexes into roads and hilly hexes into fortifications. Serve as mercenaries. Beat a forced march for three days straight. Pursue marks for three days.
• Rust Monster- Destroy metal equipment.
• Skeletons- Provide history in song. Scare hirelings. Reveal hidden features in a hex. 
• Sphinx- Share prophetic insight. Bar a hex to those insufficiently clever. Identify disguised personages.
• Spider merchant- Sell unique wares. Sell maps and navigational advice. Sell service as a middling engineer.
• Statherides- Serve as mercenaries. Browbeat toll collectors and saunter through imperial redoubts. Lead the way and get lost.
• Tiger- Stalk the party for 1d3 days, attacking when advantageous. Signify proximity to hidden dangers.
• Troglodyte- Territorially defend the hex. Serve as mercenaries.
• Unicorn- Force morale save from mounts. Cure  curses. Serve as a mount to the innocent. Guard secret features of hexes.
• Urbanite orcs- Serve as guides to urban environments. Reveal hidden features in city hexes. Serve as mercenaries.
• Vampire- Force morale save from mounts. Entice away hirelings. Offer historical knowledge and forgotten shortcuts.
• Varangians deputized- Interrogate party for 1d4 days. Cordon off hex for crude investigations. Damage constructions.
• Wandering crusaders- Join party and get them lost. Serve as mercenaries. Provide blessings and healing.
• Wandering iconoclasts/iconodules- Demand icons. Serve as hirelings in tomb-robbing expeditions. Hide out in hidden features of hexes.
• War elephants, feral- Force morale save from hirelings and mounts. Trump to make an extra encounter check. Provide ivory. If domesticated, serve as mount.