A recent picture making the rounds is of an alligator with a knife in its head. There is nothing for scale, so the size of both the alligator and the knife are unclear. One person interviewed said it appeared to be in or near its eye, and appeared to be a steak knife. The picture above makes it appear in the center of the skull. [Photo by Erin Weaver/Facebook]

Without scale, it is easy to see a giant alligator with a sword in it’s skull. I imagine a furious battle and a final blow from a valiant knight merely embedded his sword in the creature’s skull instead of slaying it in a final flurry of blows.

How many creatures a party encounters are wounded or bearing marks of battle?

Adventurers vs. Creatures

In a living world type of campaign, the player characters are not the only ones acting on the world. Other NPC adventurers will try to find their own fame and fortune, some will fail miserably, but still leave a mark.

How many giant boar bear a splintered lance or spear in their shoulders or hindquarters? Perhaps it is a magic spearhead that prevents the creature from dying of disease. Is is coated with silver or copper which have antiseptic properties?

Giant alligators or crocodiles that bear magic swords in their skulls like the sword in the stone. The one who removes the sword is the one true ruler of the river or swamp, or they just have a cool sword with a tale to tell.

Any large, giant, or enormous creature might bear wounds with weapons or fragments of weapons still protruding. Non-intelligent or lone creatures might not be able to reach a protruding weapon. Some might make a bargain for those who can remove the offending object, like the fable, Androcles and the Lion.

Elephants, mammoths, wholly rhinos, rocs, bullettes, dragons, wyverns, giants, and so forth are all examples of large creatures that might have a fresh, festering, or healed over wound with a weapon in the wound.

Animal vs. Animal

During mating season, males of both carnivorous and herbivorous species will fight each other. Deer will butt heads and antler may shatter or wound both parties. Occasionally both combatants become locked at the antlers and both starve as they cannot disengage.

Carnivores may be wounded from fighting with other carnivores or dealing with scavengers. Both hunter and prey may be wounded in the fight for survival. This is true of animals of all sizes. Will a wounded animal be fleeing from a predator or limping back to its lair after a hunt gone wrong? Wounded animals are more likely to fight.

In fantasy games, a dragon wounded in a fight with a pair of wyverns over a meal would not be a pleasant encounter.

Environment vs. Creature

Animals of all sorts can be affected by environmental hazards, such as tar pits, mires, quicksand, landslides, tree falls, etc. As well as the various forms of traps by hunters from snare and pits, to falling boulders and logs, to mechanical or magical devices. In addition to hunters and trappers seeking meat or pelts, villages might try to trap a marauding tiger.

Strong predators in a pit trap would not welcome a hapless adventurer falling on them.

Variety

Not all animals need be wounded, sick, or in a fight for their lives. An encounter with a creature can be normal animals of all sizes, or giant forms of each, or magical or monstrous. Similarly, the intelligent species encountered need not all be bent on violence or part of a secret evil cult.

It is easy to make a side table to help you determine if something encountered is healthy, sick, injured, or dying. Also whether any injuries are by competitors, predators/prey, environmental hazards, villagers, patrols, or adventurer. One can set a target of 30% of encounters are other than healthy, so 1-2 on a d6, 1-3 on a d10, 1-6 on a d20, etc.

This same mechanic could be applied to creatures in a dungeon or underdark environment. Unless the dungeon is a place that re-sets to starting conditions when any adventurers leave, an actively delved dungeon will have signs of others braving its dangers. Those who live in the dungeon will have injuries from their hunting or being hunted, or territorial disputes.

That room with 10 goblins behind a barred door might be healing up from an encounter with the carrion crawler just up the hall. It might even be wounded from that encounter.