I was recently kicking around a game set in a deep forest. While it didn’t pan out, I did manage to salvage a few set pieces that can be dropped into your game as landmarks or adventure sites.
The Spire:
A massive petrified tree standing over the rest of the treetops. Hollow on the inside, it has on occasion been a bandit fortress and a wizard’s tower. It would make an excellent druid’s keep, or lair for the monster of the week.
The Runestones:
A collection of overgrown boulders, rolled into a complex geometric pattern and carved with weathered runes. They may be a map of the stars, a calendar, or a seal to keep a demon trapped in another dimension. No one knows, but their nature tends to attract casters and outsiders.
The Oubliette:
This might have at one point been a well or cistern for an isolated cottage. Now it’s a dangerous vertical drop obscured by vegetation. At the bottom is mercifully a pool of water and a small series of natural caverns. What was that noise? Is there something down here with you?
The Lightning Rod:
What is it about this old tree that attracts lighting strike after strike? The tree is long dead and it’s outer layer is hardened ash. The ground around it is scorched and bare of vegetation. Breezes stir up ash clouds. The entire area seems devoid of life.
The Gibbet:
A man sized cage hangs from a large tree. It’s heavy iron bars are badly corroded, and it’s door is stuck. Carrion birds and strange noises haunt the area. A few human looking bones can be found beneath the sod under the cage.
What are some interesting set pieces you’ve used in your games, and what horrible fate befell your PCs there? Let us know in the comments below.
In a relatively recent campaign, I had the PCs searching the Whispering Wood for its titular Whisper Rock, an ancient stone monument that whispers prophecies into the minds of those who make sacrifices to it. In actuality, it was actually the seal to the prison of Dagon, the keeper of secrets.
There were also several cairns scattered around the woods, made of piles of black stones carved into the shape of human and demon skulls. These were also parts of Dagon’s prison.
The party Wizard was ignorant of all of this, and decided to touch one of the skulls…
…and he slowly went insane with the whispers of power and visions of the Kingdom of the Deep. Seeing as he was temporarily catatonic, the rest of the party had to literally drag him along the road for the rest of the day.
Ruins and swamps are among my go-to adventure areas. Here are two set piece examples:
Crumbling Tower:
A few miles out from the nearest village are the crumbling remains of an old tower. It’s so old that locals don’t know what it was ever used for or have conflicting stories. Treasure hunters gave up exploring it years ago. But lately strange things have been happening in the area. Livestock poaching, eerie figures seen darting around the edges of fields at dusk, and now people going missing. Could it be the old tower has a new– and nefarious– inhabitant?
Ghost Ship:
Maybe it’s stories of the haunted shipwreck that brings these adventurers to the swamp, or maybe it’s something else. Either way, the ship’s ghostly remains are quickly spotted. Splintered masts rise up from the murk. Tattered remains of sails hang from them like ghosts. Parts of the decks not yet submerged suggest something hiding within. But what? The ghost ship’s current inhabitants could be anything from undead to reptiles to amphibians to aberrations to… well, anything.
I love how many of these are tall: they rise above the canopy in the distance, beckoning you off the path.
The witch’s cottage: the scent of sweet breads and spiced meat wafts on the breeze. A well kept cottage stands in a shady glade. There is a small garden, but this is no farmhouse. There are no livestock to be seen. You hear a muffled yell from inside….
Fairy Circle: a ring of mushrooms in the grass, just off the road. You see colored lights dancing inside until you look at it, then they disappear. (I don’t know what it does yet).
An overgrown Forrest. A derelict ship. Gally like, lay covered in vines and creepers. A gnome hustles from within.
How the ship came to rest so far from water wasn’t at first clear.
The gnome was fidgety and nervous.
Hidden within was a Giant Spider, trapped by the fallen mast.
The gnome got unsuspecting travellers to rescue him from the spider only to trick them and feed them to the spider.
Once this location was cleared, through study they discovered that the ship was capable of flight.
So they repaired and got it airborne again.
Its now the parties for of transport.
The gnome was petrified by the wizard and now adorns the prow of the ship.
The ship is now called the Petrified Gnome.
Adventure continues.