Lords Of The Last Days: 21 Encounters In A Serpent-Ridden Apocalyptic Pass

Here's another encounter table based on the lyrics to a song. All credit for the idea goes to Joseph Manola and his excellent Against The Wicked City blog. This one is a bit more focused than my last one, but it's based on a song by the same band, The Sword. Unlike the pretty disjointed encounters I made from Ebethron, I used this song, Lords, to make a more coherent setting. It has an adventure hook, rising tension, and a mechanic to make the journey into chaos a gradual change over time.

Click here to listen to the song.

THE HOOK

If you want to skip all the backstory (little though it is) below you easily can. The important thing is this: An ancient evil has been accidentally released in a mountain pass. Are you a bad enough dude to head up through the rapidly deteriorating highlands and return the stolen golden seal before it's too late?

EXCESSIVE BACKSTORY

Seven centuries ago, Mereshehad, high priest and worldly avatar of the Seven Serpents, was defeated and sealed in a tomb in the largest pass over the Barrier Peaks of the east. Seven seals were placed upon its door, and the door itself was guarded by seven stone balbals, golems imbued with the spirits of warriors who fell in the battle against him.

Seven days ago, a wizard's apprentice from Brimistead, bored while his master Grybia was in a weeks-long trance to commune with elder gods, used a spell of invisibility to steal the largest seal, one made of molten gold. Six hours later the others had all failed, releasing the malevolent ghost of Mereshehad – driven mad by centuries of isolation – upon the unsuspecting inhabitants of the pass. Its foul magic is as horrible is it is powerful.

Seven minutes ago, Grybia awoke, slew his apprentice immediately, and hurried to the tavern in which the PCs are currently staying. The elder gods with which he spoke recommended the party's services, and so he has charged them with heading up into the slowly unraveling pass. He promises a freshly made golden seal (worth 1,000 coins) to each PC if they merely put this one back where it belongs. But a week is a long time. The pass is already in open war, one which it is losing; getting there will be anything but easy.

You'll want to click this one to embiggen it.

HOW TO PLAY

As the party heads up the pass, roll a D6 and count that many entries down this list below, skipping any entries already seen. How long it takes them is up to you, but Grybia stresses to the party that it's only a matter of time before the avatar can fully free itself from the mound. They should have two or three days in systems where healing happens overnight before Mereshehad is free, and should be easily able to climb the pass within that time.

1 The lords of the passes are arming their vassals. A crowd of peasant men are gathered near a crossroads, being armed and armoured with spears and shields by their aging lord and his two knights. There are about 20 in total. They may try to strongarm the PCs into joining them, or offer to aid their passage north – the peasants will break quickly when fighting anything supernatural and one of the knights will flee at the first sign of trouble, but the lord and other knight will fight to the bitter end.

2 You'll find no shelter that way. Several peasant families walk slowly down the road, heading the way the PCs came. Some of them are visibly sobbing, a few injured, and they carry all that they own with them or on their few mules. They will try to convince the party to turn back, claiming that serpentine monsters attacked their village, but that it was the soldiers who defended them who turned suddenly and madly back to burn the settlement to the ground.

3 The conscripts they've taken have never returned. A handful of armed soldiers, five or ten in total, hold a few women at the centre of a village. They are trying to force the village, which has hidden most of its men, to give up its conscripts. It already gave up half of its male population a week ago, none of whom have returned. The soldiers are unwilling to search door to door with their numbers and want the PCs to either search for them or convince the men out of hiding. If the soldiers aren't stopped or aided, they will kill one, then two of the women in a few minutes before the men give themselves up.

4 And our hopes fade with each passing day. At the centre of a village, several tables covered in food and what few fineries the peasants possess have been set up. The whole settlement is revelling over the feast, which contains most of their food. They cheerfully invite the PCs to join, explaining that, with no hope for the future, they are trying to make the best of the present. Convincing them to hope, even with the evidence of the golden seal, will be very difficult – but if they don't stop the feast they won't have enough food come winter.

5 The gates of the keeps are all closing. A small but clearly formidable keep is surrounded by a camp of tents, filled with deserted soldiers and displaced peasants. The lord inside is letting in visibly competent soldiers, beautiful women, and wealthy survivors, claiming the keep was sanctified against evil magic like Mereshehad's. A few soldiers will attempt to rob or extort the PCs to buy access. The keep's wards won't hold out even the weakest demon, and it will be the site of a massacre if the seal is not replaced.

6 And broken men wander the road. Stumbling down the road towards the PCs are a few soldiers led by a knight. They are armoured and hold their weapons drawn, but seem dazed, confused, and completely oblivious to the world around them. One falls, stabs his blade deep in his arm, then stands up and pulls it out before continuing as if nothing happened. Only if directly approached and jostled will they awake from the stupor, their last memories being of an attack in the night by a man with three snakes instead of a head.

7 The farmers have fled to the forest. A farming village lies completely abandoned save for a young girl wandering through it in tears. The populace fled for the nearby forest almost on a whim, leaving her behind in the confusion. She is too afraid to head there on her own and the villagers are too afraid to return to the village to retrieve her. If the PCs bring her to the villagers they will be ambushed by D4+1 wolves with the heads of snakes (still count as normal wolves though), but will be rewarded with trinkets worth 100 coins.

8 Burning their fields as they go. Several men and women march through fields of wheat, holding torches and setting the plants on fire. One man catches on fire as the party watches or approaches, neither stopping nor screaming until he is fully engulfed and falls down dead. If the PCs near them or watch for more than half a minute or so, they will see them and attack, attempting to set them on fire instead (their torches only deal D4 damage but set the target on fire on a roll of 4).

From the Hindustan Times

9 The dukes of the marches have ordered their archers. A large group of soldiers, about 30 to 40 in total, mostly archers, are camped on the shores of a small creek. Only about a third of them have been possessed, but crucially so has their leading lord. He is feigning caution and cowardice in order to wait for the possessed to outnumber the unpossessed, before turning on them. If somehow convinced to travel with the PCs, the corrupted soldiers will wait until a fight before turning on their former comrades.

10 To shoot all outlanders on sight. A village lies in mostly smoking ruins, but as the PCs approach they can hear cries for help. Four hunters, the only survivors of the chaos that destroyed their home, are trying to lure them near before shooting bows from the windows of the town's meeting hall. They are not possessed, but believe it to be the end of days, and it will be hard for the PCs to convince them they aren't demons in disguise.

11 Turn back your horses before it's too late. Five well-armed men, skilled wandering mercenaries from northern lands, ride horses down the path towards the PCs. They fought against the serpents and possessed soldiers of Mereshehad valiantly but lost. Now they're living to fight another day. They are talkative and friendly, particularly eager to talk of the man they fought who had three serpents instead of a head, but if they learn or suspect the party is wealthy (IE they see or are told of the golden seal) they will risk an attempt at robbing or extorting all but the most obviously dangerous parties.

12 There'll be no safe crossing this night. A wide river crossing has several beached rowboats on the PCs side, and a visible horde of refugees on the other. No boat will cross the water for fear of a giant amphibious serpent within the river, which must be slain or otherwise distracted in order to make passage safe. One brave man will attempt to swim as the PCs arrive, cheered on by the watching crowds on both sides before being devoured halfway across. The serpent is strong but not that strong, but it must be lured onto land to be fought in any plausible manner.

13 Hear the horns, pounding hooves. The PCs have just enough time to a see a host of 100 to 200 soldiers and a dozen or so knights in front of them before a horn sounds and an equally large army charges down a ridge towards them. The battle will turn in favour of the side opposite the PCs unless they intervene. However, the nearer army is in fact the possessed one, a fact only revealed by their silence, occasional hastily-made serpentine heraldry, and violence towards the party if their unpossessed nature is revealed. The battle is close enough that whichever side wins will only have about 50 survivors.

14 Visions of cities aflame. The smoke can be seen before the glow, and the glow before the city itself – really a town, a thousand people at the most – engulfed in a raging fire. Some people are fleeing through the southern gate, but many more are trying to put out the fire. They would be able were it not for the to mobs of possessed townsfolk, fifty strong each, march from place to place lighting everything on fire. A trained force or larger mob of locals could easily defeat them. A wealthy merchant fleeing the city promises the five golden rings he wears (worth 200c each) if the PCs organizes a defeat of the mobs. Of course, they could always just chop his hand off and leave.

From The Banner Saga

15 Wailing cries, dawn of doom. A village lies in ruins, many houses smashed or collapsed, bodies of soldiers and peasants alike strewn about its limits. A huge serpent's corpse lies at the heart. A wailing woman kneels over the body of her fallen husband, a peasant conscript who died in the process of striking the deathblow against the serpent. The crowd gathered around them is being ranted at by an old man who claims the only rational response is submission to the "serpent gods". He will try to involve the PCs in the discussion and attempt to stir up violence against them if they reveal their quest.

16 Die by the sword or in chains. A group of captured peasants and defeated conscript soldiers is led up the path the same way the PCs are headed, guarded by a half dozen possessed soldiers and a priest in green robes, bearing a staff with a poorly carved snake's head at the tip. The possessed men will threaten to kill the captives if they notice the PCs before they attack, as will the priest threaten to turn the blood of the PCs to poison. These are both bluffs (the priest is quite harmless). If freed, the soldiers, three or four in number, will gladly (if poorly) aid the PCs in their quest.

17 Men kneel in temples of madness. A church has had the statues flanking either side of its door defaced, and serpentine heraldry hung above its door. A man at the entrance invites the PCs in to "seek salvation", where a priest in poorly-dyed green robes preaches about submission to a crowd of dozens. If the PCs enter, five possessed soldiers will follow after them, selecting a young woman from the audience to be dragged out and "converted" by Mereshehad. Half the audience will cheer, the other weep, while the woman struggles against the soldiers, who quickly overpower her. Intervening will draw the ire of the half that cheered, and the support of the half that wept.

18 False prophets spread discord and fear. An old woman in dark, ragged robes leads a procession of dozens of peasants and deserters, praying for salvation from the gods. Every few hours a pack of wolf-sized serpents kills one and spares the others, a fact the woman uses to both claim that their deaths are inevitable and that prayer is all that is saving them for the time being. In fact, the procession is left alive only because their despair pleases Mereshehad, and killing the serpents (who will come in just a few minutes by their reckoning) will cause a group of about seven soldiers guiding the snakes to attack.

19 Darkness descends once again. The sky reddens and darkens as if it were sunset or dawn, though the sun still hangs in the sky, now as black as night. There is a rustling from nearby bushes and trees, until a tide of snakes swarms forward like a tidal wave. They will not bite or harm anyone, but may cause horses, followers, and anxious PCs to panic, and will sweep away anyone who cannot find something to hold onto or otherwise be held down with, dashing them against boulders and trees or drowning them beneath the wave.

20 They say the lords of the last days rule here. Four possessed knights march in front of a man with three serpents instead of a head: the earthly avatar of Mereshehad. He can control one character per round (no save, or he can attempt to control someone else if a save is passed; though he cannot make anyone kill themselves), and his knights are fanatically loyal. He will taunt the PCs, and if made aware of the golden seal will use his mind control to have it thrown to a knight before attempting to flee with it. If killed, his spirit will rise from his body, cursing the PCs and insisting that he cannot be killed before dissipating with a mocking laugh.

Zohak by Norot

21+ Here it is, the tomb itself. Were it not for the stone entrance, slightly ajar and decorated with six seals, and the seven stone balbals in front, it would be nearly impossible to tell the mound apart from any other hill. The balbals fight as strong warriors or knights with incredibly tough armour, but cannot see past invisibility and cannot stop more than a dozen people at most if charged en masse. Fixing the seal is as simple as pushing the door shut (which even a weak person could do) and placing the golden seal over the crack. It will glow with a golden light, cause the runes written in each of the other seals to glow as well, and then destroy all traces of Mereshehad's presence outside the tomb. His serpents and avatar will fall dead and melt into black goo, his possessed followers will awaken from their trance, and if the sky has reddened and darkened it will return to its normal appearance. Replacing the seal may also cause the balbals to recognize the PCs as allies and halt their attack; it's up to the GM to decide.

AFTER THE ADVENTURE

Upon a successful return, Grybia will reward the party with the golden seals as promised (wizards work quickly and mysteriously), and even offer to teach any wizards in the party a spell or two in return for a month of aiding him as an apprentice, until he can find another permanent replacement. He could be a great source of future adventures if the party is willing to continue working with him.

If the party fails by fleeing, Grybia will send eldritch beings (such as Hounds of Tindalos, like blink dogs that can only teleport by appearing out of sharp angles) after the PCs as retribution or even pursue them himself. Whether they flee or are all killed, Mereshehad's foulness will spread unchecked for days until his kingdom's expansion slows to a halt, creating a decidedly evil nation ruled by a powerful sorceror right in the path of many important trade routes. Not the end of the world, but certainly a meaningful change.

To Ebethron: 30 Encounters and 2 Mini-Dungeons for the Frozen North

Joe Manola, on his excellent Against The Wicked City blog a little over a year ago, posted a rather clever way of making encounter tables: taking a song's lyrics and writing an encounter for each line. He used The Clash's London Calling to make a post-apocalyptic table full of memorable - and highly gameable - ideas, and the concept has been on my mind ever since.

One of my favourite bands is The Sword, an American heavy metal group whose lyrics consistently conjure up images of the kind of sword and sorcery milieu that made up most of D&D's Appendix N. And one of my favourite songs of theirs is Ebethron - the last track from their first album, Age of Winters (which you'll soon see is very aptly named). I spent a few days idly writing up encounters for each lyric, and the result is a frozen wasteland, with the ruins of ancient titans, and the constant influence of a distant city ruled by vampiric elves - Ebethron itself.

Click here to listen to the song.

I first had the idea of writing this table back during winter, but never got around to it. Now it's the start of summer, and Ebethron's "realms of rime and of frost" are hardly fitting for the season - but role-playing, and fantasy in general, has always been about escapism to a certain degree. If your players ever decide to go north and just won't stop, or if you just want some arctic ideas to mine for your games, hopefully this will be of use.

THIS IS IMPORTANT WHEN ROLLING FOR ENCOUNTERS: There are 32 encounters, but two of them are miniature dungeons, detailed at the end of this post. (And I mean miniature, both very linear and with only 7 and 10 rooms, respectively.) So I've included two numbers in front of each encounter: the first is for if you want to roll for all 32, rolling a D4 for the first digit and a D8 for the second, while the second is for if you just want to roll for the encounters, not the dungeons, and simply requires rolling a D30.

In the spirit of system agnosticism, monsters are described in terms of Hit Dice, and all treasure is given a "cash" value, where cash is whatever your game's standard coinage is. The most unusual take is references to "sacks" of supplies, cribbed from the Ultraviolet Grasslands setting. Each one takes up the full inventory of a normal, 10 Strength human, who can carry a second sack if they don't mind struggling to do anything remotely physical, and holds a week of supplies. When in doubt, 1 sack = 10 inventory slots.

Ebethron awaits...

11 / 1: Black blades in their hands. A group of three ranging elves from Ebethron itself, armed with one handed swords made from a black metal no deadlier than iron but able to slice through things with such ease that armour has no effect on attacks made with them. The elves (3 HD each) will extort the party for their valuables if they feel stronger, or approach them in a friendly manner if the balance if skewed in the party's favour. Either way they will warn the party not to head to the city – whatever they seek there is not worth it.

12 / 2: Obey his every command. A caravan of wanderers, poor and haggard, four of the strongest carrying a palanquin adorned with silver and jewels. Upon it sits an old, half mad man named Ranulf, who in his madness has become able to cast the Command spell (force a creature to obey a one-word command that is not immediately suicidal) at will. The wanderers fear him as though he were a demigod, and he has grown too cruel and used to command to be controlled, even through threats. The palanquin would be worth 5,000 cash to someone in a richer land, but is difficult to move. If looted of just the ornaments, the silver and jewels are worth 500 cash and take up two inventory slots.

13 / 3: They search for that which was lost. A band of weary, armed travellers are scouring the snow in which their dog-sled's tracks can still be seen. They are headed south, but searching back up north, and will refuse to cooperate with the party and warn them off if they try to approach, even though they seem quite haggard and their supplies are clearly low. They have lost a small idol of pure gold, studded with diamonds, which lies somewhere on the trail they've left and is easily worth 10,000 cash.

14 / 4: Through realms of rime and of frost. A chill in the air, even colder than it already is, heralds a plain full of icy growths rising from the ground. They grower larger and greater in number as the party passes through the field, until, where the growths are as thick as a forest's trees, one reveals itself as an Ice Elemental (8 HD). Its attacks deal only D6 damage, but freeze the target solid if it rolls a 1 or 6 for damage. The ice is magical and will only slowly harm the creature in question (killing them in ten minutes), but breaking someone free requires dealing 10 damage to the ice. Fire/pickaxes deal double damage.

15 / 5: Where no mortal may pass. A few days before they arrive, the party sees a range of mountains rise out of the distance. There is a clear way over, an obvious pass they can see from far away. Upon arrival, however, they find a village at the base, and a wall blocking the pass, guarded by undead soldiers. Only the vampires of Ebethron, and their servants, may cross the mountain, while all others must take two weeks to travel around it instead. So much as grumbling in the town will draw the attention of smugglers who offer to spirit the PCs across the mountains, for a fee. If they pay, they are discovered halfway across.

16 / 6: Atop a dais of glass. An icy plateau rises from the earth, the air for half a mile around even colder than the air normally is. Although the ice is unnaturally blue, you can easily see through it, revealing a pile of dead bodies and the telltale glint of precious metals. The six corpses have been ritually sacrificed, and are surrounded by metallic offerings of gold worth 1,000 cash all together. When either bodies or metal are touched, the corpses rise as 2 HD zombies and attack. Any time someone misses a melee attack, runs, fires a gun, or is hit while on the ice, they must pass a Dexterity save or fall down.

17: Sits a sceptre of light. A stone tower stands alone, with no windows and a single door, topped with a brass dome which is in turn topped with a brass finial (an ornament on top of a building), which shines as if reflecting light towards the viewer's eyes no matter where they look at it from, and even if there is no light to reflect at all. Nearing the tower draws the attention of the finial, which fires a beam that deals D12 damage, ignores armour, and always hits (but only after it spends a round visibly charging the beam). It takes at least three rounds to sprint from the edge of the finial's range to the point at which the tower shields you from its attack. The Tower of Light is detailed at the end of this post.

18 / 7: A symbol of titan's might. A colossal stone statue, which one can see from miles away, coated in a thin layer of snow. At first glance it seems half broken, ravaged by time, but upon closer inspection the destruction of it is, in fact, a key element of the piece. The entire statue carved from a single stone block, with the decapitated head fused with the stone platform, rather than having fallen from the empty neck above. A small tent village has formed at the base, worshiping the statue as the obvious work of a god.

21 / 8: He comes from cities of darkness. A lone dwarf named Ad'absam, with ivory white skin and a set of darkened glasses marches across the plains. He wears the leathers and furs of creatures you've never seen before, and claims to be from far beneath the surface of the earth. He believes the surface world is all like Ebethron's surroundings, that the world is flat, that local stories of southern lands are fantasies, and that the sun is only a few miles away. He offers to pay with cheap gems (has a bag of 7, worth 20 cash each) for the PC's knowledge of the world, but grows frustrated if the stories don't match his world view.

22 / 9: To suffer harlots and fools. A band of travellers with dog-sleds are headed the same direction as the PCs, and much, much slower. There are only two capable travellers in their party of eight, a husband and wife, while the rest are at best academics out of their element, at worse noble scions insisting on carrying all manner of luxuries that do nothing but weigh them down. They are only a week away from running out of supplies, but any offer of help will be refused and taken as an insult by all but the experienced rangers.

23 / 10: Loneliness is his raiment. A titan's corpse lies at the centre of vast plain. It was stripped to the bone long ago, nothing more than a skeleton now, and at the very centre of it there lies a single hut. A lone human lives within, a hermit and hunter who lives in self imposed exile. He has a 2-in-6 chance of being home when the party arrives. He will gladly share his stores of food, and explains he was cursed to be unable to deny others what they want of him, and so was ordered to head to an uninhabited place by those who loved him.

24 / 11: Solitude is his jewel. As the party climbs a hill, a single man crests it before them, close enough that they can see the horror on his face and the huge diamond in his hands before he turns and flees. The jewel is cursed, so that anyone who touches it with their body (even through clothes) is compelled to steal it and flee from civilization. Only a day spent without touching it will dispel the curse's influence – that, or breaking it, which will also dispel the curse's ability to enchant more people. If sold, it would be worth 4,000 cash, or 1,000 cash if shattered.

25 / 12: He's walked through valleys of solace. A lone man approaches from the distance, waving at the party from a long distance. The man, named Harald, has no supplies left, nor wealth which with to trade for them, and claims he has spent the past month utterly alone. He eagerly wishes to converse with the party, and share in their supplies, but is in reality a scout for a bandit gang. Only a day after he leaves, he will return with five allies, all of them hardened by the north (2 HD), unless the party clearly outmatches them.

26 / 13: Beheld the spires of sleep. A spire made of ice as blue as sapphires stands in a hilly region. As the party nears it, they will see a strange red flash come from the spire, and find themselves forced to make a Charisma save or fall asleep. The spire is an Ebethronian device that duplicates a spell's effects (albeit somewhat weakened) upon all who view it. The round after the spire shines, six 1 HD slaver and one 3 HD wizard – their leader – will charge over a nearby hill, hoping to use the party's confusion and sleep to their advantage.

27 / 14: He's fed the pyres of the fallen. A cloud of smoke is seen far before the source – a small wooden pyre, next to a small copse of trees. A man named Einar sits next to the fire, seemingly catatonic, but when he notices the party, he will draw a knife and charge them with a terrified face. He fights with surprising strength, as a third level fighter, but is impulsively suicidal after the death of his son at the hands of a sudden disease (it is his body he has just burnt). Einar is unwilling to kill himself, but if the party does not kill him, he will ask to fight with them so that he may die in battle.

28 / 15: And heard their widows weep. A large procession is slowly travelling north, mostly humans, but lead by elves returning to Ebethron. They have a large cart full of tribute, pulled by undead. Much of the human population is composed of families of the dead, who, by Ebethronian law, will be paid for the use of their family members' corpses, but only once they arrive at the city.

31 / 16: We come from cities in darkness. A band of heavily armed elves from Ebethron itself, heading south with one of their vampiric nobles. They have a few human slaves with them, bloodbags for the vampire, and will stumble upon the party after night falls (and when they are just beginning their "day's" journey). The vampire will insist the party wake and converse with him – he's quite harmless, but unused to any degree of disobedience, and prone to offending mortal creatures. He offers a pearl from the Northmost Sea, worth 200 cash, to each non-human and non-elf willing to let him taste their blood.

32 / 17: To conquer cowards and fools. A three step pyramid of stacked stones, each one the size of a house, looms over the horizon. Around its base a small town exists, with farms on the first layer of stones. The population live in fear of the "titan's voice", a booming voice that seems to speak out of the stone itself to issue commandments. Those who blaspheme the voice are chained on the second layer of the pyramid, and vaporized by a beam from above in front of watching crowds. Only priests of the voice are permitted on the top layer. The voice does not exist – anyone who speaks into a pit at the top can cause the voice to emanate, and the vaporization comes from a purple "ioun stone" they possess, which, if allowed to orbit one's head, grants access to the Missile spell (D8 damage) and an extra safe use of magic per day, even if the wielder has no other magical ability.

33 / 18: Loneliness is our payment. At the top of a hill, there lies an old stone fort, really just a squat tower. It is inhabited by four 2 HD elves from Ebethron. They will ask if the party is friend or foe, and make overtures of protecting the fort, but will invite them in at the drop of a hat. They have been "promoted" to this position, well-paying but excruciatingly boring, from their homes in Ebethron and it has been months since their last visitors. They speak fondly of the city, but gloss over the bloodier details. They can feed the party for a day, and sell them up to five sacks of supplies for the normal prices.

34 / 19: Solitude is our due. A large, crater-like depression in the earth – an alas – is surrounded by a low wall about the height of a man. Within the alas there lies a village, fifty people or so in total, with the wall manned day and night by two people who circle it, keeping themselves on the opposite side of their partner. They will allow the party into the village, but only if they allow themselves to be unarmed – and then they will refuse to let them leave, for fear of them telling raiders where they are. If the party does not agree to be armed, a group of ten villagers will follow and attempt to kill them.

35 / 20: Walk through valleys of solace. A huge valley is the only way forward, following a freezing river. After the first major turn of the river, each side of the valley is dotted with stone cairns, each and every one half ruined. A closer examination reveals that the cairns have all been dedicated to the dead, with dates that reach back centuries. There are no corpses, however. And every cairn is broken outwards, not inwards, as if something had forced its way out.

36 / 21: Ascend the spires of sleep. A set of three thin, towering spindles of ice rise into the sky, blue and supernatural. At the top of each a humanoid figure can be seen within the ice, revealed on closer inspection (which will usually require climbing a spire) to be a naked elf with green tattoos and gold necklaces worth 1,000 cash each. They claim to have been imprisoned there for rebelling against Ebethron, and offer to journey with the party. This is true for two of them, but one of them was imprisoned for legitimate crimes, and will act cruelly and betray the party the moment they are given a good chance.

37 / 22: Ignore the warnings of prophets. As the party sleeps, they dream of a great plain of a checkerboard pattern, from which rise crystal spires. Shifting, geometric shapes speak to them through telepathy, urging them to "trust not the poisoned flesh of earth". The next day, the party will come across a large growth of lichen, which smells sweet and causes them to salivate. The lichen is perfectly harmless and, in fact, will "overheal" each person who eats it fresh so that their HP is equal to their max HP, +1 per level. The spirits that spoke to them are evil ones, who sought to give them false and harmful prophecies.

38 / 23: And for your children I'll weep. A small village is settled on the slope of a tall hill, built around a small iron mine. Despite being well off and well defended, the whole town seems to be caught in a state of depression. They are unwilling to speak about it, but if you press the issue or ask the right people, they'll reveal that the town was extorted by Ebethronian elves for their children. The elves are less than a week away, travelling slowly, and tribute missions are not known to turn around even if robbed – if someone could steal the children back, there would be no retribution from the elves.

41 / 24: Skies blackened with crows. A herd of reindeer have strayed to close to a cliff, which suddenly gave way under their weight and caused a few dozen to plummet to their deaths below. There is a near limitless supply of meat there – as many sacks of meat as the party can take – but there are already at least a hundred crows feasting on the bounty. More will arrive every few minutes, so the party must work fast if they do not want the crows to begin harassing, then outright attacking them as they work.

42 / 25: Shadows on winter snows. A pair of huge vultures nears the party. Each is the size of a horse, with 4 HD but weak claws that deal only D6 damage. However, they fly themselves into the path of the sun's rays, causing them to be functionally invisible, before diving down and targeting the party's ranged attackers. Each successful attack knocks the target to the ground, making them unable to fire at the vulture before it returns to the cover of the sun. Their targets are heralded a round before they attack, as they shade them slightly from the sun, letting the target fire blindly at them at no penalty, if they think to do so.

43: Within a temple of ice. A long temple sits atop a hill, abandoned and, at first glance, seemingly made out of lapis lazuli. In reality, the blue structure is made of supernatural ice, that chills the air with such intensity that the surroundings feel as cold as night in the middle of the day. Once inside the temple, the temperature feels merely cool, no matter how warm the character otherwise is. The Temple of Ice is detailed at the end of the post.

44 / 26: Priestesses perform the rites. A town is situated around a tall, stone tower, on top of which lies a smoky bonfire that burns day and night. The tower is a temple of fire worshipers, who have come north to praise the sun in the month long days, and act as a beacon in the month long nights. Each priestess – for they are all female – blesses the townsfolk at request, but this is just for show and superstition. Their true popularity comes from the spells they cast, with which they protect the town from raiders, making it the place to trade even for people who live weeks away.

45 / 27: Witness the setting of suns. As the sun sets, the party comes across a large, snowless plain, the edges of which are dotted with lichens, small trees, and even flowers. At the centre of the plain, however, nothing grows, and skeletons dot the ground. When the sun passes over the horizon, a distant sheet of ice will reflect and focus the sun, blasting the dead zone with intense heat, setting everything inside it on fire, and the living area around it with minor heat, dealing D6 damage that ignore armour.

46 / 28: The darkest days have begun. As the sun rises, it turns in the sky, prevented from ascension by the dark enchantments of Ebethron. For a month, days shall be as dark as dusk, dark enough that vampires can walk about without fear of harm, and the land shall cool so much so that PCs will not heal overnight, instead taking 1 damage per level, unless truly powerful (and often magical) methods are used to keep them warm. (IE you have to keep a campfire fed all night, and sleep right next to it.)

47 / 29: Let the seers come forth. A trio of women – a maiden, a mother, and a crone – stand in the party's path. They are, in fact, the avatar of a single god, the Triple Goddess. They say that if you offer your heart to them (a symbolic but supernatural ritual that reduces your Strength by 2, permanently), they can offer one boon to the subject, depending on who you offer your heart to. The maiden sees the future, and grants you a single "luck" point, which you can spend at any point in the future to turn a failed save into a success. The mother sees the present, and grants you internal change, swapping any two stats of your choice. The crone sees the past, and grants you retroactive healing, healing any injury you've suffered as if it had never happened in the first place.

48 / 30: At morning's light we ride north. As the sun sets, the party comes across a small settlement made much larger by a field of tents surrounding it. Though they will be stopped if they approach, the town will gladly welcome them – and, in fact, refuse to let them leave that night. The tents belong to visitors from nearby settlements, which have banded together to march on an Ebethronian outpost to the north, well defended and full of tribute from the surrounding region. The PCs will not be allowed to leave lest they be spies, but they will be asked to join the warband and gain a share of the loot.

Mini-Dungeon #1: The Tower of Light

Please forgive my lack of artistic skill and ambition.

A stone tower stands alone, with no windows and a single door, topped with a brass dome which is in turn topped with a brass finial (an ornament on top of a building), which shines as if reflecting light towards the viewer's eyes no matter where they look at it from, and even if there is no light to reflect at all. Nearing the tower draws the attention of the finial, which fires a beam that deals D12 damage, ignores armour, and always hits (but only after it spends a round visibly charging the beam). It takes at least four rounds to sprint from the edge of the finial's range to the point at which the tower shields you from its attack, giving it three rounds to attack you. The Tower of Light is detailed at the end of this post.

Room 1: Light

The door to the tower lies rotting and collapsed, and the edge of the first room, a foyer, has clearly laid abandoned for decades at least. A spiral staircase sits at the centre of the room, surrounded by a translucent wall of light. Several animal skeletons lie draped across the boundary. Touching the light with your person (body or worn items, but not what you hold) paralyzes whoever touches it until they are removed from the light, either by being pulled back, or pushed forward to the other side.

Room 2: Void

The staircase up is narrow and ends at a closed door. Opening it reveals nothing but a air-filled void beyond, except for another portal ten feet in front of the first one. If you cross the void, the portal back to the real world opens from the side of the tower, revealing a storage room with no staircase going down, only one around the edge going up. Most of the supplies have rotted into uselessness, but even a cursory search reveals a potion of Cling (which allows you stick to anything at will for ten minutes) and a potion of Flight (which allows you to fly as fast a bird for up to a minute).

Room 3: Laboratory

This room is full of long since decayed laboratory equipment and scribbled notebooks, though someone familiar with magical research can find some useful (and fragile and heavy) equipment they can sell for 100 cash total. Examining the notes reveals no useful information, but suggests the builder of the tower was an aeromancer, skilled in the arts of light manipulation and teleportation. A spiral staircase going up sits at the centre.

Room 4: Gravity

This room is a library full of rotted books and decaying bookshelves around the edges, as well as a desk in the corner. There is a book seemingly stuck to the ceiling. The centre and edges of the room are normal, but there is a concentric ring of reverse gravity between them, pulling those unprepared for it ten feet up, and ten feet down if they leave it. The desk has a glass scrollcase on it, holding a scroll with the Blink spell (teleport up to Close distance away) written on it. A staircase going up takes up a quarter of the room's wall.

Room 5: Garden

A room full of overgrown plants, growing out of planters and overturned pots, with spilled dirt covering most of the ground. The air is thick with moisture, so much so that the room is full of a fine mist that leaves dew on everything. The plants are mostly ingredients for magical purposes, and can be collected for two sacks of supplies, each sack worth 50 cash if sold to an alchemist. A spiral staircase going up sits at the centre.

Room 6: Portals

Two stone slabs the size of large doors stand on either side of this otherwise nondescript room. One has a glowing, swirling, blue vortex on it, beneath the word "exit", while the other has nothing but the stone, beneath the word "entrance". Touching the blue vortex allows you to push past it into a green, warm field in a distant and far more agreeable land. However, if you push you and everything you carry past it, you will not be able to return through the portal. A staircase going up is nestled against the room's wall.

Room 7: Study

This room is a finely decorated bedroom and study, with a brass roof. A ladder leads up to a hatch in the roof which allows access to the tower's brass dome and the enchanted finial, which loses all magic if severed from the dome. The finery, if looted, is worth 500 cash and takes up the space/weight of a sack of supplies. Easier to loot are a chest full of 300 cash and 9 moonstone gems worth 50 cash each (450 total), a silver statuette of an angel sitting on bedside table worth 400 cash, a potion of Sublimation in the bedside table (which turns you into a cloud of mist for ten minutes), and a scroll of Light (summon a floating orb which casts light as a lantern) on a desk.

Mini-Dungeon #2: The Temple of Ice

A long temple sits atop a hill, abandoned and, at first glance, seemingly made out of lapis lazuli. In reality, the blue structure is made of supernatural ice, that chills the air with such intensity that the surroundings feel as cold as night in the middle of the day. Once inside the temple, the temperature feels merely cool, no matter how warm the character otherwise is. The Temple of Ice is detailed at the end of the post.

Room 1-1: Entrance

A statue sits in the corner, holding a silver sword out as if presenting it. (Worth 200 cash, counts as a one handed sword that can harm incorporeal/silver-weak creatures.)

Room 1-2: Collapse

A single huge pillar stands in the centre of the room, or rather stood, as it has since collapsed. The roof above sags menacingly, slowly melting and dripping water down.

Room 1-3: Skeletons

A set of stairs in the corner go down to room 2-1. Five 1 HD skeletons have been frozen into the walls. By the time the PCs return to this room, they will have just freed themselves.

Room 1-4: Pool

A hole has opened in the roof, filtering light into the room. Six pillars stand close to the walls, engraved with images of titans walking amongst (and towering over) mountains. The room has a small layer of sapphire blue water, which radiates extreme cold and freezes anyone who touches it for D4 damage per level. Making steps across it is easy, however.

Room 1-5: Scrolls

A corpse sits in the corner of the room, dressed in a wizard's robes and surrounded by scrolls. One contains the Freeze spell (freeze a door-sized area of water, or deal D10 damage to a wet creature, ignoring armour).

Room 1-6: Engraving

A large stone – not ice – engraving lies against the far wall, detailing a group of humanoids worshiping a crowned titan. The humans and titan are coated in silver, the titan's crown in gold. Unharmed it would be worth 5,000 cash, but is very hard to transport. Scraping the silver and gold off will net 500 cash that can be carried in a moderately sized bag.

Room 2-1: Draugr

A single, armoured corpse lies against a wall. It holds a sword in one hand and a silver statuette of a crowned titan worth 200 cash in the other. It is actually a standing 3 HD Draugr, not a lying corpse, and will attack anyone who touches it or its gear.

Room 2-2: Wight

A silver chess board worth 200 cash, the pawns humans, the other pieces titans, sits on an altar in a corner of the room. If taken, a 2 HD Wight will materialize. Its attacks, while weak, ignore armour and always hit, and it can only be harmed by silver weapons.

Room 2-3: Swords

A set of five iron two-handed swords worth 50 cash each hang from large icicles hanging from the ceiling. Wrenching each one free has a 1-in-4 chance of causing the icicle to drop and deal D8 damage if a Dexterity save is not passed.

Room 2-4: Heart

A golden statuette of a titan sits on an altar against the far wall, worth 1000 cash. If taken, the entire temple will begin to melt. It takes a round (10 seconds) to go from one room to the next. After six rounds/one minute, the temple will begin to collapse, dealing D8 damage to everyone still inside each round for another six rounds/one minute, at which point it will collapse outright, killing everyone still inside.

Instant Renaissance Cities

The early modern period – what we lay-people call the renaissance when the nerds aren't around to tell us why it's an outmoded term – lends itself well to role-playing games. The old order is being upset. New technologies such as the gun, printing press, and spyglass are revolutionizing the way people live. New faiths and philosophies challenge the old ones, leading to violent schisms and eccentric cults. New lands are discovered every few years, and in a fantasy setting, that means plenty of distant places to go adventure to.

To me, nothing says early modern more than the city. In reality cities didn't grow in population compared to rural settlements until the industrial revolution, but where medieval fantasy takes place on the borders of civilization, early modern takes place in its heart. The city is where wealth and power concentrates, and it is that wealth and power that can afford all the trademark advances players will be interested in seeing. Even when travelling to distant lands, early modern exploration is more about visiting new nations rather than the wilderness, and PCs will gravitate towards the cities of these lands as a result.

But to make a city a city, it needs to be unique. The character and history of cities define what sets them apart from each other, and in fantasy this is all the more important, since there's no excuse for a boring place. It doesn't need to be outlandish, or have incredible detail, or never have an element taken from somewhere else – but it does need to feel like a character in and of itself, and not a nameless place to sell treasure and buy supplies.

Island City by Tyler Edlin

The tables below can be rolled on with a handful of dice, a full set of those seven dice you can buy in most game stores. With them you'll find out why the city is a city, what's considered its heart, who protects it, its geographical features, and a couple notable locations ripe for adventuring. For simplicity I've used Angus Warman's amazing list-to-HTML generator generator. Just click the button below and you'll have a city rolled up.

Upon whose cobbled streets do we tread?

As with all tables, you are encouraged to change the results as you see fit. You can mine the generator for ideas without ever rolling a die, although it's not particularly unique, and if you roll a result you dislike or don't feel fits the city, you can always reroll it. I would encourage you to change rather than reroll - if something stands out to you as bad, that's the perfect moment to come up with what you'd rather see instead.

D4 - Why is this city so prosperous?

Cities don't just come out of nowhere. There's a reason this settlement grew to such heights where those only a few hours away are still rural and sparsely populated.

1 Crossroads: The city is built in a location that is frequently visited, such as the meeting place of two major roads or at a natural chokepoint like a river ford or mountain pass. Wealth comes from the trade that flows through the region.

2 Resources: The city is built close to a rare valuable resource such as a silver, gold, or even adamantium mine, luxury crop plantations, or even around a mineral spa. Wealth comes from exploitation of resources hard to find elsewhere.

3 Administration: The city is the site of administration and trade in the region, but is not necessarily a crossroads-type location. A healthy local village economy, such as farming or logging, funnels wealth into the city as a centre of trade, in turn drawing leaders.

4 Uniqueness: The city is the site a rare or unique location that could have been built anywhere, but was built here, possibly by chance. A royal palace, a famous college, or a grand temple are all good examples. The site attracts workers and, in turn, wealth.

D6 - What site is widely considered the city's heart?

Think of this as the centre of the city. It's the place that, a few hundreds years from now, will be called downtown. The blood of cities – wealth and people – flows into the heart and back out again, and so a city's centre colours the rest of the city. A castle implies nobility, a college magic and technology, and shadows crime and conspiracy.

1 The Castle: A grand castle, possibly built for form over function. The seat of local power, both figuratively (it's where the nobles live) and literally (it's where the army is based). Nobles and soldiers have coin to spare, so many shops are built in its shadow.

2 The Shadows: Despite what any right-minded folk would like, this district of crime and destitution is expansive. Nobles go to opium dens and windowless brothels while peasants drink in dingy bars and get into fights on the darkened, namesake streets.

3 The Tower: Built to keep people both in and out. Here prisoners are kept for long sentences or before trial and punishment, the tower doubling as a watchtower and secure position in times of strife. Crowds gather for executions, almost daily in the largest cities.

4 The College: A place of learning, for scholars, artisans, or even magicians. The grounds are where the students and teachers work and live, the teachers' wealth and the students's alcoholism driving the local economy even before they're working in the city.

5 The Temple: A grand temple in monotheistic faiths, or major temples to all the gods in polytheistic ones. The city's faithful come here often, and on holidays they come from the surrounding villages and towns, sometimes travelling for days to arrive.

6 The Market: Wide, open streets and immense stone plazas, abandoned at night but bustling with merchant stalls in the day. It sucked other markets into itself like a black hole, until an overwhelming majority of transactions came to be done here and here alone.

D8 - Who or what protects the city?

If a city were truly lawless, it would fall into ruin within weeks. Someone has to keep the peace, even if they are corrupt or cruel, as well as to protect the city from the raids and riots that would see it burn.

1 The Army: Standing armies are all the rage, but all those career soldiers need somewhere to live and learn. A vast training camp is established just beyond the city's borders, but the soldiers patrol the city's streets and fortifications to keep the peace.

2 The Thieves: The local powers are weak, corrupt, or inept, possibly all three. The Thieves' Guild that has risen from the power vacuum (or created it in the first place) is selfish but not cruel, and informally punishes the most heinous and unprofitable crimes.

3 The Wizard(s): A group of wizards, or a single powerful one, live and work in the city and have a vested interest in keeping it safe. Even if only because they like the luxuries it produces, they will gladly intervene and stop threats to city-wide stability.

4 The Church: Religious factions employ paladins and inquisitors, ostensibly to protect their worshippers, often to protect their power. Regardless of their nature the local church's warriors have a base of power here, and as a result hold power over the city.

5 The Guilds: The city guilds fund a defense force as well as the upkeep of towers and walls. Though well-equipped and large, such forces are often corrupt and, even when not, answer to the guilds who pay them and not the people or leaders of the city.

6 The Duellists: A school of combat is located in the city, training nobles, artisan's children, and promising but destitute peasants. They hold lofty notions of honour and justice, hunting down and fighting ne'er-do-wells whether or not the city wants them to.

7 The Watch: Every city has a watch but most are ramshackle, corrupt, and underfunded. Here the watch is efficient and funded, dispensing justice with surprising strength and skill, while both intimidating and ingratiating the locals into supporting them.

8 The Gunners: The city has a place of gunnery training, manufacture, and repair (of cannons but also custom-made noble guns). With so many guns of so many sizes, its no wonder the musketeers and cannoneers are often asked to suppress unrest and crime.

D10 - What two notable locations are within the city?

These are places that many cities have, but not always and not as notably as here. A city may have dozens of shrines, but to have a notable one means it's a truly exceptional example. Since you roll two D10s, it's not uncommon to roll the same result – which is totally fine! If a city has two arenas, it says a lot about what the citizens value.

1 Monument: A grand statue dedicated to a hero or heroic event, or both, built near a major street or at the site of the event. Common dedications include saviours of the city, beloved rulers, saints and their miracles, and even important guilds.

2 Spa: Public or open only to paying customers – possibly from a single class – these heated baths offer warm water, sauna rooms, and relaxation therapies like massages. A great number will be split between cheap but large public baths and luxurious private ones.

3 Theatre: A grand theatre where operas, plays, concerts, and other, more eclectic performances are held. While the operas may be for higher society only, the real money comes from comedies and musicals performed for the lower classes.

4 Arena: An arena where duels, contests, and other games are held for a large crowd. Due to the relative simplicity (if difficulty) of building an arena, they are often among the oldest standing buildings in a city, built in long lost days for bloodier forms of sport.

5 Hospital: Here is where the ill of the city, and the very ill of surrounding settlements, are brought to be treated and isolated in equal measure. A grand one such as this treats nobles and teaches new doctors by giving them hands-on experience.

6 Library: Rows upon rows of thousands of books. Scholars pore over ancient texts, while printing machines create copies of important and/or popular books. New copies are allowed to be read by anyone, but the most treasured relics are kept locked away.

7 Pleasure-House: A den of sin that is nonetheless patronized by princes and paupers and priests alike. A brothel, but also a tavern, opium den, teahouse, coffeehouse, and meeting place for anyone who needs to gather in secrecy.

8 Shrine: Dedicated to a god if polytheistic, or a saint if monotheistic. Either way the shrine celebrates a direct manifestation of the deity's will – the site of a miracle, a saint's tomb, a holy relic. It draws pilgrims and is often visited by nobles wish to show piety.

9 Garden: A vast park within the heart of the city, well kept and open to the public. Rare and beautiful plants are located in a secure terrarium, while more conventional plants populate the garden at large. Vagrants flock to the garden and are often violently removed.

10 Factory: A place of work, often with the assistance of newfangled machines. Lava forges, printing presses, and bleaching fields are good examples. Workers make meagre wages while the guild artisans and merchants grow richer every year.

D12 - What geographical feature dominates the city?

Most of these larger tables are for less crucial elements of a city, but the geography is one of the first things you should consider when interpreting the results. On its own it is often little more than colour, but a city on an island will look completely different from bisected by a cliff. A city's geography sets a frame for the rest of the details.

1 Island: The city is built on an island, at least in part. The island could be isolated but important (where all the leaders live), simply a part of the city connected by bridges, or the site of the entire city. It might even be man-made or have expanded into shallow water.

2 Undercity: There is a vast network of tunnels beneath the city, a hodgepodge of sewers, catacombs, mines, and sunken buildings. Travel is slow and confusing but hidden. Secret meetings of all sorts take place next to abandoned treasures and sleeping horrors.

3 Rivers: Rivers or canals dot the city. Many cities will be built around a single river, but this one has several minor ones flowing through. It's hard to walk for more than a few minutes without crossing one, and it's possible for the city to have more rivers than roads.

4 Forest: Most cities, even those in forests, have cut down all the local trees, but not here. It could be a planted forest in non-forested areas (like a royal wood), or a patch of trees hard to remove in forested areas (tangled woods, protected by druids or elves, etc).

5 Cliff: A single cliff runs close to or possibly through the city. The city is either built up against its edge, or is bisected by the cliff as it passes through it, separating the settlement into two halves. It might be dangerously tall, or so short two-story houses can see over it.

6 Mountain: The city is built on the slopes of a tall hill or mountainside. In most cases the higher parts of society live higher up the mountain, and some buildings like temples or colleges will be be built at the top of the peak. You can see the whole city from the top.

7 Crater: A deep recess into the ground is located in the city – or perhaps the city is located in it. A meteoric crater is the most obvious type, but dry lake beds and tundra alases are other examples. The crater may be abandoned, or the site of a district.

8 Ravine: A ravine cuts through the city or is built next to it. Exceptionally large ravines, closer to canyons, could have the city built inside them. Collapses are rare but not unheard of, leading to only the poor living directly adjacent to the ravine itself.

9 Swamp: While the city is built on solid ground, it is surrounded by a swamp or other wetland, theoretically but prohibitively difficult to build on. Things like gravel flats and desert dunes also fit. The city is built as densely as possible as a result of limited space.

10 Ruins: The city has fallen a far distance from what it once was. A considerable portion of the outlying regions, and more than a few inner-city buildings, lie abandoned and may have laid abandoned for centuries or even longer in some settings.

11 Plains: The city is built on an incredibly flat piece of land. Easy construction has let it sprawl in all directions, but has also fueled a desire to build the central buildings as tall as possible so the rich can see easily. The towering centre slowly rises from the sprawl.

12 Fog: Fog, or smoke, or blown sand, etc, obscures vision the city over. Whatever the source it makes it hard to see more than a few blocks on good days, and on bad days and at night it becomes impossible to see more than a few metres ahead of you.

D20 - Every city's got a weird, fantastical place. Where is it here?

Lastly, a city needs flavour. You can put all sorts of odd locations for the players to stumble upon, but the ones here are both visitable places and say something about the city at large. Dwarven Outposts = dwarf populations, Observatories = fortune-tellers, etc.

1 Observatory: A large building, raised above the rest of the city, designed to study the movements and nature of celestial objects. The observators consist of magicians, fortune-tellers, and the rare conventional scholar interested in the stars.

2 Wizard's Tower: A tower designed for the magical arts. It may be split between many lesser magicians or a single, exceptionally powerful and/or wealthy one. Most such towers will have many connected buildings for non-magical purposes the tower requires.

3 Curio Shop: The curio shop fades in and out of reality, but it always appears here, whenever you wish to visit. It buys and sells magical items and worthless trinkets, restocking them weekly but never having more than eight actually useful relics at a time.

4 Laboratory: A place of experimentation, typically alchemical and mechanical, but occasionally magical as well. Now is an age of invention, and though it make take years or even decades, laboratories like these produce world-changing discoveries.

5 Necropolis: A sprawling graveyard, ancient, overgrown, and full of above ground mausoleums. Citizens are buried here constantly despite the overcrowding, the very air thick with necromantic energy.

6 Clock Tower: Rising high above the city, this tower displays the time and holds bells that ring hourly during the day. Clockworkers work within it, both to maintain the clock and to create and maintain new devices for the city's elite to buy.

7 Bazaar: A peculiar market selling unusual items from distant lands. The legality is questionable, the products as eccentric as the merchants, and the prices high. But they sell things no one's even heard of – clockwork limbs, protective runes, and alien plants.

8 Dwarven Outpost: The Dwarf population is high and tight-knit enough to form a miniature fortress, a single fortified building in which hundreds of Dwarves live and work in taverns, forges, and underground farms.

9 Elven Enclave: The Elf population is high and tight-knit enough to form an enclave, a gated community of fine houses in a garden environment fitting the chosen biome of the local Elves. Forest glades, pristine lakes, and even underground tunnels are common.

10 Henge: A collection of ancient stones, built to channel magical energies. The stones take up considerable space and someone always wants to tear them down, but all that magic has to go somewhere – damaging or destroying one has terrible implications.

11 Statuary: A garden of statues, some of people, some of things, some of abstract shapes. Many have been made to order for local nobles, but sometimes, statues show up overnight, made of stones found only in distant lands.

12 City-Nymph: The city has a nymph. In a place of significance, an old gate or ruined building, she or he lives and can be sought after for guidance and aid. The church is almost always in opposition of the nymph, but most city-nymphs are beloved by their cities.

13 Ruin: A stone building from ancient times, such as an aqueduct, arena, castle, or tower. It lies damaged and abandoned, but is too large and/or important to be easily removed, standing tall and strong as the city changes around it.

14 Smithy: A smith of weapons and armour, specializing both in the creation of masterwork weapons and weapons made of supernatural metals. Adamantium swords, carbide armour, and occultum trinkets can all be made to order, if only for prohibitive costs.

15 Healing Font: This location, typically a body of water such as a river or spring, has restorative properties. Those who stay in its presence have Advantage against disease, poison, and other such ailments, but it does not heal injuries or remove curses.

16 Sinkhole: A vast and deep pit in an otherwise geologically sound area. It stretches down so far that things dropped into it make no sound, but is not bottomless and likely ends in water or a connection to a cave system. May connect to a city's undercity.

17 Ancient Church: A temple to an ancient god, lost and forgotten and possibly forbidden by monotheistic faiths. Attempts to remove the ruined church have been met with curses, and it is likely that a hidden cult still worships the god it venerates.

18 Asylum: A prison for the sick and mad and mutated. Anyone deemed unfit for society is dragged and left here, cared for intermittently but most left to their own devices in dark, vast halls, where cults propagate and plans of escape are in perpetual motion.

19 Terrarium: A glass encased miniature biome, often used to grow rare plants that normally would not thrive or even survive in the local environment. It is as much a garden as a farm, and the plants and animals within are sought after by local magicians.

20 Cafe: Cafes are all the rage, but this one more than any other draws artists and intellectuals to debate philosophy over coffee, tea, and opium. Many a conspiracy and philosophy has formed in the stimulant-fueled discussions that cafes promote.