A magical place?

[ILM]

It sure is!

http://25.media.tumblr.com/808f60e0ae50aab03f5e4b33eedf85c5/tumblr_mu16kcbXn91qd9xgco2_r1_500.gif



I'm doing a bit of world building and it's surprisingly hard to cook up enough interesting and atmospheric locations (let alone encounters or plot hooks) to populate an entire world. I've got a few down and I thought we could trade. I'll post a couple tomorrow, it's a bit late here, but let's get the ball rolling: what places of mystery, power or dread have you used in your games? Long or short versions, with or without names, feel free to share!


Yes I know, it's not the first thread of its kind, nor will it be the last. Here's one if its forebears (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?221999-1001-Landscapes); I'm sure I'm missing some others. :smallwink:

[Beta Centauri]

A tower of translucent crystal on a rocky body in the Astral Sea, once used as a watch post and observatory for Far Realm incursions. The rock to which it is attached is not much further across than the tower is tall.

It has seen better days.

Long ago, something struck the tower with enough force to send the entire thing spinning around its center of gravity, which is in the tower's basement. This has the effect of causing things in the tower to accelerate away from the basement, making it feel to any occupants as though the ceiling is the floor and vice versa.

Despite damage that leaves the upper (now lower) sections of the tower attached to the rest by the remains of a single crumbling crystal staircase, it is possible to traverse from the portal in the observatory chamber to the basement at the opposite end. The acceleration decreases as one approaches the center, and in the basement there is essentially weightlessness.

[ILM]

When they near the end of their lives, great wyrm dragons migrate to an island lost in the frozen waters of the northern ocean, there to die among the bones of their ancestors. However, due to their extreme lifespans, dragons that make it there can still expect another few years or even decades of life. Their raids for food explain the sparse density of settlements in nearby lands, especially near the coasts.

Rumor has it that an ancient city lies in ruins on the island, but whatever secrets it may hold are guarded by the oldest, smartest dragons still alive. The fact that their days are counted anyway only makes them fight with complete, reckless abandon, as they quite literally have nothing to lose.

[endoperez]

I've been giving thought into singular, small-scale magical things and places. More fairytale places than scenes to have an adventure in.


The statue of the old goddess:

An old stone statue is forgotten and half-hidden by ferns, deep in a forest. It shows a simple figure of a woman, one arm up high, the other holding a bowl in front of her. The goddess or spirit of the place still gives her blessings to those who know how to ask.
She may cast Geas-like effect on anyone who makes a vow in front of the statue, kneeling with eyes laid low, under the full moon. The power manifests by the plants placing a mark or sign on the one making the vow - often a ring or bracelet of evergreen grass, wood or vine that can't be removed without magic, until the vow has been fulfilled.
If you know how, you can hold a ritual in the goddess' honor, gifting her food, forged steel and fine words such as songs or poetry.


The sword in the stone-troll:

In a shallow cave, an ancient, crumbled boulder lies hidden from sight. An old sword has been thrust into the stone. Nearby, there's smaller rocks and stones that give the impression of stone limbs and a decapitated head. Old flowers, weird stones and few scattered coins have been left nearby, as if someone came here to pay respects.
A hero once slew a magical creature in this place, but lost his sword when his enemy turned to stone the morning following his demise. The hero never could recover his sword, now stuck in stone seemingly forever.
The sword has survived too well to be unmagical, but who knows what will happen if you desecrate the dead troll?

The princess was never woken:

An ancient witch once cursed a princess and her castle to fall asleep. It has been a hundred years, and no one has gotten through the thick underbrush, vines and thorns that have surrounded the old castle and its ruins. The old, gnawed bones of the castle's one-time inhabitants lay around in forgotten heaps, the wooden doors and furniture are brittle and decayed. The princess still sleeps, cursed to never die until her prince comes, old and wrinkled and frail. Have her dreams yet turned to nightmares?

The Wise Council

A wizard of some power once grew depressed with his life and the choices he had made. He saught refuge from an old forest, where he lived as a hermit for a time. He thought about his life growing ever more peculiar with each passing winter until he was talking to the trees and the animals who didn't understand, and wouldn't have had any answers even if they could.
After seven years and seven days, he reach a moment of clarity and understood his lot in life. He left the forest to fulfill his new-found destiny, but in a fit of sentimentality laid one last spell upon his simple hut, the spring that had quenched his thirst and the trees that had sheltered him.
The hut has long since disappeared, but a ring of twelve trees grows around the empty circle where it once stood. The trees heard the echoes of his stories, grew up feeding on them, and they whisper stories to each other. The locals know that if they need to borrow on their wisdom, they only need to tell the trees a grand story they haven't yet heard. And so, with each piece of advice, the council also grows a bit wiser. They can soothe the aching heart, bolster courage in a timid man, and they help grieving relatives with stories of happier times.

[Jay R]

I'm currently designing The Palace Under The Hill. It was once the palace of the greatest wizard in the world. Each PC will have received clues that include the legend. All legends name the wizard, and explain how that palace wound up under a hill. All stories name a different wizard (Archimago, Baba Yagi, Circe, Merlin, Mordenkainen, Olorin, Shazam), and all are equally incorrect.

The party will not find out whose palace it really was until they reach the tomb in the lower level, and find the body - which is missing one arm and one eye.

[ILM]

Somewhere in the Ethereal Plane floats a small-ish, closed demiplane of featureless ink-black soil and perpetually dull gray sky. The air is still yet sound doesn't carry very well, twisted by distorsion even at short distances. The temperature always seems to remain a hint below comfortable. Wisps of shadow float about lazily, breaking the otherwise perfect stillness, forming ephemeral quasi-shapes as they merge and intersect before separating again a moment later. While generally abstract, they sometimes echo surface thoughts and hidden fears of intelligent creatures who walk the demiplane.

In the center of the demiplane lies an elegant, finely designed manor house featuring a dozen rooms, an underground laboratory and an impressive library. It appears empty at all times, yet candles burn at the windows. A black fog rises the further one walks away from the house, until one is lost in impenetrable darkness. The plane warps perceptions of visitors so that they quickly find their path twisting back to the house regardless of which direction they take.