60 Weird-Fantasy Landmarks

Roll (d60):

1. A forgotten library, crammed to the ceiling with ancient tomes.
2. A circular structure with a hole in the center, leading down into the darkness.
3. A field of petrified trees, each one different in shape and size.
4. A deep chasm with lava at the bottom, miles wide.
5. A crevice that constantly emits a loud, otherworldly wailing.
6. A brightly glowing orb, levitating in midair.
7. A shimmering curtain that hangs in the air, obscuring anything behind it.
8. A pedestal with a glowing crystal on top, emanating heat.
9. A plant that appears to be made of metal, growing in a very unorthodox manner.
10. A stone statue that moves and speaks, despite being clearly inanimate.
11. A temple to an unknown deity.
12. A marketplace where the vendors offer only services, not goods.
13. A menagerie of exotic beasts, caged and on display.
14. A building which is half submerged in a lake.
15. A collection of ancient ruins, overgrown with vines and foliage.
16. A deep chasm with a river of lava running through it.
17. A forest of giant mushrooms, some taller than trees.
18. A bubbling tar pit, filled with the remains of creatures.
19. A mountaintop palace, surrounded by statues of angry gods.
20. A vast field of tall grass, rustling in the wind.
21. A grand palace with a few rooms still intact.
22. An ever-shifting spiral staircase that leads to nowhere.
23. A great tower with a balcony from which one can see the entire kingdom.
24. A garden of exotic and deadly plants.
25. A room with a great mechanical device at its center, slowly ticking.
26. A column of light, said to be the entrance to the underworld.
27. A strange machine that can teleport objects.
28. A library of ancient tomes, some still unread.
29. A pool of quicksilver that never ripples.
30. An altar to a long forgotten god.
31. A shrine to an unknown god, surrounded by peculiar symbols.
32. A village of huts made entirely of bones.
33. A gigantic sandstone sculpture of a mountain.
34. A walled city with a huge arena in the center.
35. A crystalline palace of an alien queen.
36. The petrified form of a long-dead wizard.
37. A crashed star-ship, its hull glowing with strange energies.
38. The ruins of an ancient temple, dedicated to a dark god.
39. A vast field of cairns, burial mounds of an ancient people.
40. A step pyramid, with a particularly large top level.
41. A courtyard of white marble, with a large fountain in the center.
42. A cathedral made of a dark wood, with stained glass windows.
43. A floating city, tethered to the ground by massive chains.
44. A palace made of a bright white stone, with a large dome.
45. A series of interconnected tunnels, said to be the home of a creature.
46. A tree, with a house-sized hole in the middle, oozing a red liquid.
47. A machine, larger than a city, slowly creating more machines.
48. A city, eternally dark, with beings that do not need light to see.
49. A Necropolis, with thousands of skeletons in broken armor.
50. A group of vehicles, long ago crashed, with mummified remains inside.
51. A floating palace, with a beautiful woman who always seems to be crying.
52. A black fortress, made of a strange material, surrounded by a moat of acid.
53. An arena, with rows upon rows of seats, and a huge arena in the middle.
54. A library, with millions of books, and a being who is constantly reading.
55. The statue of a forgotten god, long since crumbled.
56. The ruins of an ancient city, now overgrown with jungle.
57. The shrine of a long-dead cult, still guarded by automatons.
58. The remains of a crashed alien spacecraft.
59. A portal to another world, currently inactive.
60. A huge unidentifiable machine, slowly rusting.

Quantum Blinker

This is a creature called a Quantum Blinker, which I've written for my upcoming point-crawl Night Land. 

Quantum Blinker

Extraplanar. Elite. Absurd. Psychedelic. 

AC 5 [14], HD 2**, hp 10, Att 1 x blood boil (1d6+2) + special, THACO 17 [+2], MV 120’ (40’), SV D12 W12 P13 B15 S11, ML 8, AL L, XP 30, NA 1d2+1 

Translucent, slug-like body, made of bubble like-spheres, colored ripples continuously play over its surface. Hovers, rarely touching the ground. Presumed to be from a parallel universe, blinks in and out of physical space, leaving a rotten smell. Appear blurred, as creature is out of sync with the physical dimension. Speaks a language that sounds like radio static.

Special: Distorts dimensions, can flip the quantum states of itself in the blink of an eye, essentially becoming a wave or a solid; after creature makes attack, it has a 1–in–6 chance of blinking away up to 30’ without foe being able to counter-attack; injects sharp needles of hardened light into victims within melee range, causing blood to catch fire, boiling inside their veins for 1d6+2 damage, save vs paralysis for half; attains nutrition from magic, players casting spells on creature must make WIS or INT save, or spell fails, adding 1d4 hp to creature; ten Sun Sprites (other creatures from Night Land) can cluster together in a swarm and attack these creatures as a suicide bomb, effectively vaporizing them both instantaneously from space and time.

Image: Stephen Fabian, illustration from William Hope Hodgson's 'The Dream of X'.

The Toothy Fairy

This is one of the main foes in my recent adventure Xanadu. She can be summoned by a ritual in one of the encounter areas of the temple. Details of how to perform the ritual are below.

The Tooth Fairy

AC 2 [17], HD 10, hp 45 + absorption, Att x 3 slam/claw/bite (1d10/2d6/1d10), THACO 11 [+8], MV 160’ (40’), SV D6 W7 P8 B8 S10, ML 4, AL C, XP 3200

The Tooth Fairy is an entity from another plane, a dimension made of sweet stuff. Sunken eyes, lean, emaciated, leathery wings on shoulders, made of stretched skin. Feeds on human teeth, taking satisfaction in cries of agony as she rips bone from mouths. If summoned, she immediately go to the bowl and eat the teeth offered by the ritual. She needs 1d100+10 teeth to satiate her hunger. Will regurgitate 2d20 diamonds (worth 250 gp each), and reward the summoner. If there are insufficient teeth, she will attack the party and attempt to extract theirs. She will not attack the summoner. Wants faithful servants who provide her with the crunchy foodstuffs that she craves. She is not fundamentally evil, just an addict. Moves swiftly, leaving trail of fairy floss. It’s delicious!

Special

All damage rolled against victims adds to creature’s hp total; +2 initiative due to speed; can use attacks independently on 3 different targets in melee range; first attack on victim is always at +2; saves vs mental attacks at +3; saves vs fire attacks at +2; if she is destroyed, teeth she consumed during summoning have all transformed to glittering diamonds, they are within her belly (worth 250 gp each); if threatened, she retreats back into opening on the wall, back to her dimension; portal will stay open for 1d6 rounds after she departs; if the PCs follow her into the wall rupture, here are some options:

• they are transported to another plane made of sugar.
• they transform into bloody pulp and are ejected back into the room.
• it’s gateway to another OSR adventure!

Summoning Ritual

Inscriptions on silver bowl in the encounter room provide comprehensive instructions on how to summon The Tooth Fairy. Referee should determine if a read spell is required to understand inscriptions, or if they are simply written in the common language.

How to perform the summoning:

1. Extracted human teeth must be placed in the silver bowl.
2. Each tooth placed in the bowl will give the ritual a 1% chance of succeeding (so 40 teeth = 40% chance of success).
3. Inscriptions on the bowl must be read out aloud.
4. Roll the dice...

If the summoning is successful, aroma of burnt sugar permeates the room within a few minutes.

The stain on the wall begins to glow, then rupture. The Tooth Fairy emerges from the wall, descending into the room. She will be famished, kneel down, and immediately devour the teeth in the bowl. The party is transfixed (probably under a spell), powerless to act until she is finished. If the summoning fails, teeth in the bowl melt into sweet syrup, they are useless, perhaps try again.

Aquilus Spell & Magic Item Name Generator

As a follow-up to a post that included a character class name generator for my setting Aquilus, the generator below proposes names of spells and magic items. The first result generates a spell, determined by pairing an adjective (and occasional noun) followed by a spell effect. The second generates a magic item, combining the name of an object (noun), followed by an adjective, then effect.

I prefer creating flavorful names prior to writing classes, factions, encounters, beasts, landmarks, oddities, backstory, even titles of projects. One of my forthcoming publications in 2021 will be a zine of spells and magic items, using this generator as the catalyst for ideas. 

Styles of Magic

Recently, I published a post previewing material that will appear in Aquilus Issue #2, focusing on magic and spellcasting academies found throughout the city of Halgarth. The post included a random table that generated flavorful (and often absurd) names for these establishments. The follow-up table below generates styles of magic that are taught, along with requirements to cast the spells (whether they be verbal, somatic, material, etc). 

I'm currently working on a zine of magic spells for release in 2021 and hope to expand upon these tables, using the results as inspiration for spell names, effects, etc. I've written previously about utilizing language to trigger ideas, and favor this approach as a framework for most of my writing—firstly, come up with the name of something you might find in your imagined world, then determine its properties.

(d12) Roll 2 times and combine:

d12	Style of magic taught...	It's requirements...
1.	Focuses on infernal power.	Knowing the true name of the target.
2.	Focuses on singing.	Avoiding any contact with the target.
3.	Focuses on the fabric of space.	Only certain bloodlines can use this magic.
4.	Focuses on sound and metal.	Dancing whilst making highly specific hand-signs.
5.	Focuses on mind-control.	Poems written in a language the caster invents.
6.	Focuses on shape-shifting.	Various internal organs of the recently dead.
7.	Focuses on gold and gems.	Solving mathematical calculations.
8.	Focuses on microbial life.	Adjusting the gears of small, complex mechanisms.
9.	Focuses on gravity.	Heightened emotions.
10.	Focuses on astral matter.	Wearing a special mystical outfit.
11.	Focuses on ancient texts.	Making bargains with non-human entities.
12.	Focuses on death energy.	Being aligned with the collective consciousness of plants.

Faceless Drifter

This is a new creature called a Faceless Drifter, which I've written for my upcoming point-crawl Night Land. Amongst eight new creatures for the setting, this is most humanoid, the others being far more abstract and counter-intuitive in terms of how they're physically embodied. I'll release a few more in the coming weeks.

Faceless  Drifter

Abomination. Lurking. Heartbroken. Mindless.  

AC 6 [13], HD 1+2*, HP 6, ATT 1 x bite (1d4) or scream (special), THACO [18] +1, MV 180’ (60’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (1), ML 7, AL Chaotic, XP 19, NA 3, TT None

Hairless humanoids, sexless, gaunt, rubbery skin. Roam in groups of three, moving incredibly fast. No facial features, other than a mouth with razor-sharp teeth. Sound like a death rattle, smell like crude oil. Speak, but limited intelligence of their own, merely able to mimic what it has heard before, mainly with a vocabulary of indecent language. 

Originally, these creatures were genetically constructed by Void Engineers, designed to be workers that could be commanded mentally. They are now mindless shells, which mysteriously reproduce with another, living in hidden colonies throughout Night Land, leaderless, without allies. Unloved, pitied remnants of a failed experiment, who now merely wander and observe, driven by a past, brief, but traumatic connection to people. 

Special: Once per 3 rounds, can unleash a frightening, soul-destroying screech as an attack with 30' range, victims must save vs paralysis or be immobilized with fear, unable to attack for 1d2 rounds; immune to mind-affecting spells.
 

On the Bookshelves

This is an encounter that takes place in the library of a cult temple, from my latest adventure Xanadu. Even though the most useful part for readers of this blog is the random table of books found on the shelves, I've reproduced the encounter in its entirety.  

Bibliotecha

Door, sandstone, arcane locked, painted with cult symbol. Stone pillars, flanking the door, each carved with a representation of female creatures with wings, similar to statue in area 5. Bookshelves, filled with tomes, various bindings, sizes. Smells like wax, stale incense.

Door
If door is touched: it is magically trapped. Touching the door causes (d20): 

• Result of 1–18: a fireball for 2d4 damage to everyone within 10’ of the door (save vs breath for half),
• Result of 19–20: a lightning bolt to explode for 2d20 damage to everyone within 10’ of the door (save vs breath for 1d20 damage).

How to disarm the door: trap is deactivated by pressing a release button behind one of the stone pillars next to door. A thief can find this by investigating for traps. 

Bookshelves
Books of various shapes, sizes, and colors. Some are ancient, some modern. Volumes of esoterica, occult, directories, almanacs, local histories, etc. There is nothing magical here.

On the bookshelves (d20): 

1. Instructions on exotic poisons.
2. History of the temple.
3. Methods of smuggling, extortion and various other activities this cult is involved in. 
4. Treatise of personal sins.
5. Names and notations that look like a collection of financial debts.
6. Journals of notes from failed experiments.
7. Guidebook to invisibility.
8. Interviews with the undead.
9. Handbook of cannibalistic recipes.
10. Opus on tales of astral seas.
11. Travel directory to other planets.
12. Formulas to perform the summoning ritual in area 26 (The Tooth Fairy).
13. Almanac listing locations of the birthplace of all monsters.
14. List of undiscovered cities.
15. Ancient torture methods.
16. Picture-book of decadent fashion.
17. Volume of love poetry.
18. Reference work on arcane dentistry.
19. Guide to ancient meditation techniques.
20. Manual of unpopular magical theories.

Review of Xanadu

My most recent adventure Xanadu, written for Old-School Essentials, was reviewed on Ten Foot Pole.

Creating Hooks Within a Sandbox

I'm currently working on a new mini-sandbox/point-crawl called Night Land, which I'll write more about in the coming weeks. It will run at around 60 pages, contain ten locations, half of those being adventure sites with maps and keyed areas. It's essentially a weird world to be explored, with no overriding objective or goal for PCs at the outset. 

This has presented challenges in determining engaging hooks I can plant in the setting, which encourages players to interact with adventure sites. The questions are what kinds of hooks to have and where/when to find them. In similar settings I've studied, it's often achieved with rumor tables, which I wanted to move away from.

Here is a list of additional ways to create hooks. These are broad conceptual ideas, which you could expand upon with specific narrative threads or plot-lines relevant to the setting:

• Active: an event that happens directly to PCs.
• Passive: events that happen and draw the PCs in.
• A social hub the party meets. 
• Developing major NPCs, stakeholders with motivations.
• A default action that offers hooks.
• Items (such as books, scrolls) about a place someone has been.
• Items the PCs already have.
• Items the PCs have encountered.
• NPCs informing players of what is going on.
• A current need of the PCs, such as a depleted resource.
• An encounter that needs to be resolved.
• Putting PCs in the path of an obstacle.
• Consequences of walking away from opportunities.
• Living world, events unfolding even if PCs weren't there.
• Situations that act as triggers. 
• Synergy between the different elements of the setting, one outcome triggering another.
• Timeline of events that occur unless the PCs preempt and stop them.

Aquilus Character Class Name Generator

Here is a character class generator I've developed for my setting Aquilus. 

I'm especially interested in how language can drive inspiration for RPG content. Firstly, come up with the name of something you might find in your world or campaign, then determine what its characteristics and properties are. Chris McDowall – the writer of Electric Bastionland – has a blog post about this technique which he calls Spark Tables, "taking two results and smashing them together for inspiration." The results can be counter-intuitive or even absurd, but they're often flavorful and stimulate the imagination.

In the generator below, I firstly fed in around 1200 character classes collated from sources including RPG wikis, indexes, rule-sets, etc. I then fed in hundred of adjectives. The first result generates an adjective (and occasional noun) followed by a class. The second generates two different character classes put together, both results offering thousands of possible combinations. 

I'm currently working on several other generators for elements such as spells, magic items, landmarks, encounters, and monsters, which I'll share in due course.