Terrain Features *

1. Terrain Features *

   #1

   This thread is about minor terrain features. These are minor things that can be dropped in anywhere just to add "narrative flavor", to make it more than just another road, field, forrest, beach. These are not settings or even whole areas, these are things you can "drop" into the world to add color and versimilitude.  These are going to be one to three line listings, so I expect a couple of these per post.
   
   Don't include things that need to be fleshed out to be useful (such as where do the doors that lead to the underground city go, floating cities, and somesuch), there presence requires a scenario to resolve (why is that riot happening?), things that are just so darn odd that there has to be some historical or mythical backstory behind it (pools of cool lava, places where gravity works in reverse), or things who's existance will seriously impact the world (Apple Trees that makes real Golden Apples).  
   
   Note: things that might serve as a minor plothook is okay.
   
   Updated 11/05
   
   *) A small seaside village where everyone is called Jaz.
   
   *) A giant carve head. A left over from a previous civilization.
   
   *) A huge column of rock, with an equally huge arch at the top, supporting an enormous bell, which is oberated by machinery inside the column and tolls once per hour, with the sound audible for miles around.
   
   *) A tree with a trunk so thick it would take six grown men linking hands to span the radius.
   
   *) A sun-baked mud flat with giant foot prints.
   
   *) A tribe of barbarian lived in caves dug into the sides of these "cliffs". They left carved hand holds and stairs to reach them.
   
   *) A rocky desert area which is, one day a year, covered in a particular flower that grows nowhere else, and that is bare rock the rest of the year.
   
   *) A field of bright red flowers.
   
   *) A river that twists through the landscape in such a way that, when you climb to the top of a nearby mountain and look down, it traces the exact same shape as one of the constellations.
   
   *) A salt flat -- a great bay whose "neck" to the ocean is above high tide and below low tide, so an area of hundreds of acres spends half the day underwater and half of it dry (well, moist), and the interesting plant and animal life that lives there.
   
   *) Series of islands in an east-west line; the east end of each is a gentle, sandy slope into the sea, and the west end of each is a harsh rocky cliff dropping off into the sea.
   
   *)  A hall of paintings, showing dignified men and women dressed in an antique style. Every so often, when no-one is looking, certain figures will move from one painting to another.

2. Terrain Features

   #2

   - A Great Salt Valley, a gigantic basin that is a salt-desert. It was once a sea, but it dried up.
   
   -A plain studded with great grassy mounds.
   
   -A large crater, about 100 feet across.
   
   -A line of pillars that stretches straight across the plains and through the ocean to the other side of the world.
   
   -A region of small hills and valleys. Each hill is topped with a ruined fort. Each valley is filled with the remains of ancient battles.
   
   -A huge rock carved to look like a clenched fist.
   
   -A small copse of trees that grow in a perfect circle.
   
   -A huge stone platform made from massive stone blocks. The blocks are so closely fit that a knife-blade cannot be inserted between them.
   
   -A mountain with a massive staircase cut into the side.

3. Terrain Features

   #3

   A place of webs looking like a great tent when looked at from afar
   
   A forest where Dryads walk from tree to tree
   
   A road that winds amongst great barrows
   
   A stone gate that marks the entrance to an underground city
   
   A great wall made of fool's gold
   
   A range of mountians where the mountians lower themselves every night like waves in the sea, but a lot slower

4. More terrain features

   #4

   * A relatively recent slip fault: The ground has shifted a noticeable amount, from several centimeters to several meters. Trails, roads, fence lines have been repaired to handle the jog; streambeds have realigned, etc.
   
   * A recent landslide has exposed a fossil.
   
   * Ruins of a castle/monastary on a local prominence. (No current storyline significance.)
   
   * An old forest fire site: Burn-scarred tree trunks, some dead snags and lots of noticeably younger, smaller growth than has been seen for the last several days travel.
   
   * From a high vantage point, a distant column of smoke from an ongoing forest fire (beware that your players will go off to investigate).
   
   * A village that uses an unusual roofing material or dominant color nearly exclusively: E.g., irridescent green tile roofs, or vivid goldenrod-colored walls. Explanation is nothing other than local resource or custom.
   
   * A small, elaborately eroded pocket canyon.
   
   * An isolated serpentine rock wall that appears to separate nothing and have no obvious purpose (check out Andy Goldsworthy's environmental sculptures for a dozen more such ideas).

5. Terrain Features

   #5

   * A bare piece of plains, with a large stone set in the middle. The still legible insription reminds of a great battle long ago. Ghosts are said to spook here in the night.
   
   * A natural spring bubbles quietly, bringing water and the stink of sulphur to the surface. The soil around is coloured from brown to red to yellow and even white.
   
   * An old tree carries a construction resembling a bed on its top, open to the winds and sky. Local tribes use it for their dead, or shamanic dream voyages.
   
   * There is a strong invisibility spell still in function here; some twenty feet in radius, a sphere that hides bushes, grass, and parts of trees, looking like a hole in the ground. Anything inside is invisible.
   
   * The wind has eroded a stone boulder, its underside now a pillar, carrying a nicely formed wing of great size.
   
   * A large group of barren trees stands here. From afar, they look very much like tall spears pointed to the heavens.

6. Terrain Features

   #6

   *) A long rock that parralells the road with centuries worth of grafetti. In fact, the local name for the rock is Grafetti Rock along Grafetti Road.
   
   *) The foundation of a burned out manor sized home. It has been decades and the forest is reclaiming the space.
   
   *) Graveyard with markerstones. The locals are quite artistic, so many are more elaborate than you have ever seen.
   
   *) A herd of wild horses. These escaped from some invaders decades ago, and now run free.

7. Terrain Features

   #7

   -A grassland littered with huge stone-carven jars. Locals say that they are the discarded winejars of a god or a giant.
   
   -An abandoned farming village, complete with overgrown cropfields or a rice paddy that is turning into a swamp.
   
   -A series of alkali-water ponds in a very dry area. The ponds are littered with the bones of a couple oxen or other animals.
   
   -A ghost-town.
   
   -A beautiful beach containing the ruins of an old lighthouse.
   
   -Crumbling walls half-buried in sand dunes.
   
   -A forest of petrified trees.

8. Terrain Features

   #8

   A lake composed not of water, but of alcohol
   A city where the roads are made of metal
   A great floating city-ship

9. Terrain Features

   #9

   *puts on thread minder hat*
   
   Folks, lets keep in mind that these are minor terrain features. These are minor things that can be dropped in anywhere just to add "narrative flavor", to make it more than just another road, field, forrest, beach.
   
   Don't include things that need to be fleshed out (such as where do the doors that lead to the underground city go, floating cities, and somesuch), there presence requires a scenario to resolve, or things that are just so darn odd that there has to be some historical or mythical backstory behind it.
   
   *takes off said hat*

10. Terrain Features

    #10

    - A meadow of flowers that, a few minutes after being disturbed, sends off a puff of black pollen into the air. Looking at it from a distance it looks like a shadow that stood up and then slowly bent back down into the brush.
    
    - A tapped spring that sends water up a narrow pipe structure and then flows down a gutter 9 feet off the ground into another stone sculpture like a rain cloud that spreads the falling water like rain. (shower) Near a village and a well used path.
    
    - On a steep, smooth hill (that can be used for a good lookout point) there is a series of knotted ropes going all the way to the top just laying on the hill. The hill isn't that difficult to climb though. In the winter time locals from many areas come around to climb the hill to go sledding. They left the ropes from last winter.
    
    - A flat corridor between mountain passes has many many windmills dotting the landscape due to the constant and unvarying wind flow.
    
    - When the tide is out a series of reef walkways lead to a small circular reef of bright colors. In the center is a fresh water spring that pools during low tide and creates the odd but beautiful reef.
    
    - A series of trees drop super spiny seeds to the ground. Only the most durable shoes can keep the spines from stabbing through.
    
    - A section of the plains they are crossing crack and snap as they walk across. Digging down it is the result of a few different kind of loose rocks scraping and pushing against each other.
    
    - A section of the plains, if they stand still, sinks when weight is placed on it and gathers water. Footsteps fill with water until the land slowly rises back to normal. Not sure how far they may sink if they camp.
    
    - Reeds in a nearby pool clatter together in a mystic harmony and when the wind blows across them strong enough an eerie chorus seems to sing.
    
    - A lone tree in a meadow not too far from a small town. All around the tree the grass is trampled dirt in odd radii. The tree is basically made out of a rubbery substance. Cannot be cut or destroyed in any way. The dirt is from where the kids from the local village can swing on the rubbery branches like rope and spin themselves around. Any number of branches give a number of different swings.
    
    - An area where sudden winds of extreme cold and extreme hot wave across in bursts of wind.

11. Terrain Features

    #11

    Those are awesome, Strolen.
    
    -A large, deep depression in the ground that appears to be covered in smooth, gray-black glass. If one slips and falls in, it is very difficult to get out. At the edges, it fades into the soil, and there is grass growing in cracks in it. If broken, it is very sharp. There are several animal skeletons at the bottom.
    
    -An ancient set of foundations. A town once stood here. There is an open well that still works at the back of the ruins. The water of the well tastes strangely metallic.
    
    -A forest with interesting karst caves and clay tunnels. In some places, the ground is very ready to collapse and dump the heroes into the wet clay pits below.
    
    -A cenote so deep that the water appears black. On an underwater shelf on the edge of visible depth, there are bundled skeletons. Sacrafices were made to a water god here.
    
    -A field of nodding sunflowers. The blossoms conceal the body of a dead traveller.
    
    -A gallows-tree, with a dead man hanging from it's branches.
    
    -An open field with small regions of spongy, soft ground. When heroes step on it, a soft, downy dust arises.
    
    -A little village where there are no adult men.
    
    -A large donut-shaped stone. Frequently, priests of the God of Travel can be found praying within this "Earth Wheel".

12. Terrain Features

    #12

    A hollow which has become a small lake because of a creek and a small mudslide. Trees trunks are partially submerged and have lake algea upon them. The squirrels in the area are quite bold, as they are immune to most of their predators.
    
    Bunnys with horns can be seen in the grassy fields.
    
    Tall veritcal tube like insect hives are seen just off the road. The redish wasp like insects have never been seen before.
    (The insects are "invigorated" in the presence of magic and they can sting something fierce).
    
    A herd of deer rumble across the tree lined forest roadway at a full run.
    
    The full moon has an icy halo abound it. It is a time of magic.
    
    A boarded up manor house can be seen a distance off the road. The grounds look like they have fallen to seed.
    
    The foundation stones and a few burned support beams are all that remain of a waystation.

13. Terrain Features

    #13

    A herd of wild horses. These escaped from some invaders decades ago, and now run free.

    
    
    That's a Daria bit. *Shown a Rorschach test*
    Mrs. Manson What do you see in the picture, Dara?
    Daria: A herd of beautiful wild ponies running free across the plains.
    Mrs. Manson: There aren't any ponies in this picture.
    Daria: The last time I took this test, they told me they were clouds. They said they could be anything I wanted.
    Mrs. Manson: That's a different test. In this test, it's a picture of two people talking. You tell me what they're discussing.
    Daria: Okay...it's a guy and a girl. And they're discussing...a herd of beautiful wild ponies running free across the plains.

14. Terrain Features

    #14

    *) A cart with a broken wheel left in rut.
    
    *) A temple that has been burned down quite a while ago.
    
    *) Potholes in the roadway. Lots of them.
    
    *) A magnificent sun rise, a corona of reds, oranges, yellow, and a flash of green.
    
    *) Clothes strewn about the path/ road. It looks like someone's chest of clothes was leaking.
    
    *) A gallows away from the city. It is currently empty.
    
    *) A headstone where someone had died off the main road.

15. Terrain Features

    #15

    A great rock of granite in the middle of a road, which bends around it.
    
    A poster of a local ruler, put up in the *middle of nowhere*
    
    A sign that says "Do not throw things at this sign", which bears the marks from many stones thrown at it.

16. Re: Terrain Features *

    #16

    At an intersection, a waypost indicating mileage to distant cities. The post is loose in the ground, and due to passing children invariably points in the wrong directions.
    
    200 yards from the road, in the middle of a field, a *giant* cross/sun sigul/ironwork ankh/other religious symbol.
    
    A road running along the foothills of a mountain chain: the smell of smoke hangs in the air and ahead the hillside is clearly blackened by recently/currently active fires.
    
    Two perfectly ordinary cities are connected by a well-maintained road. However, both sides of this road are saturated with sparsely occupied, recently-built, and sadly similar small houses.
    
    A cranberry bog: farmers with rakes harvest the berries and fill small rafts dragged by water buffalo.
    
    Though the ocean view is lovely to behold, it is low tide and a hundred yards of mudflats are exposed: the pungent stench of decomposing vegetation and rotting fish nauseates the unfamiliar traveler.
    
    
    
    

17. Re: Terrain Features *

    #17

    Good stuff, nitsua60!
    
    Simple yet effective visuals. Particularly, (to me) the cranberry bog, and ebbing-tide, decaying mudflats!

18. Re: Terrain Features *

    #18

    Isn't there a scroll somewhere this can fit in? A start of new one perhaps?
    
    I don't want them to dissappear into the depths of the forums.

19. Re: Terrain Features *

    #19

    Now there is one: Terrain Features.
    
    Thanks for the addition, nitsua60 - you have awoken this thread to a new life! The thread can slowly disappear in the depths, the scroll will be able to bloom.

20. Re: Terrain Features *

    #20

    This had a star, it was supposed to be moved someday. I just have totally burned on on moving things (after moving most of the forums pieces from version 1.0 to 2.0... and catching all the related crap from that process).  We will see how long this trend goes. 

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