Ideas

Herbalist in the group mistakes one plant for another and mistakenly poisons the group. Not to death, but pretty darn ill with recurring symptoms until the cause and cure are realized. (Local people may be able to help rather easily. 'You ate Dragon's Rot you fool, looks and smells just like mint except it has these small thistles on the root. Only grow in the Hornwood Forest, that must be where ya got them. Eat this and you will feel better in 4 hours.'

PCs camp for the night in a dry pine forest. Fire skill of the person that made it is usually pretty good, but during the first watch the unexpected happens: a spark lights the surrounding woods and a brush fire quickly starts. Be quick or it could turn into a disaster that could affect the entire region.

Could come across a band of refugees. Could have been thrown out of their town by a tyrant taking of their land, bought out by somebody unexpectedly, fleeing a battle they know is coming their way. Could be proof of what they are searching for, hints and tips of what is to come, or just to broaden the reality of the world.

Young kid from last town has been following the PCs and doing a rather good job at it. PCs weren't expecting to be followed so weren't worried and the boy/girl was careful. Notice the follower a couple days out of town, kid ran out of food and started getting careless. Followed the 'mighty adventurers' to see if he could join them. Father is a wealthy merchant. Bring him home, bring him with, send him off? What do you do with an unwelcomed guest.

Rain slowly builds, thunder and lightning continue to roll in. Road muddies, horse/wagon getting stuck in the mud. Thunder strikes coinciding with a deep hole a horse just walked in, horse panics, breaks its leg (maybe just sprain?). Horse is decompacitated and the rain just went from pouring to an all out monsoon. Shelter needs to be found, horse needs to be taken care of, covered in mud, add the posibility of items being lost to the confusion with the wind and dealing with spooked animals.

Marraige custom. The groom must prove his worth to the friends, family, and future wife. The best man is obligated to challenge the groom to a duel and the best man chooses the weapons. (can be anything, toothpicks, cotton balls, anything) If the groom wins then he proves his worth. If he loses then the bride will accept him for his faults and could sometimes gives him a task to accomplish before the wedding.

Facial tattoos in various designs are a sign of status in some cultures.

Legends abound in some places about ancient landforms (Islands, Peninsulas, Mountains) that dissapeared long ago in towers of glowing energy. (See Any Unnatainable Glory entries for more info)

A culture believes that souls are recycled. One child gets half of a soul, another child gets the other half. However, this means that with each passing generation, the amount of soul in the child will become less and less (Through division)until their culture will die in the future because of their soulless offspring.

A cave with weapons sunken into the walls, blades sticking out of the floor and ceiling, and so on. Possibly, any weapon used in it could be torn out of the hand and sink into the stone.

A low lying area will flood after rains causing many people to be stranded and many roads are covered with water and unuseable.

Religious city. Hundreds of vendors selling small statues which sole value is as a donation to one of the many gods that are worshipped.

Minor Cultural Modifier: The culture believes, for the soul to leave the body, the corpse' eyes must be open. So any member of that culture takes care any dead body they find has its eyes open. Doubly true for those they kill themselves, for then the corpse will surely rise as an undead hunting him.

Other improvisational weapons/tools:

Icicles are useful as daggers,

Bag Of Holding filled with copper pieces used by chucking the contents at foes, (by strolen)

sleeves make useful garrotes. Ya can't cut anyone's neck, but you sure can choke 'em!

Flaming Logs make great clubs, (any Barbarians out there?)

and Bee hives are very effective when thrown at a mob of enemies. :-)

The Chinese, when attacking a castle or fort, flew kites over the city wall and used the length of string it took to get it there as a measurement to know how far they had to dig a tunnel to get under the wall.

A culture has a tradition of wearing animal pelts as a sign of status or job. Carpenters might wear beaver skins, Masons have a moleskin hood to their cloak, Gaurdsmen might have badger pelts. Done to show the culture's respect for nature and how much of nature is equal to each other.

Termites, in certain places, make homes that can be eight meters high and only a half meter wide. They are built facing North to South to take advantages of the suns travel, maximum heat in the morning and evening and little in the afternoon. Imagine grassy plains with vertical structions facing a certain direction all over the place. Ambush? Maze? New creature? Larger structures?

Silk Armor? The Mongols wore silk undergarments under layers of leather armor. Why? Because silk is very strong. If an arrow hit them and made it through their armor, it would usually not have enough energy to puncture the silk. It could still enter their body but, because the silk would not break, the arrow's barbs could not do their work and the arrow could easily be removed leaving a relatively clean wound considering normal arrow wounds.

Perhaps divinations, if strong enough, can actually change the future, instead of predicting it.

A possible answer to what happens to spells when a mage dies. If the spell is strong enough, say and enchantment or other permenant effect, part of the mages spirit may become lodged in the magic. It may be a way for items to gain some kind of intelligence, but a mage who has knowledge of this fact would be very hesitant about enchanting anyone or thing. He might have other plans for his afterlife than counting the change in your bag of holding.



Preists, I think, would have this sort of thing covered.