I often write boxed text for new in-game locations. I find it easier to think through the sights, smells, and other sensations during GM prep and write them out, rather than improv’ing when I’m trying to write a game. Here’s one such location.
Day 1
From Waterford, it’s a strenuous few days’ journey up into the Tomoe Highlands along the Kogen Road before you reach anything like a town. At the bottom of the mountain, regions of dense forest surround most of the road. As you ascend, the trees become patchier and thinner. Their greens are washed out and dotted with reds and oranges, as fall up here comes earlier. The wind picks up.
You don’t have the luxury of picking a campsite as you did in the plains. The road is steep and narrow; the land around is often rocky and dangerously steep. Here and there, small waterfalls careen down the rocky mountainside from springs and rivulets hidden from your viewpoint. Some of them land in small rocky basins, while others simply soak into the soil below.
In late afternoon, just an hour or so before the gloaming would set in, you encounter a wide patch of grassland jutting out to the east. A short, narrow set of stairs made from rough, flat rocks leads up from the trail to the meadow, with some wrought iron bars formed into handrails. It’s so weathered that the joints are now connected at odd angles.
Just a few feet away from the stairs stands a little statue, a stylized humanoid with an intricately carved stone backdrop. You’ve seen a few of these along trails before, a representation of the guardians of travelers.
The meadow grass is tall, maybe up to your waist, but as you arrive at the top of the stairs you see large swaths of it are cut to a more manageable height, forming paths and little campsites. A few fire rings dot the area, dug in deep and surrounded with rough stones to protect them from the wind. Along the mountain, the meadow turns into a thick bramble. Blackberry bushes stick up here and there, with visible clusters of dark, ripe berries.
The other edge of the meadow ends abruptly in a sheer cliff that curves back under the little outcropping. From here you can see Lake Labhrann and the buildings of Waterford far below, tiny blobs of blue and white amongst a sea of green. Further east, you can see the golden Plains of Dalmora stretching off into the distance to meet the Lonely Mountains in the east, now just a small line along the horizon.
Harvesting the blackberries supplements rations a bit, reducing the total ration cost for the party by 1. However, there are poisonous plants mixed in with the bushes which may result in a save or a status effect.
Day 2
You awaken the next day to the light of the sun, well up into the sky by this point. A light fog permeates the cool fall air, just now beginning to burn off in the morning heat.
The Kogen Road continues south along a switchback, which is just as steep as the climb yesterday. In one section, a worn wooden bridge about 10 yards long covers a washed-out section of rock. It creaks and groans as your carts rumble their way across it.
Thankfully, the road is a bit wider here, making it easier to share with a few carts coming down the mountain.
As the gloaming sets in, you come to a large overhanging rock shelf. In the dirt below it sit a couple of small fire rings, charred wood still visible from campers during the previous night. Behind the outcropping, two slanted boulders form a crevice that appears to lead into a larger cave.
Checking the crevice reveals a cave that widens out a bit, with a few twisty passages leading off into the darkness. They’re almost big enough for a person to crawl through. A perception or investigation check reveals chittering sounds echoing from one of the passages.
The deeper cave is home to a few giant bugs that will become aggressive if the PCs approach. If they don’t, the beetles will stay where they were.
You see a couple of large horned beetles–maybe 3 feet long–with thick brown carapaces that shine deep golden in the glow of your (light source). When they see you, they begin moving toward you very quickly.
Day 3
You awake to the splatter of a light rain on the rock outcropping above you. It’s not particularly dense or obscuring, but it will certainly drench you after a day’s journey.
Thankfully, there’s enough stone and gravel on the road to keep it from getting too muddy, so at least there’s that.
And even more thankfully, the rain lets up around mid afternoon.
That evening, the party ends up at the mountain town of Shimakuro (but that’s for a later Boxed Text).