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.
A Diversion
This scenario begins with the PCs encountering a large gathering of travelers at the Takaoka Arch, a natural stone formation that provides some protection from the elements. They learn that a rockslide has happened up the main road. While most travelers wait for a dwarven digging team to arrive, a smaller and rougher road leads into a little-traveled valley.
Deep into this secluded valley, a small village still thrives, and the ruins of the ancients who once lived here look down from a ridgeline. Naturally-occurring aether crackles and hums throughout the forest. Ghostly wisps appear at night.
Day 1
You follow the smaller road out of the arch. Your carts barely squeeze through the little rock archway leading out of Takaoka, and almost immediately the road begins descending further into the valley via a series of switchbacks.
The evergreen trees that line the road begin to become a deep and thick forest, stretching off into the distance as far as you can see. It’s hard to tell exactly how wide the valley actually is, or how far it stretches between ridges of the highlands.
Once or twice, you are passed by a single cart moving as fast as they can, just trying to make up for time lost by the rockslide at Takaoka.
Day 2
The next day, a fall chill sets in early, which is not surprising in the shadow of the highlands and forest surrounding you. As the little road winds further into the valley, its elevation evens out, but it becomes more rough and unkempt.
Late in the evening, you notice a strange sensation. The air here almost seems charged; it’s not the chill, or the humidity, or anything mundane. It seems almost electric, but you can’t quite place it at first.
Investigating the mysterious quality to the air requires a magic-related check (arcana, etc.). (Spellcasters and those who know lore may receive bonuses.) On a success, they will note this seems to be natural aether; it’s thick here, swirling and flowing around everything. It’s not particularly dangerous. You may choose to give the players bonus spells or magic points while they are in the valley.
At night, players will notice strange wisps appearing in the forest. These are the spirits of the ancients who lived in this secluded valley, given form by the ambient aether and the thinning veil between worlds. A perception check reveals that they don’t appear to be fireflies; in fact, there doesn’t seem to be anything at the center of the lights.
As the gloaming begins to set in and the world is bathed in the half-light of dusk, you begin to see bright lights dot the deep forest. They flicker like an open campfire, and hover like fireflies. The light blue and purple lights cast an otherwordly palor on the deep greens and browns of the forest. A chilly breeze whips through the valley occasionally, but the flickering
A PC can approach a wisp, but this requires a contested dexterity or speed check. On a failure, the light flits away. If a PC gets close and makes a threatening move, the wisp will attack. (Use a will-o’-the-wisp or ghost enemy to run the wisps.)
A PC can attempt to sense magic on the wisps, revealing some odd energy. However, it seems natural rather than a spell.
A PC can attempt to research or identify the wisps. A successful knowledge check will reveal:
- “They look something like the fabled will-o’-the-wisp, but it’s often assumed those are tricks of marsh gasses. There’s nothing like that here, so it’s hard to say.”
- “You remember folklore that says during autumn, around the Feast of Saints at the beginning of the month of Harvesthome, the veil between worlds becomes thin. Different regions have different understanding of what that means and what lies on the other side. Most scholars believe tales of the undead–outside of some very specific magically-driven cases–are just legends.”
Day 3
As the road continues, the forest gets more dense and closer to the road. The fragrance of juniper and other evergreen trees is everywhere now; scant out in the open on the road and heavy when you step further into the forest.
Above you, peaks and spires of rock rise up from somewhere beyond the forest. As late afternoon sets in and the shadows of the trees start getting long, the road briefly runs under a narrow natural stone arch.
When you emerge on the other side, you see some new things. A low ridgeline peeks above the trees on the eastern horizon. On it stands a great stone structure; in its day, it had a great pitched roof and a steeple, but now much of it lies in ruins.
As you pass the arch, you see two stone foundations near the road; they just peek out from behind the cliffs. Very little remains, but from the few stones still standing on top of each other, it looks like these might have been guard towers.
Maybe a quarter of a mile down the road, you see a small path leading off the main road, eastward into the forest.