1001 Mournland Horrors

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by lily_knight:

111) Ahead, a field of arms, growing from the ground, waves in the warm breeze. As you get closer, the fingers occasionally move against the wind, almost as if they wish to touch you.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

112) On the far side of a small lake, the petrified form of a druid, apparently one that was scrying the water, lies at the water's edge, his face peering into the depths while his oaken staff touches the water. Those who look over the stony druid's shoulder see a frightful and fierce battle between Breland and Karrnath. A DC 15 Knowledge(History) reveals that battle being fought in the pool is a recording of the final battle fought in the Last War, the same that created the field of ruins that lies elsewhere in the Mournland.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by lasrifriir:

Here's my meager contribution...

113) In the middle of the wasteland, a single mad figure can be seen. A young human male, his hair turned prematurely white and his eyes as black as night. His entire left side is covered in a thick layer of Mournland glass that is harder then adamantine. While this glass fuses him to the cursed ground, at the same time it sustains him and has allowed him to live a tortured existence for the past 4 years. Any PC that comes within 20 feet can see an infinite sea of stars within his blind eyes, the void beckoning to them. Treat this as a DC 15 Gaze attack; if the a PC fails then they immediately fall to the ground in a haze, their eyes slowing turning into the madman's own.

If the PC's can brave the initial danger, they find that the man is quite alive, but also invariably insane. Four solitary years in the Mournland as well as his own warped sense of space and time has shattered the poor soul's mind. He responds to any questions or even the sound of another humanoid voice with mad rantings about "the horrible, gaping sky!" and Things That Man Was Not Meant To Know.

The exact details are left to the DM, but given that this man could very well be one of the few exact eyewitnesses of the Mourning, the conversation should be suitably cryptic and disturbing. Make daddy Hellcow proud boys!

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

114) While heading west, heading roughly towards Sharn, the City of Towers, a PC notices, with a sufficient Spot check, a disturbance in the air that resembles the roiling of hot air on a blistering day. Odd, as it's usually chill in the Mournland (something to do with less sunlight).
The disturbance grows to colossal size and eventually it becomes impossible to see anything but a blur beyond the disturbance, like a steamy mirror. Then, another picture begins to overwrite reality: It is an image of a beautiful day just a few miles from Sharn. Suddenly a strobing pillar of Blue light erupts from the ground, obliterating the city in an instant and continuing upwards into the sky.
To the horror of all, it traces along the sir and impacts the sun itself, which flares brightly and expands (fort save DC 20 vs. Blindness), only to explode in a flash of light. After the flash subsides and those who save adjust to the light, the air returns to normal, the distortion in the air is gone, and it is once again a gloomy day in the Mournland, like any other.
But the premonition still haunts the PCs. Was it merely a trick of the mind? A vision of things to come? A warning? A prophecy? An inevitability? Only the DM knows for sure...

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

115. The PCs find a dungeon. For every 20 feet they move into the dungeon, they seem to age one year (Illusion, not physically). When the PCs look old enough to die, they simply continue as normal, but look as if their corpse is slowly rotting. Moving out of the dungeon makes the PCs look normal again.

This could spook the PCs, if you say suddenly "Your friends seem to be gone. In their place are horrible rotting corpses." It could also confuse them if they run into a scavenger group hunting for treasure.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

I'm amazed at how well this thread has done. Less than 2 weeks and nearly a 1000 views. Well, submissions died down a few days ago but I'll try and squeeze some more before the topic dies totally.

116) A grand looking apple tree lies in the middle of a graveyard named Potter's Orchard. The apples from this tree are luscious and red, but are shaped to vaguely resemble a human face. An apple restores one who eats it as if from Hero's Feast, but the moment it's plucked the tree shivers and screams in pain. The apple, once bitten, replays in an instant the life of one who died and was buried in the graveyard, which may expose a few interesting plot hooks or serve as the end of a quest for information (...and the old sage said "seek out Potter's Orchard and eat the apple of Crastus, fallen general of Cyre, there ye shall find what you seek...)

117) There is a gargantuan hole in the ground, lined with jagged black rocks. Air is periodically sucked in and blown out of the hole in a steady rhythm, and the ground stirs and rumbles. Almost like the ground is breathing...

118) An entire town has turned invisible, and is only revealed on dewy mornings when the clinging water silhouettes the buildings. The area is abandoned, save for the ghost of a young Cyran soldier who searched the mists for his invisible home until the day he died. If the party can lead him to his home while the dew exposes it, he may reward them generously.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by hufish:

119. A mutated living scrying effect cast to determine the cause of the Day of Mourning causes the area it encompasses to re-experience the devastation of the Day of Mourning. The area of effect is some miles in diameter, and any living thing within the effect must make a will save DC 25. Failure results in unconsciousness and a brief coma for one day, and the loss of 1d4 wisdom as the subject is wracked by nightmares of being caught in the Mourning itself.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

120) Scorpions that have hands where their stingers should be.

121) A pair of huge statues carved so that they depict two knights crossing swords in a duel. The statues never move, but the statues continually yell insults, curses, and battle-cries, at one another. The statues are linked to a Shavarath manifest zone, extending weapon-like spells, impeding emotion calming spells, and occasionally causing swarms of flying blades to appear.

122) In the distance, an explosion flashes followed by a boom. Then it happens again in the exact same fashion. And again. Moving closer, the party can hear screams that repeat eerily again and again in a steady rhythm. After moving forward about quarter mile they see in the midst an explosion that consumes all within, which turns out to be the source of the screams. However, as soon as the blast dissipates, the PCs feel wind suck inward as time reverses itself to the moment of the blast, causing the victims to revive and the blast to happen over and over again. The PCs may be able to rescue the people inside the blast radius using a well timed resilient sphere or similar spell, but any caught within the blast radius are disintegrated, and become part of the recurring explosion.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by thuragrun:

123) A twisted and burnt treant wanders the countryside, gathering corpses. It wears the dead as jewelry.

124) Same thing as before, but the dead have animated as ghouls and attempt to feed upon one another or any corpse the treant passes and does not pick up.

125) A living death knell/inflict light wounds spell has gone insane, if that is even possible, trying to feed on the long dead corpses lying about and attacks anything, including rocks and other inanimate objects.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Originally posted by zombiegleemax:

126) I remember some time back on these boards, there was a thread about two opposing living spells duking it out for all eternity... this seems like a Mournland battle if there ever was one.

127) A normal house sits in a valley, and a man is doing chores inside. He seems quite sane and unaffected by the Mourning. He claims he was there and saw it all, but refuses to tell the PCs anything.

128) A dead woman in peasant's clothes lies in the road. She is young and there seems to be no reason for her to have died. In her pocket is a white rose.