D&D 5E A Touch of the Strange

[pukunui]

In Episode 4 of Hoard of the Dragon Queen, there's a possible encounter with a golden stag. The guy who writes the hackslashmaster blog describes it as "Mythic, interesting, and with a touch of the strange. It's seeing things like this in published adventures that lets me know the spirit of the OSR has taken hold."

It does seem like WotC is making an effort to inject a bit of mystery into 5e. For one thing, in the PHB, we've got things like the trinkets table. That's pretty cool. And in the adventure modules, we've got things like the aforementioned Golden Stag, plus the Gallery of Angels in Out of the Abyss and the Last Laugh in Princes of the Apocalypse. There are also some good ideas in various monster entries in the MM.

I'd like some more of this sort of thing. Things that can't quite be completely explained or codified by the rules.

Whatcha y'all got? Let's make this a repository of ideas. The only criteria is that it has to be a) mythic, b) interesting, and c) a little bit strange.

Go!

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I have a rule that every adventure has to have something unexplainable, not in the rules, in it. So I’m completely on-board with this.

I’ve used:

A riddle and game loving, non-evil undead child
The ever-popular glowing pools of liquid with different effects
A wizard’s tower made of a gently-swaying giant tentacle
A friendly but hapless drow wizard on an out-of-control spider mech

Goodman Games’ The Dungeon Alphabet is a great resource for these sorts of things.

 

[pukunui]

Goodman Games’ The Dungeon Alphabet is a great resource for these sorts of things.

Sounds good! I'll go check it out.

 

[Uchawi]

I would not confuse mystery with randomness. Although randomness does help to generate new hooks or ideas. But if the adventures has narrative elements that no matter how far removed or alien eventually lead back to the main story then that is good writing. Including a good mystery.

 

[pukunui]

I would not confuse mystery with randomness. Although randomness does help to generate new hooks or ideas. But if the adventures has narrative elements that no matter how far removed or alien eventually lead back to the main story then that is good writing. Including a good mystery.

I must be looking for randomness then. Because I'm not looking for narrative elements that tie into the main story. Can you think of any good examples? I'm more looking for ideas than advice. Thanks!

 

[Eltab]

My HotDQ group got the Oathbow version of the Golden Stag. Later on we lost the Bow (character death, no chance to retrieve body). When I took over as DM, I found a way to bring it back into the storyline - via the Cult hit squad, which "just happened" to be commanded by the PC-killer. I demonstrated its power by shooting at our raging Barbarian; it actually hurt her !

When my group finishes with Neronvain, I'm going to let them sight a golden stag on a hilltop near the roadside; it looks at them reproachfully then bounds back into the forest. (Hopefully somebody will remember the promise to bring him a Scroll of Remove Curse.) If they follow up on this, the Bow and its owner will turn out to know important long-lost knowledge about Tiamat and/or the Cult.

 

[pukunui]

No one's got any more ideas? Really?

 

[NotActuallyTim]

I always liked a good old fashioned rain of blood. Or a second moon showing up in the sky.

Actually, any funky meteorological stuff is good for a campaign. Especially when you're underground. Cause then?

It's really weird.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

In my Dungeon World game, many of the most interesting effects have been along these lines. A bit of backstory: One of the Towers of Magic (enormously important, powerfully magical structures that dramatically affect hundreds of square miles around them with their energies) was...for lack of a better term, "drained." It still had its power, but we eliminated the Avatar for that tower (the Gold Avatar of Enchantment, in the mental/beguiling sense) by more or less talking him/her* to death. At the moment the tower was 'drained' of its affiliation, turning its stones from shiny gold to dull, slightly translucent grey, the Red Avatar of Destruction (styled the Incendiary) attempted to claim the tower for herself from its top...while the White Avatar of Artifice (styled the Archivist) quietly attempted to do the same thing for herself from the sewer tunnels at its base (creating a spell that etched formulae and patterns onto the stones, turning the etched-off dust into more quills to continue the process). A single White Wizard, who had more of a thirst for creative writing than for precise cataloguing of magical or historical events, entered the contested Tower and altered the Archivist's spell, absorbing the remaining latent Gold magic as well as the passion of the intruding Red magic and the 'recording' focus of the intruding White magic. Thus was born the Rose Tower of Song, and its Avatar, the Novelist--an interesting and ambiguous character.

Later, in working to defend the budding (no pun intended) tower from an all-out offensive by Red forces, the party accidentally caused the creation of a brand-new river. It was fed by the tears shed by an army weeping together at a sad turn in a story, then nurtured by their joy as the story ended happily. Now, a magical river flows through the Rose Tower's lands, literally laughing over the stones.

We've also stumbled upon a hidden, almost trap-like "hedge maze labyrinth," complete with minotaurs popping up out of the ground to patrol the newly-grown maze; a gargantuan, grotesque amalgam of human flesh, mud, and stone caused by the destruction of the Black Tower of Necromancy; and a revolting, profane "drill" made of meat and bone, carving its way up from hell to try to breach the surface and (literally) spearhead a demonic invasion. Precisely how (and usually why) these particular dangers appeared is never explained. They're just present, part of the mysterious ambient magic of this world.

*Said Gold Avatar, styled the Allmind, was a gestalt identity of dozens, possibly hundreds or even thousands of personalities absorbed into the great power of a single mind-dominating mage. Elves, in this world, are true hermaphrodites and thus can identify as either male or female (or both or neither) as they see fit; when combined with the absorption of so many different minds of varying gender, the Allmind was a truly genderless being, though giving a slight appearance of favoring male gender, simply due to all of the other, active Avatars being women.

 

[mflayermonk]

I thought the golden stag was to represent the Emerald Enclave.