Help me flesh out this village's history?

[Buttercup]

So two sessions ago, my players' characters entered a new region. I had written up some notes and handed them out. Now I realize that a I don't have any ideas to back up one of the things I wrote, and I'm hoping all the good people here will save my butt.

I said: The Trade Road continues north of the town, through about 100 miles of wilderness before it reaches the unfortunate village of Glass Hill.

OK, I have no idea why Glass Hill is unfortunate. But maybe you do? Help!

 

[Crothian]

The wilderness area around Glass Hill has slowly been changing. There used to be a bandit problem in the area, but before the first snows of last year, a few of them came running from the wilderness. They looked like they came from a war zone. They claimed the rest of the bandits were killed "by the forest iteself". And since then there have been no reports of bandits. The roads are safe, but people that have left the roads have reported an eerie feeling and some of just never come back. Usually when something is hapopening with the forest, people turn to the Druids but they can't be found. No one knows if they are dead, busy with a serious problem, or what happened to them. But the old oak circle that the Druids used to use is gone.

 

[caudor]

My first thought was heat related, but nah.

How about:

The creepy Museum of Glass, created by the eccentric wizard Jabal Valdeez, was the site of a horrific event of some sort. Many of the original residents of the area were killed when an army of glass contructs streamed forth and attacked.

During a short-lived battle, Jabal was killed by the locals. However, the name Glass Hill has stuck. Upon a small hill that overlooks the area, the ruins of the old Museum of Glass remain. Those who have dared to explore the building have never returned. The place is considered haunted. At night, it is not unusual to hear the sounds of breaking glass echoing through the dark streets and alleys of the village below.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

Glass Hill is so named because the hill it stands upon is extremely unstable, and forever under threat of sudden, catastrophic collapse.

In the old days, the village was a hub of activity, and home to one of the largest, most prosperous mining operations in the nation. But then the veins were tapped, and prosperity fled.

As is so often the case, many of the village's residents were too poor to just pick up and leave when the hard times came, and so they remain, eking out their existence as best they can, and hoping their lives don't - literally - fall out from under their feet.

To make things worse, in the last few years, a powerful creature of sinister temperment took up residents in the maze of tunnels beneath the village. He/she/it has taken to forcing the villagers to offer it a yearly tribute of goods and flesh, by threatening to bring the hill down around their ears if they don't.

Patrick Y.

 

[Torm]

The hill is literally made out of glass. This is because, long long ago, some ancient and long forgotten civilization detonated a nuclear device there, and turned most of a sandy dune to glass. The people who live in the town stay there because the crops they grow there grow large and quick, and the animals they raise grow extra large and show some extraordinary features - but getting the animals to breed is hard. Townspeople are also regularly getting sick and incidence of sterility is relatively high, and occasionally they are attacked by aberrations. The town is just viable enough to survive, but never happily.

 

[Thanee]

The town is called 'unfortunate', because... well, noone really knows why, but the people there seem so unemotional, they do their work and all, but there is no laughter and no happiness in Glass Hill, everything is done in a halfhearted fashion. And that's why they call it 'unfortunate', but noone really knows why. Most travelers quickly move on.

So why is it, that the unfortunate people of Glass Hill act this way?

[SBLOCK]The truely unfortunate people of Glass Hill are subject to a powerful enchantment effect emanating from a strange creature lurking nearby. The creature steals their emotions and feeds off them, and everyone staying in the town for longer than a week is subject to the effect (Will negates, but there is a cumulative -1 penalty to the save for every week one is subject to the effect; duration is 1 week (or even permanent once the save modifier is down to the negatives); victims act as if dominated and left uncontrolled, but they are not really dominated, the creature has no control over them, it just makes them spiritless and dull). An additional hint could be, that a person, that clearly seems to be some sort of traveler is also stuck there.[/SBLOCK]

Bye
Thanee

 

[Ry]

Compatible with Crothian's

Glass Hill is named because it is home to some of the best glassblowers in the region ... at least it was, until a few years ago, when the bottles and vials produced from Glass Hill begant to decline sharply in value. Now known for suddenly shoddy workmanship, these vials are prone to breaking and coming unstoppered. Few know the truth: That a group of mad wizard/alchemists now controls the town, taking the best glassworks for their arcane experiments and commissioning strange devices for the further development of their science. The most impressive result of their experiments is a terrible potion that makes normal plants come alive, attacking whatever nonplants are nearby. Spraying this over an area is one of the wizards' favorite tactics, first used in their battle against the bandits a few years ago.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

Maybe there is some sort of weird radiation that has turned the people of Glass Hill into mutants and genetic disasters.

maybe Glass Hill was looted and pillaged a few years ago, leaving the population decimated and horror stricken.

Maybe they don't have good soil, so their crops are weak, leading to weak people, weak herd animals, and so on.

Maybe they are cursed. A warlock, angry at the people for not paying him tribute, has hurled a curse on them.

Maybe they are unfortunate because they have a halfling for a mayor.

Maybe they are unfortunate simply because they live in the remote backwater of Glass Hill, 100 miles from the nearest town. They are all backward hicks who don’t have a clue about recent events in the world.

Maybe they are unfortunate because the tradesmen who visit them always rip them off, but they are too backward and isolated to know the difference.

Maybe they are unfortunate because there is a band of humanoids in the area that keep kidnapping people from the town and doing unspeakable things to them.

Maybe their well water is polluted.

Maybe they all have bad teeth.

Maybe there is nothing unfortunate about them at all, its just the opinion and perspective of the person that told them that.

Maybe there used to be something unfortunate about them, but some other heroes have already saved them from their unfortunate fate.... and are now demanding a huge payoff from the people of Glass Hill.

Maybe Galss Hill sits on an ancient dimensional rift that must be resealed with a powerful spell once every 100 years. Now the book with the spell in it has gone missing and the 100 year time frame is almost up... the spell must be found and cast before the town is sucked into the abyss.

 

[domino]

I could be something mundane, and ancient. In days of yore, there was a battle, and the king/general had his base there. Until he was betrayed, and the blame fell upon the village, either in concert, or just one villager. Thus, the army slaughtered the village, razed the buildings, and salted the earth, in retribution.

Or, the general lost, and the enemy did the same thing to discourage other villages from helping their enemies.

 

[Buttercup]

Thanks for all the ideas, everyone. Keep 'em coming, please!