Hidden Ruins

[Gilladian]

If you wanted to have the PCs hunt for a set of ruins in a region that NOBODY in the area had previously known about, how would you hide them?

The region is warm-temperate, lightly hilly, with old growth forest. Think Alabama, but where there has been no regular human habitation in 200 years, only hunters and wanderers passing through occasionally, and humanoid tribes.

The ruins are at least 400 years old, and can be quite ruined, but with some surface traces remaining so they can eventually be found.

I'm thinking they're less than 20 miles, but more than 10 miles from the nearest village/farms. The local humanoids MIGHT know where the ruins are, but don't dwell in them.

What geographical feature/terrain/plant life could keep anyone from being aware that these particular ruins are here? I'm also open to a simple, long-duration magical effect, if it can be created with a 4th level or lower spell or spell-like effect.

At this point, I have NO idea what lives in the ruins, etc... just that they were, more than a thousand years ago, the home of a legendary warrior who was assassinated there. After his death, the castle could have been used/dwelled in for a long time before being abandoned when the empire collapsed.

The PCs will be trying to find the ruins, then search them to find a medallion that belonged to the warrior, and possibly even the sword that was used in his assassination. Although that might be elsewhere. Not that any of this is important to why nobody knows the ruins are there, but I thought someone might be interested!

 

[Crothian]

You could have it that they were completely underground but an earthquake or landslide has made them easier to find. Or maybe there is just a lot of over growth in the area and the locals never realized that the ruins were there. It could be that what people that was a hill or shallow pond is really part of the ruins because whomever built them did things differently. Maybe the area is surrounded by poison ivy or other normal but annoying plant that made it so people never really explored that area. Perhaps people know the ruins are there but they are cursed. The last three adventuring parties that went there met with death and destruction. Maybe there is a larger more well known area of ruins nearby and everyone is busy still exploring them. So, this other place of ruins no one knows about because anyone that would notice them is busy elsewhere.

 

[Gilladian]

Well, I realize I left out some possibly important info. 15 years ago, an adventurer found the ruins, marked them on a map, and left the map behind when he disappeared.

His family searched for him, using the map to try to locate the ruins, and failed. So what I really want is for the PCs, who will soon have the map, to be able to use it to find the ruins that nobody else could find in between times.

Why are the ruins, whose general location (probably to within a mile or so) is locatable, not findable? And how could the PCs, who are only 2nd level, find them?

 

[ccooke]

Well, I realize I left out some possibly important info. 15 years ago, an adventurer found the ruins, marked them on a map, and left the map behind when he disappeared.

His family searched for him, using the map to try to locate the ruins, and failed. So what I really want is for the PCs, who will soon have the map, to be able to use it to find the ruins that nobody else could find in between times.

Why are the ruins, whose general location (probably to within a mile or so) is locatable, not findable? And how could the PCs, who are only 2nd level, find them?

A few possibilities:

1) The map doesn't show the whole area, just a route based on common landmarks. Since the map was made, one of the landmarks - maybe a well-preserved statue - has been removed. The party may (before or after getting lost) find the new "owner" of it. Maybe it's been appropriated for a local humanoid tribe's temple, or a noble decided it would look great as one of the gateposts on his new manor.

2) The map-maker didn't want (other) people to be able to find the site and made systematic errors in the map which he knew how to correct. Since the party have some contact with his family, they might find another map of an area they know already (and thus would be able to compare the differences). Example "errors": The interesting site isn't marked on the map at all. However, four non-existent holy sites *are* marked on it. Connect each one with the furthest from it with lines and the interesting site can be found where the diagonals cross.

3) Something near the site - either when the map was made but not now, or now but not when the map was made - is causing compasses to point in the wrong direction. It's not easy to notice unless you get very close to the source of the anomaly, but it's enough to make navigating using a compass very hard in the area. Either the party can notice the issue, lose their compass or observe that the compass and the sun are out of sync.

 

[Gilladian]

I really like idea # 2. It plays into the "you need to do research" theme I'm trying to promote for this campaign, as well as being something I can really see this adventurer as having done.

I think that's what I'll do!

I've also decided that the ruins are hidden by illusion-magic, because a half-fey sorceress whom the locals view as a "witch" is living there. The adventurer knew her, and didn't want to risk leading people to her hideout, which is why he kept it a secret.

This will tie into several later threads for the campaign, too!

 

[darjr]

For a long time the ruins were shunned, until the depths of time washed the reason clean from the minds of the locals. Here were convenient roads and foundations to build a villiage, then a town, then a city upon.

The ruins are right there, in plain sight, but there is a city built right on top of them incorporating the few bits and pieces that would make decent roads or foundations or even the tall mysterious inexplicable statue in the middle of market square. Nobody noticed because it's always been that way. But the ruins are there and they hide riches and something dangerous and long forgotten. All it takes is the right clue or two to point it out. Then the adventurers would realize the ruins are all around them, they played among it's cursed streets, they pulled out it's cobbles to throw at the guard during riots, and now they know they've also been cursed to the same doom that befel the original inhabitants.

 

[MarkB]

One other possibility that you could consider, given the fey connection, is that these ruins are no longer entirely of this world. They became attuned to the Fey realm and passed over, and were only visible in the mortal realm on certain occasions (i.e. the solstice, or under a full moon).

The explorer from 15 years ago happened to visit them on that date, and did not know that they would vanish again the next day.

However, now that the half-fey 'witch' has taken them as her abode, she has strengthened the link between worlds for her own purposes, with the result that the ruins are now visible more often, though she can still hide them when she wants to.

 

[the Jester]

Unforested woodlands will hide your ruins just fine without help. There are plenty of ruined cities lost in Central and South America.

 

[Shiroiken]

Another idea that would help is to use local legends. Have the area be cursed, haunted, or the lair of an ultrapowerful monster (dragon, demon, etc.). None of it actually has to be true, but the rumors and legends would keep most from investigating.

It probably won't fully explain everything, but used in combination with other ideas already mentioned should work quite well.

 

[gamerprinter]

Indeed, as Jester states. There are ruins in Mexico that have been there for hundreds of years, in some cases, its not until satellite imagery can identify the shapes of pyramids under the jungle canopy. Even when standing right next to it, heavy layers of vines, roots, leafy ground cover make it look like a hill, so that locals don't even know its there - yet it is.

There are sites like Skara Brae, in the Orkney islands north of Scotland, a neolithic village that was buried under bog, sand dunes and grass, not until a storm surge washed the soil away was it even known that such a neolithic site existed at all. Since your site is further inland than along a sea, a series of storms could have flooded and nearby rivers jumped the banks and deposited tons of soil and detritus completely covering an entire ruined site. No evidence remains, unless you dig down several feet of top soil to find it.

Also the guy who first mapped the found ruined location may have been poorly skilled as a surveyor or cartographer, and the map is simply wrong, not known by its original creator, such that the actual location of the ruins is miles off where it's stated to be on that map.

Any subsequent legends of evil or haunted woods has kept the bulk of humanity out of the area the ruins inhabit. Some may have even heard there's ruins there, but the taboo of going there keeps most sane people away.

Of course, as you suggest perhaps the ruined site is within close proximity to a fey protected site, thus fey magic hides the area of the ruins through illusion magic.

In the end, there are many mundane reasons why lost ruins are lost, you don't need magic to hide it, nature can do that by itself, just fine.