It happens to the best of us: a dropped torch here, a discarded ten-foot pole there, an old suit of leather armor left rotting in a goblin cave—veterans and newbies alike treat the campaign world like their personal wastebasket. But what if the world started throwing that trash back? Enter L. Frank Baum's 1901 fantasy novel, Dot and Tot in Merryland, which features young Evangeline Josephine "Dot" Freeland and Tot Thompson drifting down a river into a hidden, circular realm.
While the early stages of Merryland are filled with whimsical nonsense—such as Prince Flippityflop's clown training ground, the Valley of Bonbons, and the puppet-like Queen of Merryland—the journey concludes in the somber "Valley of Lost Things". This is a silent purgatory covered in millions of pins, needles, thimbles, buttons, lead pencils, and overshoes. It represents a psychological space of loss, nostalgia, and the passage of time. It's also a great place to run a junkpunk campaign.
Junk doesn't mean garbage, incidentally. Indeed, part of junkpunk is that one man's trash is another's treasure. One of the most memorable junkpunk style scenes in a movie is the Junk Lady in Labyrinth, who physically carries her hoard on her back, using physical junk to manipulate memories and distract intruders—a perfect template for magical traps that charm players with lost items. Star Wars provides a unique vision for what lurks in trash compactors (spoiler alert: a dianoga). And of course, the sad state of earth is established by the relentless work of WALL-E, filled with towering, compressed trash cubes.
There are a numerous things that might go wrong with children navigating giant trash heaps of pins, toys, and hats, but Baum's less interested in those consequences. The heaps are piled high enough that they themselves are likely a concern if toppled, but there's plenty of other worries too. Clearly, the lost stuff arrives somehow; falling from the sky means that a hairpin hailstorm can be deadly if the PCs are at the right place at the wrong time. Dust and debris can blind if wind kicks up, and sink holes likely abound from the unstable ground -- potentially landing in a thicket of sharp pencils or pins.
The terrain alone is bad enough. But surely, worse things lurk in the stacks...
Speaking of tunnels, in most cases digging into a heap would be impossible. I came up with the rubbler, a man-sized dung beetle, digging 10-foot wide tunnels to create 10-foot spherical rumbleballs where it deposits it's eggs. These rubblers make it possible for all sorts of creatures to live inside the normally unstable Heaps.
The hags walk on stilts not just to avoid the pins littering the valley floor, but also because there are large, ooze-like sticky monsters slithering along the Heaps, collecting debris on their bodies. Natives call it "Edgar" but there's more than one, and they are attracted to heavy footsteps, leaving Small characters, stilt-walkers, and children safe from their notice.
That said, D&D is rife with junk monsters: otyughs, rust monsters, oozes, shambling mounds (less plant, more junk), and golems of a variety of types, plus environmental smog creatures like mud, smoke, steam, and dust mephits.
Your Turn: What settings do you draw on for junkpunk inspiration?
While the early stages of Merryland are filled with whimsical nonsense—such as Prince Flippityflop's clown training ground, the Valley of Bonbons, and the puppet-like Queen of Merryland—the journey concludes in the somber "Valley of Lost Things". This is a silent purgatory covered in millions of pins, needles, thimbles, buttons, lead pencils, and overshoes. It represents a psychological space of loss, nostalgia, and the passage of time. It's also a great place to run a junkpunk campaign.
What's Junkpunk?
Also known as salvagepunk or scrappunk, junkpunk is a gritty, creative aesthetic centered around culture and technology built entirely from discarded refuse. Unlike traditional fantasy where items are simply repaired, junkpunk relies on the subversion of an object's original intent: broken gears become lethal hidden blades, boiler plates are layered into armor, and discarded thimbles, buttons, and keys are woven into chainmail. In a setting like the Valley of Lost Things, this style creates a stark world of survival where society's forgotten castoffs are stitched back together into makeshift tools, weapons, and mechanical constructs. It is an environment defined by a "do-it-yourself" spirit, where everything is mismatched, exposed wiring or internal clockwork is standard, and the line between a treasure and trash is thin.Junk doesn't mean garbage, incidentally. Indeed, part of junkpunk is that one man's trash is another's treasure. One of the most memorable junkpunk style scenes in a movie is the Junk Lady in Labyrinth, who physically carries her hoard on her back, using physical junk to manipulate memories and distract intruders—a perfect template for magical traps that charm players with lost items. Star Wars provides a unique vision for what lurks in trash compactors (spoiler alert: a dianoga). And of course, the sad state of earth is established by the relentless work of WALL-E, filled with towering, compressed trash cubes.
Watch Where You Step
Baum makes it a point of stating that the heaps in the Valley of Lost things are rife with needles (a commonly lost item), and so navigating them is a dangerous proposition. Queen Dolly advises the children to find a pile of thicker shoes that fit them (mismatched, natch), before shuffling into the piles.There are a numerous things that might go wrong with children navigating giant trash heaps of pins, toys, and hats, but Baum's less interested in those consequences. The heaps are piled high enough that they themselves are likely a concern if toppled, but there's plenty of other worries too. Clearly, the lost stuff arrives somehow; falling from the sky means that a hairpin hailstorm can be deadly if the PCs are at the right place at the wrong time. Dust and debris can blind if wind kicks up, and sink holes likely abound from the unstable ground -- potentially landing in a thicket of sharp pencils or pins.
The terrain alone is bad enough. But surely, worse things lurk in the stacks...
Stilts, Slime, and Synthetic Monsters
Inspired by the Junk Lady and the Crow Fishers from Mad Max, I created trash hags. These specialized hags navigate the jagged, unstable mounds by walking on long wooden or rusted metal stilts. This simple tool allows them to ignore the difficult terrain of the piles. They sift the piles of debris with long, telescoping hooks, looking for things to trade with the other valleys. To protect themselves, they use the burrows of other creatures who have cleared out the mountains of trash to create homes safe from falling debris above.Speaking of tunnels, in most cases digging into a heap would be impossible. I came up with the rubbler, a man-sized dung beetle, digging 10-foot wide tunnels to create 10-foot spherical rumbleballs where it deposits it's eggs. These rubblers make it possible for all sorts of creatures to live inside the normally unstable Heaps.
The hags walk on stilts not just to avoid the pins littering the valley floor, but also because there are large, ooze-like sticky monsters slithering along the Heaps, collecting debris on their bodies. Natives call it "Edgar" but there's more than one, and they are attracted to heavy footsteps, leaving Small characters, stilt-walkers, and children safe from their notice.
That said, D&D is rife with junk monsters: otyughs, rust monsters, oozes, shambling mounds (less plant, more junk), and golems of a variety of types, plus environmental smog creatures like mud, smoke, steam, and dust mephits.
Are You Lost?
There is a melancholic element to the Valley of Lost Things:In my campaign the Heaps are an unstable but crucial part of the surrounding world, a sign that Merryland is truly a fey place filled with the forlorn and the forgotten. And as the PCs negotiate with the trash hags and look for a way out, it's easy to forget: the life of an adventurer means being lost too.
Your Turn: What settings do you draw on for junkpunk inspiration?
The Merryland Series
This concludes all seven valleys in Merryland. I encourage you to read the book if you haven't.- Welcome to Merryland
- 1st Valley: Send in the Clowns
- 2nd Valley: A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Mayhem Go Down
- 3rd Valley: Special Delivery
- 4th Valley: Valley of the Dolls
- 5th Valley: What's New Pussycat?
- 6th Valley: Welcome to the Uncanny Valley
- 7th Valley: Heaps of Trouble in Junkpunk
