What could cause an explosion big enough to wipe out a hamlet?

[Hand of Evil]

Wizard duel. Two powerful wizards faced each other, their spells blasting the land around them as each tryed to gain the upper hand, then one went too far. Now the area is a place of strange happenings, to enter could mean death or transformation!

 

[Wicht]

For a more mundane but highly realistic explanation - try a silo explosion. Large granary suddenly catches fire and Boom!, no more hamlet.

Maybe a stray fireball hit the silo. Maybe just somebodies candle lit some dust in the air.

 

[Buttercup]

Wow! Some very good ideas here.

I like the portal opening gone wrong, and here's why. The party stumbled through a portal while running from a big, ugly, nameless thing that was chasing them, and they ended up here. Several of them are hoping to find a portal that can take them back home. If they find out that portals can be extremely unstable, it will make them just a bit more nervous. Mwahahaha!

Nifft, you're nifty! I love the dialect you use.

 

[Nifft]

Nifft, you're nifty! I love the dialect you use.

Your Highness, I am but your humble servent, unworthy of the honor of your notice.

Anyway, about the portals: what if portals are fairly stable, unless you try to bring something magical through them? That'll create all sorts of fun situations...

"Geoff, yon drake ariseth! We must fly, to deal its death another day! Through the port with thee!"

"sigh -- by the blood that crusts my brow, I will avenge Thermidor, and reclaim my father's blade."

"Geoff, the blade will rest till your return! Fly now while there live hands to wield it!"

"Aye, till our return. Au revoir, Gandolix."

-- Nifft

 

[Buttercup]

Anyway, about the portals: what if portals are fairly stable, unless you try to bring something magical through them?

Ooo, evil!

 

[Xarlen]

Nice ideas.

GM friend of mine once told me of a situation she came to. The party mage had found a scroll, but he failed his roll in distinguishing what it was. So, she told him it was 'Like Magic Missile'. So, he decided to cast the spell, and find out what it was.

It turned out to be a fireball.

He was in the Magic Item Shed.

A number of them rolled 1s on their saves.

The town was obliterated.

 

[Buttercup]

Well, so far my players haven't seen any magic performed at all. Two of them have spellcasting ability, but they haven't seen it in anyone else. So they think they're in a no-magic world. They might have realized their mistake if they hadn't burned down the house that had the magic items I planted for them. But they did burn it down, so they haven't found so much as a potion. Poor babies.

But I guess that will make it all the more meaningful if the destroyed hamlet's fate was caused by magic.

 

[Ancalagon]

For mundane explosion, the granary works very well.

Other mudane: mine explosion. There is an abandoned mine right below (coal), and someone doing work in his basement pokes a hole in. Of course, it's dark in there, so he sticks a torch in the whole to see where it goes...

Ancalagon

 

[Buttercup]

Apropos of a thread in the general forum, I think there will be an unstable portal open to the plane of decay. Maggots everywhere! I'll have a cleric of the Queen of the Dead be responsible. All the villagers will be maggot infested zombies. The carcasses of their domestic animals will be oozing with rot. Trees will be covered in fungus, and even the grass will smell bad.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Apropos of a thread in the general forum, I think there will be an unstable portal open to the plane of decay. Maggots everywhere! I'll have a cleric of the Queen of the Dead be responsible. All the villagers will be maggot infested zombies. The carcasses of their domestic animals will be oozing with rot. Trees will be covered in fungus, and even the grass will smell bad.

Haha, sounds good.

You should have all their food and water spoil if they spend a certain amount of time in the area.

And any time they take damage, they get a secret fort save or get a weak disease.

Good luck!
FD