Zarban

Your fantasy world should be chock-full of points of interest, both large and small, whether you run a hex-crawl, point-crawl, or rumor-driven campaign. Some of these could be intriguing enough to spark an adventure, but they are not meant to be adventures in themselves, hence the tombs being looted, etc.

1. Towns & Cities
2. Roads & Countryside
3. Bodies of Water
4. Wilderness
5. Oddities

1. Towns & Cities

1. A famous, ornate fountain that features a motif of sailors, sea monsters, and gods and goddesses of the sea.
2. The Silent Eye, a tavern that features a taxidermied beholder.
3. A theater/puppet/acrobatic troupe performs regularly in the square.
4. A guild hall with ornately carved fireplace panels or gargoyles (made by guild members to show their skill and pride).
5. A hastilude or wargame (such as a joust), warrior training ground, or calcio pitch.
6. A main street lit with magic each night.
7. Ancient ruins are incorporated into a building in use.
8. A building construction site uses a treadmill winch or elevator (in a city).
9. A clock and/or bell tower that is crooked or leaning.
10. A church/temple with a crooked or twisted spire.
11. The best artisans in the realm in a certain craft (silversmiths, luthiers, etc.).
12. Centuinia, a college of magic run by headmaster Archwizard Heggs.
13. The Thurtlesly Collection, a research library for sages and clerks.
14. The Collister Royal Archives, a college of arms (heraldry) and archive of the realm.
15. The Royal Mint, one of two or three locations in the realm where coins are struck.
16. Streets filled with colorful parrots.
17. A tavern on the coast with a hole in the center where mermaids visit and entertain.
18. An iron golem silently guards the main gate.
19. The king’s pleasure yacht is kept here (on the coast).
20. Riverjoin, a city where the Blue River and Gray River meet and mingle their waters.

2. Roads & Countryside

1. A peat bog where diggers have unearthed a bog body and run away from it.
2. The Gardens at Kildavey: The monks of the Kildavey Abbey maintain a large and unique collection of beautiful, useful, and exotic plants in several gardens, some in buildings with glass roofs.
3. A bathing spot with rope swing hanging from a tree.
4. A coaching inn with the articulated skeleton of a dragon hanging from the rafters.
5. A stone causeway out to an island with an empty motte-and-bailey fortress (on the coast).
6. A stone bridge of notable design and/or beauty.
7. A signal tower (flags or fire/smoke or lanterns).
8. A villa of the Old Empire days, still in use as a yeoman’s house.
9. A monopteros of the Old Empire, overgrown but intact and shading a well.
10. A lighthouse (coastal or island).
11. A holloway or sunken lane.
12. A mile marker and/or road sign for a place that no longer exists.
13. A border marker indicated a current or ancient boundary.
14. A sign warning about a dangerous or forbidden place.
15. An ancient standing stone with mysterious runes that, if deciphered, tell of the early days of the folk of this land.
16. A gibbet or gallows for hanging or displaying the bodies of outlaws.
17. Pikes for displaying the heads of outlaws.
18. A great statue dominating the landscape (a god, saint, hero, or monarch).
19. Bard’s Bridge, which is made of crystal structures that sing when the wind blows. Tapping and strumming by a skilled musician causes it to play music and provides good luck to the listeners.
20. A line of standing stones with carved tops and holes that, on a particular day, cast a unified shadow that reveals a mysterious symbol; its meaning is unknown.

3. Bodies of Water

You can approach a waterfall either from pool below the falls or from the falls above the pool.

1. A babbling brook tumbling down some stones.
2. A picturesque cascade over boulders.
3. A magnificent falls down a sheer cliff into a churning pool.
4. A small falls down a high cliff, showering a pool.
5. A waterfall that hides a cave behind it.
6. A broad, rocky falls that is little more than a rapids.
7. A fish pond, where fish in a river are passively trapped.
8. An aqueduct with a leak, creating a rivulet.
9. A small, slow falls down bright-green mossy rocks.
10. A waterfall split into several streams before tumbling down a cliff, creating a great deal of mist and watering heavy vegetation all around.
11. A secluded falls that spills over a statue of the water goddess carved into the cliff face.
12. A mill pond (near a flour mill) where semi-intelligent river otters have built a little castle of stones and mud.
13. A lake with a mirror-flat surface that, folk say, when you gaze at the full moon reflected in it, you see cryptic visions that help you understand your plight.
14. A lake with an island where a giant magpie has amassed a small fortune in stolen coins, daggers, and other shiny things. The bird is not aggressive.
15. A lake with a magical ferry between two towns–both in ruins–that still operates if commanded.
16. A cache of elven jars of nuts and dried fruit hidden in a little grotto by an ancient weeping willow tree, cooled by the running stream.
17. A lake with a non-aggressive and herbivorous lake creature.
18. A marsh that is perpetually bathed in heavy fog. There is an island that holds an old watchtower that reaches above the fog and ruined boardwalk to it.
19. An seemingly ordinary pool of deep blue that is actually incredibly deep and leads to strange, unexplored caves.
20. A pool where a broad river tumbles down over rocks carved into gigantic frogs.

4. Wilderness

Wilderness includes untamed woodland as well as moorland, grassland, rocky badlands, hills, mountains, and barren wasteland.

1. The hut of a forest warden, hermit, or shepherd, unoccupied, as they are away/dead.
2. The Great Guidestones: 20-foot-tall standing stones marked with ancient laws in multiple old languages. Some laws are timeless; some quaint.
3. A ruins and dungeon that are empty–entirely unoccupied but for very small, mundane creatures.
4. An ancient shrine to a nearly forgotten god… but with evidence it is still visited.
5. A barrow mound, chambered cairn, or cave tomb that has already been looted, with evidence of an NPC party or faction the heroes recognize.
6. Pyramid tomb, mausoleum, or crypt that has already been looted, with evidence of an NPC party or faction the heroes recognize.
7. An ancient ruin used as a shelter by a druid.
8. A monument of great stone swords marking a battlefield.
9. A meadow of wildflowers where the boundary between the material and the ethereal is thin, and the wind carries mysterious whispers of the legendary past and the possible future.
10. Among the roots of a great, ancient tree is a little grotto of luminescent moss and fungi and a clear pool with waters that grant visions of far-away lands.
11. A moorland where mystical “lanterns” rise each night, casting a soft glow of many colors. They hang a dozen feet in the air, but if you touch one, you gain a minor/temporary wish, such as a vision of your fondest desire or great strength for one day.
12. A border watchtower, no longer manned.
13. A wizard or witch’s tower, unoccupied, but with a puzzle-locked door and an interior bigger than the exterior and safe for the night.
14. An exceptionally windy plain where the few trees have grown bent over.
15. A ring of elevated stones (henge) that, if activated, levitates those in it high into the air as desired, allowing them a vision of the land for hundreds of miles.
16. The remains of beasts killed by griffons, now the property of vultures.
17. A mass grave (from plague, massacre, etc.) with meager markings.
18. Preparations for a funeral pyre, wicker man, or flaming boat funeral.
19. Ancient mountain cult mummies (exposed to dry air), inanimate.
20. A rocky promontory with five dragon’s blood trees, whose sap is an alternative to real dragon’s blood in potions. Each tree can produce 2d6 drams (50 gp/dram) the first day and another 1d6 drams each day afterward. But on a 1, the tree will soon die (which a druid will likely know). The trees will not grow in other locales.

5. Oddities

Oddities come in many forms, including empty ruins, the domains of nature spirits, and peculiar natural phenomena.

1. The Bairney Triskelion: The figure of a triple spiral carved into the turf of a hill, exposing bright white chalk. Arcane magic performed in the triskelion under moonlight is more powerful than usual.
2. A picturesque pool fed by a tumbling brook, where unicorns bathe. Their hoof prints are the only evidence of them, but bathing here is restorative, as a potion of healing. Taken away, the waters are not magical.
3. An enchanted orchard where the fruits grant long and luxurious hair, an artistic ability, a dog’s keen sense of smell, restful sleep, and such. They can be plucked and carried but spoil like any normal fruit; effects last until you eat something else.
4. A forest of gigantic mushrooms that are not edible but not toxic or magical.
5. A plateau shrouded in an enchanted fog that causes confusion, guarding the entrance to the otherwise simple cave tomb of a wizard.
6. A magic portal to another land with a river than runs thru it, carrying the water from one land to another far away.
7. Well of the Moon: A deep pool that, under the light of the full moon, allows a person to sacrifice a possession of great value to obtain a boon of the gods (effectively like paying a 20th-level cleric for a spell).
8. An elven valley filled with gentle sloping meadow includes a huge labyrinth made of honeycomb built by giant bees influenced by a long-dead sorceress, whose cottage is at the center. The honey here is the finest and has mystical properties.
9. Two towns nestled against cliffs on either side of a wide valley, where the cliffs are carved with huge bowls that focus the sound from the other side, effectively magnifying the ears of a person on a seat at the center of each bowl, allowing them to converse 14 miles apart.
10. A magical hedge maze that seems to have a mind of its own, rearranging its paths each full moon. At the center is a fountain, statue, or door to a mystery chamber.
11. What seems at first to be the remains of a forest that burnt down is in fact the logs and broken trunks of an ancient forest that was turned to stone by magic.
12. A rocky hill site where the stones, when struck, emit melodic tones. It is home to a nature spirit and attracts animals, including birds that drop pebbles on the singing stones, filling the air with eerie music.
13. An ancient ruin containing an intact chamber with a strange engine with a seat and levers and having various gears and lenses. Obviously the work of a great artificer of the Old Empire, study may determine its purpose was to predict eclipses.
14. A secluded mountain grove enchanted by the presence of a nature spirit, where rare and exotic plants grow and bloom year-round, untouched by winter.
15. A secluded clear spring, the domain of a nature spirit. Drinking from it gives the imbiber: (1d6: 1=a snout face; 2=tall ears; 3=horns; 4=stub wings; 5=fur all over; 6=a tail). Slaying a monstrosity that threatens the spring will remove the curse.
16. A stairway in the mountains, climbing to a bare promontory. For any who reach the top, another stairway appears, reaching into the empty, ruined cloud mansion of long-dead storm giants. Rooms are commonly 40-feet high and 80-feet across.
17. A strange, overgrown stone gate that was once a portal to the far-off land of the Old Empire. But it doesn’t work… without an imperial key.
18. A bowl-like depression where large stones float six feet in the air; they can be pushed around and, indeed, move with the wind, but tend to slide back near their space as they near the edge of the depression. A wild magic zone.
19. A grove that is the former lair of a basilisk, with “statues” of the petrified warriors who tried and failed to slay it. Their armor and garments are ancient.
20. A cavern of gigantic crystals.