Some artwork copyright William McAusland, used with permission
For one reason or another, characters can spend quite a bit of time in graveyards and cemeteries. One way of making this time more interesting is with some random encounters in them. Here are ten encounters, some odd, some potentially useful, to have in a graveyard.
A freshly dug grave, with the damp soil still piled next to it. The grave clearly hasn’t been dug long, and the shovel used to dig it has been plunged into the pile of soil. If the spade is pulled out, the blade of it bears slight traces of fresh blood.
A gravestone has been damaged so that only the very stub remains. Bits and pieces of broken stone lie around the grave, together with an abandoned sledgehammer. The grave itself has also been attacked, and by the smell and looks of it, someone has urinated and defecated on it.
A ghostly white figure is seen flitting amongst the gravestones in the distance. If pursued, the ghostly figure can easily be caught up with and turns out to be just a woman in a flowing white dress who is looking for a specific grave.
Covering a grave is a thick iron mortsafe, a device created to prevent bodysnatchers from digging up coffins. The mortsafe is clearly damaged, with its iron bars bent and twisted. However, it looks like the damage came from below, as if something was prying its way out from the grave, not above.
Flowering plants cover this very well kept grave and the headstone itself practically gleams. A small compartment at the base of the grave contains various tools used to maintain it, and now and then, or if the grave is interfered with, the implements fly out of the compartment to keep the grave in perfect shape.
Kneeling at the end of a grave is a hooded figure dressed in black. They appear to be mourning the one whose grave it is, and the grave looks comparatively recent and fresh flowers have been laid on it. The person will refuse to respond to anyone who speaks to them. If pressed, they turn, lift their hood revealing a horrifying visage and then vanish.
Mushrooms and other fungi are growing in unusual profusion over one grave. Even the headstone is nearly hidden under a mass of mould, which will need scraping away to read the inscription. As night, all the different fungi glow with an unsettling blue light.
One grave stands out from the others because it is completely enswathed in cobwebs. For some reason, it looks to be attracting spiders, who can be seen within the webbing, and either the grave hasn’t been cleared in some time or the spiders are spinning the webbing back at a very fast rate.
Standing at the head of a small grave is the statue of a small girl, posed as if in dance. The next time that the characters pass the grave, the statue of the little girl is no longer there.
Two gravediggers are sitting at the side of a grave they are in the process of digging. They have stopped for a break and are sitting on the pile of soil they’ve dug out so far. They are naturally talkative and will willingly chat to anyone who stops about the graveyard as a whole.
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Defeated enemies have pockets, and What Has He Got in His Pockets? 100 Fighter Items has 100 items that could be found in the pockets, or other location, of a rogue or thief. They range from junk through odd to having minor magic powers.
A Dekas of Alchemical Items (5E) has ten new alchemical items for 5th Edition for characters to create or buy or for NPCs to own.
Geists are the beings that come to mortals as they are dying and offer them a bargain; to be bound to the geist and cheat death, for a time, at least. 50 Geists details fifty of these beings.
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In this, the fourth episode in a series of videos in which Neal Litherland covers Chronicles and World of Darkness, he looks at the setting and where newcomers can start.
Numenera is a game published by Monte Cook Games. Its setting is the Ninth World, and this list has ten rumours for that setting. The rumours, which are similar to the Hearsay that can be found in the official books, can be used as adventure hooks or as simple misinformation.
As people from the Steadfast have moved south into Matheunis to get away from kings and empires, so too has the attention of said rulers and realms moved south as well, to eye up the lands. It’s rumoured that the Empress of Pytharon is preparing to start building outposts in the region of the Cold Desert south of the Sadara River, in preparation for the empire moving to start taking control of the land.
Gayv-oreth is the ruler of the First Tier of Nihliesh in Matheunis and is generally a kind and compassionate ruler, though sometimes he becomes a dangerous, insatiable monster when his appetites get the better of him. So far, his people have forgiven him each time this has happened, but it’s rumoured that these instances are happening with increasing frequency and it could be that Gayv-oreth will eventually become the monster all the time.
Mada-liviss, the ruler of the Third Tier of Nihliesh in Matheunis, has been seen in public less and less in recent times. In fact, there are rumours that she hasn’t truly been seen in public for many weeks, with claims that her apparent appearances are, instead, some sort of numenera-created illusion or hologram.
Matheunis is, for some reason, home to a larger number of mutants than other regions, especially margr and murden. There’s a rumour that the reason for this is that there’s a machine from a prior world somewhere deep within the Cold Desert, a machine that, somehow, created mutants, perhaps by changing humans into abhumans.
Ni-chodoss, the ruler of the Second Tier of the city of Nihliesh in Matheunis, is whispered to exert a large amount of influence on the city as a whole, with a network of spies, thieves and assassins, something that has allowed her to become far wealthier than those she rules. There are rumours, though, that inhabitants of both the Second and First Tiers are growing tired of Ni-chodoss and would depose her if they could do so.
Nihliesh in Matheunis is a city built atop a half-buried ancient machine, using a material called churn, an orange-brown fluid created by two mechanisms inside the city that dries harder than stone. There’s a rumour that the flow of churn has become more sluggish recently, meaning that less is available for expanding or building the city in any way.
The Foundation Stones in Matheunis, the Cold Desert, are said by some to be the foundations of the sky. They float above the surface of the desert, but there’s a rumour that the stones have been gradually growing closer to the surface over the years. Some say if the stones ever reach the ground, the sky will fall down.
The inhabitants of Matheunis, the Cold Desert, domesticate a species of fly called the drakka, which grows up to a foot in length. Drakka are fairly intelligent, but some think they are even more intelligent than they let on. Many people keep drakka as pets or to herd or watch animals, which means a lot of households have drakka in them. There are claims that this is deliberate on the part of the drakka, though whether this is being done by an intelligent creature looking to be cared for, or one infiltrating a potential enemy, is another matter.
The Symbol Stone, one of the seven Foundation stones in Matheunis, the Cold Desert, has a symbol floating above it, easily visible at night, and has four separate streams of water pouring down its sides onto the desert, the source of a small river. There are rumours that, sometimes, the colour of the symbol changes, and when that happens, the water takes on strange properties.
Up until now, the residents of the First Tier in Nihliesh in Matheunis have been perfectly happy living in the tainted air of churn production for, despite how it shortened their lives, there was always a chance their offspring could become Fahat, the most revered people, all mutants, in the city. It’s rumoured, though, that changes have been made that still keep the First Tier’s lives short, but greatly reduce the chance of Fahat being born, which could cause the residents to rebel.
Even in a post-apocalyptic setting, there can be things to encounter, ranging from the useful to the odd to the dangerous. 100 Encounters for the Post-Apocalyptic Hills has 100 such for hills.
100 Encounters for the Post-Apocalyptic Hills (Mutant Future) is the above supplement converted for use with Mutant Future. You do not need both versions.
Characters may come across rumours whilst asking around and 100 Hooks and Rumours to Hear in Ghelspad is a collection of such for the Scarred Lands. They are usable with any system and can be used for anything from misinformation to adventure hooks.
Map – Village 12 is a hand-drawn black and white village map with a 300dpi resolution in two versions that can be used for personal and commercial use.
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Published by Sad Fishe Games, this is a collection of 36 strange substances for futuristic settings to which a number of authors, including us, have contributed.
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