Strange locations

>The Reflecting Lake
The highlands in the east are well known for their many lakes. But one lake there in particular is known for its strange reflection. The surface is just as clear as you'd expect, and landscape around the lake is perfectly mirrored on it. However, in the lake's reflection one can also see, clear as day, a castle that does not actually exist. Some also say that they've seen people that do no exist reflected in the lake. Scholars have tried to explain it as an optical illusion while certain legends say that the castle stood there many centuries ago and that the lake never forgot. Whichever is true, if any, the locals never go near the lake.

>The Dreaming Tree
"Deep in the woods, in a part that some say you can only reach if the forest lets you, there stands a mighty oak tree alone on a small hill. We were four who had travelled there together, 'cause we had been told that the tree granted wishes. When we got there, all four of us fell down on our knees before the oak and told it all that we wanted: wealth, love, power... Little did we know that the tree didn't listen to the words of men, but instead it only heeded our hearts' deepest and darkest desires. Eventually we gave up, not a single wish fulfilled, but by then it was already late and the sun had started to set. We decided to sleep there under the oak tree and make our return in the morning. When we woke up, two of us were no longer human and the third ran screaming into the woods having been driven insane. That was a long, long time ago... By now I have spent many hundreds of years wishing we'd never made the journey to that accursed tree."

Other urls found in this thread:

libraryofbabel.info/
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

>The Endless Tower
In what used to be the capital of a long lost empire, there still stands an ancient tower. Seemingly little more than a ruin and a reminder of the city's past glory, the tower still manages to stand taller than any of the buildings built after it. That's not what makes it noteworthy, however. Legends say that from the top of the tower one can see the capital as it was during the empire's golden era. Naturally many people have tried, but rather than reaching the top of the tower they find themselves back at the door through which they entered. Moreover, many people claim to be hearing a frantic knocking coming inside the tower when the door to it is closed and locked, especially at night.

You're talent is wasted in this board.

Meh.

Really liking your ideas, If you have more please post.

I mean, I can certainly write some more when I get the time. I had sorta hoped that people would use this opportunity to share their own ideas for weird places, but whatever.

>the hall of silence
Standing in the middle of endless plains, the hall of silence is a place where gods gather to mourn. Inside its black wood cladden walls, shadows of countless gods and half-gods, stripped of their physical forms, wail.
This is place is so filled with sadness and sorrow, just setting a foot there could kill a mortal - but the legend says, that one who will withstand it, can return with untold power.

Veeky Forums kicked all the creative people out years ago. You're not going to get much. I'm surprised someone hasn't told you to take it elsewhere or shut up.

>the Wandering Fog
As the telltale signs of Autumn start showing themselves, so does the Wandering Fog.

Rolling all over the continent, following behind the cycle of seasons, the Wandering Fog is a place where motion behaves strangely: though it moves around, its interior doesn't, and whoever remain still in the Fog for several days will find that they've actually travelled quite a long distance upon exiting it.

A handful of merchants known as Foggers claimed the inside of the Wandering Fog as their home, buying and selling wares from all over the globe without moving more than a few miles from their home.

>Sunpeak Cliff
Its rock a preternaturally pure blend of marble, Sunpeak Cliff seems to reach out to the horizon because of its sheer length and altitude.

This becomes literal during the Summer Solstice: as noon approaches, the Cliff slowly stretches to reach ever higher, its ground becoming hotter and hotter. It's rumored that if someone hardy enough were to brave the Sun's heat and climb the cliff at this very moment, they'd climb right into the Sun itself, and could legitimately start calling it their home. Other rumors claim that it's already happened before, and that's how the gods came to be.

So go ahead and start being those creative people again. Sounds like you've given up.

Move it to /qst/ faggot. Veeky Forums is for CYOA's and age of sigmar general

Do you enjoy CYOA and AoS General? Is that why you come back to Veeky Forums and not /qst/ where you claim the creative people are?

>The Primordial Pool
Few know of this place, a churning, steaming pool of discolored watery slime deep in the woods were the druids warn not to go. Despite the warnings those who travel the woods will claim that they will be drawn to the pool, will feel a strange familiarity to the site, though they never remember ever being there before. Stranger still is that of those few who have seen the pool, fewer still say that strange creatures never before seen will drag themselves from it's depths and wander off, for as the druids will claim, all life in the world first sprang from this pool, and when all is in alignment it is inclined to do so once more.

>Finder's Forest
A mist-shrouded wood that lurks at the far reaches of the kingdom. What most know, it is a haunted place full of horrible creatures. What most do not know, is that the wood draws its magic from your deepest fears.

>Gyuon's Door
After a great earthquake, the ice walls of Mt.Gyuon shattered, a great fortress was partially unearthed. Who built this place and for what purpose? What old forgotten treasures; or horrors will lie beyond the black gates of the mountain? Not many who venture into its depths return. The few that do are driven mad or violent by its inner machinations.

>The city of Idego
Not all cities of wonder need be grandiose in aspect: indeed, Idego seems, at first glance, to be a very common city, if a wealthy one.

The curious thing about Idego is that it cannot be reached through horse, boat or drake: those who do reach it never quite remember how they got there, or how they left. More curious even, is that among the few who seem to find passage to the city, kings, heroes, artists and scientists of great renown predominate, turning the layman into an oddly occasional sight.

In Idego, only the dead reside. Eager to pass on their skills and knowledge to the living, they offer mentorship and tutelage to those who pass through the city. Many figures of legend learned and honed their craft between its walls, before passing away and teaching the next generation in turn.

>I didn't even the picture edition, apparently

This is a great thread OP, gold standard!

Are you serious, because it's an actually good idea to brainstorm strange places for the fun of it? Or are you sarcastic, becaus ethere aren't that many ideas being posted? I can't even tell these days.

...

>The Forest of Weeping
This grove of once pleasant trees is given a wide berth by all of the locals. A sense of great loss and sadness afflicts all those who enter its shade. The senseless sadness wells up within the tresspasser and they weep uncontrollably. Several travellers have seen, through mist-clouded eyes, a veiled woman, wracked with grief and calling out to someone in an unknown language. When the sun relents for the day and night steals into the grove, travellers' tears turn to blood. None have dared to linger under the reaching boughs past dusk.

I'm not being sarcastic, some of the ideas in this thread are really good man. Though, reading my reply again, I can see how it would sound sarcastic.

So what happened to the other two travellers near the wishing tree there?

The narrator said they were no longer human. I take it that they had turned into some kind of monsters or animals.

>The Hall of Mirrors
"In the mountainous forests to the north there stands a since long abandoned cathedral. Deep within in there's an entire hall filled with mirrors, none of which show your reflection. I went there once, when I was still young and foolhardy. I had heard the stories and wanted to see it for myself. There were hundreds of mirrors in that room, maybe even thousands. Just as I had been told, none of them showed my reflection, instead... Instead they showed other people; each mirror revealing a different face. Except that one: a single mirror that revealed nothing at all except the hall itself completely empty. Looking into that mirror made my bones shiver. I could not say why at the time, but I had never been more afraid in my life. I don't think I've ever ran faster before or after than at that time. Now, young man, see that mirror on the wall? Can you see my reflection in it?"

>tfw you were actually in Saint Michel
Really nice castle, would recommend

>The City of Thorns
Sitting in the middle of the desert stands a cactus of colossal size, visible for miles, it became the favoured landmark for local tribes until they took it one step further, hollowing much of the older pears they created their homes inside the cactus itself. Though it stands far from a city, home only to a tribe, the name stuck with most travelers.

>the lost kingdom
Exactly 270 years ago kingdom of Ellbair disappeared overnight. The whole thing: people, cities, rivers, mountains, land. The world shook, great light arose from where it used to be - and then only silence came. The only thing that reminded is the Scar - a long stretch of black, barren land, about five feet wide.
Sometimes part of it reappear on the scar - some items, furniture, parts of a building - and very rarely, people.

libraryofbabel.info/
I'm having my players going through this at the moment. They keep on running into cultist who think there is some meaning behind these books and will murder anyone that gets in their way.

>The Gates of Teir-nogh
Those looking to gain access to the Fae Realm must follow these instructions to the letter, lest they be lost forever in the mists of the woods: Follow the roots but me mindful of the eyes that watch you from the branches. If they catch you looking, they will take your eyes. Walk the opposite way of the white fox and cross the brook without touching the water. At the circle of trees, offer a bent copper coin, a new thimble, a lock of a virgin's hair and wine that had been left out in the full moon's light.

Adventurers must remember; entering the realm is easy. Coming back is not.

The Starstone Chair

Deep within the old forest there is a small clearing, easy to miss & hard to find. The Starstone Chair sits in the center. Locals say that it fell from the heavens long ago, creating the cauldera the forest covers with its impact. Do not sit upon it child, for it is said to be the Throne of God & all those who touch it disappear.

Can someone do the metal forest? I have it pictured in my head but can’t put it into beautiful words to describe

He is a very salty user(or at least one of a bunch of very ridiculous ones) than post the same shit in some random threads, don't mind him.

>Dragon bones Wastes
"If you have a deathwish or want to get rich quick, that's the place for you. Imagine a sulphurous,poisoned air fill, full of geyser wasteland, where some draconids come to die. Full of priced alchemy substance unique of the zone, from herbs to the different kind of draconic wastes sprinkled all over. And of course all kinds of scavengers and very pissed, death waiting draconids able to wipe little armies be themselves. And if that wasn't enough, there are lots of tales about the place and silly legends, like the Skull Dragon or the Immortal dame, but don't pull that much hope of those, when you enter that zone nothing is like it appears to be".

>The Ruins by the Shore
Along the western shore you'll find many ruins left from a long forgotten civilization. That in itself may not seem strange, but consider the following: even though scholars claim that the structures are at least a thousand years old, they are not mentioned in any written documents before one hundred years ago. Also consider that the type of stone used to construct them does not exist in the area where the structures stand and that the blocks themselves are far to large to have been moved the distance necessary by any means currently known.

Case in point.

Fucking stellar.

screencapping these, will totally use them, at least as inspiration.

Glad to hear it. The intent when I made the thread was for GM's to be able to use these text prompts as inspiration for adventures and world building.

"The other people here won't admit it, certainly not to strangers such as yourself – most of them won't even admit it to themselves – but this village has a dark past. Just a few miles miles south-east of here you’ll find an spot in the forest that the animals shun, where nothing grows and the trees surrounding it are all withered and dead. You’ll know you’re close when your horses refuse to take you any further. I don’t know what our ancestors did in that spot but I know they did something. I remember my parents going out there with the others and returning late in the night when they thought I was asleep. Ask anyone else here though and they’ll act like they don’t know what you’re talking about. You think I’m making this up? I ask you then, go there and tell me; why does the air there smell so putrid? Why is that not even the birds or crickets come close to that place? And why does the ground there weep blood?”

Me too. Lives up to the hype, which is saying something. The sanctuary itself felt like a Dark Souls dungeon with all the verticality, different designs with each era and interconnection.
The shops are all tourist traps though.

Neat, but you know that that is NOT actually the real Library of Babel.
It's not really physically possible to construct a virtual Library of Babel with our current computation possibilities. It probably won't be in a very long time either.
This is a sham that mimics the real library, because on a simple glance it's impossible to tell the difference.

Sounds gay

"Alright, I'll tell you, but then we have to turn back. Back when our grandparents were our age, a group of people in the village wanted to move deeper into the forest where magic components were more numerous, despite the druids' warning. The newcomers had noticed vines in this area, but thought they had been eradicated when they cleared the land. But the vines grew back. It wasn't troublesome at first, until it began to burst its way through door cracks and even windows, entangling everything in greenery, eventually binding people to their beds or even smothering them in their sleep. Worse, the core of the plant is the roots. The vines can be cut and burned, but will grow back in only a day or two unless you unearth all the roots, for which you'd have to tear all the buildings down. Ironic, huh? Well, now you know. So let's go back, this place is giving me the jeebies..."

...

"You must've been mistaken, boy. Nobody's lived there for many years. As far as I know, none of the townsfolk go near the place, on account of some of the... occurrences- not that an outsider like you has to be concerned," the farmer wheezed through the gaps between his teeth.

"Occurences?"

The farmer's eyes narrowed as he looked up the road toward his cottage, the light from the cooking fire shining through a wide kitchen window. "Well, if you really wanna know," he began under his breath, "the man that lived there was always a bit off. Coming and going at strange hours, bringing strange people from abroad, and whisking them away as quickly as they had appeared. Not to mention the noises and lights, we all saw 'em."

The old farmer paused to take another back and forth look along the road, and a glance toward the kitchen window, "But then one day, Betha, the grocer, nice lass, goes to drop off for 'im, and the whole cottage, inside and out, is covered in moss. Thick sheets on every flat surface. Not to mention the remaining food he had was long spoiled, and all the bits and bobs looked like they were antiques. Wood was decayed, metal was tarnished, and glass was thick with dust. Not a hair of the man was found, and nobody's seen 'im since!"

...

>The river that repels magic

It originates high in the mountains, above the snow line, and looks like a normal river for mile upon mile, until the canyons flatten to valley and plain, and it meets the enchanted forest, which it never enters, but bends upward into the sky, up to the clouds, between banks invisible. Scholars theorise it follows a paths that stays as far away from magical interference as possible, much as other rivers flow down, this merely follows a different path of least resistance. If a magic user attempts to use it, it will repel them, or in the case of strong, constant magical force, begin the bend around and away from it. It is considered the surest means to reach the cloud kingdoms through non magical means. Few would be likely to do so, because getting back would most likely require magic at ones disposal, but the possibility is there.

>much as other rivers flow down, this merely follows a different path of least resistance
Now this inspires me to do a whole lot of worldbuilding speculation about ley lines and such. In accordance with what forces does a ley line "flow"?

>The shops are all tourist traps though
Never been to a castle where the stores weren't tourist traps selling shit that had pretty much nothing to do with the location.

Has anyone ever been to an elephant graveyard? That is the definition of spooky

This one was inspired by a strange dream I had, which featured the location as a bizzare theme park that was in the process of being built. The imagery has stuck with me for years.

>The Drake Trenches
Situated deep in a rocky desert, a hidden canyon contains the long abandoned remains of a great scientist's unknowable experiments. The red stone of the canyon's walls are adorned with colossal carved faces; perhaps the bearded visage is that of the legendary scientist, or some long forgotten god. Water runs sluggishly from the face's mouths, but even the most thirsty traveller wouldn't dare drink from the algae-laden channels and drains in the canyon floor.
The canyon floor is strangely paved with green-black stonework, bearing indecipherable hieroglyphics. Where this stone originally came from is a mystery, but it is used in the construction of several gargoyle-covered fountains throughout the canyon.
The most notable aspect of the canyon is the seven trenches at its deepest point, each as long as a warship. The skeletal remains of seven gargantuan serpentine drakes lie within each trench, ankle-deep water lapping against their mishapen skulls. Whether these drakes died within the trenches or their corpses were brought there many years ago remains a mystery.
Travellers who stumble across the canyon never find trouble; a lingering sense of melancholy is all that they leave with.

The Black Grove

The Tarchid Wastes are mostly what you would expect of a desert. Dunes roll across the landscape, and the sand is raked by the wind into a repeating pattern. It is not uncommon that the desert misplaces and forgets an inexperienced traveller every once in a while, but this is not always such an innocent accident.

A particularly fortunate Traveller has lived to tell of a "Black Grove". It appears in no place in particular, always taking the form of an oasis with clear waters and budding flowers of beautiful red and yellow shades, watched over by a few tall palm trees. The wind here is cooler, and carries the scent of the flowers. It is said that in these beautiful oases, those lost to the sands of time return to life, unwilling to leave, and untouched by time. They speak of how happy they are to be reunited, and of times gone by. They would tell you that time is a cruel joke thought up by domineering trail bosses, and greedy traders. Here, you might wile away your time with your dearest friends, your cherished loves, and your sorely-missed family. Naturally, this is not the truth, as the Black Grove is more than simply a mirage. It is an insidious illusion, cast upon travellers by an ancient, flesh-hungry spirit. The illusion is powerful, and was only ever found by the benevolent light of a wandering Wari Priests' lantern. Wari Priests, you see, do not quite see, but rather "feel" by the light of the lantern, so the visual aspect of the illusion is quite lost on them. Indeed, it must have been terribly unnerving, walking through a grove of thorned vines and ashen flower buds, blood squelching under his sandals as a dessicated skeleton in familiar robes urged him on. "Lay down a while, old friend! The water is cool, the shade abiding, and we've much to talk over!"

>The Black Wastes
The first sign of the Black Wastes is the drifting smell, a thick stench of tar and burning hair, followed closely by the thin haze of oily fog. The camps of the folk who live on the outer edges of the Wastes are easily found, but the scavengers and traders caution any travelers from avoid heading too deeply into the Wastes, for the air grows thicker and darker the further west you head, and the pools of black tar that give this place its name can grow to be unfathomably deep. They tell tales of gargantuan skulls and monstrous skeletons that become more common the farther you go, of flocks of carrion birds that follow with eyes a bit too intelligent for piece of mind, and of the billowing clouds of black smoke venting from the bowels of the earth.
But most often repeated are the warnings against disturbing the tar pits, and the palpable sense of dread that overcomes anyone approaching the pools lends weight to those warnings.