Bone Fire

 Welcome once more weary travelers! This week I'm bring you a new article for the RPG Blog Carnival and this month's theme of parties and festivals. A new holiday you can adapt to your own setting filled with a vivid snapshot of what the day is for and how it is celebrated. Along the way you will also find some delicious treats to ply your PCs with in there next town encounter. After you've read this month's Blog Carnival article check out last months, about spooky scary skeletons! If you are looking for something different then check out my sargasso sea encounter generator for your next nautical campaign! 

Holidays and Festivals: Bone Fire

*St. Hansbål, by Nikolai Astrup

It is spoken about in myth that many centuries before the coming of the Nesimite people to the Valley of Many Waters, a prosperous but oppressive kingdom of elves occupied the valley. The myth speaks of the great evils they partook of and about their rivals, a kingdom of iron-mongering dwarves who waged war upon them. The war ended in one decisive moment when a circle of desperate elven mages attempted to channel a terrible and powerful spell but were disrupted at the worst possible moment. In an instant, a flood of necromantic energies was unleashed upon the valley, slaying the all of the valley's inhabitants in one terrible display of magical corruption.

For many long centuries the valley was uninhabited. Undead were a common sight to those that did brave the wilds of the Valley of Many Waters, though none dared tarry there after dark. After centuries had passed and the threat had receded from the minds of mortals, the Nesimites came from out of the strife of the southlands. By then the skeletal lurkers that plagued the valley were relatively dormant. A settlement was founded in the springtime and a community began to flourish.

Little did the Nesimites know, however, that the skeletal threat still lingered. On Lanternswatch, the longest night of the year, the skeletons of the Valley of Many Waters arose from their slumber and attacked the living. Out of a community of almost 2,000 people, only 197 survived. They vowed to never let a tragedy such as this happen again, for every year since on Lanternswatch, the skeletons of those who died in the valley still rise and seek out the living.

It was upon that night that the first Bone Fire was celebrated. Now each year at dusk on the longest night of the year, a massive bonfire, or "bone fire" in the old tongue, is kindled, and all the bodies of the dead that have died since the last Bone Fire are heaped onto the pyre and burned to ash.

Though the holiday began as a morose dedication to never let the undead trouble their lives again, it has become a celebration of life and life's ability to overcome undeath. All gather for two days of celebration and protection. Skeleton-shaped sweet breads are baked, merchants arrive with luxuries to trade, and a grand party is kindled in the villages of the Valley. The skeletons of the past have long since been burnt to inert dust, and humanity continues to endure in the harsh landscapes where they find themselves. Without celebrations like Bone Fire, humanity would not have endured all these many years. May the fire warm you and keep you safe!

*Village Feast, 1609

Preparations:

Though it started under grim circumstances, Bone Fire has become a celebration of life and death and people's power to overcome undeath. By kindling the sacred bonfires and joining together in the sacred dances, the people of the Valley of Many Waters reaffirm their humanity and help cleanse the land again in preparation for the coming year.

Bone Fire is one of the biggest festival days of the year in the Valley. Bones are exhumed and collected, wagons loaded, and families from all across the Valley make their way to their closest village or town. Along with their families they bring hand crafts, hides, folk art, pies, and tarts to trade and sell.

Bone Fire officially starts at sundown on the longest night of the year. Even so, up to three days before the beginning of the festival, farmers and other country folk start trickling into the villages of Cleafort, Hembdon, Ffasfurd, and Singlay and the towns of Vhaemrick and Naulcastle. The festival attracts more than just Valley folk. Merchants from over the mountains come to do their best business. Fine horses can be found at this time in Vhaemrick and Naulcastle hosts a wine tournament for the local vintners.
On the day of the holiday local musicians gather and begin to play as the fire tenders (usually clergy from the local temples) start to stack the large logs that will be used in the bonfires later that evening. Merchants gather and the Valley folk mingle, shop, dance, and await the coming ceremonies.

*Dutch Festival by Jan Thomas van Kessel

The Ceremony:

The origins of the holiday's rituals have long since faded from memory. But while their precise origins are unknown, all agree on how the ritual practices must be enacted. First the bones of the food animals are brought forth and deposited onto the bonfire, then more wood is laid atop them. Next, the bones of humans and other humanoid citizens are placed onto the unlit bonfire. The gathered masses then join hands in a series of concentric rings and the fire is lit by the tenders. The gathered host begins to dance around the bonfire and sing a round, a repeating verse about the destruction of evil and the triumphs of light over darkness and of the gods of the Valley over the gods of evil and undeath.

This goes on for a while until the entire crowd is running in circles around the bonfire, hands clasped together, singing now at the top of their lungs, all locked in an ever-building religious ecstasy until the first logs collapse. When this happens, the assembled crowds all cry out as one "Begone evil! Begone Darkness! Become sweet death! Become sweet life again!" Everyone then collapses in a huffing, puffing mass as the tenders continue to keep the flames lit. With the ceremony now complete, the crowds linger in convivial camaraderie as the event slowly winds down. After a few hours or so all that will be left will be the fire tenders, who will stay the night tending and stoking the bonfires until all traces of bone have been turned to ash.

Bone Fire is considered an auspicious day for oaths, and many are sworn in front of the fires after the dancing has ended. The tradition is to swear an oath upon a branch that has been carved from a willow tree inscribed with the oath-bearers' names and then cast it into the fire together.

*Festival Scene of Human Characteristics Vector Clipart(584/1995)

Food:

Because of the anxiety behind preparing meat-based dishes and the threat of the reanimated bones of livestock coming back to life to attack the living, a number of vegetarian dishes have become staples of the holiday. The most popular among them include:

Skeleton Bread:
The traditional treat made especially for the Bone Fire holiday consists of a sweet, yeasted dough fortified with eggs and milk that has been shaped to resemble a skeleton and then glazed with a sweet honey frosting that is whisked until it turns white. These are sold by the cartload in every celebrating village or town for between 2 and 5 CP a piece.

Parsnip, Carrot, and Leek Pie: Sold as hand pies for around 1 SP a piece, these hardy root vegetable pies are seasoned with rosemary and imported chili flakes from the south. The village of Ffasfurd is renowned for their pies, and the village bakers and goodwives often debate about who has baked the better pie that year.

Cheese and Onion Soup: This hardy soup is thickened with old, dried bread, milk, and cheese and can be purchased for around 7 CP a bowl at the local stalls. This delicious soup is said to have originated in Singlay, and the town has a well-known inn there that serves the soup year round. Caramelized onions and roasted cheese are often served atop the soup to add to its richness and appeal.

Honey Fritters: Beside the ubiquitous Skeleton Bread, the next most sought after treat on Bone Fire is usually the sticky fried balls of dough known around these parts as honey fritters. The dough balls are found in every village and town up and down the Valley at this time of year and are a favorite treat of children. The entire valley gets its honey for these sweet delights from the apiaries of Cleafort and their fields of wildflowers. Most stalls will sell a rolled-up paper cone of them for 2 CP.

Spooky Scary Skeletons!

 Happy Halloween my ghoulish guests! Welcome to a late October blog post care of the spookiest holiday around! This week I'll be tackling October's RPG Blog Carnival theme, Horrors, Monsters, and Gods with a horrifying selection of tables to spice up your skeleton encounters! Read on for useful tables to differentiate one skeleton fight from another with unique descriptions, armaments, and personalities you can use on your next skeleton encounter! If you like this month's Blog Carnival article, take a look at last month's. If that's not to your liking then check out my last post, a big D66 table of chaotic landscapes to inflict on your traveling adventure parties. 

Spooky Scary Skeletons!

As October draws to a close the veil between worlds parts for a brief moment and allows us congress with the lingering souls of the long departed. With the most spooky of holidays upon us, it is time to talk about the horrors of the adventuring world, the undead menace all adventurers must eventually face, skeletons. The host of tables below can be utilized by canny referees everywhere to add variety and verisimilitude to their skeletal encounters. With a few quick rolls you can populate your next encounter with a variety of unique skeletal warriors that will be sure to stick in the minds of your players.

*Burnside, R. H. (Robert Hubberthorne), 1873-1952

Appearance:

Adventurers come across many animated skeletons in their careers plundering tombs and raiding sorcerers’ laboratories. The tables below can be used to generate different descriptions of the various animated skeletons a party of doughty treasure hunters are sure to run into sooner or later.

D4	What is different about this skeleton's...
1	Head
2	Arms
3	Legs
4	Torso

 

D12	Head
1	The skeleton has a thick notch cut out of its right brow. Glowing green moss is starting to grow from the crack.
2	This skeleton is missing its lower jaw. Of the skeleton's remaining teeth, two are made of gold. (250 gp each)
3	The skull cap of this skeleton has been cut clean off and reattached with a curved strip of verdigris-encrusted copper and small rivets.
4	The left eye of this skeleton has become home to a friendly vinegarroon the size of a large platinum piece.
5	This skeleton's eyes glow with a ghostly blue light projecting weak beams of light wherever it stares.
6	This skeleton’s teeth have been filed down to sharp points. (Extra bite attack, d4 damage)
7	This skeleton's skull has been mineralized into a jagged quartz-crusted mess.
8	This skeleton’s rotting eyes are still rolling around in its skull.
9	Someone has painted the skull of this skeleton in overlapping geometric patterns of black and red pigment.
10	Instead of a regular humanoid skull, this skeleton bears a ram's skull for a head.
11	This skeleton's skull has a large ruby faceted into each eye socket. (300 gp each)
12	This skull bears a terrifying death mask made of jade, obsidian, and red carnelian. (800 gp)

 

*Hans Holbein the Younger

D12	Arms
1	This skeleton has had its arm bones reinforced with riveted bands of iron.
2	This skeleton has had its arms replaced with the elongated arm bones of an ape.
3	This skeleton is still wearing rusted pauldrons and vambraces on its arms.
4	This skeleton has ghastly large hands with long claw-like finger bones.
5	This skeleton's arm bones are crusted with purple blotches of mold.
6	This skeleton bears two zombified human arms instead of the usual bone arms.
7	This skeleton has an extra set of arms underneath their original set. No doubt the work of some enterprising necromancer.
8	This skeleton has animated sculpted marble arms instead of their usual arm bones.
9	This skeleton's arm bones have been discolored by some unknown process and are now a sickly green color.
10	This skeleton is wearing ornamental golden vambraces etched with images of ritual feasting. (200 gp each)
11	Instead of a right arm, this skeleton has a gigantic dead crab claw. (claw attack, d6 damage)
12	This skeleton's arm bones are etched with vile magical runes.

 

D12	Legs
1	This skeleton's legs have been painted with gold leaf and small flower motifs of crushed sapphire.
2	This skeleton still wears ancient bronze greaves on its shins that are adorned with Medusa head motifs. (100 gp for the set)
3	This skeleton’s lower half is that of a giant snake's skeleton and slithers around like one.
4	This skeleton's leg bones have been bound together with copper wire and silver nails. (150 sp in total)
5	Long strips of paper inscribed with magical runes of necromantic power have been plastered to this skeleton's leg bones.
6	This skeleton is still wearing its now half-rotten boots.
7	This skeleton is wearing the desiccated remains of the leather britches it was  buried in.
8	This skeleton ambles around on a wooden peg leg.
9	This skeleton's legs are not actually bone but hollow pewter replacements.
10	This skeleton's leg bones are encrusted with small growths of glowing neon orange slime mold.
11	This skeleton's lower half is studded with the remains of sharp dead barnacles.
12	This skeleton's shin bones have been studded with six-inch iron spikes. (Bearer adds 2 additional points of damage to melee attacks.)

 

D12	Torso
1	An inch long hairy spider has spun a thick web inside this skeleton's ribcage.
2	Thumb-sized crystals of some kind of translucent green mineral is growing all over this skeleton's ribcage and spine.
3	This skeleton is still wearing the remnants of its desiccated old crocodile-leather pauldrons.
4	This skeleton has an eerie green glowing heart still beating in its chest.
5	This skeleton has had its ribcage reinforced with bands of cold-iron, and inside its cage-chest a small angry sprite is jostled about with the movements of the skeleton and rants in Silvan!
6	This skeleton has shiny blue toadstools sprouting inside its large ribcage. (If eaten, the mushrooms grant +2 to STR and -2 to INT and WIS for the next 20 minutes.)
7	This skeleton's ribcage, spine, and pelvis are all made of iron! (+1 to the skeleton's AC)
8	This skeleton's pelvis and ribcage have been inscribed with glowing red runes of magical power.
9	This skeleton is wearing a long, tattered leather coat that hangs in shreds.
10	This skeleton has had its torso wrapped over and over again with gold wire. (150 gp total)
11	Twisted green and red vines wind their way through and around this skeleton's pelvis and ribcage. Large, ghostly white flowers bloom from the vines.
12	This skeleton's ribcage is composed of clear crystal bones.

 

Skeletal Personalities

Not all skeletons can talk, but when you need one to, you may use the table below to quickly generate a sketch of the skeleton's personality, goals, etc.

*Hans Holbein the Younger

D12	Personality
1	This skeleton is very polite since they don't often meet many people to have conversations with within a dungeon. Their favorite topics are ancient history and poetry.
2	This skeleton cannot talk for some reason but does excellent pantomime. They are always playing around and making little jokes.
3	This skeleton is vicious and will taunt adventurers whom it can get the upper hand on. This skeleton wants to feel like it is more powerful than its opponents.
4	This skeleton talks in a high-pitched voice. They are fans of a good song though and will favor adventurers who sing to them.
5	This skeleton has lost one of the bones in its toes and is frantically looking for it. They will be happy to help anyone who can find it for them.
6	This skeleton talks like a gameshow host for some reason and keeps asking characters to pick their next door.
7	This skeleton is a being of honor. They will not fight unless their goals can be met no other way. They respect Clerics, Paladins, and Knights as people of authority.
8	This skeleton has a cackling laugh and a deranged personality to go along with it. They delight in the pain of living creatures.
9	This skeleton was a zealot in life who offered themselves willingly in death as an eternal servant. They only communicate in small snippets of their apocryphal scriptures.
10	This skeleton is convinced that they still have a body, and an attractive one at that.
11	This skeleton is ancient beyond measure, yet somehow, they have managed to survive all these years. If their ancient language could be identified, they would be a fantastic repository of lost lore.
12	This skeleton is confused and will ask friendly adventurers for help finding its master.

Unique Armaments

One of the best ways to make your skeletons different from the last group your players encountered is to give them unique armaments to wield. The table below can help give you ideas in a pinch.

*Hans Holbein the Younger

D12	Armaments
1	A verdigris-encrusted brass trident and a faded wooden shield.
2	A two-handed bronze khopesh. (+2 to saving throws against heat, or sand effects.)
3	Two rusted black-iron short swords.
4	A dusty wooden shaft with a jagged-edged steel spearhead affixed to it. (+1 to damage)
5	A heavy two-handed stone mace whose reliefs glow with a dull blue light. (+2 damage to spellcasters)
6	A silvered longsword.
7	Two beautifully engraved katars, caked with long dried blood.
8	A large, fluted ball of iron fixed to a length of chain. (As a flail)
9	A long, curved falchion with polished pearls inlayed in the hilt. (As a two-handed sword, 150 gp intact, or 50 gp of just pearls)
10	A long bronze sickle and a bronze shield with a Medusa head painted on it.
11	Either a simple iron-headed spear or a simple short bow and stone-headed arrows.
12	Either two rust-flaked iron swords or three bronze hand axes.

D66 Religious Taboos

Well met one and all! This week I bring to you September's RPG Blog Carnival article on religious taboos. Beneath Foreign Planets brings us this months prompt on Anthropology and Archeology, a subject near and dear to my heart. After reading over their article, I decided I'd write a table that can expand on the anthropological phenomena of religious taboo. Religions of all kinds are replete with taboo and verboten subjects. What a culture deems worthy of exclusion says as much about them as what they deem worthy of inclusion. Enjoy this weeks article! Check out last month's Blog Carnival post on organizations, an evil cult generator. There is also last week's excellent sailor class if you're looking for the right class to add to your next nautical campaign. 

D66 Religious Taboos

A religious taboo is a religious custom prohibiting or forbidding the discussion of a particular practice or association with a particular person, place, or thing. Many faiths ban specific foods, clothing, or acts, and they ban these things for a variety of reasons. Religious taboos are as varied as religions, and it will be up to the game master to contextualize these prohibitions within their own campaign world. Below you’ll find a handy table that you can use to add verisimilitude and richness to your own campaign’s religious groups. This table goes particularly well with my evil cult generator and my abandoned temple generator.

 

*Religion, by Charles Sprague Pearce, 1897

The Practitioner:

11. Cannot wear a particular color of clothing or garment. (1. Crimson 2. Saffron 3. Indigo 4. Chartreuse)

12. Cannot wear any color of clothing other than: (1. Crimson 2. Saffron 3. Indigo 4. Chartreuse)

13. Cannot wear anything on their feet.

14. Cannot grow out their hair.

15. Cannot eat foods of a particular type. (1. Bread or Grains 2. Meat 3. Root Vegetables 4. Legumes 5. Alliums 6. Eggs)

16. Cannot shake hands with: (1. Anyone 2. Men 3. Women 4. Demihumans)

21. Cannot cut their hair. (1. All of it 2. Their forelocks 3. Their facial hair 4. Their ponytail)

22. Cannot enter a house without an invitation.

23. Cannot sit unless eating or sleeping.

24. Cannot light fires.

25. Cannot eat until all others have received food.

26. Cannot speak out loud.

*William Charlton Wright, between 1800 and 1899

31. Cannot speak unless in rhyme.

32. Cannot touch blood or other bodily fluids.

33. Cannot sing towards the: (1. East 2. West 3. North 4. South)

34. Cannot sleep during holy days.

35. Cannot travel at night.

36. Cannot travel during the daytime.

41. Cannot eat during the daytime.

42. Cannot touch weapons of any kind.

43. Cannot wield or touch: (1. Swords and Daggers 2. Maces and Clubs 3. Bows and Slings 4. Axes and Spears)

44. Cannot cast spells during a specific part of the day. (1. Morning 2. Afternoon 3. Evening 4. Nighttime)

45.  Cannot cast spells against a particular type of foe (1. Humans 2. Dwarfs 3. Elves 4. Goblins 5. Gnomes 6. Orcs)

46. Cannot use magic to directly aid nonbelievers.

*An engraving of Pope Joan, from a 17th-century book by Alexander Cooke

51. Cannot drink water.

52. Cannot sleep under a roof.

53. Cannot own personal wealth.

54. Cannot directly aid another faith.

55. Cannot wield metal weapons or armor.

56. Cannot imbibe alcohol.

61. Cannot harm someone wearing a particular color. (1. Crimson 2. Saffron 3. Indigo 4. Chartreuse)

62. Cannot travel without carrying dirt from a specific holy place on their person.

63. Cannot bathe.

64. Cannot pass a holy place or shrine without stopping to pray for at least an hour.

65. Cannot take off their clothes.

66.  Cannot knowingly state a falsehood.

Evil Cult Generator

 I've run off to join the carnival, the RPG Blog Carnival that is! Today's article is inspired by Codex Anathema's prompt, Clubs and Congregations. Below you will find a slew of tables that can be used to create interesting evil cults to menace your players with for sessions to come! Gods, tactics, treasures, and cultic conspiracies await! If you like this article, check out last week's Sargasso Sea Encounter Generator, or try the Wizard's Tower Generator instead! 

Evil Cult Generator

Some of the most dangerous foes in a campaign are those who operate in the shadows, obscuring their intent and confounding their eradication. One of the most notorious types of clandestine foes to challenge your players with is secret cult. The religious powers of most settings tend to operate out in the open, with temples, festivals, and holy-symbol-festooned priests. Their works are visible to the community at large. Cults on the other hand function by remaining hidden. Their priests and places of worship are obscured with utmost care, lest inquisitive parties learn too much. Once the threat of a cult has been revealed, the paranoia that can grip a community is powerful enough to topple dynasties and plunge kingdoms into war. Below you’ll see a variety of tables you can use to flesh out your evil cults and ways to use them against your players (for fun of course).

*Pagan sacrifice to a goddess. Engraving. Date: 1600-1699

Who do they worship?

The goal of any cult is the worship of a deity, demon, devil, or other powerful extraplanar being. Such entities are not usually powerful enough to outwardly defy the greater gods of one’s setting, and so they use their cults to enact their fell wills without drawing divine attention. Below you will find a table listing the entity the cult worships as well as their symbol, manner of dress, and sacrificial weapon. In addition, there is a spell high HD cultists may gain one or more uses of per day to add some variety to each cult and their leadership. 

D12	The Cult of:	Their symbols:	Their gifted spell:
1	Inishk'garu of the Bloodshot Eye. A demon of secrets and blood. Enemy of knowledge and harmony.	An angry, bloodshot eye. Red and gray robes. A copper flensing dagger.	Vampiric Touch
2	Durgoro. A bestial devil of pain and sorrow. Devourer of souls.	A circle composed of iron chains. Ritual scars on the chest. A serrated short sword.	Cause Light Wounds
3	Felucean Cleareyes. A demon of seduction masquerading as a foreign deity of beauty. Thief of youth and beauty.	A marigold flower. Robes of saffron yellow and red. A club made out of a silver yew branch.	Hypnotism
4	Ssrazzbazzortch the Flaming Corpulence. Demon of fire, wealth, and vengeance. Glutton of other’s pain.	A flaming cat’s eye. A golden coin stamped with the flaming eye symbol. A black iron dagger.	Produce Flame
5	The Horned King. An ancient forest god. Destroyer of civilization.	A set of antlers with a crown atop it. Robes of brown and horned helms. Bronze-headed maces.	Entangle
6	Rekgall the Torturer. Devilish lord of pain and agony. Enemy of joy and life.	A bloody sickle. Blood-red robes with black sleeves. A cold iron sickle.	Protection Against Good
7	Gilimrash the Lurker. A chthonic deity of loneliness and death. Devour of light.	A broken and unlit candle. Black robes with cloth-of-silver blindfolds. An iron-shod staff.	Darkness
8	The True Void. A being from outside space and time. Bringer of peace and oblivion.	A black circle. Black robes with gray hoods. A black-bladed serpentine athame.	Silence 15’ Radius
9	Narlingthep, the Everchanging. An ancient god of illusions and madness. The deceiver and corrupter of mortal souls.	A rainbow. Multicolored robes. A garotte.	Phantasmal Force
10	The Shadow King. A devil made of smoke and ash. Enforcer of oaths and bargains.	A black crown atop a drop of blood. A brand of a crow over the heart. A silver hand axe carved like a screaming face.	Blindness
11	Lord Arimray. A devil masquerading as a minor god of protection. Enslaver of the weak.	A gauntlet clenching a gold ring. Hoodless gray robes with red trim. A single-edged cold-iron short sword.	Fascinate
12	The Lady of Absolution. A depraved demon presented as a foreign god of absolution and emotional succor. Torturer of the damned.	A white mask shedding a single tear. White robes with white masks. A silver mace.	Hold Person

 

How do they prey?

It’s not enough to have a cult lurking at large in your world. It is the depraved acts that these evil organizations carry out that attract a hero’s attention. Most cults will be committing two or more of these heinous acts in furtherance of their overall goals at any one time. Use these schemes to create threats to your campaign world so that your players can get involved in thwarting them.

D12	The Evil Acts
1	Kidnapping prominent citizens for sacrifices.
2	Kidnapping children, poor, elderly, or other marginalized groups for sacrifice.
3	Defacing local temples or shrines.
4	Stealing livestock for sacrifices.
5	Kidnapping prominent citizens and converting or corrupting them.
6	Theft, murder, or highway robbery to acquire wealth for the cult.
7	Searching for or stealing magical items.
8	Mutilating livestock to spread fear.
9	Causing the dead to rise and attack the living.
10	Calling disastrous weather down on the local area.
11	Counterfeiting coins to use to destroy the local economy.
12	Summoning swarms or plagues of insects or pests.

 

What is their end goal?

Why do cults do what they do? What are their machinations leading to? Use this table to give you a long-term goal for your cult to pursue in your world. Will your players be able to stop the evil cult before they carry out their eventual endgame?

D12	Where does this lead?
1	A ritual to bring the evil power at the center of the cult into the material world.
2	A ritual to create a far-reaching and deadly natural disaster.
3	The total exsanguination of all nonbelievers in the local region.
4	The overthrow of the local government and the implementation of cultic control over the populace.
5	A ritual to empower the cult’s leaders with extra magical power and/or knowledge.
6	Converting the entire region to worshippers.
7	A ritual to steal everyone’s soul in the local region.
8	The destruction of a particular demihuman race.
9	The destruction of the local tenple or religious authority.
10	A ritual to summon powerful monsters.
11	Overwhelming wealth and temporal power for the cult’s leaders.
12	A ritual to commune with the evil power the cult worships.

*Temple ruins in Sicily, Italy. Woodcut published 1846

Where do the congregate?

Not every cult meets in the same type of location. Some operate under disguise within a town or city, whilst others take advantage of the countryside to hide their activities from curious eyes. Use the table below to find out where your evil cult makes their lair and what kinds of challenges adventurers may find therein.

D10	Where can they be found?
1	In the secret rooms of a noblemen’s castle. Poison needle-trapped doors. Magical wards and alarms. Spying behind paintings.
2	Under an ancient burial mound. Undead guards. Entrapping magical roots. Winding tunnels. Zones of magical silence.
3	In a slaughterhouse on the edge of town. Flesh golems. Creaking planks. Trap doors. Blood everywhere.
4	In an abandoned roadside shrine. Collapsing floors. Animal occupants. Holy protection. Massive statuary.
5	In an ancient woodland glade amongst large standing stones. Magical wards. Spectral guardians. Trees falling in the woods. Grasping branches and vines.
6	The ruins of an evil temple. Wraiths and specters. Trap doors. Magical runes. The ghosts of failed heroes.
7	The basement of the burgomaster’s house. Locked doors. Creaking boards. Hidden staircases. Secret libraries.
8	A derelict wind mill. Loose stones. Flammable flour and wood. Collapsing floors. Trap doors. Creaking in the wind.
9	On a boat in the harbor. Tar and rope. Creaking boards. Locked chests. Guards in the crow’s nest.
10	In a cave behind a waterfall. The overwhelming sound of water. Wet floors. Mechanized traps. Narrow passages. Darkness.

(Check out the wizard's tower, roadside inn, abandoned temple, hovering island, glacier, or sargasso sea location generators for other locations to locate your cult.)

*Stone basin in Cairn L Recess. (Eugene Conwell, 1873)

What treasures or knowledge do they keep hidden?

Cultists are always on the lookout for something to give them the upper hand in the furtherance of their dark master’s goals. Sometimes they come into possession of interesting magical artifacts and dangerous information. Below you’ll find a table with a few ideas as to what the evil cultists might keep in their secret vaults.

D12	Hidden Treasures:
1	An Orcish Death Whistle: A hand-sized whistle made out of carved orc bone, depicting a screaming orc. Once a day when the whistle is blown, it lets out a loud sound like the screams of a dying orc. This forces everyone who can hear except the blower to succeed at a Spell  save or flee in terror in a random direction for 1d4 rounds.
2	The Atlas of Pandemonium: A tome bound in demon skin which has extensive maps and articles on Pandemonium, the plane of demons. A spellcaster who takes an hour to read this tome will gain a +1 bonus to saving throws against demons until the start of the next day.
3	5d20 Fool’s Doubloons: These small hunks of dirty scrap metal are enchanted to appear as platinum coins, at least for a while. Anyone who first sees the Fool’s Doubloons must make a Spell save or believe the lumps of scrap are truly platinum coins. Any time after the first time that someone see the Fool’s Doubloons, they can make another Spell save to disbelieve the effect with a +4 bonus.
4	A Wand of Agony: This alder wood wand is carved to look like it is wound in thorns. The wand has five charges. By expending a single charge, the wielder can cause agony and pain to a visible target within 35 feet. The target must make a death save. If they fail, they suffer 1d4 hp damage and suffer a -2 penalty to attacks until the end of their next turn.
5	A Dagger +1 of Blood Drinking: This curved dagger with a blackened metal hilt appears to be stained with blood. After a successful attack, the wielder of the dagger heals an amount of hit points equal to the amount of damage they just inflicted. The dagger wielder can only gain hit points this way up to their hit point maximum.
6	A Map of the Local Underdark: This crumpled and partially burned map shows the major tunnel systems and hazards of the local underdark region. A party that studies the map in detail prior to planning an expedition to the underdark will gain a +1 bonus on saving throws to avoid danger whilst down there.

*Witches feasting, featured in The History of Witches and Wizards (1720)

What powerful person is among them?

Cults often attract the powerful and important. Secret knowledge and hidden power are strong incentives for unscrupulous lords to join a cult. Such powerful patrons and members makes attacking cults head-on hazardous. It may be of little consequence for a party of adventurers to slay a few cultists, but what happens when a powerful political leader is found among them? What are the repercussions for parties if they end up slaying first and asking questions after? Not good, one would imagine. Use the table below to generate ideas for prominent citizens who may be involved in the cult.

D12	Who is secretly in the cult?
1	A prominent burgomaster or merchant lord.
2	A rich farmer.
3	The child or sibling of the local lord or lady.
4	The head of the town guard.
5	The town’s priest.
6	A prominent rich mage.
7	The town drunk.
8	The tavern keeper.
9	The town’s richest shop keeper.
10	A local lord or lady’s mother or father.
11	The town’s blacksmith.
12	A famous retired adventurer.