“ The party comes across a nice hermit in the woods. He gives them food and lodging for the night. They awaken to his terrified screams. 'East! It's east! Stop it! It'll kill us all!' The poor horror-stricken hermit dies thrashing in agony, one boney arm outstretched, his finger pointing to the east.”
“ An insidious creature, most likely somehow 'related' to trappers and lurkers, the Dead Leaves (for no other name exists as of yet for this foul thing), hibernates for three of the four year's seasons, deep underground. Its active time is Autumn, when trees shed their leaves, depositing colorful carpets across the ground. The terror then emerges and blends in with the surrounding leaves, perfectly camouflaged, waiting patiently for unsuspecting victims. In appearance it resembles nothing more than a ten foot square, six inch thick, layer of bright yellow, orange, and red leaves. The only hint that someone is walking on top of it, comes in the form of an unusual amplified sound of leaves crunching underfoot. Too late usually, the victims notice this additional 'crunch'. The Dead Leaves will then swirl and 'rise' up to smother and suffocate the victim, like a colorful, malevolent, boa constrictor.
Fire, as can be imagined, is particularly effective against this creature, but one has to *know* it's there before putting it to the torch. And there's the rub. The creature is impossible to 'identify' in a large patch of fallen leaves by eyesight alone.”
“ In one region of a forest, all of the trees are identical, down to the leaves and the twigs. If the PCs carve something into one of the trees, it could mystically propigate until it covered all of the trees, or could vanish since it was not carved into the one true tree.”