Tombstone Brook
Alia exclaims, "What a gruesome sight!" and points to a brook filled with gravestones - some still upright while others are knocked over.
Description:
Filled with large rocks and loose sediment, the shallow freshwater brook trickles south near the simple town of Thorne. Lush banks and fragrant cherry blossom trees give the area an almost serene feeling except for the morbid tombstones that invade the brook. These tributes to the dead vary in size, shape, and deterioration. Most are firmly planted into the brook like tree roots. However, the few that are broken lay still in the water.
Theories over the origins of the area:
The locals are not sure which came first, the brook or the tombstones. The debate continues between local scholars with some believing that the tombstones had to have arrived first and that the stream eventually filled in the area. Others believe that the brook came first and the tombstones were magically forced into the ground.
The intellectuals that believe the former idea are sure that there is no reason to place tombstones (or bodies) in a creek magical or not. The speculation that nature simply took over the area is their logical answer. Additional evidence indicates that the location of the brook was the seven centuries old site of a war scrimmage known only as the "Battle of Kin Glade." This evidence simply fuels the theory that the brook was the gravesite of these soldiers.
The opposing faction are sure that a spring did not suddenly well up north and push water south creating a brook. The names on some of the tombstones also indicate that they were placed in the brook within the last century. This group believes that only magic could have allowed the tombstones to stay within the ground for this amount of time and cause damage to the brook or just destroy the base of the tombstones.
What is the real reason? That's up to you, the DM, to decide.
Plot Hooks:
When concentrating/camping/meditating in the location, the following could occur with specific types of people:
- Earthbound Professions (rangers, druids): You feel a strange sensation coming from the brook. It feels natural, yet unnatural. But something is not quite right with the water.
- Holy Professions (paladins, clerics): You hear a strange murmuring in the back of your mind and you suddenly see flashes of blood filling up the brook. The murmuring changes to screaming.
- General: While exploring the area, a handful of scholars stop by to examine the tombstones and explain their groups theories.
- General: While the players are camped out at night, there is a strange noise coming from the brook, like stone scraping on stone.
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? Responses (13)
Okay, I like the feel of this location, nice and mysterious.
I would like your take on what really is happening here - what is the origin of this odd circumstance?
Is it a flooded graveyard?
nice visual and nicely atmospheric. There is a wonderful mystery here somewhere. Tell us what it is. :)
The idea is nice but the resolution leaves me flat.
I don't want The Reason for why this place is as odd as it is. I want you to give me three to five options as to why this the way it is, allowing the GM to choose which is true for their world. That way this submission would give the most bang for its buck. I could have ghostly options, I could have magical options, I could have the mundane option, but I want those options. :)
"What is the real reason? That's up to you, the DM, to decide."
But I don't wanna! ;-)
Seriously, though, subs look much more polished when the submitter tells us what's really going on. Theories are great, give us some shiny facts to go along with them. Aside from that caveat, I'm a fan of this odd location. Nice work!
This definitely has potential, but it needs work, and a lot of it.
I would start with an extensive description of the area, various places/graves/items of special interest and perhaps even a map.
We also need a history of the place, along with some nice "twist" to make it interesting. Theories are fine, but not standing alone.
Something that leaps to mind is that this site can appear near some small village after a flash-flood, bringing PCs in for loot or to investigate (maybe even as archeologists).
If nothing else, add a twist - this area is much too good an idea to waste.
/David
Now, we have here everything from brief plot hooks with a few extras (the Tales of Adventure are notorious), up to heavily oversized plots with everything you could need and then some more. In other words, a plot doesn't have to include tons of details to make us happy.
This idea is pretty good already - though it has certainly room to grow.
Gravestones, spooky.
The idea and description are great, but it is a little brief. Personally, I would like to see some sort of explanation, even a short one. Then, if someone didn't like it, they could just think up their own.
I approve. This has a creepy edge to it, and while I agree that there was plenty of room to expand on it, there's also something to be said for leaving it an inexplicable mystery. Perhaps divinations are even obscured in the area, preventing the answer from being known... For what reason?
I appreciate all the feedback! Thank you. I'll need to think on Moonhunter's suggestion with providing a variety of answers.
I really like the notion of the gravesite brook being a haunted and unholy place, the sort of place that leaves the clerics and sensitive members of a PC party sweating with nightmares and exhausted from tossing and turning all night to visions of battle, creeks full of blood and screaming. They wake in the morning to find the fighters and thieves fishing from the creek. As some of the others said above, the presentation could use some work and I would like to know a bit more about what is actually going on in the creek, and which came first.
What if they came into existence at once... well, sort of.
Here lie the remains of innocent people, not warriors of a battle long gone, but of a conflict much more recent. Here were they buried to prevent anyone from finding out. But the crime was not to be forgotten. A brook nearby was transferred, dragged by the forces from beyond... and it formed the graveyard that was not supposed to be, created a memorial that should not exist.
Maybe someone can decipher the unreadable tombstones, and find out what happened here. And maybe, even after all that time can the crime be undone, and the dead laid to rest. Maybe it is already happening, the tombstones already formed succumbing to time again. Perhaps the echo will dwindle out of existence, without anyone ever learning what happened here. But such is the fate of some dark places.