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So I am writing my own campaign and I have come up with a lot of stuff I think is neat and want to share. I put this out there for you to use. If anyone else has some cool home brew locations feel free to write them up and share. We may not have editors but I bet we can be just as awesome as the Paizo Staff.
The Library:
The Library is an ever expanding place filled with giant book laden bookcases. Every book ever written and a few yet to be written are here. The bookcases are situated both vertically and horizontally all at 90 degree angles no diagonals as far as the eyes can see. Some are free floating. When the PCs walk in The Library they are walking with bookcases as their floor. The gnome caretaker gets very upset if the PCs step on the books so if they find themselves on a bookcase turned with the books face up they had best succeed on as acrobatics check to step only of the edge of the shelves.
Navigation:
When the PCs enter The Library they are separated but in sight of each other. Gravity is somewhat subjective here so it appears that some of the PCs are standing on the walls or ceiling. Have each Player roll percentile dice and leave the results visible to the table. Whenever a PC leaves the visual range of the other PCs they travel seemingly randomly in The Library and come out in another location in site of at least one other PC. When this happens have the PC in question roll the percentile. If the roll is within five (or ten or twenty depending on how fast you want them to regroup) the PC emerges next to another PC and they can travel together from then on. If they want to separate one just goes out of site of the other PCs and they will travel solo. The traveling isn’t really random. The Library is a very lawful place. The PCs just do not know the tick of it yet. If any PC rolls 100 they get an idea how things work and can go to any location in The Library they know exists.
Combat:
If the players haven’t fully regrouped combat may be a little tricky. Draw four planes to represent the four walls of The Library. Generally think of them as Up, Down, Left, and Right. Forward and Back are so far away they may not even exist. Break up each plane into levels so that even if two players are on the same plane they are not necessarily together. Keep in mind that each location with a PC needs something for them to walk around to travel. You only need to draw locations as they become relevant. Likely only one more location than there are PCs. Enemies that followed the PCs into The Library are just as lost as the PCs but Enemies that are native to The Library can navigate with ease.
Ecology:
There isn’t a lot of life in The Library. Most of what will be encountered will be constructs, other lost adventurers, and extreme bibliophiles. Your best bet is to reskin existing monsters to be library themed. For instance a Bat Swarm can become an Animated Book Swarm. Even traditional enemies don’t have to be hostile. They could just be here to read. (Liches love Terry PratchetT. It’s a well know fact.)
The Gnome:
The Gnome cannot leave The Library for long as being caretaker is a fairly intensive job. He is going white at the temples, and seems pale. He has been caretaker for a very long time and while he loves them he has grown bored of the books. He is looking for someone to take his place so he can leave The Library to see the world. He is looking for the right type of person. (At least four knowledges at 10 ranks or more.) As yet he hasn’t become desperate. If the job is turned down he lest the perspective replacement go back to their lives. But the more white hair he gains the less reasonable he becomes.
Dotting!
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Haunted Carnival:
Much like the name suggests this is a haunted carnival. Only abandoned for a handful of years the rides and structures are still in relatively good repair. Nature has started the long slow process of reclaiming the land. Weeds are abundant and the paint is peeling but there is a feeling of pent up energy throughout the carnival as though it is just waiting for the right moment to spring back to life.
Carnival Entrance:
When the characters enter the carnival a massive haunt activates. Calliope music fills the air and the laud voice of a barker calls out to them. “Welcome, one and all, old and young, dreamers and wishers. Enjoy all the delights we have to offer.” As the characters wonder through the Carnival they get the feeling as though it is full of activity, as if they are in a great crowd. They constantly find themselves moving as if to navigate through other people in the non-existent crowd, and straining to hear over the den of non-existent voices. The haunt is harmless. There is no real impediment to movement and they can hear just fine. A channeling can negate the haunt in each area but it only affects the area the channeler is in, not the whole carnival.
The Midway:
The midway is full of games. Whenever a character approaches a game the barker voice booms out an invitation for the character to play. The games should be based on skill checks with varying degrees of success. Depending on the level of success the characters should earn a prize. Ranging from carnival staples like a doll or toy up to a minor magical boon such as a bonus to whatever skill was used to win the game. Magic items should be for only the most difficult games and should be more for novelty than adventuring use. Level 0 spells. See below for examples.
Jacobs’s Ladder requires three clime checks that get progressively harder. The ladder is rigged so a failed check always results in the character falling off the ladder even if the check fails by less than five.
The beam walk requires three acrobatics checks. The center of the beam is rigged to wobble so passing that section requires a ref save or the character falls off. Treat this section as a mechanical trap but disabling it negates and prize from the game. Seeing the trap can give the characters a circumstance bonus to their ref save.
The dart game has various colored bladders hung on a board. A character can pay 1c to get three darts. The various colored bladders are of different sizes, have different ACs and are worth different points, but all are under filled and so have an effective hardness of 2. It takes 2 points of damage to pierce the bladder so unless a character has a strength modifier of 1 or higher they are not going to pop a bladder with the provided dart (1d3 dmg.) and using other weapons negates any prize.
The mechanical bull is a large imposing beast. The ride checks start at 10 and increase by 2 every round. To earn the minimum prize a player must stay on for at least 5 rounds and the prize improves at DC26 and DC 32. (Prize points and DCs can be altered to fit the level of your game.)
Madame Thalia:
There are posters throughout the Carnival telling the guests to visit Madame Thalia for fortunes. –Only One Silver Coin- Entering her tent the characters are greeted with a morbid tableau. Madame Thalia is sitting at a round table with a glass sphere in the center. She is dead head lolling to the side. The years have mummified her and her desiccated hand still rests outstretched as if waiting for payment. Each character my give her one coin to get one question answered. She is always accurate but tends to phrase her answers to bring up more questions thus enticing the character to spend more than they should to clarify mundane in irrelevant tidbits of information. Each character only gets one question. Anyone who removes a silver coin from Madame Thalia is subject to a curse effect. A silver needle pierces the hand of the character. Until the curse is removed they cannot use two handed weapons and have a -2 to any check involving the hand. Once the curse is removed the needle disappears.
Creature Menagerie:
The creatures in the menagerie were always suspect. The nymph was just a beautiful woman in costume, the vampire was just a giant bat, the drider was an ettercap, the void demon was a permanent darkness spell, and the doppelganger was a clever illusion mirroring whoever was closest to the cage. This is a good area to insert combat. If the ettercap survives it likely does so with the help of spiders. A good spider themed ambush would work here.
Fun House:
The haunted house in a haunted carnival has got to be good. The main body of the house consists of four octagonal rooms. Each room in identical and has a compass rose of the floor and a numbered door on each wall. No door may be opened with another door in the house already open. Lay out the four rooms in a square with hallways between each room. At the middle point of each hallway is a trap. It causes a flash of light and the doors at either end of the hallway close. If done right it should appear that a character who travels between each room is entering the room they just left but with any party members that stayed behind now missing. To add to the illusion until they figure it out only draw the first room and have the players mini reenter the already drawn room. To keep track of who was in which room I put the minis on different colored poker chips.
Other rooms could look completely normal but have furniture come to life and attack, and/or small maze that is cloaked in total darkness. Setting up a combat is a room that appears empty but is in fact full of invisible barriers can add to the fun house feel. Be ready to improvise you want the players frustrated with the fun house not with you. If it gets too hard for them tone it down.
Tips: Check out Murder’s Mark, and We Be Goblins as both served as inspiration for this carnival.