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100+ Outdoor Places
These are like the rooms of an outdoor dungeon.
1:Cave:A rock outcropping with a cave.
GM Notes: Big enough to be the lair of a bear, beast, or monster.
2:Cavern:A rock outcropping with a cave that leads to a large cavern.
GM Notes: Good lair for a dragon or hydra. Has a back door tunnel with a branch that leads to a dungeon.
3: Ruined Tower:About half a wall of the first floor. Hidden by debris trap door that leads to a wizard’s cellar.
GM Notes: Cellar usually has undead or other magical monsters and treasures. Cellar is part of any underground dungeon.
4:Cluster of Trees:Lots of branches, leaves, and other litter between the trees.
GM Notes: Several plants and mushrooms that can be used in making potions and such grow here. +3 to find such plants.
5:Small clearing with fairy ring:At dawn and sunset small fairies appear and dance in the ring for about 15 minutes.
GM Notes: If someone kicks over or removes a mushroom, pixies, gremlins, and other fae will spill out into the world every twilight. Mortals can step over the mushrooms to get to the first world during the 15 minute window.
6:Tree and chest:A tree growing over a half buried chest, also an elm, maple, and a pine.
GM Notes: A hangman tree growing on a half-buried chest. It will only move from there if characters attack it with ranged weapons. The chest has a needle trap and a type H lair treasure, also a random treasure and discovery from the Cleaves. The key to the chest is hidden in the branches of the maple (DC18 search).
7:Campground:A burned out campfire, holes where tent pegs went, and a garbage/cesspit.
GM Notes: It takes half as long to make camp. There’s a buried chest of hunting gear(DC15 to find the disturbed earth) with a standard lock, containing 20 arrows, a dozen servings of deer jerky, a bag of trail mix, and a flip knife(equal to a dagger).
8:Failed Town:An abandoned Stone cabin and a partially built town hall.
GM Notes: Possible start to Pathfinderville. Knowledge history 18 to tell this was wiped out by a war between human villagers and druids.
9 :Small Stone Circle: Good place of worship for druids, at dawn one animal is uplifted to humanoid. At dusk any one humanoid is downgraded to an animal. Fort save DC16.
GM Notes: Knowledge history 18 to tell that druids were using this to build an army. Source of new villagers for Pathfinderville.
10: Ancient Shrine/Statue: The PCs stumble across a small shrine or large statue that has been forgotten to time. If any of the PCs take the time to fully clear away the debris in a respectful manner, any follower of the deity associated with the shrine/statue or any character of compatible alignment may choose to be either fully healed or be able to cast spells at one character level higher for 24 hours.
More about the lost woods. May contain gremlins who will sever twine or rub out chalk markings. If a character captures one, they can be bribed or threatened to show them the way out. Otherwise it's a DC18 will save to find the path out.
17:Staircase to Nowhere: A stone staircase has been built in the middle of this field. Yes, you can see above the trees from the top. At a random time each day, a portal opens at the top to limbo. Roll a D20 and a D6, minus 2, and that's the hour it's open. Midnight to 1 is hour zero.
21. Cliff Above the stream a cliff rises, grey rock striped with white lichen and pocked by a few hardy plants. Something rises from a nest at the base of one of those plants and flies at you screaming...
GM Notes: The creature won't actually attack if the party retreats. The nest contains eggs or hatchlings which may be valuable in their own right.
22. Baby A thin wail rises from a meadow next to the trail. The sound is seemingly impossible to ignore.
GM Notes: The baby is abandoned. It has been left where faeries will find it tonight, and likely take care of it for as long as they take an interest. Returning the baby to the parents will not lead to a reward. A rapacious bandit lord is setting himself up for a PC-kicking if the players take an interest
23. Waterfall A waterfall leads to a deep, clear pond below. It's strikingly beautiful.
GM Notes: It's safe to swim and wash here, but at night a vampire spawn comes out from behind the waterfall and seeks for blood. Or it attacks immediately if someone checks the small cave behind the waterfall.
24. Loose Slope Coming down this slope the path cracks under your weight and turns into rubble which starts to slide!
GM Notes: a survival DC 15 or perception DC 20 check will see this before it becomes a problem. Anyone caught will be gleefully pounced on by some goblins waiting out of sight. If no one is then there are signs at the bottom that they've been there and of their previous victims.
25:Butterfield:An assortment of wildflowers grow here. There are a few buttercups, but there are also several varieties that attract butterflies.
GM notes: There are the required resources to craft a garland for Duskpetal's ritual. Duplicating her ritual is a sign that the shepherdess might train a character into the order of the broom. The war with disrespectful humans has greatly reduced their numbers.
26:Hot spring, strong acid
26:GM Notes: Green Dragons love it. Some of the Goblins have acid burns. :)
@ G squared: just want to clarify, is this thread for a hundred outdoor features, a la hot springs, clusters of trees or waterfalls, or is this thread for encounter areas aka "... like rooms in an outdoor dungeon"?
Both. You give the features and possibly suggest treasures and encounters. There are not really walls and doors between the "rooms" per say, but there can be a house made of gingerbread with a green hag living in it. If you just go around the house she will be aware of you because she has a crystal ball. Once you notice the sensor, your party will want to prepare to go in after the loot.
27:Gingerbread House:A house made of gingerbread, frosted, and studded with candies.
GM Notes:The occupant is a Green Hag or Annis who will notice the characters through the sugar glass windows. She has a crystal ball so she can further study them, a flying broom, and a magic caldron of some sort. This can be the whole point of the adventure if she has captured 2 missing children.
31:Berry Bushes:13 berry bushes. 1 is goodberries, 1 is poison,
2 have thorns, the rest are normal. Knowledge nature or survival DC16 will identify them. So will detect magic and detect poison. Reflex save DC16 to pick the berries without getting stuck.
Check for wandering monsters, as the monster or monsters also just discovered this place and will fight for it if natural enemies.
Don't go into the long grass!
A field of elephant grass 7' high.
Half a dozen Velociraptors/Deinonychus.
32:Don't go into the long grass!
A field of elephant grass 7' high.
Half a dozen Velociraptors/Deinonychus.
GM Notes: They may have come from a temporary time warp or from a lost valley. Add dinos to the wandering monster tables.
36. A smoldering crater, that is both perfectly smooth and perfectly spherical, with a naked Austrian Android kneeling in it.
37. A bog with naturally occurring Black Tentacles and Stinking Cloud. All the better if there are Leech Swarms with the Aerial Creature template.
38. A benign patch of naturally occurring Reverse Gravity with intelligent forest creatures playing in its effects like a slow motion trampoline.
39. A stone slab that has a spear stuck in the top of it. The spear has a grotesque barbed head made of a strange black stone. The haft is made of petrified redwood.
Climbing on top of the slab and succeeding at a DC 25 Strength check can remove the spear from the stone.
Instantly, upon the spear's removal, the stone slab comes to life as a Mimic!
The spear is a Bloodstone Impaler.
This is a CR4 encounter.
36. A smoldering crater, that is both perfectly smooth and perfectly spherical, with a naked Austrian Android kneeling in it.
Does he look like Andy Warhol or a terminator?
37. A bog with naturally occurring Black Tentacles and Stinking Cloud. All the better if there are Leech Swarms with the Aerial Creature template.
38. A benign patch of naturally occurring Reverse Gravity with intelligent forest creatures playing in its effects like a slow motion trampoline.
39.Please tell me more about a blood stone impaler.
Copied from AoN:
This is +1 keen spear has a crimson haft made of petrified redwood, and its blackened stone head sports numerous vicious barbs on each side. Once per day when the wielder confirms a critical hit against a creature with this weapon, in addition to dealing damage, he can command the spear to turn the struck creature to stone. The creature struck must succeed at a DC 19 Fortitude save or instantly become a mindless statue as flesh to stone. This effect traps the bloodstone impaler in the process, making it unusable as long as it remains embedded in the statue. A bloodstone impaler may be removed from a lapidified creature by a humanoid capable of wielding it who succeeds at a DC 25 Strength check; doing so is a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity. Removing a bloodstone impaler from a petrified victim instantly changes the creature back to its original form.
And now you're standing on a Mimic! Lol.
43abc.Any encounter you really want the characters to have. I hate it when I spend hours on something and the party just avoids it.
As opposed to,
44. Don't go there! A path that leads to a dilapidated cabin. All along the path are signs saying "Turn Back", "Abandon hope all who enter here.","Beware!", "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
GM Notes: A level draining undead is trapped here. Alternately, you can have an old man sitting on a portal to Hell. His weight is the only thing keeping it closed. He's wearing a necklace of stones of weight.
Maybe there's a Litch who just wants to be left alone to his horrible experiments.
45. The Point:
You usually approach The Point from the south. Down here the river is shallow, but settled after a stint of rapids upstream. There is a bend in the river, forming a little eddy pool on the far side, an easy swim of a mere 75 feet. On the far bank, adjacent to the eddy pool is a steep bank that levels out about 15' above the water. A hardy little tree grows defiantly out of the rock on the ledge. There is a natural staircase formed by the way the rock has crumbled and eroded that leads down from the ledge to the water's edge.
If you continue north, you will encounter a luscious and healthy temperate forest of evergreen trees, scattered with rocks and boulders. The landscape becomes steeper and rockier, but the forest is as thick and beautiful as it was down lower. After a leisurely stroll through the woods, and a short hike, you break out of the trees to see The Point.
Before you stretches a flat slab of rock that tapers to form a triangle jetting out over the river, unseen somewhere below. Across a gap the width of the river, a cliff rises above you, probably a good 30' higher than your current position. If you go to the edge of the rock slab, you will see the river about 30' below.
Looking to the right of The Point, you see ground slope down to the forest you just walked through, and catch a glimpse of the river as it flows into the rapids that were upstream of the eddy pool. Looking to the left of The Point reveals another slab of rock on the opposite side of the river.
This massive slab of rock across from you slants at a 45* angle, creating a waterfall of sorts that drops 30' into the river below The Point. The river upstream of this waterfall is a bunch of rapids, visible almost eyelevel with your position on The Point.
Despite the rush of water exiting the waterfall, The Point is an absolutely perfect swimming hole.
The drop off The Point is enough that you are mostly across the river by the time you get back to the surface if you start swimming that way as soon as you reach your maximum depth. Just the depth you happen to sink from momentum, nothing scary or special. You don't have to worry about hitting the bottom... you won't.
Swimming over to where the slanted slab of stone that forms the waterfall meets the 60' cliff across from The Point, you will find another natural staircase leading up to the top of the cliff... you have come this far, don't back down now.
At the top of the 60-foot cliff across from The Point, the slanted slab of stone and the waterfall are now off to your right. You can see where the slab of stone extends under the water... don't jump there. And if you look straight down over the edge, there's a bunch of sharp rocks 60' below you... so you have to jump a little. It's really not anything special, a child can do it, Take 10 if you have to.
The jump is incredible.
And you are across the river by the time you make it back to the surface... you climb out, jump off The Point, swim across, jump off the 60' cliff, swim across... the river is only like 50'-100' wide down here below the falls. It is an easy swim, so back and forth you go.
If you climb up the sloped slab of rock to the rapids at the top of the waterfall, the view is like nothing you will ever lay eyes on again. Before you rise the snowcapped peaks from which this river originates. The river is probably 200' wide here, and stretches for a quarter mile of majestic rolling rapids from bank to bank.
Come on. It's too late to chicken out now, let's go play in the rapids.
The rapids are between 3' and 7' feet high, and forms jagged rows like shark's teeth... chewing up the river as it reduces from 200' wide, to the 75' or so that tumbles down the waterfall. And we are out in it. People playing in these roaring rapids would probably look crazy, but there's nobody else for miles. The water is frothy and full of bubbles. It is cool and sensational in the summer heat. You have to really lean into the current, lest you be swept away.
And even though the waterfall doesn't really fall, it more slides down the sloped slab... it's not a freaking waterslide! It's a trap. Don't go down there.
This is not an encounter, there is no challenge rating, no checks to be made, or danger... and if you taint this location with ill-will, then may you stub your toe every day for the rest of your natural life.
Granted, it was half my lifetime since I have been to The Point... there might have been more Swim and Climb and possibly Survival checks than I remember... in fact, it is probably quite dangerous to swim at The Point. But so worth it.
45.The Point: Unicorns might live here and protect the place.
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46.Fountain.In the middle of an otherwise normal patch of woods is a fountain in a small clearing. It appears to be made of marble and depict a wood nymph pouring water from a grecian urn. The "water" appears to be various colors and varying levels of transparency.
GM Notes: It does radiate magic. It is a potion fountain. You can take a drink and be affected by 1-4 potions, or dip out a flask of 4 doses of oncolor, dex save DC16 or be affected by a potion as if a lotion. There are a lot of ways to randomly generate potions or oils. However you do it, a result of 1 is generally a standard potion of poison.
Warning: A potion that causes someone's head to explode without a save will discourage anyone from trying any such features in your games. Word gets around.
Also V for Vending Machines, 2 can play this game:
40. Open field and glowing barn: a weird hum, like some kind of massive, clockwork device, emanates from the inside of a barn at the end of an open field. Two tracks of tramped down grass start in the middle of the field, seemingly from nothing, as if some kind of large-wheeled wagon fell out of the sky and drove straight into the building in the distance. While the doors of the barn are closed, a weird, pulsating light can be seen through the slats
41. Pirate ship: several children stand on a beach, surrounded by several adults. One of the grown ups seems to be adulating the kids while also marveling over a handful of gems and jewelry. The children meanwhile point to a crippled pirate vessel with tattered sails lurching towards the horizon, apparently escaping a cavernous grotto
Snip
On further study, 41 requires a stone archway in a field that leads to the aforementioned beach, far away. The GM controls when the characters can return through the archway.
47. Volcano stuck in time...
A small mountain rises above the landscape, and breaks apart as it continues skyward. Its top is completely shattered, huge pieces of the mountain float, motionless in the space above. All of the debris, smoke, fire, and lava of a volcanic eruption are there... frozen in place for eternity.
The smoke cloud doesn't dissipate or blow away, the stones and debris never fall, the lava never flows. It is simply an anomaly that doesn't need to ever be explained.
48. Crystal Chandelier Cave...
Typical ice cave with exceptionally sharp stalactites precariously hanging from the ceiling. Set a minimum required Stealth roll to not upset the icicles. Possibly provide examples of what happens when the icicles are disturbed... like a polar bear pinned to the ground. Bonus points if you have unmarked portions of the floor be ice that can collapse if, say, a huge icicle falls from the ceiling and crashes through it. Even better if you include a Frost Worm or Wendigo in or around the cave.
49. The pockmarked desert...
An expanse of sand that reaches the horizon. The landscape is covered in pits, roughly 60' wide and 20' deep. The edge of one pit touches the edges of the pits around it... creating a surface similar to a golf ball. Each pit contains a Giant Antlion. Add flying monsters, as needed.
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Halfway there!
51. A scorched, lightning-struck tree next to a crater at the top of a mountain. (Shamelessly stolen from Morrowind)
52. A shallow lake filled with humanoid skeletons of various races, different cultures, and of completely separate time periods.
53. A massive tree outgrowing the forest around it. The tree hums with magical energy. Its taproot is embedded in the intersection of two Ley Lines.
54. A field of cats enjoying a bunch of natural catnip.
55. An onyx slab of stone with a beam of moonlight focused on it, during an eclipse. Strong, Necromancy magic floods the area.
56. The living dining room...
A long table, and accompanying chairs, in the middle of a clearing. The table and chairs are formed by living bushes and trees, naturally weaving themselves into the shapes.
57. The Boneyard...
This barren and dry landscape is comprised of cracked limestone ravines. The walls are covered in ominous holes that extends to unknown darkness within. The area is littered with the skeletons of massive beasts, ribcages you can walk under/through, femurs too large to lift, skulls the size of carriages. The bones are covered in thousands of scratches and bite marks...
58. Hellview...
A small town, population 96, filled with seemingly normal people. The town harbors a dark secret, though. And nobody who enters the town ever makes it out alive. The only way to leave is overflooded by the storm... it washes the bodies downstream.
56. The living dining room...
A long table, and accompanying chairs, in the middle of a clearing. The table and chairs are formed by living bushes and trees, naturally weaving themselves into the shapes.
57. The Boneyard...
This barren and dry landscape is comprised of cracked limestone ravines. The walls are covered in ominous holes that extends to unknown darkness within. The area is littered with the skeletons of massive beasts, ribcages you can walk under/through, femurs too large to lift, skulls the size of carriages. The bones are covered in thousands of scratches and bite marks...
58. Hellview...
A small town, population 96, filled with seemingly normal people. The town harbors a dark secret, though. And nobody who enters the town ever makes it out alive. The only way to leave is overflooded by the storm... it washes the bodies downstream.
56 is fine. 57 is a small ravine that has a gate at the bottom to the boneyard. 58 Hellview is at the end of a path that leads one way into a demiplane created by some sort of monsters. Destroying the head monster makes the whole thing come apart tossing the party back onto the path.
I should have said at the beginning that the whole dungeon is a mile wide hex. I did on another topic.
Making an exception for...
47. Volcano stuck in time...
A small mountain rises above the landscape, and breaks apart as it continues skyward. Its top is completely shattered, huge pieces of the mountain float, motionless in the space above. All of the debris, smoke, fire, and lava of a volcanic eruption are there... frozen in place for eternity.
The smoke cloud doesn't dissipate or blow away, the stones and debris never fall, the lava never flows. It is simply an anomaly that doesn't need to ever be explained.
...because it is an anomaly. This feature is larger on the inside than out. Very difficult to map.
60. Smoky forest
This area of woodland is filled with choking smoke. There's a vein of coal slowly burning underground. Dust mephits love to hang out here, and a haunt tries to lure people to fall to their death into a cavity hollowed out by the fire just like she did.
Making an exception for...
47. Volcano stuck in time...A small mountain rises above the landscape, and breaks apart as it continues skyward. Its top is completely shattered, huge pieces of the mountain float, motionless in the space above. All of the debris, smoke, fire, and lava of a volcanic eruption are there... frozen in place for eternity.
The smoke cloud doesn't dissipate or blow away, the stones and debris never fall, the lava never flows. It is simply an anomaly that doesn't need to ever be explained.
...because it is an anomaly. This feature is larger on the inside than out. Very difficult to map.
I like how, naturally, you have to map the inside of a volcanic eruption... because, of course, the party wants to go inside.
I like how, naturally, you have to map the inside of a volcanic eruption... because, of course, the party wants to go inside.Making an exception for...
47. Volcano stuck in time...A small mountain rises above the landscape, and breaks apart as it continues skyward. Its top is completely shattered, huge pieces of the mountain float, motionless in the space above. All of the debris, smoke, fire, and lava of a volcanic eruption are there... frozen in place for eternity.
The smoke cloud doesn't dissipate or blow away, the stones and debris never fall, the lava never flows. It is simply an anomaly that doesn't need to ever be explained.
...because it is an anomaly. This feature is larger on the inside than out. Very difficult to map.
The overall map. The outside of the volcano would be impossible to fit in as paced out. The joke is good though.
61. Unlucky Slope/Cliff/Crossing...
This is either an extremely steep slope, a cliff, or a natural crossing across a waterfall... the sort of natural environment that requires Acrobatics and Climb checks to successfully navigate.
Unrelated to the natural obstacle, underground is a community of Pugwampi. They mind their own business and are rarely, if ever, seen.
The area is treacherous to the unprepared due to the Pugwampi Unluck Aura. They are too dimwitted to have chosen this spot out of strategic or tactical positioning, and have no active intentions of harassing anyone who may wander by.
Many an unwary traveler has met their fate, falling to the jagged rocks below, where... huh, look what I found... the Pugwampi will loot the corpse(s) at night when no one else is around.
62.Pylon
A strange metal pylon, like a stretched upward pyramid, stands in the middle of the otherwise ordinary field. There is a closed door on one of the four sides. Above it is a triangular crystal a 6 foot human can just reach. If you turn it upside down the door just fades away allowing entrance. Inside, is a table, about waist height, for a 6 foot human. On the table is a map of the entire outdoor dungeon. Each "room" is a puzzle piece. There is a bass relief carving on top and the rooms number underneath. Nothing happens if you pick up pieces, but if you put them down in a different spot on the map, the "room" moves to that spot. All the pieces not yet placed are off to the side like someone was playing a weird game of scrabble.
GM Notes: You could absolutely have a piece placed upside down. If you move the pylon piece everyone will have to reflex save DC18 or be knocked off their feet. You could move relatively empty puzzle pieces to the developing village so you could expand. You could have some pieces missing because the pieces are buried in the "rooms".
63. Field of some sort of ivy
Just packed with poison ivy. Knowledge nature or survival DC16 to identify. If you stumble into it you are distracted by the itching till cured, Knowledge nature or healing DC16.
GM Notes: burning it can affect you like dust of sneezing and coughing.
64.Strawberry field
A field with mostly wild strawberry plants.
GM Notes: You could cultivate them and have a strawberry farm or move them and develop the area. -2 to find non strawberry plants. +2 to find animals that like to eat strawberries.
65.Really overgrown shrine
GM Notes: If you clear it off you find out it's a shrine to Aroden. Praying at it gives you a +4 knowledge history for the rest of the day.
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66. Jungle clearing.
This region of jungle is cleared of undergrowth, almost as if carefully tended. A pair of termite mounds occupy opposite sides of the clearing, and the area between them is particularly barren of ground vegetation.
GM Notes: Each of the termite mounts contains swarms of unusually intelligent beetles, with brightly colored carapaces. One one side, the beetles are dark red with metallic gold 'trim,' and on the other, dark blue with light green 'borders.' The tiny flying beetles carry tiny shields, made from cast-off back-plates of other beetles, and tiny polearms crafted from the legs and pincer like upper limbs of previous generations of their own race, both barely perceptible at a distance, due to their diminutive size. They fly in very precise patterns, like soldiers in formation, and war with each other every day at dawn and dusk, before the heat of the day or the chill of the night makes war untenable. (Stats as a scarab swarm, but with the Wounding/bleed trait of a bat swarm, rather than the filth fever trait, although the swarms themselves are immune to each others Wounding trait.) If they do not feel that their own personal territory is infringed upon (too close to either mound), they ignore trespassers, and save their aggression for each other, continuing their eternal conflict. Despite their weapons and shields, and precise military formations, these beetles are not intelligent.
68. Dilapidated Time Well
You enter a town that is noticeably several centuries behind in terms of technological advancement compared to any other township you've visited, and the townsfolk speak about this area's known history (DC: 15 Knowledge History) as if they were current events. Upon investigation, the PC's find that this town's tavern is the secret headquarters of the Resistance, and the tavern's cellar has a secret door that leads to an underground lair of smithys, engineers, and alchemists working around the clock preparing for war. The townsfolk incessantly gripe about the Great Oppression: impossible taxes, unfair edicts and decrees, and overly-brutal guards, from Evil Magistrate Fenrix and the nearby kingdom, as well as the most recent attack that has plunged them into Open War. PC's figure out that this "oppressive kingdom" is outside this Time Well and know for a fact that it is in ruins. Further investigation reveals that Magistrate Fenrix, in a desperate attempt to "win the war before it started", and attempted to use Time Manipulation magic to effectively Time Stop the townsfolk, allowing his forces to win the day against a host of helpless/frozen targets. Except, he greatly miscalculated the spell, and instead of stopping time upon the townsfolk themselves, he plunged the entire area to be "frozen in time". Believing that his spell had worked, he sent his army in, but the Resistance was ready and waiting, and ultimately won; they were not frozen and helpless as he had planned. The townsfolk are now stuck in a seemingly forever "Groundhog's day", and are preparing to strike back.
PC's eventually hear about a strange sundial north of town, which unbeknownst to the townsfolk, was the material reagent for the spell, and the key to their release from this spell. The PC's must figure out how to destroy it and end the spell.