Monday 4 September 2017

d100 Cave rock art works



So caves are not such a big leap from sewers and i'm still on a bit of a Veins kick. I studied prehistoric rock art and wrote way too much about it so all this inspired me to do this. Mostly they are for decor or curiosity with no game function but villagers might mention them as a scary place or finding one in a deep cave might be a warning. Could describe historic event and you might find remains of a monster depicted in art or find a living descendant.

You might find these in caves but also on cliff faces or anywhere with great sheets of rock. Some might be flooded over by the sea or visible at low tide or on a mountain top.

Some are painted so these require better shelter and or a tradition of repainting them every generation, Carvings last a long time but might be worn smooth in some locations. Relief art is more 3d and statue like but carved into rock work

More modern religions might fear them adding their own on top or destroying them. A wizard might be able to research a spell from them but these will be better hidden. People might assume they were pagan or witch made to be shunned or feared. More recent peoples might open them to tourism and even create fake copies for cheap fame. People might adopt earlier artworks and make up explanations or claim their ancestors made them as part of their land claim.

Many will feature lost prehistoric life being hunted, ancient disasters, ceremonies, communities, supernatural beings, ancestors and more. It is a great chance to show off your world history. Some might be magic but the secrets are probably lost. Some prehistoric maps seem very strange to us and very abstract with distances in days travel to actual distance making them very distorted. Some possible magical instructions or treaties with supernatural beings.

Works might be made by a gender, specialist artists, shamen or wizards, seasonal rites, part of coming of age ritual, just decoration, for magic and possibly by teenagers for totally secular entertainment.

D6 Type
1 Painted with ochre, pigment or blood with brush or sprayed from mouth like aerosol
2 Scratched or scraped surface with tool
3 Chiseled and carved linework into rock with tools
4 Relief carvings with 3d shapes
5 Patterns with clay or mud possibly built into 3d shapes
6 Carved and chiseled then painted

D6 Condition
1 Perfectly preserved since prehistory
2 Well preserved but repaired over aeons possibly added to or distorted by later peoples
3 Not as ancient as you might think, possibly fake or copied mish mash
4 A bit battered or worn or covered or faded
5 Vandalized with possibly modern work over the top like names or holy symbols
6 Worn and barley noticeable requiring study and reconstruction to comprehend

d6 Frequency
1 One off single artwork alone
2 Several repeated artworks in row
3 Similar artworks repeated over area and one unique artwork
4 Several D4+2 artworks in separate sections
5  Several D4+2 artworks in overlapping mess
6  Long wall or caves gallerey with dozens of artworks

D10 Quick Types (you could use several)
1 Hunting scenes with animals posibly long gone types
2 Ancestors in the dawn time doing things
3 Spirits possibly instructions on dealing with them
4 Monsters  causing destruction
5 Tribe performing rituals  
6 Disaster like flood, volcano, comet
7 Stars or seasonal calendar
8 Contact with strange people like ships or clothed persons or iding animals
9 Scenes of the dead or death or the underworld
10 Abstract map of communities, sacred sites, resources

d100 Cave rock art works
01 Handprints everywhere
02 Large painted areas with pigment
03 Abstract decorative patterns and blocks of colour
04 Tool marks forming pattern like scales
05 Walls plastered with stones or coloured clay cones
06 Patterns made up of dots or simple shapes
07 Bands of colour alternating in simple patterns
08 Stick figures repeated
09 Stick figures and animals
10 Stick figures running from comet

11 Stick figures hunting animals
12 Bizarre 
elongated stick figures
13 Stick figures with weapons killing other figures
14 Stick figures with extra limbs
15 Stick figures with strange heads or horns or tails
16 Dancing stick figures with instruments
17 Stick figures wailing with many dead
18 Stick figures fleeing monster or spirit
19 Stick figures worshiping monster or spirit
20 Ancestor figures teaching skills to decendants
21 Ancestor figures birthing increasing generations
22 Concentric rings of dots and figures indicating water sources and tribes
23 Men with weapons fighting mammoths and rhinos
24 Men fighting or fleeing giant auroch cattle
25 Frog or snake demon guarding water while people sick
26 Animal ancestors of local tribes
27 Female hag monster squatting over treasure in cave eating children
28 Beautiful depictions of herd animals
29 Face of lion using shape of rock to resemble relief art
30 Horned shaman holding fetishes with familiar
31 Sleeping shaman with fetch leaving body to visit spirit world
32 Strange spirit creatures warning trespassers or taboo area
33 Horned shaman with drum and erection
34 Figures dancing with breasts and erections
35 Animal paintings that have been struck with weapons and painted with blood in ritual
36 Stars in sky, sun and moon  with local landmarks
37 Angry dead spirits come from tomb to menace living
38 Village scene of everyday life preparing food with huts
39 Figures dancing around fire
40 Ferocious cave bear chasing hunters
41 Figures around single other coloured strange figure
42 Crude scenes of intrecourse
43 Abstract large women giving birth
44 Pictures of animals with digestive tracts and organs
45 Pictures of animals and people made from repeated dots
46 Moulded clay bison set into wall
47 Relief sculpture of huge earth goddess with many breasts
48 Strange hybrid beast man in frightening detail looks enraged
49 Figures engaged in cannibalism turning into monsters
50 Flying demons chasing people
51 Tentacled horror eating people
52 Relief carving of attractive naked women
53 Wall covered in phallus symbols  
54 Worshipers of giant many breasted bat goddess
55 Squid headed bat winged god devouring humans like snacks
56 Horned figure leading people in dance
57 Giant terrorising people and eating whole animals
58 Wolf men eating people
59 Surface covered in clay breasts
60 Painting of men fighting orcs
61 Dwarfs with strange clothes trading weapons and tools with men
62 People worshiping a huge tree
63 Hero fighting a great lizard
64 People trading with shorter people
65 Tribe chasing a male female couple
66 Angry wizard chasing scared women with babies
67 Men riding goats
68 Men fighting a centaur carrying a woman
69 Woman feeding a unicorn
70 Dragon chasing wooly mammoths
71 Wizard raisind undead from pit of corpses
72 Men chasing bison off a cliff
73 People traveling from dark cave past monsters to the surface
74 Men fighting while tribe look on
75 Men fighting a hydra
76 Many headed man being worshipped
77 Wizard sacrificing people to wicked spirit
78 People running from waves to high place
79 Goat men having a ceremony
80 Worshipers dancing around monolith with toad thing sitting on top
81 Men fighting a cyclops and hero shooting it's eye with arrow
82 People with tents trading tusks, fur and stones
83 Fish men stealing women chased by angry tribes men
84 People meeting strange slender people hiding in trees
85 Lizard men and monster destroying huts taking human prisoners 
86 Wizard battling ghosts from a pit
87 Tribal ritual burning someone at the stake
88 A great flying bird thing snatching a child from angry people
89 Tribe building log wall to keep out angry giant
90 Fish woman luring men into sea
91 Man with axe fighting a lizard man
92 Women with spears chasing a man
93 Tribe of people swapping children with frog folk
94 Many men dragging a great stone
95 Enslaved men dragging rocks to great mound being whipped by bigger men
96 A great horned man with axe leading many slaves tied by neck
97 Strange symbols repeated over again with no visible meaning
98 Walking bird fighting warrior
99 Men shooting arrows at the sun led by horned man
100 Several log forts with huts with monsters roaming in between  

2 comments:

  1. This is my favorite yet. There really ought to be lots of cave art, considering how much more inhabited things are down there.

    87 should be burning someone at the stake, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just saw this one. It's really good!

    ReplyDelete

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