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Wednesday, 8 January 2020

Signs the Old Ones Were Here




































I've done probably too many things like this but here goes.

Signs the Old Ones Were Here

In many places the folk of the wilds will show to you strange hidden signs like these. Some are local landmarks near roads or villages and locals have superstitions about them. But some areas they are common, one per mile. Then their are the areas near their cities and special places where ancient wars happened where you see more. They were made late in the dawn age then into the age of night diminishing to none by the end of that aeon. Since then most such signs made by human like peoples. These things get wierder and bigger so feel free to use lower dice like d50 or d20 for non mind blasting horrors of the past.

A previous things i found
Prehistoric Landmarks

Megalithic Ruins
Ancient Rock Art
Prehistoric monuments
Stone Age Relics
Boulder Features

You could roll a bunch of d12 or roll on d100
Feel free to mix results of tables or not

d12 Some Sources of Signs 

1 Demi humans and fae folk ancestors and royalty and wilderness spirits and animals 
2 Humanoid gods and heroes former slave races now wild and free
3 Planar beings once walked the earth until the creator gods built otherworldly homes for them. Possibly these were actually prisons
4 Abhuman ancestors, the fist ancestors in dawn,  kin to men with beast or planar powers
5 Giants and troll kind when they rivalled the gods but most were wiped out or imprisoned
6 Mutant Ancients the first generation to carry a specific mutagen reagent or type bloodline
7 Dragons erected stones and monuments too and carved runes on them often adopted by reptilian types or draconic abhumans (oh yes lizard men built them honest)
8 Ancient human cultists (many are more like abhumans) feared alien gods
9 Ancient human hero cults made monuments to deeds of legend and divinities
10 Krinoids with shoggoth workers wonder workers of the age of darkness
11 Void Kraken, greater outsider demons who came to be worshipped and feed 
12 Deities walked the earth until the worlds were separated at the end of the dawn age. After that it was saints and heroes devoted to gods and great monsters

d12 Some types of Signs 
1 Scars from ancient magical battle took place and struck by gods weapons
2 Carved glyphs and pictures in rocks, often telling story or maps of area
3 Footprints of primordial beings walking the earth
4 Burned places with areas with glass surface from magical destruction
5 Craters from impacts when things fell from the stars when the gods battled
6 Rubble in area was once a palace from the dawn age reduced to scattered rubble
7 Petrified bodies of primordial beings killed by magic often in rocks, hills or mountains
8 Skeletons of primordial beings partially buried or fossil bones in rock faces
9 Huge earthwork hills, stones, walls or dams and other large scale land forming
10 Stone monoliths erected by all kinds of beings as seasonal holy places in old times
11 Remains of statue or relief scenes in rockface, often worn but huge in scale
12 Magical sigils and runes, some require special means to see or may glow at times

d12 Stories of the Old Ones Locals Know 
1 How several gods cooperated to drive out the outer gods of the void 
2 Gods battling giants and their monsters to dominate the world
3 How the wicked races were driven into caves and holes and wells and dank places
4 A great being came this way one on a quest or hunt
5 Mighty beings battled here shaping land with weapons and dead allies corpses
6 A great monster was slain here often by a hero or god
7 How some gods turned bad and used power of the void to usurp creation
8 Ancient wizards were evil beings sucking the life from creation and cursing the land
9 Wizards are hard to kill and make stay dead, best kill them when you can
10 Cult pilgrims seasonally come best keep children and livestock inside
11 Many of those signs are where bad things or forgotten things left power and knowledge
12 These signs are a warning to stay away especial at night or solstices or when the stars are right and strangers and cults come meddling with them

d12 What do the experts say?

1 Acknowledged as a genuine miracle of good vs evil long ago
2 These ancient witch marks should be destroyed with holy symbols
3 It is unhealthy and dangerous to meddle with them
4 Sometimes you can translate ancient texts and learn lore for wizard spell research
5 Locals tell a official story a priest told them but some know older stranger stories
6 They are remains of non humans from before humans claimed it all
7 Proof vast epochs of non human life thrived long ago
8 Cultists come to these places for evil powers such places hold
9 Don't go to such places alone or let children play near them
10 Those people who made it are not all gone and claim the land as theirs still

11 Many of ancients were killed of when our ancestors came
12 When human ancestors came here they inter married with the old dwellers here

d12 What do they say happens to visitors spending the night here?

1 Have strange dreams of the cult demon orgies long ago, eventually you see yourself and the demon thing sees you
2 Some people get strange panic attacks here 1in6 chance per hour as fear. Some people and animals found dead
3 Some people disappeared here to faerie land or giant land or some other dream land
4 Good animals avoid the place and are uncomfortable here, wicked animals are attracted
5 Witches and cults meed here for forbidden rituals, the place feels odd especially at night
6 Human sacrifice and cannibalism took place here, human bone fragments remain
7 Beware witch cults on pilgrimages of such sites, best call inquisition
8 Spirits are attracted to the place some are dangerous to visitors

9 Demons used to come here long ago for sacrifices and cult rites
10 Strange and terrible people lived here once who were all murdered leaving angry spirits

11 Strange creatures were once called here from another world by elder magicians, the place is still easy for them to visit the world was torn so much from all the summoning
12 People are struck with madness often in form of berserk rage against the non berserk

d12 What about Blessings

1 Some say a baby brought to place will not fear disease for a year
2 Maidens leaping about naked over fires here will be especially fertile
3 Moonlite gatherings to drink and make love happen monthly
4 May commune with spirits or elves or other being on full moon
5 Pray here for a turn and receive a Bless spell effect for one hour
6 Heals visitor who preys for a turn or bathes in waters here heals d3 HP
7 Perform a blood sacrifice here and awaken some ancient thing sealed here
8 Have otherworldly dreams of the old gods, with a WIS roll they will notice you
9 If 100 people chant here it will eventually rain after 3d100 hours once a month only
10 Animals that graze here grow bigger, more fertile and more indomitable
11 Walking here on solstice eve to sacrifice to your ancestors is the best time
12 Many magicians in such places feel strange awakening here 

d100 Prehistoric Signs

1 strange symbols carved in rocks in area cover hundreds of foot of cliff
2 Strange symbols found on certain rocks in area especially ones with shelter or on borders
3 A scary hybrid human painted figure with horns and strange eyes in a cave
4 Symbols and depictions of creatures worshipped or used as border stone  

5 Symbols of stars and constellations as they were long ago
6 Painted images of hunters pursuing creatures with spears long ago
7 Rock modified and once painted to resemble some ancient creature, now mostly worn
8 Signs on stone wall have more recent holy symbols carved over the top
9 Stone signs on rock face badly worn 
10 Huge figure carved into ground or hill, hard to see from ground
11 
Ancient rock inscription in several ancient languages
12 Part of standing figure walking on tiny figures in dismay, head was chilled off long ago
13 Stone erected has various symbols, possibly some kind of border stone
14 Scone carving of a hybrid human with bestial features
15 Carving of 
predatory monster from the past once greatly feared in these parts
16 Carving of worn symbol in highplace
17 Huge stone rock with vaguely worn face carved long ago or petrified
18 Cave with multiple galleries of paintings and some carvings 

19 Stone altar worn smooth by aeons of use often with some other monoliths
20 Stone circle once used as a gateway by ancients
21
 Cliffs and rocks full of petrified sea creatures some similar to current sealife
22 Silhouettes and bones of dinosaurs and megafauna monsters of ancient times
23 Stone footprints that seem to be great monsters hunting each other in a river bed
24 Stone eggs petrified somehow, some broken ones have baby dragons
25 Masses of jumbled petrified bones make up all the rocks, some recognisable but bigger
26 Gigantic carapace or skeletal remains of some titanic creature
27 Cave or sinkhole with ancient bones known to hunters in area
28 Stone creatures buried in rock, signs some were removed
29 Petrified logs and tree stumps of stone from ancient forest
30 A hidden crystal or amber lump with remains of hideous creature inside
31 Hundreds of hand prints on a sheltered rock wall, some are not human
32 Crude drawings of monster eating tiny people trying to fight it and fleeing
33 Sequence of paintings of people using magic to sealing away the evil ones
34 Painted cave with sequences of horned warriors fighting chaos and monster wizards
35 Cliff painting of a wizard performing a summoning or raising the undead
36 Rock scratching of a great hungry mouth appearing in the sky that gobbled up part of the world
37 Wall paintings of underworld magicians restoring life to animal remains with magic
38 Wall painting of cave underground with scenes of titans imprisoned in the underworld
39 Faded prehistoric scratching of kaiju or god or demon defeated by tribal people together
40 Great mural in rock of wizard opening a gateway or shaman in the dream lands
41 Large upright stone with a niche once used for human heads in a ritua 1in6 skulls remaining still in ones found out of the way
42 Huge stone table where mammoth kings gathered with the Auroch and Sabretooth and Bear tribes met to unite against the monsters who brought a age of black magic long ago 

43 Several stone monoliths in circle said to by petrified giants that allied themselves with darkness
44 A huge stone dolmun shape stack of stones moved by wizards commanding beings they summoned
45 Faeirie erected tall dolmen with holes through them in lines over huge distandes
46 Black polished bassault in strange lines across world all quarried from a frozen ruined city of chaos beings in the far north
47 Triangular Pillars of basalt often in threes left by serpent folkand often destroyed by other peoples 
48 Crystal piillrs found sealed under hill forts 
49 Concentric rings of stones sometimes 10-50 rings sometimes have some colour patterns too
50 Low dry rock wall as a barrier made long ago between territories, very old
51 Wolf head caves have been carved into rock face long ago by some wolf cul
52 Skull rock cave has been modified to exaggerate skull like entrance and infamous ogre lair
53 Witch cave has a chamber lit from a sinkhole with thirteen pillars said to be petrified prehistoric witches
54 Tunnels actually burrows of some clan of giant armadillos or sloths an aeon ago, now crawling with cave life, 1in6 have water in the depths
55 Great cavern with huge ancient fire pit used by druids, priests and wizards long ago at seasonal clan meetings events
56 Sinkholes with openings into flooded tomb caves where undead reptile peoples, frog things and albino crocs live in flooded sacrificial temple with carved rock relief art of lizard vampire kings
57 Sealed cave entrance to forbidden underland city of monster race of old. Blocked with rubble and ornate carved walls from when they enslaved surface folk then fled.
58 Enterance to a vast vavernous underworld
59 Cave where once dragons nested, scratchings depict when men killed dragons
60 Cave is huge and leads to hidden sinkhole village with well and light from above
61 Dungeon complex intended to survive ancient apocalype,often degenerat inhabitants still dwelling in them but 1in6 pristine ancient civilisation lived hidden from the sun
62 Buried temple of reptile cult often inhabited by cursed monsters with strange powers
63 Buried long ago when gods dropped fiery mountains on the monster kings great cities such as Malak, Grotun or Valaar now these are buried under ash and are complexes full of monsters and treasure still. Some even have degenerate subtereanean peoples or strange underland races

64 Great crystal cysts dome in the earth strangely illuminated by strange magical glows. Tiny fragile prehistoric terrariums or vast caves a world in microcosm. Signs a gods like being dwelled here once and made this possibly a servitor race remains
65 Great tomb complex of ancients, huge artworks carved into cliffs sealed with slabs. Most were warded with powerful magic. Most long ago plundered but now most are lairs now. 1in6 are intact with magical guardians and traps and undead
66 Magic hill once a great tomb hill then a hill fort and even a village now abandoned but tunnels inside to old magic chambers some where elves hid in the faerieland version of the same monument feasting and drinking forever
67 Great plug seals in mountains of basalt with strange silvery symbols, but most worn long ago, broken to release a captive demon. Some runnels are huge and ocupied by humanoid demon worshippers and evilsects 1in6 are intact mostly long lost demon names without cults or wizards to help them
68 A hidden megalithic underground tunnel complex into a great earth temple with statues of the hill mother, mammoth and bear spirit and many other divinities and spirits depicted as idols 50+d100 idols arranged in chamber
69 A kaiju was killed and became a ountain over time. It is riddled with tunnels and monsters
70 Ruined corpse city of void squid and their alien necromancer slaves, buried under its protective barrier glaciers by rubble, now deep but intact city of stone now inhabited by mindless slimes and tentacled things and mould but alien relics with strange powers come from their
71 Great stone bridge a sindle huge slab 120 foot long with some work over a span above a river used by travellers for centuries and near other stone monoliths and wells
72 Walkway carved into a thin ledge allowing a passage across mountain range, 1in6 are ill kept and require some daring jumps and climbs to work
73 Forrest paths through dark woods with troll menhirs erected each "giant mile", 1in6 have a shack shrine to camp in made of crude stacked stones
74 Some remains of what was once a series of giant dam walls held back some huge volume of water and was broken to flood cities of the monster kings in the final war with evil
75 Terraces built into hills long ago for agriculture, now overgrown with luscious vegetation and wild food plants and grazing animals
76 Valleys all are shaped with rocks and trees directing foolish prey into ambush zones and pits. Camp site fires and large bone piles are common
77 Hills formed from discarded shell fish and camp fires
78 Riverbed and waterfall carved with relief symbols and depictions of ancient divinities also good for laundry

79 Huge remains of a aqueduct crossing land for miles sometimes goes underground
80 Stone road made with slabs and cut into hills and mountains by some ancient empire
81
 Crumbling cyclopean stone ruins struck by some great disaster long ago. 1in6 times there are visible relief art still depicting gloomy slave city of ancient monsters
82
 Stone lined pits in field and foundations from a prehistoric city, abandoned thousands of years ago
83 Huge stone vaults used as store chambers still used or accessible under some village for emergencies, used to hide people at times of crisis or food in peace
84 Remains of ancient city carved into soft wind eroded stone hills where thousands once dwelled,long ago abandoned for evil things of the wild
85 Crumbling brick hill once a mud brick ziguratt collapsed long ago with trees and marshy bog around it once canals, strange tablets and chambers are sometimes found but also monsters like sphynxes or demons
86 Stone prehistoric city smothered by mud and ash then freed again since recent earthquakes and erosion where water flows
87 Remains of a artificial ramp to a mountain where a pile of rubble shows a great burred portal to the underworld was here
88 Valley of shattered monoliths of evil wizard cult that could move and craved blood, all were brought here and shattered. Only a few escaped the destruction
89 Remains of a 16 foot high stone wall that ran for miles enclosing an area for something inside long ago. Large areas have been robbed for stone
90 Artificial hill island in a lake or large moat with hidden tomb enterance
91 A great archway in a field of stone, carved sigils and altars in a grouping was once part of a magical gate used by void worshipping star elves as gateways to other worlds
92 A huge raised disc of stone with huge stairs and a worn throne where giant kings were once enthroned. Some ancient power remains that gave giant chiefs power
93  A circular meadow valley pasture with several entrances with crude giant stone figures and heads of gods and kings 1in6 are of ancient humans. Goats like to live here and there are a d6 entrances and mostly hidden from common use
94 Rock carved palace with columns, relief images of gods and beast and plants, pictures of ancient inhabitants working for their inhuman pharoah. Mostly rubbish remains here and some camps and animal lairs but was once spectacular. Often several complexes are side by side
95 Huge figure often reclining carved into hillside on a long worn road often have a well or pool with plants and fish and fruit
96 A small green stone pyramid shape but taller carved with sigils of the elder ones from beond
96 A tower often on a ledge or mountain or in a lake, no entrance in lower floors but a window thirty foot up, very old and strange thought of as a wizard tower, moulded from stone by magic
97 Worn hill graves now eroded exposing angry dead to elements, some want to bury them again some want to destroy someone else will want to use as a army
98 Glassy crater where some great bolt from the sun god fell while battling the cosmic dragon of darkness
99 Top or a rocky outcrop that is very hard to reach has a tiny rock carved shack but nobody knows how it got their. Something is seen glinting
100 A great circular series of hill forts representing the elder zodiac, each has a monster and a challenge to overcome to travel to the otherworld to see the gods. Nowdays it is a lot harder to see the once made by person earthworks. From above you can see the hydra and the other signs.

Malak, Grotun or Valaar, The Forbidden Cities of the Old Ones....
Strangely finding lots of BX references to a nightmare world of darkness
So I also have a dreamlands that overlap with faerieland and other magic worlds
More ideas on this stuff happening

7 comments:

  1. I don't remember anything exactly like this posted before.

    Putting these things together I have a rough sketch of an idea that the dreamlands are the realm of a sleeping god (Cthulhu?), and that elves and faeries are its people.

    When elves sleep in the dreamlands they manifest in the waking world much as a man dreaming might travel to the dreamlands while he sleeps, which is why elves do not sleep in the waking world.

    Maybe not a good fit with existing CoC or DnD cosmology, but I'm having fun with the idea.

    So thanks for sparking something in me, mate!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. cthulhu mythos is in dna of dnd
      mixing them up is godd oldschool wierd fantasy

      lots of interesting takes on dreams dreamlands in some recent small press books

      elf idea is good

      cheers for this

      Delete
  2. "100 A great circular series of hill forts representing the elder zodiac, each has a monster and a challenge to overcome to travel to the otherworld to see the gods. Nowdays it is a lot harder to see the once made by person earthworks. From above you can see the hydra and the other signs."

    What are the other signs?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hydra was sort of a star sign in one ancient iraq era where they had 18 for a while wheel is one. I might have a look at them one day but i presume here it is the astrology of some long dead culture so populate away with monsters and write up some gonzo forgotten constelations. you cant really go wrong.

      Delete
    2. ok im on it....

      some have tried adding hydra back into astrology recently - you might want to be a wily hydra!

      Delete
  3. I really like these articles referencing the ruins and signs of the ancients. Always great ideas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. cheers - i worry more about rock art than tree types in my settings

      Delete

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