Fantasy Conspiracies

Need some bull for crazy old men in taverns, village idiots, madmen or radicalized halfling terrorists? Or perhaps they are true? These are for when in town. Will do a dungeon one later. Spreading stories is mad or stupid or gossipy or evil slander for a purpose.
Evil bards-spread fake and fear news
-rally angry mobs
-make slanderous lampoon to ruin reputations of towns or people
-blackmail, cash or will lie about you or your lineage or alignment
-seduce and prey on young and innocent
-ruin lives, break up marriages, spread vice-support despots and usurpers and influence elections-spy for foreign kings and cults-encourage xenophobia and disunity-lure away youth somewhere if village wont pay bard away (thanx Gus L)

Mad Bards-Spread paranoid delusions
-Work up the mob to make more extreme violent or Dionysian
-Believe their own lies with sincerity
-start personality cults and bands
-spread vice and make it look cool
i should play an evil graffiti bard-tag cantrip
-wizard words spell 2nd lv, 10x small or one big word per level permanent
-wizard banner 3rd lv 10" banner or mural as if painted or glowing text various styles out there, some optical illusions and fake doors

more on evil bards later

d100 Fantasy Conspiracies

01 Goblins are babies kidnapped by elves
02 Dwarves are all male, they make babies with alchemy
03 Gnomes are elf-dwarf cross breeds
04 Bugbears love catnip, it makes them friendly
05 If you raise an orc properly they are just like people
06 Dwarves are all alcoholics, it is mothers milk to them
07 They look human but elf genitalia is monstrous and deadly
08 Halflings often die from flatulence from over eating
09 Halflings are really cannibals in secret
10 Dwarves eat gold, cut them open and they are full of coins
11 The royal family are reptilian hybrids up to no good
12 The true heir to the throne has been raised among the peasants 
13 Several nobles are really demon worshipers
14 The current heir is a faerie changeling
15 Doppelgangers have infiltrated the nobility
16 Witches have infiltrated the royal castle
17 The queen has a secret lover
18 A member of the noble house is a traitor to the nation
19 A vampire ancestor of the nobility hides in the royal castle
20 A noble woman likes to bathe in the blood of peasant girls
21 Demons are about to destroy the world because of mortal sinners
22 Wizards are plotting to destroy the world to become new gods
23 Monsters from below are planning to invade any night now 
24 The neighboring kingdom has spies among us for a coming invasion
25 The legions of hell are corrupting the nobility/church/youth/all of the above
26 The gods will bring the apocalypse soon
27 Witches are everywhere among us, call the witch hunter
28 The plague is coming! Head for the hills
29 A comet was seen in the sky, doom is coming soon
30 A great flood is coming, head for the hills or gt a boat!
31 If a dragon eats you you will be reborn as a dragon egg
32 Under the town is a secret mega dungeon, the commoners are in on it
33 All the job offers in town are a trick to murder and rob you
34 The local beer is poisoned by elves to put a glamour on us
35 All the gold is faerie gold, only use silver or lose everything
36 Someone in area is really a disguised monster 
37 Don"t trust local mercenaries, they are all mad berserks
38 The local wizard is in league with the local dungeon boss
39 A secret thieves guild is hidden in a ordinary shop
40 A secret local cult has infiltrated the administration of town
41 A god walks among us in secret
42 Petty god or spirit visited the area recently
43 The area is cursed by the gods, everyone is doomed
44 Some one has offended a god who will send punishment to us all
45 A monster has been sent to punish us all from the gods
46 The graveyard is tainted by evil now the gods no longer protect it
47 Many priests have no powers and are frauds and no authority
48 The gods are just elder giants, kin of the titans who survived the wars of the gods
49 Humans look more like the gods but are tiny and have the least magic
50 Now the old ways forgotten angry spirits and monsters will return to destroy and eat our souls
51 Some of the townsfolk are really undead
52 Lycanthropes are hidden among us 
53 Ordinary farm animals are monsters in disguise
54 Plants I tell you, from strange pods I've seen in the woods, replacing everybody
55 The local wizard and his apprentices constantly charm people
56 One of the local new religions is up to no good
57 The country folk around here are still secretly druids and witches 
58 Don't get arrested round here, nobody sees prisoners again
59 This area has the most kidnappings
60 Locals are secretly cannibals, don't eat meat here
61 All of the village babies look the same
62 Some of the villagers have been cavorting with supernatural beings
63 More of the parents have sold themselves to evil in secret, children all imps
64 Mutants are coming, look for their taint! One drop of blood will taint you with chaos!
65 The people of this area come from different stock and have many secret hidden ways
66 The people here look normal but don't be intimate with them, they are unnatural
67 Lynch mobs arise over anything these days, look out anything could set them off
68 Madness is rampant in the land, wild stories, incompetent leaders, decadence!
69 Many humans are now part orc and you need to watch out or soon everyone will be an orc, they are nasty sorts
70 The locals are touched by faeries who come at night to speak gold and leave fairy tainted food
71 Elves are inbreeding us out of existence in secret, we've got to fight back!
72 Orcs are made bad by wizards, if they were raised proper they would just be ugly
73 Gnomes are running the town, they are secretly trading influence and using illusionary magic
74 Dwarves burrow into the deep to avoid the apocalypses, but now times are good they are returning to the surface to take over
75 Halflings eat and share food forbidden to commoners, lord says food makes them fat and lazy and gruel does them good
76 Dwarves take currency into their deep holes never to be seen again which hurts the kingdoms finances
77 Magicians plan to replace the the common man with monsters and magic and machines
78 Elves are breeding a new race to replace humanity
79 Orcs are destined to replace us, they can interbreed with anything
80 Dwarves are sex mad because they have no women, look at all the short people round here
81 Its so easy to sell your soul to a devil for anything you need, even a commoners soul is worth something, imps tell you what to do occasionally for some unseen plot, no wonder everyone doing it
82 There are secret sex cults in the forest where humans mate with sylvan beings and take drugs, be wary of any sneaking around at night
83 A murder kidnapper cult int the area has been striking travellers don't go out in the dark
84 Thieves are everywhere taking over, a hidden gang war rages the streets unseen
85 The whole town is drug addicted alcoholics in secret and are awful to each other out of sight of strangers
86 Nobility randomly seize travelers and locals for some mysterious reason
87 Secret police are everywhere listening to the people, hang on a minute who are you?
88 There are only a few of those sort now but a great horde is coming of them to attack, why don't the law seize them for questioning
89 Crime is higher in areas with halflings, their lands are more productive, time they were driven off
90 Gambling is rife and the mob hold everyone in thrall through crippling debt
91 Wizards spy on us constantly, even read your mind, their is no privacy
92 A secret masked cult has taken control of everyone in power and serve a secret monster master
93 A secret connection to the non human elder races of the great under land is where our country affairs are really from
94 This isnt the first cycle of reality, all kinds of leftovers from the old ones are still around, soon this one will end
95 Xor the world eater is here to devour everything even the gods
96 We are just cattle to the gods and if we don't sacrifice to them we will be replaced, perhaps wizards can kill them all
97 Necromancers are going to make everything dead to live forever under their rule, it is inevitable the dead will out number us
98 Some new evil from outside of ours has entered bringing new menace and threaten our universe
99 The stars will soon be right! The old ones will awake, their cults work to make this sooner
100 Magical talking goats are taking over the farmyards, making animals intelligent and spreading forgotten beast cults, nobody knows their true purpose, i couldn't make any goats talk (promptly attacked by stray billy goat)

 If you die in a dungeon you come back as a monster type stuff on next indoor version.

This one is a bit broken

d10 Quick Types
01 Old race secrets
02 Royal scandals
03 The end is nigh
04 Crazy stuff
05 Wrath of the gods
06 Local Troubles
07 Secret shame
08 Xenophibic terrors
09 Unsafe in the streets
10 Cosmic calamities 

Evolution of a Murder Hobo Shantytown 4

Original Idea
Think DnD meets "Paint your Wagon" but nastier like europe in 1500s or "Bonnie & Clyde" but turning into more "My darling Clementine"

Phase 4 
Town attacked, burned, becomes a ghost town briefly
Current map is after the attack showing ruins and tunel systems
Removed names to make more visible and because townsfolk gone

Into Phase 5
Church, State and Family Folk Move In
Noble takes over and starts to build a stone keep
Cathedral moved from another ruined location
Farmers arrive, many immigrants from many places offered land

Devilopment
So the town has new features, government, history and respectable settlers.. New stone walls rounding off the northern part of the city with construction of a stone keep and a small stone cathedral. These buildings have been shipped in from abandoned ruins and repaired and probably take about 4 years to build.

War on Nature and Outlaws Finally Won
The Valley is fenced off and animals no longer go where they please and water access for animals is harder and tainted. There was a night where humanoids attacked, started fires and the druids helped them. Druids were ignored about the threats to nature and breg badgermen and giant badgers that undermined the town. The Druids brought the humanoid leaders together. Humanoids turned nasty, especially when Hoboskull started to take waggon loads of their corpses to the sprawling rendering plants. Since the big fight those druids have been chased away into the countryside and other less troublesome druid sects have moved back in. The area has gone from frontier to civilized. The town survived the attack and that's when nobility and military came in and Lord Mycroft has been put in charge. Duran runs the "Adventurers Guild" which most of Duran's gang members and businessmen are members of. 

News of a fort and church atracted lots of immigrant arrivals from abroad, the city and other towns to foster their family interests. So common farmers and labourers have been arriving and convicts have been brought in to help clear land and cut stone. Wizards created lots of stone walls to speed the process up. So druids and the badgermen tribe have fled the area but plan revenge. The state control the slave trade selling humanoid slaves or rendering them into fat if they don't comply. Troublesome slaves and prisoners of war go to mines and hardest labour. Others enter household service. It was as if goblins and kobolds were bred to be subservient when living in your above ground dungeon house.

War on the Dungeon
At first there was one big dungeon everyone was attacking. Several more smaller ones were found in the area and several smaller ones have been destroyed and stripped utterly even of bricks and rubble. This contributed to the second  and third growth spurts. When the big fight night happened and the humanoids from three dungeons united and the druids helped them breach walls. Also most don't know that the hills had been hollowed out in prep fro the big fight and a network of tunnels was left underground and the new Church and Keep used them in their designs. Lots of Ex Imperials from the continent area and the church also has Links to the Empire which is unusual for the Barron's territory.

During the night of the big fight it was discovered the hills had been hollowed out and dug under and into the town. It was also found in the big push the local dungeons connected to hill tunnels forming a super dungeon complex 5 square wiles and over ten levels deep.

Under the city now the tunnels are regulated, used for trade or sweatshops. You can get a guide to take you through a pub cellar into the catacombs and get a guide to the start of the dungeon. You can walk between the dungeons all underground now and the monsters do the same. A certain amount of respectable monsters and ex slaves or trusted slaves run businesses suitable for wonderland creatures like a few shops and bars. So welcome humanoids live in the hills and tunnels under the town. Secret police from the city are here regulating this and the barron even has humanoid spies among slaves.

The Barron
The undercity is funded by the Baron who is the first human to employ so many orcs and goblins and kobolds that it has made his economy and army boom. He wants their to be a mingling of peoples and eventually trade and civilize barbarian humanoids. He seems to be leaning on local humanoids and make them join him rather than destroy them. If they resist too hard he does destroy that tribe. Shadelport is almost as advanced as the warring states and use gunpowder far more than the empire do. The masked Barron is over 700 years old so it might be true about his global ambition. He is a devil worshiper who serves Hell and serves in rituals with the arch-dominator at the Cathedral to Asmodeus in Shadelport weekly. There are the Hellions too, a rich gang of devil worshiping nobility who hold secret parties and go on lawless rampages with guns in Shadelport. The Barron has led them for hundreds of years before he was the masked Barron of today. He built the worlds biggest open magic university when he took over to train navigators and make magicians. He did this to make Pirates great.

The scholars also plundered and studied the ruins of the city some sealed for over 5000 years built by pre humans who kept dread forbidden lore. All this has provided more magic items for war and status symbols and helped advance the city state. The island is full of dungeons and lost empire remains waiting to be plundered and in some are great weapons that might win the world one day.His navy was superior to the empire When Mad Emperor Dorian the 31st thought 400 virgins on a navy ship was more important than wizards with fireball spells. Since the the Pirate Barrony has been bought of and been used as a navy for the Empire. The 30 year long civil war on the Imperial Continent has made the Barron stronger and has the empires boot off the throat off many old enemies. 


Future Stuff
Will do a map of Skullfort phase 5 after all this also the hill and under village tunnel maps, possibly before and after the big fight.

A timeline at end to tie it all up. A post on the attack would be handy after tunnel maps done. Not sure I should specify the local dungeons or let readers use there own or do people happily like reading other peoples ideas and then do there own thing?

Encounter tables on the cavern maps obvious but local dungeons worth considering in that mix. Possibly a revised town encounter table for the post law and order era too.

d100 Tiny Doors In Trees

Teeny weeny folk live inside trees and sometimes you can see them. Especially when you journey up a magic tree that connects to the great cosmic tree and before long you are in between all worlds. Seeing a tiny door most people will tell you to just go and don't come back and don't even talk about it. Some faerie folk are secretive and willing to silence a troublemaker with a curse or crippling illness or kidnapping. Because children see faerie things better than adults children often end up in faerie forests and most end up serving elves

When in faerie type lands most mortals are called children or son or daughter or boy and girl. Everyone looks puzzled by other suggestions. Witches are common here and don't seem to be a menace here for some reason.

"This place is more likely to make you fat than dead"

Doors can appear in trees, rocks, hills and even houses but mostly in trees close to faerie land.

What is in there?
1 More like a fancy closet or just enough to sleep inside and store some stuff
2 A single room tiny cottage that is cramped but functional
3 Several rooms with a private bedroom and storage space
4 Cottage with bedroom and lots of secret storage chambers and a safe room
5 Several level apartment like cottage with additional storage above and below

6 Several connected cottages or apartments usually with extended family inside

7 Fancy lodge decor with several guest rooms and servant rooms, cellars and attics

8 Huge sprawling manor house d4x10% is abandoned or sealed up any anytime for reasons

9 Elevator up or down to a large mansion with 30 odd rooms

10 Elevator takes you to another universe or dimension of some kind

What lives in there? (occasionally do a d4 cohabs)
1 Talking animal small to medium humanoid size
2 Beastman of various types but often squirrels or mice
3 Changeling animal, plant or nature spirit in human form
4 Wood elves most common but other elf types like dark or bright elf types 

5 Gnome of various tribes denoted alignment by their hat colour, some are mean

6 Other humanoid d4 1=halfling 2=forest dwarf 3= 4=
7 Magic human d4 1=witch 2=wizard 3=priest 4 druid
8 Sylvan Being d4 1=faun 2=dryad 3=satyr 4=hag
9 Humanoid d4 1=goblin 2=hobgoblin 3=bugbear 4=tree kobold
10 Unique magical humanoid or planar being or spirit in physical form

What are they up to now?
1 Cooking a meal or a snack
2 Doing repairs around the house
3 Cleaning the house
4 Working on hobby or craft
5 Writing a letter or in journal
6 Have guests for tea
7 Helping a friend in trouble
8 Reading or studying
9 Emptying chamber pots
10 Evoking arkane forces of eldritch power

Is there anything they need?
1 Fetch me a recipe from this person at this address dear 
2 Need you to do household chores like cleaning or laundry
3 I need one delicious ingredient i really miss
4 Magic momento stolen by someone, bring it back please
5 Help deceive minions of the dark forest lord
6 Get one thing from a witch by fair or foul means
7 Get this thing i want off a faerie or elf
8 Get a gnome to build something
9 Get a potion from a magical person or elf
10 Fetch me a pretty thing to decorate my house

d10 Tiny door decor
1 Lovely brass knocker
2 Postbox slot
3 Bell
4 Big lock and bar heavy door
5 Peephole for occupant to see visitors
6 Name of resident on a sign
7 Grumpy note on door to someone
8 Name of cottage on a plaque
9 Good brush doormat
10 Curtained window

d100 Tiny Doors In Trees
01 Red door of a friendly gnome offers you poppyseed cake and ginger beer for big boys
02 Blackdoor with elevator to a mansion of evil gnome slavers who have several children and a bearboy captured so far
03 Human kids live here, they get free faerie treats and don't want to go home
04 A red haired jolly dwarf happy to share a beer and local gossip over a smoke
05 Black haired angry dark dwarf hates visitors offers them sour beer and rotten meat
06 Moggug a goblin youth always up to pranks for the faerie trickster chaos god
07 Mr Moony lures mortals in house with drugged candy, sells to moon men as slaves
08 Korindell a dryad and her four charmed adventurer lovers, she would like a few more
09 Lysandra a dryad who is kind and has sprites and brownies fawning over her
10 Kaboonash the tree man will tell slow rambling tree stories and offer you honeycomb
11 Mara the elfin baker makes delicious cakes that increase your faerie nature over time
12 Magulp the witch usually mixing a potion and fairly lonely and wants conversation
13 Mr Squirrel worries that other squirrels are winning the war over a cup of tea 
14 Faun who likes checkers, poetry and serving guests cakes and grape juice
15 Nannygoat looking after a few local animal babies with a apron on clumsily makes tea
16 Jolly treecat invites you in for stew, but don't tell anyone it's squirrel stew 
17 Mrs hedgehog and her two fat sons, they welcome you in their cramped home
18 Mr Tree rat lives here with his children anter an eagle ate his wife
19 Grumpy Mr Hobgoblin is sick of kids pranking his door, he waits with chamber pot ready
20 Witch offers candy and lemonade, magical sugar makes you drug addict for life
21 Bunnyman who's kids were killed, now hates human children and invites them in for cake
22 Beaver family crowding over kitchen table playing dominoes laughing 
23 Goblin who warns human "children" about the elves and their interest in slavery
24 Hobgoblin flasher will drop his towel and swivel his hips lewdly
25 Dark elf grannies would love to have some young people over for dinner
26 Working class squirrel doesn't want a bar of you stuck up humans dirtbags
27 Squirrel thespian society needs you to read parts of a newly written play
28 Frog bard wants you to hear his new love song "i can feel your heart beat inside me"
29 Pigeons family look nervous about to have dinner relieved if you don't eat them 
30 Swanmay house where she has two "sisters" staying over and is too busy to talk
31 Goblin lives here where he stocks his snack pushcart that he sells faerie treats from
32 Dark elf witch brewing potions with her pet spiders, she is curious about strangers
33 A bugbear invites you in to crack open a candied head, a delicious treat he is fond of
34 Mrs bunny has lost her children and is wondering if you could check on mr fox
35 Mrs Doomdrake the duck widow and she is waiting for her hot date Mr Fox to arrive
36 Mt Tortle lives here and is teaching various animal children the litracy
37 Alf lives here offers elf cake and elf beer while his familiar fetches the elf slavers
38 A wise old centaur healer and prophet lives here he will heal any one good for free
39 Mr owl lives here and is unimpressed if woken in daytime as he works late shift
40 A frog dandy lives here and wants to try out his exotic magical fattening treats on you
41 An ancient elf here paints naked elfmaids and always asks visiting ones to pose, he has over a thousand of these paintings in his attic
42 An elf matriarch lives here with many pictures of her many children. She offers to knit things for visitors and rambles on about the god wars in the dawn age she saw
43 A satyr alcoholic lives here with his wine making supplies and he will always offer drinks
44 Mrs Wren lives here always baking seed cakes for young birds in her family
45 Mr Robin is a vain bard who loves his beautiful red chest and sings about himself
46 Insect band is staying here till they can get some gigs. Mostly they starve and practice. They are pretty good and deserve a brake
47 Mr Newt lives here and he makes a living from visitors who pay him a sliver to lick his hallucinogenic skin. He smokes cigars and is kind of depressed
48 Mr bear lives here writing poetry and wishing he would be a famous poet. He is terrible as a poet but it keeps him alive when not drinking. He is really good at drinking and goblins deliver daily
49 Shifty goblin bootleggers live here avoiding tax and selling sly grog. They might threaten you if they think you will blab
50 Bugbear clown lives here because of all the children he can scare, is quite unpopular
51 Nilbog lives here and only talks backwards gibberish and throws up feces for guests
52 Norker goblin lives here thanks to goblin housing scheme, he just wants to club and bite people
53 Small formarian horror lives here is hideous and causes fear but desperate for true love
54 Crazy goblin shaman lives here making potions and can sell random ones but he forgets what they do
55 MrJip the monkey lives here with his wife and wants to talk about his lord and saviour the sun god to you if you have a meal with the family
56 Grandmother Goose lives here a local amatuer detective and sage well respected by locals and always stalked by Mr Fox her arch enemy. She almost always has a guest over and often is solving a new case about half the time
57 The frog prince lives here but a wizard stole his sweetheart and polymorpherd her into a human. He pines for her and has forsaken his kingdom. Dad has offered a wish to who makes the son happy  
58 Grandpa Withershins lives here a bearded old hermit thousands of years old from living in faerie land mostly. He offers advice and best dining tips in the area
59 Mr Pidgeon collects coins and will show his precious collection while Mr Fox peeks through the windows
60 A Mr Fox lives here in hiding from the law with a poison heavy crossbow waiting by the door
61 Witch Ashley lives with her hellcat Maggogmog. She would happily make biscuits for visitors and tell them amazing stories exploring other dimensions with her cat and drugs
62 Gateway to a invisible elven castle overlooking human lands possibly on a island
63 Goat, a chicken and a gnome live together. Welcome strangers in for a drink happily
64 Gnome tailor makes pants for all the best dressed animals, a bit snooty but fair
65 A wild elf boy who never wants to grow up will live like this till something bad happens
66 Werewolf lives here trying to avoid being tempted by living beings which he lusts to murder, he often has some other lycanthrope over to stay
67 Gateway to a gnome village in hills in gnomeland
68 Gateway to a dark forest filled with undead and cursed ruins of the plague era
69 Werefox lives here pretends to be girl in hiding and invites strangers inside to stay
70 Family of were rats, one is a minor wizard in human form. They all try to pretend to be normal
71 Hobgoblin seems friendly as long as you don't swear or mention the war
72 Goblin who collects fancy shiny gewgaws and trinkets, happy to trade or offer info
73 Cross dressing werewolf currently is dressed as "grandma" invites you in for tea
74 Nearly blind old witch with ear trumpet, easily confused but friendly
75 Gateway to a dark elven wood with spiders and humanoids and lycanthropes and witches
76 Gateway to a bright elven wood with treefolk, animals, centaurs, dryads and more
77 Several batchelor rabbits, layabout drinking and smoking and talking about girls 
78 Old mr badger knows about everyone and lots of local history
79 A blue hat gnome lives with a owl and a rabbit who all play boardgames
80 Three witch sisters who like to knit, play cards and occasionally eat a guest
81 A family of bluebirds singing together, will invite guests in for seeds and water
82 Old lady hobgoblin will invite you in for cookies and complain about elves for hours
83 Gateway to a cavern underland near a great cave elf city. They have strange ways
84 House is full of nuts and a cramped but happy squirrel
85 Bored gnome children who want entertainment and offer keys to dads liqueur cabinet
86 A elf boy and a squirrel live here together but their families don't approve
87 A household overcrowded full of sprites or brownies or pixies
88 Leprechaun polishing his gold coin collection will tell sad stories about old days
89 Family of blackbirds worried someone is planning to eat them all up in a pie
90 Gateway to the happy hunting grounds were most souls reincarnated as animals and may evolve into beastmen or spirit animals or intelligent animals
91 Dwarf a black squirrel and a mole live together and like looking for treasure
92 Black hat gnome has several human child slaves cleaning and cooking, he invites guests in and has children serve high tea but whips children who are clumsy
93 Owls meet in this lodge to discus secret happenings and unseen forces, non members not allowed
94 Family of halflings make a good living selling pastries and cured meats
95 Family of wild boar with idol of the forest lord seated at their kitchen table
96 A family of toads croaking and playing checkers and eating grubs
97 A wood golem who insists he is a real boy has lived among animals for decades
98 Deerwoman who is kind to strangers and offer first aid and food
99 Crotchetey old dwarf drinking alone flings feces at anymone knocking on his door for another bloody intervention
100 Petty god like the turnip god or some similar oddball character