Standing alongside a trade route is the small hamlet of Delmara. The ancient deciduous forest that edges the city provides the inhabitants with the material for housing, fuel, and trade. Carpenters, wainwrights, and shipwrights favor the ancient hardwood trees in the area, providing most of the 300 denizens with a valuable commodity for barter. Those in Delmara who are not foresters rely upon farms for their sustenance, selling their excess nuts, fruits, vegetables, and livestock at markets. Even though the hamlet is small, it’s situated upon a heavily traveled trade road, bringing many merchants to the settlement. In turn, Delmara’s solitary inn is quite successful and is a favored gathering point at sunset. Not even Bede Trowbryde, Delmara’s mayor, is immune to the appeal of the Forest Nymph Inn.
Tag Archives: wilderness encounter
Whales
Dolphins, porpoises, and whales have intrigued humanity for centuries and belong to the cetacean order, which is divided into three primary groups. The toothed whales (odontoceti) use their teeth to catch food. Odontoceti have one blowhole (nostril) and hunt by echolocation. Dolphins, porpoises, and 64 other species fall under this classification. Toothed whales frequently hunt, crave!, and migrate together.
Two-Legged Terrors
Superstition and legend tell of strange creatures that prowl dismal, desolate areas. Outsiders may scoff at the superstitious fools who believe in these tales, but there are those know the truth: They’ve seen these creatures with their own two eyes! Heroes might face a mythical minion of a voodoo priest. A backwater village could choose a bride (sacrifice) to offer up in exchange for their safety. One might even help a legendary creature protect its domain from poachers.
Thalassines
Lurking beneath the waves is an amphibious creature responsible for terrifying mariners that dare to sail the waters. Thalassines are humanoid, with scales in place of skin and webbed hands and feet. Their mouths are filled with row upon row of needle-like teeth. Their sole source of sustenance is blood; whether animal or human, they care little.
Swans
The regal white beauty of the swan cannot be matched. These charming white-feathered birds have been seen for ages as instruments of wisdom, creativity, divine inspiration, and love. Some places, such as Finland, once considered the swan to be a holy bird. In others, it’s a form taken by supernatural beings. It’s quite likely that characters could encounter a bird endowed with supernatural abilities, such as providing a protective aura, transferring extraordinary gifts, and serving as divine messengers. The swan also has its own constellation, Cygnus (which means “swan”).
Snakes
Snakes have played the pan of villains since biblical times, and few creatures have the reptile’s natural ability to evoke primal fear in humans. Snakes can be cast as familiars for occult villains or might become the vessel for a vengeful druid’s spirit. An escaped serpent could adapt to life in the sewers of a large metropolis and dominate the subterranean world of an urban jungle. Heroes might also find themselves searching the jungle for a rare snake to harvest its venom for medicinal purposes.
Soldiers
European Armies
The aftermath of the French Revolution resulted in the formation of mass armies, which were used with great aplomb by Napoleon in his bid for Empire. The mass armies of the Napoleonic era led to the almost universal adoption of conscription by the continental European states, a tradition that is only now beginning to end in favor of professional, all-volunteer militaries. The United Kingdom, ever apart, has a tradition of a small professional military, though they did use conscription in both World Wars (and after the Second World War into the 1950s).
Sea Creatures
Many creature dwell beneath in Earth’s oceans. Their presence can sometimes give dues about what’s to come: The sudden dispersal of a school of fish could tell alert individuals that an immense predator is about co arrive in the area. Heroes may encounter jellyfish that have washed ashore after being poisoned by undersea construction. Or, they could find sea creatures displaying unusual behavior, such as circling a peculiar rock formation emitting waves of psionic energy. Electric eels could bolt from an otherwise safe haven when something long dead awakens.
Rhinoceros
The rhino (as it’s colloquially known) is a family of large armored mammalian herbivores native to Africa and Asia. The name rhinoceros means “horn-nose” in Greek, which is a reference to the most distinctive aspect of the creature: the large horn on the front of its head.
Reptilian Aliens
Man is not the sole sentient race to dwell among the stars. If one were to probe the cold depths of space and search for signs of life, they might find merciless, reptilian eyes peering back at them. The Ssargolothh mastered space travels long before the human race learned to stand — erect and conquer the minuscule mud ball known as Earth. Each new world the scaly, biotechnical wizards encounter feel the mark of their presence, and many new life forms emerge from their crucible of science. These cold-blooded, interstellar travelers discovered earth during the dark ages and began to modify life forms. Dragons were their most impressive creations, and the world recoiled in fear when these terrors took to the skies. Once their initial work was finished, the aliens buried a transmitting station 1,000 feet beneath the surface of modern-day Afghanistan to monitor Earth’s progress.