Abandoned Ruins

[.Leif.]

So what would you folks like to encounter when you stumble upon a ruined city out in the wilderness?

 

One of my favorite troupes has to be the Death-cult residing in ancient ruins preforming horrible rituals for their fiendish deities. Players can choose to charge in with spell and sword ready or kill of a few guards and sneak in wearing their robes. They better not waste time though, or the horrible ritual to summon [insert elder God here] the Eater of Worlds! I'm really thinking somewhere between Col. Kurtz and Temple of Doom here.

 

Another possible fun encounter would be a Necropolis in some foggy bog. Forgotten by nations and time, a lonely city deep in the marsh toils tirelessly to endure the harsh surroundings as the rotting peasants mend the defenses. Ruled by an arbitrary lich, the lifeless peasants and guards live life as they have for centuries. Raids for fresh 'subjects' are infrequent but bloody. The nearby hamlets of the living speak in hushed tones about the masses of lifeless warriors gathering deep in the marshlands.

 

Lastly another sort of ruin encounter I would like to see is ruins inhabited by some new colony of another culture. I'm thinking of the surface Drow who dwell in Myth Drannor or the Forsworn of Skyrim in the tombs of the Dragur. Old architecture juxtaposed with another group's order makes for interesting areas. Perhaps the Mad lord of the bandits of the Black-woods declares himself King of lost Carcosa. What if the forgotten inhabitants of the city awaken to find their old homes occupied by strangers?

[JFSOCC]

I would enjoy it if not every ruins had a dungeon, cult or something attached to it. Sometimes a place falls into disrepair, the people leave because maintainance becomes impossible or too expensive. There have been plenty of empty ruins in RL.

 

That said, it wouldn't be much of a game if most ruins had nothing associated with it. I'm a builder at heart. If I can rebuild a ruins as a project (possibly as stronghold) I'd probably enjoy it. clearing the roads towards it, repairing or building bridges, guarding the roads with paid soldiers... etc.

[Sacred_Path]

I like it when an abandoned keep has been taken over and converted by enemies who don't usually build fortifications. Especially at low levels this is thrilling, when walking round a corner can be your last move if you take a crossbow bolt to the head. I also like that your entire party has to be kind of stealthy because they can't yet deal with the entire group coming down on you at once.

[HangedMan]

I want to find remnants that give me an idea of what used to be in the place, and who inhabited it. A mouldy journal, some frescoes on the wall, so on, so forth.

 

I like it when an abandoned keep has been taken over and converted by enemies who don't usually build fortifications. Especially at low levels this is thrilling, when walking round a corner can be your last move if you take a crossbow bolt to the head. I also like that your entire party has to be kind of stealthy because they can't yet deal with the entire group coming down on you at once.

Also, this.

[Hormalakh]

Vendigroth Ruins (arcanum) was cool. It told a story of its own with just the items found in the ruins. You understood what happened there without anyone having to read dialogue.

[jivex5k]

I'd like to see a lavishly furnished dwelling once you get inside that has been disguised to look ruined.

Inside you find the Illuminati of the world, pulling their strings and causing wars.

They recruit you as their catalyst to purge the world of useless eaters.

[Hormalakh]

It would be nice to have a "historical society" tryign to fix ruins so they can last through "the next generation so they can benefit from our rich history." Just something that isn't all so fantastical and crazy. Sometimes low key is nice.

Edited November 15, 2012 by Hormalakh

[rjshae]

Perhaps a legendary ruined site that has absolutely nothing of interest, but is so wrapped up in the lore of the land that multitudes have attempted to delve into the secrets of the place. After many attempts, the place has a reputation of utmost foolishness and even has its own an epitaph: Delver's Folly. Despite this, the occasional charlatan still uses the site for another profiteering scam. Newcomers to the region are a favorite target for this rigged game, with fake treasures being left where they are easy to find.

Edited November 15, 2012 by rjshae

[Agelastos]

This may be the wrong thread to post this in, but one MY favorite troupes is the remote little town (sometimes it's seemingly idyllic, sometimes it's just plain creepy) which turns out to hide a dark secret.

Maybe everyone in the town is in on the secret, maybe it's just the town elders, but one things is for certain: it's not a place for outsiders.

The secret could be pretty much anything, but it usually revolves around a cult of inbred, Dagon-worshipping fishmen some kind.

Those who haven't read The Shadow over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft may still recognize this troupe from games like Oblivion (Hackdirt) or Dragon Age: Origins (Haven).

I hope I'm not alone in wanting to see a town/village of that kind in P.E.

Edited November 16, 2012 by Agelastos

[Razsius]

I thought this would be a thread about how abandoned ruins are very rarely if ever actually abandoned. I'm kind of disappointed. Then again this does make one wonder what you could do in that regard...

 

So your party stumbles across a small town and the local gossip is to stay the hell away from the abandoned ruins because people that explore them never return. You, as the player think "Ah it's one of these quests... probably ghosts." So you reach the place and quite literally nothing is there. No monsters, no ghosts, no hucksters... no life. You go in search the place and maybe there's some random junk scattered about but that's it. No journals lying around, no blood etched messages on the walls telling you to leave the place or else... nothing. You reach the very deepest part and the wind whistling through the place is starting to get to you and Justin Bell's doing a damn fine job setting the atmosphere with whispers echoing through the halls yet nothing still comes. Just as you think Obsidian is trolling the hell out of you a room that wasn't there before opens up. Inside is a gigantic magic circle with a stone alter dead center. The room's walls are riddled with arcane symbols and ravaged writings in a script you simply don't understand. Beating a hasty retreat to the previously introduced podunk town you retell your story and hire someone who may understand what the hell's going on with that room. He complains the whole way down to the room. Upon reaching the room our resident archeologist gets to work translating. He does know the writing but it's so terribly worn down that it's barely understandable. Something about "demon's dream", "our folly", "the dreamslab" and "waking nightmares". You make out just enough to do something idiotic like going to bed on the alter.

 

And so the quest begins...

 

Your main character wakes up with one hell of a headache and the sinking feeling that something is fundamentally wrong. The walls are older, they shed malice like a furnace and all your companions are nowhere to be found. You see, a large group of idiotic mages "back in the day" wished to enter and rob the dreams of a Greater Abyssal Daemon thus acquiring knowledge beyond their ken to fight a war they were losing badly because this, of course, is *such* a great idea. It didn't work. Instead, it summoned the Greater Abyssal Daemon's transcended body into the city itself creating a city that would devour life at a frightening rate except... they didn't know that. As more and more people disappeared by the day, it soon became clear that something had gone terribly wrong with their idiotic ritual. They sent mage after mage into the dreamworld in order to gather data and rectify the situation but any that actually returned were crazed, drooling lunatics. By some god's grace the leader of the mages *did* manage to return with a solution to their problem but it was far, far too late. The last residents of the city having their existence sapped away were in no condition to do much of anything. Using his very last strength he inscribed on the walls of the dream chamber a dire warning to any retard adventurers that don't do what they're told... like say *YOUR* party.

 

The entire quest is trying to figure out what the hell's happening, get out of the dreamworld (which is slowly killing you) and to get back to your companions and run the hell away from the ruins like a little girl.

[kabaliero]

the ruins that have something interesting going on gotta be hard to find

 

not necesserily meaning underground or in the woods

there may be lots of ghost towns\villages

but just some might have a thing of intrest

 

to encourage exploring and ****

 

like in bg1

Edited November 16, 2012 by kabaliero