Ponyfinder World Map · 5:29pm Aug 23rd, 2021
Little dots on a map, from Ether Echoes ponyfinder campaign. From the same game as Amarach. Written by me.
The Overtime
“Once, thousands of goblins labored here for their equine betters. The goblins have gone, but the work continues.”
An ancient open-pit mine next to a sprawling complex of foundries and ironworks, the Overtime was once a source of tremendous wealth for the pony tribes. It is not known what tragedy came for the laborers, but none of them escaped. The goblins' spirits haunt the area yet, possessing the bodies of travelers and forcing them to complete their missed shifts. There is tremendous treasure still in the Overtime, but only fools try to claim it.
Prosperity Ruin
“The villagers say the fields of Prosperity Ruin are fertilized with bodies. It isn’t true, but the truth is worse, so we just let them go on believing that.”
A sprawling series of fields, not far from an abandoned city of the old world. In the absence of earth ponies, the area displays no special properties. The magic of the area is triggered when an earth pony casts seed into the earth, with intention that it should grow. The seeds sprout upwards in a supernatural burst of growth, quickly covering the land and producing tremendous bounty. At first, this is entirely beneficial, but over time, the behavior of the plants will change. First they start to choke out weeds that threaten them, then they become poisonous to pests, then they throttle anything that grows, animals cease to come near, and the soil itself turns grey and chalky.
The earth ponies themselves are the last to go, strangled by their own harvest, which ends the magic. The yields of the plants continue to increase, up to the very moment their owner dies.
The River of Tears
“You hear that sound? The gentle sigh of water, the babbling of the current, the splash of leaping fish? That is the sound of ultimate suffering in this world.”
A small and otherwise unremarkable river in the west, the River of Tears has the magical property that any sapient creature who steps into it immediately, vividly recalls the greatest sadness they have ever experienced.
The City in a Bottle
“A city that isn’t, for people who aren’t.”
Traditional law requires that changelings, when uncovered, be sealed in cast iron until dead. It is the only way to ensure their fair folk relatives do not steal any more children. Stoves are often employed for this purpose. But some parents are weak. They love their children so much, they cannot harm the thing that wears their child’s face.
But the changeling cannot stay. It is not known what magic draws so many of them to the sun-dappled valley that hosts the City in a Bottle, but dozens of the creatures wander there every year looking for a home. It is a place for people who, until recently, believed they were ponies. Some still do.
With no good land and no natural resources of note, the “city” is more of a squalid refugee camp, unpleasant to visit and hostile to outsiders. But the changelings make do, and theirs is an intensely magical home. Strange things happen often.
Nine Pins
“Summer homes for the alicorns, perhaps. Or perhaps the gods are mocking us.”
In the middle of the desert stand nine columns, hexagonal in shape, each eighty feet across and half a mile high. Atop each column is a luxurious home, possibly a palace, though they have all long since fallen into disrepair. Anything magical about the homes has long since been stolen, and they are not near anything strategically important, rendering them a curiosity. Pegasai sometimes roost in them for fun, and report that the view is spectacular.
Adversity Point
“A malicious lighthouse. Bright without, dark within.”
A lighthouse with the power to snuff light as well as project it, Adversity Point is a sapient magical artifact created with a specific goal: to lure ships to their doom on the rocks so that its owners can pick over the rubble.
It does not understand why this would be morally objectionable, viewing itself as helping to enrich its masters. Several times, pony heroes have burned or otherwise destroyed the structure, but its spirit always possesses a new lighthouse, like a shade possessing a corpse.
Oh, I do love a good sapient building. (Or an evil one, as the case may be.) Brilliant glimpses of ruin, hubris, and that which doesn't belong. What more could an adventuring party ask for?
"There is tremendous treasure still in the Overtime, but only fools try to claim it."
Well... fools or villains, perhaps. The trick, it sounds like, would be not venturing in yourself, but to force others in and then collect the products shipped out.
Of course, such a scheme seems like just the sort of thing adventurers might be attracted to, the good to foil it (either by just stopping the villain, or finally finding a way to free the goblins' spirits), and the less-good to try to take over.
And all interesting; thanks for writing and sharing. :)
5573008
The treasure of the lost alicorn nation! Treasure may be slightly cursed, but that's fine as long as you can sell it.
5573009
Hopefully useful in a future campaign!
5573012
Feel free to use that idea, if none of you had already had it! :D
Sweet. I'm stealing at least two of these.
The River Ethel
With a set up like that, my suspicion is the mine's overseers are to blame in some fashion, either through maliciousness or carelessness that borders on it.
5573769
My own suspicion is that they were necromancers, and now liches that actively perpetuate the current state of affairs from deeper than anycreature has made it unpossessed.