You see strange marks everywhere- odd graffiti, spilled drinks, but sometimes you spy something that makes you really wonder. I’ve been traveling in a different city for the last week, and have spied a lot of these marks outside various shops, on street corners, and so on. They’re very definitely deliberate, and each of the ones I’ve seen is different, but I have no clue what they mean, which of course made me think “how can I use this for a post?”. Markings like these could be similar to real-world ‘hobo signs’, indicating friendliness of the occupants and pets, likelihood to pass on food, danger, where to find medical help, stashed of goods, and so on. A thieves’ guild or group of urban rangers might make use of this kind of sign to evade notice by regular folk, and leave warnings to each other (maybe it’s the written form of Thieves’ Cant?). However, it’s hard to not want to go the full-on magic route this, and make them some sort of arcane sigils. Are these wards to stop a house or business burning down (“nice place you got here... sure would be a shame if something... happened to it”), or even alignment protection wards, keeping out evil spirits or demons? On a side note, Peter V. Brett’s Demon Cycle novels have magical warding circles which keep out the demons rising up from the earth each night- well worth a read, and will definitely have some great ideas for any D&D style game! A last option is that these markings could be some kind of bizarre map. Maybe a cult to a Great Old One leaves these marks, and finding/following them leaves a person just slightly less sane, but able to discover the cult. The circles might represent specific turns that have to be made to reach the next spot, while the lines might represent the number of buildings or blocks you have to pass. (Originally posted on Game Masters Stash on 4 January 2019) Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm Luke. He/him pronouns. Archives
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