Weirdcrawl: Investigating the Weird and Wondrous

This post is a part in a series on creating a weirdcrawl campaign where the focus is on seeking out and exploring strange wonders in the wilderness far from civilization. For the full series click here.

****

In a previous post I came up with a weird wonder along with six different facts about it based upon answering a series of questions. I'm going to revise things slightly so I have one answer per question:

The Moon Pool

• Who guards it? The Moon Pool is a haunted place, a place where strange creatures called the Forgotten dwell. They are the watery dead, empty hollow men and women who walk about. Some recently dead, some having died many years or even eons ago. They forever walk about lost amid the endless pools of the swamp, forever seeking to remember who they once were, what they have forgotten. Strange tales abound about encounters with them.

• What is it physically? Few know about it, but deep within the Black Basin lies a pool of silver water so bright and luminous it looks like a sliver of the moon. It is known as the Moon Pool. It is said to have been sacred long ago and was worshiped when the moon was young and the swamp a forest. Many who venture to it do not return.

• When was it forgotten? Once long ago there were people who dwelt in the forests before the swamp. They worshiped a sacred pool. They used to make offerings of silver to it and every so often one of the strange necklaces of the old swamp folk turn up, dredged up from the bottom. Every so often one of their crumbling moon markers can be found in the swamp. No one knows why they abandoned the swamp.

• Where is it located? It is said the Moon Pool lies westward beyond the last bend of the river Olb but can only be found on nights of a full moon and that one can only be lead there by the urging of a tormented soul.

• Why was it forgotten?  Long ago, in funeral rite, the people from before the swamp would place their tormented dead within the waters of their sacred pool to grant them a peaceful rest as it's waters cause forgetting. The flesh of the corpse would sink from it's bones which would would arise as shimmering moonlight and their skeleton would arise to dance amid the stars. It is not known why but to keep it secret they all drank from the pool to forget it's existence. From then on it has become a lost place, only the Forgotten knowing the way to it's shore. 

• How do you interact with it? The howling of lost and vengeful spirits can be heard above the waters of the Moon Pool. They howl for they know the awful bargain of the pool. From spirit to flesh, and flesh to spirit the pool can transform. And so the vengeful spirits swirl about the pool desperately wanting to clothe themselves in flesh again to wreak their vengeance, but unwilling to forget the awful grudge that drives them. Desperation mounting, at last, unable to bear it no more, they enter the waters of the Moon Pool. When they arise from it they arise clothed in flesh seeking to remember the grudge they have forgotten.

I have done my best to keep the answers to these questions terse and with little overlap between them. These six paragraphs is the entirety of the lore I would create for the moon pool and what I would relay to the players. However, I would not present this information to the players all at once. Their journey is to the Moon Pool is to be a quest! I would present them in a more investigative format.

Investigative Adventure

As the primary activity in my campaign is the players seeking out weird wonders deep in the wilderness, an investigative structure fits well this goal. While investigative adventures tend to be common in other RPGs they tend to be relatively rare in OSR games.

OSR games, especially D&D orientated ones, tend to emphasize freedom of player choice. Investigative adventures are hard because if structured too rigidly then the players are pulled from location to location looking for clues, unable to advance to the next location until they have found the crucial clue. If structured to loosely the players might be confused as to what direction to take, unsure or unable to piece together all the clues, and overall feel lost as to what they are supposed to do or how to measure their progress or form goals.

The first thing that must be realized when structuring a investigative adventure is that it is information that is the real reward and measure of progress, not gold collected, not rooms explored, not monsters killed. It is information that allows the players to form goals about what they want their characters to do and what their next step is, and to see how much progress they have made.

In this manner the above six bits of information about the Moon Pool serve as the real rewards for the players investigations. As they seek out and learn more about the moon pool they will be better able to formulate further ideas and plans.

The six clues outlined above form a 'flat' hierarchy of information where each clue is not more important than any other and each can sought out and learned in any order. This is intentional to try and maximize player choice. It's also intentional that players can choose, if they wish, to seek out he wonder after discovering the 'where' clue (or even find some even more clever way of doing so). It is up to them to decide when they feel they have learned enough to make the journey worthwhile, and probably more importantly, feel they can survive it.

If they seek out the wonder knowing too little about it then they will likely remain confused about what exactly it is and how it works and return with more questions than answers. The possibility of an unsatisfactory conclusion to their journey is once again purposeful. Knowledge is it's own reward.

Artifacts

In order to help facilitate adventure, it is best that the six clues be embodied in objects or people in the game world that the player characters can seek out and interact with. I think this goes well with D&D based OSR games as in them there is an emphasis on loot and items and it's much easier to quest after something tangible.

I am calling these things artifacts. Not in the traditional D&D sense, but more in the archaeological sense. They represent physical things that are found that tell us something about the past.

Creating an Artifact

There are four ways the fragment of lore can be transmitted each with a different challenge associated with it based on it's method of transmission. 

1d4	Method	Challenge
1	Pictorial	Seeing the visual display, which is probably immovable, and making sense of what it's trying to depict.
2	Written	Obtaining the written object and deciphering it.
3	Verbal	Getting someone to tell you the information and recording it.
4	Magic	Conducting a ritual to gain the information through extra-sensory or magical means.

I have created four charts to further define the artifact. Roll a d20 and cross reference to determine its form:

1d20	Pictoral	Written	Verbal	Magic
1	Paintings	Scrolls	Poem	Scrying
2	Sacred architecture	Tablets	Ballad	Speaking with the dead
3	Metalwork	Book or Tome	Legend	Speaking with a demon
4	Sculptures	Engraving	Recounting	Speaking with a spirit
5	Ceramics and Pottery	Fragments and scraps	Insane ramblings	Viewing past events
6	Jewelry	Letters	Oral history	Viewing future events
7	Tapestry	Chronicle	Speech	Using astronomical events to find location
8	Fresco	Last will and testament	Riddle	Dowsing
9	Mosaic	Map	Eulogy	Mind Reading
10	Illuminated illustration	Travelogue	Rant	Summoning, Binding, and Torturing
11	Hieroglyph	Philosophical/Metaphysical treatise	Lecture	Speaking with Monsters
12	Petroglyph	Encyclopedia	Conversation	Dimensional traveling
13	Altarpiece	Encoded Document	Debate	Unearthly visions
14	Bas-relief	Religious or Occult text	Play or performance	Time travel
15	Carving	Scientific Observations	Audio recording	Contacting the Outer Spheres
16	Graffiti	Official missive	Chant	Speaking with Animals
17	Model or maquete	Compendium	Coded language	Mind-meld
18	Globe	Leaflet	Echo	Magical illusion
19	Embroidery	Suicide note	Sound	Summoning a guide
20	Etching	Schematic	Recitation	Magically locate

Fragments of Lore for the Moon Pool

Taking the above information I can apply it to the above 6 clues. I will roll randomly for each and from it create a description of the main challenge the players will face and the hook. A hook is an inciting incident that doesn't tells them a bit about how they may find the fragment of lore. Kind of, oh, I don't know that, but I know who may know that. It points them in the direction of the fragment. 

1. Who guards it?

Hook: a party of travelers enters the gates of Vorba bearing the slain bodies of their comrades. Hungry, wounded, and miserable, they beg for help and tell tales of being attacked by strange cold skinned dead things in the night, deep in the swamp.

Fragment (Verbal: Recounting): the man who was on watch at the time knows best what these things are. Unfortunately, he has slunk away from his fellow travelers to drown himself in drink. If found and convinced to talk he will recount details of the attack. A host of tallow skinned strange men and women came upon him when he was on watch that night. Their skin was cold, their eyes a milky white and they muttered continually, one of them calling him brother, accusing him or murdering it, although he swears he has no brothers or sisters.

Clue: The Moon Pool is a haunted place, a place where strange creatures called the Forgotten dwell. They are the watery dead, empty hollow men and women who walk about. Some recently dead, some having died many years or even eons ago. They forever walk about lost amid the endless pools of the swamp, forever seeking to remember who they once were, what they have forgotten. Strange tales abound about encounters with them.

2. What is it physically?

Hook: In a tavern smelling of old ale frequented by students, a priest in a frumpled frock drinks with celibate monks. He is about to be fully ordained and they all sing old ditty's and hymns in celebration. He remarks how he is going to be baptized in the baptismal fount of the grand cathedral of Vorba, Our Lady Victorious. To any who listens, he lets slip that the baptismal font in the cathedral is said to be older than the city itself and is made from a strange metal. 

Fragment (Pictoral: Metalwork): underneath the grand cathedral in a grotto few but those the Bishop allows to visit, lies a large metal basin made of a strange silver metal. It is perfectly round and has been set into the bedrock like a pool. It appears to predate the church. The water gleams brightly, dappled with light, no matter the darkness. Strange etchings of an auroch trampling a serpent adorn its rim. 

Clue: Few know about it, but deep within the Black Basin lies a pool of silver water so bright and luminous it looks like a sliver of the moon. It is known as the Moon Pool. It is said to have been sacred long ago and was worshiped when the moon was young and the swamp a forest. Many who venture to it do not return.

3. When was it forgotten?

Hook: in the market place, amid the finely woven carpets from the east and the black briarwood of the north an old jewelry vendor with a crippled back sells a strange necklace. Primitive, made of large links of a silver metal with the image of an auroch dangling from it's end it is like no other. Rubbing his chapped hands he drives a hard bargain. If any shows interest in his tale, with a craven grin he tells them he will tell them more about it if they buy it.

Fragment (Verbal: Poem): the jewelry vendor once attended the halls of storytellers in the north. He is acquainted with the poem of the god Islador, an ancient creation myth of the ancient forest people and the pool they worshiped. He will recite it to the players if they buy the necklace. However, he knows the necklace is the centerpiece of his collection and draws much attention to his stall. He will only let it go for an exorbitantly high price or in trade for a similarly unique item.

Clue: Once long ago there were people who dwelt in the forests before the swamp. They worshiped a sacred pool. They used to make offerings of gold to it and every so often one of the strange necklaces of the old swamp folk turn up, dredged up from the bottom. Every so often one of their crumbling moon markers can be found in the swamp. No one knows why they abandoned the swamp.

4. Why was it forgotten?

Hook: the maidens of the Peatsmen are said to be the keepers of the history of the roaming boat clans for it is they who embroider the old stories onto their wedding dresses. Each dress contains the history and legends of the clan depicted in colourful thread. Yur Zhdanov, a scholar, is seeking out several well experienced travelers to help him collect several such dresses to study.

Fragment (Pictoral: Embroidery): the wedding dresses of the maidens of the Peatsmen are treasured. They are not made to be given away or traded and each is specific to the recently married maiden who made it. Only they can decode the full story of what the embroidery conveys, stories that are passed down from mother to daughter in secret. If several such dresses are collected they show the reoccurring symbol of the Moon Pool and starry skeletons. If decoded by the maidens who made the dresses, the full tale can be learned.

Clue: Long ago, in funeral rite, the people from before the swamp would place their tormented dead within the waters of their sacred pool. It would grant them a peaceful rest as it's waters cause forgetting. The flesh of the corpse would sink from it's bones. It's skeleton would arise as shimmering moonlight to dance amid the stars. It is not known why but to keep it secret they all drank from the pool to forget it's existence. From then on it has become a lost place, only the Forgotten knowing the way to it's shore. 

5. Where is it located?

Hook: a clan of Peatsmen in the swamp is in disarray over their disgraced prince who recently died in a duel with another clan. The entire clan is in mourning and the funeral rites last many weeks. The matriarch refuses to bury her son until his soul can be laid to rest.

Fragment (Magic: Mind-meld): in order to find out why the princes soul is tormented the party must conduct a ritual to mind meld with the recently deceased prince. They must gather black saw-grass, the eye of a blue eel, and a powder of fragrant glass the traders bring far from the south. In the darkness of a new moon they must sing the ancient incantations and place their palm upon the Prince's head in which their minds and his, pulled from the afterlife become conjoined. They receive visions of the Moon Pool and feel his urging for it.

Clue: It is said the Moon Pool lies westward beyond the last bend of the river Olb but can only be found on nights of a full moon and that one can only be lead there by the urging of a tormented soul.

6. How do you interact with it?

Hook: Grigory "The Great" Ivankov is a wizard of ill repute has created a machine to record and play the voices of restless undead spirits. He seeks a brave group of individuals to travel deep within the swamp to one of the crumbling 'moon markers' within the swamp. These are haunted obelisks with holes that line up with the moon. No one knows who built them but the whispering of evil spirits is heard about them. He wishes to record their voices there.

Fragment (Verbal: Audio recording): If recorded, the spirits, in insane howling voices, obsessively speak of the temptation of the Moon Pool. Recording them, of course, draws them like a loadstone and they will be loath to simply return to their aimless roaming of the swamp. 

Clue: The howling of lost and vengeful spirits can be heard above the waters of the Moon Pool. They howl for they know the awful bargain of the pool. From spirit to flesh, and flesh to spirit the pool can transform. And so the vengeful spirits swirl about the pool desperately wanting to clothe themselves in flesh again to wreak their vengeance, but unwilling to forget the awful grudge that drives them. Desperation mounting, at last, unable to bear it no more they enter the waters of the Moon Pool. When they arise from it they arise clothed in flesh seeking to remember the grudge they have forgotten.

Following the Trail of Information

In the above one weird wonder is outlined with six different trails to clues. A campaign would have multiple wonders in the wilderness, each with six different hooks. The players would run across them primarily in civilized areas and have to decide which they wish to pursue and more importantly which they feel are connected to each other.

There are some repeating motifs across the six hooks. These serve let the GM riff on things and help them help the players make connections as they narrow in on what weird wonder they are pursuing. The GM might tell the players that the baptismal fount and the strange necklace seem to be made of the same metal connecting those leads for the players. They might even to go so far as once the players have managed to overcome the challenge of the fragment, to summarize the clue in it's entirety to the players. In investigative games, the real interesting fun come not from finding information. It comes out of what the players decide to do with the information they find. Do they trust all of it? How will they leverage it? How will it effect their current relationships? Their future plans? At what cost did the information come?

Civilization holds the Clues

Overall the hooks for each clue are meant to be random type encounters that the players can have in civilized locations or not to far outside civilization. I place them mostly in civilized locations as the easiest way to get information about something is from another person, so civilized locations have a greater chance of someone knowing something about something, if not the final clue, then something that will help them towards the clue. 

Civilized locations tend to also create small quickly resolved situations that are easy to role play and help expand the setting and characters detail by detail through play. I also find these sorts of situations at the beginning of an adventure help build suspense and interest in the end goal. 

A natural turning point is when the players decide to actually set out into the harsh wilderness to find the weird wonder. Before, they are still safe in civilized lands. After they set out, the journey will be long and arduous, there is no easy turning back. Once they set off, what they find lacking will test them in body and soul. 

In my next post I will detail this second half further.

Weirdcrawl: The Power of Quests

There is a power in Quests. 

Frodo and Sam's journey into darkest Mordor, the only thing sustaining them, their friendship. Tiny amidst the darkness that surrounds them.

Doomed Captain Ahab after his white whale, driven by the madness that is only calm when it contemplates itself.

Indiana Jones chasing a trail of adventure, seeking the rumored relic, stumbling across the dangerous and exotic in equal measure. 

Captain Willard heading down the river in a lonesome boat in the midst of the Vietnam war, heading into the heart of darkness to find the mysterious Colonel Kurtz.

There is a power in quests.

I am using the term quest loosely here. Quests tend to be most associated with the fantasy genre. I tend to define quest focused stories as those that involve an protagonist traveling into unknown physical terrain (although also often psychological) after a singular obsessive goal.

I find stories involving quests compelling. I find they can also be great tools for helping focus a campaign giving it direction and purpose.

So far in my series about creating a Weirdcrawl I have created this basic setup:

You have civilization at one end.

And a strange wonder at the other end.

Before continuing, I'd like to take a step back now because I don't want a weirdcrawl to just be traveling to a wonder. I want it to be a quest. While there is lore and setting information about the wonder, the real story is not the wonder, it's the one that emerges during the journey to it.

Atmosphere in RPGS

Most RPGs don't talk much about atmosphere. I think because most of the time because it feels like something that belongs in the realm of traditional storytelling. Atmosphere in literature is commonly defined as being formed through an authors choice of descriptive language. If applied to RPGs in this manner it tends to lead to a lot of boring read out loud text and a GMing style that tends to restrict player choice or comes across as hamfisted in trying to set a tone.

However, I think it's important to talk about atmosphere in RPGs because a thematic and emotional atmosphere is going to be created at the table no matter what a GM does. I think atmosphere in RPGs can be defined in the following manner:

The emotional sum of player reactions to things they encounter and interact with in the setting. 

If a game is to be interesting, most things the players encounter won't be of neutral emotion. Encountering an ordinary peasant on the way to market isn't a very interesting or engaging encounter. Encountering one who is acting suspiciously and is hiding something horrific, or a very earnest with a family of seven in tow who is begging for your help, is much more engaging.

If your game features a lot of horrific and disturbing things, it's likely to have an atmosphere of horror. If your game is more upbeat and full of fanciful creatures it's more likely to be one of wonder and curiosity.

In this manner I think an atmosphere can be created in RPGs through paying attention to what kind emotions surround the content that players are presented with in the setting. I think trying to cultivate an atmosphere is beneficial as it helps connect sessions together emotionally and thematically. If they are exploring a war ravaged land with lots of poor and starving people, there's likely to be themes of the horrors and futility of war arising. This can add depth and context to each session.

As players explore a setting, I think they shouldn't just learn more and more about it, they should feel more and more strongly about it.

A Variety of Wonders

In the weirdcrawl I am constructing I think the setting should contain a variety of wonders that evoke a variety of atmospheres. Playing a game with the same emotional content and atmosphere gets boring after a while. The first time you venture into an evil swamp full of horrific things might be fun, but the tenth time going somewhere dark and nasty, not so much.

Additionally, by having wonders with a different sense of atmosphere, it also allows for the player to select what kind of game they are comfortable with and enjoy the most. If they don't like horror, they don't have to journey to the Obsidian Statue of the Forgotten Leper King in the swamp. They can decide to journey to the Graveyard of the Porcelain Elephants instead.

In either case the structure of the journey would stay largely the same: the party has a wonder, an end goal that they are traveling too and are going to encounter all kinds of obstacles along the way and have to make decisions about how to best get there and at what cost. But just like how just like how each example movie or book I listed above has a different atmosphere, so too can each wonder.

Creating an Atmosphere in a Weirdcrawl

There are two dichotomies that I think are useful to consider when trying to create an atmosphere for a weird wonder:

Beauty/Revulsion: beauty being the pleasing aesthetic qualities of a thing and revulsion being the unpleasant aesthetic qualities of a thing. A typical example of this would be our appreciation of the finely proportioned human body and our revulsion towards dead or rotting flesh. Beauty and revulsion can be used to create an immediate visceral reaction to something.

Whimsy/Dread: whimsy being a pleasurable curiosity and wonderment to something, while dread being apprehension or anxiety to something. Whimsy and dread can be used to create a more long term emotional reaction to something. A typical example of this would be our interest or longing to try and catch sight of a colorful toucan in the wild, and our dread in knowing that we are being stalked by a tiger.

Together these four different emotions can be mixed to create four different atmospheres defined by a immediate visceral reaction and a long term emotional reaction. I think selecting one of these four atmospheres goes along way when thinking about what kind of obstacles and things you want to have in front of the players on their journey to the wonder.

Atmosphere of The Eire

Beauty-Dread:

These quests contain a strange unearthly wonder and beauty at first. The clockwork ornery that models all the celestial bodies that ever were and will be, in wonderous motion. The village around a looming black tower with no windows were the villagers are helpful. A marble clad lighthouse carved by the gods on a strange isle off the coast whose circling light never falters.

There is a sense of other-worldliness to these quests. Nothing really appears that dangerous, not at first. Things appear fine, maybe even friendly. But there is something off about things. You can't quite put your finger on it, but something is behaving strangely. It all begins to evoke a sense of dread.

Maybe the villagers are a little too helpful. Maybe the midnight lighthouse is inhabited by a living immortal marble statue who sees mortals as but curiosities. Maybe the orrery is now worshiped by an insane madman who uses it to predict all the parties actions.

In these quests the guardians are often like wolves in a sheep's clothing. They may seem friendly and rational at first but at heart are not. The party is subject to their often powerful whims and will have to find some means of either outwitting them or navigating their byzantine logic if they wish to reach the wonder.

Atmosphere of The Odd

Revulsion-Whimsy:

These quests appear gruesome and dangerous, perhaps even sinister at first. Ruined temples in dark shadow, a deep hole with a descending spiral staircase, a graveyard of rotting elephants, but amid it all there is a sense of the mysterious, a sense of curiosity, a sense of even the whimsical at times.

Maybe the ruined temple is full of friendly ghosts. Maybe at the bottom of the deep hole lies a race of strange dwarves who speak in riddles. Maybe the graveyard of rotting elephants contains a highly intelligent undead variety who are misunderstood.

In these quests the guardians often a bit like a sheep in wolfs clothing. They seem dangerous or repulsive at first but contain a hidden life and often humour. They make for an interesting twist and play at the party's expectations. They may aid the party on their quest to the wonder, if you are able to earn their trust and respect.

Atmosphere of The Marvelous

Beauty-Whimsy:

These quests appear fanciful and strange. A great green rolling ocean that lies across a desert where people have lived so long in the sand they think the ocean, that much wondrous water, is but a myth. A staircase that leads to the moon where silver dragons stream across its surface and fight the nightgaunts. A whirlpool in which mermaids swim and which leads to their underwater kingdom.

These quests tend to be full of unabashed whimsy. There is danger yes, but a sense of curiosity of playful risk to the journey. A sense of both youthfulness and wisdom, of dangerous folly and gracious humility.

In these quests the guardians guard the wonder because it is truly a precious and innocent thing. A thing of true wonder that should scare exist in the world. That like a shimmering bubble, it could be extinguished in a heartbeat. So much so that the guardians often worship the wonder or hold it in high regard. They will harm and prevent the party from reaching the wonder if they deem them unworthy or a risk to it.

Atmosphere of The Blighted

Revulsion-Dread:

These quests appear doomed. The cursed swamp that lies over a great battle long ago where the dead now do dwell, the barrow mound that houses the nameless king of iron who harbours endless hate, the nest of the reaping locusts who will one day eat the flesh of all men as death itself awakes.

There are some places one should just not go. Places were a malign evil saturates the very land. These quests tend to be into the heart of darkness itself. Journeys done for great reasons or for great rewards, preferably both. Journey's where the weak will falter, where only the hardened will survive.

In these quests the guardians will oppose the party at every turn and seek only their destruction. For they guard a great prize, the wonder is the source of their evil and malign power. They will be loath to be parted from it. They and the wonder can only be destroyed, never bargained with, and if the party seizes it as their own they may find themselves slowly becoming monsters themselves.

Weirdcrawl: Generating a Weird Wonder

In my previous post I talked a bit about what I thought were some baseline qualities for a weird wonder. These weird wonders would serve as the object of quests in a campaign based around venturing into the wilderness to seek out and explore places of weird wonder. Kind of like Indiana Jones combined with the Dreamlands of H. P. Lovecraft.

Click here for the index.

The Paradoxical Duality of the Weird

There are many ways to think about 'weird' things, what they are, and how to define them. I have done so already in my blog, mostly in service of how to create a creeping or gradual sense of the weird where if you have some weird wonder as the object of a quest, the focus of the campaign and play should not just be the final encounter with the weird thing but the journey itself. A journey that has a sense of rising weirdness and tension as the players venture deeper and deeper into the unknown wilderness and away from normalized civilization. So far I have yet to attempt to really define what makes a weird wonder weird and how to go about creating or generating that. I will attempt to do so now.

At heart, I think weird or unsettling things are paradoxical in nature. They exist and yet everything we know about the world, our knowledge, our past experiences, our primordial instincts, tell us they should not exist. This creates a cognitive confusion, a cognitive dissonance that causes emotional reactions that tend to range from awe, to fear, to anger. (I don't have a background in psychology so am probably lacking in the correct terminology but if anyone has any ideas please leave a comment! It's something I'd love to read up on more but have a hard time finding good sources.)

To this end I think the best way to achieve a sense of the weird is to have some object straddle two different containers in our mind about what is known or real.

For example, ghosts. We know that people live and what living people are like. We know what dead people are like also. In our brain we have formed two containers for these two concepts. A ghost straddles these two containers because it is a person who appears both dead and alive at the same time. Our brain doesn't know what to do about it and so we tend to react in an emotional manner.  In the moment we tend to be terrified and repelled, outside the moment curious and attracted.

The mental overload and cognitive dissonance resulting from a very close straddling of two different containers is also why I think there tends to be a limit of believability to weird things and what separates the weird from other things. Ghosts are believable because they paradoxically combine the categories of life and death, things which seem to form an opposition or duality. When something tends to straddle multiple categories it tends to come across more unbelievable than believable and weird. Like the idea of a ghost, something dead yet living is believable, but the idea of a ghost who is dead which has leathery batwings seems a bit more silly even though it's all equally unreal and impossible.

Furthermore, I think the strangest things tend to be those which combine the paradoxical. A river flowing uphill defying gravity, that is odd. However, I think something that is far more strange and interesting is a river of flowing liquid fire. It flows like water and feels like water, yet glows and wavers like flame and even though it feels cold to the touch things soaked in it too long seem to turn to ash. When you combine things of apposing or opposite qualities, you don't just create something that is behaving in an odd fashion, you create something that our brains think fundamentally shouldn't exist. And yet does.

Weird Wonder Generation

The following is a large table that helps create the basic weird wonder. There are three columns.

Feature: this is the actual physical thing that comprises the wonder, constructed or natural. They are things of a singular nature that would lend themselves to a smaller adventuring site rather than something sprawling.

Duality:  the source of the weird, the duality. It will take some imagination and abstract thought in this column are listed two opposites. The wonder should in some way or another embody these two opposites.

Guardian: the guardian of the wonder presented as a list of archetypes. As mentioned before, I am using the term guardian very loosely. They may be a single individual, group of people, monster, etc. They serve to create player interaction and a probable reason why the wonder has remained isolated and hidden.  Their motivations and intent when interacting with the party may vary.

d100	Feature	Duality	Guardian
1	Pool	water/fire	The Fool
2	Standing stone	Beast/man	The Mother
3	Glade	Darkness/light	The Father
4	Fortification	Depth/surface	The Magician
5	Boat	Death/birth	The Scribe
6	Bridge	Wealth/poverty	The Warrior
7	Mist	Dream/reality	The Specter
8	Garden	Fullness/emptiness	The Priestess
9	Tree	flesh/stone	The Abomination
10	Wall	Solidness/fragility	The Emperor
11	Waterfall	Flat/round	The Land
12	Arch	Fornication/chastity	The Lover
13	Burial grounds	Forever/temporary	The Prophet
14	Door	Fresh/rotting	The Hermit
15	Statue	Horizontal/vertical	The Devil
16	Pillar	Infinitesimal/infinite	The Leper
17	Pyramid	Male/female	The Messenger
18	Fungus	Old/young	The Knight
19	Tower	Mind/body	The Bishop
20	Cliff	Collectivism/ Individualism	The Captain
21	Petroglyph	Trust/betrayal	The Gardner
22	Vault	Problem/solution	The Artist
23	Dam	Love/hate	The Soldier
24	Crystal	Creation/destruction	The Smith
25	Sand Dune	Thought/emotion	The Giant
26	Whirlpool	Child/adult	The Dead
27	Dry Lake	noise/silence	The Forgotten
28	Glacier	Imagination/reality	The Lady
29	Island	Passion/apathy	The Monk
30	Cave	Vision/blindness	The Executioner
31	Plateau	Tradition/spontaneity	The Seer
32	Valley	Freedom/imprisonment	The Conqueror
33	Mountain Summit	gas/solid	The Conquered
34	Tepui	Heavy/light	The Angel
35	Volcano	Material/spiritual	The Peddler
36	Crater	Cold/warm	The Templar
37	Spring	Fear/calm	The Herald
38	Lava lake	Frozen/liquid	The Betrayer
39	Fissure	doubt/faith	The Scapegoat
40	Lighthouse	Shame/delight	The Sacrifice
41	Mausoleum	Remembering/forgetting	The Leviathan
42	Fountain	Surrender/triumph	The Trickster
43	Flame	Tragedy/comedy	The Torturer
44	Labyrinth	Illusionary/reality	The Nymph
45	Causeway	Hunger/satiation	The Wild
46	Grotto	Past/future	The Thief
47	Shell	Fate/chance	The Warlord
48	Well	Pleasure/pain	The Ferryman
49	Urn	Justice/corruption	The Hero
50	Amphitheater	Clarity/obscurity	The Witch
51	Lightning	Loneliness/togetherness	The Dog
52	Library	indestructible/weakness	The Scholar
53	Nest	Pride/abasement	The Killer
54	Hive	Truth/lie	The Healer
55	Colonnade	civilization/savagery	The Collector
56	Road	Affliction/cure	The Siren
57	Cenotaph/Stele	Concentration/scattered	The Starved
58	Stairway	Anarchy/order	The Watcher
59	River source	Grandeur/simplicity	The Awakened
60	Salt flat	Multitude/singular	The Revenant
61	Taproot	Insular/inclusive	The Mentor
62	Meteorite	Ascent/descent	The Omniscient
63	Canyon	Flesh/spirit	The Sisters
64	Observatory	Writing/speaking	The Order
65	Rough statues	veiled/naked	The Master
66	Waystone	Black/white	The cowardly
67	Loadstone	Natural/unnatural	The Betrayer
68	Monument	Abundance/famine	The Betrayed
69	Sewers	Expansion/contraction	The Nurse
70	Canal	Protection/destruction	The Shepherd
71	Palace	fertile/barren	The Automaton
72	Shrine	Crisis/challenge	The Sacrifice
73	Arena	Defiance/submission	The Saccharine
74	Migratory grounds	Mastery/incompetence	The Unborn
75	Cairn	Hospitality/hostility	The Brute
76	Totem	Flying/crawling	The Miser
77	Pyre	Sharp/dull	The Architect
78	Tar pit	Clever/stupid	The Wanderer
79	Lagoon	Melodic/discordant	The Invisible
80	Spire	Fading/coagulating	The Reaper
81	Burial Mound	Fostered/condemned	The Ravenous
82	Leviathan	Programmed/random	The Undertaker
83	Orrery	Adorned/empty	The Enslaved
84	Axis Mundi	Depleted/energized	The Slaver
85	Pit	Guide/mislead	The Fraternity
86	Spawning grounds	Lost/found	The Prisoner
87	Roost	Gentle/rough	The Fallen
88	Beach	Advanced/primitive	The Cursed
89	Obelisk	Distant/close	The Forgetful
90	Ship wreck	Fabricated/biological	The Forgiven
91	Sigil	Learned/innate	The Widow
92	Meadow	Cooked/raw	The Warlock
93	Battlefield	Herded/directionless	The Withered
94	Mine	Neglected/pampered	The Maiden
95	Stone Works	Interlinked/unwoven	The Elder
96	Ziggurat	Wide/narrow	The Tyrant
97	Monastery	Falling/rising	The Child
98	Forge	Human/inhuman	The Traveler
99	Bell Tower	Withered/lush	The Undying
100	Hunting Grounds	Defeat/Victory	Death

Enigmatic History

After rolling on the above chart you should have the basics of a weird wonder. In some way the wonder should be momentous. It is a place where something happened. Something long ago.  It should have a sense of scale or of time, evoke a feeling of awe and mystery. It should have a past that the players will never be able to fully unravel as it's history is lost, but glimpses of that history, of its scale and timelessness, lay all about it.

Roll on the following chart until you get something that makes sense for the weird wonder. You may have to do this several times. Remember, it's the wonder itself that is weird, not it's history, it's history should be simply unknown. 

1d50	Enigmatic History
1	Immense in size
2	Markings in a dead undecipherable language
3	Partially buried in the earth
4	Crumbling and derelict
5	Made of ultra-durable materials
6	Path to it is footsteps worn through stone
7	Choaking dust and debris
8	Rain eroded and wind worn
9	Sealed off and purposely blocked
10	Signs of long ago civilization collapse or disaster
11	Lots of art by unknown culture
12	Disrupted weather patterns due to site
13	Landscape shows signs of massive alteration
14	Everyday remains of ancient visitors fragile to touch
15	Carving and scripts so worn they are unreadable
16	Scale of steps, hallways, pathways, trails, is too large to be for a human.
17	Scale of steps, hallways, pathways, trails, is too small to be for a human.
18	Has reoccurring symbol of unknown or forgotten god
19	Layers and layers of bloodstains from sacrifices
20	Reoccurring name and history that has been defaced and scratched out
21	Ancient refuse pits dot the landscape around it
22	Mass graves with thousands of bones
23	Astrological alignment of site based on how stars were long ago
24	Construction breaks the laws of physics
25	‘Grown’ from natural materials by the gods instead of built
26	Partially destroyed by some massive creature or god
27	Site seems to be built by advanced technology
28	Art from a proto-civilization or culture that is father to all civilizations
29	Covered in layers and layers of soot and grime
30	In a cold place buried underneath ice and snow
31	Previously looted many times over
32	Fossilized remains
33	Perfectly preserved remains frozen in time
34	Lots of strange jewelry from unknown cultures left as offerings
35	Graffiti in several different languages, some from long ago, some more recently
36	A written warning to all those who explore the site
37	Animals avoid the place
38	Animals of a certain type are attracted to the place
39	Covered in thick vegetation and greenery
40	Covered in moss and lichen
41	Covered in slime and mold
42	Full of broken religious symbols and iconography
43	Made with materials from far away lands
44	Area is expansive and empty, stripped to the bones
45	Nothing grows
46	Area is contained with some toxic material
47	Signs and leavings of visitors of many different times and cultures
48	Contains strange geometric features or motif that hints at advanced mathematics and intelligence
49	A written curse upon all those who explore the site
50	Made over oversized materials impossible for humans or even basic machinery to manipulate

Defining a Weird Wonder

To keep things simple and avoid creating too much lore or backstory weird wonders should seek to concisely answer the following questions. Some of them may not be applicable to all wonders. You also only really need to answer a handful, in creating a sense of the weird and unknown it's better to give out less information than more. Overall the questions help prompt thought and break down information about the wonders into tidbits that can be given the players as they decide to seek it out and investigate it.

• Who: 
• Who knows more about it's existence?
• Who guards it?
• Who else seeks it?
• Who else has been there?
• What: 
• What is it physically?
• What happened to it over the ages?
• What strange qualities does it posses?
• When: 
• When was it forgotten? 
• When was it last visited?
• When is the best time to visit it?
• Where: 
• Where is it located?
• Where are clues to its location?
• Why: 
• Why was it created?
• Why was it destroyed?
• Why was it forgotten?
• How: 
• How do you get to it? 
• How do you survive the journey to it?
• How do you interact with it?
• How can you possibly exploit it?

Putting Everything Together!

Rolling, on the above charts I got the following:

• Feature: Pool
• Duality: Flesh/spirit
• Guardian: The Forgetful
• Enigmatic History: Lots of strange jewelry from unknown cultures left as offerings

Using the setting that I have been creating as I go in this blog series, I came up with the following:

The Moon Pool

What is it physically?

Few know about it, but deep within the Black Basin lies a pool of silver water so bright and luminous it looks like a sliver of the moon. In tales told by the drifting gypsies of the swamp, it is said to have been sacred long ago when the moon was young and the swamp a forest.

Who guards it?

Now it is a haunted place, a place where a race of strange creatures called the Forgotten dwell. Watery empty hollow men and women who walk about in strange legion forever seeking to remember who they once were. Strange tales abound about encounters with them.

Who strange qualities does it posses?

The howling of vengeful spirits can be heard all about the pool, heard in the day, in the night, under the soon and amid the stars. They howl for they know the awful bargain of the pool. From spirit to flesh, and flesh to spirit. Into the pool they dive and from it they arise, once again clothed in flesh. But with all memory of their awful grudge struck from them. As one of the Forgotten they are doomed to roam. And so the vengeful spirits swirl about the pool desperately wanting the flesh to wreak their vengeance, but unwilling to forget, until desperation mounting, they enter, hoping that as one of the Forsaken they will encounter something that reminds them of their grudge.

When was it last visited?

The eldest of the Peatsmen matriarchs visited it long ago. With her she brought the body of her disgraced son who died in a duel. When she placed his body into the waters of the Silver Pool his flesh sank away from his bones which turned to shimmering moonlight. From dead flesh to gentle spirit he arose, his burden lifted, his spirit freed to drift with his ancestors among the stars.

When was it forgotten?

Once long ago there were people who dwelt in the forests before the swamp. They worshiped the Moon Pool. Necklaces of gold with images of the bear and auroch they threw into the pool and waters around it in funeral rite as they placed their tormented dead within it's waters. Every so often their strange necklaces turn up, dredged up from the bottom. Every so often one of their crumbling moon markers can be found in the swamp.

When is the best time to visit it?

It is said the Moon Pool can only be found on lights of a full moon and that one can only be lead there by the urging of the tormented dead.