d10 Unsettling Natural Phenomena


1 Moss Mist - Opaque green fog banks that carry microscopic fibers and spores of moss in their droplets. Occurs regularly in the spring when the bankmoss reproduces. Homes near where it grows are protected with airtight seals and fine filter meshes. It's safe to go out in it as long as you wear a properly-fitted filter mask, but DO NOT BREATHE IT.

2 Talking Storms - Occur in high winds near certain honeycombed and eroded sandstone canyons. The wind running over and through the rock cavities doesn't just sound like voices, it produces actual human speech. The words are distinct and range anywhere from beautiful choral concerts to horrible things whispered directly into your ears.

3 Inky Rain - These organic deluges happen in late spring when driftcap mushrooms sprout. These inkycap relatives grow lighter-than-air fruiting bodies that break free from their stalks and float on the wind in clouds of thousands. They begin to melt within hours of takeoff, dropping inches of self-digesting spore-bearing black fluid as they go.

4 Giant Lamprey Migration - In mid-autumn the lamprey swim inland from the ocean to spawn, choking waterways of all sizes with their 12'-long squirming grey-white bodies. They're delicious if you can catch one, but DO NOT GO IN THE WATER.

5 Mirror Sky - Occur on warm days over low rolling hills and plains. The still air creates a mirage of the ground below, a perfect reflection complete with exact copies of all the local places and people. If you look straight up, you can see yourself staring back. It feels as if there's a second planet hanging directly overhead, even if you know what's going on.

6 Night Tide - Schools of impenetrably black microscopic diatoms that drink in all light, casting the areas around them into constant night. The schools can be miles wide and come into the shallow waters in high summer, blanketing swathes of coastline in darkness. A tide usually lasts for about a week before the school disperses. The longest on record lasted almost five months.

7 Companion Halos - On cloudy days distinct rings of indigo-violet light form in the sky directly over thinking creatures. Each individual attracts a single halo that follows them perfectly, staying exactly overhead and visible for miles. The halos' size and intensity occasionally change, no one knows why.

8 Sibling Suns - Instead of setting the sun diffracts into many much smaller suns, each a different color. Together they shine their single-hued lights in overlapping cones, casting bizarre vibrant shadows and filtering the world into zones of monochrome. Events occur more frequently the farther north or south you go.

9 Return Frost - In late autumn before the ground freezes extreme overnight cold snaps cause frost heaving so intense it churns the soil and unearths recently-buried corpses. Morning finds the land encrusted in feathery rime and the exhumed bodies impaled on thousands of needle-fine shafts of ice. Areas with frequent return frosts usually create the dead, so bodies found after a frost are deeply suspect.

10 Coffin Rain - Torrential freezing rains that occur in high winter. The water falls and freezes fast enough to trap anything caught outside in a shell of ice a few inches to feet thick. Seek shelter immediately! Buildings in areas that experience regular coffin rains have extremely wide eaves that curve downwards to protect exterior walls from ice buildup.

Fire Tyrant

A massive salamander with the ability to control fire. These intelligent creatures cause chaos by entering a settlement, extinguishing all fires, and refusing to allow new fires to kindle until their demands are met.

Their demands are often strange and inscrutable, running the gamut from strenuous quests (like retrieving a rare food or treasure) to simple favors (like giving a good back scratch).

Aside from their ability to shut down all civilization in a 50 mile radius, Fire Tyrants are usually nonviolent and willing to negotiate, but they're stubborn.

HP: 12d12+12    AC: 19

Resistance: Magic, acid, poison, cold, physical weapons

Immune: Fire


Extinguish - Magically douses as many fires within a 50 mile radius as it wishes. Fires can't be relit without its permission. Affects magical fires.

Flare - Reignites as many fires as it wishes within a 50 mile radius. They suddenly explode causing damage as a fireball spell.

Gentle Smile - Just a big old goofy salamander smile. Gives +7 to its CHA and CHA-based skill checks. Any character with proficiency in Animal Handling who sees the smile must pass a DC 14 WIS save or fall under a Charm Person spell.


Tiny Coffins Challenge: February

Welcome back! This month's prompt is:

"bonds and letting go"

We usually think of bonds in the context of connections to people and not the connections we have to places, objects, and times past. Things that shaped us or anchor us back through time with memories. Your childhood home, the park you used to hang out in, the small collection of cool rocks you picked up over the years, your pet's old collar kept as a memento. What do we draw from those bonds and what happens when we decide it's time to let them fall away?

Have at and have fun!