SomeBing Inspiring

Like any right thinking person, I hate and fear Microsoft Bing. But on my office computer at work, each day a free Bing wallpaper is downloaded and automatically set as my desktop wallpaper image. They are surprisingly inspiring for campaign or adventure site ideas. Viz:

This is quite literally a ruined mountain temple complex of a lost civilisation. It therefore serves as a wonderful template for, er, a ruined mountain temple complex of a lost civilisation.

This is clearly the Makatanti Badlands, once a great formian nest-city which riddled an entire mountain range with tunnels, now haunted by their ghosts and other, Dark Sun-adjacent beings: outlaw githyanki, a thri-kreen prophet, cannibal halflings, etc.

This brings to mind a campaign in which the PCs are borrower-like tiny people, perhaps 2 inches high, trying to survive in a world of giants. Here, they eke out a living from beachcombing, dodging giant crabs and ragworms, not to mention mudskippers and seagulls (the equivalent to them of dragons).

A flooded dungeon. Beneath the cold blue waters is the lair of a sapphire dragon, an ancient wyrm who slumbers so deeply his tunnels have become a hive of lesser forms of aquatic life. To enter, one uses something like gillyweed, which provides sufficient time to swim down and explore the caves; try not to get lost.

This I take to be the corpse of a giant, which has lain semi-submerged in the bog for millennia and gradually become crusted over with rock and earth. He still carries treasure (somewhere) and his body is infested with whatever life-forms are drawn to inhabit such a grim and desolate home.

The fortress that guards the entrance to the inner realm of the Kunlun Shan, the axis mundi - a great mountain that rises to the heavens and towers over the lowlands below. It contains many palaces, gardens, orchards and wild forests, and is inhabited by hermits, magicians, kings and monsters inspired by Chinese myth.

This, meanwhile, makes me imagine a maze that sits atop a hill rising up from a thick forest. Created long ago by a wizard as a birthday present to his favourite daughter, at its heart lies a special treasure. But the daughter died on the morning of her birthday and in grief the wizard cursed his creation. It is now a demonic place into which only the bravest or most foolhardy venture - and none return...

While this at first glance could be the remain of a fortress, say, or a demon-summoning chamber, I like to imagine it as a wrestling arena for fomorians in a pseudo-Irish setting. On hot summer evenings, especially when rain storms are brewing, they descend on this spot to fight out duels and settle disputes; at other times of year, they enjoy sport and sacrifice with the people of the nearby countryside...

Here, we see what I believe to be the homes of the Desert Troll Fathers - two dozen or so hermit trolls who live in isolation in the blasted heart of a great sandy wilderness. They need next to no water and their home is thus far from any oasis or wadi; this makes it almost inaccessible to ordinary humanoid beings. Nevertheless, since it is rumoured that they are in direct contact with gods of sky and stars, there are those who attempt the perilous journey to hear their wisdom. The trolls do condescend to give it - but typically only in return for offerings of fresh (live) meat.  

A town in a quasi-Tuscany, filled with strange guilds, dark plots, cloaks and daggers, sinister demonic forces, and hidden entrances to the Underdark.

I could go on all day but I'll stop now. Try it. The full archive is here.