Thriller - Thriller Canyon (Promptober 2025 #9)

The top of Heavenly Falls.

Not far from Livingston Downport on the jungle-covered resort planet of Saltunis, a majestic waterfall has carved a steep ravine into the gently rolling hills. Tour guides always feature Heavenly Falls, as it's beautiful and loud enough to drown out the constant chatter. If their group is up for a little adventure and has barf bags available, they might get a little daring and show off their air/raft or other flyer skill.

Heavenly Falls suddenly becomes Thriller Canyon.

Spirits (Promptober 2025 #8)

A meeting of spirits.

Many early human cultures share the idea that all instances of an animal share a direct connection with the primordial ur-animal. Australian aboriginal culture call the early history of the world the Dreamtime, where early humans deal with ancestral spirit figures who create and shape the land. So many native American stories from the southwest tell of Coyote playing tricks and getting caught by other spirits and even a few clever early humans.

What if this idea held true in your tabletop game?

Let's assume that every animal, insect, and plant that exists is actually a tiny shard of the same spirit. So this flock of starlings are all pieces of Starling, the unified spirit of all starlings across the world. This field of corn is a collection of tiny shards of the spirit humans call Corn. What would they know? What would they want from humanity?

Now what if your player characters could talk with the spirits and ask them?

Secrets - Fountain of Secrets (Promptober 2025 #7)

Fountain of Secrets

This weather-stained stone goat face spews water into a basin underneath it. It sits next to a fine house away from the town's center, aa aging high-end private water supply for a well-to-do family. If you whisper to a copper coin and toss it in the basin, sometimes the goat's head will whisper a secret to you. If you bend down and put your ear to its mouth, the water will stop long enough for it to whisper softly, then resume spraying directly into your ear.

The secret might not have any relevance or context, and it may be hundreds of years old, but it is always true. It may promise treasure or threaten the reputation of someone in town. The goat may be old, but he still has an endless pile of secrets left to tell the world.

The fountain gives tantalizing almost-specific hints to something that may have happened in the past or a clue as to something that happened recently. It's an oracle spewing random truths with even more obfuscation than usual.

Myths - The Lupercal (Promptober 2025 #6)

The She-Wolf Statue.

According to Ionian myth, the twins Ionius and Iulius founded the city of Ionia and consolidated the rule of the area under Ionius, the first Ionian king. An oracle said that twin sons would dethrone King Amulius, so he decreed that all twins should be killed for two years. Not even the king's niece, Rhea, was immune from this decree, but servants abandoned her twins on the bank of the Allia river instead of killing them outright.

A mother wolf found the twins and carried them to a nearby cave to suckle them back to health. They stayed for months, growing strong under the she-wolf's care. She eventually found a shepherd, Faustulus, who adopted the boys as his own. They grew up not knowing of the oracle nor their importance, eventually becoming soldiers in one of the many civil wars. In the years to come, they dethroned King Amulius and united the people on both sides of the civil war into the Kingdom of Ionia. In the hour of their triumph, Ionius and Iulius had a dispute about where to build the capital city, leaving Iulius dead and only Ionius's name to live in perpetuity as the name of the city and the kingdom.

Masquerade (Promptober 2025 #5)

Humans? Changelings?

When humans host a huge party in high society, coteries of doppelgangers organize a masquerade, a push your luck game of blending in and standing out. Each coterie of doppelgangers has their own specific rules and taboos, but we explore the generally-accepted guidelines for the game below. Sometimes two different coteries play two different masquerades at the same human party. In these cases, discovering the other masquerade may or may not cause disqualification.

Rules of the Masquerade (Generally)

First Rule: Don't get caught.
This goes without saying, but pretending to be someone who was invited to the party or schmoozing your way in requires fooling people. If someone figures out you're not human, you've lost. Some doppelgangers lay deception on top of deception in onionskin layers, hoping that enough misdirection will keep their true secret safe.