Sunday, June 12, 2011

Crossroads, boggles, and an exemplary map

Tim at Gothridge Manor posted a nice list of random encounters for crossroads. I'm a sucker for local legends. Tim's post caused me to grab one of my favorite inspirational references, The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England's Legends, which relates this:
The boggle infecting Bringham Lane end, where four roads meet, is a white dog, known as Willie Sled's dog. Willie Sled used to attend to those who came to Bringham sand-pit; and as nearly every pit in Riding has its goblin, this one is named after him...

Boggles are, of course, shape-shifting bogey beasts that haunt places of transition, like crossroads and streams. They're prone to play (sometimes deadly) tricks on passersby.

While I had the book open, I noticed this map and key:

The key would be a good basis for a series of random tables to spice-up a hex map.

  1. Churches & holy places
  2. Devils & demons
  3. Ghosts, apparitions & screaming skulls
  4. Giants
  5. Heroes & villains
  6. Hidden treasure
  7. Humorous tales
  8. Legendary beasts
  9. Local landmarks
  10. Phantom beasts
  11. Place-name stories
  12. Prehistoric remains
  13. Royalty
  14. Sunken cities
  15. Witches & wizards

8 comments:

  1. Yeah, I'm pretty much in favor of any list that includes "screaming skulls". I don't know when I'll have time to expand this, so everyone feel free to riff on it.

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  2. I like the fact that it's plural screaming skulls. I'd expect maybe one per county at the most. Yorkshire must be a creepy place.

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  3. Found this list via Tower Of The Archmage.

    Consider it snagged.

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  4. Thanks for dropping by, Justin.

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