D&D: Five Great Spots For Ancient Ruins
Ancient ruins are a big part of D&D. But you gotta set the right atmosphere for where to find ’em! Try places like these.
An ancient ruin is an absolutely essential part of D&D. They are full of traps, loot, lore, and, of course, plenty of monsters. It seems like there’s always some kind of secret to unearth from within the depths of whatever ancient empire left behind these ruins dotting the landscape. But, the question is, where are they dotting the landscape?
With that in mind, here are five places that are absolutely perfect for that ancient ruin you’ve been wanting to place.
In The Murky Forest
Murky, forbidden forests are one of the archetypal places for an ancient ruin. They are often an adventure unto themselves, full of giant spiders and worse as you try to find the ancient ruin. But it’s really in the encountering something wild overtaking – or even just juxtaposed against – a once-mighty symbol of civilization that gives these kinds of ancient ruins their sense of ominous import.
Beneath A Tomb
Death holds many fascinations for us. It’s where everyone ends up, eventually. What’s even spookier, though, is when you’re rooting through a tomb, and then you end up somewhere unexpected because you found an ancient ruin deep beneath the bodies of the buried dead.
How did it get there? Is it haunted by the undead? Have they spread into the lower levels, or come up from the depths, and that’s why the surface level dead are restless now!
Ocean
Dive into the ancient depths. Everybody loves a sunken kingdom. Especially a ruined sunken kingdom. It’s a chance for you to use all your water breathing features, and for the DM to use all the Sea Monsters in the Monster Manual.
Plus, when you loot deep beneath the ocean surface, whatever has lasted is sure to be either magical or valuable.
In A City
Also sometimes it’s incredible when the ancient ruin is secretly hidden inside a city. Like the forwst, a big part of the appeal lies in the juxtaposition of modernity and the ancient world! This already exists in Waterdeep, at the bottom of the Yawning Portal.
But there are plenty of other reasons there might be an ancient ruin within a city. It could be a part of the architecture. A source of ancient magic still protecting the city. Whatever lies at the heart of it, is she to impact the city.
Volcanic Isle
Finally, the classic. A volcanic island. It could have an ancient temple built into the heart of it. Or maybe there’s a thriving tropical ecosystem full of dinosaurs, unaware of the danger. But the best reason to have the bar on a volcanic isle is tob have it start to sink and/or erupt after the adventure comes to an end, for one last harrowing escape.
Happy adventuring!
