Into the moors---looking for suggestions

The Heretic

Should be playing D&D instead
So, my group is about ready to enter the orc infested moors. I'm looking for some interesting, nonsensical, or just plain weird encounters to toss in here.

(I blame the Goblin Punch blog and their entry on Wisps not named Will for inspiring me to be weirder than normal)

moor
/mo͝or/

noun
British
noun: moor; plural noun: moors
  1. a tract of open uncultivated upland; a heath
    Similar: upland

 

Two orcs

Officially better than you, according to PoN
A curse pole directed at or raised by the orcs. Affects its target(s) in the same hex with spoiled food, uncomfortable sleeps and limp dicks. Another encounter is people/orcs searching for the pole with a blessed saw to get rid of it.

A sheep stuck in a crevice, too wooly to see or move. Predators have been unable to get through its hairy protection.

Talking ravens stalk the players and mock them when they start looting their victims. "Oh look at me, big scary human, I pick the bodies clean, I loove shiny stuff, I will put it in my nest."
 

Beoric

8, 8, I forget what is for
Weird gonzo or weird creepy? English moors makes me think weird creepy, like pale luminescent figures drifting in the distance, the howl of a lone wolf, or hounds baying. Random splashing in the night, the call of a loon, the whistling of the wind, that sort of thing.
 

The Heretic

Should be playing D&D instead
Weird gonzo or weird creepy? English moors makes me think weird creepy, like pale luminescent figures drifting in the distance, the howl of a lone wolf, or hounds baying. Random splashing in the night, the call of a loon, the whistling of the wind, that sort of thing.
Weird creepy. What are some traditional monsters found in the moors? Hell hounds <ahem>? Wind elementals?

Ugh. Elementals are BORING.
 

The Heretic

Should be playing D&D instead
More context for the area: This area was originally one of the frontiers of the empire, a fortified border with the unconquered elven kingdom beyond. The orcish horde ended up sputtering out here, right at the footstep of their goal. In their wake, they left the empire in ruins. Now the remains of the orcish horde survive in these broken hills, too chaotic to reunite to destroy their hated enemies.
The fortresses and cities here are now dominated by the sundry orcish tribes. The party is travelling to one of these ruined cities to hunt down the leader of a fraternity of evil wizards.
 

The Heretic

Should be playing D&D instead
Talking ravens stalk the players and mock them when they start looting their victims. "Oh look at me, big scary human, I pick the bodies clean, I loove shiny stuff, I will put it in my nest."
<blink> Have you been stalking me? This happened to me today. I was out looking at my yard when I noticed a crow cawing at me up in the tree.
Caw.
What was that?
Caw....caw....caw (call and response among the murder)
Are you guys talking about me? That's not nice.
Caw!
Stop that! You're going to give me a complex!
 

Two orcs

Officially better than you, according to PoN
A figure tied to a lone tree in the distance. A vengeful orc/unlucky adventurer has been used as an archery target but lives yet if healing is applied. The archers left their packs chasing after a deer but will return soon, empty handed, to retrieve their arrows. They stood shooting from a small cliff and some sparse bushes under it make for a decent hiding spot.
 

EOTB

So ... slow work day? Every day?
The rangers normally watching over the moor have been disappearing. Recently one returned riding straightaway to the local temple, and whispers around town are that he looked more plant than man, a body made of creepers and ivy and turf. He's never left the temple and they're quite tight-lipped about the entire affair.

Out on the moor explorers may (rarely) encounter strange mounds rising from the flatlands. Druids and other particularly wise outdoorsy types may be able to discern these were once men and orcs, perhaps the occasional ogre-turned-greater-mound; some may even find strange congregations of such near-topiary as "statues" are found around a basilisk lair. But no lair is found.

Orcs have found and desecrated the grave of an ancient druid and stolen the pipes buried with him that he used to make the moors bloom in the spring. In dark anger its spirit roams the moors looking for the orcs, but these were a traveling band and now far away. Anyone encountering the shade hears in the wind a charge to return his precious instrument to his grave before the new moon or he will play his spectral song at them nightly (or another unsuspecting victim if they've left the moor entirely before the new moon occurs - but then they may never return to the moor while it seeks without risking its vengeance). Those hearing the song and failing their saving throw sprout grass and shoots out of their head like a chia pet. Every day another part of their body vegetates: one arm, then the other, legs, then finally their torso. They must make another save each morning when the dew evaporates, with a -1 for every body part so overgrown. Failure means transformation into a hominid-shaped plant mass, in every other respect similar to petrification.
 
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Two orcs

Officially better than you, according to PoN
The soot black deer followed by her similar brood are unconcerned by approaching humans. All ordinary projectiles will miss and moving close it will search your gaze and inflict you with the curse of the heavy heart. Your heart pulls you to the ground and encumber you as a heavy packpack till the curse is lifted. The deer will retreat to a safe distance then devour one of its young to gain the ability to cast another curse.

To lift the curse a trough of alcohol must be drunk in one night, without getting sick or passing out.
 

squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
Great stuff! "...devour one of it young!" Whoa.

I also think the imagery of a body (or bodies) hanging from a massive tree like some sort of death-fruit pulls at a powerful shared-mythos. Like Odin tied to Yggdrasil.

@EOTB: I really like this. The turned-into-plants reminds me (in a good way) of the Alan Moore Swamp Thing as a protector elemental. I would want to flesh it more than just "return my pipes". Some sort of required Mythic Underworld dream-quest in the a realm Beneath the Roots. Wlld Nature fairy-tale imagery/Altered-State/Primal stuff.

Awesome.

I still got nothin'.
 

Beoric

8, 8, I forget what is for
Weird creepy. What are some traditional monsters found in the moors? Hell hounds <ahem>? Wind elementals?

Ugh. Elementals are BORING.
Banshees. Hounds of Ill Omen. Variant Wild Hunt with spectral hounds.

Wind elementals would be personifications of the chill wind that tugs at your cloak and draws the heat from your bones, or drives the rain through your clothes. But that sound may also be the ghost of a mother, wailing for her lost child, eternally searching the heath.

EDIT: Mummies, buried in the bog, that stir themselves to grasp a foot or ankle if it comes within reach. Shambling mounds of peat, heather or heath, lying dormant until disturbed.
 
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squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
I like the idea of meeting many ghosts as NPCs for creepy interactions, more so than just combative-monsters.
 

squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
Much respect for Kate Bush from me.

(One of the ghost needs to do the "speed-skater dance")
 

DangerousPuhson

Should be playing D&D instead
Some ideas -

Natural Hazards (how the moor can kill you): sinkholes, quicksand/sucking mud, poisonous flora, poison waters, lightning strikes, toxic fog, disease.

Lures (things that get the moor to kill you): will-o-wisps, fey sprites, imps, ghosts, illusions, elemental creatures, swamp mimics.

Protectors (things that keep civilization out of the moors): swamp thing, plant creatures, spirits of the dead, new orc warlord, swamp troll witch, crazy hermit, druid/ranger coven, treants.

Hunters (things that stalk the moors): normal hunter with an environmental twist (e.g. mangrove jaguar, mud bulette, sentient moss slime, etc) or carnivore typical to swampy lands (alligators, piranha, snakes, giant insects).

Trappers (things that set traps in the moors): giant trapdoor spider, giant antlion, mud monster, giant carnivorous plants, hangman tree, humanoid traps (bear traps, pungee stick pits, deadfalls, etc).

You should also consider what kind of factions exist in the moors; the two most obvious choices being a Ranger/Druid group, and of course the orcs that the party are following. I am a fan of runty, seemingly harmless creatures (cowardly swamp goblins) which stalk the party, hanging around and waiting for them to fall - on their own, they don't interfere with the party and flee if attacked, but every once in a while the group comes across some sign that these harmless creatures are actually quite brutal (maybe they watch the swamp goblins skeletonize a dead crocodile within a matter of seconds or something).
 
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