50 Hidden Cities

Crooked City from [11]

 50 Hidden Cities

For OSR Adventures

[1] Giant smiling face of an old king carved into a mountain. His teeth are actually the bottoms and tops of huge towers, carved into the stone.

[2] City within the giant wasp nest. You must climb to the underside of the mastiff-sized wasps to get in. The merchants there only accept honey.

[3] Visit the clocktower and let one of the gears pull you up, instead of being crushed you will find the automaton city, pure logic hidden away.

[4] Underneath the sand dunes of the desert. The city is made of sand-repelling dome artifacts, shifting around as the gangs within vie for control.

[5] Sit still within the hot springs for three hours, enduring the heat far longer then most can, to empty the spring into the city below. Great furnaces roar to keep the springs hot.

[6] Give the gift of a lead lion, an origami crane, and a pigs foot talisman to the local orphanage. They'll draw a door that leads to the city of chalk.

[7] Deep within the mountains there is a rope that seemingly hangs from nothing. After many hours of climbing, you will start seeing palaces made of the clouds and the streets of the sky people.

[8] There's a reversed city that is behind your mirror. To step in, you must let your reflection take your place, and once you do your reflection may not want to return.

[9] The night sky is a pitch black city, the stars are the windows of light. The moon(s) roll on top of the curved roofs of the cityscape, like the hands of a crowd keeping it from stopping.

[10] If you find a bag of holding with an opening big enough to squeeze inside of, you'll enter the lost city within the land of holding. The only things and people here are those that shook to the bottom of bags of holding and never got out.

[11] Get your horses really drunk and you'll find yourself in the crooked city, where the upper floors of each building is atop of its neighbor. You'll need a ruler, pendulum, and at least +2 Int to get back.

[12] Inside the desert canyon there is a curiously placed coyote skull. Place a gift in its mouth to open your way to the hidden oasis.

[13] The hidden elf city is in the top of the trees. It's easy to climb up to if you have the gear, but the first arrow that misses your head is a warning shot.

[14] Underneath the coral reef is a mermaid city, sung into position and shape that the tiny coral creatures dance to. You'll need a trained eel to guide you through the tunnels.

[15] If you find the needle in the haystack, you can use it to dig deeper and enter a city made of straw.

[16] There's a city build entirely of wood made by the witches of the swamp. They use blue fires that burn only stone to cook with, so bring a few pebbles along to stay warm and dry.

[17] At the imperial library visit the section for maps and atlases. Pull back the right book on the shelf to enter the city of scribes.

[18] The ice caves far to the north hide a secret path to the frozen city. To bring fire in that quiet place is punished by death.

[19] Within a temple complex is a two headed snake; with one head on each end. In its belly is a city built from bone and refuse. Only one of the two heads grant safe entrance, and only the other grants safe exit. Picking the wrong one either way will result in getting digested, and the temple guards confiscate anything sharp enough so you can't cut the snake open either.

[20] There is a city that is everywhere and nowhere at once, it is a city made of sounds, its residents songs. To enter, you must first find your song, and then, find a grasshopper. You'll know what to do.

[21] Keep riding towards the setting sun long enough and you'll reach a twilight city. Angels and demons stand on opposite sides of the main street, never able to cross in an uneasy truce.

[22] There are about a hundred traps in the kobold warrens and if you activate the right ones in the right order, it will lead the way to the kobold city, the kobolds above are too stupid to find their way in, and are too stupid to understand why all their traps mysteriously reset after firing, the residents of the city not making it obvious.

[23] Nobody knows why the primates of the veil throw fruits down the massive rocky crevice in the jungle. Only the residents of the sheer city know, who catch those fruits with extremely long nets. These nets could also catch a person.

[24] Beneath the biggest city in the empire is a city of rat people, build among the sewer pipes and ancient basements, stealing wine from the nobles cellars above to throw parties.

[25] The necropolis of the count's family is deep. The ancient mummies and skeletons within play dead unless they think you're dead too, but if you fool them then it's business as usual in crypt city.

[26] Follow rivers upstream, far beyond the plains and far beyond the mountains. Eventually, you will reach the city of where all waters come from.

[27] Drawn in the margins and build behind the letters, there is a city of banished and failed Wizard apprentices in the magical college.

[28] Underneath the pyramid is the city of the false sun, a massive cavern filled with ghouls and desert dwelling creatures and palm trees, still hot and hungry among the black sand dunes.

[29] The suspiciously clever rabbits of the western hills have burrows that stretch deep, deep enough for them to feel safe and walk on two legs and talk like men do.

[30] The Gods got tired of their old afterlife, but it's still there, hidden within the old prayers.

[31] Sometimes when people sleep, they get glimpses of a dream city. It's real, and filled with nightmares, boogeymen, and forgotten imaginary friends. You can enter it too, if you master conscious dreaming.

[32] The mud flats has a city beneath them, filled with grumpy old lungfish who liked the world more when dinosaurs ruled instead of mammals.

[33] The greatest leviathan in the ocean has swallowed more then enough vessels and crew for a city to exist in its bowels.

[34] There's an entire city of tents and horse riders that moves every new moon, the only way to catch up is for one who has been there to tell you where to make camp, and when you wake up in the morning and leave your tent you'll be among them.

[35] Dwarves have a city in many, many mountains. The best way to get in is to carry around an iron pry bar and be on the lookout for cracks that look a little too straight to be natural.

[36] If you ever find a way to become immune to fire, flying straight into the hellfire volcano's hot lava will be safe. Within you will find the lost city of dragons.

[37] On the back of a standard silver coin is something that looks like a building. If you get enough coins together and turn silver, you can enter this town. It's size and number of residents and services is based on the number of coins you used to make it.

[38] There's a tiny desert-isle with a single coconut tree. If you bang a coconut against a raised rock, it will flip open to reveal the hidden pirate city.

[39] There is a massive dust storm in the southlands that never dies, and has spun for centuries. In the eye of the storm is a lost city.

[40] Within the old forest lies a crumbling tower with no entrance on the ground. If you climb to the window you will find the tower is hollow and only falls down into a city of roots.

[41] Within the heads of goblin spellcasters is a rusty old key. This key can be used on any door to enter the city of sorrow. Monsters walk the streets and are peaceful with man, but everyone who enters here will feel a deep depression that won't be shaken for a long time.

[42] Among the tide pools there is a hidden cave that leads to a half sunken city filled with crab and shellfish men. Anyone can enter and the crabs aren't hostile, but nobody will take you seriously or trade with you unless you have a shell at least as big as you are. The crabs eyesight isn't that good, so going around in painted plate armor can work.

[43] There is a massive boat left over from when God said he was going to flood the world but changed his mind. The boat is now a floating city that travels across every ocean. It has a navy and trading fleet all on its own and still has two of every animal that lives long enough to still be around after all these years.

[44] If you crawl into the oven of a master baker you might be able to reach the lost city of pastries where gingerbread men live in houses made of stacked sweets and the roads are lined with loafs of bread. They trade in only pure white flour.

[45] The inside of the world is hollow and within is a massive city made of spider webs, entire buildings and communities hung up by the webs. In the very center of the world is the Goddess of Spiders, who is just happy her kids are doing well.

[46] Cats slink away in the night not to hunt tiny mice but to go to the shadow city, which has doting residents that feed them well. Here the sky is always dark and the rats are big as lions, to which the cats from our world do battle with and surprisingly win. You do not have the same magic that your cats do, however, so beware.

[47] The Golden Road, the longest and most rich road in the empire, has a road exactly even to it under the ground. Follow this road all the way to the end to find the city of retired merchants and highwaymen, living in harmony, grudges forgiven.

[48] Children who go missing in the woods were not eaten or killed by the elements. Instead they play in the invisible city, which goes quiet and fades to nothing whenever adults are around. You can only find it if you have the heart of a child inside you still.

[49] Far in the tundra is a city made of igloos, the streets bustling with dog sleds. The residents cut gigantic holes in the ice and fish for whales.

[50] Down the bloody river in the jungle sends you past multiple cannibal tribes and flesh eating plants. If you manage to get far enough you will eventually get to the stone city of the gorilla philosophers, who only let humans in who can answer a very difficult riddle.