Ancient metallic spire can be seen on the horizon. Nobody knows what it is or who've built it. What everyone knows is that it's cursed, so if you see it and from the distance it seems to be bigger than an average human dick, I mean your thumb, then you're too close and you must go back as soon as possible. If you won't, your hair and teeth will fall off, you'll shit your lungs out and you're gonna die no later than 3 days later.

It makes it a well known landmark.

Oh, if you really need to know, it's a derelict starship and it seems its nuclear reactor, although broken and leaking, is still intact.
Nevertheless, describe it as just a piece of exotic ruin made of shiny metal, surrounded by decaying land and mutated vegetation.

Heh. JR, that might be a bit too extreme for the six hour tour that was promised by the party's guide. Cool idea, though. They would never expect such a thing.

Quote from: Crüesader;906905Be super weird.  Put old, ancient stone face statues covered in moss.  Except have it 'breathe'.

This dove tails nicely with the Screaming Faces up thread.

My plan had been to make this "world" uninhabited save for some strange wildlife. I'm not sure if that makes these "human" remains creepier or if it works against the mood.

Quote from: Blusponge;906911Heh. JR, that might be a bit too extreme for the six hour tour that was promised by the party's guide. Cool idea, though. They would never expect such a thing.

You might be right. There's no better magnet for PCs than a sign telling "danger: biohazard, absolutely no entry, certain death".

Dammit. I should've known better.

Ok, how about a broken carcass of an ancient warmachine called "the Guardian"? It's broken, molten, covered with foliage - there's no way to tell whether it was a robot, a warrior-giant wearing armor, or a sculpture made by unknown hands. It simply stand there and reaches for something laying almost precisely to the west.

You know, something resembling these:

Spoiler

Quote from: JesterRaiin;906918You might be right. There's no better magnet for PCs than a sign telling "danger: biohazard, absolutely no entry, certain death".

Dammit. I should've known better.

Ok, how about a broken carcass of an ancient warmachine called "the Guardian"? It's broken, molten, covered with foliage - there's no way to tell whether it was a robot, a warrior-giant wearing armor, or a sculpture made by unknown hands. It simply stand there and reaches for something laying almost precisely to the west.

You know, something resembling these:

Spoiler

?  A mountain off in the distance showing this?

Spoiler

A termite hive. 150 feet tall and composed of several towers interconnected by gangways and made from hardened forest floor materials and spit. The complex stretches endlessly below ground, who knows where one might end up from there. The inhabitants have just gotten civilized enough for formalized religion. Visitors might be taken for gods. Gods of course being the finest kind of treat for the endlessly hungry hive-mother, herself a demigod of no small power.

A good excuse for the adventurers to go exploring, only to appear somewhere far away and completely different through the web of interconnected tunnels. Some of them end up in alternate dimensions, on other planets and far in the past, future or some alternate version of the now, all owing to the Hive-Queens slowly evolving divine powers manifesting themselves in erratic ways.

Quote from: Battle Mad Ronin;906949A termite hive. 150 feet tall and composed of several towers interconnected by gangways and made from hardened forest floor materials and spit. The complex stretches endlessly below ground, who knows where one might end up from there. The inhabitants have just gotten civilized enough for formalized religion. Visitors might be taken for gods. Gods of course being the finest kind of treat for the endlessly hungry hive-mother, herself a demigod of no small power.

A good excuse for the adventurers to go exploring, only to appear somewhere far away and completely different through the web of interconnected tunnels. Some of them end up in alternate dimensions, on other planets and far in the past, future or some alternate version of the now, all owing to the Hive-Queens slowly evolving divine powers manifesting themselves in erratic ways.

We had something like this but with Formians, which are fairly closeish... Don't mind me, I spent a good chunk last week reading on ants, bees and wasps and their behaviours for a Bug Hunter game I'm working on. The scenario I played years ago, the plot twist was that the Formians were actually co-operative and benign and would only attack humans when their homes were invaded. In a scenario like this, I would probably do something similar, and maybe even have the ants or termites or whatever your creatures end up being as potential allies against some larger threat.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;906946?  A mountain off in the distance showing this?

That's a nice finding!

Quote from: JesterRaiin;906910Oh, if you really need to know, it's a derelict starship and it seems its nuclear reactor, although broken and leaking, is still intact.
Nevertheless, describe it as just a piece of exotic ruin made of shiny metal, surrounded by decaying land and mutated vegetation.

Nice rationale for a nega-dungeon.

Quote from: Bren;906971Nice rationale for a nega-dungeon.

Nothing of that modern, ragged shit near me table, arrrrrr. TOMB OF HORRORS! Only futuristic, FTW!

Quote from: Elfdart;906876No jungle would be complete without an ancient tomb hidden by the encroaching vines and moss. This tomb is guarded by a proud, warlike clan of natives. If they catch the PCs in or near the tomb, they will be brought before the chieftain/witchdoctor of the tribe, who will offer the PCs their choice of punishment for violating the tomb of their ancestors. The PCs must choose between "booga-booga" or death...

Death by booga booga!

I just noticed that Dariel Quiogue recently posted the Balete or strangler-fig tree on his Hari Ragat blog. He has created a fantasy  Philippine/Southeast Asian/Island game and setting so he has a lot of jungle-related posts.

A-ha! Thanks for the tip, Bren! Consider that bookmarked.

I want to thank everyone who posted ideas.  There is some fantastic stuff in here, enough for 4 or 5 journeys through the Invisible World let alone one weird jungle world.  You guys n gals rock!

Tom