Hiding abandoned dwarven holds, lost mines, dragon lairs and more, mountain ranges are often the site of exciting, desperate adventures far from civilisation’s comforts.

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Minor Events

Wan sunlight bathes the mountains.
A black kite swoops from its perch and lands on a nearby rock.
A slow column of smoke rises from a crevasse, 200 feet away.
The gusting wind carries the sound of bestial crying and warbling.
Thick fog rolls through the trees covering the mountainside, halving visibility.
The bleeding, mutilated bodies of three dwarves lie just off the mountain trail.
In the dead of night, coyotes howl.
The painful cry of an animal splits the air. A bear has been caught in a leg trap.
Dark clouds scud across the sky.
Small rocks and a boulder clatter down a slope onto the trail.

Minor Dressings

A small ruined lookout tower perches atop a conical hill.
Strange circular geometric patterns cover the ground just above the tree line.
Deep fissures cut through the ground.
A small village huddles out of sight under a massive rock overhang.
A narrow switchback trail ascends the cliff.
Bright white and black speckled marble slabs are piled through the pass.
A lake fills the valley between two mountains.
Loose rocks and large boulders bear witness to an old avalanche.
The taste of limestone dust fills the air of a narrow mountain gorge.
Three trees cap a mountainous ledge.

Uneventful Day’s Travel

Dark clouds cast everything into deep shadow. It is a cold, gloomy and uneventful day.
Bright sunshine greets the characters as they set out. The sun wanes as the day progresses. By dusk, dark, pregnant clouds herald imminent snow.
A cloudless sky gives the characters unobstructed views; despite the sun, it is cold all day.
The trail takes a slow, gentle route through the mountains. By the afternoon, the trail narrows considerably forcing the heroes to go in single file.
Light snow in the morning gives away to heavy gusts of wind and sleet in the afternoon. The characters see no other travellers.
In the morning, a glint of sunlight off metal hints at the presence of other travellers. However, the characters see no one all day.
The only excitement this day is the distant rumble of an avalanche in the mid-afternoon.
The day starts cold, and gets colder. A cold fog fills the lower valleys and resists the faint sun’s pathetic attempts to burn it away.
The howl of the wind and the chill of the mountain air are the party’s only companions this day.
The faint trail leads up and down several steep ridges. Today, the characters make little progress.

Campsites

A wide cave mouth opens into a dry cave; animal bones litter the floor.
Narrow and steep-sided this V-shaped depression provides shelter from the wind, but not precipitation. A small pool fills half the hollow.
Protruding 15-foot from the cliff this rocky overhang provides shelter. A loose wall of piled stone blocks up a cave mouth to the rear.
The shattered remains of a small tower surround rubble-choked steps leading down into a cellar.
A flat slab of exposed rock provides a place to pitch tents, but no protection from the elements.
The rubble from an old landslide next to a small tarn provides a handy windbreak.
A dense stand of gnarled, weather-sculpted trees stand hard against a cliff. The trees’ boughs blend together to form a near-impenetrable canopy.
Crumbling stone walls of troublingly large proportion enclose much of a wide ledge above the trail. A steep, narrow path leads to the ruin.
A narrow cleft in the ground leads steeply down to a cave; after heavy rain, this cave may flood.
A huge burial cairn fills a ledge overlooking a valley. Someone has previously dug into the cairn, turning the interior into a cramped campsite.

Credit

This is a short system-neutral extract from Wilderness Dressing: Mountain Dressing by Brian Gregory.

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Mountains Dressing