Things to find in a cult hideout

Things to find in a cult hideout (d92)

This is a collaborative effort by the r/d100 community. You can view the original post here.

From the original author, u/shadowkat678:

I always like putting little easter eggs for players. Whether it be information, in world history, small items, or something else to hint at things about the people in the location. It can be used for later plot ideas as they speculate, random trinkets for a player, etc.

But when you have players that like to explore, and a hideout with empty rooms, it's cool to fill them with some interesting noncombat things. I already have plots and events and stuff down.

The original intention of the table was campaign specific:

setting of the hideout is a manor in some haunted woods, belonging to a previous group of Mammon cultists. It's been empty for about twenty years. There's nothing alive in the building except constructs and some water elementals set for traps. The game takes place in the Forgotten Realms.

...however, more user comments have been added to this table above what the original author collated.

Citation

by Various https://www.reddit.com/r/d100/comments/7vw286/d100_things_to_find_in_a_cult_hideout/

d92	Result
1	A letter from someone (parents, loved one, children, friend, whoever) asking a cultist to come home.
2	The remains of several smashed treasure chests
3	A stash of worn rolled up floor tapestry rugs
4	A few small links of a broken gold chain
5	A rusted sword mounted over a fireplace
6	A few scattered counterfeit coins
7	A toppled pedestal
8	A shriveled beholder tentacle
9	Some shattered glass vials
10	Some torn and dirty gold trim
11	A broken walking stick, with empty grooves that once held jewels.
12	A skull with a symbol on the forehead
13	An ornate dagger, too intricate to be feasible in a real fight. Similar so I won't give it another number, a ceremonial gold dagger with the runes painted in blood.
14	A tapestry detailing some event, badly damaged and hard to decipher
15	Tome embroided in human flesh/ exotic leather (displacer beast)
16	Candles everywhere (lots you can do with candles), different colour flames, small area effects etc.
17	Spare robes
18	Immovable scrying orb
19	Scrolls in a dead language
20	Jars of blood, probably demon
21	Badge / wearable symbol
22	A couple of vials containing hallucinatory substances
23	Ornate sacramental plates and goblets
24	A small shrine containing a skull that has been fractured in its lifetime (maybe a martyr)
25	Limestone statues with heavily corroded features
26	A tarnished signet ring
27	Scrolls with texts in abyssal on them, which on closer inspection turn out to be nonsensical gibberish
28	A summoning circle etched into the floor, buried under a layer of dust
29	A leather satchel containing small bones
30	Sharp black claws, too big for animal you know
31	A bell in a stand, 1 ft in diameter and covered in eldritch runes, with a small mallet leaning against the stand
32	A map that displays two other hideouts near by
33	A strange magic wand with unknown markings up and down the wand. The wand has lost its charge.
34	A book that details the lore of a creature that is said to live in closest forest
35	A burnt offering of silk, cakes, and fruit
36	The holy symbol of another god stashed away by someone who wishes to stay faithful but is too scared to run
37	A small idol, whittled by hand from pear wood
38	Jars full of rat bones.
39	Jars of preserved organs.
40	A rapier that is in all appearances enchanted. If you try to use Detect Magic on it, it will register as a magic object. However, it will function just like a normal rapier.
41	List of names. Many are crossed out. Some of the names one or more of the players recognize. Purpose of the list is unknown.
42	Strange amulets when worn reveals hidden passages further into the hideout.
43	A tome of the cult's practices and dogma.
44	A key made of an unknown material.
45	An hourglass with he sand flowing upward.
46	A d20 with runes an each facet.
47	Ebony skull mask with elongated jaw, carved with several necromantic runes atop the skull.
48	Four large garlands of garlic.
49	20 jars of fig jam.
50	Large pot of dried coconut.
51	An iron poker, shovel, and pincer for a fireplace.
52	A jewelers set to appraise gems and metals.
53	Assorted recruiting posters for the cult.
54	A broken sword, covered in etchings that look like a hieronymus bosch painting.
55	A book detailing inappropriate and explicit scenes about the cult's object of worship. Upon closer inspection its suprisingly well writen. You feel the writing style and the handwriting familiar....
56	Jar of troll flesh with a tiny skeletal hand popping out of the lid.
57	A very nice tapestry. Tells the story of a famous hunter. Very common 50 years ago.
58	A beautiful rug that was used for cultists praying.
59	A nice wicker rocking chair.
60	A tiny stool made of black wood.
61	Five sets of snow shoes.
62	Extra cyanide tablets.
63	Sashes with the cult symbol embroidered on them.
64	A set of thieves tools, a relic of a cultist's previous life.
65	Jars of honey that cause hallucinations.
66	Many pairs of identical boots with an odd scratched symbol on the side.
67	Meat hooks and chains.
68	An unfinished wood carving of what seems to be their holy symbol or idol.
69	A child's skeleton, but it's too old, brittle and dry that it's very likely the cult had absolutely nothing to do with it.
70	An animal's mummified remains.
71	An ink bottle, a quill and what seems to be a newly purchased book or journal. Only the first page has been written on it so far.
72	Pots with an occasional ruby at the bottom.
73	Hundreds of child sized shoes tossed in the corner.
74	Tainted bottles of wine. Knocks you out for 1d4 hours.
75	Incense, coals, and metal braziers.
76	The skull of a drake.
77	An ornately jeweled shofar.
78	A small vial of some liquid kept around a necklace. When the vial is opened around the dead, it turns gaseous and raises the corpse into a zombie.
79	Roll 1d6 lemures have made themselves at home in the abandoned hideout.
80	Roll 5d10 skeletal rats run out of their nest and run past the party. A very aggressive giant, skeletal rat runs towards the group.
81	A cage with terrified rats for sacrificing.
82	A jar filled with preserved humanoid organs.
83	A box of liquor, and some aged food waiting to be cooked.
84	Common magic item, non-combat item.
85	Three animal furs, and a pile of bones.
86	Cultists' robes that look identical to get other.
87	A map that displays two other hideouts near by.
88	A strange magic wand with unknown markings up and down the wand. The wand has lost its charge.
89	A book that details the lore of a creature that is said to live in closest forest.
90	A small figurine of the creature that the cult worships.
91	A chicken, walking around and pecking. It is white but the cult's symbol is on its back and wings in darker feathers. There is no indication that this is not a natural phenomenon. The chicken is otherwise ordinary... but it has been a long time...
92	A pedestal with a ceramic bowl on top of it. The bowl is filled with a viscous blood-like liquid (somehow, after all this time). Drinking that liquid will cause the PCs to enter a catatonic state and experience heavy hallucinations.