# Inspirational Images: Real World D&D Locations



## Reynard (Feb 17, 2009)

Now *this* is a dungeon.







I imagine it looked something like this where Beowulf swam to find Grendel's mother's lair.






If you can't put this in an adventure, you need to go back to DM school.






And, finally: a wizard lives here. or a vampire. or a vampire wizard.


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## Silverblade The Ench (Feb 17, 2009)

Ok, some fun ones 

Niagra falls whirpool:
try boating on that in D&D
http://www.bergq.dk/images/Niagara Falls/Niagara Whirlpool.JPG

rest are form Scotland:

The Corryvreckan Whirpool (it's too big to see really except from the air)
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy3B9eOThBk&feature=related[/ame]






sure many folk will recognize Eilean Donan castle 





The Rannoch Moor is one of the most damn eerie places I know of, again, pictures can't do it justice





a broch in Scotland (fortfied clan house from before Roman times iirc)





The isle of Skye





Stirling Castle





Dunnottar Castle


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## Rechan (Feb 17, 2009)

I can't even tell what that third image is, Reynard. A pile of crystals?

As for real life inspirational images...

Greyshad: Wonders of the World
• View forum - Fantasy Inspiration for your games


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## Charger28Alpha (Feb 17, 2009)

Rechan,

Look closely at the area a little below, and a little left of the center of the image with the crystals.


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## Rechan (Feb 17, 2009)

Charger28Alpha said:


> Rechan,
> 
> Look closely at the area a little below, and a little left of the center of the image with the crystals.



Yes, I see the guy. I'm just trying to get an idea of what the place is. It seems just like some crystal pillars fell over. Is that a cave? Some ruins?


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## Charger28Alpha (Feb 17, 2009)

I missed the guy first time I looked at image, figured you might have done the same.

It looks like a cave, brown walls are visible behind the crystals.  The guy is there to give
a sense of scale.


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## Reynard (Feb 17, 2009)

Charger28Alpha said:


> I missed the guy first time I looked at image, figured you might have done the same.
> 
> It looks like a cave, brown walls are visible behind the crystals.  The guy is there to give
> a sense of scale.




It is in facta  cave, in south america I believe.  The crystals grow so large because it is hot, humid and full of minerals. Here's a link to tell you more.


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## avin (Feb 17, 2009)

Always find this place intriguing:






Yucumã Salt in southern Brazil / north Argentina frontier. The river just bends to its side, causing a 3Km horizontal waterfall.






GOt a book full of world inspiring pictures at my father's house.


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## Phaezen (Feb 17, 2009)

Kings Blockhouse, a small fort on the side of tablemountain overlooking the city.







A view from the fort












And here is the Taal (Afrikaans Language) Monument, which would make an awesome wizards tower






Phaezen


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## D.Shaffer (Feb 17, 2009)

The Sedlec Ossuary always seems to get trotted out, so why not again?

The Outside

Coat of Arms

Pillar

Chandelier


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## Klaus (Feb 17, 2009)

Reynard said:


> Now *this* is a dungeon.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Names, I want them names!


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## Khairn (Feb 17, 2009)

Klaus said:


> Names, I want them names!




I recognize the 2nd photo as the Giant's Causeway in Ireland, but the other 3 escape me.


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## BigCat (Feb 17, 2009)

Crypt of the Capuchin monks:


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## Xyxox (Feb 17, 2009)

Rechan said:


> Yes, I see the guy. I'm just trying to get an idea of what the place is. It seems just like some crystal pillars fell over. Is that a cave? Some ruins?




It is, in fact, a cave that is actually the inside of a super huge geode.

Here's a smaller geode:


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## Reynard (Feb 17, 2009)

Klaus said:


> Names, I want them names!




Sorry -- they all came from random google image searching. Maybe you can back track by searching the image file names themselves, since I didn't change them when I uploaded them to my flickr photostream?


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## Haffrung Helleyes (Feb 17, 2009)

I visited the Capuchin Monastery on my first trip to Italy back in 1996... It is really eerie!    Mark Twain wrote about it in Innocents Abroad.

Ken


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## hafrogman (Feb 17, 2009)

Klaus said:


> Names, I want them names!



Looks like the first one, the cliff dwelling, is in Mesa Verde National Park, in Colorado.  It doesn't really seem to have a specific name, except perhaps "Cliff Palace", made by the Anasazi people though if you're looking for a fun name to throw out there.


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## InVinoVeritas (Feb 17, 2009)

Khairn said:


> I recognize the 2nd photo as the Giant's Causeway in Ireland, but the other 3 escape me.




I thought it might be the "other end" of the Causeway, Fingal's Cave in Scotland.


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## Reynard (Feb 18, 2009)

InVinoVeritas said:


> I thought it might be the "other end" of the Causeway, Fingal's Cave in Scotland.




^^^ That?  That's awesome.


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## dnoonan (Feb 18, 2009)

I wrote an adventure site last year based on the Cave of Swallows. Add a treacherous walkway on the interior surface, add some beasties, and you're good to go.

Here's a video clip from _[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocpuuaNwMSw"]Planet Earth[/ame]_:

--David Noonan.
nnnooner.blogspot.com


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## D.Shaffer (Feb 18, 2009)

I always thought this was a neat site.  The Coral castle in Florida.
Built by one man in secret, and composed of huge blocks of stone, no one's quite sure how he did all this. This, of course, leads to a bunch of wierd theories, but the actual construction is real and fairly amazing. 
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhzC_8-kszA]YouTube - Weird US at Florida's Coral Castle[/ame]

Probably a bit to modern in construction for direct DnD use, but the Winchester House is fairly amazing in its own right. Amazing backstory to it too. I would have loved to have seen it at its full glory.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgxXdJ-E5Cw]YouTube - Weird US - Winchester Mystery House[/ame]

This could definitely give you inspiration for DnD. Cappadocia, Turkey.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qrRnP6tnFU]YouTube - Kapadokya- CAPPADOCIA[/ame]


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## Pbartender (Feb 18, 2009)

Reynard said:


> If you can't put this in an adventure, you need to go back to DM school.




That one is the Cueva de los Cristales (Cave of Crystals) in Mexico.  It's a natural cave discovered in a mine beneath Naica Mountain near the town of Delicias.  The cave is about 30 feet wide by 90 feet long, had been at a temperature of 136 F and filled with water, until it was pumped out.

They've built a special door to keep the heat in (95-120 F in the cave now), and are trying to convince the mining company to preserve the cave.

Here's a few more photos From a recent National Geographic article...


























The last photo is a different cave, the "Cave of Swords", in the same complex.


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## Reynard (Feb 18, 2009)

Pbartender said:


> The last photo is a different cave, the "Cave of Swords", in the same complex.




DM: You feel the floor sink ever so slightly under your feet and then a rumbling begins deep in the walls -- just before they start inching closer together.

Players: *soil pants*


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## smokerdragoon (Feb 18, 2009)

*Names of places*

The cave is also known as the 'cave of swords'.
The last image is the swallow's nest, on the black sea, in the Ukraine.


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## Knightfall (Feb 18, 2009)

This thread is great! Lots of great inspiration here. The Cave of Crystals and Fingal's Cave photos are fantastic!


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## Knightfall (Feb 18, 2009)

*Zhang Jia Jie National Park*


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## Knightfall (Feb 18, 2009)

*Le Maitai -- Bora Bora*





*???*





*Adrspach-Teplice rocks : Stony towns : Trips to the surroundings : Sporting opportunities*


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## Knightfall (Feb 18, 2009)

"Other vestiges of that virtually ungovernable region, of that lawless state that was allowed to flourish, more or less unchecked, for the best part of 350 years, reside within the seats of power, the Warden families such as the Buccleuchs, Dacres, Humes and Scropes, the frontier garrisons, the places of truce. And on the Reivers side, there are the secret places of sanctuary, the lairs they fled to in the heat of pursuit, the 'hot-trod'; mosses and wastes where pursuing posses could find themselves at a distinct disadvantage; hidden valleys where one thousand head of cattle could be spirited away."
— The History of the Border Reivers​


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## Knightfall (Feb 18, 2009)

*Secret Places*




Photo by: Tristan Campbell (C) 2008​


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## Knightfall (Feb 18, 2009)

*Village of Tenganan, Bali*





*Amanjiwo*


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## Knightfall (Feb 18, 2009)

*Wat Sri Chum temple, Lampang, Thailand*




Photo: Tom Cockrem

*A temple complex in Burma [name?]*


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## Knightfall (Feb 18, 2009)

*Last one... for now*

*[temple] Tamil Nadu, India*


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## Knightfall (Feb 19, 2009)

*Okay, I lied, these are my last ones for now.*

*Castle of Gisors*





*Carcassonne, France*










*Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork: the world’s largest brick gothic castle, in Poland*


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## Reynard (Feb 19, 2009)

A few more:


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## Pbartender (Feb 19, 2009)

I'm a member of the National Geographic Photo of the Month Club.

Here's a few choice images from that collection...

The Avenue of the Baobabs:





"Nawamis" in Sinai:





A crypt in Sicily:





Victoria Falls, Zambia:





A goldsmith in Kolkata:





The ruins of King Herod's Palace:





Malaysia's Danum Valley Conservation Area:





I've got more, if anyone's interested...


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## Zaruthustran (Feb 19, 2009)

Having played computer and tabletop games since 1st grade, I've seen (and imagined) thousands of fantastical places. You'd think that the impact of seeing photos of real-world places would be diminished, then. Wrong! These photos are no less majestic, and stand just as tall as Minas Tirith, Moria, Haven, Ironforge, Waterdeep, Lankhmar, etc. If not taller!


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## Nymrohd (Feb 19, 2009)

Earth has far cooler places than Ironforge or Waterdeep for sure.


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## Dragonbait (Feb 19, 2009)

Zaruthustran said:


> Having played computer and tabletop games since 1st grade, I've seen (and imagined) thousands of fantastical places. You'd think that the impact of seeing photos of real-world places would be diminished, then. Wrong! These photos are no less majestic, and stand just as tall as Minas Tirith, Moria, Haven, Ironforge, Waterdeep, Lankhmar, etc. If not taller!




Agreed. Real-world photos of places like the ones on this thread have always blown me away and inspired more imagination and awe than a beautiful painting.. Although there have been paintings that have come darn close.


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## InVinoVeritas (Feb 19, 2009)

We all know about Yosemite.






But why stop with iconic views of the valley? There's a whole wilderness to explore.































And this place...






...is much more famously viewed from its other side:






(That's the sheerest cliff face in the world, BTW.)


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