L is for Lair...or Home is where the Hate is

       If you want to set the  mood for your baddy, then where they live is extremely important. Having them take up residence in a bucolic, hey-nonny-nonny setting, complete with windmills and cottages, sends the wrong message. If you want the villain to appear as a hard-man, especially before your players even meet them, then let them lay their hate in one of the following:

In a monastery where the inhabitants fell to darkness and ate one another

In a cave atop a mountain of skulls

In a lair, under a graveyard, accessible through a disused crypt

In an abandoned stone giants fortress

In a series of underwater caves, accessible through the bowels of a sunken ship

In an abandoned tin mine at the heart of the ashen wastes.

In the desiccated remains of a gingerbread house deep in the black forest

Under the bleeding roots of the world tree

On the back of a giant turtle swimming through the void worlds

In a ruined temple surrounded by the carven effigies of fallen gods

In a cave at the heart of a malarial swamp

In an abandoned red dragon’s lair amid the dragon’s bones

In a ruined castle atop a cliff looking out over a storm wracked sea

In an abandoned tower on the surface of the war-moon

In the ribcage of a fallen god

At the heart of the silent void

On a chain of floating icebergs out on the sea of madness

In a tiny city trapped in the tears of a falling angel

Halfway down the bottomless pit, on the left, just ask for Meneer Evil

In a parallel universe accessible through a witch’s eye

In the hollow hills

In the cold, dark, wastes on the outskirts of the known universe where the lords of suffering dwell

In a tower of rotting flesh under a sky of writhing maggots

In a strange world trapped within the pages of a necromancers rambling diaries

On the back of the world-whale swimming in the primordial sea

On an island once used as a leper colony

At the bottom of a cup once used to capture the god-king’s blood

In a hut at the end of the world surrounded by the ghosts of suicides

In potter’s field

In leaking catacombs beneath the plague pits

In a jungle clearing at the top of a long, dark river, at the heart of the elephants graveyard

In the bleached skull of a colossal Tyranadragon

In a black crystal cave

On an island made of skin floating in a sea of blood

In a child’s endless scream trapped forever in the nightmare lands

In an alchemists laboratory

In the dried thorax of the mighty scarab beetle

In a castle of broken bones on the floodplains of the apocalypse

In a fifty story poisonous death’s head mushroom

In a city of hardened glass beneath a lake of bile

In the belly of the beast

In the bottom of the crater made from the fall

In the frozen wastes of the back of beyond

In the eye of the hurricane

In tunnels under a dormant volcano

Somewhere south of here

On the plains of Leng in the shade of an arch demon’s wing

On a perch in the Place of skulls

In an iron Fortress surrounded by fields of the fallen

In a giant kraken’s shell at the bottom of the seven seas

Anywhere where angels fear to tread

At the heart of the blazing, towering inferno

Behind the face in the mirror

In a giant cave behind a waterfall of woes

In a sprawling tent city made from hides of murderers on the banks of the river Alph

In the valley of death

At the centre of a labyrinth made from muscle

In the hollowed-out centre of a giant hangman’s tree

Inside the rusted body of a colossal automaton

In a pyramid of fire out beyond the dune seas

In the swirling hollows of storm clouds

Over the edge of the horizon in the first blush of night

Inside an egg floating on the memory of tomorrow

At a corner table in the back room of a tavern run by vampire assassins

In a secret dungeon under the ruling kings castle

In a colossal wicker-man surrounded by a sea of corn guarded by a scatter of scarecrows

Sitting in the black lotus position atop a red marble monolith that can only be seen out the  corner of your eye

Behind a curtain of freshly flayed flesh at the heart of the eldritch emerald city

In tunnels leading out from the bottom of a disused well

Lying supine on the floor of an opium den run by degenerate gamblers

In a dock-side hostelry for retired sailors owned by an undead pirate king

In a Bedouin tent at the centre of a sandstorm

In a secret cove on top of a limestone pillar hundreds of feet tall

In a floating ship called the Marie Celeste

In a series of interconnecting purple worm tunnels

In a mined out mountain shaped like a troll’s skull

In a wrecked ship, washed ashore, on the skeleton coast

In an ice cavern surrounded by blizzards, giant polar bears, and undead frost giants

In the tomb of a thousand liars

In a fortress built in the likeness of the horned one

On a floating island made from the bones of sea birds and slain albatrosses

In the pleasure-dome of Kubla Khan

In an observatory on the banks of the sunless sea

In a dwelling made from the stalks of diseased wheat surrounded by a plague of locusts

Second black hole on the right, straight on till midnight

On a pile of freshly slain ogres amidst a halo of flies

In a subterranean ossuary made from unicorns skulls

You can also read G is for Gangs, here as part of my 'Alasdair's Alphabet Series',
as well as P is for Potion. Enjoy!