The PCs find a map marked with a symbol that looks like an ornate X. Arcana checks reveal that it is the Vrksah, the tiefling symbol of the Crossed Tree. Nature checks reveal that wherever two living treetrunks cross is a weak place; here a gate may naturally form, connecting to a similar crossed-tree configuration somewhere else in the world. Thus, a farmer may go for a walk in his own orchard, and, before he realizes that he has left his property, find himself on an entirely different continent. No one knows the locations of more than a handful of crossed tree gates, except perhaps the druids.

Crossed trees can be used as a way for the party to collect fast-travel shortcuts to important parts of the world. They can be an alternative or supplement to 4e teleportation circles, perhaps one more suitable for primal parties. Less prosaically, they may also lead the party to haunted fey groves, shadow forests where trees with human faces scream and mock, or trapped apple orchards where adventurers enter but never return: or if they do, they come back sown with evil seeds.

Be a wine snob!

Wine snobbery, along with an upper-class accent and a superciliously raised eyebrow, is one of the great, easy markers of the upper class. If the PCs hobnob with nobles, then they must drink wine. Invent a superior wine for the extra-elite to drink: it won’t take long before the PCs will know when they’re getting the best.

When giving PCs wine, let them make a History check. If they succeed, they know the wine’s quality, and the player may talk about its “oakiness”, “untertones of astral currant” and “tanens” for one full minute before anyone is allowed to hit them.

Wine snobbery, and overpriced vintages, have been around forever. A good Tokay was quite expensive in the medieval period, and Louis XV called it the “Wine of Kings, King of Wines”. Falernian is mentioned in a lot of Roman authors. On a wall in a Pompeii bar it says: “For one coin you can drink wine. For two you can drink the best. For four you can drink Falernian.”

In my campaign, I’ve invented a few beverages. The Talasay is the most sought-after: a bottle of the Talasay ’82 in a treasure horde might be worth more than the rest of the treasure. Its quality is only exceeded by the emerald wine of the fey lords, after drinking which, it is said, all other wines taste like ash. On the other side of the spectrum, there’s Dogsbreath, good enough only for dwarves to drink.