In honor of the Ars Magica sale, here's my goofy table for generating the local legends surrounding a Regio Site (based on the Migratory Legends work of Reidar Thoralf Christiansen (a Norwegian Folklorist) [I could have gone with Aarne Thompson Motifs, there's way too much overlap in that list]
ML = Migratory Legend
(d0 = roll a d10, count the 10 as 0, it keeps my charts neat)
Oh no! I had no idea this thing read 0. like that!!! (edit! I must edit!)
FORSAKEN SITE
d0: what does the regio look like from the outside?
0: megaliths (taula, dolmen or cairn)
1: ventriforms (natural arch, cliff face or fairy chimney)
2: ruins (section of a span, crumbling wall or foundations)
3: earthworks (tumulus, barrow or causeway isle)
4: tomb (cistvaen pit, gallery grave or crossroads shrine)
5: cave (sea grotto, labyrinthine karst or lava tube)
6: excavation (mine adit, old well or dry fountain)
7: stellae (menhir circle, broken columns or obelisks)
8: gap (barren field, marshy shore or bramble meadow)
9: pile (chambered cairn, pyramid or sea stacks)
FORSAKEN SITE ADJACENCY
d0: how do the locals give directions to it?
0,1: marking the parish boundary
2,3: over the next rise
4,5: in the middle of the wilderness
6,7: not far from the mill
8,9: on the forbidden hunting lands
LEGENDARY BUILDING
d0: What do they say was here?
0: a grand church
1: a fancy mill
2: an ancestral fortress
4: a great hall
5: a wizard's tower
6: a pagan temple
7: an abbey or monastery
8: a sinful village
9: an even more sinful oppidium (walled town)
ORIGINATORS
d0: Who do the locals think built the FORSAKEN SITE?
0,1: The Great Magician (Merlin, Vergil or Morgana LeFey)
2,3: The Devil (by accident or trickery) [ML 3025] or an equally stupid giant [ML 5020]
4,5: One of the Invisible Folk (a fairy, genie or vampire) whose true name was guessed [ML 7065, true name]
6,7: A wandering saint (not one of the local ones) as part of a contest [ML 3026]
8,9: Just regular people, a long time ago
SINFUL WAYS
d0: Why do the locals think they deserved what they had coming to them?
0: overweening ambition
1: murder most foul
2: forbidden love
3: impious dancing (on the holy days)
4: revenge for an minor insult
5: deal with the devil
6: inhospitality to a wandering saint
7: human sacrifice
8: apprentice-level misreading a spellbook
9: gargantuan magical clumsiness
GREAT CALAMITY
d0: How was the LEGENDARY BUILDING destroyed?
0: One broken sabbath, a charming dancer turned out to be the devil! [ML 3070]
1: A giant threw a stone at the church in town and missed. [ML 5020*]
2: It just wouldn't stay up, so a saint gave a stick of driftwood to a wild animal and had them rebuild it in town where the stick dropped. [ML 7060]
3: Two giant monsters destroyed it in a terrible fight that may still be going on in the wilderness [ML 4086]
4: A great calamity (general bad times) befell the nearby town and the only way to end it was to remove this wicked place. [ML 5075]
5: The arrogant inhabitants ignored a mysterious warning of an approaching storm. [ML 4055]
6: The debauchery of the inhabitants awoke a grumpy old troll. [ML 5000]
7: A plague spirit was accidentally ferried across the river and into town. [ML 7085]
8: An apprentice misused his master's magical book. [ML 3020]
9: A witches' daughter innocently showed off her devastating powers in a nearby town. [ML 3035]
*ML 5020: Troll Legends
a landscape feature was the results of (comic) actions by a giant or devil
...he dropped a shovel of rocks
...he flung a large rock and missed his target
...he was tricked into dropping it
Now, they say...
d0: why do most people avoid it?
0: ...the invisible folk meet there for their secret rites. [ML 3050]
1: ...a revenant who can't find his grave haunts it, grabbing all who spend the night nearby. [ML 4020]
2: ...the invisible folk will bring your baby back if you leave their changeling there overnight [ML 5085]
3 ...the invisible folk hold their weddings and funerals here and resent intruders. [ML 6005]
4: ...you can still hear its churchbells, deep below, on certain nights. [ML 7070]
5: ...the recently dead stave off revenants from the sea here on stormy nights. [ML 4065]
6: ...a chunk of the site was taken and used in an evil palace. [ML 7065]
7: ...the recently dead gather here on some nights for church services. [ML 4015]
8: ...the plague manifests here as an old woman with a rake and a broom (if she uses the broom, you're doomed) [ML 7080]
9: ...all the vermin banned from the land by a saint are trapped beneath it. [ML 3060]
But they also say...
d0: why do some people go there anyway?
0,1: ...there's buried treasure beneath it. [ML 8010]
2,3: ...the invisible folk pasture their sea herds or sky livestock here. [ML 6055]
4,5: ...the one true king and his knights sleep beneath it. [ML 8009]
6,7: ...if you lose something forever elsewhere, it will always turn up here. [ML 7050]
8,9: ...you can meet a lucky shapeshifting sweetheart here. [ML 5095]
FOR WIZARDS: ...the black book of magic itself lies somewhere within [ML 3020]
LUCKY SHAPESHIFTING SWEETHEART
d0: You fell in love with WHO?!?
0: A foreigner from a nation of magicians. [ML 3080]
1: The Devil. [ML 3075]
2: A witch who could turn into a hare. [ML 3055]
3: A werewolf. [ML 4005]
4: A nightmare elf. [ML 4010]
5: A selkie woman or swanmay. [ML 4080]
6: A fairy prince or princess. [ML 5090]
7: A venemous dragon. [ML 3030]
8: A murderous revenant. [ML 4020]
9: A famous magician. [ML 3040]
Well, anyway, it's come in handy for me a couple times!