Location: the Grail of Fangs

 At the request of George Michael and Semiurge, this is another entry in my Deltora Quest locations after the Poison Woods.

Rumors

1. The Grail is so cramped and poor that imperial guards do not patrol there (T)

2. The guildmaster of dog breeders, deep in the Grail, is on the payroll of the Dark Lord (F)

3. Leaving a shop without paying for anything has a fee in Silvertown (T)

4. Don't drink water in the Grail without boiling it! (T)

5. Neighborhood councils meet up at night and decide how to resist the Shadow (F)

6. The dog breeder's guild has taken down crime boss Dirk Gutslitter and captured the respected Keystone Staff (T)

Random Encounters in Silvertown

1. Candor the Dogcatcher. A bureaucrat with a big boxy black hat. Never actually catches the dogs himself. A spy for the resistance, but a double agent for the Shadow. Pitiful.

2. Traveling merchant. Gives bad deals, but not as extortionate as the locals. Happily trade rulers.

3. Swarm of Upscars (stats as flying wolves)

4. Roll a d8 on the Horrible Dogs table

5. Patrol of 2d4 Imperial Goons (as orcs, with special +1 blistering slingstones that lose their potency in a day)

6. Roll a d4 on the Grail encounter table.

Random Encounters in the Grail

1. Poesy the urchin. Plucky and chummy. A spy for the Shadow, selling out rebels to the imperial goons for a hot meal.

2. Flooded streets

3. Clam-gatherers wading through water, guarded by a pair of heavily armed stewards. (stats as bugbears)

4. Standing water or public fountain, infested with parasites. Drinking unboiled is a save vs infestation

5. Patrol of 3d4 bravos (as bandits with duel-madness, entering a sort of rage that only applies in one-on-one sword fights. Armed with epees and swordbreakers)

6. Roll a d10+2 on the Horrible Dogs table

Horrible Dogs

1. Coiffet. Floofy, playful, toadlike proportions.

2. Skamil Barker. Trained to repeat phrases like a parrot and set outside of shops and stalls. Shout nonsense conversations when the moon is new.

3. Brickworm Retriever. Small, fast, dark-furred. Trained as thieves.

4. Lucene Spaniel. Stout, attentive, guard dog. Eyes glow in the dark. Goes blind early in life.

5. Cadit. Long-faced terriers. Instinctively lunge for rats and errant urchin hands.

6. Pithodex Sniffer. Bloodhound whose cunning sense of smell is not foiled by its incredible B.O. 

7. Hairless Clampsome. Broad, slow, pissy. Squared frame makes them passable porters.

8. Bunjung. Quick, intelligent, and good leapers. Employed as messengers. It is a crime punished with mutilation to kill a Bunjung.

9. Bucros Hound. Luminous white. Good sense of smell. Drinks blood.

10. Soluderm. Soft, loam-like flesh with tufty saffron fur. The indigent plant garden vegetables in their backs.

11. Synego. Big and quick, with bluish mouths, tear ducts, and bellies. Loyal, but never run back to their owner when chased. Trained as assassins.

12. Marrow-Gnawer. Too big. Deeply miserable. Trained to crash through doors and tear up strangers

Hex XXXZ - Silvertown and the Grail

Silvertown, on the coast, is surrounded by depleted quarries and mines, home alike to robbers, dangerous animals, and billeting imperial goons. In the remote inland sections stand ancient forests, forbidden to all but servants of the Dark Lord. Signs on the road are contradictory and confusing.

Silvertown, in kinder days, flourished under the special status afforded to it by the goodly kings. Those who sought their fortune came to Silvertown and learned new trades, and in the councils that directed each neighborhood they learned to direct their own fate. When the Dark Lord ascended, he saw the burg as a source only of silver, masons, and trained hounds— for no canine will permit a direct servant of the shadow to train it. Silvertowners are uniquely inhospitable, and charge a fee for everything. Unfortunately, surrounding hexes are so miserable as to deplete a party traveling overland's supplies, all but forcing them to Silvertown.

When royals started taking an interest in Silvertown, not everyone was happy. Riverpads, parochial feudmen, kidnappers, and dog thieves retreated down into the Grail, the ruins of the former ground floor of the city, covered over after decades of wicked and destructive floods. Since then, levees and filling in of riverside sloughs have made the Grail barely habitable. When the Shadow fell on the land, the scoundrels were joined by rebels and refugees. As hostile as Silvertown is, the Grail is worse. It's like a dungeon to strangers such as the PCs despite the likelihood that they have the Dark Lord as a common enemy. They take on dysphemistic names, like Swindler, Heap, and Tite Barnacle

In the drier seasons, Silvertown is beset by Upscars, wolf-sized insects with dusty wings that leave discoloring slime everywhere they land. The market square is covered and well-guarded, but burghers walking home are sitting ducks. No one on the surface knows where they come from.

So, in the Grail they use "clams" for currency, tough white eggs which appear in standing water. Some clams inevitably find their way to the surface, and after a few weeks deprived of the humid air of the undercity they hatch into young Upscars. This fact is obscure to most Grailers, but the guildmaster of the dog breeders has come to understand it.

Half-sunk into the gunkiest muck is the guildhall of dog breeders. There, the wealthy guildmaster Aria Turncoot makes demands and commands and generally bullies her way into displacing the Grail where she wants it to be. Something about wading through bogwater makes men and beasts pliable, biddable, eager to do as she demands, and so the seat of power in the Grail is the worst place to be. The guildhall has stewards and guards, as well as patrolling dogs, but it also has stranger guardians. Aggressive pike swim through the halls, and mongrels too horrible to sell are kept in the yard. Among other residents, the rebel spy Frannek spends his days trying to move Turncoot against the Dark Lord. He is gruff and fierce, and rumored to have been a knight in the good old days.

Turncoot wears fine silks and gold bands, carrying begemmed cups and fancy display weapons. She carries a staff of polished cottonwood topped by the Keystone, a tree agate seen as the symbol of office for the meanest boss in the Grail. She does not know that the tree agate is one of the magic stones said by prophecy to be needed to defeat the Dark Lord. It lends clarity of mind to those who touch it, and the ability to communicate their thoughts clearly. Thus it improves their skill as a leader and general, and when held they charm and are charmed by people roughly as decent as they are. When she isn't carrying the staff, she hides in in a vault sealed by six dials surrounded by seemingly random numbers. When each dial is pointed towards the only prime number in its circle, the vault opens.

As Frannek grows more and more frustrated, he makes plans with other rebels, paying for the aid of roustabouts and brutes as they stockpile weapons. One day soon they will overthrow the imperial forces in the city. This could do much good in the short term, but if the Dark Lord isn't already on his last legs he will send a legion to destroy the town, and there will be much misery, and he shall come onto the tree agate.

Location: the Poison Woods

The Deltora Quest book series portrays a remarkably grim and perilous fantasy world where danger is often ameliorated by simple riddles and logic puzzles. Each book would generally involve the heroes searching hopelessly in a dangerous locale for one of the magic Gems of Deltora and on the way becoming increasingly baffled, battered, and bad-tempered. I wanted to try my hand at making an adventure location in that style. This entire module could fit in a single 6-mile hex, but has enough adventure in it to last at least a session.

This location will be written up with the assumption that this is the backwater of some evil empire, and the PCs have learned to actively avoid attention of the dark lord’s forces.

art by Michael Handt

Rumors
1. Stalmark is the outpost from which the dark lord’s forces send out expeditions. (T)
2. Gilhaven remains free from the dark lord’s influence only in seeming; changeling spies report everything back to the empire. (F)
3. The woods are full of children who serve monstrous plants. Do not trust them! (T)
4. The streams in the Poisoned Wood are deadly to drink from after they pass through the heart of the forest. (T, the result of the pesticides in the Master’s plantation)
5. Deep in the woods, a reclusive estate offers clean water and safety from the hazards of the forest. (T, but only at a cost)
6. The lord of the land retreated to the depths of the forest with a treasure called the Stone of Romra, and calls himself the Master now (T)

Random Encounters on the Road
1. Tom Anguish (see Gilhaven section) and 1d6 porters. -1 reaction but always seems friendly
2. Talkative old man. Offers rumors and good company
3. Team of 2d4 gardeners, led by a hedge knight. Keeping the roadside free of evil vines
4. Band of 2d6 Granouses (as hobgoblins). Seeking to capture victims and force them to solve riddles, eating a finger or toe for each wrong answer
5. Patrol of 2d4 Imperial Goons (as orcs, with special +1 blistering slingstones that lose their potency in a day)
6. Roll a random encounter from the settled land encounter table.

Random Encounters in the Woods
1. Evangelina (see Stalmark section). +1 reaction
2. Evil Vines (as 3 HD giant leeches)
3. 1d4 children (attempting ambush if reaction roll is hostile)
4. Renthen (see Renthen section)
5. Stream (leads to the Master’s Plantation, 50% chance it’s downstream and therefore deadly poisonous)
6. Roll a random encounter from the forest encounter table.

Granouses, by Marc McBrinde

Hex XXXX- The Poison Woods

Each two hours outside of civilization, there is a 50% chance of an encounter.

The road running along the edge of this hex splits. One branch leads to Stalmark and the other bypasses to Gilhaven. As a juvenile brain teaser, someone has uprooted the square-faced sign pole that point out which way is which, but a clever child might note that since the different signs point in three directions (Stalmark, Gilhaven, and wherever the PCs are coming from), there’s only one valid way to orient the sign. The same prankster has put the icon of the dark lord on the sign for Gilhaven, though any local could tell you that it’s Stalmark that is allied with the empire.

Stalmark is a town of 2,500 people, ruled by mayor Frederick, who wears a medallion with a left-facing head on it. He’s a coward who’s easy to push around. Imperial goons patrol the heavily-regulated bazaar, and outsiders are pushed around and questioned. PCs who end up here should have a bad time. The sole helpful person is the tavern’s juggler, Evangelina. Treat her as a Thief 3 with a knife penchant. Her daughter was turned into a slug in the woods and she often goes out to visit her. The youngest PC reminds Evangelina of that daughter, so she will take a risk to keep them out of trouble.

Gilhaven is a town of 3,000 people (but no children), ruled by mayor Tomaso, who wears a medallion with a right-facing head on it. He’s a fool who instinctively disbelieves inconvenient things. Suspicious and hysterical citizens patrol the parochial market square, and the outsiders who come to trade where the empire won’t see them are seedy and vulgar. PCs who end up here should have a hard time deciding who to trust. The only devoted servant of the dark lord is an opportunist trader named Tom Anguish. He’ll clock the PCs as subversives he can take in for a bounty pretty quickly, offering them a ride to wherever they're going in his cart before stealing their supplies and coming back with imperial goons or misled mercenaries. If they distrust him, he’ll track their movements and be a constant thorn in their side, such that passing through this hex has a big impact even if they don’t seek the Stone of Romra or enter the Poisoned Wood.

The Poisoned Wood dominates the rest of the hex. Its unique ecology works thus: Renthen preys on runaway children, who help feed the evil vines, which constantly struggle to invade the plantation at the heart of the woods, kept at bay by poison applied by slaves who need to be constantly replaced by the Master.

Renthen is something like a man (stats as bugbear), living with his son in a small steepled building on top of a small hill. He will act like a kind, rustic host, but if he gets someone alone (or if his son gets another child alone), he will lead them to a remote gully, strap them to a slab, and force feed them filth and worms. This magically prevents them from leaving the slab, and they are fed more filth from stone chutes running down into the gully. Sometimes a child’s parents will visit them, unable to break the curse but able to roll food down the chutes to give them some small reprieve. After months, a victim will gradually look more and more like a maggot until they burst into new filth. Buried in Renthen's steeple is a chest with a strange lock, unpickable unless two medallions with face inscriptions are rotation in the front of the chest to face each other. Inside are the souls of 40 children and a spellbook.

Runaway children came from Gilhaven. They believe the Master has a stone that stops the empire from messing with him, and they seek it to protect their families. To achieve this, they’ve somehow made a pact with the Evil Vines of the Poisoned Wood. These kids are vicious. They’ll slash you unprovoked and let the Vines sniff you out. It is conceptually horrible to be stabbed by a murderous child, and remember the people of Gilhaven will ostracize anyone who kills one of their young. The wicked youths congregate in a cave whose opening looks kind of like a horse's head, trading marbles and toys.

Evil Vines are ambulatory plants, with grabbing ropey appendages arranged radially. Sometimes they “walk”, rolling through the woods and keeping their center held high. Evil Vines can smell fresh blood from very far away, showing up 1d3 Turns after any wound incurred outside of a battle with another Evil Vine. Stats at 3 HD Giant Leech, but afraid of fire.

The Master’s plantation of 200 people reeks of chemicals, ringed by dead fume-soaked plants. There is a single bridge of square tiles over the dangerous poison perimeter, with a fence topped with horse-head ornaments and a gate on which is inscribed  “Walk ye knight’s path and no evil shall stain you.” If the tiles are traversed as though by a chess knight on a chessboard, they are safe. Otherwise, a wrong step results in the horse ornaments shooting poison darts at the trespasser.

The plantation itself is an irregular polygon of maize fields surrounding the Master’s estate and slavehouses. Stumbling around the fields are slaves in varied states of deteroration as the pesticides they constantly spread take their toll. Each says the Master won their service by beating them in a game of riddles, and some claim that he cheated in their game. Trespassers are treated as prospective hires.

Day-to-day operations are conducted by four members of the Master’s former court:

• wizard Melina (magic-user 5), who is paranoid of spies for the dark lord
• seneschal Randol (thief 3), who mourns and mourns and mourns
• herald Zanzer (cleric 4), who seeks an end to the plantation even if it means serving the dark lord
• Captain Ermen (fighter 4), who has settled into comfortable rum-slicked cynicism

Stored in various places on the plantation are: 2,000 silver coins, 400 gold coins, a platinum puzzle box worth 100 gold coins, a wand of illusory vim, a treasure map to a cache far away, and a music box that summons the ghosts of the recently deceased.

The Master (fighter 13) was made out of a good man. He would be a wizard if he had any numinous quality. He comforts the afflicted, but persists in afflicting them. The slavehouses are well-kept and handsome, and frequent breaks and festivals are mandatory. All he does is done with an air of indulgence, and his twinkling eyes wink from behind his russet beard and unkempt hair. Magical attempts to influence his mind backfire, and arcane attempts to detain him will not be noticed.

When a trespasser is brought before him, the Master will demand a game be played. He will pose a riddle that they must answer to his satisfaction, or else become his slaves. If they succeed, they are allowed to go double or nothing, posing him a riddle. If he comes up short, he will grant them any one favor they wish, offering as examples the Stone of Romra, ownership of the plantation, or his own life.

Good Master-riddles include:

• I have jumped into a cloud. How can this be? He jumped into a pool whose surface reflected the sky.
• I was bitten by a spider with only seven legs. How can this be? He plucked a leg off of a normal spider.
• What is my true name? His intended answer is simply “the Master,” but if the trespassers somehow learned the name he used before becoming the Master he will demurely accept it.

The Stone of Romra, a lump of polished malachite, is incorporated in a diadem he wears when he wants to relive his glory days, and it will be retrieved from his bedchamber’s wardrobe if won. It provides protection like a shield even when unaware of danger, as well as +1 to all saves when worn. Additionally, it prevents other authorities from claiming dominion within three miles of any stronghold you rule.

If the Master is asked to grant a favor that involves surrendering the plantation, he will do so casually. The new owner will morph into him over the course of 1d4 weeks. The same thing will happen if he is asked to grant a favor that involves his death.