The Great Dolmenwood Treasure Hunt, part 4: The Dawnward Path

  This is part of a series of blogposts

• Campaign framing, timeline, and general details
• Minor tweaks to hex descriptions
• The Lost Wing,
• The Dawnward Path, and coda. (this post)

In this post, I describe the end of the treasure hunt, running through the Fairy Roads unto the very gates of Heaven. It's a simple final stretch, so I'll try to go into reasonable potential developments. 

art by Honor C. Appleton

The Dawnward Path

A fresh-tilled dirt path runs through endless fields of sunflowers in the civil dawn of summer, wending towards the rising sun that never seems to break past the horizon

Doors: No permanent doors, for the One True God is the god of entrances and exits. Instead, entering any fairy road with the Heavenseeker Key converts the entire road to the Dawnward Path.

Length: 10 miles. It ends at the end (see below)

The Dawnward Path Locations

• 1. Puffy cloud smoke rises from sinkholes in gently rolling technicolor hills. From one emerges trumpet toots and the scent of seasoned meat. Descending into the hole leads a party to the fairy realm Turpsy-Tovey, a realm of misrule where outsiders are made into kings, bishops are jesters, and such.
• 2. The road passes through a dried riverbed, and at a point a tributary branches off, leading past many river stones carved with joyful faces to the fairy realm of Wouldst. There the dog-skull-faced lord Batterfrost leads his people in crafts, rhymes, and the mixing of warm drinks, ever wary for hostile goblins and humbugs who lurk at the edge of the night-tinged land.
• 3. Where the sunflowers grow especially high and especially thick, 1d3 scarecrows (DWM p.72) linger amicably. (It is always considered summer on the Dawnward Path unless something horrible changes that). Friendly, they can be quite demanding, wanting a justification for the party's trespass or imposing for a favor on a negative reaction roll.
• 4. 2d6 dark and hale wild horses cavort by the path. 1-in-6 chance that one is a fairy horse.
• 5. The sunflowers seem to overgrow an old cairn hillock, containing a serene tomb with 2d6 barrowbogeys. There is a 2-in-6 chance the tomb also contains a meditating pilgrim (d4): a penitent undead, a human enchanter, a breggle on a heroquest, or a humble fairy.
• 6. A bend in the road suddenly comes to a deep chasm and a long, narrow bridge. Anyone who crosses will come face-to-face with travelers much like themselves, and the bridge isn't wide enough to pass easily. These travelers will act precisely as the party does, only backtracking to let the PCs cross if the PCs also do so, fighting for right of way if the players do, and so on.
• 7. A wet, pebbled clearing breaks up the flowers, with old armaments and bridles strewn between shells the size of a mule. 3-in-6 chance that a lawful Giant Snail, Psionic (DWM p. 78) lies resting on this old battlefield.
• 8. A wayside tavern with several well-maintained shrines sits overlooking the path. The tavern-keeper, nameless and casual, breaks up sheets of chocolate bark or peanut brittle as he asks travelers what they seek. Those who rest at the tavern feel a sense of urgency eventually overtake them, and they save vs doom. Those who pass sometimes glimpse a sword hovering over them, especially as they're just about to fall asleep or in a mirror. They get +1 wisdom and +1 to all saves vs doom. Those who fail experience a bodily terror as the sense of urgency festers, and they are exhausted as though they've gone a night without rest.

The End: At the terminus of the path, travelers come to a thick fence of pearlescent bone, beyond which is an expanse of endless clouds and, perhaps, the lands of Pluritine heaven. The gate is guarded by the spirit of Saint Clewd, who warns that to pass through the gate is to enter death and the lands beyond it. Be clear to the players that this is to kill their characters. He does not bar entry, for the dead go where they are destined, but the gate is locked to immortal creatures like fairies unless they can cast Beseech. If asked for advice, Clewd speaks with the experience of a true hero— an adventurer who helped the multitudes, suffered gladly for the right, and fought evil.

Coda

To reach this point, the player characters have experienced much of Dolmenwood. They've plumbed the depths of the duke's castle, explored the depths of the fungal forests, and come to the brink of the Nag-Lord's dark presence. They've probably also gone on rip-roaring adventures well in excess of the most efficient possible quest, contending with meddling imperial inspectors, finding the lost treasure of Dewidort, saved the survivors of Blackeswell, or experienced a dozen episodes of wonder and woe. It well could be that one or more of the party has decided that they have left the legacy they wish, and that they will pass through the bone gates to the final adventure, having truly come to understand Dolmenwood (and helped the DM to get their money's worth in buying the box set, custom dice, and vinyl record). 

The great game of Dolmenwood's factions is sure to see a radical upset if the PCs don't keep the Heavenseeker Key secret:

• Obviously the Pluritine Church would be boundlessly enriched if they gained control of the Key and understood just how far it goes. At worst, corrupt churchmen might excommunicate and hunt the party, calling their story a heretical lie, all to keep from rocking the boat and having to answer too directly to pedants like Clewd's ghost. At best, the humble who still hold to their nominal commission will reward the PCs handsomely, establish a pilgrimage through the Fair Roads, and maybe even declare a renewed crusade against the Nag-Lord. "Saint Grace" could be officially canonized, or at least revered as a righteous servant of the right.
• The Duke's fortunes may have already been changed depending on whether the PCs have contended with the monster of the Oubliette they may have learned about in the Lost Wing. If not, he may try to seize on this great achievement to attempt to renew the Triple Compact and arrange a diplomatic bloc against his enemies, with a goal of eventually advancing the borders of his duchy north.
• The Hooded Men are hard to impress.
• The witches of Dolmenwood are likely to be impressed by the deeds of the party, but they see danger in anything that emboldens the church, and will try to covertly influence events. As for the PCs, they might distract them by tasking them with some worthy challenge like finding the Mirrors of Embala, or turn them and use them as direct agents against their enemies.
• Naturally, the party will receive the glad hospitality of pretty much every lordling and noble in Dolmenwood, since they have proven their worth.

If this is the culmination of your campaign, it would probably also suffice to prompt your players to describe what they hope for their characters' retirement, and go out on that note.

The Great Dolmenwood Treasure Hunt, part 3: the Lost Wing

This is part of a series of blogposts:

• Campaign framing, timeline, and general details
• Minor tweaks to hex descriptions
• The Lost Wing (this post)
• The Dawnward Path, and coda.

Special thanks to Primeumaton for the neat dungeon concept.

An occulted section of Castle Brackenwold, visible from the outside but not clearly accessible from within. Hidden by the sorcerous talents of a Brackenwold witch centuries ago, it is an oddly still and silent place.

Because of the perversions of space that have folded the Lost Wing in on itself, it mostly can't be tracked down by looking for "negative space" in the castle. The exceptions include: a courtyard that's visible from the highest tower (area 1), a chimney whose smoke matches no fireplace known (area 9), a balcony that no one can see into (area 13), and a row of stained-glass windows that haven't been seen from the inside in living memory (area 19, folded). Adventurers will have to clamber up walls or scurry along roofs, which will draw the attention of the duke's retainers if not given permission.

D6 encounter table

1. 3d6 red sprites

2. 2d6 Shriveled Intruders (stats as bog corpses)

3. Gargoyle

4. 1d3 manikins

5-6. Spatial anomaly (reality folds or unfolds, or gravity shifts 90 degrees, or a room grows much smaller or larger) Lasts until next spatial anomaly

Reality Folding

The Lost Wing alternates between two states, folded and unfolded. When it's folded, use the first, smaller map for PCs that are in an area represented by that map. PCs in other sections are not harmed by a fold, but cannot bypass the fold— they see the hallway or room literally folded up into impassability. If you happen to be standing exactly in the plane of a fold as it shifts, save vs doom to dodge out of the way or else be neatly bisected.

Breaking through a wall or otherwise making a hole in the Lost Wing presents a character with an occult interstice— a field of fiery colors unbound by object. Looking at such a space deals 1d6 damage per round, save vs breath to halve. Running into an interstice causes an immediate save vs doom or become lost forever. On a success, the character eventually finds their way to a random fairy road. Increase the amount of time that passes in the real world after emerging from the fairy road by ten times.

The Lost Wing, folded

Areas, part 1

1. Courtyard. Once a fine garden, now overgrown. Guarded by the Henbane Horror (stats as giant snail, rapacious), a living shrub-monster that feign stillness until prey closes in. 

• Fountain: full of silver coins (1,800) and a silver Arcane Sword with the witch-glyph in its hilt.. The fountain seems to be only a couple feet deep, but is actually 20 feet.
• The surrounding greenery: includes overgrown elms and maples, 3 doses of Blushing Mandrake (spindly humanoid roots), 3 of horridwort (musty purple lichen), and 1 of snogglebeard (cyan beards of moss) (DWC pg. 430)

2. Forgotten Balcony. Several potted plants and simple benches. The balcony opens to a black void and is faced from 100 feet below by itself— anyone who peers over the balcony while holding a light will see the back of their own head, peering over the same balcony below them, and so on and so on. 

3. Gardening supplies

• Overgrown with life: 3 rations of drounberries (black mushrooms), 2 rations of windcaps (round, mauve-splotched tan, burnt hair smell) (DWC pg 118), and two doses of shaggy sage (clumpy ochre fungus, DWC pg 428)

4. Wrinkleward Knot. Ornate wooden frame with one taut, knotted thread of woven black hair. If the knot is untied, the dungeon unfolds. If the dungeon folds, the hair ties itself into a knot. If the hair is cut, the walls scream and the seam of the dungeon fold becomes an interstice until new hair replaces it.

5. Hallway. Distorted-- despite its short length, takes a full turn to traverse. If the room is unfolded, the hallway comes to an abrupt end at a bare wall. This conceals a secret panel that can be pushed open like a door into area 26.

• Bisected Ring: In the hall there are two neatly sliced pieces of a single, leaden ring with a frowning, green-eyed skull design. When the dungeon is folded, the pieces are right next to each other. When unfolded, they lay quite far apart. Someone used the dungeon's fold to slice off a cursed object— if the ring is somehow repaired, it gives the wearer -2 to all saves, cannot be removed, and gives them obnoxious opinions about music.

6. Butler's Neglected Quarters. Thick layer of dust, uncomfy bed, small selection of outdated clothes.

7. Maid's Old Chambers. Mostly bare, as though picked clean in a hurry.

8. Staging kitchen and plate cupboard. The door opens heavily, for opening it more than a crack swings a board with knives stuck through at your face for 4d4 damage! 

• The table: adeceased valet, lost decades ago, lies in a makeshift camp under the table clutching a soup ladle and a cameo of Duke Brackenwold's great-grand-aunt, who succumbed to the family curse and died young.
• The plate cupboard: locked (key in area 20) and stands against the wall with a faded mat in front of it. Stepping on the mat triggers a tripwire that swings two wine bottles full of a henbane concoction into your head— 2d6 damage and save or become sleepy and numb (-2 to all d20 rolls until you have a full rest).

9. Cozy Dining Hall, fit for 20 people (folded) or 40 (unfolded). A smouldering fireplace in the corner (folded) or center of the room (unfolded) is attended by Mouse-Tails-Counted, an elf knight (DWM p. 38) trapped in attitude and time. Every time the party leaves this room, he is "reset" to his initial state— alive, muddled, disaffected, villainously thirsty. Mouse-Tails will ask any visitors "Have you any sprite to drink?" He eventually turns on anyone who cannot properly feed him to suck out their blood, trying to brain them with the hilt of his fairy sword, which sports vestigial gossamer wings

• Unfolded room: pile of desanguinated old bodies covered by a couple table clothes in a corner that doesn't exist in the folded version. In the center of the wall opposite the fireplace, a grimacing picture of King Hadryg 850 years ago sits. The large picture can be slid aside to reveal a hidden passage into area 18.
• If Mouse-Tails-Counted can drink a red sprite: it awakens some fiery daring in him and he may finally resolve to step out of the room and unstick himself from time.

10. Portrait Hallway lined with ten portraits of severe Brackenwold women, ancestors through time whose stares seem to follow you as you walk. At the end of the hall (at the fold), half a skeleton can be found, neatly cut at a surprising angle (hot dog, not hamburger)

• The second time you pass through the hallway: all the portraits are missing their subjects. When you turn the corner or retreat, they're all standing right there ready to shriek and claw you apart. (Stats as manikin).
• In the portrait:s can be spotted several valuable objects which can be retrieved simply by reaching into them. It feels like sinking your hand into hot sand. Objects: a massive pearl (500 GP), a shell comb (700 GP), a velvet sack holding 1000 silver coins, an opalescent Talisman of Gaze Reflection (DWC pg 399) , and an ornate scrollcase (40 GP) containing a treasure map indicating a barrow in Monarch's Hill (hex 1508); leads to a cache of 400 gold coins and a Pipe of Sending (DWC pg 409)

11. Study. Cramped shelves almost leaning away from the walls.

• When the dungeon is folded: shelves on the far wall can be accessed and contain ten gold ingots worth 100 GP each, a magic book ("The Maiden Refused", including somewhat self-pitying aristocratic poetry, enthusiastic sketches of women from 400 years ago, and the spells Crystal Resonance, Dispel Magic, Woodland Veil), and a plain silver Ring of Wolf Affinity (DWC pg 410)
• When the dungeon is unfolded: the room is actually separated from itself, either side open to an occult interstice until the dungeon folds again.

12. Austere Chamber. Contains the Box of Seasons, an intricately carved and painted box depicting from behind a rider on a white horse passing through autumn-red foliage and looking out at a wintry, many-turreted palace on the edge of a dismal lake. The lock is inscribed with minute words: "She Who COMMANDETH the WINDS and This Box OPES, Maketh of Herself MISTRESS to the CHANGES," If the box is opened, it unleashes an entire season of winter (replacing the rest of the month, starting with an exultant blizzard that carpets the Lost Wing, half of Castle Brackenwold, and then all of Dolmenwood, then slams shut and locks. If the box is recharged by some kind of magic wind (like the glamour breath of wind), the box is unlocked and upon being opened, swallows up the current season, skipping to the next one.

13. Bedroom and Balcony. Rotting once-fine furniture, but covered up by an illusion of warmth and good repair. Those who enter are greeted by (the illusion of a) gothy, robed lady with raven feathers for ears. She offers them a magic shield (actually a burning coal, ouch), a holy avenger (mouse trap, ouch), and a Helmet of Justice (cursed, reduces visibility to 5' and cannot be removed).

• Searching the furniture: In addition to spoiled toiletries, a book of Gretchenine (like Sapphic but Dolmenwood) poetry can be found in a drawer. (As a Wand of Ingratiate (8 charges) against witches, drunemaids, and anyone capable of casting a magical charm.

The Lost Wing, unfolded

Areas, part 2

14. Quiet hallway. On a side table, little sprite furniture makes for a tiny restaurant, usually empty. Random encounters here have a 1-in-6 chance of being 3d6 red sprites.

15. Art Studio. 30 animated brushes, paintpots, canvases, quills, exc. (stats as stirge), extremely territorial. As the objects inflict damage, images start to appear on canvases. If they manage to slay someone, the resulting portrait is worth 100 gp to someone who cares about the dead character.

16. Work Room. A small scullery set up in the corner, with washpots and a fireplace to heat water (chimney leads to an interstice). A trio of creepy looms that seem to move on their own out of the corner of your eye. Nearby is a Golden Seam Ripper, with a crane design embossed on it. The seam ripper can catch and tear the seam of the dungeon when it's folded, creating a space that's unfolded when the rest of the dungeon is folded, and that's an interstice when the dungeon is unfolded.

17. Storage Room. Some chests, mostly empty. One curtained wall opens to a balcony.

• Balcony: covered in Autumn leaves. Opens to an occulted void, with slanted roofs that lean over nothingness. A 10 foot leap away, a slanted roof facing the balcony leads to another balcony (area 23).
• Searching the chests: wood shavings, dust, dead leaves, mothballs, four skulls with silver caps on the bottom, and a headless, inoperative manikin with a silver cap in the neck. Sticking a skull on the manikin's neck cap animates it with their spirit, and they possess full control of it. Dead characters could even be given a second chance as PCs, though they start with manikin stats. The skulls:
• 1. Furt the Woodgrue, a page and renowned whistler among her people
• 2. Sister SIgna, an advisor to King Brackenwolde 700 years ago
• 3. Baldwin the Furrier, a merchant
• 4. Obadiah Stubbord, a false oracle

18. Lodge Cache. Unfinished stone, and a ceiling suggestive of the chamber being squeezed under a staircase, getting lower and lower as you approach the far end. Graffiti— a couple lodge signs, a credible picture of an origami frog, . The chamber contains, scattered around, a sleeping bag, one of the d12 Clues (above), 200 feet of coiled rope, two dried doses of Spirithame (DWP p. 131), and a folded piece of paper with some frustrated scribblings attempting to relate areas 1, 4, 5, 9, and 10.

19. Carpeted Hallway. A torn up scrap of carpet covers only about half the floo.r Walls bare except for a crude cat-face painting and a severe portrait at one end of the hall. At the fold, a skeleton lies in halves.

• Cat-Face Painting: Amateurish depiction of a serious-looking cat face with a hella fly cap. Careful inspection reveals that the canvas rests over slats rather than a frame, and the slats can be pushed up like a garage door, revealing a hole into area 20.
• Severe Portrait: matches the other nine pictures in area 10. Empty when they're empty, and so on.
• The skeleton: is the result of someone accidentally getting cut in half when the dungeon unfolded. The remains of some durable objects— a dagger, buckles and shoe-nails, a couple gold rings (10 gp each) remain.

20. Grimalkin Hideout. The makeshift lair of food-mad grimalkin Gnom Knudlans (grimalkin thief 4). Territorial, and mostly just says his own name or hisses when confronted with intruders. The chamber is about four feet high and full of chewed-up carpet, loose stones, and shattered manikins.

• Gnom: accompanied by giant sand lice (stats as insect swarm), and wears the shell of their mother (AC 16) as well as every shiny thing he owns: golden necklace worth 800 gp, five rings worth 1d6 x 10 gp each, and a silver badge shaped like two elves kissing (250 gp)
• Fighting in the chamber: -2 to hit and AC if you're taller than 4'.

21. Palantry. Disused, lovingly made chairs set up around a round stone table. In the center, in a small depression, is a crystal orb full of hazy technicolor threads.

• Touching the orb: sends the wielder's mind into a dream plane that snuggles against our own. If you were more than three hexes away from the entity in the Castle Brackenwold's oubliette, or the Nag-Lord's Palace, this would function like a Crystal Ball (DWC p. 405). Because of the malign influence of the thing in the Oubliette (DWC p. 130), it's sort of like connecting your brain to a bonfire. When touching the orb within three hexes of greater evils like the entity, instead save vs doom. On a success, roll twice on the following d8 table and pick your favorite of the results. On a failure, roll once.
• 1. Alignment becomes chaotic and grow curling, brimstony horns
• 2. -1d6 wisdom
• 3. Randomly determine two first-level and one second-level arcane spell that your "hate-nature" may cast out of your body at prickish and evil times
• 4. Eyes glow scarlet in the dark; when without light, see 30' but get -1 reaction and others can see your eyes from a distance.
• 5. Must have fresh blood in a meal to gain any nourishment of it. When kept in an airtight vial, blood is considered "fresh" for up to a week in mild temperatures.
• 6. When reduced to 2 or fewer hit points, erupt in foul-smelling green flames. They do not hurt you but cause a morale roll for your followers and may stymie attempts at first aid.
• 7. Those you wound but do not kill are afflicted by an infectious disease
• 8. Music you make becomes discordant and frightening. You cannot benefit from the magical music of others.

22. Ballroom. Empty, with faded charms and chandeliers in disrepair. Brickwork of the walls closely resembles the dining hall.

23. Hall of Seasons. Each balcony shows a nighttime scene of the roofs of Brackenwold in a different season— winter, spring, and summer. If you are brave, you can can scurry across the slanted roofs and leap to a balcony visible from the spring balcony to area 17.

24. Choir Room. In a goo-slicked space in the center of the room lingers a whisper of a memory of a woman, the witch Mactilda. Summoning her strength to form an image, she will beg any who enter not to leave her, but is in such a fugue that she can't properly answer any questions or give any warnings. It's sad!

25. Sprite-Infested Hall. The ornate decorations that once lined this hall have been smashed and repurposed to make six fat pixie nests, and it is here that twenty-five red pixies make their homes, playing like unsupervised children, hunting rats, and sleeping in sprawls. They are led by a chief, Storm-Smash-The-Dinghy, because his fierce beard and arbitrary decrees match their ideas of what a leader must be. Each hive has a treasury of smooth stones, colored glass, scraps of prose, and coinage worth 1d6x100 GP, but one also has a quartet of anti-magic petards. Silver baubles with a stubby candle on one end, they explode a round after being lit, affecting everything within 10' as though with an anti-magic shell for ten minutes. During this time, if the area is in a folded section of the dungeon, it creates an interstice.

26. Shrine of Hasturiel. The long hallway terminates in a leering skeleton statue of polished ash wood, larger than life, with glimmering banners arranged behind it-- the thinnest of vivid red, the middle of bright green, the outermost of electric blue. Those who look behind the fabric find an obvious panel in the wall that opens to area 5.

• Communing with Hasturiel: use the following as her d6 Means: 1. Fire, 2. Curse, 3. Domestic woman, 4. Light, 5. Secrets. 6. Wood

27. Study of the Obliviscurge. The cluttered workroom of someone desperate to save her older sister, covered in a layer of dust. For every person taking an hour to study the logs, stories, histories collected here, they come to correlate one piece of the following information:

• 1. King Caliburn was the first king of Dolmenwood in more than name. He built the structure that is now Castle Brackenwold, and his eyes changed color from green to blue halfway through his life.
• 2. Separate accounts pasted together painstakingly show that King Caliburn wore a fine torc with three fittings. It once had three sapphires, but had two after his final conquests, one after his castle was finished in record time, and none after a weeklong journey into the woods.  
• 3. A secret history of the witchly-inclined Brackenwold women asserts that a male ancestor came before Hasturiel and received a blessing, a magical thickening that granted him deep sorcery, changed his eyes to deep blue, and caused his bloodline to produce many witches. He showed no fear of what he saw in the bacchanal of the women. 
• 4. Myths and fables about ill-considered pacts with fairies and demons. A recurring theme is that to get out of the deal, the mortal always has to return the gift made to seal the bargain.
• 5. The obliviscurge's journal is full of attempts to urge the reader to destroy the torc, but it is thwarted by the curse restricting her from saying it outright. For example, on successive pages it says "DESTROY/THE/DO NOT DESTROY THE TORC"; a warning that folding space and unfolding it could indirectly sever limbs, objects, torc, or belongings; poetry about missing her sister and wishing she could say how to help her: exc.
• 6. King Caliburn was buried in the "Elden Cairn" on the "Crowninge Hill,", along with his empty-fitted torc and other baubles of sentimental value.

This is all supposed to hint at the form of the deal between the Brackenwolds and the entity in their oubliette. King Caliburn found the entity by yet-undiscovered means, and was granted three wishes in exchange for his line's firstborn daughters in perpetuity— securing his political power, building him a grand manse, and giving him great magical power. The terms of the deal also prevents his line from attempting to destroy, or even proposing the destruction of, the torc which carried the three wishes and serves as token of the contract. It was eventually buried in the Brackenwold tomb, along with Caliburn's remains, which have since begun to cradle it. The shade known as the Grey King is in fact Caliburn. Those who come to it today will find the torc's empty setting have been replaced with three rubies, and as soon as they touch it, the Grey King will arrive to attack them. Someone wearing the torc can expend these wishes to grant wishes, but the wishes are cursed by the entity of the oubliette, who does not want the force removed from its hiding place, and will bend wishes towards its own exaltation and the wearer's woe. The torc can only be destroyed after a Remove Curse spell is cast on it, or by indubitable forces, like being caught in the dungeon's unfolding. If it is destroyed, the entity is banished from the world, houses Ramius and Malbleat will declare that they no longer recognize Brackenwold's authority, House Harrowmoor will make a bid for the duchy title, the castle will shrivel up over the course of a month, and the bloodline will no longer produce witches in such profusion. Twenty-eight young women will climb out of the oubliette, with memories of horrors out of time but unharmed. The most prolific among them, Senésa (magician 4), will want to see their deliverers, and promise a favor from the witches of Dolmenwood.

28. Summoning Circle. Glyphs and sigils of varied provenance. On the wall, an inscription in Old Woldish beckons those "rightwise onward asterated". If the inscription is read aloud, it summons an immediate random encounter from the X encounter table, at -1 reaction due to the unpleasant surprise of being teleported into a magic circle.

29. A Well. An old stone well sits in the center of this circular chamber, surrounded by four gates engraved with details and a word of ancient provenance:

• Tened: carved with images of torment and conquest
• Sko: carved with images of festival and argument
• Alasay: carved with images of planting and writing
• Derphan: carved with images of choir and community. If a fire is brought within one foot of the gate, a heavy double door is conjured within it, with an impressive lock the size of your forearm. Casting the divine spell Beseech, found on the shrine of Saint Grace, opens the gate and reveals the Summer Lodge.

The Summer Lodge. A small realm of Fairy, about an acre square. In the center is a large wooden house, and in the center of the house is a fist-sized, heart-shaped ruby. This fits into a setting in the Heavenseeker Key, and though it is not required for the key to work, it contains some rudiment of its magic— the key cannot be destroyed unless the ruby is, and magical attempts to find the key lead to the ruby (if they can even detect it, in the realm of Fairy as it now lies). Throughout the house are signs that it was well-loved at one time, that children were raised here and great kindesses planned, that hearts were broken and rifts formed. Notes of argument between various people, establish the following:

• That the elf Grace-Before-The-Unjust-Decree was loved by many in the lodge, and that despite her fairy nature she might finally succeed in reaching the heaven of the One True God.
• That in ministry to the crookhorns of the Nag-Wood, she was slain and skinned.
• That she carried with her the Heavenseeker Key, now lost.
• That all attempts to recover the key and her remains had failed.
• That the lodge, torn between covering up this grievous failure of their duty and attempting to champion her legacy, voted to disband and pursue their own projects by their own means.

The Great Dolmewood Treasure Hunt, part 2: Hex Descriptions

 This is part of a series of blogposts

• Campaign framing, timeline, and general details
• Minor tweaks to hex descriptions (this post)
• The Lost Wing,
• The Dawnward Path, and coda.

In this post, I'll be noting details of the Dolmenwood hexcrawl that relate directly to the treasure hunt, or that have been altered to provide more clues for, keep consistency with, or enforce the themes of the main treasure hunt. Outside of involved stuff like the dungeon in the next post, this is really where the meat of the adventure lies. It's not too much to look at of course, because it's meant to let the Dolmenwood setting book do all the heavy lifting, running across different threads the book has already set up like the treasure of Dewidort, the legacy of the Aubrathon, and so on. You might not get much out of this if you don't have the book with you.

art by Honor C. Appleton

Hex Descriptions

• (0301) Smerne. In the ruins, Dewidort's safehouse can be found. It contains incomplete ledgers of his many robberies, clothes useful for disguise as olde timey travelers, evidence of embezzling and stealing from the Summer Lodge (including the theft of "a certaine masque engaging in my Passes of Chelle", and research into the meaning of the word Egrydgenn. He theorizes it means "Show me favor," citing a story about the founding of Smerne.
• (0605) Fort Vulgar:
• The dockmaster's cottage was once a meeting place for the lodge, and PCs in the know will spot signs-- the four-pointed snowflake carved over a door, the three nails in an old painting, and so on. Boglemn has no direct knowledge of the order, but does keep some memorabilia found while re-thatching the roof-- A Scholar's Cap (DWC p. 407), a scroll of the Aubrathon's Drune-language philosophizing, and the seal of the lodge member Brother Shankius, which would be taken as a high-ranking seal by a churchman.
• In Keep Vulgular, the weeds in the courtyard break up a faded mosaic of a monk battling a snow elf, wielding the Heavenseeker Key instead of a weapon.
• (0607) Wight Falls. In Smerne's Lost Hoard, in addition to the standard treasure, is a map of the Ring of Chell with most of the Summerstones marked, with a note "No foole in Dolmenwode is so overfoolishe to set those plates to the inscriptione." There's also a vaguely-sketched plan to steal the Heavenseeker Key and sneak into Heaven, as soon as he can find a convincing angel disguise.
• North of (0901), sort of a 0900 if you will, is the Flayed Queen's Lands. In this hilly hex, hundreds of skeletons cavort and gamble by night, resting or drilling by day. The queen's manse, which is carried about the hex on the back of suffering undead fairies, is home to the Flayed Queen herself, an undead enchanter 10. She is the cursed earthly remains of Saint Grace, brought about by the profanation of her body by servants of the Nag-Lord. Hating the living, she has all memories of Saint Grace's life, and would be a useful source of information to those who can somehow extract the information. If targeted with a remove curse spell, she must save or fall apart, destroyed. If captured PCs beg for their lives or offer to do her a good turn, she will lay a geas on them to locate the body of a giant which she has heard tell of, hoping to animate it as a powerful servant.
• (0904) Court of the Nag-Lord. PCs who make it here may fear that they have to enter the Nag-Lord's flesh palace, but if they're observant, they will spot a dump of sorts, a boggy camp in the shadow of the oozing dome where refuse is thrown-- baubles that do not please the cruel inhabitants, chapes and other holy signs too meager to bother profaning, and bits of flesh, hair, and the less appetizing bones. Miserable goblin misers pick through the remains. In the hut of one of these goblins, fate has placed the Heavenseeker Key, an 18"-long gilded device with intricate ward-teeth, a heart-shaped empty setting in the bow, and a sense of indefatigable patience. If brought through the gate of any fairy road, it will transition from its normal course to that of the Dawnward Path. Many, many humans would kill to get this artifact, and the servants of the Cold Prince would do anything to destroy it. The Nag-Lord's cruelty has so blinded it that it cannot easily remember the key's existence at all.
• (1009) The Anti-Prism. Use this hex as the site of the tomb in Winter's Daughter, if you want to use that adventure. It's suitable as a way to introduce more interest in the Cold Prince, but totally optional.
• (1110) Dreg. Proprietor Tamrin Tweede of the Mermaid's Arms is the daughter of Sweamy Tweede, the lodge's leader before the schism 100 years ago, and will recognize any lodge symbols or bywords. She remembers stories about Sweamy's acquaintance with a living saint, frequent visits to Morrigan's Crag (1408), and a frightening friend of her father's with a dark cloak and an owl necklace (last Hooded Man member of the lodge, Mirador Unlight). Madame Shantywood is clued into the lodge's existence as well. The shadow manse in her magic mirror belongs to the immortal shadow of Dewidort of Smerne, splitting away his gentility and society and trapping it within the glass to become a better thief. The shadow, Trodiwed, remembers the thief's early days— his fascination with the wolf of Smerne (0301), his explorations around Lake Longmere, and a visit to the lost wing of Castle Brackenwold. He can advise on some of the dangers found there- roll 6d20 and check out the rooms whose area number in the Lost Wing correspond to the numbers that come up.
• (1403) Odd: within the church's meager library can be found Sucha Geas notes-- adversarial research on Saint Grace (her affinity with mossling and fungi, her weird devotion to those Pluritine freaks, her study of the Heavenseeker Key and her quest to attain salvation) and Castle Brackenwold's lost wing (connected to witches and the curse on the Brackenwold line, accessible by anomolous architecture like balconies from nowhere, folds and unfolds in space). The Orbstone contains the soul of a Hooded Man from 750 years ago who was part of the Sucha Geas, so if PCs can talk to souls he would be a useful person to talk to.
• (1405) Orbswallow: still has a cultural memory of Saint Grace's visit, considering her the most polite and well-intentioned of missionaries. It is also remembered that some members of the lodge were often hosted moving back and forth between here and Blackeswell in the weeks after her death.
• (1408) Morrigan's Crag, remembered as a Drune lodge, was in fact created as a convenience for the Sucha Geas, and thus holds some Lodge clues-- roll twice on the d12 Clue Table or come up with something more specific.
• (1508) Brackenwold:
• The church's theological library has single copy of a book on Saint Grace, "Saint Grace, Her Life and Its Questions", running through her alleged status as a devout elf, her soteriological research, her ministry to mosslings and the crookhorns, her visit to Brackenwold's cathedral and inspection of its gargoyles, and her destruction, said by superstitious locals to have come at the hands of the Nag-Lord. If PCs make it onto the roof of the cathedral, they can follow the gaze of gargoyle to gargoyle to gargoyle to eventually find an elven inscription hidden in a niche of the roof: "No gate's strong lock can lack its key/ A church cannot thwart the long-devout/ If they bar you, know they barred me/ beseech lord God and find your own way out."
• Duke Brackenwold's armor, which belonged to King Hadryg in the days of the Triple Compact, features a stylized torc with three empty gem fittings, and over the heart the breastplate shows a lodge sign-- a lockhole with five lines coming off of it.
• The Lost Wing of the ducal keep is where to find the ancient well and the Derphan Arch which contains the lodge's original headquarters. More on that in its own blogpost.
• (1604) Blackeswell:
• Site of a Summer Lodge base, now abandoned. There can be found a precis on the Heavenseeker Key, an artifact that can "redirect a fairy road to lead unto the very gates of Heaven". The precis mentions that the Heavenseeker Key is to be kept at the main headquarters of the society "by the gate and well." A message left for members of the order by one "Dame Lythe" boasts that "the plates which show the way to the original Lodge headquarters have been moved to the shrine of Saint Grace." The message is dated to about a century ago. 
• If using the module "The Fungus that Came to Blackeswell", I would recommend introducing it after PCs have gotten a chance to poke around the town a couple times and get sad about the townsfolk dying. The module's map has a broken-down abandoned building (area 11) that would be a convenient place for the lodge.
• (1605) Shrine of Saint Grace in the fungal chasm. Inscribed with the divine spell Beseech (2nd level, opens divinely-locked doors and asks for heavenly pardon. Sort of a niche spell, but necessary to pass through the Derphan Gate these days.), as well as a bronze sheet with rectangular, irregularly-placed hioles in it. If you hold up the plate to an inscription in the side of a Summerstone (one of those stones that make up the Ring of Chell), a message appears in the holes: "Stand by the Brackenwold well keep the der phan arch by fire the gate be shut no more"

Bronze Plate

Summerstone inscription

Overlaid

The Great Dolmenwood Treasure Hunt, part 1: Overview

 Jack Edward has pointed out that it would be cool to have more treasure hunt modules for existing hexcrawls, and one would be especially neat for Dolmenwood.

I happen to have recently gotten Dolmenwood, and wanted to take a crack at it. You'll want to reference your own copy of the hexmap to get a full picture, but you can get a good idea of how the piece fit together even without it.

I would like to break this up into a few posts.

• Campaign framing, timeline, and general details (this post)
• Minor tweaks to hex descriptions
• The Lost Wing, a dungeon
• The Dawnward Path, a fairy road. Would also contain a coda on the project

art by Honor C. Appleton

Framing the Hunt

To set things it motion, it would be neat to give the starting PCs a connection to the Summer Lodge. This should be pretty convenient, as its diverse membership might plausibly have drawn characters of any ancestry or class, so the PCs might be descendants or former accomplices of the lodge's latter-day followers, or they might have a fondness for tales of the lodge's exploits and a desire to restore its purpose.

To give the hunt its proper thrill of adventure, it would be a good idea to set up the Cold Prince as the main threat of the campaign, waxing in power as his spies seek tirelessly to aid his return to Dolmenwood. The Heavenseeker Key, which can cut off fairy roads into Dolmenwood, would serve as a potent check on the Prince's ambitions. See p. 91 of the DWC for suggested events to transpire during the Cold Prince's attempted return. The PCs will also have rivals, in the form of the imperial inspectors described later in this post.

Like many treasure hunts, there is a "most efficient" way for the adventure to go, but as the hunt is simply a framing to direct and enrich the enjoyment of the hexcrawl, the DM doesn't need to worry too much about the trail going cold or the party skipping a few steps. That said, the basic route is for PCs to

1. learn of a powerful artifact, the Heavenseeker Key, upon investigating the Summer Lodge in Blackeswell. This will lead them to seek
2. the original lodge headquarters by finding the Shrine of Saint Grace near Orbswallow, and from there
3. consulting a Summer Stone in the Ring of Chell. This will tell them to seek
4. the Derphan Gate in Brackenwold, which will lead them to
5. the original lodge headquarters. The information they find there will take them to
6. the very cusp of the Nag-Lord's Palace, where they will find the Heavenseeker Key.

Timeline

• 850 years ago, the Triple Compact between the king, the church, and the Drune was formed to throw off the Cold Prince's dominion over Dolmenwood. Using an artifact called the Heavenseeker Key to close off fairy roads into Dolmenwood which the Cold Prince would otherwise have used to reinforce his demesne, they eventually triumphed. After this incredible success, everyone wanted to keep the good times rolling, and agreed to form a group to further cooperate and keep a vigil against the Cold Prince. The kings of Brackenwold called this group the Summer Lodge. The church's contribution formed the Triclavian Order (as the compact was "three nails in the coffin of the Cold Prince"), and the Hooded Men who volunteered for this most un-Drunish task called it Sucha Geas (lit. "The Pitying Endeavor").
• 825 years ago, this project was already broadly disdained and irrelevant as members largely withheld aid and lore from each other and the lodge's patrons withheld funds and resources from it. For the rest of its long existence, the lodge would go through long periods of inactivity punctuated by the membership of some of the stranger renegades and wildcards of Dolmenwood's history, including…
• 700 years ago, the Aubrathon began his great project, a renegade Hooded Man who so offended the cabal's leadership that formal endorsement of the lodge was ended.
• 200 years ago, Dewidort of Smerne rose the infamy, a highwayman who so outraged the land that his records of his membership in the lodge were destroyed
• 100 years ago, the elfmaid Grace-Before-The-Unjust-Punishment, whose remarkable life of unheard-of fairy devotion to the One True God and whose many controversies eventually led to a schism that destroyed the lodge for good. After her fall, the Heavenseeker Key was lost for good.

Tweaks

Make sure historians and sages have appropriate knowledge of the Lodge. Anyone who knows the details of politics between 850 and 100 years ago would have heard of it under one name or another, though they may not know its real purpose.

Nobility, audrunes, and high-ranking members of the Pluritine Church have a 1-in-6 chance of knowing about the lodge and putting some stock by it. Their reaction roll with the party might determine whether they respect the lodge's mission or consider them interlopers and trouble-makers.

When humans encountered on the road roll a reaction roll of exactly 5, they are informants for the Imperial Inspectors, and will turn them onto the PCs' track when appropriate. The Imperial Inspectors are essentially a rival adventuring party, agents sent from outside Dolmenwood by the kingdom Brackenwold is only a duchy of, questing for the Heavenseeker Key on behalf of their masters. They are respectable and strong, but bad at actual dungeoneering in a way that will surely make the players feel like genius underdogs.

• Fritz Nemrot, knight 6. (Vert, six pizzles paly argent) Ring of Vanishing (DWC p. 411). Ring of Facility (cursed to be unremovable, -3 Intelligence) Single-minded and dogged, Fritz leads the party and deals with any hirelings they pick up.
• Kezimira Drupaski, hunter 7. Refused by Hell after offending its strictures, if slain Kezimiria has a 3-in-6 chance of coming back from the dead next Colly. Otherwise, she rises as a wraith (as banshee without wail, DWM p. 13) bound to the Ring of Facility. Somber, distant, laughs at small things.
• Greta Kindergraber, magician 5. (Book of Received Insights: Firelight, Vapours of Dream, Invisibility. Rites: Knock, Lightning Bolt) Many blackbird tattoos, and the Internecine Amulet (resembles a bird ouroboros. When you eat a blackbird raw, gain it as a tattoo. Spend the tattoo to turn into a blackbird until you touch the ground.) Most disdainful of Dolmenwood's whimsical character.

Whenever a random adventuring party is encountered on the road, strongly consider having it be the Imperial Inspectors, 1d6-1 hirelings, and any NPC the players know that they might have managed to recruit.

Details

Lodge Signs

These shibboleths and symbols are found in many surprising places where the lodge once had business.

• Three nails in a row, sometimes taken as three T's, or even three signs of Cwrnus
• A snowflake with four major points to form an X
• A three-fingered salute that starts at the middle of the forehead
• A lockhole with five lines coming off of it
• A blue cravat
• A fan in warm colors

d20 members

Use this reference when you need to source old letters, mention historical names in passing, ex chetera. Doubles as a chronological list. Feel free to change names as needed to implicate PCs' ancestors.

1. Euthraid Polyp, Hooded Bride and first lodge grandmistress. Active 850 years ago.
2. Lord Medigord Helmwit. Cousin of the King of Brackenwold and founding member. Active 850 years ago.
3. Father Chade, a friar and friend of the High Abbot of Wellskeep. Founding member active 850 years ago.
4. Saudreth Owlhame. Hooded Man active 800 years ago. Spy for the Cold Prince, eventually found out and executed.
5. Sir Ulva Monocleese. Active 800 years ago, won the rare affection of the witches of Dolmenwood. Remembered fondly by them even now.
6. Ormyr Aumyr, the Aubrathon. Active 750 years ago. Difficult to summarize, but among other things advocated extreme intellectual openness, war against the mosslings' gods, and the punishment of malicious thoughts. His conduct led to the end of the Hooded Men's formal involvement in the lodge.
7. Haldrime Elderscorn. Hooded Man active around 750 years ago. Lover to and supporter of the Aubrathon.
8. Ghrend the Player. Breggle minstrel and recorder of tales active 700 years ago.
9. Margerie the Wanderer. Cleric of Saint Sedge most well-known by church scholars as a recorder of herblore. Active 600 years ago.
10. Brother Shankius. Holy man and sage active 500 years ago who dedicated himself to the study of fairy roads.
11. Just-War-Nourish, an elf engaged with the lodge 450-500 years ago. Agitated for more active measures against the Cold Prince, aggravating the Hooded Men with pointed study of the Summerstones
12. Lord Neville Brackenwold, the third son of Duke Brackenwold. Active 400 years ago, he was a reliable patron to the perenially-uncoffered group.
13. Modesty Coole, a magician active 350 years ago. Interested in the society of snow elves, she compiled many of the scattered accounts of their court and the lands of Frigia.
14. Mother Mere, a former abbess from outside Dolmenwood whose extensive pilgrimage within the confines of the wood made her a remarkable authority on its shrines, byways, and hidden places. Active 250 years ago.
15. Dewidort of Smerne. Highwayman. Joined 210 years ago, but shamed the lodge. 4-in-6 chance his name is crossed out of any record
16. Dame Theatrice Woldeleigh. Active 150 years ago.
17. Grace-Before-The-Unjust-Decree. A pious elf, joined ~150 years ago, became the Flayed Queen 45-50 years ago.
18. Gremlith Speldare. Braithmaid exile, lover of secrets. During the Saint Grace schism, led the members who wanted to bury the legacy of Grace. Active around 100 years ago
19. Dame Lythe Albrime. During the Saint Grace schism, led the faction who wanted to recover Grace's remains and secure her canonization. Active around 100 years ago.
20. Sweamy Tweede. Last lodge grandmaster. Neutral on the point of Saint Grace, but unable to unite the lodge behind their founding mission, and declared the group dissolved. Active around 100 years ago.

12 Clues

Sprinkle these into situations where you think it would make sense for there to be some material clue relating to the mystery. Use your DM's instincts.

1. Dewidort's Paper Accomplices. 2d6 pieces of rough paper in a lacquered box painted with a shushing face and the phrase "Thou Shalt Not Get Found Out," Touching a pen to a page and uttering the phrase makes a map of everything within 100' of the user on the same level of elevation as them, burning ink all the way through to the other side. Treasure appears 4-in-6 and traps 2-in-6 on the map. At the bottom of the pile are two used pages— one shows part of Castle Brackenwold's lost wing, and one shows a trio of buildings in Smerne (0301), including a secret entrance into a safehouse built into one of the buildings.
2. Adventures in Fairyland, a collaborative work detailing information about the various fairy roads found in Dolmenwood, with multiple authors (including Ormyr, Ghrend, Brother Shankius, and Grace-Before-The-Unjust-Decree) denoting, adding to, and contradicting each other. Study reveals information about one door of each road, plus two or three locations to be found within.
3. Dame Theatrice's Journal, describing her attempts to find Dewidort's stolen treasure and turn it over to the authorities. Describes her suspicion of the shifty townsfolk of Smerne, maps of the region west of Lake Longmere, and notes about wolves, since Dewidort seemed to identify with them (with drawings of eyerolls). A couple latter entries describe Grace-Before-The-Unjust-Decree, an elf with surprising devotion to the One True God.
4. Memorandum from Dame Lythe Albrime, curtly reporting that the body of "Saint Grace" was not found, though her skin was recovered from a crookhorn patrol. Mentions rumors that the body has been taken north to the Table Downs for some unknown purpose. Tear-stained.
5. Receipt from Boroth the Smith. Sets out the material and labor cost for gilding decorations for "a statue of an elfin lady", as well as "right-exacte" bronze sheets with "holes which wilt suit the words they are surely set to". Says that it will be available for pick-up and transport from his smithy in Blackeswell in two months, and notes that it should look "passing beauteous in the green glow".
6. Letter from Grace-Before-The-Unjust-Decree. In flowing elfin script (with the occasional abortive attempt at Mulch writing), thanks "Chief Mulcher Bosoltob" for hosting her, memorializes several pastoral memories. Notes that she has always felt at peace among bracken, fungus, lichens, and mushrooms of all kinds, as her friends have often heard her remark. Promises to visit after her ministry to the crookhorns of the Nagwood to help calm tensions between the chief's village and the nutcaps.
7. Memorandum from Gremlith Speldare. Warns against further attempts to recover the remains of Grace, as she has learned of a new power in the Table Downs, a grotesque and powerful undead queen
8. Locket, containing a cameo a severe hooded man with a single eye, as well as a note. "Though to be far from you is arduous, it is a balm to my heart that in protecting the Ring, I am protecting also the message concealing your order and the Key, and thus a part of your Sucha Geas."
9. Account of Key, assistant-scribe. Mentions all he has managed to learn about the construction of Brackenwold Keep, including that it encircles an old well, as well as the Tened, Sko, Alasay, and Derphan gates. Some musings about the correct translation of what these words might mean follows.
10. Lythe's booklet. Stuffed with several paper screens intended to cover different passages of text to reveal humorous messages. All-clear reports regarding the Cold Prince's agents, save for concerning rumors about a Snow Elf embassy near some waterfall.
11. Proposal regarding Fort Vulgar Lodge, suggesting that the order re-establish a base there in light of concerning rumors about a "Nag Lord" operating in the northern woods. "After all, it may transpire that news will be pursued and halted before it gets all the way back to to Derphan and headquarters."
12. Exhortation of Just-War-Nourish. Epistle to all other members of the lodge, pointedly asking why we rest on our laurels. Why does the grandmaster not constantly badger the duke for funding? Why do our magicians not demand the hooded men forget the errors of the Aubrathon and remember their duty? Why does the Heavenseeker Key linger in our headquarters when it could be plugging some byway into Dolmenwood? And so on.