dailyadventureprompts:Dungeon: Cairn of the Sorwood Giant“Tresspass not the threshold, as the
dailyadventureprompts:Dungeon: Cairn of the Sorwood Giant“Tresspass not the threshold, as the dreaming of stone is deep, so to is the rage of unwelcome waking” - Inscription upon the Cairn’s front gate, translated from a dead tongue“ By Order of the Duchess: FUCK OF, THIS IS MINE “ - graffiti on the same gate, common tongueSetup: Buried beneath the roots of the forest’s most ancient trees, the foundations for this lonely structure were set down in a now forgotten age of myths and heroes, the eulogies of which still echo deep within its shadowed halls. The Cairn was quarried and erected by a now forgotten clan of giants, as evidenced by the proportions of its halls, and the titanic moss covered bones that lay ensconced in the structure’s many subterranean vaults. Stylized engravings show the tomb occupants ruling over mortals and other beasts of the land, and engaging in hunts against dragons and other, stranger beasts. Though much of the structure has collapsed under the slow siege of thirsting roots, many of its chambers are still traversable, as over the centuries looters and wandering beasts have dug passages through the soil and stone looking for valuables or places to lair. Adventure Hooks: Everyone knows the tale of Duchess Grub, a proud and once powerful noblewoman who led her coalition of conspirators in an attempt to take the throne and was thoroughly rebuffed when the realm rose to deny her blatant grab for power. Her forces were routed, her allies captured, but she and her direct cohort escaped into the Sorwood. Exiled from their estates, they were forced to subsist off the mushrooms and berries and small creeping things they picked from the forest floor, eventually driving them to banditry that only further sullied her pretentious pedigree. While the previous sovereign was happy to let his old enemies languish in defeat, his ascendant daughter wishes to do away with the Duchess’s woodland farce and has finally put a bounty on the heads of her and her company. Ignorant of the bandits that occupied the region, a historian from a distant town sought to explore the cairn and learn a little of the forgotten giants and the lore they might have held. Now a captive, the Duchess’s men threaten the scholar into writing letters to entrap his sagely peers, dreaming of ransom and revenge on the families that left them to rot in the wood. -- source link