Griffon Roosts

These Griffon Roosts are set toward the east end of the Goduanil, though this location can be placed into your world wherever griffons roost. They are intended to range from EL 7-9, depending on which is needed for your adventure.

The Goduanil is a region filled with rocky hills, where along the valley floors flows purple ooze in streams that run all the way to the sea. This roost is set in a valley off one of the main streams of ooze. The difficult terrain adds a +1 to the CR of this encounter.

1 Approach through the valley

A steep 100′ deep gorge devoid of a river branches off from the main valley, leading off in a direction clearly away from the central valley that runs with purple ooze. Stands of leafless birch saplings cling to the cliffsides in this otherwise barren landscape.

The characters hear the occasional flapping of wings as the wind gusts. Occasional rocks will break loose and tumble from the cliffsides. The party is not in danger of these small rocks, but they are an indication of something being afoot. When the party returns to the main valley, they will need to find a creative way around or over the rivers of ooze.

2 Bend in the rocks

The valley makes a turn to the left here, cutting a rocky path through the mountains. The bend obscures the view of the valley. Boulders cling to the ledges of the hillsides.

The characters see a shadow make its way across the valley floor. By the time they look up, whatever it was that caused the shadows has passed them over and is out of sight.

3 Hoodoos

Three sandstone hoodoos rise like towers from the valley floor, the result of years of extreme erosion in this valley. The scattered skeletal remains of large quadrupeds dot the valley floor. A few large feathers are blown about by the gusts of wind across the landscape, drawing attention to the tufts of hair clumped in small, regular dips in the ground.

In actuality, it is more the doing of the ooze that has caused the erosion and thus the hoodoos, areas of hardness where the erosion has not run its course on the rock. The skeletons and tufts of hair are those of horses, picked up from the lands to the north and east of the Goduanil and flown in to feed the griffons and their offspring. If the characters collect reagents or materials for fine brushes, they will recognize the horsehair and can collect a few horses worth, though not before they encounter the following.

Four griffons protect this valley floor, while the others hunt. They attack the party upon their entering this area. Resolve this encounter immediately after reading the above text.

Creatures: Griffons (4): MM page 139.

If the characters search the edges of the floor, they will find a broken staff and a torn red and white flag. This provides evidence that one of the horses belonged to a local knight.

4 View of Nests

From this vantage, it is clear that atop the hoodoos, large sticks frame 20’x20′ bowls filled with oversized, brown and white eggs.

The mound of rocks that form the vantage point have been affected by many years of erosion and the ooze begin to slip out from under the party’s feet, revealing a few pockets of a purple ooze that seep up to ground level, its acidic discharge spewing plumes of steam into the air.

Creature: Purple Ooze (see tomorrow’s post on CCB!)

5 Nests

The sticks and straw are bound together to make a nest. The sticks have been chewed at the ends by sharp beaks. In the center of the nest is a pair of speckled eggs.

Two griffon eggs are in each nest. The eggs are nearing the time to hatch, and when the characters arrive in this location, there is a 50% chance per egg that it will be hatching.

Development: As the characters explore the first of the nests, the four remaining elder griffons (14 HD) swoop in and attack, with the tactic of lifting them off of the floor of the nests and dropping them from the sky onto the valley floor. They will attack relentlessly until one side is vanquished. After the battle, in one of the nests, the party finds a mace +1 and a helm of alacrity +2 among some shredded metal that once was a suit of plate mail.


Posted in 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons / d20 fantasy / Pathfinder, Adventure, rules agnostic and tagged , , by with no comments yet.

Fringilla Monk

The Fringilla monks are acclaimed vintners who live in the isolated hilltop monastery Kloster Finch in Ettal Valley among the birds and their alchemical concoctions. In addition, they are mixologists that excel at making potions that bring joy and a mellow state in the populace. Through these concoctions, the people of the nearby towns of Garlston and Harlsbridge have come to appreciate and even revere the monks over the past twenty or more years.

However, more recently, the hills have grown more wild, ettins and ogres finding their way into the countryside, and the monks have modified their mixes with an aim toward incapacitating these foes. These once-peaceful monks have also been forced to take up martial arts in recent years in response to these external pressures. They combine tai chi with judo to embody a form of martial discipline that uses their attackers’ momentum against them, a technique which they have now begun to train the people of Garlston in.

Their brotherhood has grown so fast that they have begun construction of a new wing of the monastery. This has not been without a certain amount of political upheaval, as many of these new brothers are still naive to the more spiritual practices of the brotherhood. As such, a distinct caste-like structure has developed as a hierarchy within the brotherhood, with the elder monks enjoying some hypocritical leisure time while the young recruits learn their discipline.

A typical Fringilla monk has a high strength and a high dexterity and is spiritually aware. Many of the monks are privy to the highly specialized alchemy employed in the monastery, so they will have the brew potion feat, for which they only pay half the cost of normal brewing costs, since they pay the difference with their penance. In addition, all the monks know their fringilla style martial art, which provides a +1 to their base attacks, and another +1 if more than one monk engages a single foe.


Posted in Uncategorized and tagged , by with no comments yet.

Goduanil

Pronounced Go-do-ann-ill, this is a region of bleak hills where the sky is always overcast, which end in cliffs that overlook the Olde Bay in the center of its north shore. In the valleys run wide streams of black pudding and other oozes, fungi and molds are common.

Goduanil stretches for many miles along the rocky coast and runs almost to the Swift River Road which parallels the river up onto the Cyrűk Mountains.

Locations and encounters within Goduanil include:
* Pryad Wastes
* Black Pudding Streams
* Oozes, Fungi and Molds
* Griffon Roosts
* Waste Giants

Locations of interest to the party include:
* Arthens Lighthouse
* Various ancient ruins sites
* The mysterious tower ruins where rumor has it a wizard went to hide


Posted in Region and tagged , , by with no comments yet.

Nagy Tömeg Mountains

The Nagy Tömeg are a Mountain range in the center of the Farghol, the northwest border of the Lands of Northbay, the southeast border of the Central Valley.

Deep in the mountains live Deep Gnomes, though they are not often bothered by the Gnomes who live closer to the surface, so there has been little contact between the groups over the ages.

Surface Gnomes live in caves above ground on the north side of the mountains facing the valley, and have built an elaborate series of mechanized lifts to move goods out of the mountains. These lifts also operate in subterranean mines that dot the range. The raw materials and the goods crafted from these materials are the main source of the local economy.

Much of the interior of the range has not been explored by those friendly with humans. It is rumored that fierce Giants live in the center of the mountains. In addition, the bellows of an ancient wyrm have also been heard, coinciding with thunder and lightning storms that rip through the valley in the spring. These have been isolated to emanating from the side of the range that faces Elsemere Wood, where no humans dare go.

Rivers run down the north side of the Nagy Tömeg into the Central Valley. On the floor of the Central Valley live halflings and quarterlings, also more appropriately called three-quarterlings. There are also a few human settlements in the valley, numbering close to 300 inhabitants.


Posted in Region and tagged , by with no comments yet.

Ettin Lands

At the southern end of the Cyrűk mountains, a strain of ettin have made their home for multiple generations. These two-faced creatures often end up meeting their fate when one of their brethren challenges them to a duel to the death over some misunderstanding.

The Ettin Lands are a series of three tall hills surrounded by the neighboring peaks. Within these borders, ettin law reign supreme, that of might makes right. This way of life has been passed down through ettin culture, a mismatch of orc, giant, and various other mythologies and beliefs. It seems they are continually confused, perhaps due to their multiple heads, which often do not agree. Ettin (especially from this isolated region) have been known to argue with their own heads, sometimes leading to the two halves of the body pummeling the other to the ground. What is strange is watching them go at it — the right head controls the left side of the body, and vice versa, so the opposing blows must cross one-another in order to contact the intended targets.

Occasionally an ettin will travel outside of these borders into lands inhabited by humans or others of their ilk, but they have largely stuck to this region because of the plentiful supply of large game to hunt. In the neighboring Ettal valley, the meat is much leaner and quicker, making for too challenging a hunt, a major deterrent to this lazy species.

Still, they have been known to hunt men for sport. That is, when they can get along long enough to keep organized.

Recently, the ettin have been haunted by their own zombies, who roam the mountainsides at night in search of brains… ettin technically have two per body, making them even tastier prey to these zombies.


Posted in Region and tagged , by with no comments yet.

Ettal Valley

Located in the heart of the Cyrűk Mountains, the Ettal Valley stretches east where the Ettal River joins the Swift River four miles northeast of Castle Stieglitz. Where the tributary meets the white water of the raging river, the thirty-year-old Harlsbridge provides across the span. A road heads east along the north edge of the river, paralleling the river on the floor of the valley for 12 miles, where the town of Garlston rests at the base of a cliff beneath Kloster Fint, home of about 20 monks who scribe tomes and work as vintners. A mountain stream falls over 400 feet from the steep wine fields down to the town, where it powers mills before joining the Ettal River. Garlsbridge crosses the Ettal and the road continues east on the south side of the river.

Over the mountains to the south of the Ettal Valley, lie the Ettin homelands. Their chants can be heard late at night in the valley. They can be occasionally encountered, but it is rare. Other encounters include natural creatures and others as per the random encounter chart for mountain valleys.

The relatively sparse humanoid traffic allows the natural creatures in the valley including wolves, foxes, and deer, to trive. The valley’s foliage is mostly conifers which cover the mountains up to the tree line a few hundred feet from their summits, though some deciduous trees (maple, oak, dogwood) grow in dense clusters along the river. Snow caps many of the mountains for much of the year.

Some Wyndm folk live in small communities in the trees halfway up the mountains on the north edge of the valley. With their natural lifestyle, they maintain a small ecological footprint.


Posted in Uncategorized and tagged , by with no comments yet.