As this week’s Monday welcomes the twentieth week of the year it also seeks dark omens appear over Dark Thrall Keep. Now the history of a place with such a name would be enough to chill even the most veteran of parties. However what lies within its hallowed halls and in the secret walls is even more chilling. But, enough of me taking about things that may or may not happen. Let’s grab a coffee, sit down and roll on with the adventure.
Dark Thrall Keep
320MoDaThKe
Carrying out the large pot, nearly a cauldron she thought to herself with a laugh as she upended the dirty water into the back alley. The Pot had contained a stew that contained mostly Lamb, well lamb-like meat, and fed the Five Fat Ravens tavern patrons. As she scrubbed out the last stubborn burnt-on morsels of food she glanced up towards the old ruins that lay on the cliffs above the City of Finchford.
“The Dark Thrall ruins…” She muttered to herself. The old keep was rumoured to have held the most holy of warriors during the age of King Parn the just. Marie had wanted to explore those ruins when she was a little girl many years ago. She got close before her parents had found her and her childhood friend Rhyan. She still remembers how mad they were, but also the fear in her parents eyes. That was the day she learnt the other half of the tales of the keep.
After King Parn was murdered his knights pursued the killers and encountered a fearsome enemy, a dragon. They retreated to the keep to hope its walls, towers and weapons would save them but they were wrong. The Dragon managed to kill all the knights and destroy much of the keep but it also disappeared. As the Knights never finished their vengeance it’s rumoured that their ghostly figures haunt the ruins. But the other rumour is that the dragon sleeps below the rubble, waiting for hundreds of years as it heals.
The Keep
As she remembered the old stories, a moment of movement, a flicker of light from the keep brought her to focus. The distant rhythmic low rumbling sound seemed to flow down from the keep across the valley below. There, against the moon-lit clouds there was a shadow, a shape. Something dropped in her stomach as she watched a massive figure land against the keep, wrapping its large wings around the towering spire of stone as a growth resonated through the town like thunder. The remaining patrons inside the Five Fat Ravens Tavern went dead silent as they slowly wandered out of the tavern.
As the last patron walked into the back of another that had stopped just outside the building they all watched in amazement and terror. A dragon, as large as the keep crawled down the keep, another reverberating growl hit them like a shock wave as they watched the incarnate of death disappear into the ruins.
Only then did the panic hit the patrons of the Five Ravens Tavern and soon the surrounding buildings were awake and alarmed. But by the morning only the patrons of the Tavern had seen the Dragon. The City officials had ruled it too a night too full of grog and the patrons had all accepted it. For many more nights the dragon hadn’t appeared again, but Marie had seen it. She doesn’t drink or eat anything from the Tavern so those excuses didn’t work on her.
She had seen the Dragon and no one would believe her.
Thoughts
A great week inspired by another on-the-spot adventure prompt from my daughter. This weekend is about the once thought long-dead Dragon in the keep that rises at night to ‘eat people in the towns’. She is a bit of fascinated by zombies and large lizards considering the last prompt she gave me was the Cult of the Forgotten. But I will try to do this one justice, but there is a twist this time.
Thanks for coming to the start of another week of adventure here. Don’t forget that this week we will expand this adventure further. So make sure to come back nightly so you don’t miss out on a thing. As I continue to slog through painting dozens of Archers and daemons I will try and balance D&D and Warhammer at my tabletop and want to take it as a time to remind everyone to seek balance. Take time for all aspects of your hobby, but don’t forget or neglect the adventure that goes on in your own life. So don’t forget to look for the adventure at home and don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe
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