Melarn Cavern

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The Melarn homestead, the smaller of their many houses, is further away from the busy cities where the family makes their claim to fame. To the south is the large cavern where the spiders are kept and their silk is harvested.

The road to the north takes them to Kalehgrul and is the direction the attackers have come from. They may be able to sneak around or fight their way through. Or, simply, defeat the attackers then move on from there.

Stalagmites grow in this cavern and they provide places to hide and get cover. But they do this for the attackers as well.

Heart of the Ruins

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The areas around the building provide a good vantage point and a good place to hide from the undead that will be swarming around the well of souls (the big glowy thing). However the ground is unstable with rotting vegetation, vines, leaves and debris from the ruins themselves so whoever treads across them best be packing an ankle brace.

The trees are twisted with large thick roots that piece into the soil. small creatures can hide within them (undead or alive) and they are easy enough to climb as well. The bushes along the way are thorny but don’t impede movement as such – but if unlucky they may nick a coin purse or bag.

The area in the centre dips inwards towards the well. The level where the well is is five feet lower than where the edge up the top is. This makes it harder to see down into the pit and the well itself, but that doesn’t seem to stop anything.

The orb, the power source in the well, emits a force field that disintegrates what touches it – however it fails. The more undead (or attacks from magical items, spells or effects) that hit the shield the more the power wanes. But it’s impossible to tell whether the shield was to keep things away from the core OR to keep the magic from the core contained. Regardless it looks like it’s been here for centuries and the magic is both waning and flaring.

Ferklends’ Palisade

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The palisade is new, for reasons uncovered in a few tales spoken in yesterday’s update. But the forest and swamp beyond that is as ancient as they come. Some of the trees have been cut down to repair the few houses in the town and to build the wall and defences. A crudely dug moat that spans at its widest ten feet lays around the wall that slows down aggressors, to some degree.

A few parts of the wall open and close to allow people through before being braced back shut again. a few platforms have been constructed against the wall to give it strength and to provide a place to stand and watch the the outside of the walls. However, along the wall the faces the swamp there are several more of these platforms as the attacks from the undead has grown in frequency and number.

Salt and Smoke

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The seaside town of Nigrun consists of around three dozen small homes, two warehouses, a tavern-come-inn and a general store. Most of the buildings are built out of wooden planks that encase mudbrick walls. There are two main streets that create an intersection that split Nigrun into three sections with a warehouse, store and tavern being the smallest section that is fenced off.

The main street that flows from these central buildings passes houses and smaller buildings as it moves down towards the sea and the three piers that form the docks. The second warehouse is located here and stores non-Nigrun produced goods which they use as trade and barter with other seafaring people. However this leaves the warehouse quite open to all sides and so there is a thirty feet tall watch guard tower here.

Most homes are occupied by a family or people that live together. Most of the people in this town are either farmers who create the grain and straw or fishermen who take out small boats to the bay that they have found themselves in. A few larger houses are positioned along the pebble beach opposite the warehouse.

Currently there are some hastily made barricades that face outwards from the city protecting the warehouse, general store and tavern primarily but a ramshackle group of hastily made walls have been erected. Some parts of the wall lay smouldering where what looks to be a small tower was constructed but otherwise all is quiet in the city like the town before the storm.

The barricades are about eight feet tall with small holes periodically around the base for people to shoot arrows through or to jab with spears out. There are a few places that are open where there is no wall but the gap appears to be about as big as a wagon or cart and one lays nearby ready to be pushed into place to block it once more.

The land outside of the barricade is mostly flat with some hill scattered around but from the vantage of a roof, tower or taller perch you could see for a few thousand feet if there was something large approaching. The waters are clear except for the large merchant boat in the dock and none of the fishing boats are out on the water leaving it a very full dock presently.

Inside the Ice Spire

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The walls of the room are sharp and harsh by they look like they are chipped back at jagged angles. A raised platform of ice, maybe 10 feet above the flat floor holds a statue that is in the stages of cracking and healing from a small trickle of water that drops from the roof above.

A smoother section of the wall lays behind the statue which looks like its purposefully been kept smooth and flat. Two large braziers shed flickering blue light around the room from either side of the statues platform from magical flames. Despite the room itself being well looked after and worn in places the hallway in has several different bones thrown against the wall and partially buried from snow that made its way down the hall.

Platara Glacier

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The footprints lead into the glacier itself, in the distance the wind howling through the steep cliffs made from carved ice mixed with distant screams. Or was it the wind that was making it sound like someone in pain or scared?

Following the tracks deeper into the frozen hell scape the party came across a cave, nearly hidden in the endless walls of ice and sediment. The muffled sounds of activity could be heard from within but otherwise it was cold and quiet. That was until the sound of claws on ice from within the dark cave could be heard.

Platara Glacier Wanderer Cave – created in Inkarnate.