The Ashlar & Gloamhold Archive
Centuries ago, another settlement stood where Dulwich now stands. Much of the area's ancient history has been forgotten—lost to time and memory. However, some buried or lost fragments of the past yet remain…
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Everyone—even the powerful—has enemies, and the Nameless Mage was no exception…
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The Duchy of Ashlar is small and constrained. Always, the forces of evil and shadow press inwards upon its borders. If it were not for a stout few, death and darkness would have long ago overwhelmed the land. Dunstone was once Ashlar's northern bulwark. Now…
Far below the sunlit surface lie places and things undreamt of by decent commonfolk. Some such things have never seen the light of day, while others have escaped into the Underlands to escape the hated sun.
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There are always those willing to profit from the most odious of all trades—slaving—and to grow wealthy from other people’s misery. Most of the smugglers lurking in the dismal coastal village of Coldwater are nothing more than smugglers.
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The past rarely stays buried forever, and forgotten and forbidden things have a way of finding their way back into the light.
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Once the last friendly place in the so-called Valley of Tears the Hall of Nuraduum is now known by a different name of far more sinister demeanour—the Cursed Refuge. Some travellers who pass through its stone door do not emerge again, while others tell terrifying stories of the nameless horrors they encounter in the enduring dark of the old dwarven fastness. Persistent rumours tell of old treasures hidden in the place, and a few old dwarves dream of reclaiming the refuge—so that at least a fragment of long-fallen Vongyth may again be held by dwarves. Will the characters dare the rumour-shrouded refuge, or will they flee the horrors that yet lurk within?
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For centuries, the adherents of a strange cult have harvested the skulls of learned folk and interred them in the so-called Halls of the Undying Oracles. Thus, their knowledge is safeguarded for future generations. Now an earthquake has severely damaged the Halls. Was it a natural event, divine punishment for the cult’s blasphemous works, or is something more sinister going on?
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Lost to time and battered by the foulness of its surrounds, the decrepit and mouldering Decaying Citadel of the Fated Warlock slowly sinks into the Salt Mire…
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South of dismal Coldwater, where the land grows wild and untamed, and the endless waves of the Bitter Sea batter Ashlar’s coast, the isolated hamlet of Barrowhurst huddles hard between slick sea cliffs of grey stone and the eastern fringes of the heavily wooded, rugged and steeply-sided but round-topped Ochel hills.
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Straddling a shallow ford on the Tanu River, Bywater boasts an inn, a toll house and a handful of simple peasant homes. Sometimes, interesting or odd things are washed down the Tanu River and get stuck at the ford. Some of these things are sold at the Weary Traveller Inn.
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The House of Yspher sits perched upon a lonely hilltop south of Dunstone. It can be reached only by climbing a narrow, bramble-choked path snaking its way up along the hill’s rugged flanks. Stubborn thickets of holly and hawthorn surround the old manor, and vines of pale ivy crawl across its crumbling face like veins and exposed muscles. Only the sullen, eye-like windows are spared, behind which lurks an utter blackness, even on the brightest day.
An isolated place, perched upon an inhospitable coast at the head of a muddy coastal path, Coldwater is not an easy, or pleasant, place to visit.
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Standing on the fringes of the vast and noisome Salt Mire, Thornhill is a miserable, hard place.
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The small Braalite cult centred on the Crooked House comprises the Ilmarinen family and several of their servants.
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Legends tell of Blackshard Hold—a dwarven redoubt nested far to the south, in the all but impenetrable Forest of Gray Spires. The dwarves of clan Kildare built the hold around a vast monolith of glimmering black onyx
Dungeon Backdrop: Pit of Unquiet Souls comes in separate releases designed for the fifth edition of the world’s most popular Roleplaying Game involving dungeons and/or dragons, Pathfinder First Edition and Old-School Rules (OSR).
Saare’s Pit has another, more lurid, name—and for good reason. The Pit of Unquiet Souls squats at the centre of a nest of macabre tales of madness, horror and death. It is said, those who spend too much time in the abandoned mine often go mad or disappear entirely, and old miners’ tales tell of the pit’s very rocks whispering horrible secrets to those toiling in its bowels. Still, there are those who think treasure yet lurks in the mine and will brave its terrors to retrieve them.
Standing on Selka Street, this rowdy inn is a favoured haunt of adventurers, mercenaries and other rough and ready sorts. Run by the grizzled ex-mercenary Rister Osma the place offers cheap, no-frills food, drink and accommodation.
Lurking twixt the crag-jagged hills south of Dunstone sit the ruined remains of an old dwarven fortress-temple. Rusted helms and broken blades jut from the surrounding soil like cast-off husks of iron grain, betraying the area’s violent history.
White Moon Cove is a respectable fishing town located in a cove which acts as an excellent, natural harbour. The inhabitants of this tightly-knit community are sober, hardworking and amiable fishermen, traders and other sturdy folk making their living from the sea.
The Mottled Spire’s wild, rugged uplands lie beyond the Selka River. Crumbling ruins and abandoned mines—the leavings of civilisation’s ebbing tide—dot the hills. One such place is the isolated wind-blasted ruin of Bleak Hill Manor.
Cut from a chunk of local limestone and set above the tavern’s front door, the luridly carved face of an orc identifies this place as the infamous Orc’s Head. Notorious throughout the duchy as the haunt for adventurers preparing to dare Gloamhold’s depths, the Orc’s Head is a place of tall tales and hard drinking. Decent folk rarely venture inside.
One of the best-known establishments on Cheap Street, Raisa’s Curios fills the first three floors of a tottering four-storey townhouse. Known throughout the city, Raisa’s Curios is one of those places adventurers often come to browse in hopes of finding something interesting or valuable among the junk and bric-a-brac.
Standing on a dingy side street (location L3 on the City of Languard map), a stylised sign of an oversized scythe cutting through an ankle spurting a ridiculous amount of blood marks this semi-reputable establishment. Run by its one-legged owner Arvo Outila this inn has operated under its current name since he purchased it 15 years ago after a horrendous accident on his farm. It doesn’t offer food or accommodation. This is a place to drink (copiously) and listen to music.
Languard is a busy, noisy place. The administrative and mercantile heart of the Duchy of Ashlar it is, however, also a place of fear and gradual decay.
A pirate enclave surrounded by dense woods on three sides and the ocean’s tumultuous waters to the east, Deksport is a perfect base from which to raid nearby shipping lanes. Built at the mouth of a valley opening into a sheltered bay the town possesses a deep, safe natural anchorage. Protected by a slippery, seaweed-fringed breakwater of decrepit, ancient construct at any time up to a dozen ocean-going ships and scores of smaller craft rest at anchor in the harbour.
Standing near the mouth of the Tanu River, Pebble Mill is a miracle of Abarinite engineering. The mill—powered by the Tanu’s tidal bore—gives this small hamlet its name (and purpose) and is the inhabitant’s main source of employment.
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