THE CURSED CAVES OF INGRŌZU

Hook: The path led here... You stand at the entrance to a narrow, high limestone cave emitting crystal clear water along a gurgling course. The autumn forest line of sentinel pines and gold-leafed birch stands at your back. The brambles caught at your skin and clothes, all the way here. Your skin is scratched and sore, your clothing torn. This is where the thing ended up, after a short chase. Some kind of monster the locals said was terrorising the populace... It was ugly. That much is sure... Almost killed Yric... Bit his arm clean off... Was that a frog? Or a man? Had plenty of teeth... And it was huge... At least the size of a grizzly on its hind legs... And what's that smell? You look around you at the short wall of rocky cliffs and at the ground around the watercourse... Bones... little ones... This thing liked children... and old women... But, the bones are bleached and dry, and the smell seems to come with the cool air emanating from the cave mouth. A whisper of breath that carries a cloying scent, as if the cave itself ate those people. Then a sound... High-pitched 'peeps', echoing lightly, now and again, over the splashing of the stream...?

Details: Ingrōzu is a demon from an old world. He was a general in an army of Chaos when the world was new. He fought in many battles with the god of Chaos leading him and his kind... He once had mortal worshippers, but, times changed, and Law destroyed his world. He took his sword and fled to a dark corner where he could nurse his wounds and pride. But, then Men came there, too... For a long time, the demon kept to himself. Unsure if he should act. He eventually got courageous enough, and hungry enough (Ingrōzu loves human flesh...) he started stealing children and elderly women from the hills and the forest, when they wandered alone or too close to it at night. His lamp-like, nocturnal eyes make nighttime an easy to hunt.

The demon has a brood of frog-demons that he calls children. They are small. Only about 2' high. They are not quite frogs, but, some kind of cross, like himself, between man, frog, and shark. Ingrōzu is a much larger version of the smaller demons he commands, only he dresses in ancient armour of bronze and leather, and cloth. And he wears bangles and rings from the days when he was a god... And his sword... His sword is a cursed thing... It is large and black, and wide... and the grip is made of bronze with twin, toothed frog heads staring in opposing directions with bulbous, cabochon ruby eyes for the pommel. The cross-guard has been designed to look like Ingrōzu, himself, eating the blade where it connects to the grip. The demon stands 10' tall, his head, the largest part of him, looming over long, sinewy arms with spade-like hands, and short, but powerful, legs with wide, flat, webbed feet, all ending in yellowing claws. His body is slick and moist, like a frog's, the colour of dark earth pebbled with ochre tubercles. Ingrōzu's mouth is, like all of his progeny, lined with rows of shark-like razor teeth that replace themselves when lost or broken.

There are 1' long 'tadpoles' with small arms and legs, all ending in tiny, sharp claws, swimming in the deeper areas of the cave. They sit at the bottom of pools, waiting for food, then swarm the target. The smaller demons wander around the caves, and serve Ingrōzu, completely. They are ravenous, but, cowardly.

Most of the water in the caves and tunnels is calf-high, but, the deeper areas are 10-20'. There are narrow tunnels under the water the tadpoles and smaller demons use to move easily through the cave system without using the larger paths. Most of the ceilings are high, ranging from 10'-35'.