THE PRIZE OF GRŴL

 


Hook: A gray granite cliff face looms over you, streaked vertically with swathes of black granite... The earth at your feet is firm and dry, the intermittent bright grass growing out of it is short and clings in patches. A yawning portal in one wide black granite section sits recessed between two plinths carved from the same stone. Upon these plinths are two massive black marble statues of dragons, twisting and writhing, their heads thrown back in a mute roar. One wing from each arches over the plinths to meet in the middle, creating a freestanding archway, the other wing folded under each body. Beneath the wings, a black granite stair climbs into into the darkness. The statues and rock inside the portal are polished smooth, but, marked with lichen, waste from birds, and dust and mud, especially near the ground. There are no indicative marks or identifying features other than the dragons... The forest stretches behind you, and the mountain's face before you rears high into the air and dwarfs you all. Even the portal is huge, monolithic in scope. You struggle to feel powerful under it. So, this is the resting place of the Book of Grŵl? A gentle, terrible feeling begins to crawl up your spines from the soles of your feet as you regard the high opening. It looks as if it will devour anything that approaches it... But, in you must go, if you wish to recover the Book of Grŵl for the spell to cure the princess from the ghûl sickness... Grŵl's curse must be broken, if you are to save the chieftain's daughter and the House of Lorias, and, if rumours are true? The Marcherwolds, as well...

Details: Grŵl, the Black Dragon, was the court magician of the Marcher Lord, the chieftain, Lorias, 50 years ago. He was secretly practicing the blacker arts in the bowels of the lord's keep, for the single purpose of creating a foothold in the Marches to begin his plan for domination, all while simultaneously creating the illusion he was the friend of the lord and his house. Lorias discovered the wizard's ruse and confronted him. Grŵl was hanged, but, not before cursing the House of Lorias by striking the princess down with his ghûl sickness. She quickly began to show signs that she was changing into a ghûl, a vampire. With the help of the priests of The Lady of Light, the chieftain was able to lock the princess in a chamber in the undercroft, lit on four sides by enchanted lamps containing sacred oils that will never be consumed by the fire. The Lady's light suspends the transformation, and keeps the princess in an endless slumber, unless a cure can be found...

Grŵl was the leader of a secret cult of Strixa, The Hand of Grŵl, necromancers dedicated to conquering the Marcherwolds. Their numbers are spread throughout the Marcherwold communities. At least, they were. Lorias's discovery prompted others to look more closely at anyone practicing the arts of magic and expel those they feared were practicing necromancy, which, in the end, became a region-wide wizard hunt, where many wizards were tried and killed, necromancers, or not. Grŵl's followers commissioned a special, hidden place to hold their master's book, protecting it with spells and traps, so that Lorias, and other wizards, would not have his power, yet, when the The Hand of Grŵl wished, they could gain access to it. A minotaur guards the entrance, and a fake book (marked 'book' on the map) was placed in a more easily accessible location to trick anyone who might try to steal it... The western part of the complex is a series of doors that drop onto the descending hallway as they move south. The first door is aligned with the hall and can be entered normally. The second and third are 5' off the ground, the fourth is 10'. Riddles, illusions, monstrous guardians, traps, and locks on magical doors confound any comers. There is a certain path one must take to enter this place with fewer risks, but, only two people in The Hand of Grŵl know the way, the current master, and his replacement. This path can only be passed and accessed by those bearing the gold medallion showing a skeletal hand. The symbol, when painted or depicted other ways, is a red skeletal hand on a black, round field.

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