#Highlands

[dailyadventureprompts]

Dungeon: Grandfather's Hungering Maw

Said to have been carved by an exiled dwarven king after his name and ignominious deeds were stricken from the records of his clan, this brooding edifice contains a darkness far deeper than any normal glacial cave.

The dungeon's name comes from a settlement in the foothills, with a mostly human population ignorant of the monument's dwarven origins. In their myths the face is infact that of a great giant, tricked by the folkhero founder of their village into staying very, very still while he was served a great feast, growing so spoiled and indolent that he was eventually buried by the mountain snow and froze solid. A recent series of avalanches that've buried paths and even destroyed homesteads have put it into people's heads that grandfather might be waking up.

Adventure Hooks:

A merchant caravan the party is riding along with takes a detour up into the highlands, following rumours of a village that's paying a premium for foodstuffs of late. Upon arrival they're strongarmed out of their cargo by a crowd of armed villagers, who heap the provisions on an overburned yak cart set to depart up the mountain on the next day. Fear of the giant has made some of the villagers turn into a panicked mob, emptying the granaries and raiding their neighbour's larders to supply ever larger and hastier "tribute" runs up to the mountain's mouth. Food is growing scarce in the village, and those with the foresight to worry about winter provisions dare not speak up: An old woman was accidentally killed trying to fend off the toughs uprooting her garden, and her still warm body was piled into the yak cart next to her unripe rutabagas.

Seeking the power of her infamous ancestor, a disfavoured daughter of the dwarven throne has ventured to the Maw with a group of sellswords in tow in the hopes of discovering the means of making herself queen. Down into the mountain's gullet they've found a great labyrinth, hewn over centuries by the still shuffling corpse of the nameless king, unable to fully rest until he has constructed a tomb worthy of his hubris. The would be ruler and her entourage are eating well thanks to the unsuspecting villagers' food deliveries, and have a few agents in town helping the process along while they continue their delve.

There's more than a stone worn skeleton and a few fortune hunters inhabiting the depths. A millennia ago Ahlkenahl the Vanquisher was a feared demon of war, thought invincible before the dwarven king forged a ring with the fiend's true name inscribed upon it and forced the Vanquisher to pledge an oath of eternal servitude. Driven into exile along with his mortal captor, Ahlkenahl has resentfully laboured alongside the king as he descended into witless undeath, even centuries after the ring was lost somewhere in the tomb along with the chipped fingerbone it rested on. The demon's occasional demolition filled bouts of rage cause the avalanches on the mountain's exterior, and they've only grown more frequent as he's attempted to stop the Heir and her underlings from finding the ring.

It's a three way race between the players, the dwarven heir, and the fiend to see who can find the ring first, having to not only battle eachother, but subterranean monsters, collapsing tunnels, and freezing glacier caverns along the way. Of course Ahlkenahl doesn't play fair, as the fiend can revive any body that finds its way into the Hungering Maw (such as dead villagers loaded on the Yak cart or slain sellswords) into undead minions, growing in strength as the situation becomes more desperate. The fiend can even send the undead down into the valley to do his bidding, chasing after whichever group managed to get the ring first or even go on a murder-filled supply run to bring back more bodies.

Simply getting the ring isn't enough to control Ahlhenahl, as the war-demon's true name is written in an infernal script that must be researched before it can be understood and spoken aloud. This gives the party a chance to catch up if the heir makes it out of the labyrinth with the prize and vice versa. It likewise gives Ahlkenahl's undead minions time to become a real threat both in number and as he deliberately creates more fearsome versions.

The Vanquisher can freely communicate with anyone holding the ring, an ability originally intended to allow the exiled king to command his bound demon in the field which now allows Ahlkenahl to whisper temptation into the ear of whoever holds it. Think of what he could do for them if they let him out of the labyrinth, the enemies he could slay, the kingdom he could carve on their behalf. Sure it would mean unleashing a walking massacre on the landscape but what's a little carnage between pactmates?

Art1 Art2

#mountain #dungeon #dwarf #mountain dungeon #caravan #fiend #demon #highlands #mid level #low level #undead

[illustratus]

The Incoming Mist, Deer in the Highlands by Charles Stuart

#charles stuart #art #highlands #scottish highlands #scotland #deer #deers #landscape #mist #misty #scottish #animals #britain #british #nature #mountain #mountains

[billyclicks]

We really enjoying our trip to Iceland and I think this might be one of my fave shots from our trip

#landscape #photography #highlands #landscape photography #iceland #iceland photography

[peacefulandcozy]

Instagram credit: comewithkris

#oxfordshire #oxford #oxford university #cambridgeshire #cambridge #england #scottish highlands #scotland #edinburgh #uk #united kingdom #dark academia #dark academia aesthetic #streets #villages #britain #highlands

[maureen2musings]

Fairy Glen

mcburneyphotography

#scotland #highlands #magic #mystical #curators on tumblr

[livesunique]

Dunderave Castle, Inveraray, Loch Fyne, Scotland,

Courtesy: Saving Castle

#art #design #architecture #history #luxury lifestyle #style #luxury house #luxury homes #castle #dunderave #scotland #loch #loch fyne #inveraray #timeless #romance #highlands #savingcastle

[ghoulshavemorefun]

Fairy Glen, Isle of Skye.

#isle of skye #scotland #highlands #fairy glen #kodak ultramax 400

[ardley]

Glen Affric dawn in ultra-wide

photographed by Freddie Ardley

#photographers on tumblr #landscape #photography #artists on tumblr #travel #nature #art #photographer #beauty #view #scotland #glen affric #forest #waterfall #river #mountains #highlands #uk

[travelbinge]

By Mblockk

Eilean Donan, Highands, Scotland

#curators on tumblr #scotland #europe #travel #eilean donan #architecture #uk #united kingdom #great britain #northwestern europe #highlands #mblockk

[zou-san]

Loch Etive, Highland, Scotland

#photography #photographers on tumblr #scotland #highland #highlands #loch #reflection

[medieval-castle]

‘Framed Reflection’ Kilchurn Castle, Scotland.

@danchristie_24

#medieval #castle #architecture #medieval castle #scotland #landscapes #kilchurn castle #photography #nature #united kingdom #reflections #highlands #great britain

[dailyadventureprompts]

Adventure: A visit to Dawdlewall Fortress

Well there goes the neighbourhood... won't be too hard to catch it though....

Meet Clover, She's a primordial spirit of the land, and a very polite one at that. She embodies the place where the ancient mountains meets the lush green of valleys and lakes below, and her name is derived from an ancient elven poetic composition about her that refers to her mowing through the canopy like it was clover in a lawn.

In times of yore, a great hero awoke her to save their home from an invading army, simultaneously breaking the cliff-face free an undauntable defender. In the usual course of things a spirit like clover would have been unsummoned as soon as the crisis had passed, but the hero and all of their neighbours were just so taken with the gentle giant that they decided to let her stay.

Generations later, Clover has become a beloved local icon, gently grazing the surrounding forests while the fortress on her back serves as the region's seat of power. While most rulers of Dawdlewall have tried to live up to the hero's example the most recent; Gottfried Scarlett, Earl of Eastcress has turned out to be a bit of a bastard. Having ascended to rule Dawdlewall through a convoluted inheritance scheme, he intends to use his authority to wring the region dry of riches, backing up his power grab with kaiju sized threats.

Adventure Hooks:

The party can run into the earl's forces in a number of ways, having set up impromptu toll roads, shaking down local guilds, strong arming tavern staff for free service, ubiquitous "assholes throwing their weight around" type of behaviour. Things inevitably come to a head when the party delve a local dungeon and end up running face to face into the earl's "tax collectors" insisting that they need to pay a "delving fee". A brawl ensues, and the party either find themselves carted off to the Dawdlewall dungeons or on the run with a bounty on their head.

In attempting to fill his treasury as much as possible, Earl Gottfried has ironically made himself tremendously easy to rob. Wagons full of extorted gold make their way across the marshy roads towards the fortress snail. Though well guarded, these trusted troops are overworked and prone to error. Start planning your robinhood ambushes now.

As one of the many privileges granted to him by his new noble title, the Earl has seized control of the ancient hero's staff, which is the only means of communicating with Clover. He's already steered the oblivious primordial to crush a tiny logging hamlet that refused his unjust enchroachment , allowing the denizens to evacuate as a show of his magnanimity (also because it's hard for a giant earth-churning snail to sneak up on anyone). Seizing this staff is the key to kicking Gottfried to the curb (or off the edge of the Fortress, if the party is feeling particularly dramatic) but suddenly puts the heroes in a difficult position. Who can they trust with Clover's titanic power? Do they keep the staff for themselves or use it as a bargaining chip in the power vacuum left by their enemy's departure?

Artsource

#highlands #low level #rebelion #outlaw #elemental #forest #mountain

[maureen2musings]

Eilean Donan Castle

fayazey

#scotland #highlands #curators on tumblr

[pangeen]

“ Glorious Morning Mood “ // Arnar Kristjansson

#Highlands #Iceland #nature #landscape #spring #estuary #riverscape #mountainscape #Sunrise #drone #aesthetics #wanderlust #explore #follow #discover

[palaeoplushies]

Selected sights from my recent trip to Oban, Scotland. The weather may not have been the best but the views were still gorgeous.

#photographs #oban #scotland #highlands #holiday

[unteriors]

Crescent Trail, Highlands, North Carolina.

#Highlands #North Carolina