0512 High-Hankle and the Wayward Griffons

Ancient, tilled land, awash with the sounds of chittering hedgerow birds, clopping hooves, and lowing cattle.

• Terrain: Farmland (2), High Wold
• Lost/encounters: 1-in-6. Encounters are 2-in-6 likely to be with 1d4 knights (Level 1 knights— DMB) and 1d4 griffon trainers equipped with caged wagons, huge nets, and braces of hares, attempting to capture the wayward griffons established on Monk’s Hill.

The Town of High-Hankle

High-Hankle, sprawling capital of the High Wold, sits in the south of the hex, amid a patchwork of fields, farms, and thorps.

Town walls: A hulking sandstone wall girds the inner town.

Castle Perigonne: A dizzyingly tall tower that looms at the centre of the town. This is the home of Baron Hogwarsh (p60), ruler of the High Wold.

Town of hedonism: Under the lax rule of the current Baron Hogwarsh, High-Hankle has developed a reputation for revelry, carousing, and debauchery of all kinds.

Full settlement description: See p150.

Monk’s Hill and the Ruined Tower

A broad hill stands in the north of the hex, overlooking Tankards Road. Its summit and sides are clad with dense woodland, wild and untouched save by the locals who venture there to collect firewood. A ruined tower stands atop the hill, lost amid the tangled wood.

Griffons: Travellers sight 1d3 griffons wheeling in the air above the hill and gliding over the surrounding farmland, observing livestock below. These creatures recently escaped from the Griffonry in High-Hankle and are lairing in the upper floors of the ruined tower at the hill’s summit. They are a source of terror and aggravation for the farmers whose herds they prey upon.

Capture: Sir Waverly (p152) pays 1,500gp for each griffon safely returned to the Griffonry in High-Hankle.

Tower ground floor: Relatively intact, with a solid oaken door hanging off its hinges. Shrubs, mosses, and creepers have colonised the dank interior. A faint purple glow emanates from a circular shaft in the floor, leading 20′ down to the Accursed Grotto. A stone stair winds up to the upper floors.

Tower upper floors: Partially collapsed, overgrown with ivy. The 3 griffons have begun to establish a nest, pushing out errant rubble and mounding up branches and straw. Bones and carcasses of sheep are scattered around.

The Accursed Grotto

The shaft from the surface ends in a small cave, which opens into a larger subterranean grotto. At the centre of the grotto sits a dark, 10′-deep pool that emits a slowly pulsing, purple glow. Salt-crusted stalactites ring the cave walls, some of which are carved into the likeness of great, grimacing oxen with a blood-like liquid dripping from their mouths.

Examining the pool: A 4′-high, tarnished metal statue of a man in bishop’s robes can be spied at the bottom of the pool. The statue—depicting St Howarth—is solid silver, worth 1,500gp.

Touching the water: Save Versus Doom or be overcome with blood-lust, ruthlessly attacking allies for 1d6 Turns.

Touching the “blood”:Save Versus Hold or transform into an ox over the course of 2d6 days. The character can be returned to their normal form by magic of curse removal.

History: Long ago, this was a sacred healing pool associated with St Howarth, who once bathed here. Following Howarth’s fall (p68), the pool and grotto became accursed.