0907 Bafflestone

Dismal, pathless woods; knotted roots and tangled boughs. Grisly, rasping moans punctuate the silence.

• Terrain: Tangled forest (3), Aldweald
• Lost/encounters: 2-in-6. Encounters are 3-in-6 likely to be with 2d10 wandering Bafflestone Thralls.
• Ley line crossing Lamm/Ywyr: Arcane spell-casters perceive an incessant, spiralling wailing, as if a gateway to the realm of the dead were nearby.

Enfeebling Emanations

Travellers within this hex are assailed by nausea, confusion, and unease, emanating from a malignant presence that can be sensed at the centre of the hex.

Effects: Living creatures suffer a –1 penalty to Attack Rolls and Saving Throws while in this hex.

Locating the source: The source of the emanations—the broken nodal Bafflestone —can easily be located by heading towards the sensed malignant presence.

Bafflestone

Those who arrive at the centre of the hex enter a shadowy, silent glade, wherein an ancient and forbidding nodal stone looms over dead grass. It is known to the Drune, its creators, as Bafflestone.

Appearance: The stone is an irregular, blocky prism of deepest red carnelian, about 8′ tall and 3′ wide, with a smoke-like vein of black crystal residing at its core.

All who view Bafflestone: Must Save Versus Spell or fall under its thrall (see Consequences of Bafflestone Exposure).

Examining: Close examination of Bafflestone’s surface reveals minutely carved Drunic sigils, repeating the phrase: “Bafflestone, Hand of Drune, Nexus of Lamm and Ywyr.”

Inscribed spell: Drunic runes describe the arcane spell Glyph of Locking. See Ley Lines and Standing Stones, p18 for details on learning this spell.

Corruption: Bafflestone was irrevocably warped by a pernicious ley resonance set up by Atanuwë, emanating from the captured nodal Sargstone. The stone’s inner magical structure erupted with a grievous and invisible wound that the Drune—much to their shame—were unable to staunch.

Consequences of Bafflestone Exposure

Those who fail to resist the Bafflestone’s power become sympathetic to the stone’s deep malignity.

Initial symptoms: Unable to sleep, unwilling to leave the stone’s presence without physical coercion, and unwilling to eat or drink, despite hunger and thirst.

Undead thralldom: Unless dragged, pulled, or otherwise coerced at least 1 mile away from the stone within 8 hours, those enthralled wither and die, remaining on this plane as morose and disconsolate undead wanderers: Bafflestone Thralls.

Bafflestone Thralls

Desiccated corpses that patrol the environs of Bafflestone without rest, seeking to drag outsiders to the site of the stone to test their wills against the monument’s eldritch presence.

Medium Undead—Mindless—Chaotic

Level 2 AC 11 HP 2d8 (9) Saves D12 R13 H14 B15 S16 Att Claw (+1, 1d4 + grasp) Speed 30 Morale 12 XP 35

Undead: Silent before attacking. Immune to biological effects (e.g. disease, poison) and mind-affecting spells (e.g. Vapours of Dream, Paralysation, Dominate).

Gang up: Groups of 3–4 thralls attempt to surround an individual victim to subdue them and drag them to Bafflestone.

Grasp: The thrall grabs onto the victim and only lets go if killed. The victim suffers a –2 penalty to Attack Rolls and AC. This penalty is cumulative if multiple thralls grasp the same victim. A victim grappled by 3 or more thralls is helpless (cannot attack, move, or act in any way) and is dragged towards Bafflestone.