1105 Harrowmoor Keep

Gloomy, rugged woods dotted with jagged fingers of dark granite. A groaning wind blows from the Loch.

• Terrain: Craggy forest (4), Aldweald
• Lost/encounters: 3-in-6.
• Ley line Hoad (p18): Arcane spell-casters perceive the feeling of having just awoken from a dream.

The Groaning Loch

Dangerous waters: Fathomless, cold, and unquiet. Unpredictable currents, whirlpools, and the presence of kelp ies (DMB) make navigation of the loch’s waters a perilous undertaking; few boats are ever seen upon it.

Cliffs: The Loch is bounded by forbidding, granite cliffs, 200 yards high.

Bays: In places, the waves of the Loch lap against forlorn beaches of black shingle.

Harrowmoor Keep

Perched upon the high, granite cliffs that verge the southern extent of the loch is the hereditary seat of the Harrowmoor family, who have lordship (under the Duke of Brackenwold) over this region of Dolmenwood.

The manse: The keep is tall and heavily fortified, with a steeply-roofed turret at each corner—all inhabited by cawing flocks of rooks. Its gates face southward, opening onto the bend where the Harrow Road from Prigwort turns and becomes Lochsbreth Road. Looking up at the keep from the waters of the loch below, it appears to be carved from the same granite as the cliffs, with hardly a join.

Interior: Chilly halls of echoing stone, starkly decorated with ancient tapestries, ancestral suits of armour, and ornamental polearms.

Inhabitants: The people of House Harrowmoor, presided over by Lady Theatrice Harrowmoor (p60), and consisting of her family, guards, servants, and cats.

Visitors: The Harrowmoor family have a reputation as being distant, unwelcoming, and severe. The Lady may, however, offer her hospitality to intellectuals, academics, or those of poetic spirit.

Library: The lower chambers of the keep are dug within the cliff itself. Among them is an ancient library, where dusty tomes of philosophy and history rest upon oaken shelves in dim candlelight. Behind one bookcase, a secret door leads to a steep stair carved into the granite of the cliffs, which winds its way downward to the Cove of the Forroth.

The Cove of the Forroth

A desolate, stony cove beside the loch. A steep stair runs from the cove to a secret door in the cliffs, leading to the library of Harrowmoor Keep.

Summoning the Forroth: At this site, at midnight on a moonless night, one who performs beautiful, mournful songs on the magical flute in the Harrowmoor family’s possession (see p60) may summon a monstrous entity known to the Harrowmoor family as the Forroth.

The Forroth: A gargantuan, jelly-like monstrosity which lurks in the abyss of the loch. Its form is a roughly spherical mass, sprawling with luminescent green tentacles.

Communion: Once summoned, the Forroth enters into a telepathic communion with all present in the cove, drawing them into a dream of the black, watery chasm in which it dwells. This fugue lasts until dawn. The after-effects are 1d3 days of exhaustion plus an insight into a puzzle or problem that plagues one’s mind.

Unearthly advisor: Consultation of the Forroth in times of trouble is a tradition among the lords and ladies of House Harrowmoor, though over-frequent contact with the entity caused several people in the line to succumb to delusions and waking nightmares.