1901 The Chalk Giant

Flocks of crows caw and wheel above rugged chalk downs. Beds of gorse and twisted blue thistle.

• Terrain: Hills (2), Table Downs
• Lost/encounters: 1-in-6. Encounters are 2-in-6 likely to be with a peryton.

The Chalk Giant

A humanoid figure, 200′ high, framed by a doorway, occupies the side of a hill, carved into the chalk beneath the turf of the downs. It is visible for miles around.

The lost scholar: Crouched atop the hill is the Lost Scholar. He may spot PCs and wave to them excitedly.

Secret door: If the giant’s name—Talorch—is called, he magically animates and opens the doorway behind him, revealing a shimmering portal to the Crystal Cave.

The Perytons’ Nest

In the south-western reaches of the hex stands a 100′ sheer bluff. Atop sits a massive nest of brambles and boughs.

Inhabitants: 5 perytons (DMB).

Treasure: A gold necklace (1,500gp), 3 emeralds (1,000gp each), and a sack of 2,000sp. Three dead bramblings (DMB) are incorporated into the materials of the nest. One clutches a scroll sealed in a tube.

Reading the scroll: Descriptions of a crystalline dream- world of eternal life, in Drunic, as well as several drawings of the Chalk Giant, who is referred to as “Talorch.”

The Crystal Cave

Through the door in the Chalk Giant is a vast cave, its walls entirely encrusted in large purple and mauve crystals. An old man with the same face as the Lost Scholar appears in the reflection of the crystals, dressed in black hooded robes. He introduces himself as Alhair, a Drune.

Asking about his situation: Trapped here by an experiment involving the crystals’ legendary powers of eternal life. (Which, it turns out, forever entrap the soul.)

Asking about the scroll: Alhair’s bramblings were tasked to bring it to the Drune Lodge (hex 0507), but were waylaid by the perytons. His missive to the Aegis was lost.

Asking about the Lost Scholar: Alhair says the man was no doubt a projection of his own psyche, reacting to the local environment. “Either that, or I am a projection of his.”

The Lost Scholar—Dream Projection

An old, bearded human man, hunched and weary. He wears a tattered purple and mauve hooded robe. Claims to be the last survivor of a group of scholars from the land of Wyggrabole (a place not known to the PCs), who had come to study the Chalk Giant. All but he were eaten by a flock of perytons.

Demeanour (Neutral): Confused and distraught, cannot even remember his own name.

Speech: Old-fashioned, creaky. Woldish, Drunic.

Desires: Begs PCs to retrieve from the Perytons’ Nest his notes detailing his “extraordinary findings” and to help him find his way back to Wyggrabole.

Knowledge: Directions to the nest. Little about the giant itself.

True nature: The man is a dream projection of Alhair, the Drune trapped in the Crystal Cave. If PCs return to the spot where they met him, he has vanished.

Alhair—Ancient Drune

An ancient Drune who was alive at the creation of the Ring of Chell (p20).

Demeanour (Neutral): Cheerful, content, eccentric. Eager to speak.

Speech: Calm, warm whisper, punctuated with cheerful laughter uncharacteristic of Drune. Woldish, Drunic, Old Drunic.

Desires: Company and conversation. He does not wish to be freed, and is happy here in his crystal dream world.

Knowledge: He knows much of the Cold Prince (p51), the Ring of Chell, and the ley lines of Dolmenwood (p18), and shares this knowledge freely.