The Sunless Citadel: Rumours (Sessions 1-4)

Rumours from Oakhurst

• The Old Road ran right past the nearby ruins of the Sunless Citadel, but fell into disuse because of goblin banditry.  No one knows for sure what the Sunless Citadel once was, but old legends hint that it served as the retreat of an ancient dragon cult.

• The Old Road skirts the Withered Heath, a lifeless land.  Lareth remembers hearing a legend attributing this desolation to the rampage of an ancient dragon named Ashardalon.

• Cattleherders don’t graze their stock too far afield these days.  They’re frightened by stories of new monsters that maraud by night.  No one has seen these creatures, nor do they leave a discernable trail; however cattle and people who have been caught out alone have been found dead the next day, pierced by dozens of needle-like claws.

• The missing adventurers include the warrior Talgen Hucrele, the wizard Sharwyn Hucrele, Sir Braford a paladin of the sun god Pelor and the ranger Karakas.  Sir Braford was not a local, and carried an enchanted sword called Shatterspike.

• Garon, the innkeep of the King’s Rest Inn, remembers that the last time anyone, aside from Talgen and Sharwyn, asked questions about the Sunless Citadel was about thirteen years ago when a grim man named Belak stopped by. 

Dream Sequence from the Night Spent Amid the Bones of the Skeletal Archers

• The sight of the glittering crossbow bolt, strangely so preserved after so many years, takes your consciousness back to a dream half-remembered during the night of fitful sleep you spent amid the bones of the skeletal archers.  You see a hand of another through the eyes of another, reaching to draw the crossbow bolt from its case.  From all around you hear the blaring of horns, savage war cries and the screams of the dying.  You fit the bolt to a crossbow, wind it up and then look out through an arrow-slit to find your mark.  Far beneath you, against a sky red with flame and smoke, strange warriors with archaic armour and swirling blue tattoos are running at the Citadel.  You find your mark, and let the bolt fly…

Rumours from Meepo

• “The clan’s dragon… we’ve lost our dragon!  The wretched, thieving goblins stole Calcryx!  Treacherous, thieving goblins!”
• “Yusddrayl knows much!  Ask Yusdrayl on her Dragon Throne!  Grant you safe passage if you promise not to hurt Meepo.  Mabye if you promise to rescue Calcryx, Yusdrayl will answer your questions!
• “The legends are true!  Guthrash, the goblins call her, which means ‘The Bloated One.’  Stories say that all the other rats are her spawn, and that they bring serve her, bring her food.”

Rumours from Yusdrayl

• “As all the wise know, kobolds are the heirs to the ancient dragons.  As the mightiest among my people, I have lead a brave few to this ancient holy site to worship the dragons who were revered here, long ago.
• “The putrid, thieving goblins stole our dragon!  Wretched goblins!  Cowardly goblins!  Attacked us the back way… Foul goblin scum!”
• “The Outcaste, he is said to live below.  The dragon-thieving goblins are his servants!”
• “The lost humans?  They went into the lair of the goblin-scum.  They have not returned.”

Rumours from Erky Timbers

• “Almost a year past by my reckoning I was off adventuring, seeking my fortune when I thought to visit a friend in Oakhurst.  I foolishly took a short cut along the Old Road from the Four Halls.  My bad luck that the goblins caught me, I’ve been kept here ever since.  If it weren’t for the healing grace offered my faith I would surely have perished from malnourishment and torture!”
• “I’ve heard the goblins speak in their Black Tongue of a ‘Twilight Grove’ down below.  They speak in hushed tones of one ‘Belak’ who they call ‘the Outcaste’, and how he tends an enchanted garden and harvests an enchanted fruit from something the goblins call ‘the Gulthias Tree’, but only in the most terrified of whispers.  The enchanted fruit seems to grow on this Gulthias Tree.
• “The goblins speak of a Midsummer Fruit that restores spirit and vigour to those who eat it, but also of a pale Midwinter Fruit which steals the same.  The goblins seem terrified that this Belak will discover that they have been selling the fruit on the surface… what manner of creature could so terrify such black-hearted creatures I don’t know.”
• “Three young humans were captured and brought in here and they were captives with me for a while… oh about a month past.  We didn’t get many chances to speak, but I gathered their names were Talgen, Sharwyn, and Sir Braford.  Brother and sister the first two looked to be, a big strapping fellow and a slender young woman.  Sir Braford had a noble air about him, struck me as being from an old family or such, perhaps from Yvonny.  The goblins kept them in here only about a week beore they removed them… Belak wanted them, and that’s the last I heard about that.  I do feel badly for the young folk, and would be eager to see if they can be rescued, for the way the goblins speak of Belak I fear some terrible fate awaits them.