The Maw

A cave a few hours north of Stonetop in the Great Wood. No underbrush grows within thirty feet of it. Bones litter the entrance. Trappers and hunters avoid it and claim to have heard strange noises from its direction, especially at night.

Atmosphere is the load-bearing detail. An unnatural quiet, the forest holding its breath. A blighted patch of grey lichen spreading outward. Chewed bones. The black void of the cave mouth. Players should feel the place before anything emerges from it.

Whatever the table decides. Possibilities the book offers:

• a Hagr afflicted with some withering curse
• a brutal, gluttonous The Fae with an entrance to its domain here
• an idol or emanation of The Things Below
• a passage to one of the Fomoraij' twisted realms
• a Specter or a pack of Wraiths, terrible and ancient and only partly bound
• something else entirely

• A beloved animal goes missing; someone saw it near the Maw.
• A hunter reports strange figures (or tracks) coming and going.
• A sickness afflicts the town; the treatment is an herb that grows near the Maw, but must be harvested under moonlight.

• Cave in the Great Wood
• A few hours north of Stonetop
• No underbrush nearby; bones litter the entrance