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The DreadWarren
🕑 Added 2025-08-13 15:07:33 +0000 UTCOriginally built to honour the noble line of House Virell, the DreadWarren was abandoned after a plague decimated the region. Over time, treasure hunters looted the eastern crypts, and recently a small group of bandits have claimed them as a hideout. The western sanctum remained untouched, locked, barred, and protected by arcane seals. A reclusive young necromancer named Thalen discovered the tomb and made it their refuge, drawn by the thematic appropriateness.
The DreadWarren is a burial mound with a central entrance. One climbs the mound and then descends into the round open area below which leads into the tomb proper. The bandits that make this their home maintain a watch on the top of the mound – one or two of their number who ‘stand guard’, bored out of their minds. The bandits prefer to remain in the first three octagonal chambers which have been converted into semi-passable living spaces; the chambers to the south are just too tomb-like (being tombs) and distant from the entrance.
But their arrival worries Thalen. While the door to the western portion of the DreadWarren is sealed, Thalen enters and exits via the secret passage into the central circle… which is now under guard.
Thus, Thalen has sent his familiar, Grimble, a clever raven who speaks in short rhymes, with a message and a small pouch of gold to the nearby village, asking for someone to help chase off the bandits. He offers more gold upon completion of the task (which he plans to surreptitiously place via the secret door when the bandits are gone). Thalen can become a repeat patron for the party, always communicating via Grimble… but sooner or later, most groups will come to realize that he is conniving and evil and exactly the kind of person true heroes would try to root out.
The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 7,200 x 6,000 pixels (24 x 20 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for the recommended 10′ squares) – so resizing it to either 1,680 x 1,400 or 3,360 x 2,800, respectively.
https://dysonlogos.blog/2025/08/13/the-dreadwarren/
