ruins of shalemark

Shalemark was once a mining community nestled between two hills.  It cut from the dark clay and shale tiles of slate for roofing and writing.  Now there are no trees or hedges, only broken walls.  The hills are scarred by quarries, ruined roads and punctured by treacherous placer tunnels.  Many are flooded, any may collapse. The valley is now a bog.  Shalemark is half sunken, amid moss beds and pools strewn with pale lotus blooms.

Yet secretive gangs posing as masons visit the ruins.  The pale lotus can be made into a milky tincture, a potent euphoric that is addictive when abused.  The gangs harvest the flowers, fearful of discovery by other gangs and worse.  Some ruins are haunted by vengeful spirits of former town council members lynched by howling addicts.  Their bodies are preserved in the mire, awaiting consecrated burial.

At the centre of the ruins is a chapel dedicated to those who watched over Shalemark, the catacombs under the chapel hold grave goods.  Those who habitually rob the dead will find rich pickings but risk disease doing so.  The combination of dank, brackish water and pestilential air provide no problems for rats or other bone gnawing scavengers.

There is hidden wealth in Shalemark.  Caches were hidden by miners and tincture dealers in case of need and lie still unfound.  Caskets filled with coin or pots of tincture await discovery.  If the undead and gangs were cleared, an enterprising individual could find the remaining slate beds.  Doing so will sacrifice what remains of Shalemark to the bog.  Also these would not last more than a year, leaving only lotus blooms and swamp.

ruin of aress

Lumps of metal, shattered icons and charred wood litter a slagheap floor.  A burnt smell lingers on tatters of fabric and charcoal.  Where paladins swore fealty now a breeze whispers, stirring dust and ashes. The ruin festers like a broken tooth, avoided by the faithful who are dead or scattered. Beneath the cathedral floor are crypts yet there have been no stories of unquiet dead since the cathedral's destruction.

Those who make a Religion roll (DC 20) know that Aress Cathedral was built using divine fire and once kept vestal flames known to enhance fire magics.  Those making a History check (DC25) recall it was burnt after attacks by an undead army summoned by a necromancer.  Kindling a fire in the ruin leads to clear and bright-burning flame from glowing embers yet the shadows dance disturbingly over the broken angels and blackened walls and wisps of pale fog rise from the cracked floor.

Areas of the floor are difficult terrain due to the debris scattered over them.  If a fire is lit with debris from the ruin at the start of an encounter, fire or necrotic attacks gain a +1 to hit and +1d6 damage bonus.  This effect persists regardless of current occupants.  Removing the necrotic taint in the cathedral needs a quest to regain divine favour and ceremonies to sanctify the cathedral anew.

pharobell bay

Once a bustling coastal town and wizard academy, Pharobell Bay was quickly annihilated in a magical cataclysm.  The bay was scoured by magic, remade  into tumbling dunes.  Rockpools and shallow waters choked by sandbars yield difficult terrain.  Seabirds wheel overhead while crabs scuttle, shells adorned with gem and slate chips and fragments of arcane trappings.

The town is ruined, scorched stones amid veins of glass.  Patches of red sand shimmer with heat even now.  In the day, dust devils whip the ruins, racing to the sand dunes. At dawn and dusk, mist creeps around the ruins.  At night, there are whispers, strange lights and bodiless undead.

A subtler peril is a phenomenon called dweomertwist.  This drains a healing surge from all living humanoids for each day spent in Pharobell Bay; those without remaining healing surges lose 25% of their hit points.  Those dying of dweomertwist dessicate into a plume of residuum that blows into the sands.

Users of arcane power who make a successful Arcana check (DC 25) can use dweomertwist to restore one used encounter power by expending a healing surge.  No hit points are regained from the healing surge burned this way beyond those (if any) restored by the encounter power.

The dunes and sandbars contain a salt-and-pepper mixture of sand, ash and traces of residuum.  Unskilled peasants dredge then sift the sand, a day's effort yields 1d6gp worth.  Wizard crabs can be caught with an hour and a DC20 Nature check, if ground up a shell yields 1d8+2gp worth and up to five crabs can be safely caught per day before tides drown the hunter.

Though humanoids rarely stay in the bay for long due to dweomertaint, there is a wrongness about the area that discourages settlers.  Stories of spectres and ghosts in the ruins, wizard crab swarms and rumours of creatures living in the sea off Pharobell Bay disturb all but the dedicated or desperate.