Age of Worms

Game Master Lazyclownfish

Images:

Map of Diamond Lake
Map of Greyhawk
Trio of adventurers from Greyhawk City; Tirra, Auric and Khellek
Balabar Smenk
Allustan

Diamond Lake:

At a perfumed arcade known as the Emporium, Governor-Mayor Lanod Neff rubs shoulders with common laborers awaiting an appointment in the Veiled Corridor. In an adjoining antechamber, snakes and exotic dancers gyre to a sonorous weave of cymbals and seductive pipes. A floor below, a gaggle of grasping miners presses against the windowed door of a darkened cell, impatient for a glimpse of a twoheaded calf.

Out in the street, a gang of rowdies screams obscenities at a crumpled halfling, kicking it as if scrambling for a ball. Their drunken laughter echoes off shuttered windows and bolted doors. In a tower-flanked fortress across the shadowy square, filthy men with nothing to lose shout hymns to St. Cuthbert, clutching to their idealism and principles like cornered animals. Their wild-eyed chief minister smiles as he draws a cat-o-nine tails across his bare back, awash in their adulation and the spirit of his god.

But it’s just another night in Diamond Lake.

Diamond Lake nestles in the rocky crags of the Cairn Hills, about 85 miles east of the Free City of Greyhawk to which it is subject. Iron, copper, and silver from Diamond Lake’s mines fuel the capital’s markets and support its soldiers and nobles with the raw materials necessary for weapons and finery. This trade draws hundreds of skilled and unskilled laborers and artisans, all hoping to strike it rich. Ina ges past, Diamond Lake boasted an export more valuable than metal in the form of treasure liberated from the numerous tombs and burial cairns crowding the hills around the town. These remnants of a half-dozen long-dead cultures commanded scandalous prices from Greyhawk’s elite, whose insatiable covetousness triggered a boom in the local economy. Those days are long gone, though. The last cairn in the region coughed up its treasures decades ago, and few locals pay much mind to stories of yet undiscovered tombs and un-plundered burial cairns. These days, only a handful of treasure seekers visit the town, and few return to Greyhawk with anything more valuable than a wall rubbing or an ancient tool fragment.

In the hills surrounding the town, hundreds of laborers spend weeks at a time underground, breathing recycled air pumped in via systems worth ten times their combined annual salary. The miners are the chattel of Diamond Lake, its seething, tainted blood. But they are also Diamond Lake’s foundation, their weekly pay cycling back into the community via a gaggle of gambling dens, bordellos, taverns, and temples. Because work in the mines is so demanding and dangerous, most folk come to Diamond Lake because they have nowhere else to turn, seeking an honest trade of hard labor for subsistence pay simply because the system has allowed them no other option. Many are foreigners displaced from native lands by war or famine. Work in a Diamond Lake mine is the last honest step before utter destitution or crimes of desperation. For some, it is the first step in the opposite direction: a careful work assignment to ease the burden on debtor-filled prisons, one last chance to make it in civil society.

Despite its squalor, Diamond Lake is crucial to Greyhawk’s economy. The city’s directors thus take a keen interest in local affairs, noting the rise and fall of the managers who run Diamond Lake’s mines in trust for the government. The city’s chief man in the region is Governor-Mayor Lanod Neff, a lecherous philanderer eager to solidify his power and keep the mine managers in line. Neff exerts his capriciouswill via the agency of the grandiloquent Sheriff Cubbin, a man so renowned for corruption that many citizens assumed the announcement of his commission was a joke until he started arresting people. The alliance between the governor-mayor and his pocket police might not be enough to cow Diamond Lake’s powerful mine managers, but Lanod Neff holds a subtle advantage thanks to the presence of his distinguished brother, the scrupulous Allustan, a wizard from Greyhawk who retired to Diamond Lake five years ago. None dare move against Neff so long as Allustan is around.

Instead of scheming against the government, Diamond Lake’s six mine managers plot endlessly against one another, desperate to claim a weakened enemy’s assets while at the same time protecting their own. While they are not nobles, the mine managers exist in a strata above normal society. They consider themselves far above their employees, many of whom are indentured or effectively enslaved as part of a criminal sentence. The miners’ loyalty tends to map directly to the working conditions, pay, and respect offered to the miners by their wealthy masters.

Diamond Lake crouches in the lowland between three hills and the lake itself, a splotch of mud, smoke, and blood smeared across uneven terrain marked by countless irregular mounds and massive rocks. The oldest buildings pack the lakeshore, where fishing vessels once docked and stored their impressive catches. That commerce has abandoned the town entirely, for the shining waters that once gave Diamond Lake its name are now so polluted as to make fishing impossible. Many old warehouses have been converted into cheap housing for miners and laborers, and no one is safe outdoors after dark. As one walks north along the streets of Diamond Lake, the buildings become sturdier and the spirits of their inhabitants likewise improve. A great earthen road called the Vein bisects the town. With few exceptions, those living north of the Vein enjoy a much better life than the wretches living below it. All of the town’s social classes congregate in the Vein’s central square. Roughly every two weeks, someone in the town upsets someone else so greatly that the only recourse is a duel to the death at the center of a ring of cheering miners. The bookmakers of the Emporium and the Feral Dog do brisk business on such occasions, which tend to draw huge crowds. On less violent nights, the square is still home to a thousand pleasures and poisons; if Diamond Lake is a creature, the Vein’s central square is its excitable, irregular heart.

Diamond Lake Locations:

Abandoned Mine: Located near the old observatory, it’s been so long since this mine was in operation that nobody even remembers its name.

Able Carter Coaching Inn: The Able Carter Coaching Company connects Greyhawk to its satellite towns via a fleet of horse-drawn coaches and an inn positioned at every leg of the journey. Diamond Lake’s hostelry offers 20 rooms for let at a rate of 1 gold piece per day. Stable services are available for a fee of 5 silver pieces per day. A permanent guest named Fester Trollump traps badgers in the hills and sells their pelts for a modest profit on monthly trips to Greyhawk. On rare occasions he traps more exciting beasts like griffons or manticores, which he supposedly takes to Greyhawk as well.

Allustan’s Residence: The “smartest man in town,” a friendly wizard named Allustan dwells within a charming red and deep blue house on one of the rare stretches of healthy grass in all of Diamond Lake. A small meditation garden adjoins the face of the house, incorporating vertical stones and small pools of concentric circles. The fresh paint and the well-tended yard contrast sharply with the rest of the seedy town, a testament to the locals’ respect for (or fear of) a man whose prowess is known as far as Greyhawk itself. Allustan is the older brother of Lanod Neff. The sons of Diamond Lake’s powerful and efficient governor-mayor, years ago their father sent them both to Greyhawk for education. Allustan soon found himself in the prestigious University of Magical Arts, but eventually left his studies to pursue an adventuring career. He came back to Diamond Lake five years ago and retired with more than enough treasures to support his lifestyle.

Nowadays Allustan offers his library and considerable intelligence to the citizens of Diamond Lake as a sage, although few miners have reason to seek his services. The wizard charges a standard rate of 20 gold pieces per question.

The Captain’s Blade: Tyrol Ebberly, a severe-looking man who claims to have once been a watch captain in Greyhawk, runs this small weapons shop with efficiency. He’s an absolute fanatic about weapons and loves to show off his wares. Ebberly is also known as an inveterate gossip.

Chapel of Heironeous: Within the garrison is a chapel dedicated to the Valorous Knight. It boasts the second largest congregation in Diamond Lake, dominated by soldiers and guards, as well as one of the town’s most dynamic personalities in the form of its high priest, Justice Valkus Dun. Dun came to Diamond Lake two years ago, after the previous justice, Amon Kyre, vanished under mysterious circumstances. Local gossip holds that Dun once had great prospects in Greyhawk’s immense Sanctum of Heironeous, but that politics saw him exiled to an assignment in squalid Diamond Lake. Nevertheless, Dun took to his assignment with zeal, and the weekly services have taken on an activist spirit. While Captain Trask urges his charges to stay out of local affairs, Dun instills in them a duty to the townsfolk and urges them to make a difference in the community. The resulting tension, between Captain Trask and Justice Dun, as well as between the Heironean soldiers and the disreputable elements of Diamond Lake (which is to say nearly all of them), is palpable.

Valkus Dun is assisted in his duties by Honorable Velias Childramun, an aging priest who has lived his whole life at Diamond Lake’s garrison and handles most of the healing needs of the complex. A newcomer to the chapel, Mélinde of Heironeous is a charming warrior priestess who acts as Dun’s personal advisor. She has a reputation as an excellent sword mistress, as well as that of a fine dragonchess player.

Church of St. Cuthbert: Within this tower-flanked structure, the poorest of Diamond Lake’s poor huddle in a torch-lit sanctuary listening to the fiery sermons of Jierian Wierus, a bombastic orator whose populist rants appeal to the best virtues and values of the common man while at the same time preying upon their fears and superstitions. Wierus endlessly preaches a creed of common sense, honesty, and self-sacrifice, encouraging his faithful to give penance to St. Cuthbert by whipping themselves in repetitive acts of self-mortification.

His growing cult, now some 150 strong, gives succor to the dregs of Diamond Lake society and is seen as a menace by some. The secondary acolyte, Hameneezer is a hard-working cleric who manages the day-to-day affairs of the church. The church is also known for a local remedy called diamond water elixir, a cloudy brownish mixture of local vegetation, salts from the mines, and Diamond Lake’s tainted water. Local sayings about the medicine rightly claim that drinkers “will feel a lot worse before they feel any better.”

Deepspike Mine: One of Balabar Smenk’s mines, this mine is the only one of his mines within the town limits of Diamond Lake. It is said to have dried up years before and is used for storage purposes and is kept locked at all times.

Diamond Lake Boneyard: The town’s overcrowded cemetery used to be a great source of bodies for medical students in Greyhawk and unscrupulous necromancers, but the Cult of the Green Lady has put a stop to that. Throughout the day, the green-robed acolytes wander the cemetery chanting songs holy to Wee Jas while tending graves and clearing vines and mud from stone markers dating back hundreds of years. Tales abound that one coffin in the boneyard – no one is sure just which one – contains not a dead body, but dozens and dozens of gold bars. Ample evidence supports the rumor, but anyone who tries to test out the theory must first deal with the cultists.

Dourstone Mine: Ragnolin Dourstone has managed this copper mine since the very beginning, when he chose this spot seemingly at random. The mine itself is surrounded by a wooden stockade and is well guarded. Ever the pragmatist, Dourstone believes it is better to pay a few guards a good wage to keep the workers in line rather than offer a fair wage to his miners (1 silver piece per day, plus room and board). Needless to say, only the desperate or those unable to find work elsewhere remain here for long. In most cases, the miners work only long enough to earn the money needed to buy passage elsewhere. Many of the miners that do stick around are crippled ex-criminals unable to find other work or convicted criminals who have been sentenced to hard labor.

The Emporium: Once simply known as Zalamandra’s, one of many vice dens along the Vein, its ill fortunes changed ten years ago when its charismatic young madam seduced Professor Montague Marat, proprietor of a traveling sideshow and curiosity collection passing through Diamond Lake. The two joined forces and a cavalcade of freaks and eccentrics moved into the building’s lower floor. Thus was born Zalamandra’s Emporium. Three copper pieces give access to the “Gallery of Science” along the first floor’s central corridor. Although the professor himself abandoned Diamond Lake three years ago, nearly a dozen of his former employees remain at the Emporium. Come visit Shag Solomon, the shaggy wild man from the northern pine forests or Esmerelda Jr., the two-headed calf. Other attractions include the misshapen contortionist Tom Shingle, the combustible magician Ariello Klint, the potion-monger Benazel the Alchemist, and the alluring Chezabet, who reads fortunes.

Three silver pieces allow access to the lushly decorated upper floor, which features a large gaming hall, an exclusive entertainment club, and the infamous Veiled Corridor, where any pleasure may be obtained for the right price. Zalamandra tolerates absolutely no conflict within her walls. Anyone who ignores the edict risks the attentions of Kurlag, the Emporium’s imposing half-ogre bouncer.

The Feral Dog: The Feral Dog, a sleazy tavern on the Vein’s central square, is by far Diamond Lake’s busiest. Every night and especially when the workforces of several local mines let out at the same time, cheering laborers within the bar scream obscenities and wave betting vouchers over two dogs in a lethal pit fight. Dagger tossing contests are also quite popular. The halfling Pagget is the current dagger throwing “champion.” No one savors the tinny ale served by Gorvic, but the place is more about camaraderie, bravado, and desperation than about expecting exemplary quality or service.

General Store Diamond Lake’s largest general store is run by the amiable Taggin. The store’s goods include the most common adventuring gear, and Taggin cheerfully offers to special order anything he does not have in stock from Greyhawk, a process that “usually takes about a week.

Greyhawk Militia Garrison: The refurbished ruin of an ancient keep houses more than sixty members of the Greyhawk Militia, soldiers tasked with patrolling the northern hills, liaising with the halfling communities to the north, and protecting ore shipments from Diamond Lake and the nearby towns of Steaming Springs and Blackstone. Captain Tolliver Trask, the garrison’s aging commander, distinguished himself during the Greyhawk Wars and is well respected by his soldiers and the community at large. The complete garrison force consists of three squads each led by a lieutenant. They are Dobrun Trent, a half-elven archer of exceptional skill, the talented sword mistress Mikkela Venderin, and the powerful Trovost Skunt, who exploits his authority with regularity. Other notables of the garrison include Dietrik Cicaeda, the middle-aged Chief Cartographer of Diamond Lake, and Merris Sandovar, the garrison’s Chief Scout and a member of the Bronzewood Lodge. Both are close friends of Captain Trask.

Greysmere Covenant: Along with a small support staff, three prominent representatives of the dwarven stronghold of Greysmere, many days to the south across the treacherous Mistmarsh, live in this sturdy brick and timber structure. Greysmere imports some of the raw iron ore unearthed by local humans, as it bears a color prized by the most skilled artisans and metalworkers of the dwarven clans. Dulok Blitzhame leads the delegation with straight talk and cunning pragmatism. Governor-Mayor Lanod Neff frequently invites the dwarves for meals and parlor discussions, and Blitzhame in particular shares a strong friendship with Ragnolin Dourstone, from whom he gets most of the ore exported to Greysmere. The other ambassadors, Galuth Grobadore and Bitris Ruthek, spend much of their time representing the interests of Greysmere in neighboring communities.

The Hungry Gar: Guld Tortikan, head chef at the Hungry Gar, claims to serve the finest meal on the Vein. He is mistaken.

Jalek’s Flophouse: Once a warehouse used by fishermen, Jalek’s Flophouse is situated on Front Street within smelling distance of the lake. It houses nearly a hundred pitiful indigents fighting off destitution with a handful of copper. Lodging is 5 copper pieces a night, paid to a massive, mute half-orc named Golot. The brute pummels those who do not pay until they flee or die. The shifting inhabitants and the chaotic layout of the upper floor make it one of the best places to disappear in all of Diamond Lake. The landlord, a halfling named Jalek, lives in a rooftop apartment and is seldom seen. The Cuthbertine flagellant Jierian Wierus, however, is frequently seen in the flophouse where he recruits a growing tide of converts.

Lakeside Stables: Lanch Faraday, the portly ostler who operates the rundown Lakeside Stables, charges 5 silver pieces per day for stabling. Some customers have complained about mysterious bruises on their horses, but no one has yet to press the issue.

Lazare’s House: A cozy gaming parlor situated on the Vein’s central square. Inside, Diamond Lake’s elite match wits over dragonchess, a popular game in which two sides of 42 pieces contest over three 96-square boards representing the sky, the earth, and the underworld. Visitors are expected to bring their own pieces, but may rent a house set for 2 gold pieces. The place is run by Lazare, a dragonchess champion from Greyhawk some twenty years ago, and his beautiful daughter Dannath. Lazare was once a mine manager but, nearly bankrupted, was forced to sell his mine to Balabar Smenk years ago. It is no secret that Lazare blames Smenk for the death of his cherished wife, who grew gravely ill at the height of the ownership struggle.

Menhirs: This worn old stone ring is often visited by residents of the Bronzewood Lodge, and is sacred to the Druids of the Grey Circle, a relic from a time when laws of the wilderness governed man as well as animals

The Midnight Salute: This by-the-numbers house of ill repute caters to the garrison crowd and anyone seeking a less exotic (and less expensive) experience than that offered by the Emporium’s legendary Veiled Corridor. Its proprietress, the ravishing Purple Prose, stresses discretion and decorum with her workforce. One of the favorites here is Constance Grace, a lovely lass with a reputation for eagerness.

Neff Manor: Governor-Mayor Lanod Neff inherited the position from his father after spending several years in Greyhawk’s city watch. While many in Diamond Lake would like to see him removed from power, none dare act against him for fear of Allustan, Lanod’s older brother. Neff’s sprawling manor house squats atop the hill overlooking Diamond Lake, a tangle of scaffolding, wires, and work crews. Protected by a wooden stockade wall, the manor houses the political apparatus of the town, including several meeting rooms, a courthouse, and numerous bedchambers for visiting dignitaries and Lanod Neff’s countless guests. Visitation with the governor-mayor is by appointment only, with an audience sometimes taking several days to arrange.

Old Observatory: This crumbling abandoned observatory once housed an order of monks obsessed with the heavenly bodies of the nighttime sky. Now it houses a constantly rotating group of unusual tenants.

Old Piers: In decades past, nobles from Greyhawk flocked to Diamond Lake to sail upon its crystal clear waters. Mine tailings, waste runoff, and other pollution ended the practice almost a century ago, but the rotting carcasses of once elaborate piers still jut into the lake’s murky waters. A few masts peak out from the surface, tombstones of abandoned fishing vessels from more recent times. Regular fish cannot survive in the tainted waters, leaving only dangerous, hardy predators like the ravenous, toothy gar that have become such a problem in recent years. Those who venture across Diamond Lake do so at their own risk. For a piece of silver, a retired marine named Durskin will ferry up to six passengers across the lake in his sloop, a dingy vessel called the Autumn Runner. The destitute boatman lives on the deck of his boat, which smells of urine and teems with fleas and sea mites. Those seeking a safer passage must rely upon the Harkness, a ten-man sailboat maintained by the shadowy Cult of the Green Lady, who use the vessel to cross back and forth between Diamond Lake and the cairn in which their order holds its services to Wee Jas, goddess of magic and death. Passage on the Harkness costs 3 silver pieces, and passengers must endure bothersome sermons on the exquisite beauty of death and the arcane prowess of the Dark-Eyed Lady. In either case, it takes about 30 minutes to cross from one shore of the lake to the other.

Osgood Smithy: The distinctive “O” maker’s mark of Manlin Osgood is a regional sign of quality powerful enough that lesser blacksmiths in neighboring communities often forge it to maintain competitive parity. Osgood and his team of seven apprentices and journeyman smiths specialize in masterwork armor and household items like canteens, canisters, tools, and the like. Osgood is a somewhat course, unfailingly polite middle-aged man with a bald head and a walrus-like moustache. He always remembers a customer’s name, and greets frequent patrons with a hearty handshake and a slap on the back.

Rusty Bucket: This popular restaurant used to specialize in fish, but since the lake went bad it’s been forced to adapt to a land-based menu. Within, green stained-glass windows filter eerie light into the main dining room, where the intertwining melodies of a trio of pipers enhance an ethereal atmosphere. Guests dine in a large common room, with a handful of nicer tables situated in a roped-off area beside the main dining hall. The far table, on a raised platform overlooking the private room, is reserved for Chaum Gansworth, Diamond Lake’s most calculating mine manager and the owner of the Rusty Bucket. Gansworth rigorously pursues a neutral stance in all political dealings. As a result, many of the town’s major political players consider the Rusty Bucket neutral ground.

Sheriff’s Office: Led by a boisterous alcoholic named Sheriff Cubbin and his right-hand man, Deputy Jamis, the thugs who comprise the constabulary see to the general safety of the town and ensure that Neff’s schemes go off without a hitch.

Smelting House: A century ago, local mine managers maintained their own smelting houses, but constant conflict resulted in frequent sabotage that choked the flow of resources from Diamond Lake to the Greyhawk markets. The Directing Oligarchy reluctantly stepped in, monopolizing the smelting trade and basing the town’s only smelting house in a massive fortress-workshop perched on the edge of the lake. Runoff slag belched from great sub-surface pipes accounts for the majority of the pollution that has killed off most aquatic life in the region, and production these days is more robust than it has ever been. The rarely seen chief smelter, Vulgan Durtch, is supposedly one of the richest men in Diamond Lake, but few neighbors know anything about him. Durtch runs the place with a precision that requires his near-constant supervision over a team of two dozen menials and overseers, but rumors suggest more sinister motives for his seclusion.

A tower on the building’s northwest corner serves as the residence and workshop of Benazel the Alchemist, a talkative chemist from Greyhawk who oversees the alchemical rituals and reagents necessary for the smelting process and who sells potions from his first-floor office.

The Spinning Giant: When not drilling, sleeping, or on patrol, garrison soldiers flock to this raucous two-story tavern run by Nimiscent to meet with friends, chant drinking songs, and drown themselves in ale and good cheer. A faded fresco painted on the building’s face depicts a dancing imbecilic hill giant in a yellow dress known as Flailing Felanore. Patrons must enter and exit via a door positioned between the giant’s legs. Forty years ago, a dimwitted young giantess captured by the militia was “granted” to the proprietor of their favorite watering hole to serve as a mascot. The attraction worked, drawing visitors from as far away as Greyhawk to gawk and stare at Flailing Felanore’s awkward gyrations. Though Felanore died from an outbreak of the Red Death plague nearly twenty years ago, the free-standing circular center stage on which she once pranced remains the most prestigious musical venue in town, if not nearly the most titillating. Garrison soldiers make up most of the Spinning Giant’s regular patrons, with a handful of mine overseers and merchants rounding out the crowd. Diamond Lake’s poor, including most miners, and members of the local constabulary are not welcome here. Pickpockets and other riffraff are not tolerated and the patrons have been known to respond harshly when confronted with a crime in progress.

Tidwoad’s: As close to a bank as one can find in Diamond Lake, the gnome Tidwoad runs this shop located on the Vein’s central square. Maintaining a fine collection of gems in a showroom display case, Tidwoad boasts that his establishment is completely theft proof. A shield guardian named Festus helps keep the jeweler’s theft-free streak alive. Several gnomish lodgers stay in rooms above his shop, with an outside entrance so they don’t have to go through the shop. Tidwoad isn’t adverse to buying non-gem valuables.

Venelle’s: Diamond Lake’s resident bowyer and fletcher, Venelle also deals in other weapons and armor imported from Greyhawk in exchange for items of her own design. She has friends among the Bronzewood Lodge and is pleased to entertain guests who appreciate arrowcraft and elven culture, herself having a touch of elven blood in her veins.

Diamond Lake Mine Managers:

Balabar Smenk: A corpulent elemental of corruption and bad taste, Balabar Smenk lords his political clout over everyone in Diamond Lake save the governor-mayor and garrison commander. He currently manages the most mines of any of the mine managers.

Chaum Gansworth: Diamond Lake’s youngest mine manager. Is rumored to be in a relationship with Luzane Parrin. Due to his young age, he is not taken seriously by the other mine managers. He is cautious and has never been heard bad-mouthing any of the other mine managers in public.

Ellival Moonmeadow: Regulars at Lazare’s gaming parlor know this reclusive elf as “The Prince,” since he is a minor noble from the distant elven realm of Celene. Moonmeadow remains aloof from the affairs of the human mine managers, and sees their iron-based operations as more vulgar than his local silver monopoly. Ellival rarely associates with any other race but elves unless it is over a game of dragonchess.

Gelch Tilgast: Ten years ago, the aging Gelch Tilgast held the reins of Diamond Lake’s ore trade, a position he’d enjoyed most of his life. Then Balabar Smenk and his boundless ambition came into town. Tilgast’s empire faded and he has been overheard trying to form a consortium with the other mine managers to overthrow Smenk. Whether it be out of fear of reprisal from Smenk or from their dislike of Tilgast, the other mine managers have yet to act on this.

Luzane Parrin: As the yield of her mines faltered in the last decade, so faltered the fortunes of Luzane Parrin, inheritor of her mother’s proud legacy as one of the town’s wealthiest managers. She sold most of her mines to Balabar Smenk who courted Parrin despite the fact that she was married. Two years ago, her husband died mysteriously. She is now said to be in a relationship with Chaum Gansworth.

Ragnolin Dourstone: About 50 years ago, this greedy dwarf left his home in the halls of the dwarven stronghold of Greysmere and has established several mine operations in the area, with the most lucrative centered in Diamond Lake. He shares a strong friendship with the dwarves of the Greysmere Covenant.

Areas Near Diamond Lake:

The Bronzewood Lodge: The ring of crumbling menhirs on the bluff overlooking Diamond Lake is a remnant of the ancient Flannish druidic culture that once inhabited the region. They too came to the hills for the ancient cairns, seeing them as monuments to great ancestors of the invisible past. Although modern Suloise and Oeridians displaced the native druids over a thousand years ago, pockets of indigenous architecture and culture remain. Foremost among these near-forgotten practices is veneration of Beory, the Oerth Mother, and her son Obad-Hai, the Shalm, the brooding patron of wilderness and natural order. Druids of the Grey Circle and rangers who honor the Old Faith routinely congregate in great moots three hours northeast of Diamond Lake, at an ancient megalithic structure called the Bronzewood Lodge. Devotees of Ehlonna and the elven pantheon are welcome at these meetings, if a bit gruffly, but all other attendees must be invited personally by someone already within the circle of trust. At these great moots, the woodsfolk observe rituals from long ago, celebrate with great contests of strength and wit, and debate policy regarding the natural affairs of the region.

A small permanent community inhabits the Lodge itself and the wooded copse surrounding it. Perhaps thirty assorted druids, rangers, and scouts protect the sacred site and keep watch on the nearby roads and valleys. Occasionally, they step in to rescue a traveler from some natural menace, but just as often they warn explorers to stay on the roads and let the wilderness take care of itself. Their leader is Nogwier, an aged proponent of the Old Faith who strives to keep the focus of his community on preservation of a near-extinct way of life and away from anger at the Free City and its operatives in Diamond Lake, whose avariciousness continually rapes the land. Nogwier urges cautious cooperation with Lanod Neff via a former Bronzewood man named Merris Sandovar, who now works as the garrison’s chief scout. Nogwier’s health is starting to deteriorate however, and many fear that his successor might take an antagonistic stance against the machinations of Greyhawk and Diamond Lake.

The Twilight Monastery: About two hours north of Diamond Lake, a towering crag called Griffon’s Roost casts a dark shadow over the muddy road to Elmshire. From a perch hundreds of feet above looms the cat infested Twilight Monastery, a three-towered monument dedicated to Xan Yae and her servant Zuoken, little known deities from the Baklunish West. Two score monks dwell within the monastery, dedicating themselves to a litany of exercises meant to perfect the body and spirit. The secretive monks hold dusk as the holiest of hours, and sonorous chants emit from the Twilight Monastery’s central courtyard when the night sky appears in the heavens. Foremost among the monks is Izenfen the Occluded, a peerless masked combatant thought to be one of the wisest figures in the hills. Travelers frequently seek her council, but most leave Diamond Lake without ever having gained access to the Twilight Monastery, for Izenfen deigns to speak with only a handful of pilgrims foretold to her via the agency of the night sky and an immense mirrored lens called the Censer of Symmetry. When word of the Censer’s predictive prowess spread to the miners of Diamond Lake 20 years ago, a desperate contingent petitioned Izenfen to predict the location of the richest unclaimed ore deposits, appealing to her compassion with tales of starving children and dangerously unpaid debts. The masked mistress of the Twilight Monastery rebuffed their pleas, triggering the miners’ contingency plan – an ill-fated invasion of the monks’ compound that left seven miners dead. Only a single member of the order perished – Imonoth, Izenfen’s beloved daughter. The following morning, the remaining fifteen miners, who had escaped the monastery to nurse their wounds in the petty shacks along Diamond Lake’s waterfront, were found dead. Rumors of silent masked killers sent by Izenfen continue to this day, citing the disappearance or mysterious deaths of nearly a dozen political enemies within the town.

Although the monks of the Twilight Monastery keep mostly to themselves and desire only to lead lives of undisturbed contemplation, they frequently appear on the streets of Diamond Lake to re-provision or to engage in the trade of kalamanthis, a rare psychotropic plant grown regionally only on the slopes of Griffon’s Roost. Kalamanthis is popular among all classes of Diamond Lake, but the real business is centered in Greyhawk. Rumors hold that potential buyers should seek out Golgan Hant, the Twilight Monastery’s trade envoy, who can usually be found at Lazare’s House along the Vein’s central square. Both the wagons loaded with kalamanthis and the returning coaches loaded with city coin go unmolested in Diamond Lake, for all fear Izenfen’s relentless invisible killers.

The Cairn of the Green Lady: Far from welcoming are the brooding inhabitants of the Cairn of the Green Lady, a reclaimed tomb on the opposite shore of Diamond Lake itself. Cloaked in robes of green and quick to threaten outsiders, these two-score devotees of the death goddess Wee Jas honor a fallen saint of that deity with mournful prayers to departed spirits and mysterious explorations of the hills nearby. They base themselves in the tomb of this departed servant of the Dark-Eyed Lady, whom they believe died during the great Suel migrations across the treacherous hills more than a thousand years ago. The order’s leader, the enchanting Amariss, replaced the original founder after he mysteriously vanished two years ago. An outcast priest of Wee Jas from the Frost Barbarian kingdom, Nohrtan claimed that the Green Lady came to him in a dream, entreating him to find worshippers of Wee Jas who were pure of heart and mind and lead them to her grave to protect it from destruction by heathens. It took him close to five years to assemble his flock, arriving at the Cairn in 591 CY. His disappearance only one year after his arrival has led many to speculate, but Amariss and her followers are silent on the subject.