Of Shadows Below (Inactive)

Game Master Meteor Strikes

The Taint:

The creeping corruption taking over the Hollow is a tangible manifestation, and you can rest assured it will become evident over time.

I will be using the Taint, Corruption and Depravity effects from the 3.5 systems. As they are not OGL I cannot post them here, so I will simply summarize the effects.

Some attacks and effects will cause you to gain Taint; either in the form of Corruption or Depravity. Whenever this Taint reaches a threshold, you acquire unpleasant symptoms. These can be healed in time and your Taint can be reduced as well.

Raven's Hollow:

Raven's Hollow is a lowland, valley basin surrounded by rugged, wooded foothills. Behind them soar steep mountains, raking at the sky. Long and sinuous, the Hollow stretches from north-east to south-west.

The north-western reaches, known as the Beak, consists of gentler terrain. Small woodland copses, failing farmlands and moors. Large swathes of water-meadow stretch near Sessley Lake. The small town of Ravenholdt is nestled not far from here.

As you progress in a south-easterly direction, the fields and hills gives way to a dark, imposing forest. As of recent years, the forest is plagued and blighted, giant vermin and fiendish flora living within.

Eventually, the forest gives way to the Plumes, a series of shattered sea-cliffs, crumbling away into the sea far below. Passages and tunnels riddle these cliffs, once mined by human hands, now haunted by unseen fiends.

The weather is cold, dark, damp and dreary. Rain is constant, the sun never shining past the cloud cover. Caught in a perpetual autumnal grasp, crops wither and grasp feebly for life. The temperature varies between 32 and 50 degrees. (Fahrenheit)

Raven's Hollow Dungeons:

Raven's Hollow is composed of a series of "Dungeon" type areas. These are well known so you may read on.

Ashen Arcades: A series of winding stone passages, the Arcades are the remains of a former military fort and its surrounding hamlet. Built atop a moor, the fort was abandoned after a catastrophic fire burned through the surrounding area. Since then, it has caved in during the past decade, and is now nothing more than a crumbling, fetid labyrinth.

Pagan Depths: Deep within the Ravenwood, lies this unholy abomination. Consisting of winding caves and fungal chambers, the Pagan Depths were the home of the Skal, a cult of worshipers of primordial deities. Long thought abandoned, howling and chanting can be heard echoing from the deeps once again.

The Rasp: Deep below the Plumes is The Rasp, a rotting hulk composed of dozens of unlucky ships dashed upon the rocky cliffs. Flooded grottoes connect to these wooden carcasses. The perpetual storm surrounding the area prevents easy access however.

Ravenholdt Manor: Evicted from your ancestral home, ominous lights and wicked keenings echo from the hilltop manor house. Who knows what eldritch entity has taken hold within, and what they have uncovered beneath the foundations.

The Ravenholdt Family:

The Ravenholdt Family have always led the people of Raven's Hollow. The town bears their name, and has done so for the past five centuries at least.

No one alive today accurately remembers the town's origin, but dusty tomes and the rare scholar still mentions the perilous flight from ancient lands, the fear when their ships ran aground on the rocks beneath the Plumes, the desperate pilgrimage across the valley, and finally the blood spilled erecting this new homestead atop the only sizable near-fertile region.

Since then, lives have been far from easy, but they have been simple and untouched by evils such as war, famine or murders.

The Ravenholdt family has always held these lands, and they always will. For the people trust them, and they protect their people in turn.

The current patriarch and matriarch of the Ravenholdt line are Hierome and Miriam. With their parents still among them, they lived within the Ravenholdt Manor atop Crone Hill not far from the town. Now, they dwell within their townhouse, their manor taken from them by horrific forces.

Currently, a number of Ravenholdt scions live abroad in other distant lands, but they are now finally returning from their travels.