dailyadventureprompts:Dungeon: Ascension to the Tangled Palace From Stubborn Roots, Wickedness Sprin

dailyadventureprompts:

Dungeon: Ascension to the Tangled Palace

From Stubborn Roots, Wickedness Springs

Setup:For generations Castle Argus was one of the great seats of power within the realm, steadfast citadel in the heart of the Smaragd Forest, guarding the river by which riches and armies fed back into the heartland. That was until an unstoppable tide of plantlife cracked the fortress’ foundations, roots undermining the often through impenetrable walls and forcing House Argus and their retainers to flee their ancestral holding. Long abandoned to this encroaching green, the decades have seen the castle overrun inside and out by the very forest it once ruled over, earning it the name “ The Tangled Palace”. 

Adventure Hooks: 

• The Smaragd forest is known far and wide for its emerald mines, great warrens of tunnels that were dug beneath the roots of the ancient trees. While those closest to the forest’s edge are still worked today, the house of Argus sealed the entrances to most mines in their flight from their lands, hoping to return one day when they had reestablished a foothold in the forest. While tales of prospectors wandering the woods has been common since the mines were lost, it seems one of them was discovered again, this time by a gang of bandits intent on using captive labor to dig riches free from the earth.  Since the Argus family is unwilling to tell anyone about the sites of these mines, it’s up to the party to hunt through the forest for the hidden camp of these slavers, and earn themselves a fortune in glimmering green stones for their trouble. 
• A battalion of trouping hobgoblins have set up in the Tangled Palace begin hunting fey-touched and sacred animals throughout the forest. An attendant at a local shrine who survived their lighitng-quick raid that slaughtered many of her fellow dedicates overheard that they were taking their guardian-elk “ as an offering to the king”, whoever that might be. The death of these animals risks angering the gods they are dedicated to, as does the hobs’ continued marauding through the forest. 
• Veiirbin Rill, A bastard scion of house Argus seeks help from the party, wishing to launch an expedition into the crumbled castle to retrieve ancestral family heirlooms left behind in the clan’s flight decades ago. Though raised alongside the heirs of Argus, Veiirbin was little loved by his father’s father’s noble-born spouse, who holds the power to legitimize him but considers the man little more than a manifestation of her husband’s irresponsible nature. Rill is madly in love with a young noble woman and wishes to propose to her, but knows the young duchess’s parents won’t wed their daughter to a bastard with no inheritance and no greater prospects.  The Retrieval of these heirlooms may just be enough to show Veiirbin’s stepmother his dedication to house  and earn her acknowledgement, as well as gain the party a suddenly noble patron indebted to them for their service.  

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