The small town of Bailey Point nestles in the cliffs within sight of the forbidding forest called the Thornblight, where ripping terrors and impassable undergrowth conspire to trap the unwary. A bare 3 miles separates the drovers town from the forest. The trees grow all along the headland that juts south of Bailey Point for 10 miles until the oppressive forest gives way to the basalt shores of Mercy's Leap, an ill-omened place. Another mile south and you start to see it - a tree so vast that it twinkles with lights, telling tales of the folk who reside within. This is Thornroost, the home of the Cult of the Shrike. Rumour says that caves below the great tree harbour the feared Pirates of the Coracle. Jump beyond the promontory and 5 miles out to sea is the barren Isle of the Shrike itself, commanding the oceans for leagues about.

The folk of Bailey point stay well clear, but the odd sheep and lone traveler goes missing from the pastures and on occasion small merchantmen ships go down in the straights - some say brought low by a viciously spiked vessel manned by shrieking Demons that emerges from the point.

Pastures need protecting, townsfolk saved and merchants escorted - and the vast treasures of the Shrike plundered.

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A dual-statted adventure for Dungeon Crawl Classics (Level 3) and Rolemaster (Levels 4-6).

I'll be adding locations and entries over the next few weeks. Fingers crossed.

I am now picturing a kind-of demonic inverted version of the Faraway Tree...

Bailey Point

This small drovers town stands above the headland known as the Thornblight, which is mainly covered in the tangled wood that gives it its name. Built on a bluff overlooking the ocean, it houses about 400 souls year-round, but when the bi-annual market rolls around, farmers from miles around swell these numbers to nearer 600 and near that number in sheep. During the twice yearly market, the town is surrounded by a miasma of dank animal scents. Dangerous when you live so closely to the Shrike.

It's neat white-washed dwellings cluster about the trail that leads inland to the pasture-lands and beyond to the Smokestack and the Sulphur Plains, where masked scavengers search the bleak yellow plains for alchemical ingredients belched forth by the tall chimney that overlooks it - all the while dodging the not inconsiderable population of Basilisks that call the Sulphur Plains home. If you manage to follow the trail this far, it wends southwards towards the coastal city of Verag, home of the Tower mercenary company.

The folk of Bailey Point are predominantly sheep and goat farmers, although the usual range of other trades make a meagre living here. A disproportionate number of taverns and inns cater to visiting drovers.

Perhaps surprisingly, as it is a coastal community, very few ply the waves. Frequent squalls and gales can blow with little warning to endanger small fishing vessels on the reefs and jagged rocks that dot the coastline. Another factor are the Pirates of the Coracle, who keep all but the most desperate or foolhardy from the water.

Looming like a towering thunderhead over the whole of the Thornblight and Bailey Point is the threat of the Shrike. A giant bird with wicked talons and beak, a cruel disposition, and more than an animal cunning. Evil folk have been drawn to the area by this mythical beast - foul cultists who call the great Thornroost home and stake out sacrifices for the beast to impale on the tree's savagely sharp thorns, and pirates who take down small ships, plunder the spoils and then hand the survivors to the cultists.

This peril makes Bailey Point a quiet and reserved place. Merriment is in short supply and behind closed doors for fear of bringing doom.

Market time is coming around again, and nerves are as taught as a drum-skin.

Seawise captains are especially wary when the wind's breath comes from the landward, on those rare sultry late summer and autumn days, when the air itself is fragrant with pollen and hangs heavy.

Tales tell of soft feathered tufts of whitish fluff blowing from the Thornblight, and where it touches on wood, rope or canvas it quickly takes root and starts to grow. Before the moon rises that night the ship will be festooned with thirsty blood gorse patches, of a silvery hue until they prick a living creature, when they dig in deep and drink the blood of their victim, causing them to blush a cherry pink.

Many's the ship has gone into the ocean's embrace a shapeless mass of heaving thorn studded vines off those shores.

Edit: Are you doing collaboration here OHT or a solo run? Cool stuff either way.

Quote from: The Traveller;695031Edit: Are you doing collaboration here OHT or a solo run? Cool stuff either way.

Yeah, it's meant to be a playable scenario in the future. I've moved it to Design & Development.

It's something i'm working on for my game, and to get some practise in working with DCC scenarios, before i submit something to Goodman games.