Terror Canyon Sept
The most impervious fortress among the southern dwarves has no walls or gates. It is a settlement built atop stone pillars that tower over Terror Canyon. Long, frighteningly narrow drawbridges connect the buildings. The dwarves must learn from a young age to walk toe-to-heel on the perilous walkways and to not feel fear when they see the ground a thousand feet below them. Children wear safety harnesses until they catch seven spine lizards, at which point they are considered agile and balanced enough to fend for themselves.
The sept’s water source is a great stone chalice carved out of one of the larger stacks. A living idol similar to the rat idol in Shotwick (14.14) dwells at the bottom. Only the sept elders know of its presence. Unlike the crude, bloodthirsty rat carving, this idol is a naturalistic figure of a bent human crone that asks for nothing. Anyone who bathes in the chalice and asks for her aid is cured of all but the most wounds and illnesses. But each time the idol heals someone, it ages. When the statue was carved in the age of Bergolast, it was a maiden. The elders worry that if the statue ages any more, it will die and the sept will be cursed.
Connections
Hooks
- -Most people assume Terror Canyon got its name by being a steep, thousand-foot drop to sharp rocks. Is this true?
- -How have gnolls attempted to assault this sept?
- -What is the significance of catching spine lizards?
- -Who has been healed in the chalice?
- -The idol was originally placed elsewhere. Where was it, and how did it come to be here?
- -What will happen if the idol “dies”?
- -Where are other living idols?