The Mold Kiln
The lantern oil ran black, and the dark grew something to feed on.
This forgotten refinery once prepared enchanted lamp oil and treated wicks for the town's night lanterns, but the workrooms have been overtaken by fungus and repurposed into a living nursery. The complex is dangerous, claustrophobic, and threaded with looping routes that let intruders get lost while the things below the floor listen for movement.
Wet stone sweats under a blanket of spores. The air tastes of mold, bitter alchemy, and old lamp oil, with pale fungi casting a dim blue-green glow over broken vault doors and root-choked masonry. Somewhere below the floor, something alive pulses softly like a distant bellows.
☠ Threat
A rogue fungal intelligence now dominates the vaults below the nursery floor, using spores and alchemical runoff to spread its body through the complex. Its servants are repurposed workers, scavengers, and warped beasts that protect the vats where the enchanted oil was contaminated and transformed. If it is not stopped, the town's vital lantern supplies may be ruined or turned into a vector for infection.
History
The Mold Kiln was built by civic alchemists and lanternwrights decades ago as a deep service complex beneath the city's lamp stores. It refined enchanted oil, soaked wick cords in preservative salts, and kept emergency reserves safe from thieves. When the town's old wardens vanished, the site was abandoned, then quietly seized by something that prized warmth, seepage, and darkness.
Encounter Table
CRSmall blind tunnel scavengers drawn to spilled oil and movement.
Spores drift into discarded bodies, making them wander the halls in search of warmth.
Thin fungal predators that stalk from cracks and overhead ledges.
A masked scavenger armed with a hooked cutter and a sack of questionable salvage.
Rumours & Whispers
The old lamp supplier was seen carrying a crate into the service stair, then vanished before dawn.
Miners swear there is a room below the vaults where mushrooms glow like lanterns and whisper when cut.
Some say the town's failing lantern oil was stolen by smugglers, not monsters.
A watchman claims he heard a voice calling for help from inside a sealed wall near the flooded hall.
Priests warn that anything preserved underground for too long becomes hungry for light.
Quest Hooks
Quest giver: Marwen Tallow, master lamplighter
The town's night lanterns are failing, and the supplier carrying the next batch of oil and treated wicks never returned.
200 gp and lifetime access to town supplies
Quest giver: Sister Vale, temple healer
Strange spores have begun appearing in lantern soot across the city, suggesting the supplies were tampered with below ground.
A blessing against disease and poison
Quest giver: Jorren Pike, supply broker
A rival merchant offers a bonus if proof is brought back that the old refinery can be safely reopened.
150 gp plus a discount on gear
Quest giver: Captain Orla Renn
The city watch wants the source of the nighttime beast stirrings traced to the deep complex before panic spreads.
Official favor and a writ of passage
Corridor Notes
Thin mats of glowing fungus line the walls and flare when disturbed, briefly revealing bootprints and drag marks.
Rusted service pipes leak warm condensate that smells of lye and spoiled grain.
Collapsed storage shelves create crawlspaces packed with shattered lantern glass and black powder stains.
Turn The Mold Kiln into a sheet
A high-res, share-ready sheet you can post or print.