Battlemap
Skull Den
The first thing you notice is the wolf skull's pale eyes looking down the steps.
Skull Den is a werewolf's lair cut into a rocky hillside, entered through a massive wolf skull carved from the living stone. Its passages divide between an abandoned human study and a recently used beast's den, where dormant runes, claw marks, and old blood hint at a buried history. The lair is small, but every chamber gives the hunter a different advantage.
Cold blue-grey light filters through cracks in the ceiling, catching dust above worn stone steps and pale mineral veins. The air smells of wet rock, old paper, and animal musk, while distant claws scrape softly across stone. Dormant runes cover the walls, dark and deliberate, as if waiting for a command.
☠ Threat
The den's master is Dast Kher, now a werewolf who remembers enough of his old life to use maps, doors, and prepared ambushes. His curse is strengthened by the moonstone shrine beneath the boss chamber, causing wounds to heal unnaturally and awakening dormant runes when blood is spilled. Destroying Dast without dealing with the moonstone leaves the curse active and invites a later outbreak.
History
Skull Den began as a stone survey post built by Dast Kher, a human mapmaker who charted underground water routes for nearby quarry villages. When a wasting sickness took hold of him, Dast found a moonstone shrine beneath the hillside and tried to bargain with it for healing. The bargain changed him into a werewolf, and he sealed himself inside with his notes, armor, and shame.
Encounter Table
CRPatchy giant rats carry moonstone dust in their fur and flee from bright light.
A limping wolf with humanlike eyes follows at a distance, testing whether the party is prey or potential allies.
A cluster of animated bones crawls from old drainage channels, clicking in rhythm with the dormant runes.
Rumours & Whispers
A shepherd swears the wolf carved over the hillside entrance has begun to blink after sunset.
The old surveyor never died in the quarry collapse. His books still appear on market stalls, damp with cave water.
A healer claims a child with the wolf sickness can be cured if someone brings back a stone that shines without fire.
Miners say the tunnels beneath the hill were built before the first village, and the runes dislike the sound of iron.
A pale snake guards a chest that belonged to a man who stopped answering his own name.
Quest Hooks
Quest giver: Toma Vesh, a blunt hill shepherd
Shepherds have vanished along the hillside, and one survivor claims a glowing wolf eye watched from the rocks. The search leads directly to the skull archway.
A village purse containing 180 gp and a year's supply of preserved food
Quest giver: Shesh Arak, a breathy guild courier
A mapmaker's guild wants Dast Kher's lost survey journals recovered because they mark an underground spring needed by three dry settlements.
300 gp, legal claim to any non-relic treasure, and a favor from the guild
Quest giver: Hadiq, an anxious village healer
A child in the nearest hamlet has begun transforming during moonrise. The local healer believes the affliction can be reversed if the moonstone below Skull Den is cracked or removed.
A silvered weapon, four healing draughts, and the healer's lasting service
Quest giver: Sura of the Dry Steps, a shrine keeper
The dormant runes have begun humming beneath the hillside. A shrine keeper fears that the sealed chamber is opening and asks the party to interrupt the awakening before the next full moon.
A blessing that grants advantage on one saving throw against curses, plus 250 gp
Corridor Notes
Ancient runes repeat along the walls in uneven bands. Most are meaningless fragments, but several have been gouged through by claws.
Thin shafts of natural light fall through ceiling cracks, illuminating drifting dust and slick patches of cave moisture.
A trail of muddy pawprints crosses the stone, then vanishes at the secret door beneath the study nook.
Loose white teeth and splintered animal bones have been arranged in small circles beside the walls.
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