Battlemap
Ashen Brand Lair
Beneath the abandoned forge, a stolen hammer rings for a demon's birth.
Hidden beneath an abandoned smithy, the lair of the Ashen Brand cult serves as a refuge for beasts, fanatics, and a young tiefling warlock. The cult kidnaps skilled workers to forge weapons for a ritual that will summon a lesser demon. The dungeon begins as a cramped shrine and descends into traps, stolen goods, and a furnace-like ritual hall.
Cold, damp air carries the smells of wet stone, tallow smoke, animal musk, and burnt iron. Red candlelight flickers across crude symbols painted in blood, while distant hammering, chanting, and something scratching behind the walls echo through the lair.
☠ Threat
Veyra Ashhorn, a young tiefling warlock, commands the lair from a chamber heated by stolen forge coals. She uses a minor demonic pact to control beasts and intimidate her cultists, but the summoning rite is unstable. If the heroes delay, the bound demon will emerge through the forged iron focus and turn the entire lair into a killing ground.
History
The abandoned smithy was built over a natural cavern where miners once left offerings to a horned guardian spirit. Years later, a disgraced tiefling apprentice named Veyra found the cavern and formed the Ashen Brand cult. She turned the old shrine into a lair, kidnapped the town's blacksmith, and began forging a demon-bound weapon meant to make her feared by every settlement nearby.
Encounter Table
CRA soot-black hound with ember eyes and a chain collar broken at one end.
A pair of demonic rats coated in glowing forge ash.
A frightened cultist carrying a bell and a bundle of red prayer strips.
Rumours & Whispers
The old smithy is empty, but hammering can still be heard below it after midnight.
A horned devil lives beneath the village and buys children from desperate parents.
The missing blacksmith was seen walking willingly with red-robed travelers, though his sister insists he was being threatened.
Crows refuse to land on the smithy's roof, and dogs growl at the cellar door.
A former cult member claims the dungeon contains a shrine that can turn away demons.
Quest Hooks
Quest giver: Mara Flint, the blacksmith's anxious sister.
The village blacksmith vanished after closing his shop, leaving behind a smear of blood and a broken claw-shaped charm. The trail leads beneath the abandoned smithy.
50 gp, free repairs for one year, and a masterwork tool from the rescued smithy.
Quest giver: Sergeant Harl of the village watch.
Livestock are being found mutilated near the old smithy, and witnesses report red lights beneath the floorboards.
A silvered dagger and official permission to claim cult contraband.
Quest giver: Tovin Bale, a nervous caravan factor.
A merchant wants a stolen shipment of uncommon alchemical coal recovered before the cult uses it in its ritual forge.
75 gp and two potions of healing.
Corridor Notes
Short black candles burn in iron skull sconces. Their flames lean toward the deepest rooms, even when there is no breeze.
Thin red cords are tied around door handles and wall hooks. Several bear small iron charms shaped like hooked claws.
The floor is scored by heavy boot marks, claw prints, and a dragged trail leading toward the boss chamber. The trail smells faintly of oil and hot metal.
Old prayer strips hang from the ceiling, each bearing a name scratched out with a knife. A few strips whisper when disturbed.
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