Drygate Keep
The word DRYGATE is carved above the arch, and cold water trickles uphill beneath it.
Drygate Keep was built to guard a crossing in a homeland of broad rivers, but its founders chose a bare ridge far from any water. The surviving halls now shelter the restless dead and the keep's last commander, who still believes the garrison is under siege.
Cold damp stone smells of wet iron, extinguished candles, and old paper. A draft whistles through arrow slits, while somewhere below, a steady metal tapping answers every loud noise. Most light comes from pale fungus and the occasional guttering blue flame.
☠ Threat
Commander Odran, the keep's dead captain, remains at his post in room-12. The shrine wards have preserved his body, but not his judgment: he believes the keep is still besieged and treats intruders as infiltrators. His surviving skeleton guards follow his orders, while the tapping heard through the halls is his sword striking the floor as he waits for a report.
History
Drygate Keep was raised by exiles from a river kingdom, who copied the gatehouse and barracks of their distant homeland onto a barren ridge. Its founders guarded a trade road, not a river, but kept the old name as a promise of return. During a long siege, Commander Odran sealed the inner halls and imprisoned dissenting soldiers. The siege ended generations ago; the doors never opened.
Encounter Table
CRA lone skeleton soldier patrols with a snapped spear and reacts to any clang of metal.
A crawling claw drags a scrap of parchment through the dust, seeking the library shelves.
Two skeletons in battered helmets march shoulder to shoulder, silently checking doorways.
Rumours & Whispers
The keep's old gate opens only for a soldier's brass key, though nobody agrees which soldier carried it.
A blue lamp burns under the ridge and will not go out, even when the whole room is flooded.
A farmer heard marching beneath the hillside during a dry night, followed by a man's voice demanding a report.
The sealed cells hold the only witnesses to why the garrison vanished.
Quest Hooks
Quest giver: Iria Sol
A village mason has found a sealed passage beneath a collapsed road marker and wants a small party to retrieve the keep's old boundary records before scavengers do.
15 gp each and the recovered records, which establish ownership of a disputed field
Quest giver: Bram Kest
A farmer's missing brother went searching for a rumored cache and has not returned. His boot prints lead to the entrance, and his lantern can be seen faintly in the prison wing.
A family heirloom worth 25 gp and a grateful local guide
Quest giver: Nerea of Vask
A traveling antiquarian offers coin for a copy of the garrison roster in the library, but insists that the names be taken intact and not shown to the local reeve.
30 gp and a potion of healing
Corridor Notes
A row of narrow arrow slits overlooks a sealed inner court. Dusty arrowheads litter the floor beneath them, but none are recent.
A faded mural shows a green, riverless homeland with reeds painted along its banks. Someone has scratched out the faces of the figures crossing it.
A narrow gutter in the floor carries water toward Room 13. The water runs uphill for the last few feet and carries a faint copper taste.
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