Skip to content
CharGen Icon
CreatePricing
Dungeons
Eine kleine siedlung tief in den wäldern versteckt wo sich reisende ausruhen und ihre vorräte auffrischen können. · Medium · Medium

Rootbound Waystation

Every road beneath Dornruh leads somewhere, but not always where you meant to go.
Rooms
12
Foes
21, CR 1/8 to 5
Traps
5
Treasure
1,580 gp
123456789101112Entrance
Select a room on the plan to open it.

The party is in

1. Tavern Cellar Stair

Seen

Something wanders by

At a glance

The threat

Veyruun, the Bound Road, is an ancient intelligence woven through roots, stone, and memory.

Wandering monsters (1d4)

  1. 1

    1d4× Waystone FoxesCR 1/2

    When: When the party leaves food, drops blood, or spends more than ten minutes arguing over directions.A pair of root-spined foxes carrying scraps of travelers' maps in their mouths.
  2. 2

    Lost Wayfarer ShadeCR 1

    When: When the party speaks a name from the founders' register or passes through a false corridor.A memory-haunted traveler who believes the characters are part of a road crew that abandoned them.
  3. 3

    1d3× Path SpoilerCR 1

    When: When the party uses the black iron compass near a shifting root wall.A bark-masked spirit that steals compass needles and replaces them with thorns.
  4. 4

    Floodroot HorrorCR 2

    When: When silverleaf is harvested or the shrine water is disturbed.A crawling knot of wet roots, bones, and drowned clothing that follows the scent of silverleaf.

Rooms

12
1

Tavern Cellar Stair

2 foestreasuresecret

What they see

Read aloud

A concealed stair descends from a false wine rack in the Lantern Rest's cellar. The first steps are dry and swept clean, but the passage below smells of wet leaves and old stone.

Features

  • Hidden entrance behind the tavern's wine racks
  • Scratched names of travelers cover the stairwell
  • A bell rope connects to the tavern cellar, though the bell above is broken

What the GM knows

Monsters

2× Rootbound CrawlersCR 1/8

Small root-wrapped scavengers made from animated bundles of twigs and stolen clothing.Tactics. They hide among crates, rush isolated targets, and flee toward room 2 when one is destroyed.

Treasure

Waystation Supply Cache25 gp in practical supplies

Useful supplies gathered for the settlement: six torches, two coils of rope, dried rations for ten people, and a keg of clean water.
Room secrets · GM only

Notes

Mara Venn knows the entrance exists but believes it leads only to abandoned storage. Characters who mention the waystone or missing travelers earn her cautious cooperation.

4 doors: E (secret), N (normal), S (normal), W (normal)

The place

What it is

Beneath the quiet forest settlement of Dornruh lies the Rootbound Waystation, an ancient refuge built around a magical waystone.

Atmosphere

Damp earth, wet roots, and old wood fill the air beneath Dornruh.

The threat

Veyruun, the Bound Road, is an ancient intelligence woven through roots, stone, and memory.

History

Long before Dornruh became a settlement, forest wardens built the Rootbound Waystation around a fallen waystone that could bend distance.

Rumors

1d5
Roll a rumor

  1. 1Travelers who leave Dornruh by the eastern road sometimes arrive back at the tavern before they have even reached the forest edge.
  2. 2Rusk's black iron compass was found in an old root cellar, and it has never pointed north since.
  3. 3Fenroot silverleaf grows beneath the village, but the water around it is said to remember anyone who drinks it.
  4. 4The young pathfinder's birthmark appeared after a night spent lost in the woods as a child.
  5. 5The founders of Dornruh made a promise to the forest, and the village has been breaking it for generations.

Plot hooks

4
InvestigationThe Road That Eats TravelersTravelers vanish on the road outside Dornruh, and each disappearance leaves behind a single green root growing through a boot sole.From: Mara Venn, the anxious tavernkeeper of the Lantern RestReward: A permanent safe route through the forest and free lodging in Dornruh
RecoveryThe Compass BelowRusk & Nail's black iron compass points beneath the tavern instead of north. The smith asks the characters to recover it after it was briefly stolen by root-covered scavengers.From: Rusk, a blunt village smithReward: The compass, repaired iron tools, and a settlement discount on weapons and gear
ResourceSilverleaf in Black WaterFenroot Remedies needs silverleaf from the flooded shrine, where the herb grows only in water touched by the waystone.From: Edda Fenroot, an elderly herbalistReward: A supply of potent healing draughts and a renewable source of silverleaf
Moral ChoiceThe Marked WayfinderThe young pathfinder's mark begins to glow whenever the roads change. The elders want the bearer hidden, while Veyruun's roots are already searching for them.From: Tarin Vale, the marked young pathfinderReward: The right to decide the fate of Veyruun and the loyalty of Dornruh's surviving founders' descendants

Corridors

4

  • Throughout all three levels

    Thin silver roots cross the walls like veins. They twitch when someone carrying the pathfinder's mark passes nearby.

  • Between rooms 2 and 5

    Faded waystone symbols point toward rooms that no longer exist, while fresh scratches mark routes used by missing travelers.

  • Level 2 shrine passages

    Small niches hold clay cups, rusted walking staffs, and prayer ribbons left by generations of waystation keepers.

  • Near the sealed central chamber

    Black iron nails driven into the stone form crude compass roses. Several point in different directions at once.

Media

0 images

No images yet.

Visual sheet

Turn Rootbound Waystation into a sheet

A high-res, share-ready sheet you can post or print.