Battlemap
Red Ochre Cave
The first thing you notice is the red handprints, fresh enough to shine in the torchlight.
Gurt's cave is a raider's den carved through black limestone, its natural chambers enlarged with picks, fire, and brute strength. Beastmen use the upper rooms to imprison captives, prepare raids, and perform rites that harden their courage before they descend to the totem chamber.
Cold mineral air carries the stink of wet fur, old blood, and cooking fat. Torchlight gutters in smoky niches, while distant chanting, scraping claws, and the steady drip of water echo through the cave.
☠ Threat
Gurt, a scarred beastman war-chief, has made the cave a staging ground for raids and sacrifices. His wooden totem feeds dark strength into his soldiers through nightly rituals, allowing even frightened raiders to fight with unnatural coordination. Each sacrifice deepens the bond between Gurt and the cave spirit imprisoned beneath the stone.
History
The cave began as a quarry worked by the Red Ochre miners, who cut pigment and soft limestone for villages along the trade road. After the quarry collapsed, beastmen claimed its chambers and turned the abandoned workrooms into a lair. Gurt expanded the deepest chamber, raising a wooden totem from stolen beams, horns, hides, and sacrificial blood.
Encounter Table
CRA two-member patrol carrying stolen sacks and bone whistles, always alert for intruders.
Mangy hyenas fed on ritual scraps, their muzzles stained with blackened blood.
A wounded beastman deserter hiding beneath hides, desperate to escape Gurt's retaliation.
Rumours & Whispers
Beastmen have been seen carrying sacks toward the old quarry after every moonless sunset.
The cave's deepest chamber glows red whenever someone is sacrificed inside.
A missing miner's journal claims the quarry had a second exit, but no one has found it.
Some villagers believe Gurt serves a demon, while others say the cave itself is hungry.
A beastman prisoner whispered that clean water makes the raiders' war charm fail.
Quest Hooks
Quest giver: Bako Reed, a blunt village reeve who keeps a wall of carved raid tallies.
Villagers report that food stores, livestock, and three people have vanished in successive night raids. The party must track the raiders to their cave before the next sacrifice.
A deed to an abandoned quarry shed, plus 120 gp in collected village funds.
Quest giver: Omina Vale, a soft-spoken traveling healer who treated a wounded prisoner.
A captured beastman claims Gurt is being supplied by someone outside the cave, but refuses to speak unless the party promises to destroy the totem.
A pouch of uncommon healing draughts and a favor from the local militia.
Quest giver: Jorren Pike, an off-beat, sharp-tongued mine surveyor.
Miners want the Red Ochre workings reclaimed, but the old quarry records in the library may reveal a safer route and the location of forgotten tools.
300 gp in mining contracts and a finely balanced miner's pick.
Corridor Notes
Strips of hide hang from iron spikes, each marked with a crude tally of raids and sacrifices.
A trail of greasy footprints leads from Room 4 toward the locked southern door and fades beneath a smear of red ochre.
Bone wind chimes dangle from the ceiling, clicking whenever anyone passes beneath them.
Fresh claw marks score the walls near Room 6, and warm breath sometimes fogs the stone around the door.
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