Battlemap
The Cleared Tannery Orphanage
The first thing you notice is the row of tiny coats, each marked with a number instead of a name.
Beneath a burned-out charitable home lies a cramped orphanage built around a sealed cistern. Its abandoned dormitories, punishment cells, and shrines have become a nest for malformed things born from grief and alchemical waste. The deeper chambers still echo with the caretaker’s final attempt to make obedient children who could never leave.
Cold damp air clings to the skin, carrying the smells of lye, wet straw, and sour milk. Children’s songs drift through the stone at odd hours, sometimes sung backward, while blue candle flames tremble in rooms without wind.
☠ Threat
Omina Sefu survived the fire by binding her mind to a swollen mass of children’s bedding, surgical wire, and stolen organs. Now called the Cradle-Mother, she commands the malformed remnants of her experiments from room-12. She wants living intruders brought to her, believing every new body can become a vessel for the children she failed to save.
History
The orphanage was built by Omina Sefu, a charitable apothecary, after the old tannery was cleared from this hillside. She expanded the building over a spring-fed cistern and promised shelter to abandoned children. When donations failed, Omina began experimenting on residents, trying to create tireless guardians from discarded medicines and animal organs. A fire ended the orphanage, but the lower rooms remained sealed.
Encounter Table
CRA crawling bundle of wet bedding with too many fingers sewn into its seams.
A pale caretaker-shaped abomination carrying a bucket of black water.
A cluster of toy heads rolling on jointed tongues.
Rumours & Whispers
The burned orphanage still rings its supper bell whenever a child disappears nearby.
A healer once bought medicine from the orphanage and heard something breathing inside the walls.
The old foundation was built over a spring that runs black during moonless nights.
A ghost beneath the hill knows where every stolen child was buried.
The landholder wants the cellar cleared, but pays extra for any papers bearing Omina Sefu’s seal.
Quest Hooks
Quest giver: Bako, the settlement watchman
Children from a nearby settlement have vanished, and muddy footprints lead toward the sealed foundation of the old orphanage.
A family heirloom recovered from the old records room and a modest purse of 25 gold pieces
Quest giver: Samira Qadir, a traveling physician
A healer wants proof that Omina Sefu’s formulas still exist before the knowledge reaches grave robbers or plague cultists.
Three antitoxins and free treatment for the party in her clinic
Quest giver: The unseen child called Shishi
A child-spirit asks the party to break the brass bell in room-12 so the trapped souls can stop hearing the caretaker’s commands.
A blessing that grants advantage on one death saving throw per character
Quest giver: Hassan Duma, keeper of the hillside plots
A local landholder wants the dungeon cleared so the foundation can be reused, but refuses to say why the old records must not be read.
A safehouse, supplies, and legal title to recovered mundane valuables
Corridor Notes
Faded height marks cover the walls, each labeled with a child’s name and a date. Several marks continue upward far beyond any human height.
Small handprints appear in the dust, leading toward Room 13 even when no living creature has passed recently.
Iron hooks hold tiny coats, each stitched with a number rather than a name. One coat is still warm to the touch.
A drain runs along the corridor floor, carrying thin black water toward the deeper rooms.
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