Beneath the Hollow Well
Beneath the Hollow Well
“A village’s forbidden well is ringing from below, and the bell is not calling for help.”
— Hook · rescue and containment
“At dusk, the old well in Briarfen begins to ring from below the earth, though no bell hangs there. By dawn, three villagers have vanished, and the council will pay anyone brave enough to go underground and bring them back. The only map to the lower tunnels was stolen last night.”
— Hook · rescue and containment
Mara Vell meets the party beside the cracked well at twilight and points to fresh footprints circling the rim in a place where no one should have been standing. From below, everyone can hear a faint bell that does not match any church in Briarfen. Before she can finish explaining, a wet, echoing chant rises from the darkness and then cuts off abruptly.
Mara Vell
Mara Vell is desperate but practical, offering coin, food, and the village's cooperation if the party will investigate immediately.
Rumours
d3 · table- 01The old well used to ring during storms, until the priest sealed it after the third disappearance.
- 02A peddler sold Sister Halwen a hymn book written on pages that smell like wet stone.
- 03Lysa Fen saw lanterns being lowered into the sinkhole from a wagon with no wheels.
If the party fails, the sinkhole widens, the missing villagers are lost, and the buried ward may fail enough to threaten Briarfen and nearby settlements. If they succeed, the village survives, but the powers behind the relic theft may still be at work.
Background Lore
The hamlet of Briarfen was built beside an old sinkhole that locals call the Hollow Well. Generations ago, floodwater, superstition, and a vanished shrine made the place taboo, but when the mill started failing and children began hearing bells under the earth, the village council reluctantly hired help. The deeper truth is that the sinkhole is the buried throat of an ancient ward engine, and someone has recently begun feeding it stolen relics to wake what it once held shut.
A village beside a forbidden well has lost three people, and the locals need help finding them. Rumors say smugglers, cultists, or a cursed relic are involved, and the party must go below to investigate the old tunnels and bring back the missing villagers.
