Perched on a rim above a ruined valley, Ashwell Hollow clings to one stubborn square of life around a tiny, painted temple while gray dust smothers what remains below; the village's houses huddle around the temple and a sunken common, eyes fixed toward the black wall and fortress across the hollow.
A single bloom of color in a valley of dust and silence.
A high-res, share-ready sheet you can post or print.
Temple Steward
A wiry woman in patched ceremonial robes, fingers stained with mosaic pigment.
Councilor and former quarry foreman
Broad-shouldered and slow to smile, Hald carries a chisel as a habitual gesture.
Scrounger and itinerant worker
A lean figure with callused hands and quick eyes, always wrapped in a faded cloak.
Officer of the distant fortress
Clad in dark plate with a thin scar across his cheek, Varr rarely smiles.
General store / temple offerings
A low-ceilinged stall beside the temple selling practical goods and ritual offerings under Maris's supervision.
Carving and metal repair
A cramped workshop filled with wood shavings, hammered metal, and the scent of oil.
Mostly locals, a few furtive traders, and occasional militia members
A low room warmed by a central hearth where villagers trade stories and small favors.
Local militia
Local defenders drawn from the populace who balance defense with daily labor.
Religious order
A small cadre of acolytes who treat the mosaic as sacred and maintain rituals for protection.
Scroungers and traders
Loose association of scavengers who provide goods and intelligence but sometimes skirt council law.
Stone gate, half-buried in dust, with iron rings still warm from months of sun and shadow.
A charred, spiked beacon in the valley center that points accusingly at the sky.
A shallow plaza surrounded by low houses where villagers gather and leave offerings to the temple.
A thin black line along the far crest with a forbidding fortress at its center visible like a bruise on the horizon.
The mosaic's pigments are ground from a living mineral that absorbs memory.
Captain Varr's fortress fears the temple because its glow interferes with a ritual the fortress conducts at the wall.
A hidden spring flows beneath Hald's private cache and could restore limited water to the valley.
Tile of Memory
A humming tile reveals faint visions of a past ritual that may show how the Greyfall began, drawing the party into deciphering the mosaic's secret.
Fortress Foray
Captain Varr demands more supplies; the village begs for help gathering evidence of the fortress's true intentions or negotiating terms before a raid.
The Hidden Spring
Rumors of a concealed spring beneath Hald's cache send the party into an old cavern where they must bypass traps and judge whether to reveal the source to the village.
Return of the Exile
Runa pleads innocence and asks the party to find the real thief by tracking scavengers and unmasking the black-market buyer.
