Le Rocher des Murmures

Environment: The clearing itself has normal outdoor lighting, but the forest seems unusually dark. During the daytime, characters with normal vision can see only 40 feet (with another 40 feet of Ombrey illumination) unless they bring their own light source. Even in winter, the leaves and branches of the Whisper Woods rustle ceaselessly, imposing a –5 penalty on Listen checks within the forest. The weather at Le Rocher des Murmures is normal for the area, except that the air in the Whisper Woods is always 10 degrees colder than elsewhere. While snow is rare in the rest of Aundair, it’s Commun within the Whisper Woods.Terrain: The Whisper Woods is a medium forest as described on page 87 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. The undergrowth that covers most of the forest provides concealment and costs 2 squares of movement to move into. Forest Trails: The Whisper Woods is crisscrossed with a network of trails seemingly as old as the forest itself. The trails vary in width between 5 and 15 feet, with most of the wide trails spreading outward from Le Rocher des Murmures like spokes. Regardless of their width, all the trails take meandering paths through the woods.Skull Cairns: Hundreds of black stone piles are scattered throughout the Whisper Woods, most within a few feet of a trail. Character who pass within 20 feet of such a cairn automatically notice that each stone is roughly carved into the shape of a Humainoïde skull. Each skull cairn is the center of a permanent wild magic effect, as described on page 149 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. The wild magic area extends 100 feet from each cairn.The cairns also seem to attract game, and consequently predators of both the natural and unnatural sort. PCs who rest or camp near a cairn have a 25% chance per hour of an encounter, rather than the usual 8% chance.Gnarl Valley: The home of the Gnarl tribe of centaurs, Gnarl Valley is a treeless valley 2 miles south of Le Rocher des Murmures. About a hundred centaurs call the valley home, although between half and two-thirds of the tribe is away hunting or patrolling the Whisper Woods at a given time. Most of the centaurs live in tall-roofed thatch huts that surround twin teepees: one for Warchief Horgun (centaur fi ghter 4) and another for Shaman Jalanatra (centaur druid 5). Characters who approach within a mile of Gnarl Valley have a 75% chance per hour of encountering a patrol of 1d4+2 centaurs. Horgun and Jalanatra both partake of Le Rocher des Murmures’s prophecies, so it may be diffi cult for even stealthy intruders to elude the centaur patrols.

Le Rocher des Murmures ENCOUNTERS d% Encounter Average EL 01–10 1d4+2 centaurs 7 11–13 1 warbound impaler (lesser battlebriar)* 7 14–23 1d3 araneas 6 24–30 1d4+2 boars (animal) 6 31–37 1d3 dire boars 6 38–42 2d4 krenshars 6 43–49 1d3 owlbears 6 50–51 1d4+2 satyrs 6 52–54 1d3 thorns* 6 55–58 1d3 wood woads* 6 59–65 1d3 assassin vines 5 66–75 1d3 centaurs 5 76–83 1d3 dire wolves 5 84–85 1d3 dryads 5 86–89 1d4+2 petals* 5 90–94 1 monstrous spider, Huge (vermin) 5 95–100 1d3 monstrous spiders, Large (vermin) 4 Treasure:There’s a 50% chance at any given time that a 6th-level treasure can be discovered HISTORY - Knowledge (local) CHECK:Le Rocher des Murmures to learn more about it. DC 10: Le Rocher des Murmures is a ruin in the center of the Whisper Woods of northern Aundair. DC 15: Hostile centaurs and strangel Fée infest the forest that surrounds Le Rocher des Murmures. DC 20: It’s called Le Rocher des Murmures because the monolith at the center of the forest foretells the future of anyone who comes near. DC 30: A creature of ancient power is trapped beneath the rubble of Le Rocher des Murmures, and it’s whispering for aid in escaping its prison.

[Aundair]