The Mottled Spire’s wild, rugged uplands lie beyond the Selka River. Crumbling ruins and abandoned mines—the leavings of civilisation’s ebbing tide—dot the hills. One such place is the isolated wind-blasted ruin of Bleak Hill Manor. Here once dwelled the wizard-sage Ilmatar Tiera before her untimely death at unknown hands. The centuried ruin—decayed and crumbled—has alternately lain abandoned or served as the lair of marauders, bandits and worse. Now, however, events conspire to focus certain interested parties upon the ruin, and all such folk are in need of adventurers brave enough to dare the terrors of the Mottled Spire.

Dungeon Background

The Selka River has long marked the bulk of Ashlar’s northern border. Beyond the river lies the Mottled Spire’s wild uplands and the tribes of savage humanoids, and even fouler monsters, that claim the place as their own. 

However, it has not always been thus. Throughout Ashlar’s history, sporadic attempts have been made to push the duchy’s border northwards. All such attempts have failed, but their leavings—abandoned mines, ruined fortified manor houses and the like—dot the southern hills.

Explorers, adventurers and miners sometimes venture into the hills in search of glory or wealth. Some such groups disappear without trace while others return laden with booty and tales of desperate battles against the Spire’s denizens.

Bleak Hill Manor

Bleak Hill Manor stands in the southern foothills of the Mottled Spire. Built almost 400 years ago by Ilmatar Tiera, a wizard-sage fascinated—some said obsessed—with the heavens and the movements of its various bodies the ruin is well known among Dunstonians.

The ruins of Bleak Hill Manor stand atop a high hill with unobstructed views of the horizon. From her home, Ilmatar took voluminous notes on the constellations, the movement of planets across the sky and of the occasional appearance of so-called Vile Stars—blazing travellers streaking across the night sky. Commonfolk ascribe such dread visitors as messengers from the gods, but Ilmatar, steeped in ancient lore, knew the truth. Vile Stars were nothing more than wandering stars, fragments of which sometimes fall to the ground. She also knew such visitors often comprised valuable star metals such as mithral and adamantine as well as the exceptionally rare tordel.

Ilmatar Tiera died in 211 NR when her home was the focus of a ferocious magical attack. In the attack, the manor house was severely damaged and parts of the cellars collapsed. The attacker’s identity was never determined—mainly because none of Ilmatar’s household survived the conflagration.

Morden’s Dagger

Morden’s Dagger is a Vile Star. Morden’s Dagger blazes passed the world every 370 years, and every time it does so fragments of the comet crash to the earth somewhere in the Mottled Spire. 

Morden’s Dagger hurtled across the night sky in 207 NR as the Time of Two Crowns wracked Ashlar. It will return next year and several learned folk eagerly await its appearance. The vast majority of Ashlar’s populace, however, remain in blessed ignorance of the Vile Star’s imminent return. Its return, however, will be met with near universal horror by Ashlar’s populace who view such visitors as heralds of fell and foul doings.

Notable Locations at a Glance

The dungeon has several notable locations:

1. The Upper Ruins: Bleak Hill Manor’s ruins sprawl across the hilltop.

2. The Darken Stair: This is the only entrance to the manor’s part-flooded cellar.

3. The Grand Processional: This grand processional once bounded the cellar to the west and south, but a collapse has cut it in twain.

4. Storeroom: This chamber was once a storeroom.

5. Chamber of the Conclave: Ilmatar used this chamber to discuss matters of great import away from her servants, prying eyes and waggling ears.

6. Chapel of the Arcane: Ilmatar worshipped Morden (N greater god of magic and knowledge), in this subterranean chapel.

7. Shattered Orrery: This chamber once held a fantastically complicated orrery—a mechanical representation of the known planets and major stars. Now little is left but a pile of twisted, rusting metal.

8. Chamber of Secrets: Here, Ilmatar stored and hid her magical paraphernalia, sagacious writings and a shard of star metal recovered from deep in the Mottled Spire.

Want More?

Download the free maps and handouts for Ruin of Bleak Hill here:

Want to add the Ruin of Bleak Hill to Your Campaign?

About Dungeon Backdrops

You are a GM, but you are busy. You want to write your own modules, but you just don’t have the time. And you don’t want to use commercial modules. You want to make your campaign your own. That’s where the Dungeon Backdrop line comes in! Each Dungeon Backdrop presents a fully fleshed out and lovingly detailed self-contained dungeon ready for you to use as you see fit. Stock the dungeon with your own monsters (and—perhaps—their treasure), decide their back story and you are good to go.  

Every Dungeon Backdrop is carefully designed to be easily inserted into almost any fantasy campaign and is compatible with virtually any fantasy roleplaying game.

Dungeon Backdrops: we describe the dungeon, you add the monsters (and the treasure).