Aeldentree
Magical wards keep the once-proud city of Aeldentree hidden from the world. The city is built among the boughs of massive white mournwood trees and is home to a confederation of elves, goblins, and fairies hailing from all four of the fey courts.
• Aeldentree’s populace are the pomenysh descendants of fey who were victimized by human pogroms and usurped from their ancestral lands in Krevborna.
• Aeldentree is a sanctuary, kept secret from the prying eyes and vicious intent of mankind; only those who possess a fetish made of elk bone can successfully find Aeldentree within the Silent Forest.
• The most militant of Aeldentree’s citizens belong to the Sarabande, a secretive cabal of pomenysh insurgents.
Camp Lovelorn Lake
Beside Lovelorn Lake, a placid pool of crystalline water in the Silent Forest, sits an eponymous campsite consisting of wooden cabins, a dilapidated dining hall, several fire pits, and a small jetty. A hand-carved sign hanging above the entrance of the site reads “Welcome to Camp Lovelorn Lake.”
• The cabins are well-constructed, but they show indications that they have witnessed violence in the past, such as aged bloodstains and the telltale marks left behind by a fearsome woodman’s axe.
• Something unnatural in Camp Lovelorn Lake calls to teenagers on the cusp of adulthood, exerting a pull that draws them to come and stay during the golden months of summer—even if that means shirking their responsibilities or running away from home.
• The campsite is, of course, a trap; anyone who stays at the camp will be hunted by a demonic, mask-wearing killer who is bound to the site by a lingering curse.
• The masked killer believes that every soul he claims from a murdered victim furthers the goal of resurrecting his dead mother—whose decaying head he keeps in a woodland shrine deep within the Silent Forest.
For my money ‘Lovelorn Lake’ might better fit the Krevborna milieu as an old temple or pagan ritual site than as a summer camp - with a sacred character helping to explain why hardworking premodern parents willingly risk their adolescents on what amounts to a furlough rather than keeping them hard at work helping to keep the family fed, clothes and weatherproof.
ReplyDeleteIf you wanted to run with an especially Dark Fantasy take, you could make this the site of a Heroon (The shrine of an Ancient Hero built around their tomb), possibly even playing with the Seven Youths and Seven Maidens from the legend of Theseus, as well as the Hero’s later, less admirable habit of carrying off women and trying to kidnap the Queen of the Underworld.
If you want to get really deep into the woodwork of Classical Myth, you could also suggest that the local Hero also shares Theseus’ habit of being an absolute nemesis to bandits and tendency to think up suitably-karmic executions for them (as demonstrated in his journey to Athens) and possibly even play with the late Robert Graves’ idea of the Sacred King having to fight for his crown against all comers every seven years.