Greysmere

Start-class article · First seen: s20 · Last seen: s23
Greysmere
The mill-pond settlement (Session 20) · The mill-pond settlement · grey mill-pond settlement · the storehouse settlement
Greysmere, Small village (mill pond and graveyards) Umbrafall approaches portrait
Location
StatusActive
First seens20
Last seens23
TypeSmall village (mill pond and graveyards)
RegionUmbrafall approaches
Notable forNot on the map; much of its land is graves; the kidnapping of the innkeeper's son (session 21)

Greysmere is a very small village around a grey mill pond on the road to Umbrafall, “a little bit out of” the city and roughly a day’s ride short of it, so insignificant that it is not on the map and much of its land is given over to graves [2][4][5][6]. It has an inn that is also its only tavern, a stabling lean-to, a storehouse behind the inn and a graveyard with open graves [7][50][17][18]. The party reached it unnamed at the end of session 20, when a forced storehouse and a twitching severed hand closed the session [1]. In session 21 raiders who had taken goods and bodies over several nights carried off Pell, the son of the innkeeper Orrin Sol, who hired the party to bring him back [36][9][17][24].

Overview

Greysmere is “a very small village” on the road to Umbrafall [33], “a little bit out of” the city and, by Laura Bennett’s reckoning, “roughly a day’s ride” short of it [2][4]. It is “too insignificant to actually bother putting on the map” [6], and when Terry asked whether a town missing from the map might be an illusion, the DM said no [34][35]. Much of its land is given over to graves [5], and people coming through from Umbrafall “do tend to bring some of their dead to here” [11].

The party first reached it on the third evening of Laura’s caravan journey, when it was an unnamed settlement around a grey mill pond whose forced storehouse and twitching severed hand closed session 20 [1]; the DM named it at the start of session 21 and confirmed the spelling afterwards ([5]; the DM’s post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27). It matters as the start of the kidnapping that took the party to the ridge temple: raiders had been taking goods and bodies for several nights, and on the night the party arrived undead carried off Pell, the innkeeper’s son [36][17][24].

Geography and appearance

Greysmere stands on the Eldwythe-to-Umbrafall road, reached on the third evening of the journey after the approach had begun to show “small patches of blue and green biogloom” beneath fallen logs [1]. A low inn overlooks the mill pond, a storehouse stands across the yard, and the graveyard is close by [3][18]. Beyond those the DM named only “a bit of a residential area” and “a small general shop” [5]. No compass direction from the village to Umbrafall has been given.

North of the village the land turns to pine woods. The silver-paint trail ends about fifty feet beyond the storehouse door, and one wheel track “like a wheelbarrow” runs on north [37][38][39]; the severed hand’s pull and the upheaved soil point the same way [20][21]. About forty minutes’ walk on, the trail ends at a temple cut into a low ridge [40][41][27].

Inhabitants

  • Orrin Sol, the innkeeper, Pell’s father and the party’s employer [42]. Nobody addresses him by name on-screen; Laura and the storehouse list name him [15][23].
  • Pell, his son, taken by undead on the night of session 21 [36][43].
  • Fen, the nervous local who cut off the hand and saw the kidnapping [36][44][10][45].
  • Fen’s mother, whose house is in the residential streets [19], and a second, unnamed local who sat by the hearth [8].
  • Laura Bennett, whose wagons wait at the stabling lean-to [13].

Government / control

No lord, watch or militia has been described. Asked about a militia, Fen said only “they just kind of leave us alone”, and who “they” are was left unclear [46][47]. Laura’s view is that the villagers “live right next to a lot of necromancers, so you’re going to have a lot of undead attacks” [14].

Notable features

  • The inn. The village’s only tavern: “The inn is, is the tavern.” [7]. The innkeeper was “counting coins into several small stacks” while two locals sat near the hearth, and he offered rooms, food and stabling [8]. Three ales and a water cost three silver, and “the water and ale are fine” [48][49]. Room and board go on Laura’s bill, to be settled with Orrin Sol [15].
  • The stabling lean-to. The DM pointed the party to “a little stabling area that Laura knows” [50]. Laura was found there beneath a lean-to with her wagons packed and one bedroll spread beside the wheels [13].
  • The storehouse. Its door “still hangs from one hinge” [3], and it stands “just out back” of the inn [18]. Inside it “smells of lamp oil and fresh paint”, a coin box sits open “with coins still inside”, and silver footprints cross the floor to the broken door [22]. The footprints come from “several different nights” [24]. The innkeeper’s list of what is missing runs to paint and brushes, rugs, cooked food, cheese, incense, a dragon chess set, rope and two wheelbarrows, while “coins and alcohol and valuable parcels are left behind” [23].
  • The graveyard and the open graves. The graveyard is “over there” from the inn [18]. The raiders have “stolen a lot of bodies” from the open graves, “Don’t quite know why.” [17]. The graves were not examined.
  • The chopping block. Near the graveyard an axe pinned a severed human hand to the block, “its fingers slowly scrape against the wood” [3]. Fen, who had cut it off, pointed it out [45][51]. Father Thomas freed it and took it away on a rope as a guide [52][53]: The severed hand.
  • The residential streets and the general shop. The innkeeper’s directions to Fen’s mother’s house run “go down the street, four houses, then you turn right, five houses and then it’s on your left” [19]. The shop is named and was not visited [5].
  • The mill pond. Seen only as the inn’s outlook [3]; session 20 called it “a grey mill pond” [1]. No mill has been described.

History in the campaign

Session 20: The Man Who Was Always Here

Main article: Session 20

After a day on which “small patches of blue and green biogloom” appeared beneath fallen logs, the road reached “a small settlement around a grey mill pond” on the third evening. A storehouse beside the inn had been forced open, silver paint ran across the yard into wheel tracks leading north, and an axe pinned a grey human hand to a chopping block, its fingers still moving [1]. The place was unnamed, and the session ended on the sight.

Session 21: The Hand That Points North

Main article: Session 21

The DM named the village Greysmere and said it was too small for the map [5][6]. At the inn the innkeeper, Orrin Sol, hired the party to find his son Pell, taken by undead that night, for “50 gold now and 150 gold” on his return [42][9]. Fen, who had cut off the hand, described three kidnappers in charcoal robes who dragged the boy “up north to the woods” [10]. Laura Bennett agreed to wait until midday [54]. The party leashed the hand, searched the storehouse and followed the wheelbarrow track north [53][22][23][41].

Session 22: The Dragon in the Statue

Main article: Session 22

Referenced only, from inside the ridge temple. The DM put the village “a 40 minute walk back to Greysmere” [27]. Hugo asked how much time the party had before “that midday window” set by Laura [26]; Caelumn assumed “at least 12 hours” and Hugo “probably 14 hours”, and the table concluded that finishing the temple would not make them miss it [55][56][28].

Session 23: The Changeling in Manacles

Main article: Session 23

Referenced only, and never by name. The whole session was spent in the ridge temple on the same night and paused mid-fight [57]. The caravan deadline came up in the players’ talk: Terry said the party had to be back “in the morning”, and Caelumn corrected him: “Midday, we’ve got to be back.” [58][59]. Father Thomas ruled out a long rest because “People are expecting us back in town in like five hours or six hours” [30], while Hugo thought a long rest would still fit before midday [32]. Terry told Kole that the party had been “staying overnight in this camp” when “some kids had gone missing” [31]; only Pell is known to be missing.

Status

As of session 23. Active. The party left Greysmere on foot on the night of session 21 [41] and has not returned: session 22 ended with it resting outside the ridge temple, “a 40 minute walk back to Greysmere” [27][60], and session 23 paused with it fighting inside [57]. Laura Bennett is waiting in the village with her wagons until about midday, after which she will start looking for other guards [54][61]; how many hours remain is something only the players have estimated, and their estimates differ [30][32]. Pell has not been found.

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 20, line 1757: Session-end hook; grey mill pond, a forced storehouse, silver paint into northbound wheel tracks, an axe pinning a still-twitching severed grey hand to a chopping block.
  2. ^ Session 21, line 44: DM recap: play resumes at "a small millpond settlement, a little bit out of Umbrafall".
  3. ^ Session 21, line 56: Opening scene: a low inn by the mill pond, a storehouse door that "still hangs from one hinge", silver paint heading north, an axe-pinned hand near the graveyard.
  4. ^ Session 21, line 63: Laura: Umbrafall is "roughly a day's ride from here"; she will stay the night and leave in the morning.
  5. ^ Session 21, line 94: Named by the DM: "a small town called Greysmere"; not on the map; much of its land graves; a residential area, an inn and a small general shop.
  6. ^ Session 21, line 96: The DM: "too insignificant to actually bother putting on the map".
  7. ^ Session 21, line 110: The inn is the only tavern: "The inn is, is the tavern.".
  8. ^ Session 21, line 134: Inside the inn, the innkeeper is "counting coins into several small stacks"; two locals sit by the hearth.
  9. ^ Session 21, line 202: The innkeeper: "Really weird raids of late. Stealing stuff.".
  10. ^ Session 21, line 289: Fen: three kidnappers "all in charcoal robes" with several undead took the boy north.
  11. ^ Session 21, line 326: Fen: people from Umbrafall "do tend to bring some of their dead to here".
  12. ^ Session 21, line 332: Fen on what the raiders take: "Paint, rugs, food, tools.".
  13. ^ Session 21, line 374: Laura at the stabling lean-to with her packed wagons.
  14. ^ Session 21, line 378: Laura: "they live right next to a lot of necromancers".
  15. ^ Session 21, line 389: Room and board go on Laura's bill: "I'll get settled up with Orrin.".
  16. ^ Session 21, line 416: The DM: Fen went back into "the main village of Greysmere".
  17. ^ Session 21, line 447: The innkeeper: the storehouse was robbed, and bodies were taken from "the open graves".
  18. ^ Session 21, line 451: The graveyard is close by and "the storehouse is just out back".
  19. ^ Session 21, line 454: Directions to the house of Fen's mother, down the village street.
  20. ^ Session 21, line 481: The hand on the chopping block: grey skin, a ring marked E.V., charcoal cloth, "straining towards its northern edge".
  21. ^ Session 21, line 487: "fresh upheaved soil moving towards the northern end of the town".
  22. ^ Session 21, line 630: The storehouse: a coin box "with coins still inside"; silver footprints lead to the broken door.
  23. ^ Session 21, line 635: The innkeeper's missing-inventory list; "coins and alcohol and valuable parcels are left behind".
  24. ^ Session 21, line 651: Footprints from "several different nights": the raids are repeated.
  25. ^ Session 21, line 664-668: The paint trail ends 50 feet beyond the door, then "one singular track, like a wheelbarrow" runs north.
  26. ^ Session 22, line 646: From the ridge temple, Hugo asks how much time is left before "that midday window" with Laura.
  27. ^ Session 22, line 652: The DM: "a 40 minute walk back to Greysmere".
  28. ^ Session 22, line 655: Hugo: finishing the temple will not make them miss the deadline, "But the answer to that is no.".
  29. ^ Session 23, line 164-165: The deadline as the players state it in the table recap: back "in the morning to go and do escort duty"; "Well, midday. Midday, we've got to be back.".
  30. ^ Session 23, line 1232: Father Thomas's player: "People are expecting us back in town in like five hours or six hours or something like that." (an estimate; the village is not named).
  31. ^ Session 23, line 1369: Terry sums the errand up for Kole: "staying overnight in this camp", "some kids had gone missing" (his plural; only Pell is known to be missing).
  32. ^ Session 23, line 1812: Hugo's player: "She said she'd wait until midday"; "We came here about like 9, 10 o'clock at night." (an estimate).
  33. ^ Session 21, line 71: Inline citation.
  34. ^ Session 21, line 97: Inline citation.
  35. ^ Session 21, line 98: Inline citation.
  36. ^ Session 21, line 187: Inline citation.
  37. ^ Session 21, line 664: Inline citation.
  38. ^ Session 21, line 666: Inline citation.
  39. ^ Session 21, line 668: Inline citation.
  40. ^ Session 21, line 704: Inline citation.
  41. ^ Session 21, line 708: Inline citation.
  42. ^ Session 21, line 185: Inline citation.
  43. ^ Session 21, line 200: Inline citation.
  44. ^ Session 21, line 264: Inline citation.
  45. ^ Session 21, line 300: Inline citation.
  46. ^ Session 21, line 327: Inline citation.
  47. ^ Session 21, line 328: Inline citation.
  48. ^ Session 21, line 150: Inline citation.
  49. ^ Session 21, line 173: Inline citation.
  50. ^ Session 21, line 115: Inline citation.
  51. ^ Session 21, line 312: Inline citation.
  52. ^ Session 21, line 504: Inline citation.
  53. ^ Session 21, line 505: Inline citation.
  54. ^ Session 21, line 383: Inline citation.
  55. ^ Session 22, line 651: Inline citation.
  56. ^ Session 22, line 653: Inline citation.
  57. ^ Session 23, line 1902: Inline citation.
  58. ^ Session 23, line 164: Inline citation.
  59. ^ Session 23, line 165: Inline citation.
  60. ^ Session 22, line 1893: Inline citation.
  61. ^ Session 21, line 385: Inline citation.