The mill-pond settlement (Session 20)

The mill-pond settlement (Session 20) is the small, unnamed roadside settlement around a grey mill pond, near Umbrafall, where session 20 ends on a horror beat. Reached on the third evening of the Eldwythe-to-Umbrafall road, its storehouse has been forced open, silver paint runs across the yard into a set of wheel tracks leading north, and an axe pins a still-twitching severed grey human hand to a chopping block ^[1]. It is the next-session hook; the settlement’s name has yet to be revealed.

Overview

The mill-pond settlement (Session 20) is a small, as-yet-unnamed settlement built around a grey mill pond on the final approach to Umbrafall. The Laura Bennett caravan reached it on the third evening of the road from Eldwythe, after a day in which patches of blue and green biogloom began to appear beneath the fallen logs and an early sunset settled under a dark bank of cloud to the west ^[1]. The party arrived to find a crime scene rather than a rest stop, and the session cut off on the image before anyone could investigate.

The scene at session’s end

A storehouse beside the settlement’s inn has been forced open. Silver paint runs across the yard and into a set of wheel tracks that lead north, and an axe has pinned a severed grey human hand to a chopping block, its fingers still moving ^[1]. The northbound tracks and the twitching grey hand read as necromantic or necrotech activity right on Umbrafall’s doorstep, echoing the road ambush the caravan had just survived.

“On the third evening the road reaches a small settlement around a grey mill pond. A storehouse beside the inn has been forced open, and you see silver paint that runs across the yard and into a set of wheel tracks that leads north. You see an axe has pinned a grey human hand to a chopping block. Its fingers are still moving.” — Nick (DM), ^[1]

Status as of session 20

Unknown. The settlement is unexplored and unnamed, its inhabitants unseen, and the fate of whoever forced the storehouse unresolved. It stands as the hook into the next session; its name is to be revealed.

See also

• Umbrafall
• Laura Bennett
• The Road Necromancer

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.