The Warrens

Start-class article · First seen: s4 · Last seen: s7
The Warrens
Warrens · the Hollow's lair · Maelis's lair
The Warrens — portrait.
Location
StatusAbandoned
First seens4
Last seens7
FactionThe Hollow

The Warrens are the underground dungeon beneath the Black Hollow Market in Umbrafall, a maze of fungus-saturated tunnels, sludge pits, mind-control bookshelves, and a Maze of the Minotaur, presided over by Maelis Dirn and her giant soul-bound construct, the Titan. The party crawled them across sessions 4 to 7. Maelis was killed in session 7 when the Titan, rather than be controlled by her any longer, declared “no more” and slammed her into the floor with a natural-20 boulder for 34 damage [5]. The Warrens have been empty of organised hostility since.

Overview

The Warrens are one section of the deep fungal workings beneath Umbrafall — the Gloaming Warrens that the world brief identifies as helping keep the city alive — and the only section the party have so far cleared. Bio-gloom-saturated, regenerating, populated by fungal-zombies bound to mushroom nodes, by Hollow Guardians demanding allegiance to The Hollow, by a phase spider in the ceilings, by a sentient mind-control bookshelf, and centrally by Maelis Dirn and her giant the Titan.

Geography and appearance

A maze of natural caverns reinforced with wooden pillars, illuminated by bioluminescent algae and bio-gloom fungi. Spores drift “like lazy snow” [6]. Faint violet runes glow on the walls. The first-encountered chambers are spore-saturated bulbous side-caves; deeper in, the corridors widen into a sludge-pit cavern with three acidic pits and a collapsed walkway. Past the Hollow Guardian corridor lies a research desk room with Maelis Dirn’s notes (Tri-cap bio-gloom; Cultiver binds soul thread; three nodes, then five), a forged shipping ledger routing through Duskwatch, and a stoppered jar with a violet bio-gloom mushroom cap that “tries to bind to me through the glass” (Harvo).

The Maze of the Minotaur is the climactic stretch: a labyrinth with 60-foot-tall walls, 15-foot corridors, dead ends, and multiple sarcophagi, leading to the central Titan chamber where the soul-binding ritual is anchored. Five fungal nodes, scattered throughout the maze, regenerate the Titan when destroyed.

Detect Magic in the Warrens is “about useless” (Harvo, [7] — every surface in Umbrafall is saturated with corrupted animation magic, like spotting a star at noon.

Government / control

Maelis Dirn (deceased s7) ran the Warrens as a protection racket and an experimentation operation. Her leather-masked collectors enforced shakedowns in the Black Hollow Market above; her Titan was the threat-of-last-resort. After her death, the Warrens are leaderless. The deeper authority of The Hollow persists; its Hollow Guardians remain an open threat.

Notable features

  • The fungal-zombie giant chamber (s5) — three fungal nodes, regenerating boss; cleared.
  • The Hollow Guardian corridor (s5) — twin glowing humanoids who demand allegiance; cleared.
  • The sludge-pit cavern (s5) — three sludge-pits, fungal-zombie ambush; cleared.
  • The phase-spider storeroom (s6) — sarcophagi, crates, mushroom cap clusters; the party long-rested here. Looted: 3 healing potions, a salve, a silvered short sword, a Gloom-Touched Buckler.
  • The mind-control bookshelf room (s6) — sentient bookshelf charms a single party member into worship; abandoned, never destroyed.
  • The research desk room (s6) — Maelis’s notes, forged Duskwatch ledger, bio-gloom toxins, scrolls of Guiding Bolt, the bound mushroom-cap-jar.
  • The Maze of the Minotaur (s6-s7) — 60ft walls, five fungal-node clusters distributed throughout.
  • The central Titan chamber (s6-s7) — channeling-circle, the boss arena, the site of Maelis Dirn’s death.

History in the campaign

  • Session 4: Party trails Maelis Dirn’s collectors to the hatch entrance.
  • Session 5: Caelumn’s Produce Flame detonates the spores. Hollow Guardians killed. Sludge-pit cliffhanger.
  • Session 6: Phase spider; long rest in the storeroom (Caelumn fails his Wisdom save against creeping fungal tendrils on a nat 1 and wakes with one level of exhaustion). Mind-control bookshelf abandoned. Maze of the Minotaur entered. Maelis Dirn appears, recognises Hugo on sight as a Project Veilbreak subject (“Liar. I see the project’s work on you. You work for them and you will die and you will become a pet,” [8]. Two of five fungal nodes destroyed by session end.
  • Session 7: Round 12 onward. Hugo destroys the fifth fungal node. The Titan rises larger and angrier than before, looks at Maelis Dirn through her control ring, declares “No more”, and slams her with two boulders — the second a natural-20 for 34 — reducing her to “a fine mist into the ground” [5]. The Titan shrinks, looks at Hugo “before disappearing forever”. The party loots the Soulbinder’s Packed Ring (cracked, magical) and 50gp + 2 vials of bio-gloom toxin from her remains.

Status as of session 16

Empty of organised hostility. The mind-control bookshelf was abandoned, never destroyed. The deeper sections (the broader Gloaming Warrens that “help keep the city alive”) have not been explored. Maelis Dirn’s soul is stored in the Soulbinder’s Packed Ring, currently in Caelumn’s lost backpack — possibly in Aurelian custody as of session 16.

Inhabitants

  • Maelis Dirn (deceased, s7)
  • The Titan (dispelled, s7; recognised Hugo before disappearing)
  • Hollow Guardians (deceased, s5)
  • The fungal-zombie giant (deceased, s5)
  • The phase spider (deceased, s6)
  • The mind-control bookshelf (abandoned, never destroyed)
  • Various fungal-zombies (deceased, s5)

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 5, line 171-322 — Underground tunnels; spore-saturated chambers; Caelumn ignites them.
  2. ^ Session 5, line 893-894 — Hollow Guardians challenge the party — Thieves? Or servants of the hollow? (split across two speaker lines).
  3. ^ Session 6, line 397-1090 — Phase spider; storeroom long-rest; mind-control bookshelf.
  4. ^ Session 6, line 1226-1263 — Maelis's research desk; Duskwatch shipping ledger.
  5. ^ Session 7, line 610-614 — Titan kills Maelis with a nat-20 + 19 boulder.
  6. ^ Session 5, line 171 — Inline citation.
  7. ^ Session 5, line 239 — Inline citation.
  8. ^ Session 6, line 2538-2540 — Inline citation.