Nov 19, 2023 8:37 am
Stonehell Dungeon - Common Knowledge
Stonehell Dungeon is located beneath the foothills of a mountain chain that lies half a day’s travel from the nearest large settlement.
The origins of Stonehell can be traced back several hundred years.
It was originally an ill-fated attempt to address overcrowding in the kingdom's prisons. In a small box canyon on the western border of the realm, a group of prisoners was forced into a cave and handed tools of excavation. They were then commanded to begin digging. It was their task to excavate a new dungeon to serve as their place of incarceration. A prisoner who worked was fed. A prisoner who resisted was not. Anyone who attempted to escape was killed.
More prisoners were introduced and the excavation grew. Power blocs were established and even the bravest or most callous of guards ceased to patrol too deeply into Stonehell. The dungeon became like a great beast with an endless hunger, devouring scores of men, women and children who would never see the sun again.
A visiting scholar who toured the site wrote "These doomed souls are condemned to the earth. Without the possibility of pardon or parole, they will spend the rest of their days in a vast stone hell of their own construction". The name stuck.
Around a hundred years ago, the Stonehell prison experiment was abandoned. The gates were thrown open and the incarcerated were free to leave. Not all chose to do so. Many of the deeper prisoners were too far gone or too well adapted to their underground world to return to life on the surface.
Since its liberation, the prison has not rested easily. Like a festering wound, Stonehell will not heal or grow quiescent. During recent decades, the site has been used as a hideout for countless bands of bandits and brigands. It has served as the laboratory for wizards who needed solitude to conduct their bizarre experiments. Practitioners of grim religions have sought sanctuary within its night-haunted halls to avoid the prying eyes of the forces of light. Roving bands of orcs, goblins, and other fierce humanoids have found shelter and respite within Stonehell‘s chambers, their numbers swelling with the passage of time.
The years have done little to quell the rumours as to what lies within the crumbling prison. Tales of cannibal kingdoms inhabited by pale-skinned ghouls who‘ve carved a fortune of jewels from the earth compete with yarns about obscene magical experiments that stalk the corridors below. Bands of fearless adventurers regularly plumb the depths of the former prison. Those who return do so laden with riches won from that which still malingers within, but many do not return at all.
Stonehell Dungeon is located beneath the foothills of a mountain chain that lies half a day’s travel from the nearest large settlement.
The origins of Stonehell can be traced back several hundred years.
It was originally an ill-fated attempt to address overcrowding in the kingdom's prisons. In a small box canyon on the western border of the realm, a group of prisoners was forced into a cave and handed tools of excavation. They were then commanded to begin digging. It was their task to excavate a new dungeon to serve as their place of incarceration. A prisoner who worked was fed. A prisoner who resisted was not. Anyone who attempted to escape was killed.
More prisoners were introduced and the excavation grew. Power blocs were established and even the bravest or most callous of guards ceased to patrol too deeply into Stonehell. The dungeon became like a great beast with an endless hunger, devouring scores of men, women and children who would never see the sun again.
A visiting scholar who toured the site wrote "These doomed souls are condemned to the earth. Without the possibility of pardon or parole, they will spend the rest of their days in a vast stone hell of their own construction". The name stuck.
Around a hundred years ago, the Stonehell prison experiment was abandoned. The gates were thrown open and the incarcerated were free to leave. Not all chose to do so. Many of the deeper prisoners were too far gone or too well adapted to their underground world to return to life on the surface.
Since its liberation, the prison has not rested easily. Like a festering wound, Stonehell will not heal or grow quiescent. During recent decades, the site has been used as a hideout for countless bands of bandits and brigands. It has served as the laboratory for wizards who needed solitude to conduct their bizarre experiments. Practitioners of grim religions have sought sanctuary within its night-haunted halls to avoid the prying eyes of the forces of light. Roving bands of orcs, goblins, and other fierce humanoids have found shelter and respite within Stonehell‘s chambers, their numbers swelling with the passage of time.
The years have done little to quell the rumours as to what lies within the crumbling prison. Tales of cannibal kingdoms inhabited by pale-skinned ghouls who‘ve carved a fortune of jewels from the earth compete with yarns about obscene magical experiments that stalk the corridors below. Bands of fearless adventurers regularly plumb the depths of the former prison. Those who return do so laden with riches won from that which still malingers within, but many do not return at all.
