There are, throughout the world, dozens, perhaps hundreds of taverns, all similar to the Pale Wheel Guesthouse. Dim lights, dirty floors, and cheap drinks. And information, of course there is always information available for the right price. In this case, the right price was a bottle of amber liquid and a willingness to listen to a man to whom few people pay attention. But his story was definitely worth it…
To understand the city of Grimfeast, you just need to know about two people: Tynettas and the tarrasque. Let me tell you about the tarrasque first. In all of the world there is only one known tarrasque, thank the gods. It is a monster like no other, as large as a fortress, and impossible to kill. You think I am telling you a tall tale, but it is the truth. You can not kill the tarrasque, ever. Some say it was the horrible mistake of a powerful wizard, or the vengeance of a forgotten god, but the tarrasque can not be defeated, and years ago when it walked the earth kings themselves would move out of its way. It lives to destroy, not for food or out of any sort of emotion, it is just an engine of death and disaster. And it was unstoppable.
That is, until about a century ago, when the tarrasque began to walk towards the castle of Tynettas. The castle itself is a size of a city, dozens of stories tall, with towers that reach up to the clouds. And apparently Tynettas wasn’t interested in moving. So she took nine Rods of Immovability and she sunk them into the flanks and body of the tarrasque and she left them there. Now a Rod of Immovability is a strange magic item. Once it is set, nothing can move it from that spot ‘cept the one who activated it. You can’t dispel them, counter the magic, you can’t do nothing but just look at it there. And there are nine, set up in the air twenty feet about the ground, holding that tarrasque in place like the biggest, ugliest, most powerful butterfly in a butterfly collection.
But the tarrasque isn’t dead. It doesn’t need to eat to survive, but it can’t tear itself free—the rods are in too deep for that. So it is locked in place, sometimes sleeping, sometimes staring silently, sometimes roaring with anger, but it is still there.
And you’d think that no one in their right mind would get anywhere near it, but not too long after the tarrasque was stopped some guys got an idea in their head to make some money off of that monstrosity. You see, one of the factors that makes a tarrasque impossible to kill—aside for the giant fangs and claws and spell immunity—is that the tarrasque can regenerate almost any injury in an incredibly quick period of time. So these guys start cutting slabs of meat off the side of the tarrasque, wounds that heal right back.
That’s right, they start selling tarrasque meat. A never-ending supply of food. What’s more, the meat has some unusual properties. You eat it enough, and the right cut of meat, and you’ll stop aging, or at least age really slowly; no is exactly sure.
How do I know? Because the people who came up with idea founded an entire city around the tarrasque in the shadow of Tynettas’ tower. And they have made their fortune selling the nicest cuts of tarrasque flesh to the wealthy and the powerful. Gods, they’ve practically made a religion out of it. Over the past hundred years Grimfeast has steadily grown on a diet of tarrasque flesh and all the stuff that comes from it. If you live there, you’ll never go hungry. Of course you’ll be eating the gristle of a monster at the community chest. If you’ve got money, you’ll be eating steaks that’ll help you live forever.
Now, as I said, to understand the city, you need to know more than just about the tarrasque, you need to know about Tynettas…
Tynettas was one of the most powerful wizards in her day, and had lived herself beyond the normal span of human life exploring magicks and learning spells. She even had a few named after her, she did. But what most people don’t know is that she didn’t build that tower that she lived in—she conquered it. It had been around much longer before that, and in fact no one really knows who made it, just like no body knows how many floors it has, or how many rooms, or how deep it goes into the ground. In fact some say that Tynettas hadn’t driven out all the old inhabitants in the castle, she just carved himself out her own space there, and was slowly working her way through the mazes of hallways and rooms inside when the tarrasque came knocking on his door. And after pinning that tarrasque to the ground, no one saw Tynettas again.
Some say he’s dead. Others say he’s a lich. Still others say she wanders the halls of the castle as its true owner and mistress. But no one really knows for sure, not even the Crashers.
What are Crashers, you say? Oh, I thought you knew, because you were Crashers yourself. You see, with that big castle several times the size of the city itself, there’s plenty of people who will try their luck getting into the place and out with whatever treasure they lay their hands on. Of course, a lot of them don’t come out, but the ones that are lucky can make their fortune. There’s dozens, perhaps hundreds of ways into the castle, and Crashers are always trying to discover the big score.
They’re a secretive lot though, I used to be a Crasher myself, back before…well, anyways, the few that are still alive wouldn’t want me talking to you about where we’ve been. That suits me fine, just the same… Anyways like I was saying there’s lots of ways into the place, although most of the outside is guarded by gargoyles and other beasties. But you can get in from below. There’s two ways everyone knows about—so I’m not telling secrets to you by this. The first is behind the waterfall west of town on Bright Rock River. Beyond that is mostly natural caves for a good while, but eventually you’ll start getting to part of the castle. I’ll warn you, though, there’s a lot of oozes and the like in that first part, so tread carefully.
The second is the well in the basement of the Fiery Grog Taproom. Gwyram, the owner, has made a little side business of letting Crashers go down into the tunnels beneath the city through his well. He charges them a fee going in and coming out. I can’t tell you much about how that goes, ‘cept make sure you’ve got enough money to get out, of he’ll leave you at the bottom of the well, and sooner or later something will find you.
Well, anyways, Grimfeast will have plenty of adventure for anyone who’s interested, the way that you lot seem to be. You ought to look into becoming Crashers yourselves. Of course, I guess you’ll need to be to find that Lantern of Lost Souls you be lookin’ for somewhere in the castle…
CK’s Note:
Thanks to “Thomas T” at the RPG.net Forums for the seed to this adventure idea.
