Deadstone Cleft

In the desolate, fog-shrouded foothills of the Salt Mountains is a dead-end canyon with the petrified bodies of stone giants embedded in its hundred-foot-tall grey walls. The corpses create a sense of unease and dread, warning visitors that Deadstone Cleft is a place of death. As cold wind passes through the canyon, it produces a moan that seems to issue from the gaping mouths of the bodies, adding to the eerie atmosphere. Dotting the canyon walls are several openings that lead to stone-carved tombs and other chambers, some open to the sky and others beneath hundreds of feet of stone. Carved stone bridges also span the canyon.
Deadstone Cleft is sacred to the stone giants of the Graypeak Mountains, for it contains an ancient temple dedicated to their god, Skoraeus Stonebones, and a magical stalactite, the Steinfang, into which the giants carve questions. The carvings fade on nights of the new moon and are replaced with answers. The giants believe that these replies come from Skoraeus Stonebones himself, though in truth they are produced by an ancient, evil earth primordial trapped under the Salt Mountains since the dawn of time. Human and dwarven miners have long avoided the canyon for fear of antagonizing the stone giants known to dwell at Deadstone Cleft. The stone giants don't tolerate uninvited guests in their hallowed halls, attacking them on sight.
Adventurers can find the canyon by travelling upstream along an arm of the Loagrann River. This great flow once carved the canyon out of the rock that now surrounds it. Time has reduced it to a stream that tumbles along the canyon floor before widening and continuing its long journey southwest, where it merges with the Delimbiyr River on its way to the sea.
Deadstone Cleft is the remote canyon lair of a xenophobic clan of stone giants who worship Skoraeus Stonebones. Stone giants aren't the only villains present here. Thane Kayalithica has won the allegiance of the Blue Bear tribe of Uthgardt barbarians, many of whom are camped in Deadstone Cleft.
Unlike most stone giants, Thane Kayalithica is a neutral evil extremist. She is using the dissolution of the ordning as an excuse to destroy what she has come to fear and abhor-the rapidly spreading civilizations of humans and their ilk. Kayalithica's followers, who are predominantly neutral, believe that violence against small folk is justified, because their thane has assured them that she is heeding the will of Skoraeus Stonebones.
Kayalithica believes that the works of the small folk are a pox on the land. They desecrate the very stone upon which they are built. By obliterating them, she hopes to impress the gods and elevate her people to the top of the ordning. Kayalithica has already led major assaults against the nearby city of Mirabar. The stone giant thane now has her sights set on Vogoluhr or Bagh Kohldur, and she has asked Skoraeus Stonebones to send her divine guidance about which community to attack next.
Not all members of Kayalithica's clan support the thane. A few have fled into the nearby mountains and foothills, fearing that Deadstone Cleft has become a cursed place. These stone giants won't easily be turned against their thane, but they might be persuaded to help adventurers survive the perils of Deadstone Cleft by providing information about the canyon and its defences. They can also shed light on Kayalithica's evil intentions.
No roads lead to Deadstone Cleft, but one can traverse the foothills of the Graypeak Mountains and cross shallow rivers to reach the canyon, with or without horses. One can also take a boat up the Loagrann River.

Type

Canyon

Location under

Salzenstadt

Characters in Location

• Thane Kayalithica