The Bronzewood Lodge
The ring of crumbling menhirs on the bluff overlooking Diamond Lake is a remnant of the ancient Flannish druidic culture that once inhabited the region. They too came to the hills for the ancient cairns, seeing them as monuments to great ancestors of the invisible past. Although modern Suloise and Oeridians displaced the native druids over a thousand years ago, pockets of indigenous architecture and culture remain. Foremost among these near-forgotten practices is veneration of Beory, the Oerth Mother, and her son Obad-Hai, the Shalm, the brooding patron of wilderness and natural order. Druids of the Grey Circle and rangers who honor the Old Faith routinely congregate in great moots three hours northeast of Diamond Lake, at an ancient megalithic structure called the Bronzewood Lodge. Devotees of Ehlonna and the elven pantheon are welcome at these meetings, if a bit gruffly, but all
other attendees must be invited personally by someone already within the circle of trust. At these great moots, the woodsfolk observe rituals from long ago, celebrate with great contests of strength and wit, and debate policy regarding the natural affairs of the region. A small permanent community inhabits the Lodge itself and the wooded copse surrounding it. Perhaps thirty assorted druids, rangers, and scouts protect the sacred site and keep watch on the nearby roads and valleys. Occasionally, they step in to rescue a traveler from some natural menace, but just as often they warn explorers to stay on the roads and let the wilderness take care of itself. Their leader is Nogwier, an aged proponent of the Old Faith who strives to keep the focus of his community on preservation of a near-extinct way of life and away from anger at the Free City and its operatives in Diamond Lake, whose avariciousness continually rapes the land. Nogwier urges cautious cooperation with Lanod Neff via a former Bronzewood man named Merris Sandovar, who now works as the garrison’s chief scout. Nogwier’s health is starting to deteriorate however, and many fear that his successor might take an antagonistic stance against the machinations of Greyhawk and Diamond Lake.
The Twilight Monastery
About two hours north of Diamond Lake, a towering crag called Griffon’s Roost casts a dark shadow over the muddy road to Elmshire. From a perch hundreds of feet above looms the cat infested Twilight Monastery, a three-towered monument dedicated to Xan Yae and her servant Zuoken, little known deities from the Baklunish West. Two score monks dwell within the monastery, dedicating themselves to a litany of exercises meant to perfect the body and spirit. The secretive monks hold dusk as the holiest
of hours, and sonorous chants emit from the Twilight Monastery’s central courtyard when the night sky appears in the heavens.
Foremost among the monks is Izenfen the Occluded, a peerless masked combatant thought to be one of the wisest figures in the hills. Travelers frequently seek her council, but most leave Diamond Lake without ever having gained access to the Twilight Monastery, for Izenfen deigns to speak with only a handful of pilgrims foretold to her via the agency of the night sky and an immense mirrored lens called the Censer of Symmetry. When word of the Censer’s predictive prowess spread to the miners of
Diamond Lake 20 years ago, a desperate contingent petitioned Izenfen to predict the location of the richest unclaimed ore deposits, appealing to her compassion with tales of starving children and dangerously unpaid debts. The masked mistress of the Twilight Monastery rebuffed their pleas, triggering the miners’ contingency plan – an ill-fated invasion of the monks’ compound that left seven miners dead. Only a single member of the order perished – Imonoth, Izenfen’s beloved daughter. The following morning, the remaining fifteen miners, who had escaped the monastery to nurse their wounds in the petty shacks along Diamond Lake’s waterfront, were found dead. Rumors of silent masked killers sent by Izenfen continue to this day, citing the disappearance or mysterious deaths of nearly a dozen political enemies within the town.
Although the monks of the Twilight Monastery keep mostly to themselves and desire only to lead lives of undisturbed contemplation, they frequently appear on the streets of Diamond Lake to re-provision or to engage in the trade of kalamanthis, a rare psychotropic plant grown regionally only on the slopes of Griffon’s Roost. Kalamanthis is popular among all classes of Diamond Lake, but the real business is centered in Greyhawk. Rumors hold that potential buyers should seek out Golgan Hant, the Twilight Monastery’s trade envoy, who can usually be found at Lazare’s House along the Vein’s central square. Both the wagons loaded with kalamanthis and the returning coaches loaded with city coin go unmolested in Diamond Lake, for all fear Izenfen’s relentless invisible killers.
The Cairn of the Green Lady
Far from welcoming are the brooding inhabitants of the Cairn of the Green Lady, a reclaimed tomb on the opposite shore of Diamond Lake itself. Cloaked in robes of green and quick to threaten outsiders, these two-score devotees of the death goddess Wee Jas honor a fallen saint of that deity with mournful prayers to departed spirits and mysterious explorations of the hills
nearby. They base themselves in the tomb of this departed servant of the Dark-Eyed Lady, whom they believe died during the great Suel migrations across the treacherous hills more than a thousand years ago. The order’s leader, the enchanting Amariss,
replaced the original founder after he mysteriously vanished two years ago. An outcast priest of Wee Jas from the Frost Barbarian kingdom, Nohrtan claimed that the Green Lady came to him in a dream, entreating him to find worshippers of Wee Jas who were pure of heart and mind and lead them to her grave to protect it from destruction by heathens. It took him close to five years to assemble his flock, arriving at the Cairn in 591 CY. His disappearance only one year after his arrival has led many to speculate, but Amariss and her followers are silent on the subject.
The Stirgenest Cairn
Located on the southeastern shore of Diamond Lake, this long abandoned cairn is oft explored by Diamond Lake’s youth, who always find it completely empty of marvels and perfectly harmless.
The Whispering Cairn
Unlike the Stirgenest Cairn, the Whispering Cairn isn’t so empty and harmless. Within a day’s ride north of Diamond Lake, this cairn lies near an iron mine that went dry about fifty years ago, its charter apparently elapsed when its owner, Ulgo Fant, died several years later. Situated thusly in a sort of noman’s land, the cairn was all but forgotten, its yawning entrance overgrown with weeds and choked with collapsed debris. Rediscovered by a curious teenager a decade ago, the cairn has since been a sort of community secret held by Diamond Lake’s youth, who dare each other to disappear into its cyclopean entrance and spend the night as a test of mettle. These visits tapered off about six years ago, when a local girl vanished while sleeping in the cairn. Occasionally, when the wind is just right, haunting, almost magical tones emerge from the depths of the forlorn tomb.