Demon's Hollow

Description

Founded: Unknown

A dark tower sitting atop an accursed hill surrounded by the forest of the damned, Demon's Hollow is widely known as a place no one arrives at through invitation, and those who end up there likely wish they hadn't. The first thing to know of the "Place From Which All Curses Form" is that it was intentionally built atop an ancient underground sacred tomb of the Elves. The hill was once called "Quoellethar," or "rest in honor" in Common. It was a place where Elven champions who fought valiantly against the evil things that dwell in the shadows of the world were laid to rest so they could watch over the River Lyric for all eternity. The entire hill contains the bodies of those soldiers and the tombs in which they were buried. Such was the honor bestowed upon Quoellether that even Eve Galdarion did not disturb the dead there when she arrived in Core Vandal.

Ravana Salem had no qualms, however, when he ascended the hill and performed the ritual that would forever taint the sacred site, giving it the name "Quodorvain" or "rest in horror," though the locals around Core Vandal simply call it Horror Hill. The Elven champions buried there are said to have had their souls returned to their bodies, and they remain buried, trapped in an endless torpor, driven mad with eternal isolation and having an afterlife of honor ripped from them. They are not undead. They are a furious pulse which taints the hill with a feral and dark energy. And that energy is how Demon's Hollow was created.

The legends say that Ravana Salem was taken to the Abyss as a child by accident. Instead of dying there, he was returned to the material plane and became obsessed with the place. He built Demon's Hollow as a way to recapture what he felt there; a little piece of the Abyss brought back to his home plane. Quite literally, the tower he built was constructed from the rigid flesh of demonic entities.

Now Demon's Hollow is a tower used to perform the darkest of rituals. It is not a place of death, it a place of the eldritch. It is not a place of fear, it is a place of madness. It is not a place of violence, it is a place of cosmic horrors. The twisted and unnatural call it home, and while people may travel there without fear of death, many who have returned wish they had died.

It is a place the Elves of Lyr'Lowain wish they could destroy, but none have ever been able to ascend Horror Hill without being driven to utter despair. Even those not of Elven blood find it unsettling at best and unfathomable at worst. What antediluvian secrets Demon's Hollow hides can only be guessed by those brave enough to pass through its pitched arches.

People of Note

Ravana Salem (Legendary Being): Male Elf, creator and caretaker of Demon's Hollow
Templeton Ruffrock: Male Dwarf, one-eyed gateman and coordinator of events

Chalice Hellebore (Legendary Being): Female Human, fabled sorceress, also known as the "Hemlock Kiss," stories say she eats living flesh to stay alive

Orthos Verdant: Male Human, a researcher who has a reputation for ritual sacrifice