Innkeeper Greta
Greeting
"Welcome to the Old City Inn! Come in, sit by the fire. Thornhaven's seen hard times lately -- goblins, undead, dragons -- but the ale is good and the stew is hot. What can I get you?"
Dialogue Topics
thornhaven
Thornhaven is the oldest city on the continent -- five centuries of history, and five centuries of dead beneath the streets.
troubles
Goblins in the south, undead below, dragons from the sky. The guards say someone is behind it all -- a greater power pulling the strings.
rumors
They say the smugglers have been moving strange artifacts through the catacombs. Dark things, carrying a taint. Best not to ask where they come from.
Goshnar's Catacombs
You've been to the catacombs beneath Thornhaven, yes? The necromancer's lair? That's not the bottom. The catacombs go deeper -- much deeper. Father Aldric says there's a necropolis down there, older than Thornhaven itself. A city of the dead, ruled by a lich-god called Goshnar. The rats in Dawnport's cellar? They came from there. The necromancer? He was Goshnar's servant. We thought we cleaned the catacombs. We only cleaned the top floor.
Catacomb Crawlers
The catacombs beneath the Old City run for miles. New creatures have appeared in the upper levels -- catacomb crawlers, we call them. They scuttle through the bones, feeding on the dead. Father Aldric says they're drawn by the necromancer's energy. The deeper you go, the worse they get.
Tunnel Horrors
The sewer tunnels connect to older passages -- pre-dating the city itself. Something lives down there now. Tunnel horrors, the guards call them. They come up at night, dragging their prey back into the dark. Guard Captain Marcus has posted bounties, but few hunters return.
The Corrupted Knights
There are stories -- old stories -- of guardians who ventured into the deepest catacombs to fight the necromancer. They never returned. Now travelers speak of armored figures in the dark, moving with unnatural purpose. Corrupted knights, their souls twisted but their sword-arms still trained. They were once the city's finest. Now they're its deepest shame.
Spectral Watchers
The catacombs have always been haunted. But the specters used to be passive -- echoes of the dead, nothing more. Now they watch. They follow. The spectral watchers seem to guard something deeper in the crypts. Whatever the necromancer is doing down there, he's giving the dead purpose.
Bone Titans in the Deep
The deepest catacomb levels -- the ones even the guards won't enter -- something massive stirs there. Bone titans, the few survivors call them. Constructs of hundreds of bones, walking, crushing. The necromancer's masterwork, perhaps. Or something older that he merely awakened.
The Death Herald
There's a creature in the deepest crypts that the guards call the Death Herald. It doesn't just kill -- it announces. When it appears, more undead follow. Always more. As if it's calling them. As if something below is answering.