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campaigns/the-hollow-between/quests/the-waking-hollow.md

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+---
+type: quest
+campaign: The Hollow Between
+status: active
+---
+
+# The Waking Hollow
+
+> [!info] Core Goal
+> Learn what is waking beneath Briarcross and decide whether to contain it, understand it, or renegotiate the old bargain before the Lantern Moss is reshaped by its return.
+
+## What the Party Knows
+
+- A bell sounds from beneath [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hollow-bell]]
+- The region's old customs appear connected to keeping the situation stable
+- The locals disagree on whether the waking place is a threat, an inheritance, or a wronged power
+
+## Main Questions
+
+1. What exactly is the Sleeper Under Toll?
+2. Why was it put to sleep?
+3. Which old customs still matter, and which are only echoes?
+4. Who benefits if the place wakes fully?
+5. What price will the party accept to resolve the crisis?
+
+## Moving Parts
+
+| Force | Wants |
+|---|---|
+| Mara Thornfield | Restore order and stop the waking by reasserting the old rules |
+| Brother Hale | Uncover the truth before anyone acts rashly |
+| Ysa of the Reeds | Renew the relationship rather than repeat a fearful old solution |
+| The Listeners Below | Encourage the waking, recruit the disillusioned, and turn every sign into proof that Briarcross must yield |
+| The Sleeper Under Toll | To be acknowledged correctly and allowed to finish what was interrupted |
+
+## Likely Approaches
+
+### Containment
+
+Reconstruct the forgotten parts of the old bargain, reinforce the bridge, and keep the hill closed.
+
+**Cost:** the region stays stable, but old obligations become binding again.
+
+### Understanding
+
+Open the western door, learn the history, and discover what judgment or crossing was interrupted.
+
+**Cost:** the party accelerates the waking and must manage the fallout.
+
+### Bargain
+
+Negotiate directly with the waking place and its spirits to create a new agreement for Briarcross.
+
+**Cost:** someone must promise something lasting, personal, and difficult to take back.
+
+## Escalation Clock
+
+### Stage 1 - Uneasy Signs
+
+- bells in the earth
+- drifting roads
+- dreamwalking
+
+### Stage 2 - Breached Customs
+
+- bridges misroute travelers
+- names go missing in the marsh
+- villagers repeat words they never said
+- the Listeners Below start sabotaging protective customs and calling it liberation
+
+### Stage 3 - The Region Remembers
+
+- old paths overwrite new ones
+- houses and graves appear where they used to be centuries ago
+- the village must choose whether it still wants to exist in its current form
+- open support for the waking place splits Briarcross into fearful loyalists, opportunists, and true believers
+
+## Rewards
+
+- trust and leverage with Briarcross
+- access to place-based magic, favors, or boons
+- secrets about Eldar's older rules of crossing and settlement
+
+## Session Seeds
+
+- escort Tam after another sleepwalking incident and decide whether to follow or stop them
+- investigate why the bridge has started showing people places tied to unkept promises
+- bargain with Ysa for safe marsh passage in exchange for recovering a stolen name
+- witness the buried bell ring from inside the hill and choose whether to open the western door
+- discover who has been collecting removed bell clappers and using them in secret midnight rites