59 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
59 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
---
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type: location
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world: Eldar
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campaign: The Hollow Between
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---
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# Briarcross
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> [!info] At a Glance
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> **Type:** Village and bridge-crossing
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> **First impression:** A low, damp village of lanterns, plank paths, and stubborn gardens raised above marsh water
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> **Mood:** Wary, intimate, tired, still trying to be hospitable
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## What You See
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Briarcross is built around a narrow bridge of old stone and newer timber. Houses sit on pilings or hummocks, linked by walkways dark with rain and peat. Lantern moss glows along the bridge rails at dusk, and every door has some small charm hanging beside it: knotted grass, river bone, a dull bell with its clapper removed.
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## The Surprise
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The village bridge keeps **different crossings at different times**. Anyone who crosses it at sunset while carrying a sincere promise may glimpse not the far bank, but a place connected to that promise: a lost home, a grave, the road they should have taken years ago. Most glimpses last only a heartbeat. Lately, they are lasting longer.
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## The Rule
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**Do not cross the bridge while lying out loud.**
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Locals treat this as practical advice, not superstition. People who break the rule arrive on the wrong side of an argument, a road, or occasionally their own memories.
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## The Spirit or Being
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The bridge is watched by **Old Thread**, a spirit that appears as a patient figure woven from moss, twine, and river reeds. It cares less about truth than about whether people mean what they say when standing at a threshold.
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Old Thread dislikes being worshiped, enjoys bargains phrased carefully, and has started paying unusual attention to the buried bell.
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## Secrets
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- **Surface:** Several villagers have secretly started avoiding the bridge after dark because it shows them things they regret.
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- **Surface:** A handful of villagers have begun meeting at night to listen for the bell and share what they think it promises them.
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- **Hidden:** The bridge was built partly to pin the waking place in its sleep by tying its threshold to the village's daily traffic.
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- **Buried:** If the bridge fails or is profaned, Briarcross will stop functioning as an anchor and the Hollow Bell will wake much faster.
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## Connections
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- The bridge road leads toward [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hushmere]]
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- Local fear centers on [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hollow-bell]]
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- The village belongs to the larger region of [[worlds/eldar/geography/the-lantern-moss]]
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## DM Notes
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Use Briarcross for arguments, requests, rumors, and competing explanations. The village should feel split but not villainous: most people are scared, practical, and protecting something.
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The Listeners Below should feel understandable before they feel threatening. Their members are lonely, grieving, resentful of old rules, or genuinely convinced the village has mistaken imprisonment for safety.
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## Hooks
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- someone crossed the bridge at dusk and came back with a memory that is not theirs
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- Old Thread offers the party safe passage in exchange for a promise it will collect later
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- a removed bell clapper has gone missing from a villager's doorway
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- villagers begin painting green toll marks under their windows to signal sympathy with the waking
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