Chap 7: The Old Grist Mill
The servants of the Beast erected this centuries-old mill to refine the black sap of the Edelwood trees to a pure, black oil. This oil keeps the Beast's Dark Lantern, which holds his soul, burning longer.
His Woodcutters bring down the Edelwood trees and chop them into lumber to fill their wooden carts. At night, the Woodcutters cease their cutting and bring their lumber-laden carts back to the Old Grist Mill. There, a three-body contingent of Woodcutters crushes the black sap from the wood and sends it through the machinery of refinement. The black Edelwood oil is collected and, every dawn, transported to the Elder Edelwood in the same wooden carts.
The Woodcutters
There are always three Woodcutters at the mill. Should the characters kill all three, three more come to replace them within the hour. The Beast can create an endless supply of them by budding them off the Budded Root in the Root Tangle of the Elder Edelwood.
The only way to cut off his supply of Woodcutters would be to destroy the Budded Root. This leaves 10d20 Woodcutters still roaming the Unknown and keeping the Old Grist Mill churning.
Approaching the Mill
The mill's stone walls appear identical to the magically impassable ones surrounding the Unknown, but they are easily climbed. Wooden floors separate the various levels. There are no lights, since the Woodcutters are merely permanently enlarged Deep Gnomes with darkvision. The Beast has had the entire mill fire-proofed, though any oil burning in the mill won't die down for 24 hours.
Text: 'Worthwagon Road transitions here from being a winding path through the Barking Mountains to a lazy trail that hugs the mountainside as it descends into a fog-filled valley. In the heart of the valley you see a walled town near the shores of a great mountain lake, its waters dark and still. A branch in the road leads west to a promontory, atop which is perched a grist mill of wood and stone, chugging black smoke.'
Upon closer investigation: 'The great wooden sails of the mill turn round and round, and you hear the squeaking, cracking grind of wood between stone teeth. A platform stained with black oil encircles the mill above a wooden doorway.'
Beyond the mill is the Edelwood forest. Once atop the mill's hill, the characters can see a ring of four squat megaliths at the forest's edge.
Areas of the Old Grist Mill
The following areas correspond to the labels on the ORIGINAL CoS map of Old Bonegrinder on page 127.
O1. Ground Floor
Text: 'The distinct fumes of black oil from Edelwood trees cloys the air with its thick and clinging burn. The oil itself stains the stone floor and tables with its splatter. The dark fluid squeezes through glass tubeware and metal machines into a large metal drum. Many more drums stand closed opposite the set-up.'
The ceiling here is 8 ft high. Each of the drums opposite the refining machinery is full of gallons of black, volatile oil. The drum into which the oil now drains is half full. A Woodcutter comes in to monitor the refining process every ten minutes.
In the darkness beneath one of the stone tables against the wall is a chain devil. It has been bound to the refining machinery by Duff the Diabolist (see the Elder Edelwood). It will not attack unless the PCs try to destroy the set-up and does not follow the PCs outside. It will not protect the Woodcutters.
O2. Grist mill
Unless lured elsewhere, there is a Woodcutter on watch here. This is where the Woodcutters crush the Edelwood lumber to bleed the sap from it.
Text: 'You see the bald, pastel-skinned head of a gnome who stands as tall as a human. They wear a lab coat once white but now stained so black with oil that those unsplattered patches appear almost out of place. The crush and crack of wood shakes the floorboards, but this figure remains still as stone.
The dirt-caked windows allow litle light to enter this eight-foot-high chamber, most of it taken up by large millstones connected to a wooden gear shaft that rises through the ceiling in the center of the room. A stone staircase continues up, shaking with each turn of the great gear.'
If the Woodcutter notices the characters, they first sign at them with sign language to determine if they have been sent by the Beast. If the characters seem confused or give an obviously wrong response, the Woodcutter run up the stairs to alert the others. All three will then hunt the premises for the characters. If they find them, they fight to the death, but only use nonlethal moves on the charactes. If they subdue the party, they transport them in their wooden carts to the Elder Edelwood.
O3. Bedroom
The two other Woodcutters are here unless they've been drawn elsewhere.
Text: 'A thick wooden gear shaft winds up through the the center of this cramped, circular room. You hear nothing over the grinding of its gears and the shaking of the stone walls and wooden floorboards.
A giant gnome sleeps on heaps of tattered rags. A second sits with their back to a pile of crates. They sharpen a wicked-edged axe in their hands with a whetstone. A neat stack of such axes lie beside them.
A ladder climbs to a wooden trapdoor in the nine-foot-high ceiling.'
The tattered rags are former lab coats that met various ill ends caught in the gears of the mill. The crates contain spare parts for the mill and the refinery below. None of the contents are valuable.
The Woodcutters attack if they perceive the PCs.
O4. Domed Attic
Text: 'You've reached the grist mill's peak-a domed chamber filled with old machinery. There's barely room to move around without risking entanglement in the massive, grinding gears. They rattle the very teeth in your skull.'
Characters searching this space must make a DC 10 Str (Athletics) check or be thrown into the gears. Clothing is caught first, but after three failed attempts to get free, the mill grinds flesh and bone.
If your card reading reveals a treasure here, it's easy to find, buried under some dirt in a corner.
The Megaliths
The four ancient stones were erected by the original fey population in the Unknown. The four stones depict each of the four sentient races-the dusk elves, the centaurs, the shape-shifters, and the race that has now been completely touched by the fog save for its sole survivor, Granny Lee. The carvings have been weathered and aged to make out clear details. All that can be seen of this fourth race is its featureless but humanoid outline.
