Stone Hill

Stone Hill is the ruined former keep in the Dead Forest south-west of Ravenford, and the destination of the companions' first paid mission in Ruins on Stone Hill. The Dead Forest around it is leafless and oppressive, a deliberate contrast with lusher woods on the western road. Skeletons on the trail are the first warning that the ruin is occupied, and a greenish glow around the keep is the second.

The wizard Maltar hires the companions to scout and map the place and to recover an ancient scroll said to be inside, offering 500 gold pieces for the scouting and far more if the scroll is found. Inside, the ruin proves to be a layered stronghold rather than a single hall: a tower, a basement maze with a thieves'-den layout, a pantry chute, linked magic mirrors that carry travellers between chambers, a necromancy laboratory with a green-glowing pool, and halls patrolled by stone golems. Bugbears of the Ironfist clan hold the site under the wizard Telvar, who has been teaching dark and undead magic to apprentices including Bilehack and Curdlemung.

Stone Hill matters because it is older than its current occupiers. Telvar's journal shows he came seeking golem secrets and found golems rather than creating them. A golem-creation manual, control rings, and the quality of the work lead the party to wonder whether the site was connected to Larketh, the Golem Thrall Master of the Thrall Wars. On a return visit, the companions use the control password and free a golem trapped in the ruins; Seth names it the Boulder, and it returns to Ravenford with the party, with Seth keeping its control ring for now.

The ruin also sets the series' pattern. A local errand exposes an older power, a current occupier, and a wider threat, in that order. Clearing Stone Hill earns the companions Ravenford's gratitude — and leaves better questions than answers about who built the place, who wants its secrets, and what else in the Dead Forest has been watching.

Start with Ruins on Stone Hill for the full expedition, then Ravenford for the town that sent them.