Ruins on Stone Hill

Ruins on Stone Hill is Book 1 of Heroes of Ravenford, by F. P. Spirit (4th Revised Edition, 2019; about 119,000 words in 34 chapters). It is the right place to start the series: it introduces the core companions, the town of Ravenford, and the ruin that gives the book its title, and it ends by pointing readers to Book 2, The Serpent Cult.

The story opens on the road. Glolindir, Aksel, and Seth are travelling with a caravan when orcs attack, and Lloyd Stealle vaults into the fight. The four decide to travel together to Ravenford, where the wizard Maltar hires them to scout the former keep on Stone Hill in the Dead Forest and recover an ancient scroll said to be there. What they find is not an empty ruin: bugbears of the Ironfist clan, undead, a necromancy chamber, linked magic mirrors, and stone golems patrolling halls built by hands whose skill points back to the age of Larketh and the Thrall Wars.

Recovering the scroll is only the first movement. Back in Ravenford the companions are received at the keep, Lloyd's noble identity becomes public in town, and new work follows: orc bandits in the Bendenwoods and caves under the Vogels, the rescue and recruitment of Elladan, an enchanted warhammer called Marteau Foudre ('Hammer of Lightning Strike'), a hill giant troubling farms near Bardon's Gap, and a return to Stone Hill to free a trapped golem. The book's final movement, in the Dead Forest, brings the Black Adders — identified as a sect of the Serpent Cult — out of rumour and into open battle.

The chapter titles trace the arc: from 'The Red Warrior,' 'The Road to Ravenford,' and 'Stone Hill,' through 'Wizards' Duel,' 'The Truth about Lloyd,' and 'Bringing Down the House,' to 'Return to the Ruins,' 'Battle in the Dead Forest,' and 'The Serpent Cult.' This summary avoids the book's late reveals beyond what the chapter list and printed sequel announcement already tell a new reader.

Readers who finish Book 1 can continue to The Serpent Cult. Place and character pages in this pilot stay at Book 1 depth even where the archive holds more.