Use the wandering encounters for the deep forest in Stelopolis. Stelopolis is built on a series of wide terraces. It was mostly a farming area. A stone fence runs east-west going down the mountainside at the north and south edges of the fields.
The Secret Exit
The secret exit from room 21 of the first floor (the Southeast Tower) comes out in a small building, after winding up stairs and through tunnels for two miles.
You walk for nearly half a mile down the tunnel when you come to stairs that wind upward. Between stairs, and tunnels, tunnels and stairs, you must walk miles before the moonlight peers through cracks in a wooden ceiling.
There is a trap door in the wooden ceiling which must be forced open. While there is a latch that can be turned simply with no key from either side, there is debris lying on the trap door, and it opens upward. A strength roll is required to force the door open; it will break when so forced.
You crack the trap door open. Amidst splinters and dust, moonbeams shine through openings in the slats on the wooden walls of a small building. You are surrounded by long blades—of plows, and by tackle and harness.
The character opening the trap door should make an Evasion roll to avoid falling debris or take 1d4 points damage.
Nothing in here is particularly worthwhile. It was a small barn for the storage of farm implements.
Barns and Grain Silos
You step outside into the cold night air. A few skeletons lie jumbled together several yards away. Three more buildings stand to your left, and two small towers rise above them. Ahead of you the mountainside drops slowly on terraced fields.
The small towers are granaries. Each of the barns once contained sacks and barrels to fill with grain from the granaries, but the granaries are now emptied. The goblins took whatever they could to feed their army.
About ten yards from the storage building are the skeletons of Abbot Parthane, Master Astronomer Abiram, and two guards, where they were overwhelmed by orcs and goblins. There are some orc and goblin skeletons there as well. The only thing of value remaining (unless you’ve placed it somewhere else) is the key to the safe in the Gemini room. Once in the folds of the abbot’s cloak, it now lies on the ground beneath his skeleton.
Observatory
On a small hill, a domed tower overlooks the lesser buildings. It has withstood the test of time with fewer holes in its sides, although there is a wide swath missing from its roof.
Inside, light from the stars and moon shine through the swath in the ceiling. A grooved shelf circles the walls at about six feet. Some small chairs and stools lie in the outer area, and upon a raised dais in the center.
The observatory is a small, circular wall built around a deep foundation. The Astronomers never had the chance to finish it. In particular, there are no lenses (it is up to you whether they have already placed the order with the Dwarves). Some of the observatory had been built, and there are gears in a wooden crate at the edge of the room. The gears are well-designed; there are two large gears and seven smaller ones, which will fetch 10 and 5 shillings respectively. The larger ones have a bulk of fifteen, the smaller ones a bulk of four.
Stelopolis: Craft Row
Two rows of tightly-spaced single-story and story-and-a-half ramshackle buildings form a wide pathway a hundred yards long leading toward the mountain. Gaunt windows look out on a leaf-covered, overgrown street. Half-empty trees spread their denuded branches over the roofs of the buildings.
Comprising the brewery (just north of the row) and a number of other craft workshops, craft row once held workspaces for a carpenter, a blacksmith, a potter, a tailor, a baker, a wainwright/cooper (wheels and barrels), an armorer, and a weaponsmith.
Living Quarters
A haphazard collection of buildings, large and small, form a vague pathway, though the path is now broken by small trees and bushes. The buildings are seeing the effects of age and disuse; in many you can see inside through small holes; in others large portions of the walls have fallen in or been removed.
This is where craftsmen, families, and others supporting the castle lived. A few also tried to make a home for themselves in a more secluded area, so within this part of the Deep Forest the characters may run across other homes. A road leads down directly from here to the castle a mile away. Some of the buildings have occasionally been used as a source of firewood.
The Cemetery
Rows upon rows of stone pillars, crosses, and markers run unevenly down the side of the mountain.
If they spend an hour or so studying the cemetery, you might allow them to deduce some information about the Order. There were more women in earlier days than in latter days, for example. The earliest date on the stones is from the 558th AC (year of the cataclysm), and the latest is from the 895th year AC.
The Terrace Fields
Tall grass waves in the breeze on terraced fields. Further down is a field of trees, and to the right vine-like plants tangle. A light smell of cider wafts up from the side of the mountain.
Tomatoes, apples, wheat, and barley grow wild now, on these wide terraces up and down the mountainside.
