Chapter 2: Gazetteer of tal’Dorei 51lanDmarKs
castle Whitestone
Castle W hitestone was erected not long after the city’s
founding, and has long been the royal seat of the de
Rolos, though it has recently been home to dark masters.
Now the home of the Chamber of Whitestone, the castle
stands as a symbol of justice for the people of Whites-
tone once more. The castle’s interior has a certain stark
regality to it. While the hunting trophies and tapestries
that decorate its walls are clear signs of the de Rolos’
wealth, there is a solemn, beautiful hollowness to its
corridors. Cassandra de Rolo says that something of her
brother’s melancholy seeped into its whitestone walls,
and the castle will always carry the edge of his sorrow—
and the Briarwoods’ evil.
the corrUpteD ZiGGUr at
During the violent throes of the Calamity, before
Whitestone existed, the god known as the Chained
Oblivion broke free from its prison beneath Gatshadow
and rampaged across Tal’Dorei. Seeing the mad god’s
devastation, the Knowing Mistress baited it towards her
central temple in the Alabaster Sierras and confronted
him. She was nearly destroyed in the encounter, and
her temple sank deep beneath the earth in her sorrow.
This temple was left abandoned for centuries until it was
rediscovered by the Briarwoods and excavated. With
dark knowledge gifted to them by the strange entity
known as the Whispered One, the Briarwoods twisted
the uncovered temple into an engine of dark magic, pre-
paring a blasphemous ritual of the Whispered One’s own
design. Though the Briarwoods were defeated, the cor-
ruption lingers still, all traces of the Knowing Mistress
faded and forgotten.
the sU n tree
After the Chained Oblivion nearly consumed the Know-
ing Mistress during the Calamity, a furious and vengeful
Dawnfather pursued the fleeing Oblivion across the
mountaintops and over the sea to the peak of Gatshadow,
where the mad god was eventually defeated and impris-
oned once again. The land wept with pain as the two
wrathful gods laid waste to Tal’Dorei.
After his victory, the Dawnfather returned to White-
stone and placed a single seed into the ground where the
Knowing Mistress was nearly destroyed. The god wept
and from the seed grew a symbol of protection—a massive
tree that became a beacon of light within the dark forest
that surrounded it. While the extent of the tree’s divine
power remains a mystery, it stands as an emblem of unity
and hope both within the city of Whitestone, and upon its
official crest.
the Grey fielD
The Greyfield has become the local name for the east-
ern graveyard on the outskirts of the city that harbors
generations of Whitestone’s buried dead, watched over
and respectfully maintained by the priests of the city.
GaldriC The WolfGiven purpose and power as the companion to
Purvon Kol, champion of the Matron of Ravens
during the wars of the Calamity, Galdric was sealed
within a relic of the goddess and interred with his
master in a tomb under the Marrowglade Loch in
Othanzia. Since a new champion had been named
in Vax’ildan of Vox Machina, and Purvan’s vest-
ments recovered, Galdric was released from his
slumber and bestowed with the charge of guarding
the Parchwood surrounding Whitestone. This large
and cunning wolf now stalks the woods as the city’s
silent protector, the people crafting new legends
about their bestial sentinel. On moonlit nights,
some say you can see Galdric wander through
the Greyfield to the Matron of Ravens’ shrine for
communion.A number of mausoleums house the passed noble fami-
lies, though the last generation of lost de Rolos were not
recovered following the rule of the Briarwoods. Elements
of necromantic desecration still linger within the Grey-
field, and the Paleguard are ever vigilant at night to quell
any unresting dead that occasionally claw their way to
the surface.the illUsory barrier
Haphazardly constructed during the time of the Chroma
Conclave to avoid detection by their roving wyvern
armies, five whitestone obelisks mark the perimeter of
the city and castle grounds. These obelisks form a dome-
like illusion between them when powered by an arcane
spellcaster, hiding the city under the guise of continued,
undeveloped Parchwood, and shielding everything within
from arcane detection.
For each spell slot that is siphoned into an obelisk, 2
hours of illusion is powered per spell level sacrificed, and
the cover of the illusion barrier is incomplete unless all 5
obelisks are powered simultaneously. This siphoning is a
very taxing experience, and for every 30 spell levels sacri-
ficed within a 24 hour period, the arcane caster suffers 1
point of exhaustion.whitestone aDventures
the Grey fielD stirs
For mid-level characters: Members of the Paleguard
have found fresh blood splashed upon the stones and
grave-markers of the Greyfield for three consecutive
nights, with no indication where it came from, or why.
The incidents have stopped, for the moment, but there
are concerns in need of investigation: How is the blood
appearing in the Greyfield without anyone seeing or
hearing the perpetrator? Who or what is causing it, and
why? Will it happen again, and is it building toward
some purpose?