Beorunna's Well

The spirit mount of the Black Lion and Red Tiger tribes of Uthgardt barbarians rests in the heart of the Druarwood. It's not a mount per se, but an ice-cold cavern whose ceiling is partially open to the sky. Characters are likely to come upon at least one Black Lion or Red Tiger hunting party as they make their way toward the site.

According to Uthgardt legend, Beorunna, a barbarian hero, died fighting a demon in these woods. In the final moments of the battle, the ground beneath Beorunna's feet crumbled, plunging him into a cavern. The triangular cavern contains, among other things, a heated pool with a steady geyser. The pool came to be known as Beorunna's Well. Uthgardt barbarians exploring the cavern for the first time found what they thought were Beorunna's bones, which actually belonged to a half-ogre.

Uthgar's followers buried the half-ogre's bones alongside a relic stolen from their enemies, the giants, and built an altar upon the burial site. When the barbarians call upon Uthgar for guidance or seek to appease their totem spirits, they slaughter a woodland beast and place its carcass atop the altar, where it slowly rots. Today, the tribes maintain a tenuous truce and take turns protecting their spirit mound. Each tribe has erected its own totem pole near the altar. The Black Lion totem pole is covered with dried pitch and has a lion's skull atop it. The Red Tiger totem pole is stained with blood and has a tiger's skull surmounting it.

A small stand of pine trees called the sunken grove grows in the middle of the cavern. Outside the perimeter of the grove, the cavern is hooded by a ceiling lined with stalactites and pierced with tree roots. The floor around the outside of the Sunken Grove beneath the ceiling is dotted with stalagmites.

The distance from the top of the pit to the cavern floor is 250 feet. The Uthgardt barbarians have tied a long, knotted rope to a tree stump and left it dangling in the cavern. The barbarians use this rope (and others like it) to climb into and out of Beorunna's Well, and characters can climb the rope (no ability check required). In the northeast corner, surrounding a campfire, are three crude tents inhabited by members of the Black Lion tribe (see Suggested Encounter)

Ancient Relic
The altar is a blood-spattered stone block, 9 feet long by 6 feet wide by 3 feet tall, weighing several tons. A creature as big and strong as a stone giant can move it, as can multiple Small or Medium creatures if at least five of them succeed on a DC20 STR(Athletics) check. The altar can also be broken in half to get underneath it; it has AC 17, HP 100, a damage threshold of 10, and an immunity to poison/lightning damage. Beneath the altar is a rough-hewn niche containing the skeletal remains of a half-ogre and a relic of giantkind: a fossilized horn made from the tusk of a mammoth and engraved with images of giants battling dragons. The cracked horn weighs 250 pounds and has lost its magical powers, but it's worth 750gp nevertheless.

Suggested Encounter
Beorunna's Guardians