Continuing my thoughts from yesterday about it being a mini-Khazad-dûm, one thing that always stood out to me about the Axeholm quest in Dragon of Icespire Peak is the lack of tone-setting to help build tension for what the characters are walking into.
Yes, the Dwarven ruin is briefly (and nicely) described as “a dark, sullen tomb, full of dust and bad memories. It’s quiet most of the time, except when the sorrowful wails of the banshee fill the place” – but it doesn’t go much further than that, other than to occasionally note layers of dust, the stench of the decay, and any metal the characters encounter is rusty.
Axeholm is the site of a haunting. It’s been abandoned for quite some time. This place should be spooky, but that doesn’t really come across in the text. And I don’t mean everything has to have some supernatural feel to it. Darkness can be unnerving. Silence can be unnerving. Unidentified sounds which disturb the silence but can’t be seen in the darkness can be unnerving.
I thought it might be helpful to have a list of dark ambience that I can reach for to sprinkle throughout Axeholm the next time I take a party through the place (this will be my sixth time).
Below is a list of dark ambience that, I hope, will help to make Axeholm feel like a spookier place.
The Dark Ambience of Axeholm
| d10 | Dark Ambience |
|---|---|
| 1 | Every footstep you take seems magnified in the eerie silence that hangs over the long-abandoned halls. |
| 2 | Moths spiral around your torch, frantic and aimless. |
| 3 | Faint screeches and movement – bats perhaps – disturb the darkness. Dust drifts down from the gloom above. |
| 4 | The air is thick with dust motes and the scent of decay. |
| 5 | The slow, rhythmic drip of water echoes somewhere off in the darkness. |
| 6 | The rubble strewn about the chamber is choked with debris. Vermin scuttles away at your approach. |
| 7 | Towering pillars and crumbled arches emerge from the darkness as you make your way through the halls. |
| 8 | The sound of every step you take is a tumultuous racket. Even when you take care to be quiet, the slightest sounds seem to echo off the walls. |
| 9 | Roaches, centipedes, and other creepy-crawlies skitter across the dusty stone floors as they flee the approach of your torch. |
| 10 | The hinges of the door scream throughout the entire ruin as you open the door for the first time in centuries. |
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