Gromm or’s Maw
Somewhere in the deep forests of the Stolen Lands is a
menacing, yawning cave mouth infamous in local lore as
an entrance to the Darklands. Yet these are little more than
rumors, for the forests of the Sellen watershed contain
hundreds of such caves, and locals frequently claim
these caverns lead to the lightless depths and fearsome
monsters of the Darklands. Yet popular belief persists
among Riverfolk that Grommor’s Maw is the real thing,
a connection of the surface lands of Golarion with the
Darklands below.
No one remembers who Grommor was. A gruff, outcast
adventurer-dwarf, some say. A human prospector who
found gems as large as human heads when delving down
into the Maw, others claim. Still others say Grommor
was a dragon that used to open its jaws wide enough
to f ill the cave mouth and swallow up all who dared
venture inside.
Whatever the truth is behind the origin of the name,
Grommor’s Maw today is a large but well-hidden cavern
entrance that leads from an overgrown forest ravine into
a vast network of natural caverns, a string of irregular
rooms carved out of solid rock by long-vanished waters,
which descend to unknown depths that probably, by long
and torturous ways, connect to the Darklands.
Yet nothing fares down into that fabled underworld
or comes up from it—at least not to anyone’s knowledge.
Instead, a bold band of harpies lair in the outermost cavern
of the Maw, knowing they can retreat from any intruder into
deeper caverns where few will dare to follow, because of the
odd inhabitants of those caverns—the Marching Men.
The Marching Men
Three caverns deep beyond the Maw are filled with
golems, constructed by unknown hands to fulfill stillmysterious
missions; the outermost two caverns each
contain a dozen stone golems, and the innermost cavern
holds nine iron golems.
The golems attack any living creature that enters their
caves; given the golems’ numbers and the close confines
of the caverns, only flying creatures have much hope of
eluding them. They seem to be under instructions not
to allow anyone past them into the even deeper caverns
beyond, and they use their bodies as walls to block the
openings between caverns to accomplish this, if need be.
Those deeper caverns have a handful of veins of gemore
running through their walls and ceilings, but none
seem to hold any ready treasure or other items of interest,
though a drinkable flow of water does seep from the ceiling
of one cavern to run into the next cavern and sink through
its floor.
From time to time, one of the golems will vanish or
reappear in a flash of light. This is by means of a teleport
spell, which safely carries along any living creature
that manages to touch the golem. This spell whisks the
golem to an apparently random location, usually in the
River Kingdoms, where it tries to slay either the nearest
creature or the creature closest to a specific spot (such as a
doorway, a bridge, or a particular room in a castle). Some
of these locales were constructed much more recently
than the time of the first appearances of these golems; all
that can be said about the spots where the golems appear
is that, more often than not, they seem to be associated
with large constructions, such as city walls, fortresses,
bridges, and piers.
If a golem is destroyed in one of its ventures, it does
not return to the caverns of the Maw, but if it survives,
successful or not, it soon teleports back (when that is seems
to vary without apparent reason; it’s not always promptly
after a successful slaying or after a target gets away). Golems
sent on these mysterious missions unhesitatingly pursue
their chosen targets out of the area of their arrival, if need
be, and defend themselves against all who attack them.
Who made these golems and placed them in the
caverns, why they carry out these attacks, what the golems’
connection to Grommor’s Maw is, and where the “Marching
Men” name came from are all mysteries, though even very
old Riverfolk writings refer to these murderous golems by
that term.
The Dancing Dryads
On rare occasions, another strange sight occurs in the
ravine right in front of the Maw: brightly glowing, greenwhite
radiances appear, outlining dryads who step out of
the surrounding trees—even dead trees, tiny saplings, and
shrubs that are never home to such tree-fey—and dance
wildly together in front of the Maw. The dryads are silent,
moving with manic speed and agility, and seem aware only
of each other and not any nearby creatures, regardless of
what actions the observers may take. After a brief dance,
the dryads run toward the Maw, fading away just as they
reach its threshold. Local superstition insists that anyone
who sees the dryads dance will enjoy good luck in a
moment of great need shortly thereafter, but the tradition
is mostly an aphorism at this point, and none of the tales
say anything about dancing dryads having anything to do
with Grommor’s Maw.
An adventurer by the name of Bloodjack Baerrens,
who recently disappeared, claimed to have seen both the
dryads and the golems—and also claimed that he’d since
fought other dryads and other golems elsewhere, and that
he couldn’t be harmed by the “soundly striking” attacks of
either race. Something is clearly afoot at the cave known
as Grommor’s Maw, but at the moment the mysteries
of the cave complex seem endless, waiting for a band of
brave explorers to finally bring the truth to light.