Mound of the Worm
A festering scar upon Hazlan’s already-tainted land, the Mound of the Worm is a grotesque, heaving hill of earth and stone that erupted overnight, rupturing the terrain near the edge of the Fleshless Forest. The land did not grow, it emerged—violently forced upward from the deep, dark places of the world.
From its cracked surface poured purple worms—a dozen or more at first, all adult, enraged, and starved. They left craters, shattered roads, and swallowed hamlets whole. Hazlani scholars named the place the Mound of the Worm, but to locals it is whispered as “The Maw Beneath the Skin.”
A wound in Hazlan’s underworld anatomy, the Mound of the Worm is both origin and omen. Something beneath the domain—vast, ancient, and hungry—has awakened, and the worms are just its first breath. The mound watches. It waits. And it listens for footsteps above.
“Beware where you walk in Hazlan. The land might not be land anymore. It might be watching. It might be hungry.”
Geography
- The mound is massive: over 300 feet high, shaped like a colossal termite nest, pitted with open burrows and venting holes that breathe warm, fetid air.
- The ground around it pulses faintly, as if something below still stirs, alive and angry.
- The soil is unnatural—flesh-like in places, or laced with bone and obsidian glass, twitching in response to noise or vibration.
The top of the mound is marked by a vast pit called the Wyrmgate, a tunnel that descends deeper than any have measured. Occult glyphs ring its lip, etched in shifting patterns that resist memory.
Localized Phenomena
- Magic within 1 mile of the Mound draws worms from below.
- The land is prone to tremors and sinkholes.
- Divination spells focused on the Mound result in visions of infinite maws, being swallowed, or the world itself hollowing out from within.
Fauna & Flora
Since the Mound’s appearance, purple worms and other burrowing horrors have grown unnervingly common throughout Hazlan:
- Juvenile worms, born of unknown gestation, now infest nearby riverbanks and forests.
- Spawns of twisted lineage—worms with humanoid faces, burrowing tongues, or eyes that don’t blink—have been reported.
- Some scholars claim these creatures carry memories, echoes of those they've devoured.
The worms are drawn to arcane activity—especially wild or unstable magic—suggesting some mystic link between their biology and Hazlan’s corrupted Weave.
History
A new sect has formed around the mound—The Burrowed Path, a cult of mutation-worshipping fanatics who claim the worms are harbingers of divine transformation. Their beliefs:
- All life comes from the below, and true knowledge is found in being devoured.
- The worms are the mouths of a forgotten god, and the Mound is its tongue.
- Those who survive being eaten (and some do) are “Reborn Through Teeth.”
Cultists tattoo themselves with spirals and wormlike script. They feed captives to the mound in ceremonial offerings and claim to “hear the churning prophecy.”
Mysteries and Theories
- Wizard-lords suspect the Mound is the result of failed magical excavation, where an ancient or alien ecosystem was breached.
- Others believe the worms were sealed long ago—perhaps as punishment for what they consumed—and now seek new prey or purpose.
- Still others say the Mound is a birthing site, and the true Worm, the Mother Below, has not yet emerged.
Several adventurers have tried to descend the Wyrmgate. None returned. A single rope, frayed and bloodstained, remains tied to a stake.
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