Battlemap
Blackroot Mine
The mine feeds the mushrooms by day and the spiders by night.
Blackroot Mine was once a profitable deep shaft until the crew vanished and the lower galleries were sealed off. Now the upper tunnels have been turned into fungus beds, while deeper passages have become hunting grounds for giant spiders and the things they have dragged into the dark.
The mine smells of wet stone, mushroom loam, and old lamp oil gone sour. Threads of silk sway in drafty shafts, pickaxe taps echo from nowhere, and pale fungus gives the tunnels a cold green glow that never fully reaches the corners.
☠ Threat
A giant spider queen has claimed the deepest vault and turned the mine into a nesting ground. Her brood patrol the upper passages, while trapped corridors, silk nets, and false paths funnel intruders toward the boss chamber where the queen waits amid stolen ore, eggs, and the remains of anyone who tried to reclaim the shaft.
History
Blackroot Mine was opened fifty years ago to harvest a silvered iron seam and an unusually rich vein of phosphorescent stone. When deeper shafts broke into warm, web-lined caverns, the foreman ordered the upper levels sealed and the abandoned workrooms converted into mushroom beds to support a skeleton crew. The final evacuation never came, and the mine was swallowed by silence, spiders, and whatever they now guard below.
Encounter Table
CRSmall cave spiders that drift in loose clusters, testing the air for warmth and blood.
Sturdy tunnel spiders that patrol between web nests and drag away anything that struggles too long.
A swollen matron's attendant spider with white-striped legs, more aggressive than the others.
A skittering cloud of tiny hatchlings spilling from cracks and drains, driven by vibration and heat.
Rumours & Whispers
The mine is still active at night, with lantern light moving underground even though no one goes in.
A survivor heard spiders chittering in a language that sounded almost like counting.
The mushroom beds near the entrance were planted to keep something below from noticing the living.
There is a room full of treasure hidden behind a wall of crates, but anyone who takes from it is never seen again.
Old timers say the mine closed because the foreman found a nest large enough to swallow a cart whole.
Quest Hooks
Quest giver: Reeve Marda Venn
A local reeve hires the party to clear Blackroot Mine so the town can reopen the silver seam before winter.
500 gp and salvage rights to recovered ore
Quest giver: Hollis Gray, widowed cooper
A widow claims her spouse survived the original mine disaster and may still be alive somewhere behind the sealed lower doors.
250 gp, plus a family heirloom found in the mine
Quest giver: Sister Elen of the roadside shrine
The mushroom beds near the entrance are producing a rare blue cap that a healer needs for antidote work, but harvesting it stirs the spiders.
Healing potions and temple favor
Quest giver: Tomas Rill, caravan master
Caravan tracks show missing goods were dragged into the mine rather than stolen on the road, suggesting something inside is caching valuables.
Share of recovered trade goods
Corridor Notes
Low shelves of cultivated mushrooms line the walls near the entrance, their caps clipped regularly by unseen hands.
Sticky silk curtains bridge gaps in the stone, trembling when anything large passes through.
Timbers groan under the weight of the mountain, and old cart ruts are filled with shed chitin and web debris.
Thin mineral veins in the walls glimmer like wet eyes when torchlight sweeps past.
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