House of the Worm

A house on the plain of Kaar, close to Vornai. It is built by an Old Man of Whom No One Likes to Speak on a hill on the five black pillars, "whose age no man remembers and no record tells".
== Description ==
Since before the first stones of Vornai's oldest building were laid, there has stood upon a nearby hill a ring of stones, five in all, positioned such that they form the points of a star. In fact this is the Elder Sign, placed on this very spot by N'tse-Kaambl herself to seal the sleeping Great Old Ones away from the wholesome lands of Dream, although even the priests of Vornai do not know this. The folk of Vornai have always avoided that place, for it was said that daemons dwelt within the ring. Within the ring is the House of the Worm, where the Old Man of Whom No One Likes to Speak lives.
Inside the house is a great pentagonal hall with a huge fireplace, and in the hall there is a large pentagonal table, large enough to seat many men. The entire room is shrouded in purple wall hangings and thick purple carpets, and everywhere, upon the hangings, the carpets, the table, and the chairs, is emblazoned the Elder Sign. Beyond the main hall, through a stone archway covered with curiously carved figures of hybrid creatures and the stars, a long staircase of shallow stone steps descends into the depths of the earth.
The stairs lead to a nighted realm filled with many corridors and archways too small for a man to pass. The passage leads to a room with another set of five standing stones set about an ancient altar. Beyond this room is a cavern without visible limit. This chamber is dominated by a pit so vast that its far side can not be seen. From this pit radiates a sickly, greenish light which lends some illumination to the chamber. This is the resting place of that nameless terror which so terrified the Elder Gods. This creature is the reason that N'tse-Kaambl set her Great Seal upon this spot, and that the Old Man must reside here in perpetual vigilance, guarding the House and its stones lest the creature below should awaken and attempt to free itself. Just what lies in the pit is also left to the keeper's fevered imagination, but it is fair to say that it is just a fearsome and powerful as one of the Outer Gods.
Category:Buildings and monuments
Category:North