She lights up a candle for hope to be found
Captive and blind by the darkness around
Firm as a mountain, she never will mourn
Timeless, she waits for the break of dawn
-The Maiden’s Hymn

On the northeastern coasts, just below the frozen wastes of Nordica, a small town named Maiden’s Watch operates a small, but successful, port.

The town is named for a statue found on a rocky outcropping of a mountain overlooking the town and abutting the sea. The statue is of an amazingly-lifelike maiden carrying a candle, and legend holds that it was once a woman who refused to accept that she’d been widowed.

For many years after her husband, a sailor, failed to return home, every night she would walk up to the outcropping and light a candle so that he might find his way home.

She did this until she died, and the gods took pity upon her. They rewarded her vigilance by turning her into a statue, and now every night after the sun sets and the stars come out, the stony candle held in the statue’s hands ignites into a brilliant light visible for miles around.

The Maiden herself has become a symbol of fidelity, dedication and love, and the statue also serves as a tourist attraction. It stands in the center of a ring of dirt, serving as a clear demarcation against the grass. Anyone or anything which crosses this threshold simply disappears, which has certainly saved the statue from vandalism over the many years, but also has stymied any attempts to study it.

Encounters at Maiden’s Watch

One night, the statue fails to light, causing chaos among the sailors depending on it to find their way to the harbor safely. The PCs are hired to investigate what’s happened and restore the maiden’s light.

The PCs need a star to activate some ancient machinery, and surmise that the maiden’s candle is a star itself. They must find a way to retrieve the candle, never mind dealing with the townsfolk who won’t be happy if they find out what the PCs are doing.

The Maiden’s Hymn stolen (though slightly changed) from Kamelot’s A Sailorman’s Hymn