The Drow War Book Two. The Dying Of - RoseRed

will turn traitor if the chance presents itself. They only
care about their own survival and will happily exploit
the good nature of any good-aligned Player Characters.
Note: The mammoths of the Waste are omnivorous
man-killers, not at all like their placid elephant relatives
in Kahoor and Kandang. Were-elephants are an
impossibility, as herbivores do not have lycanthrope
relatives; weremammoths are, fortunately, extremely
rare.
Event: Questioning the Giants
The Player Characters may attempt to interrogate the
giants, as they have few other leads to go on in their
search for Bastirak. Only the giantesses talk. Grommen
and Gurt are more interested in splitting skulls.
• They used to live further north, in Grommen’s ice
fortress, with a herd of mammoths as pets. Life was
good until many strange creatures came from the
northwest, the place where the lights dance in the
sky and the giant shadows walk. At first little things
came, like walking dogs that would sneak into your
room and steal your weapons and your tools. Then
there were the pale women whose laughter fills you
with fear. Finally came the noises on the wind that
gave everyone terrible headaches. Grommen could
not tolerate this anymore and attempted to go and
put an end to the ice wizard’s meddling. When this
attempt failed, he commanded the giant gang to
pack up and leave. The noises have followed the
giants, though they are not so close as they were.
• The raid on Ommersdale was Grommen and
Gurt’s idea. The giantesses only went along with
it because they were afraid not to. All they needed
was food, in case the hunting in their new home
was not good. Grommen and Gurt found wine and
mead in Ommersdale, drank it all and smashed the
entire town to pieces. Many little humans ran away.
Everyone else was killed.
• They do not know of any wizard. They are afraid of
such things. If he were anywhere, he would be in
the strange place northwest of Grommen’s fortress.
Grommen went to the strange place just before the
giant gang abandoned the fortress. He came back
half mad, with a sack full of objects that he did not
show to anyone. A few days later he told everyone
to leave for the south. The fortress is empty now.
Grommen left many of his possessions there. That
is where the sack will be.
Location: The Windshaper Hills
The environment is becoming little more than an
endless blank sky in which motes of snow dance above
an endless plain of white that crunches underfoot. The
wind howls constantly, but despite this the peculiar
music grows louder. You can make out more than one
melody; there seem to be at least three, one slow and
sorrowful, one shrill and whining, and another deep
and ominous.
Up ahead through the thickening snow, you see a cluster
of low hills. On top of the nearest is a group of three
shapes, each one around 15 feet high. At this distance it
is hard to tell. The shapes are perfectly still and remind
you of dancing people or petrified creatures of some
kind. As the wind rises and falls, the melodies become
louder and softer. You realise that these objects are the
source of the music.
To deter the giants from coming too close, the
windshapers (see Unusual Creatures of the Cold Waste,
page 157) have built a sculpture of terror, a sculpture of
pain and a sculpture of sorrow on the hilltop.
The windshaper coven lives in a set of small caves
beneath the sculptures. They are listening to the sounds
the sculptures make, in silent contemplation. If they
hear the melody from any of the sculptures cease,
implying that the sculpture has been destroyed, they
make themselves invisible and come out to investigate.
1. Cave Entrance
A six-inch-thick window of ice, over which snow has
settled, closes off the entrance. A Search check (DC 25)
is needed to find this concealed ice pane. It has 18 hit
points and can be hit automatically. If the windshapers
hear their door being smashed in, they imbue their
weapons with thunder in preparation for a fight.
2. Meditation Chamber
This hemispherical room is lined with smooth ice.
There are four raised bumps on the floor, like seats.
There must be some acoustic trick at work here; every
sound you make seems amplified.
The windshapers have crafted the ice lining in this room
to amplify sound. All Listen checks made here are at a
+2 circumstance bonus.
The four windshapers who dwell here are seated,
invisible, on the ice pedestals. They are hoping that
they will not have to interact with the Player Characters.
They intend to ignore them until they go away. If the
Player Characters attack, they defend themselves.
Otherwise, they quietly wait for them to leave.
Ibon Presno Gonzalez (order #73006) 8
123