The Drow War Book Two. The Dying Of - RoseRed

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If the Player Characters make a concerted, respectful
attempt to talk to the windshapers and do not vandalise
their home, the windshapers grudgingly appear and
converse with them. They want nothing more than to
be left in peace. They can also reveal the following:
• They came to this plane as prisoners of the ice mage
Bastirak, taken from their home plane of Baiiko.
By the careful use of magic and the manipulation
of stupid guards, they were able to escape and set
up this humble retreat. They miss their home; one
snowy wilderness is as good as another, so long
as the wind keeps up, but this place has too many
annoying little mortal creatures in it.
• The windshapers observed Bastirak’s citadel
invisibly after they escaped, and heard him giving
instructions to a pack of bipedal canine creatures.
Bastirak was furious that a ‘lumbering oaf’,
presumably the weremammoth Grommen, had
stolen something of value to him and offered to
reward the canines if they brought the items back.
The skitterjinx pack made a tentative attempt to
sneak into the fortress, but the giants had already
fled by then and the whiteladies proved too
frightening for them.
• If the Player Characters explain that they are intent
on confronting Bastirak, the windshapers offer to
help. If the Player Characters can find a way to
return them to their home plane, then they will do
what they can to assist, including leading them
to the fortress. They will not re-enter Bastirak’s
fortress or engage in combat, but they will create
ice sculptures for the Player Characters’ use.
• The lands near Bastirak’s citadel are extremely
dangerous. There is something roaming among the
mountains that looks like a living avalanche or an
immense tidal wave of snow. The weremammoths
have fled the region, but worse creatures have
moved into their fortress home.
Location: The Ransacked Graves
The snow here has been dug through and a group of
three hollows exposed, each one lined with wet, rotting
leather hides. Based on the sizes and shapes of the
hollows, they can only have been burial mounds. There
are no signs of the bodies, nor of any of the goods with
which they might have been buried.
These graves are those from which the chattermen arose
(see The Kings in Darkness, above). They return here if
their treasures are retrieved and given back to them.
Location: The Abandoned Fortress
The edifice up ahead of you looks like a sandcastle built
by a child, only made from boulders and grey cement
and built to a massive scale. The walls are crudely
built and uneven. There are no signs of life. A single
doorway leads into the place. The door, ten feet high
and made from ironbound planks, stands ajar.
Even when this fortress was inhabited, there was
little in the rooms save rough furniture. Now that the
giants have abandoned it, the majority of the rooms are
empty, home to nothing but shadows and gloom. The
exceptions are noted below.
1. Skitterjinx Lair
This area has an odd reek to it, unmistakably animal and
yet acrid and unfamiliar. You hear quiet conversation in
yapping, breathy voices.
The five skitterjinxes that Bastirak sent have made
themselves at home in this empty gatehouse. They are
discussing what to do next. A character who approaches
quietly enough not to be heard can hear their whiny
voices arguing:
‘I say we forget white wizard! Baldy head jag-jaw!
His fault we here anyway. Forget giant sack and just
run-run aways. If we stayings, the laughing ones will
gets us, break our bones and suck the marrow they will.
Seen them do it.’
‘Pah. You sing a runt’s song. Is easy job. The ice ladies
have no quarrel with us. They wants to live just as we
do. We can sneak past stupid one. Then we speak nice
to many-legs and she let us take what wizard wants. Is
all easy. Then wizard sends us back home. Or gives us
shiny things.’
‘Too many things are not knowing. I say you both
wrong. We waits. See what the ladies do. If they comes
and talks peace-things, then perhaps we go down, fetch
what we sent to bring. But not now. Now is for stealth.
Now is for the waiting.’
If the skitterjinxes are disturbed they immediately scatter
like cockroaches. They do not want a fight. Once the
Player Characters have given up pursuit (assuming they
do) the skitterjinxes sneak back to watch them, always
curious to see what will happen. If they think they can
manipulate the Player Characters into disposing of the
whiteladies for them, then they will. They promise to
lead the Player Characters to stores of buried treasure,
help them to find a secret way into Bastirak’s castle,
show them where to find his stores of tenebrium and
Ibon Presno Gonzalez (order #73006) 8