The Drow War Book Two. The Dying Of - RoseRed

• There is indeed a wizard of the ice based in a
citadel to the northwest of here. The whiteladies
are no friends of his. He brought them to this
plane as curiosities, then turned them out into the
waste when he grew weary of them. The only
beings worse than the wizard are those wretched
windshapers, beings of evil and treachery who turn
the air itself into an instrument of torture.
The Eggs: The eggs have 30 hit points a hardness of 3
and can be hit automatically. Smashed eggs prove to
have unformed, foetal whiteladies in them.
Grommen’s Bag
The bag contains three items that Grommen looted from
Bastirak’s citadel before he was driven off. These are a
platinum idol in the shape of a beetle-headed goddess,
a fist-sized chunk of glowing green crystal and a heavy
key made from adamantine.
The Idol: This is clearly not the work of any known
culture of Ashfar. A Knowledge (the planes) check (DC
20) identifies it as the creation of one of the denizens of
Tingrith, an obscure plane of Law. From its material
value alone, it is worth 2,000 gold pieces. Bastirak
picked it up on one of his off-plane jaunts.
The idol has the aura of a lawful alignment and moderate
Divination magic. It is a Counselling Icon, a common
possession on Tingrith. Every hour, as regularly as a
cuckoo clock, it proclaims a piece of random ‘wisdom’
of a sagely sort. It does this clearly and audibly, which
can make life difficult for stealthy characters or those
who are trying to rest. Typical phrases that the idol may
utter might include:
‘The fox hunts, the chicken scratches, but only the pig
seeks truffles with its nose.’
‘The world of magic is a mirror, wherein he who sees
muck is muck.’
‘The wise need not to ask; the fool asks in vain.’
The Crystal: Another item ransacked from Bastirak’s
collection of extraplanar souvenirs, this is a Khemidian
dream-cluster. A Knowledge (the planes) check (DC
25) identifies it. The purpose of a dream-cluster is to aid
in planar navigation. A character who sleeps within 30
feet of a dream-cluster must make a Will saving throw
(DC 15) or suffer unnerving dreams of other planes, in
which he flies like a bird through unearthly landscapes
and over alien architecture.
A character who has these dreams does not rest well
and wakes up fatigued. However, any plane shift spell
he casts is rendered many times more accurate. Instead
of arriving 5–500 miles from the intended destination,
he arrives only 4–80 (4d20 miles) miles away.
The Key: This key unlocks the adamantine doors
closing off the Great Tunnel. Grommen, being a giant,
clambered over the glacial peaks to reach Bastirak’s
citadel. The journey was so harrowing that when he
reached the place he stole a tunnel key, vowing that if he
ever came back he would take an easier route.
Event: Choosing a Path
To reach the citadel, the Player Characters must
negotiate the Glacial Peaks that form a natural barrier
around the plateau. There are three ways to do this.
• The conventional approach is to go the hard
way, climbing over the mountains and following
whatever trails can be found. If they take this
route, the Player Characters risk all the hazards of
mountain climbing (avalanches, uncertain footholds
and treacherous slopes) as well as the menace of
the brocken spectres and dreaded glacial ooze.
• If the Player Characters have the ability to fly, they
can take to the air and avoid most of the hazards
of the mountains. This, however, exposes them to
attack from the flying horrors that haunt the peaks,
such as the brocken spectres and the arctic lights.
• If they have Grommen’s key or some other way
of opening the adamantine gates, they can take
the easiest route of all, following the Great Tunnel
carved through the rock by the titans. The Great
Tunnel is not without monsters of its own, however;
there are immense purple worms tunnelling in the
roots of the mountain, and extraplanar horrors more
sinister still, relishing the unbroken darkness and
silence.
Location: The Great Tunnel
Set into the side of the mountain before you, black and
forbidding in the endless white of the waste, are two
massive doors. The featureless surfaces give away no
clues as to who built them or what lies beyond. Only
a single keyhole, almost invisible in the smooth black
metal, suggests that the doors are even meant to open.
In the distance, on the mountainsides flanking the gate,
you see titanic figures carved into the rock. They must
be hundreds of feet tall. These are crude and humanoid,
each one raising its hands up as if to support the sky.
Ibon Presno Gonzalez (order #73006) 8
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