The Drow War Book Two. The Dying Of - RoseRed

The plane, I have discovered, is named Noctulos. It
is accessible via the rift that occasionally manifests
directly beneath the Cyst. To reach Noctulos by means
of plane shifting, one would have to construct a fork of
cold iron, with the tines exactly three and seven-eighths
of an inch apart, as the key component. Noctulos has
the richest tenebrium deposits of any shadow plane I
have yet explored. The drow will surely be delighted
with these. I fancy I know what their purpose is to
be. Splendid: the more they conquer, the more I may
demand.
13. The Cyst
This round-ceilinged room has an atmosphere of dread
that you cannot account for. It is as if some memory
of horrible deeds has been locked away here and kept
where nobody should ever find it. The floor of the
room is a mere sheet of ice, whose thickness you guess
is probably around three or four inches. Beneath the
sheet is water. You catch a glimpse of something huge
moving under the ice. It is impossible to tell what it is.
There are three ledges on the walls of the room,
fashioned from the ice. On one sits a bronze coffer. On
another is the bleached skull of a dragon. On the last
sits a grotesque humanoid figure, bald and jag-jawed,
draped in silk cloth like a macabre idol. On its head is
a circlet of finger bones connected with silver wire. You
wonder if it is alive at all, until it blinks – and nictating
membranes briefly close its eyes sideways.
This figure is Bastirak, the lord of the citadel. If
the Player Characters confront him here rather than
elsewhere in the edifice, they find him as described,
sitting in meditation. If they have been careless, such as
by allowing the guards to report that there are intruders
in the castle or by creating too much noise and chaos,
Bastirak comes to deal with them personally.
Bastirak, Male Half-White Dragon Wiz15: CR 17;
Medium dragon (augmented humanoid, cold); HD
15d4+30; hp 67; Init +5; Spd 30 ft.; AC 21, touch 11,
flat-footed 20; Base Atk +7; Grp +11; Atk +15 melee
(1d4+8/19–20, Nightwatch) or +11 melee (1d4+4, claw);
Full Atk +15/+10 melee (1d4+8/19–20, Nightwatch)
or +11 melee (1d4+4, 2 claws) and +6 melee (1d6+2,
bite); SA breath weapon, spells; SQ darkvision 60 ft.,
immunity to cold, paralysis, and sleep, low-light vision,
resistance to fire 20, vulnerability to fire; AL CE; SV
Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +11; Str 18, Dex 13, Con 14, Int
20, Wis 14, Cha 10.
Skills & Feats: Concentration +20, Decipher Script
+23, Knowledge (arcana) +23, Knowledge (the planes)
+23, Listen +11, Spellcraft +25, Spot +11, Swim
+13; Combat Casting, Craft Wondrous Item, Dodge,
Improved Initiative, Empower Spell, Enlarge Spell,
Maximise Spell, Scribe Scroll, Spell Penetration.
Breath Weapon: 30-ft. cone of cold, dealing 6d8 points
of cold damage, Reflex saving throw (DC 12) allowed
for half damage.
Spells prepared (4/5/5/5/5/5/3/2/1, save DC 15 + spell
level): 0 th – ray of frost (2), resistance, touch of fatigue;
1 st – charm person, magic missile, protection from
good, shield, true strike; 2 nd – ghoul touch, hypnotic
pattern, protection from arrows, spectral hand, web; 3 rd
– displacement, fly (already cast), sleet storm, vampiric
touch (2); 4 th – black tentacles, detect scrying, greater
invisibility, ice storm, lesser globe of invulnerability;
5 th – baleful polymorph, feeblemind, mage’s faithful
hound, mind fog, wall of force; 6 th – forceful hand,
freezing sphere, globe of invulnerability; 7 th – mage’s
sword, mass hold person; 8 th – polar ray.
Equipment & Treasure: Bracers of armour +6, circlet of
chill bone (see below), ironwood key to the bookcases in
Room 12, Nightwatch (see below), five small tenebrium
crystals in a silk pouch.
The ice-mage has a protruding lower jaw with jagged
teeth, wisps of beard like those that cling to skulls, and
a great gleaming bald head with the suggestion of a
Ibon Presno Gonzalez (order #73006) 8
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