The Drow War Book Two. The Dying Of - RoseRed

+4 ghost touch dagger; AL CN; Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 14;
Speech, 120-ft. vision and hearing; Ego 15.
Lesser Powers: Spot 10 ranks, Listen 10 ranks.
Special Purpose: Defeat/slay non-spellcasters.
Dedicated Power: Can use crushing despair.
Personality: Nightwatch was forged to protect the
young sorcerers of Kandang’s royal line. When on
expeditions into the wild, they would drive the dagger
into the ground and the unblinking eye would keep
watch for them, alerting the designated wielder to
any danger. Many noble lives have been saved by the
weapon’s diligence; its harsh, metallic voice barks out
a warning when it sees an enemy hiding in the shadows
or a trap waiting to be sprung.
Strong divination: CL 15 th .
Note for the Games Master: If the Player Characters
have Azarak with them, this final encounter may well be
too easy. To increase the challenge, the Games Master
may do any of the following: have Zamelak, if she is
still alive, come to Bastirak’s aid (this is especially
effective if she is already with the party, as she can turn
traitor); give Bastirak two ice devils as bodyguards;
have two devourers emerge from the gate to Noctulos,
smash through the ice sheet and attack.
The Ice: The ice is thin and fragile as well as slippery.
Characters who place heavy weights on it risk breaking
the surface. It can support weights of 33lb. or less
without danger. A weight of 100 to 150 pounds has a
50% chance per round to break the ice. A weight of 151
to 300 pounds has an 80% chance per round to break
the ice and any weight heavier than this automatically
breaks it. Characters who are standing on ice when it
breaks must make Reflex saving throws (DC 20) or fall
through into the water beneath. Bastirak likes to catch
foes floundering in the water with freezing sphere.
Beneath the ice is a 60-foot shaft filled with ice-cold
water. 20 feet below the surface is a swirling vortex of
livid black and purple energies, the source of the motion
that the Player Characters can see above the ice. This is
the gateway to Noctulos, which Bastirak has cunningly
concealed. Noctulos is dealt with in a subsequent
chapter, Following Darkness Like a Dream.
The Skull: The skull is all that remains of Azarak’s
mother, a red dragon. Bastirak has kept it as a souvenir.
Secreted within it are three gleaming treasures: a
golden belt buckle (worth 1,200 gold pieces), a pectoral
ornament in the shape of a falcon with spread wings
(worth 1,000 gold pieces) and a sword hilt decorated
with knotwork patterns (worth 1,400 gold pieces). An
Appraise, Bardic Lore or Knowledge (history) check
(DC 20) identifies these as grave-goods of the kind that
used to be buried with tribal chieftains in places like
Jehannum and Visk, about two thousand years ago. If
the Player Characters return these to the chattermen,
they gratefully return to their snowy graves.
The Coffer: Inside the coffer are the skeletal remains
and smashed skull of the lich Venderesc, kept by
Bastirak partly as a trophy and partly because he fears
the lich may reanimate and come back to claim the
circlet. Venderesc is quite dead but Bastirak remains
paranoid.
The Planar Gateways
The tunnels leading away from the Cyst end in planar
rifts. These are ragged, blurry-edged holes in reality
leading into other planes of existence. Bronderbok
the planespider has woven its anchoring webs across
them but the Player Characters can easily break these
and enter the various planes. However, breaking the
webbing may alert Bronderbok, who will not be at all
pleased.
The following sections allow the Player Characters to
explore bizarre alternate realities and learn important
information. None of this section is crucial to the
campaign, nor do the different planes offer much in
the way of traditional adventuring of the ‘combat and
treasure’ kind. Each plane is deliberately constructed
so that the Player Characters cannot travel far from the
entry point. Their main purpose is to allow a complete
break from the kind of adventures that the Player
Characters have had up until now while supplying some
interesting hints for the future.
14. The Halls of the Apathy Gods
Beyond the gateway is a gigantic hallway, the roof
many hundreds of feet above you, the walls held up by
grey pillars. The air smells stale and tired. Slumped
on thrones the size of houses are ten Colossal beings
dressed in togas and crowned with withered laurels.
They are all male, with beards down to their knees,
seemingly endless hair tangled over everything and
long fingernails that spiral in horrid corkscrew lengths.
Their expressions are of utter boredom and apathy.
They barely register your presence.
The Player Characters can attempt to talk to these
beings but the only answer is a disinterested groan. This
is a group of deities who have been confined to their
(extremely limited) universe for so long that they have
given up on immortality altogether. There is nothing
left to create, nothing to do, nothing to say.
Ibon Presno Gonzalez (order #73006) 8
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