Hoarwind Summoning – Bittermaw’s Fate /DONE

• Open Review
• GM Review
• Using Materials

Do not let strict campaign or challenge level dictate your use of adventures. Both the story and play and PC capability should be able to be modified to support most measures of adventure requirements. A good Game Master can generally use the Incarna principles, system & tools to support them in telling their story with whatever characters and circumstances the Players have.

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GM Background Information

Who: Bittermaw, a ghoul ‘officer’ of the Lich Lords has discovered a potential means of undermining The Blue Wall. The Giants of Frost and Cold have blown their war horns again and the Hoarwind carries its cold message across the Steel Realms to summon aid. The Hoarwind captures the resonance with the God Stone (equitas) and transports the party.

Where: It will take the PCs under
The Blue Wall, in ancient Fallen Dundaria of the Northern Hinterlands; The PCs can be exploring any ruins of ancient giants that the Hoarwind may make its way to though.

When: Whenever the PC’s manage to stumble across the information leading to the way to the ruins of an ancient settlement of giants.

What: The PCs are summoned to the north to witness a final battle of one of the giants defending the Blue Wall as the Lich Lords attack under it. They have found a vulnerability that they themselves do not understand, but one of their more powerful agents is seeking to exploit it to ern favor and perhaps even open a way for the Lich Lords to invade the far northern hinterlands.

Why: If the Lich Lords’ forces are not stopped, it may change the course of history!

Fitting into an Existing Campaign

This adventure is not part of any currently existing adventure series. The GM will have to figure out best means of integrating into an existing adventure or campaign using the potential connection of ruins exploration or even an active adventure doing a favor for some settlement of giants.

Timeline of Scenario Events

• XX Years Ago The Lich Lords discover the Ur-Ducateon spirits trapped in Tunnelspring Homesense; after striving against them the ‘home’ is forbidden to the Lich Lords.
• 400 Years Ago Bittermaw discovers Tunelspring Homesense and its masking from his masters.
• 12 Years Ago Bittermaw kidnaps Ducateon and tortures them to decipher the ancient runes detailing the history of the place and its significance (though he understands only that it is ancient, not the unique nature of its creators) – it takes four hundred years to find one Ducateon that finally breaks.
• 30 Days Ago Bittermaw gathers the sacrifices needed and summon the fiend to tunnel under the wall and hopefully win victory and Ascendance in the ranks of the Lich Lord minions

Setup/Introduction/Getting There

Getting There – Discovery

Option 1: Hoardwind

Far in the distance, a faint mournful sound rises in crescendo. It fades and is heard again, each time ever so faintly.

[[Any notes about the current weather, terrain or other factors which will affect the party’s movements.]]

Option 2: Trek

[[Any notes about the current weather, terrain or other factors which will affect the party’s movements.]]

What the Characters Would Know

What might the characters know about the background, if anything?

Information Sources: Mundane Reference | Associated Phenomenology Only | Specific Lore

• Northern Hinterlands
• Fallen Dundaria
• The Blue Wall

Fight in the Tunnel Under the Wall

Party is in a tunnel as hoarwind deposits swirling ice and the tube collapses. The giant stands over them as ice crushes him. A galloping creature, a white skinned undead frost lizard gore’s him. You watch as he bends over, covering the party with his body and raining blood on them as he slowly tears the head of the lizard off. His body wedges. Warm blood to walk in. “Wayward winding. Takes these and place one, blow the coldest breath upon them to call the wall above us down. Take the other and cut it with my axe, the hoarwind will return. I beseech you.” He reaches up and gouges his eyes out of their sockets. As he dies, his had falls and they turn into light blue gemstones before you.

Breath cold it vibrates and goes wild.
Con dc 10 or -5 movement

25 of 115 survive the cyclone summoned by the party; health 13 to 15 / AC 13 to 15, Dr 2(2), d6 DMG

Properties of the Tunnel

Cold Environment: -1 per dice fire damage due to cold

One of the two Soul Leeches constructed by Bittermaw is buried here. It is under the broken ice, torn asunder by the companion of the giant which also dissolved his very body as he held it, crushing it and rending it two and destroying the powerful enchantments placed on it. The essence of that giant has already merged with the Blue Wall and there is nothing to show it was here.

Frost giant blood. Reduced 1 cold damage.

If the PCs manage to save the Frost Giant somehow, they gain CLUE: BLUE GUARDIAN.

Last of the frost Giants are dying. They are blowing their war horns through the rencalite caves. none home to a clan of three hundred, guardians of the blue wall. The sheets of blue ice would vibrate and the sounds would carry along the ice to forts down the wall. Now only 20 or so are left after a thousand years of decline. The responses have grown quiet and recently a massive army of frozen corpses tried to climb the wall – the first in centuries. There are not enough colossi left to hear their scratching under and in the wall.

The Melted Tunnel of Souls

The tunnel leading “south” out from under the blue wall goes on for hundreds of meters. Its mostly a long curved construct. The Soul Leech was used to carve out the tunnel from the living wall.

• Remains of another giant ice lizard.
• Frozen encased animations. Barely visible, being absorbed and slowly crushed into gelatinous remains.
• Passage curves and drops. Two commanded feral ghouls, their bodies white and blended in with the ice are pulled tightly against the top of the tunnel. They will attempt to ambush by dropping on characters.

  Perceive (@Notice) > Difficulty = Very Hard > Success: .

  Its the red bloodshot eyes that give away the presence of two motionless sentries gripping the tunnel ceiling

Tunnel Collapse: Once the Blue Giant passes, and the party travels down the length, the tunnel will collapse, forcing them in a direction out from under the wall to the ancient Ur-Ducateon complex.

Hear the pulse of the Blue Vein as the PCs get closer to the attack room.

The Blue Vein

Exposed vein of the living Blue Wall. Pulses as though it is connected to a circulatory system.

The Soul Leech Watcher

One of the two Soul Leeches constructed by Bittermaw is here. It is keeping the living ice melted and exposing one of the veins of the Blue Wall that Bittermaw has been corrupting for a decade. It is raw and weak, and he recently was able to finally tunnel into the Blue Wall with the other to where the PCs first came in.

If the PCs do not destroy it within 3 rounds, the Ice Fiends that have merged with the ice around it will surprise the PCs and attack them.

Destroying: There is a wave of death that will melt the living wall. If the ice fiends are feeding, they will be killed by the power of life released in the Blue Vein. If the devils were killed by the PCs, then the PCs will be magically healed as if they each had a maximum effect of Cure Light Wounds. A flood of water will rush down the passage, meeting the slowly collapsing affect and sealing everything in ice as the “wound” of the Blue Wall heals.

The Dripping Cavern and Raised Platform

Here a cavern has been carved out between the ancient complex and the base of the Blue Wall. There is constant dripping from the melting of the living Blue Wall. The Soul Leech was used to dissolve the living Blue Wall. This is where the two giant ice lizards were kept as guards. They killed several giant guardians over the last couple years as forays were made to stop the attack (though the guardians did not understand the true nature of the danger until just recently). The lizards were once ghouls, but the giants eventually torn them to pieces and they were animated by Bittermaw as zombies of extraordinary power.

Elevated Passage/Raised Bridge

Tunnelspring Home

Features of the Location

HOOP SLOT: In the wall is a perfectly formed circle, cut with laser like precision about 5cm deep and 1cm thick. As you examine it close up, you can see there is not a speck of dust or moisture in it.

Things to Notice Overall

Once the PCs have had the time to explore the area, there should be some conclusions based on the totality of the experience:

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Random Encounters

They quickly figured out the undead were not intent on destruction and leave them alone – not caring what they do. Once the undead are cleared or in an area cleared of them, they may attack the PCs. The GM should determine how many of each is there depending on the challenge they wish to present.

Mephit, Earth –

Earth Elemental

Xorn – Can be bribed by gemstones.

Crystal ‘Golems’ – These are strange and small (half Health) creatures that were like pets for the Ur-Ducteon. Each has the spell casting ability of a Druid 3rd (druidcraft only cantrip, 1st x4, 2nd x2) and its own name and identity. They can ‘mineral merge’ into the stone. To demonstrate the refractive assistance, there should be consecutive encounters with more.

• #1 Absorb Elements/Earth Tremor/Entangle + Locate Object/Barkskin (AC 16)
• #2, #3 >
• #4 – #6 > #5 Cure Wounds instead of Earth Tremor
• #7 – #10 > #8 Jump instead of Earth Tremor; #10 Bulls Strength (to charge and knock party into sharp crystals of comrades) instead of Locate Object

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Ducateon Settlements; Trinkets

The Great Chamber: Tortured Walking Pineling.

A more roughly carved tunnel leads southeast.

Resonance Crystals

Like chimes when sound or wind blow over them

You are looking at a seemingly random “growth” of crystals about .3m in length. They seem to bloom outward from a central point and are attached to the wall. The crystals reflect light, splitting it into different colors, and sound causes them to send of vibrations in different frequencies. At least one part of the growth glows when you get near with a steady white light.

A certain frequency would cause the light to not grow.

The Meltwater Meander

The ‘River’: It goes into the earth and splits; a source goes to the ‘hot springs’ and another to the waterfall and out into the ground.

Meltwater Falls: Spills out of irregular mouth as a uniform and nearly see through sheet, into an angled basin nearly silently. Behind the falls is a silent ‘area’ which whispers in Ducateon whenever a living body is near where the three gifts of the earth are in order to trigger the Shower of Mountains, which must be called down by saying the words of power spoken by the ‘far ancestors’.

Broken Entrance to Tunnelspring Home

The entry was obviously worked to open access to the Blue Wall from the inside of the complex. There are cruder marks that show it was tunneled the last 10m. This 10m tunnel is connected to the raised bridge going into the darkness of a large cavern. The walls you can see are strange and alien angles, surfaces are of odd geometry and there are edges, lips, holes and shelves obviously part of the intended architecture but serving not observable purpose for you.

The “Awakening” of Bittermaw’s Horde: It happens in response to living creatures entering the cavern.

It starts first as a shuffle, then a run as dead bodies in various states of adornment and decay climb stairs at the edge of your light to gather on the raised bridge and charge. The weight of them them appears to be an unstoppable crush.

OPTIONAL > The Hoarwinds Revenge; Requires: CLUE (BLUE GUARDIAN): As the PCs prepare to fight what appears to be hundreds of animations, help comes in elemental forms; What is left should be manageable.

A screaming, tearing wind of ice comes from the direction of the Blue Wall and slams throughout the main cavern, flinging undead and animations in the air and tearing them apart with ice and rocks.

Elevated Passage/Raised Bridge

The raised walkway is clear of anything. The snow, ice, and debris that cycloned down it scoured everything in its path.

Stone bridge is clear

Whatever the larger chamber is, its irregular. It keeps going at the edges of your light. The ceiling is encased in ice. All the icicles in the chamber have broken off or been broken and swept aside. Below, 10-15m down there are chunks of ice and rock lying scattered. Zombies and skeletons crushed or torn apart. A few limbs move but most are just frozen pieces. It could take hours to break free of the frozen nightmare encasing them.

Sigil of Tunnelspring Homesense: In the middle is a symbol that spans the entire width of the raised passage. A mixture of runic symbols entwined in a artistic seal of great complexity. Its artistry as a craft item is unmatched, though its value in beauty seems distant to you.

SLOT: Earth’s Gift (Ducateon Ur-Ring 2) in the sigil itself.

Stairs to Cavern Floor

The stair widens and narrows with each step. there are no straight lines.

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Cavern Floor

Once living things touch the cavern floor the heaters will start. One is broken – elemental is dead.

Something is happening. You hear stone grinding on stone and stop. All you can hear is the shifting or snow, ice and debris as the undead attempt to dig themselves out. After a minute, you faintly feel warmth, though there is no fire or other source to be seen.

• Scattered Trinkets: Standard Ducateon Trinkets.

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Crystal Gardens

Like chimes when sound or wind blow over them

The crystals can be controlled using subsonic Ducateon vocalizations or the Earth-Rings. It takes 1 week to get a volume of 1 week for 5 people, maximum of double this. There is only enough material to run 30 days.

Cave Mana Plot

Strange contours and stained rocks spread over an area, Its obvious water would flow through it, and it is designed for maximum efficiency if it was some sort of garden. Some sort of drain, catch, and basin looks like it would carry water up somehow. Multiple slots, once filled with something are aligned to inject their contents into the system. Cave mana grow slowly. After a three day period it can be harvested. Fourth equals a short rest. Food that sacrifices would make. Kill sacrifices lose pal and priest spells contract.
> Recycle, steam catch, cave mana gardens.

• Scattered Trinkets: Around this area may be standard Ducateon Trinkets.

Plot 1: A rotting stench fills the cavern as the plot has been activated and it is actively growing fungus. It is obvious that body parts and questionable organic matter was used to start the growing process.
> There is a 2 week supply of fungus for 10 people.

Plot 2: There are only residual fungus spores here, and the ingresses for the hot and cold water are tightly bound by crystals blocking the passages.
> There is a 2 day supply of fungus for 1 person.

Plot 3: There are only residual fungus spores here, and the ingresses for the hot and cold water are loosely bound by crystals mostly blocking the passages. The cave is filled with steam off-and-on, and the shelf is broken in some places letting a trickle of cold water into the room and it freezes over the floor making it dangerous to walk on. The damage may not be correctable. Strange funguses not like those found in the other caves grow here.
> Poison (8 doses of Disadvantage on the save; will not grow elsewhere)
> 1 crystal from its seat, perm Purify water for a barrel, uses 12 oz per week

Plot 4: There are only residual fungus spores here, and the ingresses for the hot and cold water are tightly bound by crystals blocking the passages.
> There is a 2 day supply of fungus for 1 person.

Pool of Lights

Bathing pool with crystals that reflect and refract light

This is a deep pool with no stairs or ladders. In it are crystals that seem to absorb light and reflect it, illuminating the pool brilliantly. As the water moves through it, the lights fade and transition into different colors of luminosity. It seems to be a bathing pool with crystals that reflect and refract light.

> There are cut-ins for Ducateon nails to easily get in and out of the pool.

• Scattered Trinkets: Around this area may be standard Ducateon Trinkets.

Ducateon or the Earth Rings can be used to vibrate some of the crystals, causing them to create jets of water like a modern jet tub. Some will also heat.

> Slot for earth gift ring:

Rainbow Grove

An alcove with a raised platform stands unadorned before you. Looking around, your light is split into a myriad of colors, some barely describable by hundreds of small crystals embedded in the smooth walls. Light glints off each, creating a dazzling display that is breathtaking. The floor is perfectly polished with strange smooth holes, like for dowels but at odd angles.

[ i ] > A shelf sits unadorned 3m high.

Shelf Controls: Looking at the shelf, there are inset plates that control the steam or warm dry

Hot springs: From a Elemental of fire;

The Tunnel of Ancestry

Notably short, and reflects not names but ideas. It has the runes for “Ancestor” and two side chambers, one slopes up and the other down.

A battle obviously took place here – there are rough gouges and scratches on floor, ceiling, and walls. A large skeletal hand print is impressed into the wall, and 2 skeletal feet – as if a skeleton braced for a hit and the stone softened.

> at least 2 other (ducateon nails are large!) + skeleton
>> finger tip on a Lich Lord Zaros (lost Lich Lord) – DC 20 nat ONLY Search/Perception

• Scattered Trinkets: Around this area may be standard Ducateon Trinkets.

Unfinished Sons Room

the room is a nightmare mess – a winding corridor rises into a “broken room”. Shadows ooze over the wall. cracks. 2 low sounds hang in the air; cold frost wind eddies and swrls

> bone avoided by undead and animations
1) eat it
2) grind to dust
3) ritual to merge with it = will summon ___

Unfinished Daughters Room

Straight daughters corridor leads to collapsed corridor

30 degree / Rubble choked – cracks , blast marks
Shadows hands reach out and take any light

Constant grinding the lich lords bones; dying agony graon = tapped lich lord 20 perception (nat)

Vault of Contemplation

Meditation chamber, ohm chamber; “Secluded Echoes”
– it is silent outside the outlined ‘chamber’

SLOT: Earth’s Gift (Ducateon Ur-Ring 3)

This sacred place has been used as a sacrifice chamber. Stepping inside a character will hear the screams of those sacrificed and tortured here.

• Scattered Trinkets: Around this area may be standard Ducateon Trinkets.

Antechambers

Frame the passage – each chamber is a virtual experience of Day in the life of; each image has sound if stared at in silence long enough.

Interactive; Representational of daily tools, etc. 12 Items can be taken

Cold lights, dim light metal and stone radiating UV light on passages above – uncovered from ice = 2-3 days of rain!

Vault of Contemplation

Meditation chamber, pillar in center, ohm chamber; “Secluded Echoes” – it is silent outside the outlined ‘chamber’

>> SLOT: Earth’s Gift (Ducateon Ur-Ring 3)

This sacred place has been used as a sacrifice chamber. Stepping inside a character will hear the screams of those sacrificed and tortured here.

CURRENT LOCATION OF BITTERMAW!!!!

Ur-Rhenclave

[look up and link] = earth elemental
hungry with a color of rock

The ‘Corkscrew’ Hallway

Staring down this “hallway”, you try and make sense of the geometries and angles that would allow a creature to travel down it, but it does not seem to make sense. Just inside the passage they is evidence of a fight. Scorch marks, melted stone, gouges and scrapes cover the area. It is obvious some great struggle took place here, marring what would be the perfect though alien craftsmanship of the stone in this complex. Aside from the structural damage, there are no remains from whatever happened here. The passage corkscrews as it goes deeper and slopes slightly down as it goes into the darkness.

Each of the passages represent a set of geometries and resonance to the Ur-Ducateon. Only the chief amongst them had frequent access to the ‘Swirled’ passage. The ‘path’ …

Although the passage corkscrews, it can be ventured down – just over terrain not suited to walking. Even if you could follow the floor as it screws and winds, there is nothing to hold onto. There seem to be places for some sort of tool to hook into and to keep the traveler upright in relation to the ‘floor’. Ahead the passage opens into a larger chamber.

> The passage was also a means to ‘play’ in a three dimensional way.

• Scattered Trinkets: Around this area may be standard Ducateon Trinkets.

The chamber is large an uneven. There are several additional passages that branch out from here – one a perfectly circular that goes to the left and up, a perfectly triangular one going right and down, and sharp square one at the back and an even more alien swirling passage that goes down into the floor. Broken debris is scattered around, and it seems like it reflects efforts to try and “mine” or safe traveling points into the passages.

8 skeletons wait here, hidden by piles. They were battered scale mail and wield shields and sword or spear and are considered “top tier” soldiers.

2 of them wield ancient shields made from the carapace of some sort of long extinct creature. They are considered large (+3), light w/3 resilience. Each resilience reduces the AC – cannot be “fixed”. They only weigh about 5 lbs.

One wields an Reavers Axe: when wielded by an undead animation,

Swirled Passage

Swirled Chamber

A few animations have ‘fallen’ into this area and are stuck.

the swirled chamber is a sparse chamber with a few inset and raised areas with perfectly roo massive Ducateon outline – like the bottom half of a mold. It reflects a sleeping chamber of some aesthetic. No clothes or covers.

Breath of the Earth: A big bearded face is carved 3m up on the wall. Something glints in its mouth?

Silver lines ‘hole in the wall’ – seems engraved with scenes of crystals and caverns, the Ducateon rune for “earth”. Earth’s Gift (Ducateon Ur-Ring 1). The Ur-Ring will cause the hair all over the character to grow thicker and softer, like Ducateon but not as think (1 pt armor for Ducateon wearer).

[ i ] > Notice that the engraved face beard is banded (common enough for Ducateon) specifically with three rings that have engravings. #1 in the middle. #2 at the bottom. #3 at the top; IF ALL THREE (3) ARE WORN: Requires 1 Pledged Essence to Attune for each. The base effects of each are not cumulative.

• Earthen Contact: 1 Use/Long Rest of Resilience – cannot be controlled by character, it will only be triggered to save the life of the wearer.
• Beard Band: As long as the wearer has Earthen Contact, all allies within 10m gain the calming influence.

Squared Passage

2 Guards

Squared Chamber

2 Guards

Triangle Passage

Triangle Chamber

Circle Passage

Looking up, a perfectly circular and smooth

Circle Chamber – BITTERMAW DWELLING

The Ritual Cauldron

Synergy stave off transfer Concentration check
Cauldron of Blood:
Fulfill the compact. Needs 98 more HP and two essence total.
I can give you knowledge!
1/long rest 1 spell. -1 San per spell level
Sanity penalty offsets your pb if you have stressed status

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Tunnel to the Surface

So many scenes of fights with all manner of destruction – fairly recent too. Cleared rubble pushes aside in multiple points.
Above is a skeletal Lurker Above, animated by Bittermaw.
In the floor is a zombie Trapper that can be detected as its got wounds and its camouflage is poor.

Assembly Room

[i] This room is initially pitch black.

About 2000 armed animations stand motionless, breathless, silently waiting for their orders. There are various races and species represented here, and all armed and armored. In some cases, the ‘armor’ appears to be layers of flesh of other creatures. The armaments are attached and held where they can be, in various stages of maintenance. It is eerie beyond reckoning – all the eyes or eye sockets seem to be staring at you. There are no cut marks, the area seems to be carved out of the stone – smooth and perfect edges abound. There are pillars about the chamber, of at least two sizes and irregularly spaced. They are covered in cracks – as are the walls. It looks like a lot of destructive activity took place here over time. All debris has been pushed to the sides. Chained tightly to each large pillar seems to be a ghoul-ogre used for wielding large mining equipment. The equipment is there too.

They wait for Bittermaw and beyond the reach of the Lich Lords detection. This was once home to a pair of massive Ice Lizards that Bittermaw made undead and used to help tunnel into The Blue Wall. Their orders are to wait. They will only attack if attacked. There is only a single guardian at either end of the chamber. An armored zombie ogre, armed with a metal spiked pole will attack anyone coming down the stairs. The characters entering the chamber should make a Sanity check or they cannot help themselves but to stare back, watching the unmoving animations in fear and will be distracted from the guardian just inside the door to their left that cannot be seen except from inside the room and react to treading on the stairs. At one point the pillars and walls held all manner of sound traps.

The 3 remaining ghoul-ogre miners will get a check if anything living gets within 3m of them. Scattered around them are bone fragments of the creatures they were fed to keep their strength.

[Guardian] HP 114 (half when starved); AC 17 (2 resilience used immediately – cannot be controlled); 2d6+4 – 11/16/28 (2 attacks/sweep 2 within 5′)

Each has a wight handler – the bound spirits of the books guardians: 1 wight knows the origins of the book of Bittermaw – Dane Vistler – overheard in conversation.

• Barrels of Blood Oil: Bucket of scabling claws to assist with melting. 1 wight overseers left for ogre ghoul – they have a scrabbling claw and kill a sacrifice and crack the marrow and lure the ogre. The bones are orc and human femurs.

Skeldians Armaments: The blade is purposefully disfigured, notched almost serrated now. It faintly radiates wisps of something like black smoke that dissipate almost instantly.
1) The armor is beat up + one bracer and helmet are missing – broken defending Bittermaw.
> Longsword: +4 damage no attack bonus any more; Hate Black Aura: Reduces essence of wielder by 5. Cold damage or electric 1 per hour to living wielders. Numbness on hit (no save) – target gets no Reaction for three rounds.
2) armor is really beaten up, bracers and helmet missing; longsword beaten up
3) armor is trashed bracers and helm missing and longsword too – has a spear of petrified wood.

The Pen

The room is vaguely warm, though the corridor and rooms nearby are frozen and cold. Water runs down the walls, pools, and eventually flows into a drain. There are pictures and/or writing covering all surfaces. It is an expansive room, and roughly 20m high. Hanging from the ceiling is a cage.

Stairs to Alignment Corridor

There is a set of 4 perfectly uniform stairs that is obviously for creatures larger and not to the proportions of normal humans. It leads to a corridor that is perfectly square of the same proportions. The passage is carved out of the stone. There are no cut marks, the area seems to be carved out of the stone – smooth and perfect edges abound.

Stairs to Staging Hall

There is a set of 3 perfectly uniform stairs that is obviously for creatures larger and not to the proportions of normal humans. It leads to a passage that seems to open into a dark room. The passage is carved out of the stone. There are no cut marks, the area seems to be carved out of the stone – smooth and perfect edges abound.

Staging Hall

[i] This room is initially pitch black. It is meant to be seen in UV light, which the metallic elements radiate. There are spider silk thin filaments that outline the reliefs and fill in valleys in the relief.

Inlaid in the wall is a silvery metal, that fills in and accents relief carvings. The metallic elements are mirror-like and light reflects brightly off it, amplifying it and making it difficult to even see. You can focus for long enough to see that the relief tells a story. There are 2 piles of once-organic material, one on each side of the door. They are now nothing more than goo and stains. There are no cut marks, the area seems to be carved out of the stone – smooth and perfect edges abound. You cannot keep your eyes open for long with any light source.

It is a “river” of pictorial scenes that flow across the ceiling and floor, across the stairs and all around every wall. It overlaps and is hard to tell when the flow goes over or under another it’s all so intertwined and detailed. Originally it was all flush, and the inset carvings filled with a silvery metal. Now, an untold eon later, there are cracks, tarnish, and the obvious signs of some calamitous confrontation. The steps into the hall from the widener room are broken and charred. The debris has been cleared and some attempt made to stabilize an area to walk through to get in and out to whatever chamber or passage lies beyond.

This hall was meat to be a record of the story of the Ur-Ducateon who initially came to Helca, before its raised awareness became self aware. The story is not linear, and its display is laid out in a winding and overlaid path. It contains no actual words or language and is VERY difficult to follow. The spaceship that crashed smashed into a mountainside, and part of it was consumed by a volcano. The implication is that the planet itself made this happen. The relief shows space travel, star system navigation points, the crash, and the attempt to salvage and survive. The metal and stone are melded, and are nearly indestructible. This metal in this room is irradiated. Any prolonged exposure will cause cell decay and death. The ‘organic’ piles were 2 ghouls on guard that eventually dissolved over time – Bittermaw left them to guard for years while he went on missions for his masters.

Alignment Corridor

The passage is PERFECTLY carved out of the stone. There are no cut marks, the area seems to be carved out of the stone – smooth and perfect edges abound. It is perfectly square and 7m in diameter.

Gradually goes up from the Assembly Room to the Wash Out Room. The corridor switches back and forth at perfect angles of 45 and 90 degrees. THERE ARE NO ECHOES. It is a replica of jump points and proportional distances that the Ur-Ducateon had to take to get to Helca. Passage shapes reflect desired mood.

Step 1: Resonance Effect = Confusion/forget

Step 2: Resonance Effect = Calm.

‘Washout’ Room

You can hear this room before you see it. There is a stream of flowing ice-cold water coming from the Ice Wall Barrier that has been corrupted with blood.

The River Passage

One meter deep in most places, and 8-12m wide. It is freezing cold water that can sweep human sized creatures under the glacier.

The Plateau

The Winds whistle across this bleak, unremarkable plateau that is raised about 1 km above the frozen plains. It butts up against the edge of part of a ridgeline, which leads to a peak that’s nearly 2.7km high. On the far side of the peak is the Blue Wall, anchored to a large glacier in this short mountain range. The Wall uses the peak, riding up its side and over the top and back down again. It is barren, nothing grows and everything is encased in ice. You won’t last but a few moments unprotected in this weather… home to the dreaded Winter Host, beyond death and unfeeling.

The Ice Wall

[i] What you thought was a natural chunk of ice from a water flow lodged against a wall – like a frozen waterfall – is actually a wall. Light filters through you can clear a viewport and see another area on the other side that’s about 1 m thick.

It regrows if you put a hole through it.

Maps

Legend…

Map Upper Reaches

New Items

New World Information

Grave Bound Vision: The Lich Lords can see through the yes of the dead and undead. As once-mortal, this is a large source of their dwindling sanity. Processing such an all-encompassing vision takes massive energy and power. They have learned to suppress it, and learned to fine tune to find and ‘see’ from the eyes of a particular minion with great difficulty. The Dead’s Duty allows them to do it MUCH faster – their loyal soldiers always provide them with this.

Notable Characters & Creatures

Bittermaw, Lich Lord ‘General’

Bittermaw (see full reference for the adventure) was once a minor officer that took up the Cold Bargain of the Lich Lords when they took the north. His master believe him to be patrolling the north edges of their domain, tracking weather in the mountains ranges east as they attempt to channel more force/influence in that direction. WHEN THE PCs FIND HIM, HE WILL BE ENGUAGED IN A RITUAL TO MAKE ANOTHER SOUL LEECH! HE WILL BE GREATLY WEAKENED; MANY OF HIS POWERS SHOULD NOT MATTER IN THIS VULNERABLE STATE. He only has enough Deadiron for 1 more, using an old standard of the Lich Lords armies that he recovered and did not tell his masters about.

[5e Stats] Ghoul + Wizard 11th; Essence 41 (@6 during Ritual); AC: 16; Health: 88 (con @ 14 during ritual)
>> Mind Schism ( Disadvantage Sanity; 2 spells per round + 2 concentration)
Spell Save DC 18
Cantrips: [4] Ray of Frost, Prestidigitation, Mage Hand, Toll the Dead (undead/animate nearby = same as wounded)
From Spell Book:
1st: [3] Comprehend Languages, Long Strider, Fog Cloud, Mage Armor, Ray of Sickness
2nd: [3] Detect Thoughts, Blindness, Misty Step, Ray of Enfeeblement, Binding Ice
3rd: [3] Animate Dead, Counter Spell, Black Pall (Fireball), Bestow Curse (1/day @ Bonus; Disadv attacks)
4th: [2] Fabricate, Ice Storm, Spirit of Death (1/day @ Bonus)
5th; [1] Dominate Person

Items: All items he possesses (except his ritual notes and a few books he has brought with him) with cast Afflictions on Wearers not in service to the Lich Lords. Except 1, his old Illusionist monocle from the time before the Lich Lords made him into the necromancer his is today.

• Blood Scrolls: Protection from Evil, Legend Lore, Infernal Calling, Conjure Lesser Demon, Comprehend Languages
• Books: One of Rastillion’s Diabolique (Keys to the Outer Doors) – Bittermaw came across this and has kept it secreted away for use sometime in the future.
• Notes: who bittermaw is, , finding the book
• Thebadoux’s Wonderous Monocle

Falaca (Bittermaws Apprentice)

conjurer 9th
Resistance to: Necrotic, Cold
Tactics: Acid arrow, create bonfire, dragons breath, lightning bolt
Items: Amulet of energy. Absorb spell energy, release absorbed in casters spells, +1 spell saves vs magic, amulet of shielding effects (44 total points) + retributive strike; Robe of Levitation

New Items

Blood Scrolls

Blood Scrolls are scrolls made by the Lich Lords minions using the blood of those they tortured to death. It enhances the potency of undead casters. Living characters attempting to use them have reduced potency and must make a Sanity check to complete the casting. Any summon scrolls used in this manner will automatically succeed, but bring forth an entity which is entirely too difficult to control.

Soul Leeches

Created by Bittermaw, these are the skulls of a sacrificed human or elf, placed inside the maw (a full skull) of a fiend from hell made of bone, also sacrificed (they came at the summons of the initial sacrifice, eaten alive from the feet up). This, in turn, is placed, on a pole made from Dead Iron. They radiate the memories of those killed and the tortures of outer darkness engaged in by the fiend. They are placed as ‘watchers’ and whatever they watch they lay bare, stripping the ‘flesh’ of whatever their gaze is set on and preventing it from healing or wounds from closing. Their construction was formulated by Bittermaw who has not shared this culmination of hundreds of years of research and trial. He has only been able to construct two due to the difficulty in finding Deadiron and not having it be noticed.

Deadiron

Deadiron is metal melted down from the original armaments of the fallen forces of the Dundarian kingdom. The quench is the blood and tears of the soldiers and servants that were killed initially in the fall where thousands of animations of zombies and skeletons were made. No Dead Iron was ever produced after that. It properties consist mostly of the horrific memories of those made into the Lich Lords’ soldiers. When touched, it can drive the living to madness. It is a powerful concentrate of magical power in the suffering and horror of those who were killed in its making or quenching. The standards of the Lich Lord’s armies are made from this.

oUTCOMES
Stiking a blow for the living!
Saving the Blue wall! Visit from the ‘ice goddess’; one character can gain Conviction for free if they want to bond. they will get an increased cold reduction of 1 per dice or

Lich Lords Revenge:
Ogre skeleton wielding anchor chain w/anchor.
Ice circle drop
Frozen spirits
Crack in ice chases PC

Creation and Publishing Credits