Greenpsychopomp: 2023

The second treasure map

The Map

It is a visual that includes all the parts of the path with pictures but does not include scale or any other details of the journey, like that there are hundreds of mountain valleys in the area. Other difficulties include erasure of some of the landmarks and it is not the ideal time to get the correct conditions to find the treasure. The party will need some very specific requirements and if they do not have them, they will have to get them to complete the mission.

The Shattered Plains, an area where the erosion has worn great mesas on the terrain. The gorges between the mesas are filled with almost nothing except huge boulders that get knocked around in massive flash floods, minimal lichens which are eaten but all the snails that litter the rocks and one other thing Chasmfiends; huge snails that devour anything and everything before them and the only thing that can withstand the floods. Moving across the top of the mesas has its own threats; they Are claimed by Stone Dragons who value the carapaces of the Chasmfiend more than anything else. The tops a re blasted with wind and weather, so have no trees or cover except the folds of the rock. There are sets of ruins on each mesa though, so someone sometime long ago lived here.

The Devil’s Forge is a massive waterfall plunges deep into the depths below the mountain into the Empire of the Dwarves. The water is cold, clean, and used to supply a city, nay an Empire, with water. Heat escapes from the hole as it is displaced by the water and the area is always a little warmer but, in the winter, it is covered with ice. An interesting feature of this exchange is the updraft is strong enough to slow the decent of an unarmoured humanoid who leaps into the hole.

The Balance Ball Mountain is no more. The mountain is there, but the spherical rock ball is not, and the entire summit was flattened off by dwarven engineers and fortified. It was once one of the most sacred spots in the region for the Stone Giant Clans. The destruction cemented the racial enmity between the Stone Giants and all dwarves forever. The defilement occurred over 1500 years ago. Only the eldest of the Mountain elves remembers a time when the rock spun and whistled in the wind and the Empire has been oblivious that it has been engaged in one of the longest wars in Creation.

The Needle’s Eye Mountain is named only on this map and no culture knows it by any variation on this name. It is known for a few things like not even the mountain goats could scale the shear surface that faces the valley. Careful inspection reveals a narrow crack in the face that goes right through to the other side. The map claims it is the tallest mountain, but it is only the tallest mountain in this valley and not even the tenth tallest in the area.

The Wall of Caves is just like it says a mountainside that is filled with thousands of caves, tens of thousands of caves. Most of them are little more than overhangs but many of them are entrances to deep karst caverns, quite a few are connected. A concerted search of a hundred organized parties would not reveal the correct entrance because the entrance is concealed and locked, the key is in fact the beam of light that points out the correct spot.

The Shattered Plains

The map leads the characters to a long series of deep and narrow ravines that snake through a mountain pass and lead to a series of valleys in the chain. The deep ravines can be dangerous with the flash floods that come from the mountains and into the ravines filling them in moments and vanishing in hours. The floods are violent enough that boulders as large as a gate house will be tossed around and shattered by the force of the water. The creatures that live in these ravines resemble gargantuan snails, but unlike the smaller cousins these snails have skins that are impervious to all but the most powerful attacks, called Chasmfiends. The shells are beyond even this they can take a direct hit by house sized rocks thrown by waves of water and suffer no ills. The local tribes further in hunt these monsters as a proof of skill. Every year, youths and overconfident warriors meet there end here. SHATTERED PLAINS.

The area beyond this are two-fold. The upper reaches of the Shattered Plain are controlled by dragons, Stone Dragons whose breath weapon has been known to petrify and whose magic is said to be the blueprint of the Geomancer. The top areas are hexagonal mesas that have irregular sides that come close to meeting the other platforms in places, some close enough to leap across and others where only flight would allow it. Some of the platforms have the ruins of long abandoned city ruins and others not a speck. Many of these are ruled by Stone Dragons and others Chasmfiends. The snails are rarer than the dragons and the dragons seem to war amongst themselves more than anything else. The hearts of the Chasmfiends appear to be like a gem of unparalleled size, ranging from the size of a grain of dust to as large as a giant’s head. Amongst the powers of the gem includes the power to protect the barer from dragon breath, assuming it is of the corresponding colour and is used before the heart degrades and decomposes.

There are ancient ruins in the centre of many of the mesa tops. These ruins include features that seem to work to prevent the largest chasmfiend entrance, the walls are tall and curl outward and almost upside-down, before turning into buildings of some unknown purpose. Dwarves would tell you that these stones were never worked and occurred naturally, even if that would seem preposterous. They were built by stone elves so long ago that the Stone Elves have forgotten. The Stone Dragons primarily prize the ruins, except for chasmfiend carapaces.

The ravines are deep ranging from one hundred meters on the edge of the mountains to over a kilometer deep withing the mountains. At the absolute best, the floor is shrouded in twilight. There is little in the way of soil, and there are many pools of water left from the latest floods. The rocks are covered with algae, unless there has been a Chasmfiend that came by recently, for they mostly will feed on the algae, but the larger ones will eat anything organic and are one of the few creatures that considers dragon as non-poisonous.

The Devil’s Forge

The head of the valley the rises two kilometers from the cavern floor to the first or last platform. That platform is joined to valley by a broad and well constructed bridge that appears to be well maintained by unknown builders. Off to the side of the bridge, to either side is an ancient riverbed that forks to surround the bridge. The river is empty and dry except for the smallest of streams that course down over the cliff, the water dispersing well before it hits the bottom. Travel upstream from the For-Long Bridge, one quickly begins to hear a large torrent of water thundering over a great waterfall, but with no evidence of water. The river is called the Thunder River for it. And there is a large mist that clings to air and the valley making it difficult to navigate here. After a few kilometers the bed winds around its course and the sound intensifies, the bed ends in a not so wide and yet very wide gulf that drops into the earth and the sound is revealed to be a massive river that plunges deep into the depths. The river’s normal level is great but is accommodated by the hole. When rainfall falls in the upper valley or when the Spring snows melt, the hole is overwhelmed and the water flows through the ‘dry’ bed once more and floods the Shattered Plain. The river over the hole forms a large sucking vortex and much of the water is sucked deep inside, but when the rain is only normal, it flows deep into the ground here. When the rain falls the river flows over this hole and down into the shattered plain. Since this side of the mountains is the rainy side, rains often fall in great torrents regularly.

The Mountain Valleys

The land is picturesque in the extreme. Majestic snow-covered mountains with glacier carved valleys, long rainforest conifer covered slopes and alpine meadows, thunderous waterfalls filling the valleys with mist and sound. Mountain lakes so clear they defy the true depths and reflect the majesty around them. The mountains themselves are shear and beautiful. The chain is well renowned for the lack of mountain passes and many of the core mountains of the chain rise nine thousand meters, but in this place, many rise past ten thousand; they are not the tallest of the chain. There are dangers here: flying comes at a cost. Treasure is poor here and many great beasts vie for it, the sight of flying characters is a signal to these creatures of fresh treasure nearby, even if they will have to work for it. Dragons abound, Green, White, Red and Stone. There is the fabled Water Dragon, the Winter Storm dragon and the Mist Dragon. Giants include Stone, Cloud and Storm; the Cloud living in castles in the upper portions of the mountains and who view interlopers as trespassers, attack first ask questions later. There is a storm Giant or two living in one or more of the glacial lakes possibly as allies to the Water or Mist Dragons, not used to contact they are less likely than most of their kindred to be welcoming. Elementals dwell here and enjoy the natural habitat. Earth elementals can reach gargantuan size here. Air elementals whirl about with pleasure and are the favourite companion of the Storm Dragons. Water Elementals by contrast seem to be placid and sedate but Ice elementals are territorial in extreme and lash out at fire bearers. Many of the vales have deep dark secrets from days past and brook no passage to those that breathe. Ghosts for sure, but also wraiths and spectres, undead dryads and treants; woodland beings filled with enmity towards all that breathe. Undead giants and a death Dragon, a dragon born to these lands who matures to it. Druids of death who bring a deep cold when they come.

The Balance-Ball Mountain, the destruction of which has been a source of a lot of strife in the area, particularly with the Stone Giants of this area and many adjoining regions. The ball was once, eons ago, merely a rock resting on the top a mountaintop that was a clear landmark and a measure of some great cultural significance to the peoples of the area. The stone giants of the area even worshipped there as the rock was prominent and powerful. Generations of skilled shamans spent time carving the sitting rock so that it would be more and more magical and feel the pulse of the world. after a thousand years of careful carving the rock that sat on the mountain had changed to a ball on a peak and the miraculous occurred, the ball began to spin in place. There it spun slowing and speeding depending on the time of year or time of day or for no reason at all. For many generations the shelf beneath the rock held services for the areas sentient races and as a place to study the runes carved into the ball’s surface and impressed with gold and silver. Things would have continued until this day and until either the ball or the mountain was ground into dust if it were not for the meddling of the Empire Dwarves. The flat surface was the perfect place to build an outpost to the Empire, a trading post, and be damned what the locals used it for. The locals were not happy and there was much strife directed at the fortification but as the local saying goes, Once a dwarf has a place to stand it would be easier move their standing spot than to move them. The Dwarves did not meaningfully destroy the ball but it was somehow pushed off its perch and did roll down the mountainside and bounced across the thick ice covering the deep lake until it stopped and broke through and disappeared from sight. On calm days when the light is just right the ball can still be seen deep below the surface spinning with glowing runes, but this is poor consolation to the stone giants and to the many Empire Dwarfs that has paid for the holy site’s destruction with their lives. Today, it is still a holy site, but desecrated as it is, it has been mostly abandoned. Every year there seems to be a new resident, sometimes a dragon, sometimes a roc. It is rarely empty, though it is not the tallest mountain of the region, it is tall and the flat surface allows for building of a decent lair of nest in the shelter of the ruined walls, but whoever makes their home here needs to be strong enough to repel any effort of the stone giants coming here to pray or show off the tribute they have brought of dwarf skulls.

The Needle’s Eye

The valley is affected by the 24-year cycle of weather; the six years of Winter are more like sixteen, only the summer and the preceding and antecedent years are warm here in this elevation and this far into the upper latitudes. The warmest parts of the Spring years see the greatest amount of snowmelt, and the warmer parts of the Autumn are only barely warm enough to counter the colder parts of those years. The Winter years the area is locked in ice and snow and the Summer years only the alpine Glaciers are still present. In Summer, the valley is overwhelmed with an explosion of life that fills the biome. The Map shows the valley in that Summer and is dependent of certain astrological events of High Summer to show the characters the true path to follow. Like the light of the light of the red sun on Darkday at its zenith on High Summer day, i.e., when the sun is at it’s highest on the longest day of the year, when it is occulting the yellow sun and the invisible blue sun.

This is a day of universal significance to most people, as the light of the red sun has interesting visual effects on the world and when the blue sun is occulted, the effects are most startling: the blue-sky fades and the night sky becomes present and vegetation goes completely black, as it does for Darkday. The red sunlight is completely absorbed by plants and so appears quite black, but the Rayleigh scattering effects of the atmosphere do not effect Red Light and the Blue Light and Yellow light is obscured by the red sun, so everything is black and the night sky is out and there is a red sun in the sky, so the setting is like every apocalyptic setting, but for this world, it is perfectly natural single day every 24 year, but not evil . . . unless Drogath is full that night and is eclipsed by the planet and his evil eye is set upon the world. it has been known to happen.

This event occurs less often than once every 24 short years, given the 9-day cycle of the Two Dancers. High Summer Day is on a Dark day only one long year in nine and only useful for the purposes of the map one in six of those, so it only happens once every 1300 years on average and that only if there is no storm in the valley or blocking the suns. Magic is great for ensuring ideal conditions, but it can also recreate the eclipse as well. If the chasmfiend heart is in place in the Needle’s Eye any mage could create a beam of light intense enough, with the correct wavelength of light to strike the Needle’s Eye and illuminate the correct location, and if they do it at night, then the effects could be seen correctly

When this happens, the light of the sun shone through directly through the lens of a great chasmfiend will pinpoint the correct entrance to the cave of the cache of Relic the Rogue. It will also illuminate the instructions of a second great cache located in the deep South of the continent, thousands of kilometers away. The message is written in a mystical rock that only shines in the light of the Dark Sun. one would think that it had been read hundreds of times since it was laid here, except in the Spring, Autumn and Winter the rock face is covered by ice, and in the High Summer, when there is no ice, it is always raining, so no-one has seen the full message.

The Players will have to do a number of things to get the full value of the message. First, they will have to hire a astrologer to tell them the correct angle to place a strong daylight spell to illuminate the Heart stone, they will need to control the weather for optimal clearness, and they will need to do it at night. Additionally, the valley has changed in the last 2000 years.

When they use their spells, they will see the instructions written in an archaic language and a pinpoint of light that stab at a small hillside location where they must explore to find the treasure. However, the light will be visible to everyone in the valley, and they will all wonder at the significance, and they will likely all converge on that location looking for whatever would be there. Many of them would have heard about the PCs looking for treasure head there themselves to get the wealth.

Anyone that flies to the top of the needle will attract a lot of attention.

Cultures of Note

Mountain Elves: the Mountain elves live in their mountain enclaves. They can alter the state of rock temporarily. With this power they sculpt the mountains of their home into majestic structures that defy the natural order of mountains, but without altering the actual properties itself. The stone they manipulate is considered unworked stone and nonmagical. They mark the coming of age of a youngster after they have built their own home, the style and complexity of their design informs how the elf will be regarded amongst their peers. They are judged on how well the shaped structure uses the natural contours of the native rock on the outside and how spacious and complex in the inside. Many travellers have scaled through many enclaves without being aware of them. Mountain Elves often chose to be Geomancers a rigorous form of mage craft. Few races live as long as these elves and so they are also revered and sought after for their wisdom.

Empire Dwarves: the Empire extends both North and South under the mountains, but the Kingdom of Dhewtudum stops just around this valley, there is a city just to the North of the area deep underground. The water from the great sinkhole is harnessed and used by the city to power many devices and to provide fresh water to the entire kingdom. There are rumours that the society has had some sort of revolution of thought; they are purchasing any sort of thing that can be harvested from this region be it wood, creature or magic, which has led to many conflicts in the last 20 years and as such all-Empire dwarves are treated as both a measure of fear and source of a quick buck. The more ecologically minded will now attack anyone who is accompanied by a Empire Dwarf. The real reason for this rapid and expansive resource gathering is that a dragon sacked their capitol recently and the Empire is all on food rationing until another stable source of food can be acquired.

Rock Gnomes: until recently were the friends of the Empire, but the recent pillaging of the mountainside has moved them from friend and ally to neutral and possibly foe. The closest city to the area is a deep underground but only about 5 km distant and there is 100,000 dwarves living there, many times the population of all the combined other races on the surface. The Rock Gnomes have discovered other allies in these times, the Stone Giants. The larger people’s might and great concern for the local ecosystem combined with the ingenuity of the Rock Gnomes have improved both races lots. There are a few communities that have not yet integrated with the Giants, but as the Empire Dwarves continue to push to the surface this is likely to change.

Stone Giants: one of the longest-lived races of Giant, the Stone Giants of this region have developed a complex and intricate culture. Typical of their kind they live a more primitive lifestyle but with a rich spiritual tradition. Recently, they have been accepting Gnomes into their villages. The gnomes bring their mechanical ingenuity and arcane traditions. This has made the villages of the giants to be much more pleasant than they have been in oral memory. A typical village now includes 5-20 families of 3 and 50-300 gnomes, mechanical catapults, steam powered rock spitters, and mechanical defenders. The gnomish technology runs better as the typical Stone Giant can carry more than the best mechanized defender.

Rock Dwarves: have suffered greatly after the empire dwarves started devouring the ecosystem of the area. The Rock Dwarf has long been considered by other dwarves as the primitive version of the others, but they are as different from Empire dwarves as the latter are from Half dwarves. The typical Rock Dwarf lives without technology as much as possible; they tend to be barbarians or rangers than fighters, they prefer Druidcraft to Clerics and Sorcerers to Mages, with one exception, a few have had noted careers as Geomancers. They as a race are more reclusive and have learned to avoid all contact with large groups especially Empire Dwarves.

Ice Halflings: are breed of halflings that are notable in that they are semi nomadic. As the forests of the mountain valleys are freed from the grip of frigid Winter, the Ice Halflings retreat up the mountains following the Spring weather and the snowpacks. The most treasured memories of the Ice halfling are running in the alpine meadows in the brief alpine summer. They are not a shy race but quite gregarious, inviting travellers into their Summer or Winter villages to sup with them. They are one of the few races that has not turned hostile toward the Empire dwarves of late.

Kobolds: occupy every corner of the continent and this area is not an exception. Kobolds are more likely to be white here and second a light beige. Most kobolds are the creation of white dragons as they are the most frequent dragon of the area. Red dragons and Stone Dragons are also common and Green dragons not the least rare. The whiter a kobold is the more adapted they are for the colder weather and that is why they darker colours are less often seen in these parts, even if their dragon creators might occasionally be seen. Free Kobolds are easily awed by any dragon that should fly in or impose their will, but over time a few kobolds conclude that most dragons see them as instead a nutritious snack. Most of the light beige kobolds caves mined in the chasm walls or in reaches far from others in the mountains. These kobolds are resistant to cold.

Dragons: are prevalent everywhere. They grow according to the environment that they live in. they gain sentience and spell casting ability to match their terrain and there are different sorts of terrains in this area. The key is that dragons live on the surface and within their area and a mountain can have different terrains in different seasons so dragons born in a different season will be different than dragons from other seasons. When a dragon grows powerful enough to cast ninth level spells it is also powerful enough to alter its habitat too.

Stone Dragons are from stony areas like the chasms and the face of mountains when the snows melt their breath weapon petrifies targets, slowing, holding, then petrification, successful saves in each stage will halt the progression, but require an additional save to back track, i.e. failing the save for slowing and succeeding the save for holding means you are still slowed and you need to save that one to free of the power. Once you are petrified, death of the dragon will slowly release the effect unless you have died from suffocation. Description of the effect would be like, the gas flows around you and you feel the gas working on your muscles slowing you down, your skin hardens until you can’t move and breathing becomes laboured, then you cannot breathe at all as you feel your outsides harden off; your biggest desire is to scream but even that is impossible.

White Dragons are from areas of snow and ice and are very common in the Wintery seasons. Glaciers, snow fields, and everything.

Red Dragons are from natural hot springs and geysers. The area has quite a few volcanically active locations, but most are dormant just waiting for a large dragon to occupy them and release them from dormancy.

Green Dragons live in the many forests that fill the valleys. The cold of winter makes these dragons a little rarer, but they are still quite plentiful.

Water Dragons are different from River Dragons because they are the dragon of deep cold water. Their breath is similar to the white dragon, which is dry cold, except theirs is wet cold and a successful save means enduring a round of slowed movement and a failed save a round of hold as the ice that has formed on the creature is broken and they then suffer a round of slow while heat is worked back into their limbs.

Mist Dragons live in the periphery of great waterfalls and warmed waters near hot-springs that fall all winter long. They have breath weapons that blind their targets as the mists turn to ice in the winter but mostly so the area of effect is filled with dense fog, which is not darkness but reduces visibility to about 1’. The breath also creates a magical confusion like effect that disorientates everyone in the cloud except designated dragon allies.

Storm Dragons live in the area and they mostly bring a wealth of storm related effects, they tend to be closer related to the colder of their types in terms of spells.

Random Encounters in

The Chasms,

Roll	Roll once every 6 hours
1	A dragon or other near-death encounter is seen above
2-3	Clear weather no encounter
4-9	Rain followed by flash flood, see below.
10	A close encounter of the dangerous kind roll an encounter and you avoid it unless it is a flash flood with no Chasmfiend
11-12	Encounter

Roll d8
1-4	Flash flood, it comes with little warning, the sound of rushing water Str save DC10 (everyone in party must save) 10-100 damage if you succeed. Failure ability check montage, 4/ PC failure results in 5-50 damage and one huge Chasmfiend 500 hp and +10 hit, engulf 6d6+10, tail crush 5d4+10, trample 5d10, swallow 2d10 dmg save for none CON DC15
5	D4x5+10 Kobolds rappelling in search of treasure from above or from lair above high-water line. Lair they will deal with party as they are unaligned, above they fight to the death and 10% are flying and 10% are 3^rd spell casters
6	large Chasmfiends 250 hp and +8 hit, engulf 3d6+18, tail crush 3d4+8, trample 3d10, swallow d10 dmg save for none CON DC15
7	Stone Dragon
8	Gargantuan Chasmfiend 1000 hp and +15 hit, engulf 10d6+15, tail crush 8d4+15, trample 8d10, swallow 3d10 dmg save for none CON DC15

Chasmfiend are aggressive mobile snails. They are slow and ponderous moving 10’per turn unless enraged then they move 30’ round and can move at a burst once every other turn of double movement. When they Burst, they will trample any in their space that they hit. Once swallowed the end is inevitable as they are pummeled by the muscles trying to turn the meal into paste. Luckily for those swallowed the attacks are the weakest and the AC of the beast drops to 10 but is immune to bludgeoning damage. The AC of the beast is very impressive at 14 for large, 16 for huge and 18 for gargantuan as it is covered with thick armoured plates that grow thicker with age. The meat of the Chasmfiend is particularly sweet and grows more nourishing and tastier with age. The heart of the beast is particularly sought after. The Heart Stone of a Chasmfiend has the appearance of a gemstone of surpassing quality, worth 1000gp for a large, 5000gp for a huge and 50,000 for a gargantuan. The colour of the gemstone depends on the diet of the beast when it was small and may be (d10) yellow(1-3), green(4-5), red(6-7), blue(8-9) or clear(10). The gem must be treated with a chemical within a month of taking it or it will decay in a year. Chasmfiends are at the mercy of flash floods until they get to huge size when they will be enraged and try to kill anything in the flood with them, and Gargantuan when they can ignore anything if they are a mind to. All Chasmfiends are immune to mind affecting spells and psychic damage, they have resistance to all spells save cold where they are vulnerable. Inside the creature they are vulnerable to magic.

Random encounters in the Devil’s Forge

Group of youth heading to be Tested, Stone Giants, Wild Dwarves, Ice Halflings, Rock Gnomes

Village

Roll	Roll once every 8 hours
1	A dragon or other near-death encounter is seen above
2-3	Clear weather no encounter
4-9	Rain followed by flash flood, see below.
10	A close encounter of the dangerous kind roll an encounter and you avoid it unless it is violent weather
11-12	Encounter

Roll d8
1-4	Violent Weather. Depends on location: In the valley it is intense rain that causes a flash flood, Str Save DC10 or be swept away and take 6d6 damage, save for half. Anyone that tries to help people gives them advantage on the save and reduces damage by d6. On the slope, 1-3 snow, 4-6 rain. Terrain is difficult and at the end of the event Dex save or 10-60 from avalanche or mudslide.
5	Night D4x5+10 Kobolds search of treasure from lair nearby. Lair they will deal with party as they are unaligned, but fight to the death 10% are flying and 10% are 3^rd spell casters Day Foraging Party or guard patrol 50/50 3d6+10 Empire Dwarves 10% clerics, 10% wizards
6	Elementals or Elemental Kin playing in the wind/rock outcrops they will take no interest in the PCs unless disturbed
7	Dragon depending on the terrain, White, Stone, Grass, Mist, Storm, or Mud CRd10+5
8	1-3 a Group of Youths seeking out the Testing Grounds, if on the correct path they will be from beyond, if in incorrect path locals. 4-6 a village, correct path it is ruined, incorrect path, it is thriving but they distrust Empire Dwarves. D8, 1-3 Halflings, 4-5 Gnomes, 6-7 Dwarves, 8 Stone Giants. Smaller sizes 2d6+5, giants 1d3+2 stone giants.

Alpine Dragons are very similar to Grass Dragons, their breath weapon is extremely flammable, except it is also cold and as such the methane is frozen and does half damage of a dragon its size in cold and the next round will use flame spells to ignite the frosted ground for the other half damage, or they will breathe on a lit fire source and the targets will suffer from joint fire and ice damage which requires two saves, one Dex and the other Con. Spells: fire bolt, ray of frost, chill touch, light, minor illusion LVL1: shield, thunderwave, Expeditious retreat C, Fog Cloud C, LVL2: Darkness, Snowballs, Invisibility, Web, Gust of wind, LVL3, Fireball, Sleet storm C, Slow C, LVL4: Ice Storm, Wall of Fire C, LVL5: Cone of Cold, Animate Objects, Globe of Invulnerability, LVL7: Firestorm, LVL8 Earthquake Alpine Dragons will set up an area before it attacks if it can. Its lair will be chosen to have many traps that it can spring upon creatures including landslides and avalanches.

Death Dragons are different from other dragon types, they are similar to other types of dragons in the area except their spell tend to be more Necromantic in flavour and their breath weapon causes other undead to rise up. Intelligent undead also seem to regain the hp lost by living creatures and if there are dragon type to rise will get a special blessing that allows a character to use necromancy their entire life, as long as they don’t make a mess of the world. Spells: Chill touch, Dancing Lights, Minor Illusion, LVL1: False life, Ray of Sickness, Fog Cloud, Sleep, LVL2: Blindness, Crown of Madness, Darkness, LVL3: Fear, Gaseous Form, Lightning Bolt, Slow, Stinking Cloud, LVL4: Blight, Dominate Beast, Polymorph, LVL5: Enervation, Cloudkill, Dominate Person, Hold Monster, LVL6: Circle of Death, Eyebite, LVL7: Finger of death. Their allies tend to be dead or insane and because of the necrotic power in the breath weapon, there tends to be a lot of the former nearby. When a dragon or dragon kin dies from the necrotic weapon it animates quickly and joins the dragon as its servant. They are Zombies or Skeletal dragons or kin.

Green

Red

Stone Dragons are from stony areas like the chasms and the face of mountains when the snows melt their breath weapon petrifies, restraining then petrification, successful save and the target is merely slowed for a round. Once you are petrified, death of the dragon will slowly release the effect unless you have died from suffocation. Description of the effect would be like, the gas flows around you and you feel the gas working on your muscles slowing you down, your skin hardens until you can’t move and breathing becomes laboured, then you cannot breathe at all as you feel your outsides harden off; your biggest desire is to scream but even that is impossible. They are the original Geomancer. Spells: Cantrip, Earthbolt, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion, Mold Earth, LVL1: Absorb Elements, Catapult, Earth Tremor, LVL2: Dust Devil, Earthbind, Maximillian’s Earthly Grasp, Hold Person, LVL3: Erupting Earth, Slow, Mirror Image, LVL4: Banishment, Polymorph, Stoneskin, LVL5: Hold Monster, Telekinesis, Wall of Stone, LVL6: Move Earth, Fizban’s Platinum Shield, LVL7: Finger of death, Etherealness.

Storm Dragons live in the area and they mostly bring a wealth of storm related effects, they tend to be closer related to the colder of their types in terms of spells.

White

1. the independent kobolds. 40 kobolds and giant spiders , giant spider riders. Pails hanging from the openings far above DC 18 perception check, the warren is small and the rock is hard to carve and mine four sets of rooms on three levels, one down and then one up and the another up, but they are all inter connected. The inter connections are small 5’ tunnels, the regular are 10’ and the ceilings are the same. The chambers are naturally round, like ant eggs.

2 jumping Elementals four schools of rock fish elementals four xorns are hunting them eating them to get the metals they have consumed they will not see the players as more than furniture and my inadvertently run into them.

3. kobolds from above, they will wait until the party is asleep and they will target them, any that are sleeping further way, those without armour or those not in tents. They will shoot three crossbow harpoons to capture the target. They will signal above and three hundred pound weights to reel the target up. the crossbow causes d12 dmg, and when the weights are dropped, d3 per arrow hit dmg, and dragged 100’per turn. The kobolds will load and fire again in 2 rounds and repeat the process. D6 damage to remove a harpoon and the arrow is coated with poison that numbs the wound, the numbing poison reduced the damage done but decreases the ability to struggle. The kobolds will shoot twice before riding up on their own. There are three kobolds on every harpoon crossbows.

4. the Chasmfiend sits like a large stone lodged between the walls in a narrow section of the only way through. It looks like stone and the party will need to ask if there is something odd about it and then succeed at a investigation check to discover that it is not a rock, DC 15. A perception check of 15 will let them know that the stone does not match the stone in the walls of the gorge. The Monster is enraged by its predicament, it is wedged between the walls of the gorge, if the players walk on it or attack it, it will attack and free itself.

Mesa

5. the climb up is long and laborious for those without flight and easy climbing aids. The walls are sheer and impervious to easy chipping. The party can make it up the edges of the if they use the ropes provided by the kobolds or get the aid of the free kobolds. Otherwise they will need to make a series of skill checks to gain the summit. There is only one scenario where they will have to fight as they climb and that is when they are trying to rescue party members from the Kobold’s attack. It could take the party even if they have the correct supplies a half day to climb to the top, which is 5000’-6000’.

6. Dragon. A stone dragon of an equal to equal+2 CR will attack the party members while they cross his mesa thee will wait until the party is approaching the ruin at the centre of the mesa. The mesa seems to have a series of interconnecting pools stretched across the landscape and a several moss covered beds aligned along them, some moss beds are emptied of moss and are just shallow depressions of rock. The pools are connected with a slow trickle of a stream as it moves from the central ruin outward in a wide spiral. The edges of the stream and the pools form a rough pathway to the centre of the mesa and the large ruin. If the players are being cautious allow them a perception check with advantage to see the base of the ruin is filled with petrified moss CR15. The dragon will wait until they get close and leap and fly and breath its petrifying breath weapon upon the players and then land on the 50’ perch above them and cast spells at them. The allies of the dragon will emerge, kobolds and a stone giant and three Galb Duhr. The giant will pitch rocks at the characters but not engage in melee, the galb duhr will animate the spent boulders and the kobolds will slowly give ground from the entrance to the ruin slowing the party to allow the Giant to drop more rocks on them. There are fifty kobolds and each stair has a group of 10 kobolds, 5 with slings and 5 with spears, the slingers will throw rocks at the players then retreat to the next stair after the other five warriors fight the players with long 5’ spears, the slingers retreat to the next stair. If the players kill 25 of the kobolds they will break formation and retreat. The five lower structures are a series of rooms that the kobolds hold collectively. Normally 20 per building with losses from the entrance battle taken equally from these totals. The Kobolds fight with disadvantage in the light, but normal with pack tactics. Each of the kobold houses has about a 1000gp in gems perfectly preserved from small chasmfiends. The giant will fight to the death at the top of the stair. He carries a pouch with 3 1000gp gems from larger chasmfiends. The dragon will fight to the death in the central tower using its petrifying breath weapon and spells and flight. It has a bunch of random Magical items and some random coins plus gems all chasmfiend quality. 7 1000gp, and one 10,000gp as well as 2500gp in smaller gems. The walls of the ruin are filled with imagery of elves.

7. ruins. Many of the mesas have signs of civilization, most just have a few intact walls standing up only because there is as supporting wall, careful investigation reveals that the mesa plains have broken walls everywhere. Some few have extensive and more intact ruins. These ruins are one of three type, masonry walls of stone with fill behind them creating solid mounds. The second type is that of solid walls that appear to include mortar but turns out to be just the appearance of and is actually solid rock. These structures also appear to have a lot more thought in the design but have suffered the ravages of time. There are broken and ragged walls caved in roofs and collapsed buildings. Stone Cunning will set the ruins at past 10,000 years ago for the first set and about 5000 for the latter. There is a third type and that is underground ruins. These ruins start out like the solid walls and become more like holes in the earth, with the edges carved like they are masonry. The narrow passages open up into grand halls that have cunning shafts carves that let in the light and have surface catches of water draining inside. Stone cunning reveals these to be more than 6000 years old. They are also clearly not dwarven construction, even though they are cunningly wrought, they feature scenes of the natural world and not more dwarf like pursuits.

11	4		4		2d10		2d8		2d8		d6		d4		54
18	30	L		10		165		285		17		16		8		10

AC 17 Hp 165, +8 to hit, Bite(2d10+4 (15)), Claw Claw (2d8+4 (13)), tail (d6+4 (7)), wing (d4+4 (6)) BW DC 14 Con save or Petrify 15’radius cloud pass save slow one round

Spell save 16 10^th level caster Spells: Cantrip, Earthbolt, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion, Mold Earth, LVL1: Absorb Elements, Catapult, Earth Tremor, LVL2: Dust Devil, Earthbind, Maximillian’s Earthly Grasp, Hold Person, LVL3: Erupting Earth, Slow, Mirror Image, LVL4: Banishment, Polymorph, Stoneskin, LVL5: Hold Monster

24 1000gp and 48 100gp gems, 1300dGp 225dPp, Potion invisibility, scroll Hero’s Feast, Project image, Nolzur’s Pigments, Ioun Stone insight, Breastplate +1, Rapier of Sharpness, Mace Nine lives stealer (5)

All the ruins are likely occupied.

8. Hatchery. On one mesa there appears to be no ruins and just a few low depressions scattered across the surface which anything could be hiding. There are at least three things hiding in the depressions. One fairly large dragon close to a threat to the party, in another is a larger Chasmfiend that has been criss-crossing the mesa leaving a trail of clean rock, clean of lichens and mosses. The depression is filled with water and is covered with algae scum that the overgrown snail is devouring. There is another depression and there are a lot of snails cleaning off the scum on the walls of that pond. The large chasmfiend has a heartstone that would turn into a 1000gp gem, if the characters know how to preserve it.

9. raiding party of 6 stone giants. The party encounters the party on a narrow side of a mesa where there is a close gap to the next mesa; it is only 100’ away, too far for the giants to leap, but they are carrying a very large board with them. The giants attracted the party to them when the most perceptive of them sees a giant leap high into the air, they crest the ruin to see the last giant run and leap on the board and fly high into the air and land on the other side. One of the bigger stone giant then grabs a heavy rope and pulls the board out and across the gap and over the edge. It takes about ten minutes. When the giants see the party they seem wary at first but will parley, unless there is a Empire Dwarf in the midst, then they attack. Other types of dwarf they will be merely hostile with the players, and gnomes will put them on a neutral stance. There are seven giants.

10. Rock Spiders. There is a series of nests located on the mesa. They are giant being a range between large, and huge. They have the area of subterranean ruins staked out. They have gathered shells from defeated chasmfiends to lure prey to them and have successfully attacked many raiding parties. Inside their lairs there are plenty of treasure discarded over the place along with many drained husks and the lingering smell of decay.

11 Elementals. There is a constant sound emanating from the centre of the plateau. There is asset of ruins that is tumbling down and there is the sound of crashing. There are four large earth elementals playing a game with a small elemental. They are rolling the elemental towards a pile of rocks in the center and the small elemental is spinning so that it misses the pile. The pile as the players get closer is actually a group of empire dwarves that has been submerged to their waist in rock and can’t move. The outer dwarves appear to have been knocked senseless, but the inside ones spots you and calls for help.

11	4		4		2d10		2d8		2d8		d6		d4		54
18	30	L		10		165		285		17		16		8		10

AC 17 Hp 165, +8 to hit, Bite(2d10+4 (15)), Claw Claw (2d8+4 (13)), tail (d6+4 (7)), wing (d4+4 (6)) BW DC 14 Con save or Petrify. 55’cone, pass save slow one round, when bloodied BW recharges, tail sweeps anything within 10’ of them once per round on the 20., strength save DC 16 or knocked prone, but no damage

6 cantrips, 4 1^st 3 2^nd 3 3^rd 3 4^th 2 5^th

Spell save 16 10^th level caster Spells: Cantrip, Earthbolt, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion, Mold Earth, LVL1: Absorb Elements, Catapult, Earth Tremor, LVL2: Dust Devil, Earthbind, Maximillian’s Earthly Grasp, Hold Person, LVL3: Erupting Earth, Slow, EarthBall , LVL4: Banishment, Polymorph, Stoneskin, LVL5: Hold Monster

24 1000gp and 48 100gp gems, 1300dGp 225dPp, Potion invisibility, scroll Hero’s Feast, Project image, Nolzur’s Pigments, Ioun Stone insight, Breastplate +1, Dagger +2, Staff of Healing (3 5^th level cure wounds per day)

Gargantuan Chasmfiend AC 18 1000 hp and +15 hit, engulf 10d6+15, tail crush 8d4+15, trample 8d10, swallowed 3d10 dmg save for none CON DC15, may only attack with small weapons inside, but AC inside is 8

One Earth Elemental and 20 kobolds.

The last plateau that you have been herded towards, like a shepherd guides his sheep, is dominated by three story wall that at this distance appears to be round. The moss and lichen on this plain have been scoured in a criss-crossed series of pathways, each about 20 feet wide. Dotted across the plain appear to be many lumps of rock.

As you approach a small group of rocks, you see that they are incredibly detailed statues of Dwarves, halflings, elves, giants and other humanoids; most of these statues have been broken in such a way that if they could be revived, their lives would be short.

The wall is tall almost 50 feet, there are breaks in the circumference about 25 feet wide and these pathways are denuded of lichen and moss. The corners are covered in thick mossy vegetation, as is a large mound in the centre of the wall near a tall plinth that rises even above the height of the wall. the mound is 20’ wide and 40’ long and tall. There appears to be a small group of five Kobolds perched on the top. They raise their spears at you and jeer.

The Plinth is 10’ in radius and is 50’ tall. The dragon and his hoard rest up there. He will come down and breathe on the host of dwarves that comes with the characters, there are 40 dwarves and the dragon’s breath weapon will turn 2 of them to stone right away ten will be slowed but half of those will turn to stone, seven total. The rest of the dwarves can be murdered in humorous ways by the Chasmfiend and the 5 kobolds. The rest of the kobolds (15) will drop rocks on characters that pass through the breaks in the walls. They will also shoot arrows too. they have cover from the top of the wall. There is an Earth Elemental that will show up if the characters are having an easy time. It will attack from below grapple and attempt to pull the character down to restrain them it won’t attack for damage until bloodied.

Roll d6
1	Ancient stone bridge 100’ across
2	Rope bridge 40’ across
3	Rickety wooden bridge 20’across
4	Gap 12d10’ across there may be some signs of other bridge nearby
5	Gap 6d10+10’ across with signs that something was there recently
6	Gap 5d4’ across with signs of weakening of edges, 50% chance edge crumbles and widens by 5’

Dragons

CR10	4		4		2d10		2d8		2d8		d6		d4	54	16d6	28HD	L	10	154	266	17	16	8	9
L	10	154		266hp		17		16		8		9 Sorc

+8 skilled, +4 unskilled

CR12	4		4		2d10		2d8		2d8		d6		d4	59	20d6	32HD
L	10	176		304hp		17		16		8		11Sorc

+8 skilled, +4 unskilled

CR14	5		5		3d12		2d10		2d10		2d6		2d4	78	22d6	36HD
H	12	234		414hp		18		18		10		13Sorc

+10 skilled, +5 unskilled

The Devil’s Forge

the bridge to the valley battle ground between giants and dwarves there is a fortress but the fortified side is that to the gorge. The battle concluded here and seemed to be dead tie, but there are no bodies left on the field but there are signs of blood and gore everywhere.

The river bed splits around the fortress and there is only a small trickle but there is evidence that it once had very strong waters in it, but they are in the past. The flash floods are shadows of the past and there are very old trees growing in the old valley.

The path on either side of the river gorge is paved and in good condition, it is dwarven make, the cobbles fit together so tightly that a paper sheaf could not fit between them

The Devil’s Forge is a large hole with a high cloud of mist coming from it with a loud noise rising heard for tens of kilometers away. There is a large butchers block with several armed dwarves guarding the dressing of kills. There is more meat here than many of you have seen in one place. Perception check of 15 allows identification of the remains with a nature check of 12, unless they are skilled in nature then they succeed. There are giants and other humanoids present in the heaps including gnomes, but only after you get closer.

Further away from the river there are fortifications in the hills, forests cut down, stones lying where they fell all around the hill far from the fort out to 240’ away. Smaller rocks line the earth where they plowed up the ground. You can see giant youths picking up the larger rocks as you come up, there are also odd tracks of some regular indentations that cross the mountain slope a meter apart regular like. If they come at night they might see strange lights bob around and hissing sounds. The fortress has smoke pouring over the walls in places and through holes in the mountain side. The fortress is a Stone Giant/Rock Gnome partnership against the Empire Dwarves

The crux of the mission –Find the beast with the heart of a gem.

- They meet up with a group of giants that are crossing the plateaus

o The group includes three giants and three gnomes who ride the backs of the giants

o The giants throw rocks, and the gnomes have devices that lob smaller rocks just as far

§ The rock thrower machine will also propel man sized creatures as far as 60’ and small sized 100’, landing is not so great, but the giants are good at catching.

- The group tells the characters that they are in the proving grounds

- They interrogate the group to see if the dwarf is an empire dwarf

- They take the word of the Alpine Halfling over the others

- They mention that there has been a dragon that has been attacking them

o When pressed they will say that it has not been attacking as much as preventing them their escape

o The plateau access points have been destroyed in key locations and when attempting to cross those destroyed points they are attacked, but only the ones crossing the space.

o The ones that cross are attacked and killed while alone on the other side

- Clearly the dragon is corralling everyone into a direction

- Encounters before the giants include Elemental Bowling and the Rock Spiders

o The Empire Dwarves will grant them hospitality later in the adventure if they aid them

o And they will offer them an alliance—which is a bad idea later but, you know.

§ The alpine Halfling will claim that the dwarves are evil and want only to destroy everyone.

o The two encounters will offer the party more loot.

- the way between the two plateau’s will have precarious bridges but are passable.

o One is a swaying rope bridge and the other is a magical springboard that will propel the characters across, but they must land on the other operating springboard or take damage, a simple to hit with an improvised weapon or take falling damage of 60’, with the monk will avoid or the levitating mage will avoid too.

§ The bridge will be with strong winds and an air elemental playing with the rope making flight impossible and levitation difficult.

§ If they go back to either location they will find the ropes cut or the springboard destroyed. And maybe a dragon doing the job. If the players travel in a direction that is against the dragon’s wishes the way has been dismantled.

Prof Bonus

stat bonus

Bite

claw

tail

wing

avg dmg

BW#d6

2d10

2d8

#HD

Size

HD size

hp base

Hpavg

spell DC

Att Mod

Sorcery level

176

304

Stone Dragon CR12, Multiattacks (5) Bite 2d10+4/Claw 2d8+4/Claw 2d8+4/Tail d6+4/Wing d4+4; Breath Weapon,(2) 60’ cone, petrify DC 13 CON Save, or 20d6 DC Con save 16, fine stone dust.

AC 17, HP 304 Sorcery level 11 spell Save 16, known spells 13, Cantrips 6,

Cantrip	1^st:4	2^nd:3	3^rd:3	4^th:3	5^th:2	6^th:1
Prestidi	Charm per	Shatter	Blink	Charm Mon	Wall of	Investiger
Firebolt	Silver barbs	Mirror ima	Counter		stone	Of stone
Mindsliver	shield	Hold Person	Enemies		Animate
Mold stone			abound		objects
chilltouch
Mage hand

Gargantuan Chasmfiend 1000 hp and +15 hit, engulf 10d6+15, tail crush 8d4+15, trample 8d10, swallow 3d10 dmg save for none CON DC15

Greenpsychopomp

Sunday, 2 April 2023

The Shattered Plains, Part one Of the Treasure Map Adventure