One of my favourite bands is The Sword, an American heavy metal group whose lyrics consistently conjure up images of the kind of sword and sorcery milieu that made up most of D&D's Appendix N. And one of my favourite songs of theirs is Ebethron - the last track from their first album, Age of Winters (which you'll soon see is very aptly named). I spent a few days idly writing up encounters for each lyric, and the result is a frozen wasteland, with the ruins of ancient titans, and the constant influence of a distant city ruled by vampiric elves - Ebethron itself.
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| Click here to listen to the song. |
I first had the idea of writing this table back during winter, but never got around to it. Now it's the start of summer, and Ebethron's "realms of rime and of frost" are hardly fitting for the season - but role-playing, and fantasy in general, has always been about escapism to a certain degree. If your players ever decide to go north and just won't stop, or if you just want some arctic ideas to mine for your games, hopefully this will be of use.
THIS IS IMPORTANT WHEN ROLLING FOR ENCOUNTERS: There are 32 encounters, but two of them are miniature dungeons, detailed at the end of this post. (And I mean miniature, both very linear and with only 7 and 10 rooms, respectively.) So I've included two numbers in front of each encounter: the first is for if you want to roll for all 32, rolling a D4 for the first digit and a D8 for the second, while the second is for if you just want to roll for the encounters, not the dungeons, and simply requires rolling a D30.
In the spirit of system agnosticism, monsters are described in terms of Hit Dice, and all treasure is given a "cash" value, where cash is whatever your game's standard coinage is. The most unusual take is references to "sacks" of supplies, cribbed from the Ultraviolet Grasslands setting. Each one takes up the full inventory of a normal, 10 Strength human, who can carry a second sack if they don't mind struggling to do anything remotely physical, and holds a week of supplies. When in doubt, 1 sack = 10 inventory slots.
Ebethron awaits...
11 / 1: Black
blades in their hands. A group
of three ranging elves from Ebethron itself, armed with one handed
swords made from a black metal no deadlier than iron but able to
slice through things with such ease that armour has no effect on
attacks made with them. The elves (3 HD each) will extort the party
for their valuables if they feel stronger, or approach them in a
friendly manner if the balance if skewed in the party's favour.
Either way they will warn the party not to head to the city –
whatever they seek there is not worth it.
12 / 2: Obey
his every command. A caravan of
wanderers, poor and haggard, four of the strongest carrying a
palanquin adorned with silver and jewels. Upon it sits an old, half
mad man named Ranulf, who in his madness has become able to cast the
Command
spell (force a creature to obey a one-word command that is not
immediately suicidal) at will. The wanderers fear him as though he
were a demigod, and he has grown too cruel and used to command to be
controlled, even through threats. The palanquin would be worth 5,000
cash to someone in a richer land, but is difficult to move. If looted
of just the ornaments, the silver and jewels are worth 500 cash and
take up two inventory slots.
13 / 3: They
search for that which was lost.
A band of weary, armed travellers are scouring the snow in which
their dog-sled's tracks can still be seen. They are headed south, but
searching back up north, and will refuse to cooperate with the party
and warn them off if they try to approach, even though they seem
quite haggard and their supplies are clearly low. They have lost a
small idol of pure gold, studded with diamonds, which lies somewhere
on the trail they've left and is easily worth 10,000 cash.
14 / 4: Through
realms of rime and of frost. A
chill in the air, even colder than it already is, heralds a plain
full of icy growths rising from the ground. They grower larger and
greater in number as the party passes through the field, until, where
the growths are as thick as a forest's trees, one reveals itself as
an Ice Elemental (8 HD). Its attacks deal only D6 damage, but freeze
the target solid if it rolls a 1 or 6 for damage. The ice is magical
and will only slowly harm the creature in question (killing them in
ten minutes), but breaking someone free requires dealing 10 damage to
the ice. Fire/pickaxes deal double damage.
15 / 5: Where
no mortal may pass. A few days
before they arrive, the party sees a range of mountains rise out of
the distance. There is a clear way over, an obvious pass they can see
from far away. Upon arrival, however, they find a village at the
base, and a wall blocking the pass, guarded by undead soldiers. Only
the vampires of Ebethron, and their servants, may cross the mountain,
while all others must take two weeks to travel around it instead. So
much as grumbling in the town will draw the attention of smugglers
who offer to spirit the PCs across the mountains, for a fee. If they
pay, they are discovered halfway across.
16 / 6: Atop
a dais of glass. An icy plateau
rises from the earth, the air for half a mile around even colder than
the air normally is. Although the ice is unnaturally blue, you can
easily see through it, revealing a pile of dead bodies and the
telltale glint of precious metals. The six corpses have been ritually sacrificed, and are surrounded by metallic offerings
of gold worth 1,000 cash all together. When either bodies or metal
are touched, the corpses rise as 2 HD zombies and attack. Any time
someone misses a melee attack, runs, fires a gun, or is hit while on
the ice, they must pass a Dexterity save or fall down.
17: Sits
a sceptre of light. A stone
tower stands alone, with no windows and a single door, topped with a
brass dome which is in turn topped with a brass finial (an ornament
on top of a building), which shines as if reflecting light towards
the viewer's eyes no matter where they look at it from, and even if
there is no light to reflect at all. Nearing the tower draws the
attention of the finial, which fires a beam that deals D12 damage,
ignores armour, and always hits (but only after it spends a round
visibly charging the beam). It takes at least three rounds to sprint
from the edge of the finial's range to the point at which the tower
shields you from its attack. The Tower of Light is detailed at the
end of this post.
18 / 7: A
symbol of titan's might. A
colossal stone statue, which one can see from miles away, coated in a
thin layer of snow. At first glance it seems half broken, ravaged by
time, but upon closer inspection the destruction of it is, in fact, a
key element of the piece. The entire statue carved from a single
stone block, with the decapitated head fused with the stone platform,
rather than having fallen from the empty neck above. A small tent
village has formed at the base, worshiping the statue as the obvious
work of a god.
21 / 8: He
comes from cities of darkness.
A lone dwarf named Ad'absam, with ivory white skin and a set of
darkened glasses marches across the plains. He wears the leathers and
furs of creatures you've never seen before, and claims to be from far
beneath the surface of the earth. He believes the surface world is
all like Ebethron's surroundings, that the world is flat, that local
stories of southern lands are fantasies, and that the sun is only a
few miles away. He offers to pay with cheap gems (has a bag of 7,
worth 20 cash each) for the PC's knowledge of the world, but grows
frustrated if the stories don't match his world view.
22 / 9: To
suffer harlots and fools. A
band of travellers with dog-sleds are headed the same direction as
the PCs, and much, much slower. There are only two capable travellers
in their party of eight, a husband and wife, while the rest are at
best academics out of their element, at worse noble scions insisting
on carrying all manner of luxuries that do nothing but weigh them
down. They are only a week away from running out of supplies, but any
offer of help will be refused and taken as an insult by all but the
experienced rangers.
23 / 10: Loneliness
is his raiment. A titan's
corpse lies at the centre of vast plain. It was stripped to the bone
long ago, nothing more than a skeleton now, and at the very centre of
it there lies a single hut. A lone human lives within, a hermit and
hunter who lives in self imposed exile. He has a 2-in-6 chance of
being home when the party arrives. He will gladly share his stores of
food, and explains he was cursed to be unable to deny others what
they want of him, and so was ordered to head to an uninhabited place
by those who loved him.
24 / 11: Solitude
is his jewel. As the party
climbs a hill, a single man crests it before them, close enough that
they can see the horror on his face and the huge diamond in his hands
before he turns and flees. The jewel is cursed, so that anyone who
touches it with their body (even through clothes) is compelled to
steal it and flee from civilization. Only a day spent without
touching it will dispel the curse's influence – that, or breaking it, which will also dispel the curse's ability to enchant more people. If sold, it would be worth 4,000 cash, or 1,000
cash if shattered.
25 / 12: He's
walked through valleys of solace.
A lone man approaches from the distance, waving at the party from a
long distance. The man, named Harald, has no supplies left, nor
wealth which with to trade for them, and claims he has spent the past
month utterly alone. He eagerly wishes to converse with the party,
and share in their supplies, but is in reality a scout for a bandit
gang. Only a day after he leaves, he will return with five allies,
all of them hardened by the north (2 HD), unless the party clearly
outmatches them.
26 / 13: Beheld
the spires of sleep. A spire
made of ice as blue as sapphires stands in a hilly region. As the
party nears it, they will see a strange red flash come from the
spire, and find themselves forced to make a Charisma save or fall asleep.
The spire is an Ebethronian device that duplicates a spell's effects
(albeit somewhat weakened) upon all who view it. The round after the
spire shines, six 1 HD slaver and one 3 HD wizard – their leader –
will charge over a nearby hill, hoping to use the party's confusion
and sleep to their advantage.
27 / 14: He's
fed the pyres of the fallen. A
cloud of smoke is seen far before the source – a small wooden pyre,
next to a small copse of trees. A man named Einar sits next to the
fire, seemingly catatonic, but when he notices the party, he will
draw a knife and charge them with a terrified face. He fights with
surprising strength, as a third level fighter, but is impulsively
suicidal after the death of his son at the hands of a sudden disease
(it is his body he has just burnt). Einar is unwilling to kill
himself, but if the party does not kill him, he will ask to fight
with them so that he may die in battle.
28 / 15: And
heard their widows weep. A
large procession is slowly travelling north, mostly humans, but lead
by elves returning to Ebethron. They have a large cart full of
tribute, pulled by undead. Much of the human population is composed
of families of the dead, who, by Ebethronian law, will be paid for
the use of their family members' corpses, but only once they arrive
at the city.
31 / 16: We
come from cities in darkness. A
band of heavily armed elves from Ebethron itself, heading south with
one of their vampiric nobles. They have a few human slaves with them,
bloodbags for the vampire, and will stumble upon the party after
night falls (and when they are just beginning their "day's"
journey). The vampire will insist the party wake and converse with
him – he's quite harmless, but unused to any degree of
disobedience, and prone to offending mortal creatures. He offers a
pearl from the Northmost Sea, worth 200 cash, to each non-human and
non-elf willing to let him taste their blood.
32 / 17: To
conquer cowards and fools. A
three step pyramid of stacked stones, each one the size of a house,
looms over the horizon. Around its base a small town exists, with
farms on the first layer of stones. The population live in fear of
the "titan's voice", a booming voice that seems to speak
out of the stone itself to issue commandments. Those who blaspheme
the voice are chained on the second layer of the pyramid, and
vaporized by a beam from above in front of watching crowds. Only
priests of the voice are permitted on the top layer. The voice does
not exist – anyone who speaks into a pit at the top can cause the
voice to emanate, and the vaporization comes from a purple "ioun
stone" they possess, which, if allowed to orbit one's head,
grants access to the Missile
spell (D8 damage) and an extra safe use of magic per day, even if the
wielder has no other magical ability.
33 / 18: Loneliness
is our payment. At the top of a
hill, there lies an old stone fort, really just a squat tower. It is
inhabited by four 2 HD elves from Ebethron. They will ask if the
party is friend or foe, and make overtures of protecting the fort,
but will invite them in at the drop of a hat. They have been
"promoted" to this position, well-paying but excruciatingly
boring, from their homes in Ebethron and it has been months since
their last visitors. They speak fondly of the city, but gloss over
the bloodier details. They can feed the party for a day, and sell
them up to five sacks of supplies for the normal prices.
34 / 19: Solitude
is our due. A large,
crater-like depression in the earth – an alas – is surrounded by
a low wall about the height of a man. Within the alas there lies a
village, fifty people or so in total, with the wall manned day and
night by two people who circle it, keeping themselves on the opposite
side of their partner. They will allow the party into the village,
but only if they allow themselves to be unarmed – and then they
will refuse to let them leave, for fear of them telling raiders where
they are. If the party does not agree to be armed, a group of ten
villagers will follow and attempt to kill them.
35 / 20: Walk
through valleys of solace. A
huge valley is the only way forward, following a freezing river.
After the first major turn of the river, each side of the valley is
dotted with stone cairns, each and every one half ruined. A closer
examination reveals that the cairns have all been dedicated to the
dead, with dates that reach back centuries. There are no corpses,
however. And every cairn is broken outwards, not inwards, as if
something had forced its way out.
36 / 21: Ascend
the spires of sleep. A set of
three thin, towering spindles of ice rise into the sky, blue and
supernatural. At the top of each a humanoid figure can be seen within
the ice, revealed on closer inspection (which will usually require
climbing a spire) to be a naked elf with green tattoos and gold
necklaces worth 1,000 cash each. They claim to have been imprisoned
there for rebelling against Ebethron, and offer to journey with the
party. This is true for two of them, but one of them was imprisoned
for legitimate crimes, and will act cruelly and betray the party the
moment they are given a good chance.
37 / 22: Ignore
the warnings of prophets. As
the party sleeps, they dream of a great plain of a checkerboard
pattern, from which rise crystal spires. Shifting, geometric shapes
speak to them through telepathy, urging them to "trust not the
poisoned flesh of earth". The next day, the party will come
across a large growth of lichen, which smells sweet and causes them
to salivate. The lichen is perfectly harmless and, in fact, will
"overheal" each person who eats it fresh so that their HP
is equal to their max HP, +1 per level. The spirits that spoke to
them are evil ones, who sought to give them false and harmful
prophecies.
38 / 23: And
for your children I'll weep. A
small village is settled on the slope of a tall hill, built around a
small iron mine. Despite being well off and well defended, the whole
town seems to be caught in a state of depression. They are unwilling
to speak about it, but if you press the issue or ask the right
people, they'll reveal that the town was extorted by Ebethronian
elves for their children. The elves are less than a week away,
travelling slowly, and tribute missions are not known to turn around
even if robbed – if someone could steal the children back, there
would be no retribution from the elves.
41 / 24: Skies
blackened with crows. A herd of
reindeer have strayed to close to a cliff, which suddenly gave way
under their weight and caused a few dozen to plummet to their deaths
below. There is a near limitless supply of meat there – as many
sacks of meat as the party can take – but there are already at
least a hundred crows feasting on the bounty. More will arrive every
few minutes, so the party must work fast if they do not want the
crows to begin harassing, then outright attacking them as they work.
42 / 25: Shadows
on winter snows. A pair of huge
vultures nears the party. Each is the size of a horse, with 4 HD but
weak claws that deal only D6 damage. However, they fly themselves
into the path of the sun's rays, causing them to be functionally
invisible, before diving down and targeting the party's ranged
attackers. Each successful attack knocks the target to the ground,
making them unable to fire at the vulture before it returns to the
cover of the sun. Their targets are heralded a round before they
attack, as they shade them slightly from the sun, letting the target
fire blindly at them at no penalty, if they think to do so.
43: Within
a temple of ice. A long temple
sits atop a hill, abandoned and, at first glance, seemingly made out
of lapis lazuli. In reality, the blue structure is made of
supernatural ice, that chills the air with such intensity that the
surroundings feel as cold as night in the middle of the day. Once
inside the temple, the temperature feels merely cool, no matter how
warm the character otherwise is. The Temple of Ice is detailed at the
end of the post.
44 / 26: Priestesses
perform the rites. A town is
situated around a tall, stone tower, on top of which lies a smoky
bonfire that burns day and night. The tower is a temple of fire worshipers, who have come north to praise the sun in the month long
days, and act as a beacon in the month long nights. Each priestess –
for they are all female – blesses the townsfolk at request, but
this is just for show and superstition. Their true popularity comes
from the spells they cast, with which they protect the town from
raiders, making it the place to trade even for people who live weeks
away.
45 / 27: Witness
the setting of suns. As the sun
sets, the party comes across a large, snowless plain, the edges of
which are dotted with lichens, small trees, and even flowers. At the
centre of the plain, however, nothing grows, and skeletons dot the
ground. When the sun passes over the horizon, a distant sheet of ice
will reflect and focus the sun, blasting the dead zone with intense
heat, setting everything inside it on fire, and the living area
around it with minor heat, dealing D6 damage that ignore armour.
46 / 28: The
darkest days have begun. As the
sun rises, it turns in the sky, prevented from ascension by the dark
enchantments of Ebethron. For a month, days shall be as dark as dusk,
dark enough that vampires can walk about without fear of harm, and
the land shall cool so much so that PCs will not heal overnight,
instead taking 1 damage per level, unless truly powerful (and often
magical) methods are used to keep them warm. (IE you have to keep a
campfire fed all night, and sleep right next to it.)
47 / 29: Let
the seers come forth. A trio of
women – a maiden, a mother, and a crone – stand in the party's
path. They are, in fact, the avatar of a single god, the Triple
Goddess. They say that if you offer your heart to them (a symbolic
but supernatural ritual that reduces your Strength by 2, permanently),
they can offer one boon to the subject, depending on who you offer
your heart to. The maiden sees the future, and grants you a single
"luck" point, which you can spend at any point in the
future to turn a failed save into a success. The mother sees the
present, and grants you internal change, swapping any two stats of
your choice. The crone sees the past, and grants you retroactive
healing, healing any injury you've suffered as if it had never
happened in the first place.
48 / 30: At
morning's light we ride north.
As the sun sets, the party comes across a small settlement made much
larger by a field of tents surrounding it. Though they will be
stopped if they approach, the town will gladly welcome them – and,
in fact, refuse to let them leave that night. The tents belong to
visitors from nearby settlements, which have banded together to march
on an Ebethronian outpost to the north, well defended and full of
tribute from the surrounding region. The PCs will not be allowed to
leave lest they be spies, but they will be asked to join the warband
and gain a share of the loot.
Mini-Dungeon #1: The Tower of Light
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| Please forgive my lack of artistic skill and ambition. |
A stone tower stands alone, with no windows and a single door, topped with a brass dome which is in turn topped with a brass finial (an ornament on top of a building), which shines as if reflecting light towards the viewer's eyes no matter where they look at it from, and even if there is no light to reflect at all. Nearing the tower draws the attention of the finial, which fires a beam that deals D12 damage, ignores armour, and always hits (but only after it spends a round visibly charging the beam). It takes at least four rounds to sprint from the edge of the finial's range to the point at which the tower shields you from its attack, giving it three rounds to attack you. The Tower of Light is detailed at the end of this post.
Room 1: Light
The
door to the tower lies rotting and collapsed, and the edge of the
first room, a foyer, has clearly laid abandoned for decades at least.
A spiral staircase sits at the centre of the room, surrounded by a
translucent wall of light. Several animal skeletons lie draped across
the boundary. Touching the light with your person (body or worn
items, but not what you hold) paralyzes whoever touches it until
they are removed from the light, either by being pulled back, or
pushed forward to the other side.
Room 2: Void
The
staircase up is narrow and ends at a closed door. Opening it reveals
nothing but a air-filled void beyond, except for another portal ten
feet in front of the first one. If you cross the void, the portal
back to the real world opens from the side of the tower, revealing a
storage room with no staircase going down, only one around the edge
going up. Most of the supplies have rotted into uselessness, but even
a cursory search reveals a potion of Cling (which allows you stick to
anything at will for ten minutes) and a potion of Flight (which
allows you to fly as fast a bird for up to a minute).
Room 3: Laboratory
This
room is full of long since decayed laboratory equipment and scribbled
notebooks, though someone familiar with magical research can find some
useful (and fragile and heavy) equipment they can sell for 100 cash
total. Examining the notes reveals no useful information, but
suggests the builder of the tower was an aeromancer, skilled in the
arts of light manipulation and teleportation. A spiral staircase
going up sits at the centre.
Room 4: Gravity
This
room is a library full of rotted books and decaying bookshelves
around the edges, as well as a desk in the corner. There is a book
seemingly stuck to the ceiling. The centre and edges of the room are
normal, but there is a concentric ring of reverse gravity between
them, pulling those unprepared for it ten feet up, and ten feet down
if they leave it. The desk has a glass scrollcase on it, holding a
scroll with the Blink spell (teleport up to Close distance away)
written on it. A staircase going up takes up a quarter of the room's
wall.
Room 5: Garden
A
room full of overgrown plants, growing out of planters and overturned
pots, with spilled dirt covering most of the ground. The air is thick
with moisture, so much so that the room is full of a fine mist that
leaves dew on everything. The plants are mostly ingredients for
magical purposes, and can be collected for two sacks of supplies,
each sack worth 50 cash if sold to an alchemist. A spiral staircase
going up sits at the centre.
Room 6: Portals
Two
stone slabs the size of large doors stand on either side of this
otherwise nondescript room. One has a glowing, swirling, blue vortex
on it, beneath the word "exit", while the other has nothing
but the stone, beneath the word "entrance". Touching the
blue vortex allows you to push past it into a green, warm field in a
distant and far more agreeable land. However, if you push you and
everything you carry past it, you will not be able to return through
the portal. A staircase going up is nestled against the room's wall.
Room 7: Study
This
room is a finely decorated bedroom and study, with a brass roof. A
ladder leads up to a hatch in the roof which allows access to the
tower's brass dome and the enchanted finial, which loses all magic if
severed from the dome. The finery, if looted, is worth 500 cash and
takes up the space/weight of a sack of supplies. Easier to loot are a
chest full of 300 cash and 9 moonstone gems worth 50 cash each (450 total), a
silver statuette of an angel sitting on bedside table worth 400 cash,
a potion of Sublimation in the bedside table (which turns you into a
cloud of mist for ten minutes), and a scroll of Light (summon a
floating orb which casts light as a lantern) on a desk.
Mini-Dungeon #2: The Temple of Ice
A long temple sits atop a hill, abandoned and, at first glance, seemingly made out of lapis lazuli. In reality, the blue structure is made of supernatural ice, that chills the air with such intensity that the surroundings feel as cold as night in the middle of the day. Once inside the temple, the temperature feels merely cool, no matter how warm the character otherwise is. The Temple of Ice is detailed at the end of the post.
Room 1-1: Entrance
A
statue sits in the corner, holding a silver sword out as if
presenting it. (Worth 200 cash, counts as a one handed sword that can
harm incorporeal/silver-weak creatures.)
Room 1-2: Collapse
A
single huge pillar stands in the centre of the room, or rather stood,
as it has since collapsed. The roof above sags menacingly, slowly
melting and dripping water down.
Room 1-3: Skeletons
A
set of stairs in the corner go down to room 2-1. Five 1 HD skeletons have been frozen into the walls. By the time the PCs return to this
room, they will have just freed themselves.
Room 1-4: Pool
A
hole has opened in the roof, filtering light into the room. Six
pillars stand close to the walls, engraved with images of titans
walking amongst (and towering over) mountains. The room has a small
layer of sapphire blue water, which radiates extreme cold and freezes
anyone who touches it for D4 damage per level. Making steps across it
is easy, however.
Room 1-5: Scrolls
A
corpse sits in the corner of the room, dressed in a wizard's robes
and surrounded by scrolls. One contains the Freeze
spell (freeze a door-sized area of water, or deal D10 damage to a wet
creature, ignoring armour).
Room 1-6: Engraving
A
large stone – not ice – engraving lies against the far wall,
detailing a group of humanoids worshiping a crowned titan. The
humans and titan are coated in silver, the titan's crown in gold.
Unharmed it would be worth 5,000 cash, but is very hard to transport.
Scraping the silver and gold off will net 500 cash that can be
carried in a moderately sized bag.
Room 2-1: Draugr
A
single, armoured corpse lies against a wall. It holds a sword in one
hand and a silver statuette of a crowned titan worth 200 cash in the
other. It is actually a standing 3 HD Draugr, not a lying corpse, and
will attack anyone who touches it or its gear.
Room 2-2: Wight
A
silver chess board worth 200 cash, the pawns humans, the other pieces
titans, sits on an altar in a corner of the room. If taken, a 2 HD Wight will materialize. Its attacks, while weak, ignore armour and
always hit, and it can only be harmed by silver weapons.
Room 2-3: Swords
A
set of five iron two-handed swords worth 50 cash each hang from large
icicles hanging from the ceiling. Wrenching each one free has a
1-in-4 chance of causing the icicle to drop and deal D8 damage if a
Dexterity save is not passed.
Room 2-4: Heart
A
golden statuette of a titan sits on an altar against the far wall,
worth 1000 cash. If taken, the entire temple will begin to melt. It
takes a round (10 seconds) to go from one room to the next. After six
rounds/one minute, the temple will begin to collapse, dealing D8 damage to everyone still inside each round for another six rounds/one minute, at which point it will collapse outright,
killing everyone still inside.
