I've been thinking about this for a while, and I've finally found the time to post something about it.
For those who are wondering, the Far North Project was devised during a Thursday night greychat session some weeks ago. The idea was to develop the far northern regions of the Flanaess in a collaborative way, with multiple Greyhawkers adding their 2cp until a final product is arrived at. It is in this spirit of collaboration that I submit my proposal. Rather than simply posting what I've written so far, I'm throwing out the idea and inviting all Greyhawkers to submit their ideas, with a final product to be edited together from the best of them and submitted in finished format.
Here's the proposal:
The adventure takes place shortly after the events in "Raiders of the Black Ice" from Dungeon #115. Various hooks are possible, but the gist of it is that the PCs decide to investigate the uncharacteristic behavior of the raiders, hoping to discover why they're moving out of the ice and seeking permanent quarters closer to civilization.
The PCs travel through the Land of Black Ice, encountering various obstacles and creatures, and finally discover why raiders seem to be fleeing their usual haunts in the far north: a monster is on the loose. The monster, in this case, is a massive, town-sized construct formed of black ice and animated (originally) by a mechanolich. The mechanolich, a half-mechanical lich from the civilization that existed prior to the formation of the black ice, created the construct to preserve some of his lost civilization and to enable him to continue his research without interference from the changing landscape. He is supported in his efforts by arcanowrights, variant nimblewrights possessing arcane abilities. To aid in his research, the mechanolich built an entire functioning village inside the gigantic construct, populating it with skilled experts in various crafts kidnapped from various lands. These experts were fed special food that robbed them of their memories, turning them into a placid though highly skilled work force. And so it continued for centuries. Everything was fine until - the mechanolich died.
Unable to progress onto demilich-hood due to his mechanical portions, and unable to successfully transfer his mind into a completely mechanical form, the mechanolich finally passed away recently, causing his massive construct to go out of control. The "creature" now is traveling toward civilization in search of needed materials and resources, something that it previously did only in a limited fashion under the mechanolich's guidance.
Within the construct, life continues much as it has before. The "villagers" continue their labors and the arcanowrights continue to direct them. Since the arcanowrights lack the ability to control the construct, and since they cannot act outside the parameters of their programming, they simply go about their labors, defending the construct as required when it moves into new areas and otherwise keeping things running.
Here's where your chance to collaborate comes in:
The landscape of the Land of Black Ice is largely undeveloped. Can you think of any geographical features or hazards? Have any regional creatures you'd like to throw in? The PCs will have several encounters in their investigation, and you're welcome to contribute as many as you like.
The construct itself contains 3 main areas. One area, the largest, houses the village. It is filled with various human and demihuman NPCs, each entirely forgetful of all events more than a few days in the past. These go about their labors contentedly, obeying whatever orders the arcanowrights give them, and often crafting machine parts or other objects they scarcely understand. Have any interesting NPCs you'd like to add? Do any interesting features of this area spring to mind?
The second portion of the construct consists of the hydroponic gardens and similar rooms needed to keep the construct functioning. This is also where newly kidnapped folks are kept until the memory-affecting food does its work. This is another good place for you to add interesting rooms or encounters, interesting NPCs, techno-magical items, or new creatures.
The third portion consists of the rooms where the mechanolich lived and worked. There is much knowledge of ancient times here, as well as a significant amount of magical equipment. This is yet another good place to add your new creatures, items, links to other adventures, or books containing ancient knowledge.
So what do you think? Any ideas you want to contribute? Any questions? All ideas can be posted here, and as the deadline approaches I'll edit them together, add my own stuff, of course, and we'll have the Canonfire! staff put the finished adventure where it belongs. Let's get to work!
As requested, here's a little more info on the construct:
The construct somewhat resembles a gigantic tortoise. Its legs are massive columns of stone and its head is little more than a great stone knob with a large mouth. Under the "shell" of the tortoise lies the mechanolich's village, with the gardens and other chambers in a level underneath that. The mechanolich's own chambers are toward the rear of the great tortoise.
The mechanolich designed his creation as a mobile fortress, intending to keep ahead of the ice and as it formed while staying out of the way of certain dangers that were abroad in his time. Eventually, he hoped to use it as a weapon to strike back at his enemies. But first he had to stay alive, and that meant he had to stay unnoticed.
To this end he allowed a layer of ice and snow to pile up around the construct, effectively disguising it as a hill. Only when he needed to gather large amounts of building stone or other materials such as ore did he move the construct. To disguise its movement he enchanted it to generate a powerful blizzard. Whenever the construct walks, the blizzard fills an area half a mile across with hurricane-force winds and driving snow, effectively negating all visibility. The snow generated further helps to disguise the construct's massive footprints and piles up around it when it settles, camouflaging it somewhat. Currently, the construct is programmed to walk only at night, settling during the day.
When not moving the construct lowers itself to the ground, extending its head and opening its mouth. This allows the arcanowrights within to exit and perform various errands. The arcanowrights are careful to disguise the tunnel-like mouth with whatever materials they find at hand, and guards are always stationed to defend against the curious. Prior to the death of the mechanolich the construct generally stayed in one place for decades at a time and thus built up a considerable amount of ice and snow on its surface. The mechanolich could cause the great mouth to close, and usually did so to avoid interference with his plans.
The entire construct is controlled from a small room within the mechanolich's chambers. A large enchanted crystal mechanism is permanently mounted there, allowing the mechanolich to use the construct much as an extension of his own body. This mechanism requires considerable force of will to operate. The user must also have a great degree of arcane power. The arcanawrights within the construct have been programmed not to touch or even approach the crystal mechanism, not that any of them has enough strength to use it anyway.
The construct is far too slow to be effective in individual combat, though it could be devastating against city walls or large armies. It is possible that a careless traveler could get stepped on, though this is unlikely. The great head can bite, but again it's too slow to be directed at an individual. Typically the bite is used to "harvest" stone and ore in great mouthfuls. These slide down a great chute into a processing area where the villagers within get their raw materials.
In design terms, the construct is a potential world-breaker. It is simply far too powerful to be placed in the hands of the wrong people. Because of this it has a built-in "safety mechanism" to prevent unauthorized use. It does, however, present an interesting design challenge. If anyone would like to try coming up with a stat block for it, I'd be truly impressed.
Reminds me of Gamorra and Golden Axe for some reason.
A walking city does sound like a bit much for Greyhawk. Even Lolth "only" had a spider ship, and not a spider city scuttlin' about in the Abyss. _________________ - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
Hmmm. How can I explain this without giving away too much of the plot...?
The "walking city" may sound pretty fantastic, but as designed the adventure is written (or will be) to minimize its impact. In essence, it's little more than a somewhat exotic dungeon site. It's not intended to be the kind of thing that PCs can capture and use to go gallivanting through the Flanaess.
I've gotten more than a little flak for the idea while chatting on various 'sites, generally because the people I'm chatting with seem unable to accurately envision the scale of the construct. The "village" within is not as extensive as one might think. There are no croplands, mills, inns, pastures, or similar areas - only a small cluster of houses. While this still requires the construct to be quite large, it's far from being a walking mountain. Picture it as being about the size of a football field.
Some have also argued that the idea smacks of high magic, Forgotten Realms-style play. The truth is, the idea was "borrowed" from a very low magic setting - Robert E. Howard's "Conan" stories. I should have mentioned in one of the earlier posts that the adventure is (or will be, since it isn't complete yet) intended for 4th level characters. In keeping with this level of play, high-magic, campaign-unbalancing stuff will be kept in check appropriately.
I've noticed that many players get somewhat bored with low-level adventures because of the lack of fantastic elements. Such elements are common in higher-level adventures, but low-level characters are usually unable to handle them. Thus, the idea of a walking town was chosen to add an element of the fantastic without also adding something the PCs can't handle. The Land of Black Ice with its Egg of Coot, City of the Gods, and Blackmoorian techno-magic seems just the place to insert this adventure. The area is clearly the site of both extraterrestrial visitation and ancient technological civilization, so the inclusion of these elements is entirely appropriate, IMO.
Believe me - I'm just as concerned about keeping the "feel" of Greyhawk as you are. While this adventure will clearly push the bounds a bit, it is written for the Land of Black Ice where such ideas fit in nicely. Also, this is supposed to be a collaborative effort. Everyone has a chance to contribute ideas and criticisms. Surely between all of us we can keep the concept from getting out of hand.
And since this isn't being written for publication and there's no hard-and-fast deadline, if it turns out that the final product is straying too far from its intended target we can always scrap the idea.
You go right ahead BG. I like the whole arcane steampunk vibe I'm getting from your project. I think I've mentioned to you before that I don't see GH as a high magic world but I like what you're doing. I think it's a nice addition to Bauer's duo of Dungeon adventures in theme. There are a number of literary precedents too. Phillip Reeve's Hungry City Chronicles, The Dragon in the Sword by Michael Moorcock, and there was even a Groo the Wanderer comic that had a "city on wheels" drawn by huge dinosaurs that went around the countryside raiding villages for the necessities of life. What Howard story were you referring to?
The Idea, although a little out there for Greyhawk, still ties in nicely with the SCI-Fi angle that was always present with the setting. My biggest concern would be why exactly the city is there as opposed to some place with more resources. Also I would make the city very slow moving.
The landscape of the Land of Black Ice is largely undeveloped. Can you think of any geographical features or hazards? Have any regional creatures you'd like to throw in? The PCs will have several encounters in their investigation, and you're welcome to contribute as many as you like.
Some LoBI ideas from my GH journal/ideas notebook:
black ice dragons - multiple breath weapons (blackflame? balefire? frost cone like a white dragon, but black in hue, and perhaps icy shards)
black snow - the storms that blow south and east from off of the LoBI glaciers = an ill omen
the blue spire - an ice tower, that rises above the dusky glacial ice of Derk Ifing Cerewin's Plateau ("Derk's Plateau") - a glacier sheet that towers over the surrounding lands by half a mile high or so; Derk popularized the plateau that bears his name through his ballads and lays of his explorations and discoveries across the LOBI
black ice "pearls" - frozen globes of ice, formed and smoothed by the interior icy rivers of water within the LOBI glaciers; palantiri-like?
a glacier dungeon - perhaps revamp G2 and make it even more glacier-like in design (internal rivers/flows/remelt; chimneys; etc.) --> look up anatomy of a glacier somehwere; also, include erratics and other rocks picked up by the glacier's movement)
Hmm that makes me think about a few creatures from the Lankhmar book and their entires on the original Deities and Demigods book. An all black version of the Behemoth, Cold Woman and Snow Serpents would be something different and unusual. Ok maybe I should figure out a 3.5 conversion for them. If I can I'll post it here.
Some LoBI ideas from my GH journal/ideas notebook:
grodog wrote:
black ice dragons - multiple breath weapons (blackflame? balefire? frost cone like a white dragon, but black in hue, and perhaps icy shards)
black snow - the storms that blow south and east from off of the LoBI glaciers = an ill omen
the blue spire - an ice tower, that rises above the dusky glacial ice of Derk Ifing Cerewin's Plateau ("Derk's Plateau") - a glacier sheet that towers over the surrounding lands by half a mile high or so; Derk popularized the plateau that bears his name through his ballads and lays of his explorations and discoveries across the LOBI
black ice "pearls" - frozen globes of ice, formed and smoothed by the interior icy rivers of water within the LOBI glaciers; palantiri-like?
a glacier dungeon - perhaps revamp G2 and make it even more glacier-like in design (internal rivers/flows/remelt; chimneys; etc.) --> look up anatomy of a glacier somehwere; also, include erratics and other rocks picked up by the glacier's movement)
Perhaps some of those may be useful/inspiring? :D
Love the black-ice dragons. Brings to mind the blue bugbears from the LoBI encounter tables. There're probably other wacky variant monsters there.
I never ran G2 but played in it and always wanted to do a glacier cave thing like it. The Paradise Ice Caves at Mt. Rainier were once the longest mapped system of glacier caves in the world until *dunh, dunh, dunh* global warming reared its ugly mug. There might be some maps out there on the web and if you google image "paradise ice caves" you get some pretty awesome photos back.
I hope someday we'll be reading the travelogues of Derk Ifing Cerewin?
The ancient technomagic angle could work especially given the location; Blackmoor has the Egg and city of the Gods etc.
I would like a compelling "realistic" device with a reason for existence rather then another uber ancient war machine. Hate to see PCs headed north to ride it back and conqueror nations but it is equally unsatisfying to simply - press self destruct button.
Black Ice Glaciation - the withrdraw of the Black Ice to its present boundaries happened millennia ago, before the Great Migrations, before the Twin Cataclysms. At its height, the Black Ice extended as far south as the Ullsprue and Lortmil Mountains in the west, Rift Canyon above the Nyr Dyv, and Grendep Bay in the east, across the Rakers. When the Black Ice was pushed back to its northern fastnesses, the ice gouged the Oerth's surface, scouring out rivers, canyons, and lakes (Whyestil in particular), and also leaving behind strongholds of its wicked, frozen darkness. There are some who have dwelt among the Tiuni---the Peoples of the Black Circle [nb: REH]---and who have returned to civilization with fragments of their lore and tales. One such was Derk Ifing Cerewin, who returned to Dyvers from Blackmoor and beyond in either 86 or 186 CY (accounts differ), after being presumed lost since his expedtions' departure in 75 or 175 CY (again, different sources provide different dates): [insert HPL-like quotation here, with bits about arctic darkness, native strangeness, and rites under the double-moon].
black ice --> drow and killing the sun (a la MERP Ardor)
Evard's Writhing Black Ice Barbed Tentacles (spell)
caves carved out by glaciers; deposits left behind: black ice runoff, frozen chunks, std. glacial erratics/rocks --> black ice covered black rock ("Seven Black Priests" by Leiber --> Amedio/Hepmonaland)
the Black Ziggurat: a glacial ice fortress that moves forward and backward with the advance of the ices --> need to know its locations to plumb the dungeons left behind in the ground??) --> an ice dungeon (Ice Spire? the Icy Citadel?), carved from a living black ice glacier (see National Geographic article on spelunking within glaciers c. Nov 2004), perhaps with the glacier having overrun a mountain, so some levels are wholly in ice, lower/deeper ones in frozen rock
black ice ties into Elemental Evil: some truths there that attracted the drow to such an obvoiusly doomed and misguided project
campaign ideas list extract:
Black Ice and its return
drow --> shadowed, dark [both this and above --> eclipse]
prophecies about the return of the Frozen Darkness (nb: old group "Frozen Ghost" --> new monster, not undead)
Iggwilv's rise --> a tangent/consequence to the retreat of the Black Ice (perhaps too early for her!)
Oerthblood: rejuvenating renewal, founts of creativity and creation --> heat/light/life vs. cold/ice/dark/death; oerthblood is in opposition to the black ice; nb: druid sects who are tied to one/both, fighting eternally
Johydee's Mask: used to drive back the ice?? tied to oerthblood somehow (forged from oerthblood, on the shores of the great far western lake/sea??)
black ice --> isles of woe (remnants/strongholds of black ice left behind in Nyr Dyv??)
Hmm that makes me think about a few creatures from the Lankhmar book and their entires on the original Deities and Demigods book. An all black version of the Behemoth, Cold Woman and Snow Serpents would be something different and unusual.
Still working on this, in case anyone was wondering. I haven't gotten the degree of collaboration I was hoping for, so it's taking me a while.
All of the above are great ideas, and I'm trying to work almost all of them in as well as I can.
Currently, I'm focusing on some encounters for the outdoor portion of the adventure. I admit I'm not very good at coming up with clever/original encounters, so if anyone would like to lend a hand I'd be grateful.
I'm also trying to get all the statblocks down, but it's time-consuming and (for me) rather boring so it's not going very quickly. I'm mostly a background kind of guy.
Keep the ideas coming, and I'll do my best to include the best of them. Please don't be upset if I don't use yours, since not everything will fit the adventure as it develops. Oh, and I hope no one minds if I use your online nicks when I give credit, since I don't know most of your proper names.
-druid in northern perrenland sends PC's north to gather "special moss".
Their guide is a tiger nomad chief of the "old blood" (weretiger/ranger).
this chief accompanies them to Burneal,but leaves when a group of his
fellow nomads tell him there is family business else where. He give them
trail signs to follow through the forest(spot, search, or tracking skills).
If PC's become lost they encounter Firbolgs in the forest as well as other
beasties(dire,ice,Quaggoths,etc...).they accompany the firbolgs on a
mammoth hunt( this could lead to your construct) on the open tundra
north of the forest.
-Fog giant encounter in Black Ice caverns (What happens when ice en-
counters warm air,ding, fog).
-Ice Trolls a must!
-Grugach in Burneal ( I used the Phostwood encounter here from OJ(#?)
-destruction of Construct some type of macgic ice shard which not only
controls/activates it, but may also be the key to it's destruction and the
destruction of your undead critters(Destroy the icey heart shard-written
in the Mechanalich's journal or spellbook)
Just an idea.
Above guest was me ;). Forgot to sign in when I wrote that. You are quite welcome Bubbagump.I realize that the afore mentioned Fog Giants might be a little powerful for your adventure. I appolagize, also been gaming in Greyhawk for over 23 years now. It is the ONLY Campaign world worth playing in, except maybe DARKSUN.
Adventuring in the land of black ice offers some really interesting Man Vs Nature elements in it. You might want to consider picking up a survival guide at an army surplus store or something and running things out of there. So far I've learned how to make simple wilderness involved in the making log rafts, identification of poisonous plants, how to get water and stuff like that. Of course two of my players are hippies, one is a marine and the last is my brother who is something of a tinker so it works out pretty good.
It's funny, grodog, how this one project keeps coming back to bite me. I scrapped it a long time ago (as I mention above), and yet from time to time an idea for an encounter or something pops into my head whether I want it to or not. I suppose I'll have to finish it someday - perhaps after I finish the 1,000,001 other projects demanding my time these days.
Ironically, the whole idea began as a desert adventure more than 20 years ago and never progressed much beyond a handful of hastily scribbled notes. I did run an early version of it with the 1e AD&D rules, but now even I can't make out what I wrote for that version. I think our mutual publisher friend is beginning to rub off on me...
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