Getting to Runeforge (Neth (XI) 3rd-Kuthona 8th (XII), 4712 AR)

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Of Runeforge itself, very little is written. The heroes knew that Runeforge was once a legendary place of learning and discovery for students of the arcane, but that its location had remained a mystery—Thassilonian scholars believe it to have been lost during the empire’s fall.

The heroes travelled to Rimeskull using a combination of teleporting and magical flight.

The Sihedron Circle

From the rocky eastern shoreline of Lake Stormunder, the ground rises into the craggy snow-dappled roots of Rimeskull, casting its long shadow over this area. Yet not all of the ground here is rugged and mountainous. Several hundred feet from the lake’s edge, the land suddenly levels off to create a circular hill. Rocks and tenacious shrubs poke through the scattered clumps of snow here, but they are dwarfed by the ring of seven ten-foot-tall stone heads that circle the hill’s edge, their faces angled inward at each other, mouths agape. To the east, the sheer mountainside of Rimeskull rises, icy and windblasted—two hundred feet above leers a carving of an ancient face, its gaping mouth forming a large cave entrance in the mountainside. A ten-foot-wide stairway of stone descends from this cave to a ledge only fifty feet to the east of the circle of stone faces.

Looming nearly 16,000 feet above Lake Stormunder at the western tip of the Kodar Mountains, the mountain called Rimeskull has a vaguely skull-shaped formation near the mountain’s peak, visible for many miles on a clear day.

IDENTIFYING THE STONE HEADS: The heroes identified most of the stone heads, correlating them to the visages of five of the seven runelords, and thus which school of magic each identified head relates to.

The identified heads and keyed magic are as follows:

  • Belimarius (abjuration)
  • Sorshen (enchantment)
  • Xanderghul (illusion)
  • Alaznist (evocation)
  • Zutha (necromancy)

Stairway

A massive stairway that looks like it must have been built by giants and taken years, if not decades, to complete is chiseled out of the side of the mountain. A twenty-foot-wide and thirty-foot-tall stone arch frames the first steps, while the final steps lead directly up to a carving of an ancient face, its open mouth a cave entrance. The familiar seven-pointed star is etched deeply into its surface, prominently positioned at the highest section of the arch. Bones lie in iced-over heaps along the visible areas of the stairway.

Each step is approximately a foot and a half high and 3 feet deep, with an average width of 20 feet. The stairway winds back and forth, rising up 200 feet to the entrance to the cavern above. Icy bones litter the long stairway. For the most part, the skeletal debris is frozen to the steps.

The landing is approximately 60 feet wide and 50 feet long from the top of the steps to the cave mouth. The strong winds blowing across the mountain at these heights impose a penalty on ranged attacks and the senses. The surface of the landing is coated in places by a thin layer of rime, but this does not affect movement.

Deadly Slide. Two twelve-foot-tall statues flank the large tunnel inside the cave. Each holds a hand upraised as if to ward away intruders, and clutches a heavy sword with the other.

The statue on the north side of the tunnel emits a moderate illusion aura. Beyond it starts an invisible structure. Although the structure is invisible, bits of dust and snow and rubble on its length made it easy to notice. The floor slopes downward after the statues and the slope itself is icy and slippery.

The Ice Falls. The slope ends at the edge of a gaping chasm of darkness. Huge icicles hang from the ceiling and coils of mist rise up from below.

The gulf itself is 300 feet deep, eventually opening into the next area.

Frozen Cathedral. The walls of this cavern glitter and sparkle with sheets of ice. Seven twenty-foot-tall pillars, their sides encrusted with ice and engraved with ancient glyphs and runes, surround an eighth pillar twice the size. Tunnels exit the central cavern, winding deeper into the mountain. Yet perhaps the most striking features are a mound of corpses encased in ice that occupies the northwestern section of the cavern and a huge white dragon.


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