The passes and valleys of the Frostblade Mountains in northern Riedra were once home to the Akiak, a noble nation of dwarves and duergar. Betrayed and broken by the Inspired on the Night of Razor Dreams, the remnants of that people today fight a guerrilla war against Riedra throughout their former mountain homeland. However, many of the A kiak’s greatest fortresses were simply sealed and abandoned by the Harmonious Shield. A few of Riedra’s rare dragons have laid claim to these former dwarven holds.
APPROACH
The bulk of the Frostblade range runs southward from the Tundra–Riedra frontier, sloping down to the shores of the inland sea of Rhialuun. Getting there typically means crossing Riedran territory. The frontier folk of Dor Maleer are less devoted to the Inspired than the citizens of Nulakesh, but travel through either province requires official consent, careful stealth, or both.
FEATURES
Once in the Frostblades, weather and the normal hazards of mountain terrain (DMG 89) are less a threat to the PCs than the ongoing guerrilla war. The Akiak are dedicated to reclaiming their ancestral homeland, and the mountains see endless skirmishes between Akiak commandos, Riedran troops, and the shifter forces variously allied with both sides.
With their engineering expertise, the Akiak built their fortresses boasting wide corridors and high vaulted ceilings. This suits any dragon who now lairs in them. The normal and secret doors are a full 8 feet wide, large enough for Huge creatures to squeeze through.
All areas of the dwarven complexes show signs of the long-ago battle that destroyed them. Additionally, the stairs and main corridors are scored with claw marks from the dragons’ passage. Outside the keyed locations, DMs are free to decide what monsters, treasure, or traps might be found here.
KEYED LOCATIONS
The following features correspond to numbered areas on the map. Dragons’ Deep is typical of many destroyed Akiak complexes.
- Entrance: The peaks loom throughout this area, and snow-shrouded corpses of Riedran skirmish units are not uncommon. No doubt Akiak lurk in the shadows nearby. Suddenly, a veil of mist and snow parts to reveal a gate. Granite pillars frame a narrow cleft at the height of the pass, and the great stone doors that once blocked the entrance now stand open.
Within the gate, a wide entrance hall was once adorned with ornate dwarven relief sculptures. These have been defaced and scarred (by fire, acid, or frost, depending on the DM’s choice of dragons for this location). The dragons who lair here now have placed several magic traps within the hall; they make use of the moon garden entrance (area 2), which is more convenient for aerial travel. The shifters (area 4) and the Akiak (area 9) know the location of these traps and can avoid them. - Moon Garden: At the top of a circular flight of stairs, this domed chamber of smoothly polished granite rises some 50 feet. A 15-foot-wide hole in the center of the ceiling opens up to the sky beyond. Directly below the hole, the remains of a great crystal lens lie shattered. The Akiak built this meditation hall to capture the light of Eberron’s many moons, amplifying and reflecting it through the crystal lens formerly set into the ceiling. The dragons removed the lens to create their primary entrance into and out of the complex. The hole opens up to a wide shelf of stone, beyond which the mountain continues to climb. Flying creatures can make easy use of this exit, but anyone else is in for an arduous, icy descent to the pass below (Climb DC 35).
- Hall of the Dead: This necropolis was the resting place for the elite warriors and lords of the Akiak, and was the site of one of the fiercest battles when the complex fell. Sepulchers along the walls and throughout the room bear the images of dwarves and duergar. The area radiates moderate necromancy magic, the result of a lingering gentle repose effect placed here to preserve bodies through the month-long Akiak funeral rites.
This effect has also left the bodies of a dozen Riedran soldiers preserved here in a grim tableau, the wounds that killed them still fresh after hundreds of years. The Akiak that also died here have been interred by the strike team in area 9, but the Riedrans were left where they fell. The dragons have so far ignored this unnaturally preserved meal. - Shifter Barracks: A pack of Tashana shifters— typically 5th-level barbarians (DMG 112; change race to shifter)—has taken over this section of the complex, carefully avoiding the notice of the dragons. They are loose allies of the Akiak but do not take kindly to strangers.
- Great Hall: This massive gray marble hall is filled with the shattered remains of huge stone tables and benches. It is guarded by a single young adult white dragon (MM 77) who quaffs a potion of invisibility at the sound of any non-Akiak approaching.
- Black Pool: A sulfurous reek rises from a hissing fountain of brackish water in the center of this flooded lower chamber. A magic fountain here was once the communal well for the complex. However, it has been tainted by the presence of the dragons, who have channeled the magical flow to turn this room into a pool.
If the dragons inhabiting the complex are not waterfriendly, this room can be reworked as a flame bath as described in Gornath the Madwyrm (page 126). - Hoard Chamber: The hoard of the dragons who dwell here is amassed in a well-protected vault. Formerly a storehouse for the complex’s potent magic, psionics, and weapons, this area remains protected by a number of magic traps the dragons have managed to disable and control. Treasure can be placed here according to the party’s level and the DM’s plans for the complex. If the PCs are meant to fight the dragons, set the value of the hoard accordingly. If they have no quarrel with the dragons, the hoard chamber might contain a particular magic item sought by either the party or its enemies.
- Ruined Laboratories: These vast chambers once comprised a multilevel warren of magical, alchemical, and metallurgical research. All lie in ruins now. The first salvo of the Night of Razor Dreams was the psionic assassination of many of the Akiak’s greatest magical and psionic researchers, a number of whom worked here. Left to run unchecked, their experiments quickly consumed this place. Detect magic and detect psionics reveal a dizzying array of auras still twisting throughout this area, their effect to be determined by the DM.
- Akiak Outpost: An Akiak strike team has established a base of operations in this former barracks wing, making peace with the dragons who allow them to come and go through the complex. Their long-term goal is to see their people once again walk these halls, but they acknowledge the long fight they have ahead of them. They know also that the presence of the dragons has so far prevented the Riedrans from taking a more active interest in the place. The Akiak thus do their best to curry favor with the dragons, hoping to gain true allies in their struggle.
- Deep Crystal Mines: The entrance to this area is a storage site for mining equipment. Beyond it extend miles of unworked stone caverns. The walls of these caves are shot through with gleaming veins of crystal that shift from white to deep blue. Deep crystal (EPH 182) is prized for its strength and psionic resonance, and is used in the construction of weapons and the hanbalani monoliths of the Inspired. These caverns have not echoed to the sound of Akiak picks for over seven hundred years, but they are far from empty. A scattering of talismans and arcane tokens at the entrance hints that the inhabitants fear this place. A successful DC 20 Search or Survival check to note tracks in the caverns indicates that no dragon has ever passed this way.
Over the centuries since the Night of Razor Dreams, the psionically resonant nature of these caverns has been twisted by the latent magical energies seeping down from the Akiak’s ruined laboratories (area 8). As a result, the caverns could be home to phrenic creatures (EPH 205), spawn of Tiamat (MM4 128), or even quori that have become trapped in the darkness of this crystal prison. What creatures lurk in these unmapped caverns—and what secrets they protect—is left to the DM to determine.