A vast glacial shelf off the sheer face of one of the Bluespine Peaks serves as Ketheptis’s lair. A false lair, composed of expansive ice caves, is little more than a deathtrap for those foolish enough to seek out the OneEyed Crone. The lair proper lies beneath the glacier, ensconced in the base of the mountain and well hidden beneath several feet of thick ice.
Keyed Locations
The following features correspond to numbered areas on the map.
- Frost Worm Plains: This stretch of treacherous ice is the hunting ground for a Gargantuan (40 HD) frost worm. The distant murmur of the worm’s trill pleases Ketheptis while she lounges in her lair. The deterrent the creature poses to intruders is merely a perk. The fact that the frost worm devours Thraalgrum’s followers from time to time is as much a source of consternation to the frost giant as it is a source of amusement to Ketheptis.
- Frost Giant Settlement: In the shadow of the Bluespines, a tribe of frost giants loyal to Thraalgrum built their lodgings. The settlement is a ramshackle collection of enormous longhouses hewn from old-growth trees and ice caves bored into the frozen glacier. DMs using the Frostburn supplement can populate this settlement with twenty frost giants, four frost giant maulers, four tundra scouts, and a spirit speaker. Otherwise, replace the last nine creatures with four frost giant jarls.
- False Entrances: These massive ice caverns are traps baited with impressive carvings of draconic motifs and filled with mountainous piles of drow skeletons. The highest of these caves serves as the frost giants’ rookery—several trained giant ravens (Frostburn 148) or dire hawks roost there. Twenty remorhazes nest in the connecting cave complexes, viciously attacking intruders. On occasion, remorhazes surge from the caverns to threaten the frost worm below, but they haven’t succeeded in killing it yet. These battles are a spectacle not to be missed; Ketheptis often observes them from the sky.
- Prison of the Living Carnage: This enormous cavern appears completely barren at first glance. Those who turn their gaze upward can make a DC 25 Spot check to notice an enormous mass of blotchy darkness encased behind a thick, frozen ceiling. Within lies a gigantic chaos beast (advanced to 20 HD) slowly nurtured to terrifying proportions by constant exposure to one of Ketheptis potent prizes, a cracked chaos diamond. The creature consumes the ice around it slowly over time. Once it has grown large enough, the dragon plans to unleash it in the most populated drow jungles. She looks forward to watching the monstrosity reduce the drow in its wake to quivering masses of jelly.
A strange conical opening lies in the inner recesses of this chamber (Search DC 25). This is the bell of a huge greater horn of blasting in Ketheptis’s lair below. If Ketheptis notes dangerous intruders in this cave, she can blow her mighty breath through this horn (subjecting occupants of this area to both her breath weapon and the horn’s blasting effect). The blast also unleashes the chaos beast to deal with survivors. - Frozen Lake Entrance: This frigid lake is one entry to Ketheptis’s underground lair. The lake is well populated with zeugladons (Frostburn 120) or cachalot whales. Ketheptis often makes meals of them, but smaller creatures braving the chill depths of the lake could end up on the fearsome beasts’ menu instead.
- Vandragmar’s Legion: Visible within the crystalline walls of this chamber, a legion of well-armed drow warriors arrayed in perfect fighting formation stands frozen for all time. Vandragmar, the great warlord of the Golden Carapace Clan, led his followers against Ketheptis long ago. The dragon blasted them with her breath, flash-freezing the foolish drow where they stood. The sight pleased her so much that she had Vandragmar and his legion interred here. Rumor among the drow is that Vandragmar marched to his death willingly after dreaming a prophecy that his legion would one day rise again and cast Ketheptis down. Thraalgrum claims it is folly to keep the cursed legion close at hand, but the One-Eyed Crone mocks the old giant’s fear.
- Chess Room: The even crystal floor of this cavern is paved with alternating dark blue and chalk-white squares of ice. A grim chess set of frost-laden skeletons opposite crisply frozen zombies is arrayed mid-game. Thraalgrum’s expertise at the game is one of the few things keeping him alive; Ketheptis enjoys a spirited match now and again. The skeletons and zombies here do not defend themselves. They respond only to calledout chess moves, which send them shambling to their appointed squares.
- Frozen Maws of Ketheptis: The f loors of these long caverns are rife with stalagmites. Rows of icy stalactites loom like giant shark’s teeth above. If Ketheptis detects enemies here, she unleashes a shock wave with her tail, bringing stalactites raining down on their heads for 10d6 points of piercing damage (Ref lex DC 25 half). Six ice golems (Frostburn 137) or stone golem guardians built into the walls of each cavern are activated by the shock wave and immediately attack.
- Pools of Plague: This sprawling cavern consists largely of pools of magical waste created by Ketheptis’s efforts to produce the perfect contagion. The ponds are filled to overflowing with swirling black fog or brackish green ooze, and they are lined with treacherous icy walkways. Even moving at half speed, anyone navigating a walkway must succeed on a DC 25 Balance check (DC 30 if moving at full speed) or tumble into a pool. Anyone falling into a pool is blinded and takes 1d4 points of damage to all ability scores every round as her skin festers, blood boils, eyes melt, and spirit wanes (Fortitude DC 25 negates).
On a central island of solid ice are stored some of Ketheptis’s dreadful concoctions. A cauldron of sweetsmelling, reddish brown intoxicant renders any who imbibe it permanently insane (as the insanity spell) and subjects it to a continuous rage effect (Fortitude DC 20 negates). Another vat brims with a green slime variant that eats skin and bone and paralyzes any humanoid it comes into contact with (Fortitude DC 25 negates). Ketheptis’s most promising experiment is a simple tray of fine white powder that renders anyone who comes into contact with it permanently infertile (nothing short of a miracle or wish reverses this effect). The dragon hopes to create a variant of this powder with which to seed clouds, thus creating a sterilizing rain that will make all drow caught in the storm unable to propagate their hideous race. - The Bloodworks: The floor of this chamber is dark red ice, and the sound of dripping liquid echoes from within. The desiccated corpses of dozens of drow hang from the stone ceiling here, horrible exsanguination pumps attached to their veins and arteries. The last few precious drops of their blood spatter upon the center of the chamber. The floor is composed entirely of frozen blood, harvested from hundreds of drow captives.
- Tomb of Dekaraz: Beneath the Bloodworks rests the frozen coffin of Dekaraz. The Qabralin exile rests here, using his gaseous form ability to seep through a passage filled with porous ice to one of the poison pools in area 9. The vampire can heat the frozen blood above his crypt to recover faster after battle, or to bolster himself with temporary hit points before a fray.
- Battle Den of Letho: This enormous circular cave resembles a colossal arena. Letho tests his strength against all manner of creatures here. Remorhazes, smilodons, dire polar bears, and other beasts are his usual fare, but at present a twelve-headed cryohydra is shackled here. Letho is happy to let the creature devour PCs who breach his den
- Tomb of Thraalgrum: Letho ordered this majestic tomb built, complete with an ornate sarcophagus. He enjoys taunting his aged father with it, hoping to hasten the old giant into the cold embrace of death.
- Thraalgrum’s Library: Though large, this cramped chamber is packed to bursting with mounds of ancient tomes and shards of old stone tablets. Baasra spends much time here and has setup her own work area— the corpse of a dragonmarked halfling lies stretched on a cruel flaying rack, and three patches of dragonmarked skin are pinned to the wall nearby. Thraalgrum’s and Baasra’s quarters adjoin this area; they are encountered here unless they have responded to a threat elsewhere in the lair.
- Glacial Nexus: Glacial light shimmers through a ceiling of one-way translucent ice in this high-domed cavern of tremendous size. Sheer, slick walls weeping condensation ascend to several large alcoves above, where Ketheptis takes her respite. Her hoard is frozen hundreds of feet into the deep ice below this cavern. If threatened in her lair, Ketheptis brings avalanches of ice down upon her foes from above with her powerful tail. If anyone ascends to threaten her in her elevated ice caves, she employs a wingstorm to buffet them against the walls or cast them down to the floor below.
- Magma Vents: Ketheptis’s glacial lair clings to a dormant volcano, and the rivers of magma flowing near the dragon’s domain vent searing gas high above at the mountain’s summit. Her abode is a stunning feat of architecture and nature: The entire stronghold is constructed so that by striking a specific point with her shock wave, Ketheptis can initiate a chain reaction of small quakes and cause an eruption. Thus, she can destroy her entire lair (and anyone in it) at any time if she so wishes. If her life is seriously threatened in her inner sanctum, she does not hesitate triggering a fiery cataclysm to consume her foes.