Far from civilization, deep within a snowy MOUNTAINS OF THE WITCHLING SHRIKE. The mountains are jagged white, like teeth, and sparse conifer trees grow on the hillsides and in the valleys, and the Witchling Shrike is a bird god who is said to rule these mountains, but who is not relevant to the dungeon, and as such will not be detailed here. The higher snow-capped mountains to the east rise loom over the foothills. The mountains ALEIF, ALGRIMUR, and ASTRIKUR are the closest visible mountains. They are said to be cursed and cruel, spiteful to humans, and warring among each other over the long years.
Movement is at 1/3 speed in the mountains due to the steepness of the terrain and frequency of dangerous drops and cliffs. The path is clear but often narrow and not well maintained. Altitude climbs to about 5000 feet in the western regions of these mountains, but deeper in the mountains rise to over 10,000.
The area the canyons of Pain and Misfortune are located in are in the western foot-hills of these mountains: it was simple for the armies of Illith Varn to burrow into the canyons. They fled through these mountains as the army of Orostranthy pursued them. Lingering magic and war machines can still be found in the pass.
Far to the east, and not visible unless from a very high altitude or a mountaintop, is a great iron throne sitting upon a distant mountaintop. The is the throne of the Titan IAT, who was slain by the Purple Dragon Terrifex. No one knows this--they might know that it was the throne of a mighty titan, but he was slain.
The canyons wind through the mountains for miles, at the northwestern-most termination is where our adventure focuses.
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A steep 300 foot drop. Howling winds. Protruding spikes. Are those people, frozen in the stone? Where is the path down?
The canyon is filled with vividly colored, opaque, swirling fog, which obscures the canyon floor, but leaves the mesas visible. The mesas are between a hundred and two-hundred feet high and thickly forested with conifer trees. On one mesa can be seen a massive iron cannon pointed toward the center of the canyon.
This is the site of the final battle between Orostranthy and the armies of Illith Varn, about a hundred years ago. Most of the fighting took place up here, and a shit ton of people died. Their corpses cover the canyon floor.
THE SEVEN FOGS OF THE SKOROS ORB
They rise at dawn, as if pouring up from the ground. They radiate a magic of unknown origin, and can be affected by psychic magic and enchantments, as if they have a mind. One of the legends of the Skoros Orb were that it could pour forth fog -- this is that fog.
Choose or roll randomly to determine a fog color every day.
1 Silver mist
2 Deep white fog
3 Low red fog
4 Thick purple fog
5 Heavy grey, smoke-like fog
6 A thin mist
7 Roiling black fog
WHAT IS THE WEATHER TODAY
1 Spitting rain
2 Drippy
3 Overcast and cold
4 Overcast but tolerable
5 Thin, cold rain
6 It's fucking freezing and windy and it's raining
7 Clear and cold
8 Thin, malicious clouds blowing over
9 Wet snow and rain
10 Heavy snow for a day, and then a clear, cold day
REGARDING THE FLYING FORTRESS
On any clear day, one of which should be forced to occur either the day the players arrive or very soon after, they can see up to the Flying Fortress of the Sky Witch. It's about two miles up directly over the center of the canyon. From the ground it just looks like a mote shining in the sun, but if examined with a telescope it is clearly a castle of grey-green-blue metal, shining with a complex iridescence of purples and greys. Six spires can be seen, they glitter.
If the players fly up there to check it out, continue to the section on the Flying Fortress, to be detailed later. For the time being, it is locked tight--a smooth metal exterior with no windows, and a set of stairs leading up to a small gate, which is magically locked. There is a keyhole. General Malagon on Level Two now possesses the key which can open it, and it cannot be opened otherwise, unless you're feeling really generous with sequence breaks and just want to let your players explore.
THERE ARE NO ENCOUNTERS ON THE SURFACE
It is safe to explore freely, and very quiet, except for a clinking-clanking coming from the center of the canyon, which is Buk-buk rummaging through the wreckage. I recommend keeping the surface completely free of danger or encounters, and never have the threats within the labyrinths come to the surface to attack them there. The labyrinths can be very intense, and it's nice to have a place that is clearly Not The Dungeon. The canyons are a kind of liminal space between the rest of the world and the Dungeon. As soon as they enter the dungeon they are in danger, but if they leave, they are not (except maybe in some edge-cases, and don't let them exploit this concept).
There are some monsters below that might make sense to attack their camp when they are able: the Golden Dragon, the Deadboyz, and the Sky Witch particularly. I did not do this, since I felt it would really shift focus from the dungeon to a kind of surface-defense mission, and would make exploring the dungeon just too stressful. If you really want to punch up the threats from these enemies in a way that would make sense with the fiction, go for it.
KEYED AREAS
A. Narrow, winding stairs switch back and descend to the canyon floor.
B. The canyon floor is littered with boulders. Ancient and decayed weaponry. Rubble and skeletons. Thorny trees spring from the rubble. There is a malignant hesitancy here, a sense of another presence somewhere out of sight.
C. This mesa has a giant metal cannon on top of it, pointed at the center of the canyon. About six unadorned and empty concrete buildings surround a clear space. They have no doors, and have simple, glass-less windows. They're really just shelters, and maybe one or two of them are kind of ruined. The canyons and bunkers were brought by Orostranthy.
One of the bunkers has stairs leading down, winding down through the mesa, and exiting through a secret door at the base of the mesa. The secret door is difficult to find from the exterior. How convenient!
D. The canyons continue to the south-east and wind through the mountains for miles and miles.
E. The entrance to the Shattered Labyrinths. A steep pit or quarry gouged into the canyon floor, about 100' deep. This pit was quarried out by the kingdom of Uldru, so quarry marks might be apparent.
See next map for details about this area.
B. Covered in wreckage, corpses, skeletons, bones, and broken weapons, is a flat stone circle inscribed with sigils. This is a Teleport Circle used by Illith Varn. If a magic-user knows a teleport spell, they can use this circle to transport themselves here unerringly.
C. The site of the final battle. The whole area is strewn with skeletons, broken weaponry, and scorch-marks. You can't walk without crunching on skulls and bones. Nothing valuable can be found here.
D. MAIN ENTRANCE. Great bronze doors thirty feet high. They are dented inwards, and open a crack, wide enough for a person to fit through. These lead to an empty thirty-by-thirty room, lined with statues of headless men holding their own heads. At the far end is a set of narrow stairs which leads to Level 1, Room 1.
Poking through the wreckage at the base of the doors is a man, Buk-buk. He is a scavenger searching for scraps and relics to sell. He makes a trip back to civilization every three or four months to sell what he finds. He is from a village of no importance deeper in the mountains.
He knows the basic legends of this place and can tell the most obvious possible information about the surroundings, placing particular emphasis on how everyone who comes here dies, but due to his crafty and unimportant nature, he will not die.
"Illith Varn fought Orostranthy here!! He died!!"
He's familiar with the canyons but has not found the secret door in the cannon mesa.
He will absolutely refuse to enter the labyrinths, insisting that it's not safe. "If you go in there, you'll die!" He has no knowledge of what lies inside.
He was here when the Sky Witch arrived about a month ago.
"“Yes!! A woman flew down from the castle!! I hid and watched her. She went through those doors there!! That was weeks ago. She must have died!!”"
E. SIDE ENTRANCE. From a man-sized crevice in the wall issues a discharge of milky slime, which trickles to the floor and forms a bubbling pool. If the slime is touched, it deals 2d10 damage as it eats away your flesh, and if you fall in, that's 4d10 damage every round. It dissolves everything but stone, metal, and glass, though metal and stone will be slowly dissolved over time: first metal, then stone. Its nature should not be easily determined.
The pool is evaporating. Inside the crevice is a narrow shaft, which leads downwards to Level 1, Room 48. The slime is trickling UPWARDS from below before discharging from the crevise.
F. A secret door, which from the outside looks like natural canyon wall. It leads to narrow, winding stairs and connects to Level 1, Room 30. This should really not be able to be found or opened from the outside. If the players manage to find it somehow, it is magically locked from the other side. From the inside it is a stone door that can be easily opened.
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