I suppose I might as well repost what I saved from the iceworld setting to keep the thread bumped, eh?

(This was originally for D&D, so I'll restate that although some of the setting description assumes 3.5, I am running HERO system.)

Fun Stuff still about.

Somewhere.

In the dark.

In the deep.

Waiting.

Aware.

>Frozen Fantasy World- Magic froze, everything went to hell

When it first happened, all Wizard above lvl 5 and all non-1st level sorcerors had their brains freeze instantly, causing death- Gods themselves frozen and shattered by Ithaqa the Elder Wind Walker, Clerics can only harness splinters of their gods former power, and cannot advance beyond Cleric 8 unless they can ressurect part of their god somehow
Many Magic Items not related to cold or death broke instantly, only powerful items that remain were heavily warded or far south Wizards Must make spellcraft checks to cast spells, or they can freeze and die- Low level spells easy,10+lvl of spellx4 or take spelleveld10 Cold Dmg and save vs Death DC= to DMG taken Higher level spells nearly impossible to safely cast- Fire/warmth spells are all inhibited by the cold, last half as long and have -2 to all dice effects and half effect

Psionics have become much more widespread, as they were unaffected by the magic-targeting cold- Still rarer than Wizards and Clerics, both of whom are very, very rare- Wizards moreso than clerics
Warlocks are the new spellcaster, having entered pacts with devils to survive- Since they Channel Magical energy rather than having it themselves, they don't freeze
Any Spellcaster now has a mercenary bent, as people will pay anything for magical heat and support

A wall in the deeps of the castle engraved with pictures of demons doing horrible things to dwarves.
Hopefully they'll breach it and be eaten alive by a million &'s.

Sorry if this info is super jumbled
Forests are all dead- Elves and Druids gone savage and feral with loss of nature, some just lay down and died- Elves are psychotic ambushers in their dead forests, attacking those who would seek firewood (elves are protected from the cold by their twisted Unseelie natures coming out) Druids have gone native and become bear-shamans and whatnot

Dwarves retreated deeper into the earth, displacing underdarkers in their search for Magma- so underground goes Displaced Underdarkers/Monsters/surface races taking shelter underground-Dwarves & Fighting underdarkers- "dug too deep" levels Dwarves have built lava aqueducts with Gnomes to heat up sections of the underground

Fire mephits, elementals, and similar are now ultra valuable resources- Bound in cages, stoves and the like- Towns are built around elementals

Orcs are now roaming cannibal barbarians with great sleds pulled by wargs

With the scarcity of Fire, Trolls are now terrifying monsters which make travel incredibly risky- Even the Orcs can't waste fire on the trolls- Frost giants may viewtrolls as allies or as dangerous pests, often freeze them in blocks of ice and then throw them at enemy armies if viewed as pests- In either case, trolls now are the main rulers of the wastelands, though they aren't organized enough to break into cities, forests, or tunnels

Frostgiants are living large, many human thralls and Half-giant lesser nobility

Viking civilizacion opposed to frost giants, believe that if giants are exterminated, Ice age will end

Wendigo- Cannibalistic undead spirits which devour towns which succumb to cannibalism, and sometimes spontaneously animate corpses into chilly cannibal zombies

Most Lizard/snake dragons die out or are Hibernating(dragons), with the exception of White Dragons, which now infest the world- A cave can't be camped in without having to clear out 10 wyrmlings hissing at you

Liches rule vast necropolises, as they could just walk into a city that starved to death and raise up everything, and decomposition is no longer an issue in this cold- Liches are constantly rimed with frost, as the magic they cast constantly freezes them- they can survive, though

Ocean is frozen, except deep south, where it's just antarctic cold- Might still be merfolk and things up north, but its impossible to tell- certainly some polar creatures survive in the southern waters though

Devils from Baator have brought their semblance of order to the Prime material Plane, in massive walled cities that, while they are still hellish dens of evil, attract humans out of the promise of heat and food- no matter the origins of both...

Some port cities now live in the frozen ships, rather than the crushed buildings, Rocs are now huge snowy owls

hardy vegetables, lichen, underground fungus are now only souces of food- other than monsters

Massive city with Snowships to skate over the snow existed early in the Freeze, but imploded in on itself once the food ran out- now is a glittering graveyard infested with White Dragons guarding the Ships

Horses became snowblind too quickly, and couldn't survive without grain- Shaggy Reindeer, Mammoths, and Huge Dogs now are preferredd travel method
Some race keeps their dead by putting them on poles out in the wastes.These dessicated bodies tend to animate, hence the tight iron bindings they are placed in.
These are occasionally used as alarms- once they scent living flesh, they begin snarling and shaking their bindings. Gnolls, perhaps, weren't hit that hard by the ice age, as they were furry and ate all meat anyway

Werewolves now have desperate volunteers coming to them, hoping to retain their humanity while surviving via Lycanthropy- Some werewolves take pity and infect the supplicants out of mercy or lonliness, others lure humans to themselves with the promise of lycanthropy only to devour them.

Vampires either helped a town by keeping the population down and foodstores up, or they ate their food source up and then starved, bound to their frozen cities by their coffins, and unable to find food elsewhere- Towns which succumbed to Vampirism, Cannibalism & subsequent Wendigo infestation often became the Lich Necropolii

We cannot get out. We cannot get out. Drums. Drums in the deep. A shadow moves in the dark.

They are coming.

Oops, found a tiny bit more

I'll use a picture so the post isn't so lame, mmmkay?
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Far south, in the now dead and horror infested icy jungles, an ancient civilizacion kept this disaster from ocurring with human sacrifice, Like the Aztecs sacrificing to make the sun rise- Something wiped them out will full knowledge of what would happen if the sacrifices stopped,

Sandbox Campaign Idea:
Farmboy heroes are sent off to trade with another town, find abandoned Snowship, piracy/crusading/awesome ensues

>>10812409
>>10812226
>>10812205
Great ideas, but I'm looking for more specific, not to mention low-level, encounters

>>10812485
Man /tg/ sucks tonight.

Alright if you're looking for low level (how low exactly?) then start them off with a small pack of wolves living in/around the entrance to the dwarven tunnels. The entrance should appear to have been smashed open by something else of course, but not recently.

>>10812645
I think they might be D&D equivalent of level 6ish, but with much more versatility.

So should I bump moar, or wait an hour to bump/restart? Because I'm not sure if people just aren't seeing this, or if they're too busy being /b/

>>10812976
reading your fluff posts OP opened this thread an hour or so ago and got distracted by the kid.

Well, this thread will probably die unmourned, but IF you have any ideas, get in here!

Probably last bump.

Here we go.
The last Psionic impression of a caster killed when the cold came. A shadow of what it once was it now wanders in agony desperate to steal the warmth of the living and push off the cold that was it's doom.

A trail of frozen blood leading to an iceman style corpse clutching a scrap of parchment (if the parchment is disturbed it crumbles to dust).

The constant sound of ice shifting and settling echoing strangely through the stone corridors of the fortress.

[I have more but I wanted to let OP that someone is here]

>>10814241
YES- I was just about to go to bed

Those are awesome, thank you

I think the corpse-parchment will be a damaged map of the fortress- I have to throw the players good stuff occasionally, right?

And the ice creaking was genius- I never even thought of that

>>10814211
I will mourn OP I will

A group of (Hostile) humans living in an abandoned library burning it's rare texts for warmth.

sightless wolves (either made or adapted) they can fight just as well on their hearing and scene of smell as any sighted wolf can.

>>10814369
I'll steal the library-burners for sure, but the players just finished fighting wargs, so I'm steering clear of canines for a while

If the players end up in the library, I think I'll give them some spellbooks-written in Dwarvish, of course. Will the PC's be bad enough dudes to learn Dwarvish on the off-chance the books will hold useful information? Ha!

A chamber that once had a beautiful underground pool. Now frozen solid, a great monster sits just beneath the surface hinting at a massive underground sea now gone.

A group of elves seeking a path to the dwarven deep hoping to exact revenge for a slight that only they remember.

A hand frozen to a doorknob, and just the hand.

Dwarf Wendigos held back by an iron gate. If the PCs attack the rusted hinges of the gate give way and the Wendigos attack the party.

Giant Ant nest. Buried deep, deep within the halls. A reason most of the halls are empy is because these have scavenged most of the dead bodies they could find. Blind, they rely only in earing. The deeper the tunnels go the more alien the surrounding are. Organic like material on walls, and old bones and fossils in the walls of the tunnel.

Once the group reach the heart of the nest and the hatching grounds, it turns out the queen is not a regular ant queen, but a sorceress victim of a freaky accident. Above the waist is beautiful, below is a pulsating mass of eggs and long insect legs. And she's insane by now.

Call the ants Legion.

>>10814510
I like the lake monster idea. Not sure what it should BE, though.

The elves have gone disturbingly feral in this campaign, so that idea won't quite work(I do like it, though)

>>10814588
I'm putting the hand on the crank of a cargo lift that goes to the top of the mountain...where the Wendigo are waiting. Spooky.

>>10814510
the pool on a bigger scale:
A great chamber that has part of the surface of what was an underground sea. The monster is still there but instead of just a head or an eye visible the party gets to walk along the entire length of a great sea-serpent (you could take this to 11 with a 300 meter beast held in the crystal clear ice) they can't see the ceiling because it's too high and after a while they can't see the shore either. and they can swear something in the dark is moving.

Interesting thread OP. I'll see if I can think up anything, but first a bump, and the obvious suggestion of EVERY DOOR IS FROZEN SHUT, depending on the power behind this magic cold, have everything freeze back up quickly after the party has managed to break the ice/melt it meaning doors will freeze shut behind them or remain stuck open, meaning you can have a very dangerous enemy come up behind them, or chase them from the front, through doorways they cannot close quickly enough.

>>10814647
A starving(and weakened) ant nest is a good idea- perhaps they took over the areas near a lava tube. I don't think I'll go with the Legion stuff though, mainly because that sort of madness deserves it's own quest, not just a passing encounter in a larger dungeon.

>>10814699
Great stuff. A massive, frozen, underground lake is weird, but totally fitting with what I'm trying to do here. Also, a nice switch from Claustrophobia to Agoraphobia!
>>10814701
Again, something brilliant that I didn't even consider. I declare that all the doors are now chillier than an igloo full of ex-girlfriends.

Qliphoth, OP

Qliphoth all he way

The sound of a far off bell tolling causes pain (but not damage; however damage works in HERO) it rings for a few minuets then stops. No explanation is ever given they never find the bell.

(I suggest putting this at the very beginning of the adventure)

You mentioned Dwarf Fortress in the title, so now I'm thinking about DF.

These days every good fort has a bathhouse, and a hospital. The hospital should be easily accessible but not in the way. There would be a makeshift graveyard hewn out of the nearby rock filled with stacked coffins containing dwarfs that died due to the cold. Maybe recently a necromancer came through here to raise bodies, maybe he's still nearby.

The bathhouse has gold plating across the walls, ceiling and floor, lava runs underneath originally meant to make the bath warm, but now it just keeps it unfrozen. You can have underground critters use this place as a drinking spot.

>>10814834
I haven't read Berserk(yet), if that's what that's from.

What's a Qliphoth?

>>10814834

>>10814855

A border-realm within the Interstice, between the Human and Astral worlds. the Qliphoth is inhabited by those donning the husks of impurity and bathing in darkness born from the nightmares and subconscious of humans, and gather together based on the evil affinity of their od, segregating themselves from creatures of light such as Elves.

>>10814855

An area twisted by evil magic where everything turns... like that. Nightmares have physical shapes and it is in complete darkness.

>>10814847
It'll be STUN damage only, in HERO. The bell naturally will ring at dramatic moments, especially in tight combat scenes.

>>10814851
Ah yes, the humble(hah) bathroom. Something about them just reeks of realism, to me. Very clever Dungeon Ecology as well, using it as a watering hole!

... I think I'll need some random encounters as well as planned ones, to add to the feel.

>>10814911

>>10814911
>>10814888
Okay. That's cool, but this abandoned fortress doesn't have the magic levels for anything that weird. Besides, I have some newish players, and I don't want to throw anything TOO weird at them... yet. But hey- I know I'm saving that idea for later!

>>10814822
Another freakish juxtaposition:
A dwarf sits in a study a contemplative look on his face, fingers interlaced just in front of his face. He could almost be lost in thought, if he was not frozen solid. No struggle no slaughter, the study is not in any great state of disarray, hell the place has not even been looted yet. Just a dwarf sitting as though quietly meditating on some problem he is having, forever.

>>10815015
I'll stick him in, or near, the library. Maybe give him some gold trinkets that the players may or may not desecrate the corpse to get at. (Gold is pretty useless now that civilization is essentially over, but players will be players)

(Thank you OP for giving me a chance to flex my creative muscles)

A magnificent fountain, what were once glorious cascades of water are now great cliffs of ice (option: in the ice are carved horrific faces when the flickering torchlight catches them just right they appear to silently laugh as through they know the PCs will never leave this cursed place alive)

>>10814939
You can indeed use the critters as a random encounter when the party is near the bathroom. The party doesn't even need to actually find it, but it would allow for a small encounter. If your players wouldn't think it to go to far you could drop hints in the shape of frozen poop and yellow ice there where animals still live.
Herbivores living on underground growths would be an example, a chance of pace from aggressive meat-eating beasts. Don't scare the herbivore too much, don't corner it, and your party could avoid confrontation, if not... they'll learn why that species still manages to fend of hungry predators.

Now, will have to think up how the dwarves themselves went further down. Likely what once was the forgery area near exposed magma vents/channels has been expanded in the past to allow for habitation, before the dwarfs went further down. You can put that ants nest here.

Another idea, though I'm not sure how sound this is in the realm of real physics, but the intense cold leaves little time for water to collect at one point and form icicles. So near the entrance the ceiling is, while likely uneven glazed over with ice, lacking in pointy icicles. The deeper the party goes, icicles start forming on the ceiling and on the ground. Maybe put an impaled body on one ice stalagmite. Further down the ice becomes even weaker, so don't make loud noises.

>>10815203
*Drools at your creative muscles*
I think I'll make it a giant frozen waterfall leading into the giant frozen lake. And screaming ice faces seen out of the corner of your eye is epic.

When they encounter the waterfall, I think a cold wind will come across the lake, bringing with it the sound of the Pain Bell, some whispers, and their torches going out. And the sound of something slithering closer.

Naturally, once they relight the torches, there'll be nothing there.

>>10815211
>Further down the ice becomes even weaker, so don't make loud noises.

A shame that Pain Bell won't shut up, huh?

Awesome. Thanks to what you said, I don't think there has to be many dwarf traps- the ice itself has made the place deadly enough.

Have the traps iced over and give them a chance to fail due to too much ice covering them. However, an iced over trap has a chance of splintering the thick ice that covers the walls and ceilings, turning what would be a simple escape into a harrowing race to avoid the falling debris.

The cold and ice have congealed over the mystic runes and tomes of magic in the city, granting it existance while the trapped souls of the dwarven dead empower and grant it a malign intelligence.

Deep within the dead halls are the fountains of magma that showcased the might of the undermagi that built the city; now frozen in rivers of flowing rock they can be chipped away to provide heat, but the screaming cold that now claims the city will show no mercy to those who try to reclaim the warmth.

>>10815211
More on random encounters- I'm thinking excessive Heat and Light will keep normal monsters away, but will attract that heat-hungry ghost mentioned earlier in the thread.

I'm thinking there will be a few Generic Herd Animals (tm) that take shelter in the fort during storms, and deeper in(around the bathroom) there's a grumpy Cave Bear.

>>10815277
depending at just how strange you want to go:
A tall slim humanoid figure meets the Party at an intersection he wears a patchwork of pelts and skins and a bone white mask like a bird (think plague doctor mask) he will not attack the PCs unless provoked, what he dose do is look at them and shake his upper body rattling his many many talismans of bone and metal before continuing on his way down another passage.

derp

>>10815355
Nice. This city is ending up far grimmer than what I originally planned, but that's a good thing. Cracking open a magma tube is something I don't THINK the players will try, but having the spirits of the place take subtle offense at such an act is really clever.

And yeah. Traps failing to kill anyone, only to set off an ice-avalanche sounds like a perfect OH SHI- moment for the players. They might hate or love me after this dungeon, it's hard to say.

>>10815433
I like that idea, but I'm not going to put it in the dungeon.

I'll save bone-rattler for when the players end up getting hunted through a dead forest by crazed elves. He seems, in my mind, to be a good forest encounter.

>>10815331
Oh yes, you asked about old dwarven traps. Have some frozen over stuff near the entrance. Spring-loaded blades at several heights. Over the years they've been set off repeatedly but due to the ice they never deployed fully and instead just grind at glacier speeds through the ice. When the party passes these half-triggered traps (making the entrance shallow and requiring the party to line up), have one blade suddenly snap several inches forward before getting stuck once more.

What once was a water drowning trap now is just a large block of ice, protruding from its basin in the wall. Of course, this sheet of ice likely has moved down a bit (every water trap has sloped sides so that the water flows faster), resulting in again, the passage between the sheet of ice and the drop off down onto metal spikes being narrow.
Any old, simple traps like dropping cages and rocks have all been triggered over the past., some hatches are open, some remain stuck, appropriate drops lying on the ground. Cages empty and broken of course since whatever it was that got caught in it has since died and been eaten, or animated. The empty, open drop hatches can harbour frost spiders or something similar, waiting for passing prey before pouncing down.

>>10815355
Dangit, you already thought of frozen over traps. Now I repeated it in vain.

>>10815549
I like this very much. Drop the PC's into a pit trap, they fall ten feet down onto a block of ice, spike clearly visible at the bottom. Rolling boulder goes waaaaay off course, thanks to slippery floor. And then, once they're deeper in, another pitiful blade trap, after sloooowly breaking out of it's icy casing... brings down sixty tons of ice.

I want to keep them on their toes, and "hilariously" non-functional traps seems like a great way to do so.

The PCs are descending a flight of stairs when one of them slips and falls, he skids to a halt right before he would have slid off of a ruined balcony and into the abyss below.

>>10815642
But you gave specific examples, expounding further on what has come before!

So yeah. You contributed valuable ideas. Pat yourself on the back.

>>10815722
And stolen. Simple, yet dramatic.

These ideas are awesome. Should this be archived, you think?

>>10815835
I dunno. I copypasted it all to a google document, because I thought sup/tg/ was down.

>>10815549
Oooh, I thought up more to this. Once the party has moved deeper into the fortress they get closer to where the dwarfs are, or have been. The dwarfs not being stupid realized that their traps would freeze over too, and become useless, thus they build new traps where they would not freeze over to keep their new habitat save. A clever party member could notice this (depending on how smart your players are you won't need to drop any hints, errr on the side of not hinting at it) and speak hope to his friends... only to have the place empty, left behind for even deeper tunnels. This could allow for a nice moment of the party getting hopeful, dodging working dwarven traps and having their hopes dashed at discovering that the place is devoid of living dwarfs. Would be a good spot for resting, maybe after a fight. There would probably be a source of food in underground flora and fauna, water in a small basin, the floor would consist out of makeshift coffins which are nothing more than just holes in the ground over which covering stone slabs serve as the floor.

>>10815723
No time to pat myself on the back, too busy thinking up ideas and telling the sandman to fuck off with his sleeping sand.

>>10815855
Note: These deeper tunnels and rooms have been mined out hastily, at all points a dwarf fits through without problem, but the width and height changes constantly, the slope is treacherous, the path rough, the dwarfs wanted to get to warmth quickly and quality mattered none.

Another kind of iced over trap

Regular pit traps with spikes at the bottom, which have already been triggered and iced over.

So the players walk across this floor of ice, able to peer through it and see a couple bodies impaled on the trap beneath them.

>>10815855
Yeah, screw that guy. If I wanted sandy sheets, I'd go back to Hawaii.

But I like that psuedo-safe area. No civilization yet, but a good place to recuperate from the (hopefully) stressful icy upper levels.

Though I don't think they'll much enjoy finding the dwarves- The dwarves need "Volunteers" for the Underdark Janitorial Squad.

The foul bell tolls out and a huge icicle comes crashing down.

(I started with warmth stealing revenge spirits and I think I'm starting to degrade)

>>10815937
And if too many people stand over the relatively thin ice to gawk at the impaled corpses? Well, I guess the trap wasn't useless after all. But that's a great suggestion for atmosphere- show the players the lethality of this place without it being, well, lethal.
>>10815943
Forgot my OP tag.

>>10812118

Have an ad-hoc state of human survivors carve out a living in the darkened halls of the dwarves only to have the state implode in on itself when the PC's arrive.

>>10815990
Well, I really liked the warmth-stealing revenge spirits. And I think that bell is going to drive the players mad. Perhaps if they dare crossing the ice lake, they can find the accursed thing.

Closer to the entrance, shortly after entering the place, they walk through a grand dining hall.

Naturally, this dining hall was decorated with hanging chandeliers. Which are now covered in tons of ice.

Which are dangling precariously over them.

The bell suddenly rings, the one above them begins to creak and crack. The players manage to escape it's path, but it crashes through the floor, leaving a seemingly bottomless pit as it crashes down further and further.

If you're going to have the bath house warmed slightly by lava flow, have humans or other intelligent creatures already living there.

There are some animals about, yeah. And fungus and moss for food. Water of course. And a few sentient people. Of course, they've been there for years without contact. And they don't like the idea of someone moving in and taking their warmth.

>>10816022
>Hohum, falling chandelier, how cliche can you ge-
>Crashes through the floor and keeps on going...Forever

Okay. That, I was NOT expecting. And neither will the players.

>>10816005
Decent idea, but I think I want to convey the idea that these halls are wholly unsuitable for sustained sentient life... or even sentient life that's "just passing through."

A long, trap riddled tunnel leads out of what was once a grand dining hall. Most of the traps are long tripped or worn down. Most. Strangely, it seems that many of those set off would kill things behind them rather than themselves. If the players follow it out, they find that it is actually an escape tunnel and they are on the other side of the mountain/

Surprised no one has brought this up yet.

Ice Golems.

Seriously, they seem like they'd be a staple of the setting.

Also, make a hallway filled with frozen dwarves.

Like FILLED with frozen dwarves, so they have to break the corpses to get through, it'll mess with your players for sure.

>>10816040
Already put down Bath house as the Cavebear's lair, though your idea is quite logical.

I think the only sentient creatures in the hall are going to be the orcs (They're orcs now) in the Library.

Parts of the city, though it should be long abandoned to the elements, appear to only have been abandoned a few days ago. There is little ice and frost in these areas and these places appear randomly, and seem to shift location. Frozen over buildings the part passed hours ago are looking fresh and tunnels and doorways that were clear off ice, whether naturally or through the party's efforts, have resealed, with different passageways opened in their place.

OK, if you don't want some people living there already, have some corpses

Specifically, in the warmer rooms. The lava heated bath houses. A body or two is just huddled close to the warmth, his body shriveled and long dead, having decided to just lay there next to the warmth and starve. Better to die warm than suffer endlessly through the cold. He could have a journal as well, detailing his thought process. At first he's all like, "Fuck yeah. I can spend the night here keeping warm. Look for passages deeper down tomorrow." Next day. "Looked around a bit, didn't find anyway lower. Decided to stay here another night." etc etc, until it ends with him blissfully starving to death as he dies next to the heat.

>>10816086
Very good. I was trying to think of a way out besides going up the cargo lift or out the entrance, and you just gave it to me. A good escape route if the PC's get in over their heads.

>>10816094
There are Ice golems, for sure. I think the thing on (not in) the lake will be one formed out of frozen gore.

And the frozen dwarf hallway is deliciously twisted. I love it.

>>10816143
Or have him grow crazy, instead of eating the animals he kills he starts offering more and more food to an entity he believes exists in the cold darkness. As the animals in the city and his own food supplies are gone due to the sacrifices he starts amputating parts of himself as sacrifice.

As an added Oh Shit factor, have their be no remains of the food or amputated bits around him...and no animal tracks in the snow anywhere nearby.

Have a few scenes where dwarves were fighting over food.

Like, hardcore fighting.
There's a few dead dwarves with daggers in them, most were stabbed with icicles, and of all the dwarves...

One, badly cut across the stomach, dragged his bleeding self over to the pile of food, and died trying to gorge himself.

All the food is frozen.

>>10816141
I might do this Ice-trickery if they attract either the Ice Golem or angry spirits. Doing that without some immediate justification would probably not impress my players.

>>10816143
That's a sad journal. But, It'll have notes on the city- quite useful for any would-be explorers!

A few little things and then I'm done:
Mention places where the ground has shifted' hallways don't quite lineup, columns cracked, doorways warped to the point where the doors can't be opened, magnificent mosaics in fine tile now reduced to a pile of broken ceramics littering the floor. Time and the harsh elements have not been kind to this place. Not even in the depths can you truly escape the grip of icy death that holds the world to the point of strangulation, all is falling to ruin, even if it takes thousands and thousands of years to do so.

The group comes to the end of a hallway with a large two door doorway. The doorway is slammed shut tightly. If the players bust their way in, they find frozen dwarves on the other side who had frozen solid while holding the door shut. They all look terrified of whatever was on the other side. The side the PCs just came from.

>>10816245
Sounds like he might have created the Blood Slushie Golem with all his sacrifices.
>>10816254
Might make this the crowded room. Or not. Depends on how much the PC's explore, I guess.
>>10816268
Whatever it was, It's long gone. Probably.
>>10816263
Alright. Good description of damage caused by expanding ice, I like.

Hah. This thread turned out pretty epic, for having such a slow start.

>>10816329

Let them find thick fur coats in alright condition. Helps keep them warm. Nothing malicious. Just something nice for them to find.

What are you planning once they get deeper to warmer areas?

>>10816380
Well, if they go all the way down, they'll find a greatly diminished population of dwarves that is all that remains of this Clan. They've cleaned out enough of the Underdark to have a city, of sorts, powered by lava tubes and fairly secure, but the dwarves are highly xenophobic- if they let the "outsiders" into the city, they won't be letting them leave, as the could jeopardize the secrecy of the cities location.

So basically, they'd have to escape from a Dwarf fortress to get back to the surface world.

>>10816457
Why? Between living in a relatively safe, and WARM city and struggling up in the frozen wastes, I'd choose the city.

>>10816485
They're not the sort to like living underground.
One's a Gnollish Ranger( so the dwarves will trust him even less than the others)
One's a roving beast summoner(Actually doesn't mind the permawinter)
One's a viking sailor with a sabretooth sidekick (No sea or stars underground, and Fluffy doesn't like it here)
And one's a Deeply undercover demonic Imp under orders to trick these chumps into breaking the hold a rival demon has over an aboveground city

So yeah. Also, the Dwarf city is a slightly horrible Totalitarian Dictatorship.

>>10816485
Inbred, xenophobic, hick dwarves who "don't take kindly to folk that ain't from 'round these parts." Won't let you leave and don't want to use any of the meager resources available to the dwarves. They would try to have you as underfed, overworked slaves.

OK OP
HOW ABOUT THIS

THEY GO TO SLEEP

ONE OF THEM DOESNT MENTION SPECIFICALLY HOW THEY SLEEP

THEY WAKE UP WITH THEIR FACE STUCK TO THE ICE, LIKE A TONGUE TO A POLE

>>10816579
Pretty much this. Well, the thread seems to have wrapped up fairly well, so I'm going to go to sleep. And NOTHING is going to stop me!


Thanks for restoring my faith in /tg/, guys.

>>10816598
I laughed.

>>10816598
And I am now laughing too hard to get to sleep

Dude, Dorf Zombies. Only then will your players know fear

>>10816627
ZOMBIES

EXCEPT THEIR LEGS ARE FROZEN IN ICE

SO THEY'RE IMMOBILE

EXCEPT FROM THE WAIST UP

You could surprise them pretty badly, the PCs I mean

They walk up, see a couple frozen bodies

ALL OF A SUDDEN, ONE GRABS AT THEM

It can't move from it's spot though, seeing as its legs are frozen in ice, but it will keep trying to grab and bite them.

Man, that would surprise the players badly.

Is someone archiving this? Please?

OP,

Run them through the ruined horrors of Boatmurdered. There is nothing more worthy of becoming a dungeon of epic tier. Elephantine behemoths guard the very pass leading into its ruined, smoke belching maw. Traps long thought sprung still lurk. Mandrills brave the unholy blight merely to harass the party from any rest. Bodies and more litter the halls. Deep within, behind the miasma-choked river, in the bowels where forges once lay, a darkness waits...

I'm honestly shocked noone in this thread bothered to mention one of the most frightening things you can run into.

A troupe of Undead skeletal Rhesus Macaque.

Alternatively, carp.

"I'll just lean over and take a drink from this magma warmed pool of waOHGODITHASMYFACEJESUSCHRISTGETITOFFME"

>>10814488
If you're sick of canines, why not use something similar to what >>10816696 suggested with the mandrills. Or maybe /pic related/ if you're feeling particularly evil.

I think little primates like that could be a nice addition to the setting. I mean, they're menacing - and downright vicious - but no OMG ELDRITCH ABOMINATION overload. The little bastards will be mischievous, periodically nicking the party's stuff, which will give them an incentive to hold onto those few torches ;)

Throw in the aforementioned legally-blind-but-still-capable-of-fucking-shit-up superpower suggested for the doggies, while you're at it.

>>10816245
Make it so he was offering food to the wandering Psionic impression. He thought he was offering food to a diety of warmth, instead the twisted spirit was slowly sapping him of his vital energy as he offered up the last of his food in supplication.

Just so you know OP, I am jacking the FUCK out of your campaign setting.

>>10817866

It's not OPs setting, brah.

/tg/ made this one a while back.

herp

Party looks down tunnel, first glance nothing but ice covered walls and snowy floor. Character in the front walks into clever gelatinous cube hiding in plain sight.

>>10816019
On the subject of Ice Bells:
Perhaps as they progress further into the fortress, the bell will sound occasionally. Every time they defeat a significant enemy or reach a milestone, as if someone was watching them from deeper in the fortress.
And as they cross the frozen lake, have the bell sound as they're in the middle of it.
"Agh, that stupid bell keeps stunning us! At least it can't hurt us."
*K-K-KKRRRAAACCK*
And then the ice starts breaking.