D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Frozen Reckoning: Cells of the Frost Worm

# Wilderness# Dungeon# Intrigue

Deep within the glacier-carved peaks of the Spine of the World, a subterranean prison complex known as the Ice-Ward holds political dissidents, monstrous aberrations, and a secret that could melt the frozen north. The prisoners—some innocent, some monstrous—are kept frozen in stasis by a network of geothermal pipes that ironically both sustain and imprison them. A rogue Frost Worm, ancient and intelligent, has begun tunneling through the prison walls, offering a chance for chaos and freedom. You are convicts, exiles, or opportunists who must navigate this crumbling frozen hell, choosing which prisoners to free and which systems to preserve, all while two desperate factions vie for control of the prison's future.

Chronicle Prelude

The players begin in the Thaw-Hold, a large, damp cavern warmed by a geothermal vent. It serves as the main hub for a mixed group of prisoners and guards who have banded together for survival after the Frost Worm's initial breach caused partial structural failure. The air smells of wet stone and ozone, and the constant, distant rumble of the worm's boring echoes through the tunnels.

Environmental Traits

The Ice-Ward is collapsing. The Frost Worm's tunneling destabilizes the ancient glacier, while the melting geothermal pipes cause catastrophic flooding in lower levels. Players must escape the complex, but their choices regarding the prisoners, the factions, and the worm itself will determine the fate of the entire region. The ultimate goal is survival and escape, but the 'how' defines their morality.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (8)

Warden Commander Vorlag
A tall, severe human male in scarred plate armor bearing the Iron Wardens' insignia—a broken chain over a glacier. His face is weathered, his eyes cold and calculating. He carries a heavy war pick.
Collective Leader Nyra
A charismatic half-elf woman with sharp features and an intense gaze. She wears a mixture of ragged prison garb and scavenged leather armor. Her voice is compelling, often used to rally the prisoners.
Engineer Tharik
A gaunt human male with soot-stained hands and a perpetual look of worry. He wears a tattered Iron Warden engineer's uniform. He is huddled in a corner, constantly checking the walls for vibrations.
Worm-Singer Kira
A pale, slender figure in a tattered robe, sitting motionless in a stasis cell. Her eyes are closed, but she seems aware of her surroundings. Strange, rhythmic tattoos cover her arms. She emits a faint, cold hum.
Swarm of Ice Mephits
A chittering cloud of small, crystalline elemental creatures that coalesce and disperse. They radiate an aura of intense cold, and the water around them freezes into jagged patterns.
Frost Worm Larvae
Pale, segmented worms the size of a human arm, covered in a slick, freezing mucus. They burrow through the slime lining the tunnel walls, reacting with violent twitches to vibrations and warmth.
Gorth
A hulking goblin with mottled grey-green skin and large, scared eyes. He is hunched in a crude cell, trying to make himself small. Despite his monstrous appearance, he radiates a palpable aura of anxiety.
The Frost Worm
A colossal, worm-like creature fused with the crystalline geothermal reactor. Its body is a segmented mass of ice-blue chitin and shimmering crystal, easily sixty feet in diameter. Its maw is a cavern of grinding, glacial teeth. Waves of intense cold and heat radiate from its body.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

The Goblin Plight of Rivervale and the Cryptic Mine

The Lost Workshop: Heart of a Raging Core