D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Hull Beneath the Frost

# Wilderness# Nautical# Dungeon# Intrigue

Beneath the perpetual ice of the Shivermere, a colossal, frost-worm-bored river of slush conceals the petrified hull of a sunken galleon, the 'Aurora's Lament'. The Frost Worm, a territorial leviathan, has unintentionally carved a labyrinthine path to this ancient prize. Two desperate factions now converge: the River Wardens, who seek to harvest the hull's 'Warmth Core' to save their dying homeland from a magical winter, and the Hull Reclaimers, descendants of the ship's crew, who worship the vessel as a sacred tomb and demand it be left undisturbed. The worm is not a mindless beast, but a territorial guardian with its own, alien claim to the hull's energy.

Chronicle Prelude

The campaign begins in the small, wind-scoured settlement of Iceclaw Perch, perched on the cliffs overlooking the frozen Shivermere. Smoke rises from half-buried longhouses, and the air tastes of salt and despair. The people here are gaunt, their hope as thin as the ice they dare not tread upon without the Wardens' guidance.

Environmental Traits

The regional crisis is the encroaching 'Everfrost', a magical blight that is slowly freezing the land solid, killing crops and sealing away water. The Warmth Core, a relic from the sunken Aurora's Lament, is believed to be the only countermeasure. However, disturbing the hull risks awakening the Frost Worm's full wrath and desecrating a site sacred to the Hull Reclaimers. The players must navigate the frozen river, the worm's tunnels, and the competing claims to decide the fate of the hull—and the region.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (8)

Warden-Chief Elara Frosthand
A gaunt woman in her late forties, her face weathered by wind and worry. She wears practical, layered furs over boiled leather armor, bearing the blue-and-silver insignia of the River Wardens. Her eyes are sharp, calculating, and etched with the ghosts of difficult decisions. She carries a finely crafted, but well-used, hand-axe at her hip.
Elder Theron Stonevoice
An imposing man, broad-shouldered and solemn, clad in ceremonial robes of grey and white over a mail shirt. A thick, braided beard is adorned with small, carved bone charms. His hands are steady, and his gaze is one of unwavering conviction. He wears the Silver Sunburst of Ancestor's Vow prominently on his chest.
Varg 'The Scarred'
A wiry, weathered man wrapped in piecemeal armor made from the chitinous plates and teeth of various beasts. A network of old, pale scars covers his exposed skin, most notably a vicious one across his throat. His eyes are constantly moving, scanning his environment with a predator's focus. He smells of tanned hide and alchemical reagents.
Spectral Captain Alaric
A translucent, shimmering figure in a waterlogged, archaic naval uniform. His form flickers with an inner blue light, and the outline of the cabin behind him is visible through his body. He bears a noble, sorrowful countenance, and his voice echoes as if from a great distance, accompanied by the faint sound of creaking timbers and distant, icy wind.
Ice Mite Swarm
A skittering, chittering mass of tiny, pale, translucent crustaceans, each the size of a thumbnail, that move as a single, flowing entity. They swarm over walls and ceilings, leaving trails of frost. Their collective mandibles click with a sound like cracking ice. They are drawn to warmth and will engulf anything that moves.
Juvenile Frost Worm
A horrifying, segmented worm, twenty feet long, with a carapace of thick, blue-white ice. Its head is a radial maw of grinding, icy mandibles flanked by smaller sensory tendrils that taste the air. It moves with surprising speed, burrowing through solid ice as if it were water, and can expel a cone of freezing vapor from its gullet.
The Ancient Frost Worm
A colossal, primordial horror, easily eighty feet from tail to maw. Its body is a living glacier, studded with frozen debris from its centuries of tunneling. The heat of the Warmth Core chamber has caused massive, sloughing plates of ice to fall from its flanks, revealing darker, denser chitin beneath. Its multiple eyes burn with a cold, ancient intelligence, and its presence fills the chamber with a palpable, crushing pressure of absolute cold.
Lissa, the Disgraced
A young woman wrapped in a threadbare cloak, her face gaunt and eyes wide with a mixture of fear and cunning. She has the bearing of someone who once had purpose, now fallen on desperate times. She flinches at loud noises and constantly scans the settlement, as if expecting to be dragged away.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

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