Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Finder’s Archives.
In this column, we take some of the lands from Magic: The Gathering and turn them into something you can use for your fantasy games.
The stats given in each entry assumes that you’re using Pathfinder 2 for your games, but they can easily be converted over into any fantasy system. This week we mourn the loss of natural beauty and wonder, as we traverse the Blighted Cataract.
Blighted Cataract
A few years ago, the blighted cataract was one of the marvels of the world. The largest waterfall known to civilization could be found here, and its waters powered hundreds of dwarven forges and fed tens of thousands with fresh water for drinking. That stopped the day that the duergar put up a dam, intending to harness the waters for power. Their intent: To build a god.
For years they had toiled, all in preparation of the day that the dam would be completed. So secret was the project that anyone who found out about it was either put under a geas to not reveal what was going on (if duergar) or outright killed (anyone else). And none knew what had happened the day that the waters stopped flowing, as the duergar had kept their presence a secret. What’s more, the duergar, in spite of their hubris, SUCCEEDED in creating a god: The Enslaved One. But, creating the god was far easier than keeping control of it. And within a few days, it all went bad on them. The magical manacles that they had fabricated were torn off, and the Enslaved One laid waste to everyone around it, before escaping the bonds of the material plane. Now the dam is destroyed, with only rubble lying behind, but where water once flowed freely, only ash and dirt now fall, in grim imitation of the original waterfall.
Lay of the Land
The blighted cataract was once a beautiful waterfall, but now the river runs only with ash and dirt, a steady stream of ash and dust cascading over the side of the mountain in a constant flow. The remains of a magical dam are here, blown to pieces in a cataclysmic explosion, one that tore holes through the very mountain itself. Not a living thing moves through this area of its own free will, as there is nothing left of vegetation or water.
Underneath lies a sprawling expanse of a duergar city. At its height, it contained nearly 10,000 citizens, but now, most of it lies in ruins, and only some 300 survived and are eking out a living. Most of those who remain have suffered deep mental scars and have fallen into a deep depression, from which they can find no escape. This makes them an easy target for manipulation from their new master, an Immortal Ichor. It directs them to clear larger areas of the old city, and forces them to breed – it has a decades-long plan to repopulate the duergar city, and it doesn’t care HOW it’s done, as long as it happens. It needs the city for its plans to come to fruition.
Dangers
The blighted cataract’s most dangerous occupant is a bit of blood left behind when The Enslaved One left. It has taken on intelligence of its own, but unlike normal Immortal Ichors (PF1, PF2 – treat as a herald of blood for 5e) it is not interested in being reunited with the god. It has ambitions of its own, starting with enslaving the remaining duergar population (who are the other major threat in the area) and using their crafting skills to create an empire or make it into a god as well. The duergar themselves fear the Immortal Ichor but can do little to resist, as it is much too powerful, and their most powerful heroes died fighting The Enslaved One.
Kim Frandsen
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