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 drink the liquid of life at the Bloodfell Caves.
Bloodfell Caves
The Bloodfell Caves have a horrific reputation. Walls drenched with blood, caverns overrun with vampires and other foul creatures. The vengeance of an angry god, and a curse upon the land. All these have been attributed at various points to the Bloodfell Caves. But they all fall short of the miraculous and terrible truth that is hidden here.
Lay of the Land
The Bloodfell Caves stretch out for approximately a mile, beneath an unnamed mountain range, hidden in the far eastern sections of the world – so far away that most of the world believe that it is beyond the rim of the world. There, beneath the crust of the world lies an ancient corpse, that of a long-forgotten god, one so titanic that it dwarfed any creature or deity alive today. Its leftover lungs are what form the Bloodfell Caves, while the red liquid that coats the inner and deepest sanctums of the caves is the lifeblood of gods. Anyone who manages to find the caves will have gone through obstacles that cannot be imagined by most mortals – dragons, titans, and more will have stood in the way of the intrepid and powerful.
Down in those depths, the tunnels still convulse with a semblance of life, often resembling earthquakes, but in reality, the eons-long death throes of the god – one that cannot be resurrected, but which still struggles futilely to stay alive. The tunnels not only move, but act like arteries – constantly moving, and sometimes leading the brave further along, or pushing them away, seemingly at random.
Dangers
The Bloodfell Caves themselves pose only a danger through the convulsions (dealing damage as if the creature had been swallowed alive by a purple worm, but without a way of getting out). As such, only those truly powerful, well-protected, or tough make their way through the tunnels to the inner chambers, where they are safe once more.
Once there, they will feel a virtually irresistible urge to drink the red liquid that has gathered in pools around the chambers – an effect that works like a suggestion spell, but with a save DC of 50. The liquid will have a different effect on each creature that drinks from it, but the power is equivalent to that of a wish spell. Creatures that have drunk the liquid are granted their innermost desire, and for the next year, they become nigh-immortal, gaining regeneration 5 for the next year. However, if they reach 0 hit points at any time during this, they automatically fail any saving throws and die on the spot. They cannot be resurrected, as the unnamed god consumes their soul, and clings on to life that little bit longer. Creatures can only be affected by the fluid once in their life, and while they will have dreams and nightmares about the Bloodfell Caves for the rest of their lives, they will never be able to find it once more. (All divination attempts on the area automatically fail for all creatures and all non-magical attempts at locating the area by anyone who has been there before automatically fail as well).
Kim Frandsen
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