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 for your games, but they can easily be converted over into any fantasy system. This week we put on the warmest coat we can find, and head to the Boreal Shelf.
Boreal Shelf
The Boreal Shelf is extremely cold, with the only creatures that live there normally being things like caribou, elk, polar bears, white dragons, and frost giants. So far, that is not particularly unusual for any cold region – apart from it being so cold that even creatures who are immune to cold can actually feel it. Anyone else better avoid the place or they’re likely to die within hours unless magically protected. The cold only seems to affect intelligent creatures in this manner, though animals and beasts are affected by the cold normally. Intelligent creatures feel it far worse, and even at the height of summer, the temperature for them never climbs above extreme cold, even when animals feel warm.
Lay of the Land
The Boreal Shelf consists of some open water areas of heavily salted seawater, a few icebergs, and a tundra area that’s several miles across. At the center of it all stands a glacier, which is constantly surrounded by two types of creatures: ice devils and a small troop of frost giants. The frost giants are clearly the subordinate ones here with each ice devil commanding a small group of frost giants. At the center of the glacier lies a portal, one that is constantly open, and through which blows the icy winds of Stygia – the ice level of the Nine Hells. The Boreal Shelf is a key to a plan of Levistus, one where he is attempting to escape. His efforts so far appear to have avoided the attention of Asmodeus and are partially successful. For the first time in eons, his one hand is free – something which hasn’t happened since he was imprisoned. This fills Levistus with hope, and his worshipers here have orders to DESTROY anyone who gets too close.
Dangers
Ice devils, frost giants, and an ancient white dragon (though this one has been converted to being Lawful by the ice devils), that Levistus fully intends to use as a mount when he escapes. To that end, the dragon is well fed and quartered, and has grown far larger than normal white dragons. In size and power, it now rivals a silver dragon. It is a fearsome beast, and through frequent infusions of fiendish blood, it has become far more intelligent than its brutish kin. It enjoys the situation and will gladly destroy anyone that stands in the way of Levistus’ return.
Kim Frandsen
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