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 seek to stave off hypothermia while traveling the Arctic Flats.
Arctic Flats
The arctic flats are a large area (some 50 miles by 100 miles) of extreme cold, with the temperature never going above -20 degrees Fahrenheit, but it wasn’t always this way. Beneath the snow and ice can be found trees and even farming land that was once arable, but a few years ago, the climate suddenly changed, and everything froze to ice within a matter of weeks. Since then, the temperature has remained extremely low and the people who lived there have been forced to migrate away to warmer pastures.
Now the only creatures that seem to be in the area are those that have migrated from the far north, to seek more lands and territory. While those creatures are the only ones seen, there is one more occurrence that has perplexed those who moved away: A monolith of ice has risen in the middle of the area, that reflects all light cast upon it.
Lay of the Land
The arctic flats are just that, flat, but not featureless. Abandoned farmhouses, frozen fields, and forests of iced-over trees dot the landscape, even a frozen marsh can all be found on the flats. It is however almost impossible to find dry firewood by now (though some of the farmhouses might still have small stashes left). Furthermore, a number of animals have migrated south, mostly polar bears, elk and other sturdy animals, who manage to survive off the lichen that has started to grow, and what little grass can be found underneath the snow and ice.
Dangers
The main danger of the arctic flats are the natural predators that hunt the area, especially the polar bears, who are even larger and more aggressive than normal, though packs of wolves are present there as well. The closer one gets to the ice monolith though, the colder and less sparse the land is, and when you’re about 10 miles away from the monolith, there is no more wildlife either, and everything is covered by a thick sheet of ice and snow.
At that point, however, it becomes extremely dangerous, as the area is patrolled by groups of gelugons, ice devils, who patrol the area in groups of 5, slaughtering and killing everything. In this area, the temperature drops down to about -60 degrees Fahrenheit.
Inside the ice monolith, which at this distance is evident as an iceberg, can be seen a single shadow, namely the archdevil Levistus (who has made appearances in most versions of Dungeons and Dragons, but in Pathfinder has had his layer of the Nine Hells, Stygia, taken by Geryon and so, has never appeared until now). Levistus has escaped the Nine Hells but has yet to manage to escape his icy prison. To this end he plans to capture and control adventurers, using his gelugon army, to steal spells, magic and any artifact that might assist him in setting himself free. Anyone who succeeds in freeing him is richly rewarded, as befits an archdevil, but any who fail must face his wrath.
Kim Frandsen
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