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 look at immortality and eternal youth at the Cave of Eternity.
Atzal, Cave of Eternity
Atzal is a mythical cave, located deep within the mountains. It is said it can only be found by those who are on the last day of their life, but given that it is so difficult to find, most creatures die before reaching it. Further, where everyone has heard of the Fountain of Youth, few have heard of the Cave of Eternity. Any creature that dies in the cave is reborn the following morning, fresh of body, and mind.
Lay of the Land
Atzal lies deep within the mountains, hundreds of miles from the nearest point of civilization. Legends persist of its existence, however, brought by wanderers and bards. While the path can be found, the entrance to the cave cannot, unless a creature is dying (is at 1 hp or has the dying condition, at the GM’s discretion). Even powerful magic such as true seeing cannot penetrate the veil that lies over the cave.
Once inside the cave, a visitor will find that it is a crystal cave, bathed in rainbow-colored light that emanates from the crystals embedded in the walls and ceiling. Scattered about the cave are the skeletons of various creatures, all preserved perfectly, though, with no flesh left on them, most clad in funerary clothes. Once a creature dies, after 24 hours pass, a new body is created, as per the clone spell except that the body is real. The new body has all the memories of the dead creature, including spells, experience, and personality. Once they leave the cave however, they will forget everything about how they got there in the first place, leaving behind their old corpse.
Dangers
The cave itself has one, unknown danger. If a creature tries to use the cave more than once, then the second time they arrive, all the skeletons animate and attack the creature. Each skeleton is infinitely more powerful than a normal skeleton though, having the stats of a Bodak. Given that there are hundreds of skeletons in the cave, it is unlikely that a dying creature would survive the onslaught. If they are killed by the skeletons, then they pass into the afterlife as normal. Should a creature defeat the skeletons then the process continues as normal. This has only happened twice before since no one knew of the effect, but both of those were caught unawares, as they had forgotten the path and the location of the cave.
Kim Frandsen
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- Finder’s Archive – Crypt of the Eternals - June 2, 2023
