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 or 5e for your games, but they can easily be converted over into any fantasy system. This week we look into unusual happenings at the Celestial Colonnade.
Celestial Colonnade
The location of the Celestial Colonnade varies from sighting to sighting, due to the fact that it’s not so much a location, as it is an enormous and migratory creature, an elemental of incredible power. The creature predates the arrival of humanity in the world, and many believe that it was created directly from the primordial chaos of Limbo, rather than from the four Elemental Planes. This seems to be corroborated by its unpredictable behavior and movement pattern. It’s been impossible to predict where the creature goes next, though thankfully it moves at such a glacial pace that the communities and peo0ple that would be crushed by it have plenty of time to get out of the way.
Lay of the Land
The Celestial Colonnade resembles a living conglomeration of pillars created from the four elements of earth, fire, water, and air (though the latter usually resembles clouds, as opposed to the pure elements of the other three types of columns). It is close to 400 feet tall, though when near large concentrations of one of the four elements (apart from the air), it grows in size, with that element taking precedence, such as becoming much taller (upwards of 800 feet) when near an ocean with the composition being mostly water, or when near a mountain with most of it being earth and stone.
The creature appears intelligent but has never engaged anyone in conversation. Even should it wish to, its mode of speech might be as slow as its pace of movement, which would require years for even a single sentence. So far, it has ignored everyone — even the small village of people who have taken up residence on one of the large (and stable) earth chunks on its back.
Dangers
The Celestial Colonnade is large enough that its feet are able to crush houses and city walls, but it moves very slowly, so the risk of being destroyed in that manner is small. However, sometimes attempts are made to divert the creature from its course, and that carries the risk of being engulfed or hit by one of the elements that make up its body. Some people have also tried to mine the creature, in some cases successfully, as the earth it uncovers as it travels along often contains precious and rare minerals. Regrettably, apart from a single chunk on its back — that is taken up by a village of rather crazed druids who worship nature in all its forms, and who believe that the Celestial Colonnade is their god — the composition of the creature is very unstable, and elements change from one type to another with only a few minutes warning. Even then, it is unpredictable as some chunks have persisted for days, weeks, and decades, but eventually, they all dissolve or condense into one of the other elements. It is unknown whether the “village chunk” is truly stable (in which case it might be the creature’s heart or brain) or if it is just on a much longer scale of change than everything else. Only the crazed villagers who live there seem willing to take the chance. It should also be noted that these villagers strongly discourage mining “their chunk” and will attack anyone who tries to do so, often with powerful spells. Those individuals trying to exploits the uncovered minerals have therefore learned to avoid doing so near the village.
And that concludes this week. Which element do you prefer?
Kim Frandsen
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