About the Spire

Entombed beneath the desolate, windswept tundra lies the shattered spire of an elegant tower-a grim relic that tore away from the magnificent Netherese sky-city of Ythryn when it plummeted from the heavens nearly two thousand years ago. The once-proud spire fractured into jagged, twisted fragments as it plunged deep into the unforgiving earth, embedding itself in a grotesque, inverted position. There it has languished for countless centuries, sealed beneath suffocating layers of pristine snow and impenetrable ice, a tomb of frozen desolation.

The powerful Netherese wizard who dwelt within the spire's arcane chambers did not endure the catastrophic crash. Yet the wizard's enchanted shield guardian-a stalwart magical construct-not only survived the devastating impact but also methodically carved its way through the dense, compacted earth, excavating a narrow, treacherous tunnel that grants passage to the spire's shadowed interior. Until recently, the gaping mouth of this subterranean passage lay concealed beneath thick, accumulated ice and snow. After escaping the spire's confines, the weary guardian wandered into the forbidding, snow-capped peaks of the Spine of the World, where it eventually came to rest and fell dormant, its purpose fulfilled but its final resting place lost to the eternal wilderness.

Set up

Dzaan instructed his simulacrum to remain in the spire and ordered Krintaas, his wight bodyguard, to watch over it. The simulacrum is keen to activate the rune chamber on the lowest level (area P16), because this room's magic can transform an illusory creature or object into a real one (within limits).

The simulacrum thinks it can use the rune chamber to turn itself into a flesh-and-blood clone of Dzaan, but activating the chamber requires a life-spark, which the simulacrum does not possess. Krintaas, who also lacks a life-spark, is impatiently waiting for Dzaan to return and quash the simulacrum's efforts to test the rune chamber. Neither the simulacrum nor Krintaas is aware that the real Dzaan is dead.

When the characters show up, Dzaan's simulacrum is ecstatic. Finally, some potentially helpful living creatures have arrived! The simulacrum will bargain, befriend, threaten, or do whatever else it thinks might work in order to get one or more of them to accompany it to the rune chamber. If the characters know that the real Dzaan is dead and convey that information to the simulacrum, it becomes even more determined.

Once it learns that Dzaan is dead, Krintaas does whatever it takes to make sure the simulacrum gets the life-spark it needs to activate the rune chamber.

Approaching the Spire

A colossal, twenty-foot-high spur of jagged stone juts violently from the desolate tundra ahead, rising at an unsettling, razor-sharp angle. Its unnaturally smooth, gleaming surface-polished to an eerie, mirror-like sheen-stands in stark, almost profane contrast to the crude, windswept wilderness surrounding it, as though thrust into the frozen earth by some catastrophic, otherworldly force. The stonework itself reveals intricate, labyrinthine carvings and meticulous honing across every surface, a testament to masterful, deliberate craftsmanship-definitively not a natural formation, yet impossibly sophisticated, transcending the capabilities of any mortal mason or earthly artisan.

A character who examines the protrusion can make a DC 15 Intelligence (History) check to discern its nature. (The dwarves' Stonecunning trait can prove useful here.) On a successful check, the character can confirm that the stone is neither naturally formed nor manually hewn, but rather shaped by magic. If the check succeeds by 5 or more, the character also discerns that that the protruding rock is of the top of a larger structure that continues underground.

Slippery Entrance

Characters who search the area around the protrusion find a slippery, 5-foot-diameter tunnel that enters the ground at a steep angle, then winds down into the frozen earth. A character moving through the tunnel without the aid of climbing gear or magic must succeed on a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check or slide uncontrollably to the bottom, landing prone in area P1 but taking no damage. Characters can forgo climbing and simply slide down the tunnel, with a similar result. Getting back to the surface requires climbing gear or magic.