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This tale was recorded by the dwarven scholar Velhus while he was in residence in Haven. The speaker, an ork warrior named Gargah, left Haven soon afterward for more civilized regions to the south. What follows is Velhus' transcription, though some Orkish slang has been translated into the closest Throalic equivalent.
"How we found it, I don't know, though I admit Lurg had the eyes of an eagle. Somehow he picked out the entrance to Kaer Allaig out of miles of snow, trees and rock; we could've searched for it for months without finding it.
"The three of us made our way... yes, just the three of us. Just me and a pair of trolls; Drekken and Lurg Kelhelm, may Garlen watch over their spirits. Lurg led the way to the Kaer, but it was Drekken, the elder, who gave the orders. What I was doing mucking around with a sky raider I'll never know, and as you'll see, I would soon regret it.
"We were already far up into the Caucavic mountains, higher than I'd yet climbed. The Kaer was up even higher than us, but that was nothing a few good hours of hiking couldn't fix. As soon as we reached the entrance, we knew something was wrong, but it wasn't until we went inside that we figured it out.
"At first, we thought that the door to the Kaer was just gone, ripped off its hinges. We looked around for a bit and found it - in pieces, under a thin layer of snow. Frozen bits of wood were all over the place. We could only guess that the door was frozen and hit with something really, really hard.
"Drekken went in first. We let him. He fell on his face ten feet down the hallway. Under the layer of snow, the floor of the Kaer was a thick sheet of ice. It was hard to tell, but the ice was at least a couple inches deep. Not only that, but the ice ran up the walls and even covered the ceiling.
"After that, Drekken kept his balance pretty well, using his axe to help steady himself when he stumbled. Lurg just walked along like he was on plain rock. Me, I slipped so many times I gave up and just used a pair of daggers to drag myself along on my knees. Drekken wasn't happy about all the noise I was making, but it was better than me landing on my rear every other minute.
"Finally we got down to one of the main chambers. A couple of light quartz crystals were still working, hidden above a sheet of ice. Under the ice on the floor, you could just make out the figures of a dozen or so trolls, frozen stiff.
"Now I'm no thin-skinned elf, but that's when I started to get really cold. `Drekken', I said, `What's wrong with this place? It shouldn't be this cold!'
"`You knew what this would be like, Gargah,' he replied. I looked over at Lurg, who just shrugged. I knew this was too cold for him, but he wasn't about to say anything.
"Drekken checked out the hallways as Lurg and I checked around the frozen trolls. Some still had their eyes open, some looked like they were still moving. None of them even had a mark on 'em. Spooked me out.
"I called over to Drekken and said, `Watch yourself Drekken. These trolls died real fast. This one's sword never even hit the ground.' Drekken just gave me a dirty look.
"Lurg and I kept along behind him; I almost started to learn to walk on that damned ice. We came to another room of frozen figures; looked like it might have been a garden once. A few hallways joined here, and Drekken went off to check 'em out. Lurg went off to dig up something in the ice, and I just stood there looking at one of the standing, frozen trolls.
"He was old, with a long beard and wrinkled skin. Still had his sword in his hand too, though I'm not even sure if he knew what hit him. I just kept looking at him, wonderin' how it might feel to live in a shell of ice like that.
"Then something happened that I'll never forget. I'm no coward, but there's some things a sane Ork should never see. The fear that hit me was worse than any Gahad I've ever felt; it was like something just came up and took me by the throat. `Lurg,' I said, `over here.' He came over and stopped dead in his tracks.
"The troll had blinked. And he did it again when Lurg showed up. Dammit, that thing's been standing there for years, maybe decades, alive...
"I couldn't even think enough to try to free him. I managed a loud whisper to Drekken, but he just looked over and frowned. `Drekken,' I said more loudly, `we've got to get out of here...'
"Then the real cold hit. A wave of ice blew out into the room, covering everything. Drekken shrieked as it covered his body. But worse than the ice, it was like the heat was being sucked out of us. Lurg was already running and I followed, but I couldn't keep my feet. I couldn't feel my right hand, so I just dragged myself along with a dagger. Lurg came back and dragged me to my feet; I looked around to see Drekken for the last time, losing his struggle to the ice. Lurg pulled me out of there and the two of us stumbled back through the kaer.
"I kept slipping and falling, but Lurg kept dragging me along. I cursed my dead hand a hundred times before we got to the kaer entrance. We felt a last blast of cold on our backs when we got there, and Lurg dropped me in the snow and started running. Jumped right off the cliff at the edge of the path. I got to my feet, muttered a prayer to Thystonius, and hurled myself off of the cliff. As I went over, I only had one thought in my mind: Lurg had better know what the hell he is doing.
"Well, he did. We landed on a bank of snow and slid down a few yards; I shook my head and wondered that all my bones weren't broken. We got out of there quick, cause we didn't know if that thing might try and make the leap, too. Lurg led the way down and out of the mountains; I just stumbled along blindly until we reached the plains. After a few more days of travel we made our way back to Haven. Oh yes, there were dangers along the way, but a few crazy ogres and an espagra or two were nothing compared to that Horror.
"My hand? That blackened and died; I had a healer cut it off and add this handy hook. Lurg said it wasn't from Horror magic, he'd seen that happen to fingers and limbs of people who spent too much time exposed in the higher reaches of the mountains. Still, I wasn't about to take any chances.
"Lurg and I parted ways when we got back to Haven. I knew he'd return to that kaer, cause I had the same nightmares; that image of Drekken, trapped in the ice, screaming without a sound. He managed to put together a good pack of trolls to join him after boasting about piles of treasure and the like. He knew I wouldn't go and I didn't even bother trying to convince him to stay. He did, however, take the one gift I gave him; a Tlani suicide dagger I'd carried all the way from Kratas.
"It's been three weeks since Lurg left; I don't expect to see him again in this world. I just hope he got to Drekken before the end."
Icebringer has a base of 20 karma points; he can increase this value to a maximum of 40 using his Karma Drain power, but he cannot maintain this amount of karma for over a day. After twenty-four hours, Icebringer loses any karma he has gained over his base of 20 points.
Icebringer feeds off of the continual pain of victims encased in the ice, keeping them alive with Sustain Life and turning their pain into karma. He keeps no more than twenty victims under his thrall at one time; normally, he only drains one point of karma from each victim per day, until he has reached his maximum karma of 40. The use of Sustain Life requires that Icebringer take a point of permanent damage for each victim under his thrall; thus, Icebringer's death rating ranges from 150 down to 130 depending upon the number of Name-givers trapped in his lair.
Icebringer has been known to keep his victims alive and entrapped for years, continually thriving off of their misery. Though his victims still feel pain, Icebringer's Sustain Life power removes their need for heat and stops them from accruing continual damage from ice entrapment. Despite his best efforts, his victims eventually die; when all in an area are dead, he moves on to a new location. Certainly, all of his victims go completely insane after years of entrapment. Any Name-giver who has lived past his or her natural lifespan will die within minutes of being freed from Icebringer's sustaining powers.
Icebringer's deadly Cold Wave power comes directly from his enslavement of a series of elemental water spirits, summoned using his Elementalist abilities. Only one water spirit is summoned at a time; Icebringer drains its powers until the spirit is destroyed. Icebringer will lose his Cold Wave power after the spirit dies and before a new one is summoned. The water spirit can be found trapped in a cage of elemental earth somewhere in Icebringer's lair.
Physically, Icebringer resembles a large bluish-white bloatform. Hundreds of puckered mouths sprout from all over his body, some only inches wide, some well over a foot. His cold wave attack emanates from these mouths. He attacks physically by thrashing with a pair of large pseudopods, though he normally prefers to use his Cold Wave attack whenever possible.
Icebringer's greatest weakness is his lack of speed; it is possible to flee his slow moving bulk, though he will still attempt to Horror Mark fleeing Name-givers. Because of his physical form, Icebringer cannot be knocked down.
Icebringer's true name is unknown; he was given the name "Icebringer" by the survivors of his attacks.
Game Mechanics:
| DEX: 20 STR: 16 TOU:
20
PER: 16 WIL: 18 CHA: 12 |
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| Initiative: 26 | Physical Defense: 25 |
| Number of Attacks: 2 | Spell Defense: 20 |
| Attack: 20 | Social Defense: 18 |
| Damage: 25 | Armor: 17 |
| Number of Spells: 2 | Mystic Armor: 21 |
| Spellcasting: 25 | Knockdown: N/A |
| Effect: 26 | Recovery Tests: 10 |
| Death Rating: 130-150 (see text) | Combat Movement: 20 |
| Wound Threshold: 30 | Full Movement: 40 |
| Unconsciousness Rating: Immune | Legend Points: 98,000 |
| Karma Points: 20-40 (see text) | Karma Step: 15 |
| Equipment: None | |
| Loot: None (Icebringer does not carry any sort of treasure with him, although some might be found in his lair) | |
| Powers: Circle 10 elementalist (no fire spells), Terror 15, Horror Mark 16, Karma Drain 16, Cold Wave 16, Sustain Life 15 | |
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