Adventure Sites 3: Bones of the Mountain

​For S&W, Level 5
By Jakub McFarland
Every full moon, seven wights rise from their icy slumber, ride down from the Black Mountain, in dark cloaks, on giant wolves, and reave the valleys for young woman to sacrifice to their evil goddess. Their leader wields a glowing red-silver sword and wears a brilliant diamond-studded crown.
A mad Sherpa raves: the black riders dwell in a dark fortress that looms on the cliff face of the Black Mountain. He has seen it. He can guide you there for a hundred gold coins.
   Confession time, last contest my #1 pick didn’t get first or second prize, although I did love the ones that did medal. But for me, my heart belonged first and foremost with the wild and energetic DRAGON LAIR Pit of the Red Wyrm, by one Mr. Jakub McFarland. So when I saw he’d once again blessed us with a submission this year, I was stoked. Then I read the overview (copied above)…
   …and I was even more excited. This thing’s story is mythic, all about seven undead riders from a snowy mountain fortress ravaging the lands once every full moon. What more do you need? Add in that their king appears to be in possession of a sentient greatsword named Bloodrime and they serve a mysterious dark goddess, apparently the consort of Ymir…heck yes, let’s do this thing.
   I had a few issues with this map at first, but upon a bit more reflection, I like it. There seems like only one path through on first glance, but having two rooms with upper galleries gives us nice climb options, plus there’s a secret room (5) with a hole going upward. Couple with the fact that the one way up visible from the outside on approach (12) has a concealed door leading out…there’s some good exploration here. Otherwise, it’s a nice scale for a site, just big enough for exploration and atmosphere (17->18 just screams “portentous encounter ahead”). Love the cliffside setting, not sure if the side-view was needed but it is classy.

​   I want to highlight that one map oddity, the pair of X’s along with the weird-looking cage square below them. That’s a floor-trap, leading to a chute, which in turn dumps the victim(s) into a tight cage hanging off the side of the cliff holding a ghoul, who takes two rounds to wake up from hibernation. That’s a great trap right there, slightly Rube Goldberg, but not entirely without reason (sacrifices being exposed on the mountainside seems to be a theme). Most of the other environmental hazards are slips and slides on ice, but hey, that’s fine for a site this size. Witchfire, another environmental effect, is neat…it can set mundane swords alight with ghostly green fire that also lets them deal damage to the more resistant monsters present.
   Our main bad guys are undead (not just the seven wights, but also draugr underlings) along with worgs and a giant spider, so despite being given a ton of flavor, there’s not a lot of interaction with most of the random encounter table or the room occupants consisting of “fight” or “march ominously then fight”. A welcome change of pace is a rival adventuring party…a pair of werewolves looking for the evil sentient sword. That’s a great NPC pair, particularly with them being “friendly, slow to trust, duplicitous, covetous”. Treacherous, obviously evil, but the kind of rivals that could join in on the boss fight is needed. And the tactical situations are nice and complex in multiple rooms, that’s neat.
   The aforementioned captured maidens are unfortunately less “NPCs” but more treasure, 100gp per rescue. They’re otherwise demoralized and not going to help, poor gals. Seven wights as the endboss means you’re going to lose some levels, so there’d better be some treasure in compensation, right? Well, there’s 1.2k in maidens, 2.1k in necklaces and worg-collars, 3k in lanterns-held-by-wights, and a 4k diamond crown on the boss-wight. Otherwise your see a nice silver dagger, ivory pens, and the werewolves’ gear. Feels slightly light for the threat level. I like the magic items that are here (wire spectacles acting as wand of clairvoyance, plus evil sword), but they feel slightly light here as well. None of this is terrible for level 5, but my gut is “treasure on the light side for 5” while it’s “threat on the heavy side for 5”. GM beware.
   This is a site that’s easy to place in any high mountain filled with undead-riddled ruins, and can be modded a fair bit too. I know I’m putting it in my campaign map. Just probably want to run the numbers on your XP hauls.