[3.5] Iceberg Dungeon Help...

[TheCountAlucard]

My Friday night D&D game has the PCs investigating the appearance of a large iceberg a few miles from the shore. The iceberg is almost the size of a city, and something on it is actively countering mages' attempts to scry on the thing, which is why the PCs are planning on looking at it. However, when they arrived last session at the coastal town the iceberg is closest to, they got a bit of a cold reception. The xenophobic villagers sure didn't seem to appreciate the PCs poking around. Anyway, with any luck, this session will have them investigating the iceberg itself.

I was inspired to do this adventure after reading some Wikipedia articles on some stories by H.P. Lovecraft while flipping through Lords of Madness, specifically the bit about aboleths.

Essentially, the iceberg is the home of a small community of aboleths. In the past, a group of aboleths manipulated the villagers into worshipping them, converting some of the villagers into skum to do their underwater bidding. However, a party of adventurers had found out about their secret dealings and trounced them, and only recently have the aboleths returned.

Anyway, does anyone have any good suggestions for what to have in the frigid tunnels of the iceberg itself? Are there any other "iceberg dungeons" someone has done before, with a map I could steal glean inspiration from?

[OracleofWuffing]

Sounds like a cool idea. What type of PCs are you looking at, here? It might be nifty to use some creative uses of create water to make ice staircases or ladders... Or snow cones.

[Fendalus]

Frostburn has a Iceberg city detailed in the back. That might help a bit, as far as getting ideas goes.

Still, this does sound interesting. Let us know what you end up doing.

[TheCountAlucard]

What type of PCs are you looking at, here?

They're around level seven-ish. We have an elven Scout (archery-focused, but quite capable in melee after having found the Angelwing Razor), a half-fey human Healer (I asked him to trade the SLAs for DR/cold iron), a human Warlock (he flies, and can see in darkness and read any language), and a dwarven Fighter (focusing on dual-wielding axes bigger than he is while wearing heavy armor).

Frostburn has a Iceberg city detailed in the back. That might help a bit, as far as getting ideas goes.

Still, this does sound interesting. Let us know what you end up doing.

Thanks!

[evil-frosty]

Have you ever heard of the mods called Against the Giants? In the second one the party goes against frost giants and you go in iceberg. The map i believe can be found on WOTC map archive thing on there website. In some places ice falls with a random chance of hitting people if they talk to loud and there are skeletons and corpses preserved in the ice as well as magic items(some are completely worthless like a wand with one charge). And you can slip on the ice and stuff(i think at one point you can actually fall in a chasm and just die).


Cool idea:Due to the magic of the aboleths let them have a way to travel through the ice as if they were swimming through it. They could even cast some spells thru the ice while the party cant reach it.

[TheCountAlucard]

Well, bad news, I didn't manage to pull anything together before the session began. I was ready to improvise my way through it all...

The good news? I didn't have to worry about it; the party never got to the iceberg; by the time they were even on a boat, it was 2:00 AM, and everyone was ready to call it a night.

[shadow_archmagi]

Dwarf Fortress suggests: A squirt gun! Pressure plate (or lever) opens floodgates pouring water all over the invaders!

The ultra-low temperatures will preserve them until you get around to mining them out of the ice for loot.

[Fitz10019]

I heard that outdoor ice isn't usually a very slippery, because wind makes it a rough surface. When you step on it, that increased pressure melts the topmost mm of ice, making a tiny puddle on a newly smooth surface, and then you slip on the water.

If all the passages are sloped, then any fireballing should flash-melt the topmost surface of the ice, and a refex save should be required to remain standing.

[Sinfire Titan]

If you've ever played Skies of Arcadia, think Glacia's upside-down ice city. If you haven't, Youtube it.

[TheCountAlucard]

If you've ever played Skies of Arcadia, think Glacia's upside-down ice city. If you haven't, Youtube it.

I'll be sure and look at it, thanks.

One other thing I thought I might ask the Playground about...

In addition to the aboleths, I've got another baddie for this adventure, an aberrant amphibious humanoid named Priest. Only thing is, I haven't actually statted him out yet; the party has seen him a couple of times, but they were smart enough to run away.

I'm kinda wanting to make him an Ur-Priest; how many levels should I go with, and what would be good for the base class? Would half-farspawn be a good template to represent his mutations, or should I just load him up with aberrant feats? I'm wanting him to be a tough challenge for the party, so CR 11-ish. Any suggestions?