ADV3 - Mt. Ridnitsokha

Natural steam vents, water drainage, and the activity of intelligent agency have created a few tunnels from the edge of the glacier to the center. The twisting maze is home to a group of Yeti that hunt the mountainside near the valley, though they rarely enter it. They will follow the PC's into the caves, but if they make it to the rift alive, they will not pursue them. If the PC's follow the flow of water, they will eventually come to the exit, 30ft up the wall above a shallow pond. If the PC's jump in, or if they slip and fall, they will find the water surprisingly warm and pleasant. 

The Sylvan Forest: Surrounding the ruins is a large river which appears to flow into itself perpetually, and even includes a couple of dramatic waterfalls that make no topological sense. Crystal bridges cross the river in a few places. Most of the forest is strongly Fey, but as long as the PC's remain on the trails, they should be alright. Faerie Dragons, Dryads, Displacer Beasts, Awakened Trees, Cockatrices et cetera all call the forest home, and have little concept of a world beyond the ice walls or the passing of time. There is even a circle of brightly colored, sun-dwelling myconids. When the occasional monsters from outside blunder in, the forest creatures usually wind up killing them or driving them off pretty quickly. The various creatures are descendants of the creatures created by the Elves for their own inscrutable purposes, and none of them have an outside agenda beyond existence. 

Certain parts of the forest have acquired an evil cast, because a Night Hag named Forekstraka has come through the gate. She now lives with her Oni mate Kereghurk, periodically risking the armors in order to travel through the gates. Hunted by her enemies elsewhere, she found the glacial rift uninhabited by its owners, and now it is a nice home. She knows how the gate works, and may be willing to trade information on it. They will polymorph themselves into elves, and attempt to mislead them into a trap just out of sheer malicious spite. She also has a pair of pet hell hounds, and is served by a tribe of Unseelie fey... treat as Goblins with Gnomish special abilities - Minor Illusion, Speak with Animals, etc, . These parts of the woods are inhabited by Will-o-Wisps, Shambling Mounds, Blights, and worse. 

The Ruins: The Elven ruins are largely collapsed from the effects of time, though the gates themselves are still intact. Everything is overgrown with vines, like a garden grown amok. Foundations of smoky crystal, graceful arches, pillars with worn relief art, all can be found in great quantity. Within crystal sarcophagi, elven bodies can be seen entombed inside solid gemstones. Eventually, the PC's will find evidence of intruders coming through the gates - mostly bones and bits of armor and weapons scattered about. Some of great age, some more recent, and some unidentifiable. Nothing newer than decades old can be found. Intruders are usually dealt with by Animated Armors, but as time goes by, fewer of these defenders remain intact. They will attack the party as well, unless someone with Elvish ancestry orders them to stop - in Elvish. 

Like many Elven ruins, this site was a small settlement, a manor of sorts too small to be destroyed in the cataclysm, and too isolated from the outside world to be interfered with.  The main "building" is simply a gracefully covered hexagonal pillar with doorways on each face. Most of the doorways are simply to rooms that are actually located in null-space. Most of the rooms are quite mundane for an extradimensional space, though the fabric of reality is getting a bit weak in some of them. Each room except the gate room has a series of doors that connect it to the other rooms. All of the rooms are overgrown with vines, and covered with leaves and detritus, showing signs of neglect. Throughout the complex are small light globes which produce a soft clear light when in the presence of a living being. If removed from the complex, only 1 in 6 will still function, but they are quite valuable as gems. 

Interior Conditions - Elven "Animated Armor" is lighter and faster - AC-16, +6 to hit, and 1d8 slashing and piercing damage due to the rapier blades on the arms. Even worse, they "Blur" when on the attack, making attackers suffer disadvantage.  It is quite sleek looking, but will be useless once defeated. There are several such armors in the complex. Now and then, creatures wander in from the forests outside, and if they don't do anything to the furnishings, the armors will not harm them. Likewise, the servitors who maintain the site have long since wandered away. 

1. Living Room - Assorted crystalline furniture, all quite delicate looking but extremely strong. Some of it is smashed. In the center of the room is a small crystalline globe, the equivalent of an entertainment center. Activating it requires an Arcana check. Anyone attempting to use it without making their Arcana check first will take 1d6 psychic damage as a result. Success allows it to be used as a Scrying spells once, but requires a short rest before using it again. Used as a focus, it gives Advantage to any divination spell cast while peering into it. 

2. Bedroom - Actually there are several sleeping chambers here, each one with more crystalline furniture and a bed. Adjacent to each one is a small pillar with three seashells. If two of the three are touched, an unpleasant reaction will remove all waste from the user's body (CON save or stunned for 1d6 turns), while the third will leave the toucher feeling quite refreshed (advantage on CON saves for one hour). 

3. Armory - More of a security room than simply an armory, this room holds four "animated armors". In various displays are the harness of an Elven knight. A suit of adamantine scale armor (crits are normal) of uncanny design sits on a rack, and an Elven greatsword enchanted to give Advantage on any attacks against aberrations, but no bonuses. Finally, there is a Helm of Warning, functioning like the Weapon of Warning on p.213. All of these items had many enchantments, long since faded. The Animated Armors will obey the wearer of the Helm, so long as commands are given in Elvish. 

4. Gallery - More crystalline furniture and food preparation surfaces, and some indestructible Mithril plates, bowls, and dining utensils scattered about the floor. These are individually quite valuable, if they can be gathered up. There is a single large cabinet for food storage, with fresh meat inside, preserved by Elven time magics. 

5. Dining Room - A table and chairs similar in design to other furniture, seating for ten. On a small table along the wall is a mithril and several goblets.  The bottle holds holds Elven mead. Once opened and removed from the valley it will soon decompose into sweet but mildly toxic syrup. While fresh, a glass will heal 2d6 in damage, and refresh as a short rest once per drinker per day. The bottle holds eight drinks worth of mead and is quite valuable on its own to collectors.

6. Gate Room - All of the stairways to the gate room arrive through the same gate, while exiting through that stairwell will take a person only to the room they desire... if more than one person is within sight of another, the stairway simply leads to the central pillar. This is a round room, with several portals - each one a mithril archway with small steps leading up to it. Using the gates requires one of the "key stones", which are stored on a shelf in an antechamber. All of the gates are out of tune, and anyone going through must make a DC-15 CON save to avoid 1d6 psychic damage and being stunned on arrival. Trying to use the gates without having a "key stone" results in the above shock and stun, plus the phase spider will follow them and attack them out of preference to others within an hour or so. 

   1. • Gate 1: Deoron Gate - If PC's arrived from here, then substitute this valley for Saridorn's shift realm. It has been sealed off from Deoron.

      • Gate 2: A gazebo located deep in the mountains at the center of the Mayhar Peninsula, not far from a hobgoblin city. It is a single destination gate, returning to this location. 

      • Gate 3: A malfunctioning gate will dump the traveler into the Ethereal Plane, though unless the character is a planar veteran, it will be hard to tell. It is possible to get lost here. The gate will appear as an identical gateway in the mist behind the PC. After the first time the gate is traversed, anyone in the room will be attacked by a phase spider.

      • Gate 4: Ruins similar to the Deoron Gate, but located in Taohuan territory. More dangerous due to local conditions, the area is at war. 

      • Gate 5: A strange complex, similar to the Deoron Gate but located on the moon Quarten. The sky is visible through a crystalline dome, but the surface of Quarten is essentially the Plane of Fire... Djinn, City of Brass, the whole bit. 

      • Gate 6: A gazebo located in the desert in Uthman lands, in the southern reaches.