Those who follow the Growling River upstream through punishing hills and parched scrubland will be surprised to find that its source is an immense glacier that fills a valley between two barren peaks. The glacier is unlike ice elsewhere because it melts in moonlight instead of sunlight. During the full moon, the glacier releases a steady stream of pure water. During the new moon, the stream is a mere drip. It is only as cold as the air around it. Fire, magical, or nonmagical, does not affect it. The ice can be cut, but it is as heavy and troublesome to chisel and shape as granite. Regardless, the local half-elves have used it to build a part of their holt (03.31).
The folk in the Cornfields never venture into the water channels within the glaciers. A city inhabited by monstrosities lies suspended in the glacier, and over the years, the glacier’s melting has released more and more of them. The most common monsters are manscorpions, huge red scorpions with the torsos of powerful men where their heads should be. They rarely venture into the Cornfields, but when they do, they come as ravenous hunters.
Hooks
- Why is the river known as the Growling River?
- Does the glacier’s ice exist anywhere else? What is its origin?
- Can any power in the Shrouded Lands melt the ice?
- Why did the half-elves build part of their fortress from a material that slowly melts?
- Tell me more about the city.
- What other monstrosities lie entombed in ice?
- Where do the freed manscorpions dwell?
