plant unlike anything else found in the Ninth World. This thick brown and blue tree produces spheres of an organic resin about the size of a human head as though they were seed pods, but they are always hollow.
The branches of the tree are wispy and ephemeral rather than substantial, more energy than matter. These branches extend up to the sky at night and don’t seem to end. And in a way, they don’t. Anyone who climbs to the top of the 15-foot (5 m) trunk and wills himself into the branches is carried up and disappears. Some believe this to be a means of traveling to an entirely different world in almost no time. No one knows the details of this other world, or whether the traveler has a choice of multiple destinations. If any people have ever gone and safely returned, they kept quiet when they did. Sound Motes: Slow-moving bits of sound
wend their way around Yrkallak, undetected until someone with the ability to hear them comes within immediate range. The creature (or recording device) then hears the incongruous sound for a few moments before it moves off. The sound motes range from titanic booms like the collapse of a mountain to shrill shrieks to tiny, whispered words. Gravity Twist: This is an area in or around the fortress where gravity and time have been wedded in a disturbing manner. When matter first enters the area, the pull of gravity is so slight that it is almost repelled from the earth. A few seconds later, the force increases to three times normal, yanking the matter to the ground with a sudden pull. Then the process repeats.
That’s bad enough by itself, but because the perimeter of the area is not fully defined, it’s common that not all of a creature or object will enter the area at the same time. Thus, one portion of the creature or object is repelled, while another is yanked downward.
Gravity twists are usually about 10 feet (3 m) in diameter, but their size can vary. Strange Corpses: For unknown reasons, some of the truly unfortunate creatures killed by the Iron Wind here do not decompose. The remains of their twisted, transformed bodies lay where they died screaming, with heads stretched for yards like taffy, limbs changed to metal, flesh turned to fluttering insects trapped in twists of muscle and bone, and other parts burned, wretched, shrunken, pocked, or simply missing.
Blue Seepage: Objects throughout Yrkallak sometimes sweat a thick blue liquid. This liquid seems to enhance the mental faculties of most intelligent creatures that come into contact with it (adding 5 to a character’s maximum Intellect Pool), but the effect lasts for only about two days. After it wears off, the affected character must sleep for 28 hours straight. If the blue seepage is collected and stored, it degrades into a level 1 poison that inflicts 1 point of Speed damage.
Gravity twists are level 7 effects.
Characters caught in a gravity twist must make a Speed defense roll. Success means that they manage to escape the twist before suffering any bad effects. Those who fail must make a Might defense roll. Those who fail that roll are slammed to the ground, take 1 point of damage, and continue to take this damage until they escape. A character who has different portions of his body affected in different ways—probably the result of a GM intrusion—suffers 3 points of damage per round, and the difficulty to escape is increased by one step.
Baraguin: level 7, stealth as level 8; health 28; Armor 4; projects gouts of energy up to long range in combat; if killed, she explodes, inflicting 10 points of damage within short range
You can read Lady Charalann’s account of the approaching Iron Wind on page 135.
YRKALLAK HEARSAY
Bathers: A group of beings that seem to be human has arrived recently in the nearby village of Mourthor. They are interested in going to Yrkallak and claim to need to bathe in the energies of the Tree of Ascension to restore their health and vigor. They possess no gear or weapons and promise to greatly reward anyone who helps and protects them.
Lightning Strikes Twice: A pair of twin sister oracles arrived at Yrkallak a few months ago and began prophesizing that the Iron Wind will soon return to this location.
THE WEIRD OF YRKALLAK
Possession: A sarrak prowls Yrkallak, but rather than controlling minds, it seems to adversely affect other creatures by forcing them to suffer multiple
personality disorder. Some victims see this as a curse or possession by an evil spirit.
Waves of Heat: Emanating from somewhere within Yrkallak, seemingly random pulses of hot, disruptive energies bathe all within a 5-mile (8 km) radius, inflicting 1 point of damage to living creatures and powered devices. (This is why there are so few animals around the site.) A nano named Oraphis created a device that harnessed these energies to a device within one of the structures. His device immediately began transmitting signals that accompanied the heat bursts to all thinking beings, describing how to create a machine that would counter the energy surges. Oraphis has no idea how or why his device did that. So far, no one is known to have created the energy- countering machine described.
The Southern Wall, page 211
South of the Steadfast and the Beyond lies a realm of cold and year-round snow, most of which lies beyond what is known as the
Southern Wall, a seemingly impassible barrier of ice. Thus, while there are indeed people and cities in this frozen landscape, they have hardly any contact with the more populated
areas to the north. This region experiences very little seasonal climatic change, and its climate might not be entirely natural. It does see a drastic change in the amount of daylight in a given day, with days extending almost without end in the high summer and the sun barely rising at all in midwinter.