Muestreo de cosecha y tratamiento de datos

The ice marches ever forward. Its progress is slow enough that most folk pay little mind to it. A borderlands town receives slightly increased snowfall year after year, but not enough to raise an alarm. Rangers and hunters who venture into the cold wastes probably never notice that their journey to the ice shelf takes a few min- utes less with each passing winter. Finally, the ice wall reaches a forest, river, or other land- mark. Sages consult maps and are shocked to discover that the last time the king’s men took a survey, the ice was dozens of miles farther to the north. Finally, a winter passes into summer and snow remains on the ground. The summer never grows quite warm enough to melt it. From the town wall, a sharp-eyed observer might note the glacial ice just over the horizon. With time and complacence as its greatest weapons, the ice has conquered yet another ter- ritory.

This trait allows you to imbue an arctic region with a guiding malevolent force. The ice marches forward, though literal-

ly at a glacial pace, to conquer the world. In time, it will cover all but the warmest climes. The key to the ice’s success lies in what appears to be its greatest weakness: its slow pace. Year after year passes with little change, lulling the civilized folk into complacence. By the time they realize the ice’s threat, it may be too late to turn it back. Worst of all, the ice works to destroy all who would oppose it. While at its borders it moves slowly, within its interior it moves with a frightening speed. Explorers who camp for the night awaken half- trapped in ice. The unlucky ones never wake up, their corpses sealed within frozen tombs. When faced with intruders, the ice works in subtle ways to destroy them. It grows to trap sleeping travelers, or forms empty spaces cov- ered with thin ice that they can fall into. In bat- tle, the ice forms small pits and bumps to trip its enemies and leave them vulnerable to the horrid yetis and ice fiends that dwell upon it. Usually, a powerful evil figure drives the development of a sentient, malevolent ice field. The god of snow and ice might push it forward, particularly if he is an evil being who repre- sents the insidious, destructive nature of the cold. A powerful archmage, probably a lich who has spent untold millennia in an arctic region, could work a mighty spell that gives him control over the land. In this case, a band of heroes could drive back the ice by defeating the being that controls it. The ice could have an inherently evil quality, making it a force driven by its own will rather than the machinations of some outside force. In this case, a powerful artifact, ritual, or spell may be necessary to defeat it. Perhaps the ice forms massive spires that transmit its will to the edges of its domain. By smashing these constructs, the characters can turn back the encroaching cold.

In any case, the monsters and beasts that dwell upon the ice usually work with it. Yetis, arctic orcs, demons, and similar monsters might directly obey its orders or, influenced by the aura of evil upon the land, unwittingly seek to further its aims. After all, creatures of the arctic lands may welcome the prospect of spreading their domain farther south. Human, elf, and dwarf barbarian tribes could lead the charge towards the equator, venturing out to smash civilization and thwart any plans to defeat the ice.

As the characters journey across the ice, they must watch for the environment’s attempts to hinder their progress. The ice is as cunning as it is evil. It might shift gold, gems, and other treasures trapped within it to lure explorers into dangerous areas, such as patches of thin ice that conceal frigid pools or bottomless pits. The ice can alter its structure to shift and move objects embedded within it. A powerful lich might dwell within a tower that remains encased in the ice. When he wishes to leave his lair, the ice drives the tower above the surface. Later, it can engulf the tower to keep it safe from attack or to foil intruders.

In terms of game mechanics, a set of hazards represents the malevolent ice’s effects on a party’s journey. Each hazard gives information on what the ice can do to directly injure the party and how it can move and alter its struc- ture to prepare its defenses and march against the world.

Minor encroaching ice has a limited ability to

change its form and actively oppose explorers. At this level, the ice moves forward at a slow but steady pace. A mindless, supernatural process rather than a malevolent, driving force could explain the ice’s behavior. The world could be cooling naturally, ushering in an ice age. The arctic zone might grow due to the presence of gates that allow frigid, planar ener- gy to flow into the world. When faced with an alien source of heat, the environment naturally seeks to preserve itself by driving away intrud- ers or killing them. It takes these actions out of self-preservation much like an intelligent forest may attack a party that lights a fire. Druids who seek to preserve the arctic regions against civi- lization’s encroachment might work to imbue an icy area with this trait, as could a group of nature spirits or fey with similar aims.

Minor Encroaching Ice (CR 1/2): Fortitude

save DC 10; 1 hour interval; –1 modifier/inter- val; 1d3 cold damage; Special: Apply this haz- ard only to characters who sleep or otherwise remain in one place for the listed interval. If a character remains asleep or otherwise motion- less for several hours, he may become trapped in the ice. When the character awakes or tries to move he must make a Strength check with a DC equal to 5 plus 2 per consecutive hour he remained motionless. A freed character can assist with this check or can make one against the DC to chop a PC free. Characters with

CHAPTER NINE: Arctic Terrain

CHAPTER NINE: Arctic Terrain

weapons can hack away at the ice, freeing a character if they inflict 5 points of damage per hour the trapped victim remained motionless.

Moderate encroaching ice manifests the first

glimmers of evil or conquering intent. It seeks to slowly absorb the southern regions, as it extends its reach ever farther. The ice moves faster and with a more malevolent intent, and it sometimes creates traps for unwary travelers. Caves that look like promising campsites turn into deathtraps as they seal shut over night. Few creatures dwell on the ice shelf aside from those that have adapted to the cold. The influ- ence that controls the ice could originate with an ancient lich buried within it, a cult that wor- ships a powerful evil god of ice and cold, or a polar civilization that wants to extend its grasp to the south. The ice works in relatively subtle ways, and the civilized climes may be unaware of the threat it poses.

Moderate Encroaching Ice (CR 2): Fortitude

save DC 15; 1 hour interval; –1 modifier/inter- val; 1d4 cold damage; Special: This hazard functions as per the minor encroaching ice threat, though the Strength DC needed to escape it equals 10 plus 2 per consecutive hour the victim remained motionless. Otherwise, the rules given above apply.

Major encroaching ice drives forth like a con-

quering army to transform the world into a frozen tomb. The glaciers move forward at an alarming pace. Within a decade, they can swal- low a small town whole. Creatures that venture into this region may have the strange feeling that something with malevolent intent keeps watch over them. Tumbling rocks and ice, col- lapsing passages, and pools of freezing water hidden beneath thin layers of ice all lie in wait to claim adventurers. This trait invariably finds its genesis in a driving, rapacious intellect. While the other strength levels of this trait might be spawned by natural or uncaring forces, this version is always formed by an evil intellect.

Major Encroaching Ice (CR 4): Fortitude

save DC 20; 1 hour interval; –2 modifier/inter- val; 1d6 cold damage; Special: This hazard functions as per the minor encroaching ice threat, though the Strength DC needed to escape it equals 15 plus 2 per consecutive hour the victim remained motionless. Otherwise, the rules given above apply.

In addition to the threat posed by growing ice, a region with this trait can spontaneously pro- duce passages and cracks in the ice. It can cre- ate a 5-cubic-ft. space in an amount of time determined by the trait’s strength. See the ice growth/reduction speed table for details. By the same token, it can close off these passages at the same rate. If you want to figure out how long it takes to form a cave or similar space, draw a map of the area on graph paper with each square equal to five feet. For each square the mapped area contains, it takes the time list- ed on growth/reduction table. For higher ceil- ings, multiply the number of squares by the height divided by five. If you want to be very exact, you can separate the squares into groups by how high the ceiling rises above them, fac- toring the time needed for each area.

Ice Growth/Reduction Speed

Strength Time Damage Str DC

Minor 1 minute 1d4 10 Moderate 30 seconds 1d6 15 Major 6 seconds 1d8 20

In addition to forming and closing passages, this hazard may crush characters. If a PC remains in a 5-ft. square long enough for the ice to fill in that area, he takes damage as per the ice growth/reduction table. Each round, the trapped PC must make a Strength check as a full-round action to escape. If he fails this check, he cannot move and takes the listed damage. Trapped characters lose their Dexterity bonus to AC but gain cover from the ice. They may cast spells without somatic com- ponents and even then only with a successful Concentration check (DC 20). A trapped char- acter can receive assistance to his Strength check from freed allies. A free character can also make a Strength check (DC as per the growth/reduction table) to rescue a trapped vic- tim. If the party deals 20 point of damage to the ice in one round, the trapped character is auto- matically freed.

The moderate Strength ice counts as a CR 1 obstacle, while the major level is CR 3. Use these CRs for each encounter that includes the growing ice as an obstacle. For each character attacked by the ice, count the hazard as a sepa- rate trap of the appropriate CR. For example, attacking each member of a party of four at the same time counts as four CR 3 traps combined into one encounter. These CRs are separate from the ones listed for the hazard stat block

CHAPTER NINE: Arctic Terrain

CHAPTER NINE: Arctic Terrain

effects. If you use both versions of encroaching ice, be sure to award the party XP for both of them.

In addition to crushing characters or trapping them in sealed caverns, the force behind this effect might drop chunks of overhanging ice on the party and make other attacks against them. You can use a set of generic hazards and traps to represent these attacks.

The encroaching ice trait is deceptively power- ful. The ice could continually attack the party, setting up traps and obstacles or simply sealing them in a long passage into a glacier. Remember to use the CR guidelines from the core rules to keep track of how many encoun- ters are appropriate for the party each day. Perhaps the ice has a limited amount of psychic or arcane energy it can expend each day, pre- venting it from going all out to destroy the party. The key to using this trait lies in present- ing the characters with enough obstacles to rep- resent the danger in this region while never overwhelming them. If you think of the obsta- cles and traps as monsters with the same CR, you can accurately gauge how many you can set against the party each session without unfairly destroying them.

Falling Ice: The malevolent force behind

encroaching arctic realms can use its ability to grow and shrink its domain to drop giant blocks of ice on to intruders. An icy overhang shudders and twists, showering the area below with heavy chunks of debris. The ceiling in an ice cave cracks, dropping a huge block onto an unlucky character. The stat blocks for a variety of these effects are presented below and orga- nized by CR. Treat them as traps that cannot be disabled. The encroaching ice does not rely on mechanical processes to trigger its hazards. Rather, it simply times them to cause the most damage possible. The falling ice table lists the CR, damage, attack bonus, and targets or area of effect for a variety of hazards. If a hazard has a dash listed for its attack bonus, it automati- cally hits its targets.

Falling Ice Attack Area of CR Damage Bonus Effect

1 1d6 +6 1 target 2 1d8 +8 1 target 3 2d6 +10 1 target 4 2d6 +12 2 targets 5 4d6 +10 1 target 6 6d6 +15 1 target 7 6d6 +15 2 targets 8 8d6 +20 10-ft.-by-10-ft. area 12 12d6 — 10-ft.-by-10-ft. area 13 18d6 — 1 target

Ice Pit: As the characters travel across an ice

shelf, the demonic force that controls the land can weaken the ground and form concealed pits that the party can tumble into. Use the stats for pit traps as presented in the core rules, except that a thin layer of ice that shatters as a PC walks across it covers the pits. Depending on this trait’s rating, it might be able to form pits in the midst of an encounter. While the PCs fight off a monster, a pit forms around them to trap them as they fight.