Rigodruok-the Rainbow Vale

It is clear to any student of the natural world that the ebony fields of ice which cover the northernmost tip of the Oerik continent are no natural phenomenon, but are almost certainly magically produced and sustained, much as is the Sea of Dust. Quite simply, the towering wall of blackened ice that greets the northbound traveler ought not to persist. Even ordinary snows and ices do not remain on land over summer at such latitudes, as may be clearly seen in the case of the Icy Sea, which breaks up each spring. What is more, dark ice is particularly vulnerable, since it gathers the heat. It is a common practice in northern cities for merchants to scatter ashes on their doorsteps to melt the ice, a tactic that works well even in the weak winter sun. Given such a magical nature, it is hardly surprising that strange tales abound from such a region. Of these one of the odder but more reliable is that of the Rainbow Vale, Rigodruok.

Some years ago a fragmentary document was recovered from Blackmoor Castle which gave substance to the widespread accounts of a land “beyond the black ice where the sun never sets.” While a firm description of the land itself was lacking, the parchment gave explicit directions for finding it among the wastes of the Black Ice. This information fell into the hands of one Sormod, a merchant and adventurer from Perrenland who was visiting Eru-Tovar, where the parchment surfaced for sale at the bazaar. The romantic Sormod mounted an expedition as soon as he could gather the backing, and departed from Dantredun in Richfest of CY 453.

In CY 460 there surfaced in the city of Greyhawk a volume purporting to be the personal journal of one Henriki Ardand, the expedition’s magician. Whether true or false, it is a most marvelous tale. Henriki tells of the difficult passage over the sooty ice, where the expedition was endangered by subterranean hot springs of the same sort that underlie Blackmoor. These apparently weaken the ice and make passage over it a risky business, apt to result in a sudden downward drop as a cavern collapses under the weight of travelers. In places too, there are small volcanoes which blacken the snows newfallen on the ice. Between these dangers and the jumbled areas of collapsed ice, as well as certain “iceworms” (most probably remorhaz) and the hostile dark-furred bugbears of the region, the progress of the expedition was rather slow and several members were lost or refused to go on. At last, however, they reached a range of low peaks jutting just above the ice as their directions had described. What greeted them on the other side must first have appeared to the surviving members to be a paradise. Henriki calls it the Rainbow Vale.

After a region of mists the explorers saw before them a green and fertile bowl of land, warmed and lighted by a sunlike body floating half a mile above its center. Several large islands of land likewise drifted about it, some of them large enough to hold small rivers whose cascades of droplets caused Henriki to name the valley as he did. Below the miniature sun was a central lake, beside which the members of Sormod’s group could see several clumps of broken reddish towers.

Sormod and his band descended the steep cliffs into the valley’s forests, passing first through birch, fir, and sablewood, then through oak and beech woodlands where they stopped to gather uskfruit and yarpik nuts, then past magnolias and fig trees, and down to the shores of the lake where they found palm and deklo trees flourishing in the steamy heat. Curls of vapor could be seen rising from the area of the lake beneath the valley’s illuminator. They camped beside one of the skyborn waterfalls near the ruins they had seen from the valley’s rim, and discovered to their surprise that the buildings were of deeply rusted iron. Finally they pitched camp. Perhaps exhausted by the long journey, or drowsy in the unaccustomed heat, the watchmen slept.

Sormod’s party was neither particularly weak nor poorly equipped, but they had little chance unwarned against the sudden onslaught that overtook them: goblins, bugbears, and giant spiders, some of the latter of astounding size and speed and fiendish intelligence. The camp was scattered, and Sormod, Henriki, and the other survivors watched in horror as their companions were bundled away and hauled up on ropes of spider-silk to the nearest of the floating islands.

Henriki and the others managed to regroup, and for some weeks they cautiously explored their surroundings. They discovered a group of human primitives who evidently worship the spiders and their humanoid henchmen, and they also found many inexplicable constructions of metal and glass in the ruins. Without their equipment they did not wish to risk an overland journey, but they discovered from conversations with one of the friendly cavemen that there was a tunnel leading southward which eventually would reach the surface. Assured of an escape route, they mounted a raid on the sky-island to which their companions had been taken, using Henriki’s remaining powers. They discovered no sign of their comrades, but they did find some very large statues of spiders in a grove beside the spider- village, each decorated with large diamond eyes. They took these and fled.

The long passage southward through the tunnels claimed yet more members of the group, in some cases to heat exhaustion as they passed the warm springs. Eventually, however, they emerged south of the Black Ice at the headwaters of the Fler. From there they passed through the Burneal Forest, where Sormod was lost to a poisoned arrow in a dispute with forest tribesmen. The survivors (including Henriki, a priest of Pharlagn from Schwartzenbruin, and two Wolf Nomads) divided the treasure between themselves and dispersed, none willing again to risk the terrors of the land beyond the Black Ice.

Notes to the Dungeon Master

The chief inhabitants of the valley are goblins, bugbears, giant spiders of various sorts, and the subject cavemen. DMs with access to Oriental Adventures rules may wish to add bakemono and goblin spiders. Creatures from almost any climate zone might be added to the list. The whole valley is rich in diamonds, and the spiders and their allies have a number of magical items salvaged from the ruins.

Sources of knowledge concerning how to get to the region could include the survivors of the expedition or their descendants. The origin of the valley needn’t be explained, at least in the initial series of adventures. The passage at the headwaters of the Fler will be difficult to find without a long search and probably impossible without directions. It is in hex Y4-56. Rigodruok (the cavemen’s name for it, and the name on any old sources giving directions to the place) is in W4-51.