To connect the far flung PCs adventure settings and the town they love, Sandpoint, I came up with this item found inside skull crossing.
Wet PaPa Graul's obsession with skulls began when in the depths of Stoval Deep he picked up a beautiful crystal skull. The symbolic connection to the skulls on Skull Crossing even joined in his feeble brain. He eventually found the waterway into the dark control rooms. There he stayed collecting and polishing many skulls with great vigor in an attempt to honor the alpha of his desire the crystal skull.
When the players find his stack of bright white skulls against the powerhouse door they are crowned by the gleaming crystal skull. The four pound item gives off a very soft glow of blue and written across the brow in Thassilonian "Lenses of undeath freeze a door to the halls of hell". When inspected with a detect magic the school of Conjuration is detected overall and transmutation in the hallow eye sockets.
Being within 50 feet the inland waters of Ember Lake, Lake Skotha, Stoval Deep, or Lake Syrantula causes the skull to glow very dim and having any onyx gems within 5 feet causes the eye sockets glow brightly. Placing a gem in each socket freezes a forty foot square platform on the lakes surface as close to the skull as possible. If they are in or on the lake it appears right next to the skull (roll random for side). In the middle of the icy platform is a pair of double doors covering a twenty foot square opening. Unlocked the ice doors need a DC 20 strength check to open each.
Beyond the doorway are steps leading down a 20 foot wide and 15 foot tall staircase. Everything is made of ice and muffled popping and cracking can be heard in the distance. The junction is buried in miles of ice beneath the frozen surface of Stygia in Baator (Hell) (Mildly Law-Aligned and Mildly Evil-Aligned).
Entering the stairway those not wearing a Sihedron Medallion will suffer head aches and a cold wind blasting from the depths along with the planes alignments effects. At the bottom of the 60 foot long giant sized steps is a junction. Stairs lead upward straight ahead to the left and right. Assuming the steps they came down was from Stoval deep the Thassilonian word for wealth is carved into the ice, to the right you see in Thassilonian "Fertility", next stairs "Ire" and the last read "Esteem".
Proceeding up any of the stairs brings you to an identical door of ice. Beyond the one corresponding to the words are as follows- Wealth/Stoval Deep, Fertility/Lake Syrantula, Ire/Ember Lake, and Esteem/Lake Skotha. Opening the doors and looking out the viewer can make a DC 15 Knowledge (geography) check to determine what lake they are on.
If the skull leaves 40 foot area holding the door on the lake it begins to visibly melt (even in cold temperatures) and will be gone in a minute (10 rounds).
The item can be used twice a day between midnight and midnight, destroying two 25gp onyx gems for each use.
The item was created, used, and lost during the years before the Thassilonian era ended in disaster. Lost in a battle over Stoval Deep it came to rest at the bottom where it laid until an obsessive troll found it and brought it to the surface, so to speak.
Hope others enjoy this item as much as my group and I have. It gives them a connection to many areas including Fort Rannick and brings Sandpoint and Fort Rannick closer together. Also it gives one more reason for the giants to attack Sandpoint (to get the skull). If anyone can help me calculate the value and cater level of this item it would be appreciated.
Wow! That's actually really neat... my players passed that area already but there's nothing saying they can't discover it hidden away or something.... I just might use that.
I chose to include this item in my RotRL campaign. I really liked the idea and thought put into this item. I did remove the requirement for onyx gems in my version though.
In my campaign the halfling rogue saw the skull on the pile and decided to rush over and steal it from the pile and taunted Grazzul with it. This infuriated Grazzul and making the fight much easier as he tended to go after it exposing himself to attacks he may otherwise have stayed away from and not taking time to submerge and heal for fear the adventurers would take his skull away.
Thanks for making and posting this item.
