Cold Iron Keep

Found within the Kandar province high up in the Jakkan mountain range, Cold Iron Keep is currently under the control of the Limgri tribe. Whilst first raised from the surrounding mountainous stone by the evil mage Mordu to carry out mass sacrifices to otherworldly being, heroes have long cleared the mage from his stronghold. Years after the leaders of Kandar turned the once magic castle into a prison for their most powerful enemies.
Numbered among the Keep’s inmates are:

• Jormund, a unique vampire frost giant who is shunned even among his own kind. He is kept in a state of torpor inside a quartz coffin while mages from Kandar study his condition.

• Astar, a powerful sorceress who, in the process of trying to achieve unearthly beauty, caused her features to become so unspeakably hideous that one look can turn a person into solid stone. She is forced to wear an iron mask while she is incarcerated.

• Riven, a cultist who appears to have gained the ability to steal a person’s face and absorb their life essence.

• Sumac, a man whose very words are poison—who can kill another just by speaking and force others to do his bidding.

• And finally, Gorm, known to many as the Heir of the Wyrm, a man who continually burns with coldfire from head to foot yet is not consumed. No one knows his origins. Having been driven quite mad, Gorm claims to know the secrets of Volgen and the Great Wyrm, and promises that the end of the world will begin the instant his foot touches the snow once more.

Nestled in the Jakkan Mountains, Cold Iron Keep is where the people of Kandar store criminals who cannot be dealt with according to clan law. For the most part, this means outsiders, or those Valikans who would resist the death penalty—or for whom death would be too easy a release from their responsibility. Though the abandoned fortress originally fell into the hands of Clan Mithra, Queen Andrea years ago assigned control of the prison to Clan Limgri, in exchange for stationing her troops farther north to protect the nomads from Thrull raids.

Hidden Secrets.

No Valikan wants to acknowledge Cold Iron Keep. It’s a desolate place, meant to keep those the people of Kandar would like to forget. This dungeon of Valika’s lowest became home to Commander Bodil Garðr, warden of the prison. Though Garðr is a skald from Solheim, her tales were frightening, and her call to bring about the end of the world, in line with her Røkkva devotion, made Jarl Grata concerned about unrest in the city. In Cold Iron Keep, Commander Garðr has full authority over criminals who, frequently, also wish to see the world burn. But if it’s going to burn, it will do so under Garðr’s command. Garðr has a plan to make use of the prisoners, either for the war effort (which enables her to continue to draw resources from Clan Mithra and the army) or for her own ends.

Evil Origins.

The keep itself was once the fortress of an evil mage, Mordu, who was defeated by heroes whose names have been lost to history. While the mage perished, his spirit still lives within the walls, and many secrets of the fortress are yet to be unlocked. The building, raised by magic from the mountains themselves, has three levels; the top level is one story above the surrounding ground surface, while the third is below ground. Garðr’s offices are on the top floor, where she constantly hears the whispers of Mordu as she goes about her work. The ground floor is where the scholars, skalds, and druids stationed to the keep perform their experiments. The inmates live below ground. Many of the inmates are worth study, particularly the vampire frost giant, Jormund, who is encased in a quartz coffin. But the most important of the inmates for study is Gorm, a man consumed—but unharmed—by coldfire. He pledges to end the world when his foot touches snow.

Binding Experiments.

As tempting as this promise is for Garðr, she has other plans. One of the runesmiths among the researchers is a fellow member of the Røkkva. Together, the pair have discovered a way to bind the inmates with a geas tattoo. This allows Garðr to assign the criminals with a mission and order them to return when it is complete—or the tattoo will detonate, doubling the harm caused by a normal geas spell. Now that the tattoo has been perfected, Garðr is ready to unleash her prisoners on the world—or, to start, onto Thrull, to see what damage they can cause Kandar’s enemy.

Lake Jakkan.

With the Jakkan Mountains on three sides, escape from Cold Iron Keep is almost impossible. The only way to reach the keep is by crossing Lake Jakkan, a frigid body of water that is also home to a terrible beast. The creature residing in the lake has the upper body of a caribou and the lower body of a beluga whale. Its branching antlers are each tipped with a flickering flame of coldfire. The sailors that bring the prisoners to Cold Iron Keep whisper about sightings of this monster, sure that its antlers will cause the lake to freeze over, killing them all instantly.
Some of the sailors even believe that the flickering cold- fire on the creature’s antlers are the souls of those it has dragged beneath the surface, down to a watery grave. Whether this creature is real or illusionary is unknown. The greater secret, however, is that there are tunnels be- neath the water’s surface that flow directly into ancient levels of Cold Iron Keep, below the currently occupied floors. What uses those tunnels and what danger they might pose to the inmates, only time will tell.

Type

Prison