Frostmere Stronghold

Frostmere, the stronghold of the Melwarg frost giants, which shares its name with the frozen lake upon which it rests, has never been explored by humanoids. When the giants came to the northlands, they claimed the lake and the lands around it, clearing out humanoid settlements that once stood nearby in a bloody purge, and raising their great fortress of ice as a sign of their power.

Cold Conflict

The giants of Frostmere nurture a hatred of humanoids, and clanfolk traveling the tundra must be constantly vigilant for signs of giant patrols. Winter wolves loyal to the giants serve as the giants’ vanguard, stalking the tundra all but invisibly when the snows come. Those who come into conflict with the giants are typically killed on sight—the Melwarg hold no thralls and take no prisoners. That said, a minority of the frost giants are content to simply ignore “the warm folk,” as they call the clans. An even smaller number sometimes quietly befriend humanoid travelers, trading for jewelry, fruit, textiles, and more. On occasion, giants content to deal with folk of Thrull make short-term alliances with Clan Völgr parties crossing the tundra for raids into Kandar, especially if those raids target settlements loyal to the Cult of the Great Wyrm , a group the giants abhor.

Ghost Lodges

Around the perimeter of Frostmere, the Melwarg giants use powerful sorcery to raise domes of ice they call “ghost lodges” in their tongue. Generally appearing within a day’s walk of the lake, these lodges act as forts and waystations for giant patrols ranging farther into the tundra. The locations of the lodges change each season, with the giants abandoning the sites at midwinter. The magic of those lodges quickly unravel as new lodges are raised miles away. Some sages of Clan Sýr believe that the placement of the lodges might be keyed to sites where the giants sense elemental power, but what use they make of that power has yet to be determined. Explorers brave enough to have slipped inside abandoned lodges before they crumble away to frozen shards report seeing strange shrines of black ice at their heart. What power these shrines are meant to tap into remains unknown, but hint at what power is channeled within the fortress of Frostmere itself.

Type

Fortress