PRISON OF THE LIZARD KING

 

Hook: The winter has come and gone, buried the area in snow. It is now early spring, and going is still hard due to remaining drifts. You've trudged through it for hours, now, battling fatigue and the skeletal fingers of the forest that tear at your clothes... The rock face to your right suddenly breaks, revealing a gaping hole in the rocks ahead... You've seen caves like it, before. Enough to know to be wary. Things, both good and bad, take shelter in them. You decide to investigate, some, to at least get under the opening. It might prove a dry place to camp, if it's free from- What is that? As you near the cave, you see a tent, still fully intact, about 50 feet from the opening. You make your way to the front of the linen structure, noting the strange quiet and cold fire ring. One flap is loose and dances in the wind. Nothing seems wrong with the tent's structure. The shelter was erected, you would guess, sometimes recently.

Details: The cave is a about 20' tall, narrow on the inside, and only about 20' deep. High up about 15' is another low hole in the rocks near the roof of the cave that leads deeper into the rocks. A wooden ladder is propped up against the near-sheer cliff face, allowing access to the higher cave mouth.

A wizard, an evil Taryŵnish conjurer of middling power, named Ugrian, was intent upon freeing and binding a sleeping demon the forces of Law imprisoned in a special chamber built to contain it, to keep it from ravaging the lands, as it had, once, before. The wizard's tent contains his belongings, which aren't many. Mostly clothes for the weather, a bed roll and furs, some rations, and notes about the prison. Fortunately, and unfortunately, the wizard died while researching the mosaic detailing the demon's imprisonment. There is nothing truly revealing in the wizard's notes. Not enough to say he is evil. He had just begun his study of the complex, so he didn't get far. He possesses a gold medallion that looks like a lizard's eye with enamelled details. It's the key that frees Varanŵs, his holy symbol. All the notes in Ugrian's book talk about the weakening power of the prison, and how The Lady of Light was invoked to bind the Lizard King the wizard and any text in the prison refer to as Varanŵs, a lizard-like wraith demon of shadow bearing a golden sword of power. He devours everything in his path, and creates more, smaller demon-wraiths like him the more he eats. Apparently, priests of The Lady of Light stopped him before he became too unmanageable. There is no other information here to be found...

It can be deduced the wizard is a conjurer, based on his spell book and red robes. But, his intentions aren't clear. Players are free to theorise. Perhaps he was trying to rebind the petty god? Or make it his slave? Whatever the case, the the only statue that's different here is the caryatid column that contains Varanŵs, himself. He was turned into the pillar and secured in place. The other statues in the complex are old Taryŵnish depictions of the Lady of Light. To wake the demon, the eye must be taken to the column and touched to it... All doors in this complex are highly-burnished bronze featuring The Lady of Light. Any braziers still burn, but, their fire, which has as its source an oil that dwindles with the power of the binding enchantment.

The enchantment on the prison is indeed failing, so the doors open, freely, on still well-oiled hinges. In the other chamber four large statues of The Lady flank the middle pathway to a yellow sandstone plinth upon which rests a bright shield of burnished bronze with The Lady's sun-burst upon it. It glows with sunlight, when wraiths are near. The greater the evil, the brighter it shines, up to about the brightness of a torch. The priest who imprisoned Varanŵs knew the demon may awaken. He knew his power, his faith and will, wasn't great, and that, one day, the need for the shield may arise. The shield, when removed, opens a panel in the wall behind the plinth, revealing an emergency exit, so the priest, or whoever confronts Varanŵs, could flee, if they need to.

The shield destroys wraiths of power less than the priest's. It has to be wielded by a character of faith in The Lady of Light. It can turn back creatures of power equal to the priest's, giving them a major penalty to any rolls they need to make. More powerful creatures are made uncomfortable by the shield, when confronted by it, granting that creature a minor penalty to rolls they need to make.

Varanŵs creates smaller versions of himself whenever he eats. He is himself a being of 20' in height, and appears as a bipedal lizard bedecked in gold and jewels, trailing shadow, with eyes of rage and flame. He carries a curved sword of gold set with onyx in its hilt. He can eat creatures up to large size whole, and never seems to reach a point of satisfaction. His offspring 'detach' from him a round after he consumes a living being.