Shrine of the White Worm
RoomDCC 72 · p.13
Open source p.13Area 3-6 – Shrine of the White Worm
The chamber is lit by luminescent mists that swirl and ebb with every breath. The mists glow oily purple and sickly yellow and drift towards you with an alien malevolence.
Through the ambient glow you can make out the source of the weird mists: a squat brazier that burns with blue flames. Just behind the brazier is an altar-block carved from ice. Atop the altar an enormous egg rests atop a pale fur.
Set around the altar and brazier are a dozen mummified forms covered in frost.
This shrine represents the giant’s efforts to birth the Hyperborean Wyrm, better known in the chronicles of madness and terror as the White Worm. The life-forces of the living mummies fuel the icy flames that burn the foul incense. The smoke of the incense, in turn, gives rise to the weird, glowing mists, creating the poisonous, otherworldly atmosphere necessary to coerce the egg into hatching.
The mummies are all frozen solid. Removing the icy wraps reveals faces locked in the grasp of terror. Removing all the mummies from the chamber causes the icy blue flames to shrink and die. The mists slowly fade and the white egg cracks, leaking a sickly green yolk.
PCs venturing into the chamber must succeed on a DC 15 Reflex save or come into contact with the foul mists. A failed save causes instant frostbite for damage. Any PC daring to rush at the egg before the mists abate risks his life: ten tendrils of mist take form, striking at the PC from either side. On a successful hit, a tendril grapples the PC, inflicting damage and freezing him in place. A tendril can be escaped with a DC 15 Strength check.
Whether cracked by violence, defeating the mists or removing the frozen mummies, the yolk of the White Worm is an incredibly potent substance. Daubing one’s skin with yolk sears a white pentagram into the skin; additional effects depend on placement:
Forehead: Intelligence, Personality Chest: Strength, Stamina Palm: Agility, Luck
Cautious wizards, thieves, and sages will know that mortal flesh can only safely come into contact with the yolk once (75% chance of knowing this legend). If a second daubing is attempted, the PC must succeed on a DC 20 Fortitude save or instantly die, his blood frozen in his veins. If a PC is daubed a third time, the Fortitude save increases to DC 30.
Mists of the North Wind (10 tendrils): Init ; Atk tendril melee ( plus grapple); AC 15; HD ; hp 9 each; MV 40’; Act ; SP grapple, immune to cold and charm effects; SV Fort , Ref , Will ; AL C.