0504 The Falls of Naon and the Embassy

The falls can be heard throughout this hex. Cool spray and mist can be felt up to a mile distant.

• Terrain: Craggy forest (4), Dwelmfurgh
• Lost/encounters: 3-in-6
• Within the Ring of Chell (p20): True fairies are afflicted with a spiritual malaise; teleportation and summoning are ineffectual; magic of illusion or charm has a 2-in-6 chance of failure.

The Falls of Naon

The river Hameth plummets over a stony cliff, 200′ high, and crashes down upon the rocks below in a booming cacophony.

The Top of the Falls

The waters of the Hameth narrow, accelerate, and plummet over the falls.

Slippery: The banks of the river and the summit of the falls are slick with mud and spray. Anyone moving carelessly (e.g. in melee) must make a Dexterity Check once every 2 Rounds or fall.

Steps: A stairway, carved into the rock, winds down the cliff face on the western side of the falls to the wooded slopes at the base. The steps are slippery, as above.

Secret door: Half way down the steps, a platform and an open door—both concealed by fairy glamours—lead into a series of hidden caverns. Those who can detect magic or the invisible perceive the secret entrance.

The Embassy in the Hidden Caverns

A small retinue of frost elves lives in isolation in the secret caverns behind the torrent of the falls. By ancient, uncircumventable decree, the Cold Prince’s embassy to mortal folk was excluded from the ban of Chell (see The Ring of Chell, p20). It thus remains in the mortal world as the only foothold of the frost elves within Dolmenwood.

Ice caverns: Several hundred yards of winding tunnels and icicle-clad grottoes, all lit with a lambent blue light of unknown origin.

The door to the embassy: A 12′ high, arched gate of polished black fairy wood. Pillars on each side are carved in the form of trees whose branches meet and intertwine above the door. The door is locked by magic, but knocking summons a butler.

Reception: No guest has visited the embassy for centuries. The inhabitants are so bored that they welcome anyone who knocks on their door, giving them the full royal treatment.

The embassy: A series of baroquely appointed reception rooms, legal libraries, and guest suites, arranged around a central banquet hall decked with taxidermied unicorns’ heads.

Inhabitants: The frost elf Ambassador (p50) presides over the embassy, treating with any and all visitors. His staff includes six ambassadorial aides, three chefs, three butlers, and four maids.

Activities: The elves await the return of their lord, the Cold Prince, and have maintained the necessary functions of an embassy. Utterly isolated for nigh on nine centuries, however, they have all but forgotten their duty, and now spend their days in endless feasting, listless debates on obscure points of law, theoretical heraldry centred on the hypothesised kings of the seas, baking emotions into pastries, and so on.

Atmosphere: A melancholic air of faded nobility, now devolved into decadence, pervades the embassy. The Ambassador and his retinue grow desperate, as their stocks of fairy victuals, once considered virtually without limit, are dwindling. With the last of their fairy foods and wines, the elves fear the touch of the mortal world will turn them to dust.

Treasures: The embassy contains a fortune of rich, antique furnishings. The vast (and magical, to mortal sense) pantry, though its stocks are greatly diminished, is store to great prizes, such as wines from mortal cultures long forgotten.

The Base of the Falls

1d3 Drune cottagers (DMB) watch from a hidden vantage point on the wooded slopes beside the falls. They fight without quarter if attacked or if adventurers appear to be assisting frost elves in escape.

Duty: The Drune carefully guard this site, ensuring that no frost elf may come or go. Attempts to leave the embassy have occurred in the past, but have always been prevented.

Reaction to strangers: Typically aloof and enigmatic. They view any kind of fairy in this vicinity with great suspicion.

Treasures: The Drune watchmen share a Lens of Penetra tion (p404).