The gargantuan Sky Stairs of Beldestan are famous throughout eastern-central Midgard. According to legend, they were built up the side of the tallest mountain in Beldestan and the Red Wastes by giants and genies as a way to reach the sky of stars and achieve god-like powers.

Veles of the Void and the other gods of the East were offended. They drove the giants and genies mad, and dashed their civilizations for their oversized hubris.  The Stairs never quite reached the Void, but they are reputed to be one way for non-wizards to reach the sky and the Void—and a way for creatures of the Void to enter Midgard.

These are creatures and circumstances that pilgrims might encounter as they climb the Stairs.

The Star Drake’s Hut

About halfway up the Stairs, a hidden ravine opens onto a small grassy meadow where it’s never cold, cloudy, or windy. A stone hut squats in the meadow, and there dwells Allarintai, the “Drake of Prophecies.”

An ancient star drake (see Tome of Beasts 1), Allarintai can polymorph into any Humanoid form at will, and can cast misty step as a bonus action each round. Allarintai always knows who approaches her glen, and attacks creatures with hostile intent in drake form using her breath weapon, while they are still contained and spread out in the five-foot wide ravine.

For those who approach without obvious evil intent, she emerges from her small hut in the form of the most common lineage in the adventuring party, or of the likely leader. For polite visitors, she offers to read their future in the stars, in exchange for a small favor to be named and claimed later (GM choice). Creatures and kings all over the eastern and southern nations owe her “small favors,” such as hunting down and disposing of rude guests and thieves.

The Archmage’s Toll Tower

The archmage (see Monster Vault) Korrigan Plendremin has a tower carved out of the face of a rocky cliff adjacent to the Stairs, approximately three-quarters of the way up. He extracts a toll from each passerby and pilgrim that comes within sight of his arcane sanctum.

He initially sends his guardian and herald, Pethrinax, a winged syderean archer of great skill and power, to greet (threaten) the travelers and extract the toll. Pethrinax carries a flaming bow and icy arrows, so that arrows fired from the bow deal both cold and fire damage. Any significant amount of gold, jewels, magic or other trade goods may be acceptable to Pethrinax and his master. The GM can determine what is “acceptable”, but it should be mildly painful to the PCs’ pocketbooks or magic stores. If Pethrinax is killed or driven away by the PCs, the archmage is . . . angered.

The Temple-Fortress at the Top

At the top of the Stairs, where the air is thin, the top of the mountain has been sheared off, leaving a massive, flat stone plain. It is smooth and featureless, save for some ancient ruins a few kilometers from the uppermost step of the Stairs.

The ruins are wreathed in cloudless shadow. To be visible at this distance, they are clearly the remains of gargantuan buildings. If the PCs investigate, they realize these are ruins of a mighty ancient temple-fortress. Ruins of huge statues, bas-reliefs, mosaics and frescoes of ebullient giants and exuberant genies litter the grounds of the destroyed complex.

Wyrd and twisted creatures, mutated by Void energies, chitter and lurk in the rubbled shadows of the ruins. The guardians can be any combination of shadows, wights or wraiths (see Monster Vault), but they are not humanoid in form. Void energies have twisted them into monstrous, mutated shapes such as five legs and seven arms, or one giant glowing yellow eye, dripping ooze, and other terrifying aberrant forms.

If the characters safely pass the monstrous guardians, they can discover the entrance to a large, half-ruined dungeon complex with extensive tunnels and myriad rooms, many filled with more of the void-twisted shadow creatures.

The Ravening Beneath the Temple-Fortress

Deep within the dungeon is a huge, ruined temple that once praised the demi-gods of the giants and genies. Now its mighty pillars and statues are overthrown and shattered, and it is the lair of an ancient void dragon (see Monster Vault). The dragon is so old that its original name, and the many names that it has been given over the millennia, have been lost to time and the Void. It is now known as the Ravening.

The Ravening lairs here atop his hoard. The hoard has the typical piles of gold and silver, of course, but the Ravening is a creature of forbidden knowledge, deep secrets, and ancient skies. His hoard is littered with an excessive number of gems that twinkle with ageless starlight, unique tomes of ancient magic, spell scroll tubes bound with the seals of ancient dead empires, and all sorts of other magical items of knowledge, secrets and ancient power, such as crystal balls, ioun stones, many magical mantles, manuals, pearls and periapts, as well as rings of spell storing and djinni summoning, and various rods, staffs, and wands of ineffable power.

Meeting with the Ravening

The Ravening is worshipped by a Void cult who will gladly give their lives to protect their dragon demi-god. Under normal circumstances, the Ravening can be found atop his treasure hoard, with the cultists bowing and scraping and chanting in sepulchral Void Speech before their mighty object of worship and dread.

On the wall behind the dragon’s hoard is a huge, dark, swirling gate of black clouds that leads to the edge of the Void itself. If the Ravening deigns to enter combat, he might try to tail slap or toss a grappled opponent into it. Victims of this fate are unlikely to return. The Ravening might toss a beloved NPC or familiar into the gate, and offer to retrieve them as leverage in negotiations.

Because, despite his current epithet, the Ravening is no mindless ravager; he contains millennia of wisdom, guile and cunning. If approached respectfully and with proper obeisance, he communicates telepathically with characters he sees as proper supplicants. He has much to offer: ancient knowledge, deadly secrets, the weak points and vulnerabilities of powerful entities, perhaps even some of his collected secrets and magic from his hoard, for the right price. The price is always dear, such as a firstborn child.

If the characters are not properly respectful or he sees them as excessively greedy, he orders the 4d12 wyrdlings in the lair to attack the PCs, only entering combat directly if they are all defeated. Even in combat he seems lazy and bored by it all, as none are his equal.

In the unlikely event he is on the brink of defeat, he flees through the gate to the Void, returning after regaining his strength to reclaim his hoard. If any items are stolen from the hoard, he and his minions scour the planes to find and retrieve them and exact revenge upon the thieves.