Within the frozen, utter north lands of the Bleak Expanse, under the massive glaciers of Boreas, the mad demigod of the North Wind, lie the ancient shattered ruins of the dwarven Vanguard Kingdoms: Aurvang, Issedon and Nordheim. This puissant alliance of three noble kingdoms once guarded the northernmost human and dwarven outposts of civilization.

This coalition of mighty wizards and warriors zealously guarded the legendary Bifrost Gate, which gave access to the Bifrost ley line, which led to Valhalla and many other enchanted planes of great war magic and fearsome celestial warriors.

They were also charged with guarding the Great Northern Wall. The Wall was a series of mighty fortresses and bulwarks that held the northern passes that led to Boreas’ dread and chill kingdom: the Bleak Expanse, an arctic wasteland of seemingly endless ice.

The Stolen Bifrost Gate

Centuries ago, cunning elven wizards stole the Bifrost Gate. When they did, they shattered the Bifrost ley line, draining Northland wizards of much of their power, and making the Great Northern Wall more vulnerable to Boreas’s assaults, allies, and freezing magics. Boreas sent his thuellai(ice elementals), ice golems, and eventually his massive, unstoppable living glaciers to break the Wall and crush the Vanguard Kingdoms under hundreds of feet of ice.

However, the resistance lives on, in a sense. Dwarven warriors and human wizards of the Vanguard Kingdoms stand to the ruins of their posts, beyond death.

Some skraelings (gnome-like inhabitants of the remote Northland mountains) recently discovered that the ancient dwarven Tholos (Old Dwarvish for “temple”) of Nordheim, can be accessed through a great pit in one of the living glaciers that grinds down the ruins of Nordheim. Word of this discovery has spread through the dwarven cities of the North, and have even reached the human lands south of the Nieder Straits.

Many adventurers sought the entrance and the potential ancient treasures within, but none have returned. The glacial portal and the Tholos are guarded eternally by the undead soldiers, priests, and wizards of fallen Nordheim, faithful to their oaths, even in undeath.

Who Stands Watch

The vaettir (undead warriors and wizards) of fallen Nordheim stand guard over the shifting pit and the temple, silent and still as only the dead can be.

Only their heads turn wordlessly to follow the motion of intruders that approach the icy entrance to the glacier and the temple. They do not move or react unless they are attacked directly. Or if someone attempts to enter the great glacial pit. Then they attack relentlessly until either they or the intruders, are destroyed (the GM can adjust the types and numbers of guardians to match the party’s strength).

However, battling the numerous undead defenders is the most dangerous way to reach the temple. Much better is using a speak with dead spell or similar magic to negotiate entrance.

In addition if the PCs display icons or insignia of the Vanguard Kingdoms (such as a coat of arms or a holy relic), they have advantage on CHA (Persuasion) checks made while negotiating with the dread guardians. If they do not have access to magic that allows communication, displaying an icon or item might allow them to pass, as the undead warriors turn to watch without a word. If needed, the GM can arrange to have them locate or stumble across such an item, and perhaps a speak with dead scroll, before they find the entrance and encounter the undead warriors.

Down into the Cold

Even then, the adventurers have only passed the first obstacle in their efforts to reach the temple. If they do not have access to a fly, levitate, or feather fall spell or the like, they must climb down over 100 feet of slippery, loose ice walls to reach the bottom of the icy crevasse where the temple entrance can be found.

If they survive the climb (or the fall . . .), they see the entrance to the Tholos jutting out of the southernmost wall of ice. The mighty stone doors of the entrance and the colorful stained-glass windows of the temple, are shattered and gone, but the two remaining window frames and the bent and twisted archway remaining form the terrifying likeness of a massive, wailing skull.

More vaettir guard the entrance. They can be fought or bypassed in the same manner as the guardians above, but they give a closer look at any Vanguard Kingdoms regalia that visitors bear. Once the PCs enter the sanctuary of the Tholos, they hear moaning and groaning coming from the many darkened corners of the cathedral. Is it the grating and shifting of living ice and frozen stone or the wailing of the lamenting dead? Or both?

The Inner Sanctum

Once the PCs penetrate the inner sanctum of the temple, there they encounter thirteen liches: dwarven, human and Hyperborean (mighty wizard folk from the hidden kingdom of the north pole). These liches command the undead remains of the ragged Vanguard legions. They are powerful spellcasters, guarded by fearsome undead fighters and barbarians. The liches are so powerful in concert that they cannot be cowed, fought, or defeated by anyone less than a manifested god.

Their powerful divination magics have already informed them of the adventurers’ identities, histories, and abilities, as well as they reason they have come (even if the PCs themselves do not know why). If the liches are angered and or attacked, they and their bodyguards teleport away, leaving devastating earthquake and delayed fireball spells in their wake, collapsing the remains of the temple around the characters heads. At that point, the PCs must escape the collapsing temple and ice cave. Magic is the surest escape route, but the GM can assign a series of perilously difficult skill checks and saves to survive the gauntlet. Even then, the PCs must fight or evade the angered undead warriors at the top of the glacier (if they were not destroyed on the way in).

However, if the characters didn’t fight the vaettir and if they successfully treat with the liches, these powerful undead can become supremely useful allies. As ancient spellcasters, they can grant gifts, send undead warriors and spellcasters as allies, perhaps even cast a gate, legend lore, or wish spell for the party.

Finding and negotiating with the guardian liches is an excellent quest, especially if they need to retrieve a powerful artifact, travel to a faraway plane, or obtain an especially obscure secret. The undead armies and wizards of the fallen Vanguard Kingdoms can be enormously powerful allies, or implacable enemies if angered.

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