MarkOliva

12/05/2011

1369

This week, with our 40th Jörðgarð (TM) Map of the Week, we continue looking at the last of the eight dark draug settlements in the ruins of the fallen Æsir Empire, the ruins of Garndi's Crossing. Our focus this week is on the tower of the ruling dark draug Mýsing. During the great wars, Mýsing, the baron of Garndi's Crossing, went over to the Darkness and allied with the high draug Martröð, who made of Mýsing one of the nine dark draugs. (A dark draug is similar to an OGL 3.5 lich.) As a result, Mýsing sacrificed his free will and bound it to that of the greater Darkness and Martröð. The high draug fell, but Mýsing still is a slave of the Darkness. He has no desire to turn from evil, but he hopes to regain his free will.

Although Garndi's Crossings no longer exists, Mýsing still claims to rule it, and he still insists that his followers address him with his noble title, baron. That following is a collection of lesser draugs who survived the wars and who remained bound to his will now as they were before Martröð's fall and of evil Slovánski humans who have joined in the baron's new crusade to shed his shackles of Dark domination.

All draugs are to a certain extent insane. Transfiguration into an undead robs a human soul of some of its sanity and makes of it a chaotic creature. Mýsing appears to be more insane than any of the other eight dark draugs, and that manifests itself nowhere so much is in his theory of the nature of life. He has come to believe that the spark of life is the spark of lightning. Thunderstorms occur, according to Mýsing's teachings, as a natural process that continually renews the energy of life within the jörð.

Thus, like Dr. Frankenstein in the book of the same name by 19th Century author Mary Shelley, Mýsing is convinced that he can use lightning to infuse life into a body that no longer is alive. His theory also is that - once he has this technique perfected - he can apply lightning to himself, to restore him from undeath to life. Then, he believes, he will be able to reclaim his own free will, because he no longer will be a draug. After that, he intends to have his followers make a god of him. The red draugs in the tower perform experiments and "interrogate" prisoners for the master, Mýsing.

Key to the Dungeon Plan of Mýsing's Tower

Cellar: None

Ground Floor

The second story is 30 feet/9 m above the ground floor. This makes the ceiling difficult to see from this level.

1. Entry. Immediately inside the door, a Circle of Endings is carved into the flower. It unleashes the spell Destruction upon living and Draug Destruction upon undead that cross the threshold. Three orc warriors always are on guard here.

2. Holding Area. Manacles embedded in the walls hold the prisoners in place. This area is used to hold prisoners who have been brought up from the cellar of the red draugs' tower to be used in Mýsing's experiments.

3. Spiral Stairway. From the ground floor upward.

Second Story Floor

There are no floors for 30 feet/9 m above the ground level. This is the first floor above the ground floor. This level comprises Mýsing's private quarters, library and treasury.

4. Entry. An orc warrior always is on guard here.

5. Mýsing's Quarters and library. This level contains filled bookshelves and three working desks.

6. Reading Table. The books Mýsing most frequently consults are upon this large table.

7. Mýsing's Treasure. A large pile of old coins of the Æsir Empire, other objects of value and three chests make up the dark draug's treasure.

Third Story Floor

This floor is 10 feet/3 m above the second story. It is Mýsing's working laboratory.

8. Entry. Immediately inside the door is another Circle of Endings that has been carved into the flower. It unleashes the spell Destruction upon living and Draug Destruction upon undead that cross the threshold. No orc warriors are stationed above the second story.

9. Potion Distillery. There are three large objects in this area, staring from the top and going downward: A potion still, a laboratory table and a small table with scales, mortar and pestle and glass jugs and a ceramic urn filled with finished black necromantic potions.

10. Enshrouding Table. When prisoners have been in Mýsing's compound so long that their lives begin to yield to the life-destroying black necromantic aura that blankets the area, Mýsing has them slain and then uses magical potions to keep the corpses intact. After preparing the corpses with the potions, he enshrouds them here in magic-protected shrouds that keep parasites and fungus from destroying the bodies. They then are buried on the grounds of the complex until he has need for them.

11. Operating Table. Living prisoners who are subjected to Mýsing's experiments are manacled to the operating table, where the dark draug does his work.

12. Dissection Table. When experimenting, Mýsing dissects the parts of his victims' bodies here.

13. Stairway to the 4th Story.

14. Stored Black Necromantic Potions.

Fourth Story Floor

This floor is 10 feet/3 m above the third story. It is Mýsing's incarnation laboratory.

15. Stairway to the 3rd Story.

16. Lightning Incarnator.

17. Magical Circles.

18. Incarnation Slab.

19. Mýsing's Workbench.

You can get these map in two versions:

1. The original Fractal Mapper (TM) 8 maps in FMP format, fully editable, from our Jörðgarð web page (13 MB). This version includes a 14-page PDF pamphlet that tells you how to use the map in FM8.

2. As four JPG flat map, each of 1024 x 970 pixels (Zip total 2.8 MB), with the hyperlink below.

Both versions are released for personal and commercial use under the Open Game License Version 1.0a, which you can read on the Jörðgarð web site.

The Jörðgarð web site:

www.vintyri.org/joerdhgardh/joerdhgardh.htm

Next Week: Garndi's Crossing: The Temple of the Rising Darkness (The last map from the ruins of the Æsir Empire. New territory will follow.)

Mark Oliva
The Vintyri (TM) Project
www.vintyri.org
info@vintyri.org