The Iron Wind (ICE) (1980)

[Falconer]

Here is the map from the 1980 Iron Wind module:



and here is ICE’s 1982 Middle-earth map:



This module was basically ICE’s audition for the Middle-earth license. It’s chock-full of maps; it’s beautiful. Very D&Dish with a lot of flavor.

In 1984, the module was redone and made the basis of the World of Loremaster, later Shadow World. The setting of the module was made into its own island and obviously no longer set on the coast of Middle-earth. I had been planning on sticking to the original 1980 version and running it in Middle-earth, but some of the added material in the 1984 version will help. As I have done in other threads, I find a useful starting point to be the “Player Backgrounds” section—present only in the 1984 version. It’s on p. 48. Rather than retype it, I will boil it down.

- a Ky’taari trader

- a Ky’taari agent sent by the King

- a Ky’taari monk on a mission for one of the Ryaani or even the A-Ryaan

- a Fustir who left his people to seek his origins or to understand the interactions of the peoples of the Mur Fostisyr

- a Fustir who encountered one of the Priests of the Iron Wind among his tribe and fled to seek proof that the Priests are evil

- an Udahir agent sent to explore the surrounding lands and judge whether the time has come for the Hidden People to reveal themselves.

- an Udahir agent (as above) with the added purpose to recover a stolen item, or to locate a long-lost sibling or cousin (a previous agent)

- a Syrkakar youth of the family of the Ninth (slain) Syrkakang who seeks to recover the Twy Syrkakang, unseat the unlawful Syrkakang and free his people

[Falconer]

Ky’taari

“The Ky’taari are predominately human, though I noted the classic elven grace and finely boned faces of that race among them. The men are beardless, and their hair color ranges from a sandy-brown to white-blonde, usually cut just below the ears. They are tall and frail-seeming, again as elves, though no race that could survive up here could be such. It is true that they are not exceptionally strong, but their agility is to be marvelled at, and they seem to have inherited a resistance to cold from their obvious elven ancestors. Among these people, only the royal family have eyes that are not blue; it is said that those lords bear eyes of golden sunshine…

“The Ky’taari are, without exception, a very religious people, worshipping Ariaana, the Goddess of the Sun.”



Ariaana would seem to be Tolkien’s Arien, Maiden of the Sun. Preferable to just call her that (one less layer to confuse the players), and best to avoid the terms goddess, worship, religion, and temple in relation to her. Especial love and devotion, sure, great idea!

As for the Ky’taari themselves, I’m tempted just to make them a culture of Snow-elves. If they are going to be described as Elven all the time and in every way, then it’s less far-fetched from a Tolkien perspective for them just to be Elves than an entire society of Elf-blooded Men. That’s how I’m leaning.

[tkdco2]

The Shadow World boxed set describes the Ky'taari as a half-elven race, IIRC. I'll check it out. Making them Snow Elves makes sense though. ICE mentioned an elf culture living in the far north, under siege from the Nazgul Hoarmurath.

[Falconer]

That reminds me. There is a villain in The Iron Wind named, in the First Edition, Muul Chort, and in the Second Edition, Oran Jatar. In both versions he is nicknamed the Dragonlord. “Greatest among his items is perhaps his helm: fashioned after the form of a dragon’s head…” It turns out he is a white dragon, and this helm “allows him to assume human form and yet allow him to utilize his deadly breath at full potential.” Normal D&D stuff, but a bit odd by Tolkien standards. His helm made me think of Khamûl the Easterling, the Second Nazgûl, also known in ICE lore Mûl Komûl the Dragon-lord. So I thought about splitting this character into two: Khamûl and a cold-drake in his service.

[tkdco2]

If you have Lords of Middle-earth vol. 2, you can find a couple of NPCs who lived in that part of the world. They were half elves, but they were listed among humans because they chose to be mortal.

[Falconer]

Good tip, I’ll check it out, thanks!

[Falconer]

I asked Matthew Kearns, editor of The Hall of Fire Webzine (for the Decipher Lord of the Rings RPG) to write up a “Vala Virtue” (see Core Rulebook p. 87 as well as Hall of Fire #20) for Arien:

Arien (Maia): Keeper of the flame imperishable, Guardian of the seed of Laurelin in its travels across the sky in the form of the Sun. She is Maia of fire in service of Vana and the picture of incorruptibility by resisting the lure of Melkor. Before her time as the Sun, she helped keep the gardens of Vana and tended Laurelin. Devotion to her comes mostly from Men from their primal awakening and as they are more helpless in the night, even in the twilight of the full moon. Those who align with Arien receive +1 bonus to Lore: Nature and +2 Willpower bonus tests to resist Corruption.

[Falconer]

Info compiled from HARPer’s Bazaar #3, #8, #9 and Express Additions #5. So there’s some Shadow World info in here which is not relevant to a Middle-earth campaign, but most of this is useful, at least for a HARP game.

Fustir-Gost (Umli)

Size: 5'0" to 5'9" tall

Lifespan: 70 years

The Fustir-Gost are a sub-race of the Umli, living in the far north of Kulthea. Like other Mannish races of the far north, they replace one of their normal racial abilities with Resistance to Natural Cold.

Resistant to Natural Cold: Character can function in cold weather as if it were 30 degrees warmer than it actually is. Exhaustion points for cold are expended at 1/3 their normal rate.

Description: The Umli are of stocky build, with fair skin and either silver-white or raven-black hair.

Culture: The primary culture of the Fustir is that of the Nomad, and much more rarely the Rural culture.




Ky’taari (Ta-Lairi)

Size: 5'8" to 6'9" tall

Lifespan: 150-300 years

The “Part Elves” in Shadow World are a diverse group. Ta-Lairi player characters can be the direct descendent of a human and an elf or they can be part of a Ta-Lairi race. The diversity of the Human Parents has more to do with the differences than the elves. As an alternate rule, Ta-Lairi may purchase any of the below abilities for 20 DP instead of swapping another ability.

For the Ky’taari, begin with an elf and select either the greater or lesser versions of the Human Blood talent. Ky’taari must select the ability Resistance to Natural Cold. This can be selected either as one of their human abilities or as a replacement for one of their Elven abilities.

Resistant to Natural Cold: Character can function in cold weather as if it were 30 degrees warmer than it actually is. Exhaustion points for cold are expended at 1/3 their normal rate.

Description: Half Elven. Possessing wheat colored skin and golden hair, the Ky’taari resemble their Elven cousins.

Culture: Ky’taari typically come from the High Valley culture.

High Valley Culture Adolescent Skill Ranks: Animal Handling 2, Armor 1, Climbing 2, Crafts 2 (select one craft skill), Endurance 2, Jumping 1, Lore (Local Region) 2, Perception 2, Stalking & Hiding 2, Swimming 1, Tracking 1, Weapon Skills 2 (select one melee weapon group), Weapon Skills 2 (select one missile weapon group).

High Valley Culture Starting Languages: Racial Language (S 6/W 5), Common (S 4/W 3)




Syrkakar

Size: 4'6" to 5'6" tall

Lifespan: 70 years

The Syrkakar are a composite race born of the mingling of the Haid and the Umli races. They must trade out one of their normal human racial abilities for Resistance to Natural Cold.

Resistant to Natural Cold: Character can function in cold weather as if it were 30 degrees warmer than it actually is. Exhaustion points for cold are expended at 1/3 their normal rate.

Description: This stocky race has a ruddy complexion and red-brown hair. Males often go bald shortly after reaching maturity.

Cultures: The Syrkakar are mostly of the Nomad culture, though other cultures may also be found.




Udahir (Zjedrahir) (Jaderi)

Size: 6'1" to 7' tall

Lifespan: 120 years

The Zjedrahir are normal humans for the most part. They must, however, swap out 1 of their normal human racial abilities for Resistant to Natural Heat.

Resistant to Natural Heat: Exhaustion points for heat are expended at 1/3 of their normal rate. Character only needs normal water rations (they do not need to perspire as much to maintain their body temperature). Character is resistant to sunburn.

Description: The skin of this powerfully built race is coppery red-brown, and they have green, brown, or hazel eyes. Other distinguishing characteristics include prominent hooked noses, full lips, and large earlobes. The Jaaderi tend to have a bit of an elongated look to them thanks to their high foreheads and a hairline that tends to begin receding shortly after they reach maturity.

Cultures: They are normally a Rural culture, but other cultures are possible.

[Falconer]

Height generation for the natives of the Mur Fostisyr, plus neighboring cultures of the Northern Waste and Rhûn.



Suggest an additional modifier should be applied based on Constitution as explained here.

[Falconer]

Self-explanatory…

[tkdco2]

Great material as always, Falconer!

[Falconer]

Thanks, tkdco2!

This module, like most or all ICE modules, comes with a list of herbs and poisons:



How should this be used? Should the players have a copy? Or maybe I can give them a list of names with all the info blank, creating a sort of mini-game for interested players to seek and fill out the info?

[doublejig2]

Or, as the mutterings of some ol' gaffer, a witch [MERP], or perhaps a sage.

[Falconer]

Some more stuff I made for my HARP campaign, but thought I’d post anyway. Races and Cultures of the Mur Fostisyr:

You now receive some starting skill ranks based on what your character learned during adolescence. Choose one that appropriate for your character, but it is typically according to culture:

Fustir: Nomadic or, much more rarely, Rural
Syrkakar: Nomadic
Udahir: Rural
Ky’taari: High Valley
Dorwinion: River
Easterling: Wainrider
Variag: Plateau
Lossoth: Ice Bay
Stiffbeard: Arctic
Snow-elf: Tundra

[Falconer]

My take on starting languages (speaking/writing). Adhering to the norms of HARP was restrictive, but makes it kind of interesting. Of course more languages can be learned.


Fustir: Umitic (S6/W5), Ky’taari (S4/W3).
Syrkakar: Syrkan (S6/W5), Logathig (S4/W3).
Ky’taari: Ky’taari (S6/W5), Umitic (S4/W3).
Udahir: Adûnaic (S6/W5), Sindarin (S4/W3).


Dorwinion: Westron (S6/W5), Logathig or Sindarin (S4/W3).
Easterlings: Logathig (S6/W5), Westron (S4/W3).
Lossoth: Labba (S6/W0), Westron (S4/W0), Sindarin (S4/W0).
Variags: Varadja (S6/W5), Westron (S4/W3).
Stiffbeards: Khuzdul (S6/W5), Labba (S4/W3).
Snow-elves: Lossidilrin (S6/W5), Labba (S4/W3).



You should be able to understand 50% of a neighboring language, defined according to the following spectra:

Lossidilrin-Labba-Umitic-Syrkan-Logathig-Varadja
Westron-Adûnaic-Khuzdul-Umitic
Sindarin-Lossidilrin-Ky’taari


It will be interesting to see how the players navigate this, and what they end up using as a common tongue amongst themselves.

[Falconer]

The map was printed on a regular 8.5" x 11" sheet, but it was obviously drawn much larger. The detail is great. I am thinking of breaking it down into something like 16 maps and letting the players explore them piecemeal (you don’t get the next map in any direction until you reach that border).

[rhialto]

Those are still fantastic maps.

[Falconer]

The 1984 version of The Iron Wind (set on Shadow World) provides something crucial: a calendar. This is crucial since you need to know how long the seasons last at this latitude. I made a table to summarize it:



However, the 350-day year of Shadow World is incompatible with Middle-earth, therefore we must do a little math and map it against the Middle-earth Calendar (see my thread on that):



The module mentions a fourth Ky’taari festival, on “the last day that the sun shows at all” (p. 16), but doesn’t calculate when that is. The only clue is elsewhere in the module, a mention of the “eight months of the year in which the sun does not show its face” (p. 3)—obviously according to a 12 month calendar. Luckily, that date is a cinch to pinpoint on the ME calendar, and from thence to port back to the SW calendar.

[Falconer]

Now to just map the relevant info onto the Middle-earth calendar:



The problem is that 8 months of night is impossible in our world. (It’s 6 months at the North Pole!) I will have to ponder this…

[Falconer]

Obviously, they were going for something very fantastical, very atmospheric, and it mostly works (I can keep the festivals and the definitions of the seasons), just not the sun literally not being seen for that long. She should still be seen traversing the sky low in the south.

The Grand Campaign has this to say:

GM Note: as the PCs travel northward, they will notice that the days are growing shorter and the sun is lower and lower in the sky at zenith. By the time they reach the latitude of the Mur Fostisyr, (assuming it is still late winter or spring) the sun will barely clear the horizon. In the deep winter it does not rise at all for several weeks.

This seems more reasonable.

Back to The Iron Wind, it states that the Mur Fostisyr lies “a bare hundred miles from the point at which trees will grow not in the north”. The northernmost forest extension in the real world is Lukunsky Grove, Latitude 72.5233° N.

In Luostari, Russia - www.timeanddate.com/sun/@533254 - Latitude 69.4192° N - (Russia is useful because it doesn’t have Daylight Savings) - the sun is down all day for 46 days out of the year. (In Shadow World terms, this translates to 4.4 weeks, or 63% of a month—perfectly satisfying the “several weeks” quote.)

For added coolness, Luostari is the site of the Pechenga Monastery, which for many centuries was the northernmost monastery in the world. The Ky’taari are big on monasteries.

Not to mention it’s in approximately the right spot…



Relative to the module’s Middle-earth placement.

[Falconer]

Snow-demons

I found mention of these creatures and wanted to research whatever I could find on them…


The Grand Campaign, p. 30

6020—Snow-demons (backed by forces of the Syrkakar) sack the Ky’taari capital city in the Mur Fostisyr. The Ataarn is killed and sword Ashaanaar stolen. The A-Ryaan and surviving monks retreat to the Kaldaraak-Vaar. The Arnak Priest Gaath moves his evil throne to the Ataarn’s Palace.


Creatures & Monsters, p. 150

Ice Demon

Description: Ice Demons are bluish white humanoids with snow and ice billowing around them at all times. Large icy fists are their main weapons, as they do not have overly developed teeth or claws, unlike most Demons.

Lifestyle: On their home plane, Ice Demons would lair in an icy cavern complex. They enjoy freezing their victims to death, sometimes encasing beings in ice while still alive. These are displayed like trophies in the creature’s domain, or if on the mortal plane, left to terrify those that come across them. The ice they generate is an unearthly variety, and melts at one third the rate of normal ice, so even on a hot summer day, an Ice Demon’s victims can be found frozen in an icy cocoon. They are Type III Demons.

Combat: The Ice Demon’s high defensive bonus is derived from the chaos of the miniature maelstrom that blows around it. Their touch is that of flesh-numbing cold, inflicting an additional Cold critical with every strike. They know the “Ice Law” (Magician base) list to 20th level, and have 6 PP per level. They are immune to cold, and a magic weapon is needed to do these creatures damage.


Fell Beasts and Wondrous Magic, p. 17

Helegrog

Unique Special Abilities

Sheath of Ice: Anyone who touches a Helegrog’s body must make a TN 10 Swiftness test or be paralysed, encased in a sheath of magical ice. The ice sheath lasts for 1d6 minutes, until a hot flame is applied to it for one full round, or until the victim succeeds in a TN 20 Strength test to break free. Those encased in ice do not suffocate or suffer any further damage.

Longspear of Ice: The spear of a Helegrog is a two-handed, Troll-sized weapon that does 3d6+5 damage. On a superior attack result, the Helegrog pins its opponent to the ground, automatically freezing it as with its Sheath of Ice special ability.

Description

A Helegrog (Sindarin for ‘Demon of Ice’) is an enormouse, blue, icy-winged creature surrounded b an aura of blue-white flame. They are typically armed with icy blue spears, which they wield two-handed.

History

Lesser than Balrogs, the Helegrogs were demons of cold fire used as wardens in the lands North of Thangorodrim. Although many were crushed in the devastation caused by the fall of the Dragon Ancalagon, some survivors fled to the far North.

Few Helegrogs were ambitious, so they made little kingdoms for themselves in the far North of Middle-earth, subjugating Snow-trolls and Orcs unfortunate enough to be ensnared in the frozen desolation, ruling their domains as living gods. They are usually content to be petty tyrants, but their favourite habitat puts them at odds with the Lossoth (the Snow-men of the North, who suffered greatly at their hands) and Dragons. It’s because of the latter that their numbers have dwindled in the Third Age, though a few ‘Troll-gods’ still hold sway in the northernmost reaches of Middle-earth.

Habitat

Helegrogs prefer snowy climates, where they build mountain strongholds of frost-covered iron towers and jutting spires of ice. Though they can survive in warmer climes, the ‘kings of winter’ rarely venture even as far south as Arnor, though they are still remembered there in children’s tales.

Society

Helegrogs prefer to live as tyrants and gods among the Snow-trolls, whom they teach and fill with their hate. Helegrog society has three levels: the Helegrog as the living god at the top level, his Snow-troll acolytes beneath him, and Orc-slaves beneath them. Anything other than Orcs and Trolls is captured, tortured, and killed in a gruesome manner in the Helegrog’s dungeons. The victims’ bodies are then displayed as trophies on the fortress walls. Powerful Dragons have occasionally enslaved a Helegrog fortress, but Helegrog have no taste for subjugation, and such arrangements rarely last long. Helegrogs are submissive to Balrogs, though these two kindred races haven’t encountered each other since the First Age.

Usage

Helegrogs are evil creatures that can be used by Narrators for quests that take the heroes into the lands of the North. As a demonic evil, they are not quite as tough as Balrogs, but they still make formidable opponents, especially when accompanied by Snow-troll worshippers.

The Land of Xa-ar, pp. 11-2

6020: Snow-demons and Snow Garks sack the Ky’taari capital city in the Mur Fostisyr. The Ataarn (the king) is killed and holy sword Ashaanaar stolen. [The A-Ryaan (the high priestess) and her monks retreat into their secret, most holy temple retreat, the Kaldaraak-Vaar.] The Arnak Priest Athimurl takes possession of the Ataarn’s Palace and presides over a reign of terror. (Note: it was erroneously stated in the Grand Campaign that the High Priest Gaath occupied the palace.) Many Kytaari flee to the mainland coasts and nearby isles.


The Land of Xa-ar, p. 39

Snow Demons

Sometimes called Ice Demons, these creatures have powers comparable to the other Elemental demons, yet are of course uniquely tied to their element. They range between 10 and 15 feet in height and have blue-white opaque skin. Clear spikes like ice run in a ridge along their outer forearms, along their spine and up over the top of their head. They cannot be harmed by normal weapons. Most carry a huge crystalline club shaped like an icicle, which strikes as a war mattock. Some of these clubs have icy spikes jutting from the sides, and this variety strikes as a morning star. Both weapons are used one-handed by the demon. Some Snow Demons can cast 2x the equivalent of their level in Power Points per day of spells from the Magician base list Ice Law (up to 20th level).


The Land of Xa-ar, p. 82

The only residents of this barren but beautiful landscape are four Snow Demons, who reside in caverns burrowed out of the ice floor. They will sense anyone entering, and they are not friendly. These Snow Demons have a special breath weapon in addition to their normal powers: three times a day they can exhale a blast of intense cold up to 30’ long, striking a single target with the effect of an Ice Bolt, but additionally the target must make an Essence RR vs. the Demon’s level or be encased in a stalagmite of ice, and rendered immobile. The target will then suffocate in 3D6 minutes unless they can be chipped out. Chipping out a breathing hole without inuring the victim requires only 5D10 man-rounds, but getting them entirely out would require 5D10 man-minutes. Only after experiencing this (or by making an Extremely Hard perception roll) would the characters notice that many of the smaller stalagmites have earlier victims buried deep inside them…