If the sword is removed from the ice–no small feat, mind you–a sequence of events begins which cannot be averted. First, the wound in the dragon’s head rapidly closes, preventing the sword from being replaced. Next, two dull glows appear on the sides of its head as its eyes open again for the first time in millennia. The ground begins to shake as the long-dormant dragon awakens and tests its icy prison. Cracks appear in the permafrost; it is clear the dragon will not remain entombed much longer.

How does the dragon react to the PCs? How and why was it entombed in the first place? What will it do now that it has been released?

First, there is the orrery. Massive spheres of stone float in the air, seemingly suspended. Though you’d likely never notice it, the spheres are in fact moving. Each of them is keyed to a different plane, and the orrery tracks the location and movement of the planes with respect to each other and Eberron itself.

Second, you’d notice the walls of the ravine lined with anywhere from many dozen to several hundred dragons. Much like the orrery, the dragons themselves seem to be unmoving and lifeless; the only evidence to the contrary is when one of them raises a strange pipe to its mouth and inhales deeply. You’d never see the dragon exhale, though, but if you’re observant you might notice fine wisps of smoke escaping its nostrils.

The dragons here are under the influence of a narcotic called omen weed which grows near the ravine. Their dragonborn attendants dutifully harvest the drug and deliver it to the massive, furnace-like hookahs. Each hookah has dozens of pipes, each running to a languishing dragon.

The drug alters its users sense of time and space, which the dragons find helpful in their study of the orrery’s glacially-slow movements. Many dragons spend years, decades, even centuries constantly under the effect of the omen weed, losing touch with the world around them as they commune with the draconic prophecy.

Thorin is long dead, but the dogs have continued breeding and residing in the tower. Generations later, the descendants of the original dogs still have the same gifts. The dogs have an extremely limited vocabulary, with words such as ‘Good,’ ‘Bad,’ ‘Dog,’ ‘Cat,’ ‘Me,’ ‘You,’ etc.

Encounters at the Dog Tower

Local farmers complain that wolves have been killing their livestock. The PCs discover the dogs while searching for the wolves, and likely will believe the dogs to be the cause of the problem. The dogs don’t understand the situation and are not responsible for the killings, but their limited intelligence and vocabulary makes this non-obvious. They will not attack the PCs unless provoked, and might even be convinced to help.

The PCs are searching for Thorin’s tower to recover some ritual or artifact, and must convince the dogs to allow them entrance.

As soon as the PCs enter Gnomica, it is immediately evident that this is an unusual place. Each male PC without a hat suddenly finds himself wearing one, and is unable to remove the hat except indoors. In fact, upon entering any building the PCs find themselves compelled to remove their hats. Knotted leather thongs peace bond PCs weapons, unable to be untied.

Within the plane of Gnomica, everything that occurs occurs in accordance with an often-complicated set of laws and rules. An unknown and inviolable force, called The First Law, enforces the letter of the law. Inside Gnomica, there is no power greater than that of the laws. Even gods hold no sway within its borders.

The laws themselves are made by a governing parliament which meets thrice yearly. Members of the parliament serve for life or until ousted, and new ones are elected from the populace by the remaining members of parliament. Any member of parliament may put forth a proposal for a new rule or a motion to amend or strike previous rules at each session. All matters are put to a vote and a simple majority is all it takes for a measure to pass. All members of parliament are required to vote on each measure or explicitly abstain.

Encounters in Gnomica

An enemy has taken sanctuary in Gnomica. Due to the laws currently in effect, he is untouchable there. The parliament will be meeting soon, however, and the PCs may be able to influence it and get some new laws passed to aid them in capturing him.

Many generations ago, the miners dug too deep and broke through into the lava tubes. All of the men working the mines that day died, and work ground to a halt. A few weeks later, work would resume once more, thanks in no small part to inflated wages to entice more workers. A month after that, lava flooded the mines once more, burning dozens alive.

Men are nothing if not stubborn, particularly when gold is involved, but after three similar incidents over the course of the next year, it got to the point where no one was willing to work the mines for any price. Trade continued thanks to the Sinhe, but the city was reduced to a shadow of its former glory.

Many generations later, the city was attacked by a lich named Krool’thex, who easily overwhelmed the modest defenses. Krool’thex was mostly interested in the mines, though. He animated zombies and skeletons to work them, but this proved inefficient. Though they did not complain, the sheer number of corpses required and frequency of the lava breakthroughs was inconvenient, to say the least.

Then Krool’thex had a breakthrough. He developed a lesser form of the ritual used to convert himself into a lich, and used this to create his new servants. These liches were little more threatening than they had been in life and retained their sentience, and the up-front costs were huge in comparison to animating lesser undead.

It paid for itself soon after, though, when lava once more wiped through the mines. Krool’thex had but to wait a few days and all of his servants had regrown and were once more forced to work the mines. The lich-king of the city used his wealth and free labor to construct himself a magnificent palace in Marrowgrim, and at the heart of the palace is a vault where all his slaves’ phylacteries are kept.

Today, Marrowgrim is even more successful than it was in ages past. Most are unaware of Krool’thex’s undead labor force, and those who do know of it overlook it in light of the profits to be made at the town. The city itself has become a bit of a hot spot for the surrounding nobility, who like to vacation there due to the surprisingly-complete lack of “riff-raff.” Free from beggars and thieves, the nobles walk the streets freely and peruse the varied goods which come along the river. For his part, Krool’thex seems content to enjoy the finer things in un-life and watch his city grow.

Encounters at Marrowgrim

The PCs meet a lich-slave who’s managed to run off from work. The slave begs for the peace of the grave, but unless the PCs can destroy his phylactery he’ll never get it.

The PCs are hired by a man who claims to be the rightful heir to the city’s throne, from before it was taken over by Krool’thex. The man tasks them with destroying the lich’s phylactery and then the lich himself, so that the city might once more return to his family.

Krool’thex quickly assimilates any foolish enough to beg in his city into his workforce. However, this is not enough to satisfy his ambitions, and the PCs discover that he’s arranging for merchants to kidnap beggars and vagrants from other cities and smuggle them Marrowgrim. This raises the question of exactly why Krool’thex needs so many slaves, as well…

She lights up a candle for hope to be found
Captive and blind by the darkness around
Firm as a mountain, she never will mourn
Timeless, she waits for the break of dawn
-The Maiden’s Hymn

On the northeastern coasts, just below the frozen wastes of Nordica, a small town named Maiden’s Watch operates a small, but successful, port.

The town is named for a statue found on a rocky outcropping of a mountain overlooking the town and abutting the sea. The statue is of an amazingly-lifelike maiden carrying a candle, and legend holds that it was once a woman who refused to accept that she’d been widowed.

For many years after her husband, a sailor, failed to return home, every night she would walk up to the outcropping and light a candle so that he might find his way home.

She did this until she died, and the gods took pity upon her. They rewarded her vigilance by turning her into a statue, and now every night after the sun sets and the stars come out, the stony candle held in the statue’s hands ignites into a brilliant light visible for miles around.

The Maiden herself has become a symbol of fidelity, dedication and love, and the statue also serves as a tourist attraction. It stands in the center of a ring of dirt, serving as a clear demarcation against the grass. Anyone or anything which crosses this threshold simply disappears, which has certainly saved the statue from vandalism over the many years, but also has stymied any attempts to study it.

Encounters at Maiden’s Watch

One night, the statue fails to light, causing chaos among the sailors depending on it to find their way to the harbor safely. The PCs are hired to investigate what’s happened and restore the maiden’s light.

The PCs need a star to activate some ancient machinery, and surmise that the maiden’s candle is a star itself. They must find a way to retrieve the candle, never mind dealing with the townsfolk who won’t be happy if they find out what the PCs are doing.

The Maiden’s Hymn stolen (though slightly changed) from Kamelot’s A Sailorman’s Hymn

The wood is guarded by a circle of druids known as the Falashere. The Falashere druids prevent anyone from cutting down even a single tree, and any who try to do so are put to death. For the most part they try to stay hidden and watch anyone who enters the forest from afar, only making themselves known if it seems like a tree is in danger.

The druids also have mastered a ritual using a combination of meditative techniques and magic which allows them to slow themselves down to the pace of the trees, allowing them to commune with them. A single conversation may takes months in real time, and during that time the druid is completely helpless, essentially a statue.

Encounters in The Dancing Wood

Someone bought a map of the woods from a disreputable merchant and became hopelessly lost. The PCs must find the lost person, likely encountering the Falashere druids.

The PCs hear a legend that a mountain used to be very different than it is today. The trees of The Dancing Wood could confirm the legend, and tell what them happened to the mountain.

Malus Mundi is quite literally a little bit of hell on Earth. At its heart lies a gate to hell, and infernal creatures come and go freely, allowing them to enter our world. Thankfully, they cannot stray too far. While any mortal creature can pass through the red veil of the dome with no more difficulty than passing through a light curtain, the denizens of hell find it more solid than any wall ever built.

It is usually not advised for mortals to enter Malus Mundi, though they usually need not fear wanton slaughter. The fact that they can leave and return freely makes any mortal foolhardy enough to enter quite valuable to the wretched creatures within. Some mortals even have established permanent residences within the dome, though that requires the protection of a truly powerful devil to ensure that no “accidents” happen.

Encounters in The City of Devils

A farmer’s son, discontent with a rural lifestyle and seeing no alternatives, has ventured to Malus Mundi to forge a partnership with a devil. The PCs must stop him.

The PCs manage to earn the attention of two devils, who offer them jobs. Not accepting is not an option the devils offer; unfortunately, the two are rivals and working for either also earns the other’s ire.

Many years later, when he had to start thinking of such things, Sir Glorious decided that he could not entrust the Glorious Blade to anyone, for the forces of evil had hounded him since he first received it. They wanted it back, and they wanted to redeem its foul past.

After communing with his goddess, Sir Glorious thrust the blade into the stump of an oak tree cut down long ago. In but three years the stump regrew to its former majesty, and the Glorious Blade was trapped permanently inside the tree.

Today, the small hamlet of Valorvale has sprung up around that tree. Each year, the tree produces a few golden acorns which heal those who eat of them. Some in the town would monetize the nuts, but it is jealously guarded and they are only given to those who live there. The caretaker of the tree is an old man named Emmit Doxan, a surprisingly fit old man in his late nineties. Emmit is also the only one in the town who knows the tree’s history, a secret passed down from caretaker to caretaker.

Encounters with the Hamlet Under the Tree

One of Sir Glorious’s old nemeses is attempting to resurrect itself, and only the Glorious Blade can stop it. Needless to say, the townfolk won’t allow the tree to be chopped down, and even if they did losing the golden acorns would ruin the town. To add some pressure, the same foe the PCs are trying to defeat discovers the location of the Glorious Blade and sends minions out to get it for him.

Ling’hurak was the greatest of the Motori metropolises, and the only one still functional. Though the Motori have long since left this world, their metatons still watch over and maintain Ling’hurak.

Some fools have tried to claim Ling’hurak as their own, but their folly always meets the same grisly end. The reapers, as cold and emotionless as the city itself, still enforce the laws and rule of their departed masters and will suffer no uprisings. A single reaper, it is said, can take out an entire unit of trained soldiers, and Ling’hurak has many, many reapers.

The city’s gates are open to any who wish to come, and the impossibility of setting up any sort of government has turned Ling’hurak into a city of squatters. They must obey the laws set in place by the Motori, but otherwise are left to their own devices. Depending on one’s point of view, it’s either an anarchist paradise or an anarchist hell.

The city is quite self-sufficient even without the Motori there to maintain it. Scarabs crawl up and down, fearlessly scaling the dizzying heights to make sure everything is kept in good condition. The constant presence of the reapers throughout the city ensures that order of a sort is maintained. The reapers are intelligent enough to recognize, and stop, most overt forms of crime (especially violence), but are of little use in contract disputes and the like.

The only area of Ling’hurak off limits to the squatters is the metaton hive, where scarabs, reapers and the other metatons are created and maintained. This is also the home to the most intelligent of the metatons, the Queen, which oversees all the rest. Unlike other metatons, it is a genuinely intelligent being, but it is still utterly loyal to the Motori.

Encounters with The City of Squatters

The PCs learn that one of their enemies has gained entrance into the metaton hive and is trying to coerce, or control, the Queen. With such power, he could rule the world.

An enemy of the PCs asks them to meet in Ling’hurak, a neutral ground, to discuss something of great import. Secretly, he hopes to goad the PCs into attacking him so that the reapers will kill them.