Upnorth

## The Upnorth

Illustration for Arc 6 Episode 8 showing the Upnorth, drawn by @samgreeneart on Instagram

### Episodes

Arc 2, Arc 6

The Upnorth is a cold and inhospitable region in the north of Hyranor. It is mentioned in Arc 2, and the main location of Arc 6.

## Description

See also: Arc 2 Descriptions, Arc 6 Descriptions

The Upnorth is a frigid tundra in the north of Hyranor. It is an endless expanse of white, stretching for hundreds of miles, only broken by snow-capped trees and the mountain tops of the mountains that make it up. These mountains, including Mount Ornament, the highest mountain known to the people of Hyranor, are said to be full of riches, but cannot be reached easily: the Upnorth is so inhospitable that nobody really knows how big it is, because no cartographers have yet crossed it and survived.

While it is scattered with settlements of Goliaths and Arctic Dwarves, very few other Humanoids can survive in this cold region. The important exception is the city of Glaceria, which is magically kept warm, keeping out most of the dangers of the region. Thus, if people come from the Upnorth, most of them have their home in this city.

## History

The magical inhospitality of the Upnorth did not evolve naturally, and it has not always been there, either. Instead, it was created by powerful spellcasters, thousands of years ago, in the now abandoned mine in Mount Ornament. While the original Upnorth was already cold and unpleasant, it was not even close to being as cruel and deadly as it is now. The spells were cast by some Lovejoys, generation and millenia ago (Gem Lovejoy probably doesn't even know of that fact). Their plan was to create a region that would keep everyone away, thus securing their sole access to the riches hidden in the mountains of the Upnorth.

## Dangers of the Upnorth

Apart from the extremely cold temperatures and the scarcity of plants, the region is also home to dangerous monsters, such as dragons. Mechanically, if travelers cross the Upnorth, there are random encounters, and the possible outcomes change in dependence of the travel speed.

This region also tends to play tricks on people, and has some magical effects that can affect travellers. These effects usually stem from the raw natural magic of the region. Other effects simply come from the natural conditions of the region.

### Monsters / Enemies

* **Air Elementals**
* **Frost Giant**
* **Harex\*** - a giant hissing hare with a whipping tail. Accompanied by snow bunnies of doom. (Submitted by Olivia)
* **Lucria\*** - misty, semi-corporeal foxes (Submitted by FirbolgNation)
* **Purrfal\*** - a white cat with long, rabbit-like ears, that makes it impossible to take a rest close to her (Submitted by Pirate Princess Jess)
* **Snow Bunnies of Doom\*** - a bunch of little bunnies with collars. (Submitted by Rizchard)
* **White Dragon**

### Magical and Non-magical Environmental Effects

* **Angry Forest** - environmental hazard designed after the mechanics of the Wrath of Nature spell. A lightly forested area made out of hardy and tough trees with dark grey-ish green leafs and strange looking fruit. After some time, the branches seem to be more and more animated, and the trees start lashing out and striking the characters. Also, rocks start flying around, and the characters can get stuck to the ground as icy vines try to climb up their legs.
* **Antimagic Field** - between Glaceria and Mount Ornament, the whole area is an antimagic field, preventing all spells, magical abilities, and magic items from working. Spell slots and uses are still expended when someone tries to use them, but there is no effect.
* **Avalanche** - on Mount Ornament, on the side facing Glaceria. When the avalanche travels 300 feet, you must make a DC 15 Strength save in order to take half damage. 3 saves must be made until the avalanche comes to a stop at the base of the mountain. There, the characters are buried in the snow, meaning they are restrained and blinded. They have 3 chances to try and dig themselves out with a DC 15 Athletics check. If they fail the third time, they are so weakened from trying that they have to be rescued from the outside. (Adapted from the rules from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything)
* **Chomp Snow** - the snow in an area starts to crawl up the legs of travelers, every round they have to make a Constitution save with a DC of 15 to take half damage as the snow hurts them. It can only be fought by setting it on fire, it is flammable and leads to the characters also taking fire damage, but it does melt away after that. If someone fails three saves, they take a permanent scar from that.
* **Difficult Terrain** - the whole region counts as difficult terrain.
* **Freezing Fog**\* - a fog that deals cold damage every time the characters are in it. It works over touch and flees from fire or other sources of heat. Local effect that does not move, but the affected area is relatively big. (Submitted by laundryscent)
* **Grey Eyes** - a disease effect that randomly affects some travellers and turns their eyes grey every morning, but doesn't affect their vision.
* **Hot Spring** - a spring connected to a river running through the Upnorth. It is filled with pleasantly warm bubbling water. If a character goes in there, it tries to charm and then burn them.
* **Persistent Spring**\* - a patch of grass in the snow, with a single flower in it. Dangerous, but unclear in what way. (Submitted by laundryscent)
* **Psychic Fog** - fog that is streaked through with hues of red and purple and that deals psychic damage once to everyone in it, with a DC 14 Intelligence saving throw to take half of the damage. Everyone who fails that save also has to substract a 1d6 from any checks, attacks, or Constitution saves they make going forward.
* **Rest Matrix** - depending on the kind of shelter characters find for the night, they have to make a Constitution save with varying DC to find out whether they can take a long rest at all, or even take additional exhaustion.
* **Shelter Mimic**\* - a very small area of storm, in which the characters can find a raised rocky outcropping that can serve as a shelter. It is small, and the characters have to duck to get in. As they get in, they realise that they are stuck, and cannot move their arms, and take acid damage as the ground starts eating them alive (it is not a "real" mimic, not a monster that can take damage, just how the area is). An Athletics check DC 17 is necessary to break out of it. (Submitted by slugdreams)s
* **Up Snow\*** - an area in which snow falls up instead of down. First, it is just little flakes, then bigger patches. Then, characters have to make a DC 15 Dexterity save or fly up, only to crash right back down. (Submitted by Paul Goody)
* **Upnorth's Cold** - while usually, cold weather gear makes characters automatically succeed the Constitution save they have to succeed every hour in the cold to avoid exhaustion, the Upnorth is so cold that this is not the case here. Instead, the Constitution saves are spread out to happen every 8 hours instead of every hour.
* **Wisdom Tick\*** - a disease effect that randomly affects some travellers and reduces their Wisdom score by 1d4 every morning. It is caused by a tick that hides in the character's hair and can be found and removed with a Medicine check.

\*Patreon submissions

## Notable Places

* **Glaceria** - the only bigger city in the region.
* **Mount Ornament** - the highest mountain known to the people of Hyranor, and the only named mountain in the entire region. Also, the only upnorthian mountain visible from Glaceria.

## Notable Inhabitants

See Glaceria for inhabitants of Glaceria.

## Notable Visitors

See Glaceria for visitors of Glaceria.

* **Arc 6 Characters and Backup Characters**

## Trivia

* There is at least one river running through the Upnorth, and it does not have to be crossed to get from Mount Ornament to Glaceria or the other way around.