Mount Ornament

Mount Ornament is the highest known mountain in Hyranor, and canonically the only named upnorthian mountain.

## Description

Mount Ornament is the highest mountain known to the people of Hyranor, with its height dwarfing the range that it sits in by far. It is located in the Upnorth, and the only named mountain in the entire region. It is also the only mountain that is visible from the city of Glaceria.

### Outside

Outside the mountain, there are shifting shadowy figures climbing it. The figures and humanoid and seem to glitch in space, they are not actually moving in any direction, but in the process of climbing the mountain with no other gear than two simple pitons. Watching them for longer reveals that they seem to be in some kind of loop, at the end of which they inevitably fall and then reset back into their original position. All of them are incorporeal, probably some sort of projected image, and generic looking.

Coming from the north, it is possible to climb the mountain up to a resting point at about 40 feet height, where two people can stand, and then to a bigger section at about 100 feet height, where slightly hidden between boulders an entry to an abandoned mine can be found. Beyond that, the mountain is virtually impossible to climb.

Mechanically, the mountain has three metaphorical "tripwires" along its side, one near the base, one around the halfway point, and one near the top. When climbing characters cross these tripwires, randomly one of them suddenly blinks away and finds themselves scaling a seemingly endless cliff face that stretches with no visible end above or below them. No matter what they used for climbing before, now they have two simple pitons in hand. Their teammates can look out and watch the shifting figures on the mountain for clues: for the first tripwire, one of them drops a coin instead of falling, and for the second, one drops a weapon. If the character that was blinked away does the same, they reappear in the spot they vanished from, and the thing they dropped appears in a random spot (1d20\*7 for the horizontal axis, 1d100 for the vertical axis). For the third tripwire, no figure drops anything; the character has to let go of their pitons and fall themselves, their location of appearance is then randomised aswell.

### Old Mine

At the resting spot 100 feet above the ground, there are many loose rocks and boulders lying around, and between them is a cave that descends into the mountain. It is a man made and uniformely dug tunnel that is very dark even for humanoids with darkvision, and that can be recognised as an abandoned (as of 71 AP) mine.

The tunnel leads further into the mountain. After a few feet, there is an area that deals psychic damage to anyone going through it ("Brain Hurt Tunnel"), and they have to pass a DC 18 Wisdom save or be hit with a very painful memory. The effect is not a trap or anything that could be disabled.

After that area, the tunnel continues further down and then breaks into a large foyer, carved into the inside of the mountain. It is a huge domed area with a large round stone table with some chairs. From the foyer, countless other tunnels are going off and extending past the walls, and there are four large wooden doors (labelled A-D, although these labels do not exist in canon) to other rooms. They are all unlocked.

Behind door A, there is a large room with tripple bunked wooden beds. Behind door D, there are long tables along with a simple kitchen. Door B leads to a large circular room with an oculus that extends upwards as far as the eye can see. The walls of this room show significant wear, are covered in scratches and markings, and the stone is blackened. Ancient runes are inscribed in the ground. With a Detect Magic, there can be traces found of wildly powerful abjuration and transmutation magic that has been cast long ago, and the ground is desecrated.

The room behind door C is an old, abandoned office with an open floorplan. Desks, chairs, and tables made of stone and wood extend back into a long room that has the decrepit feeling of something that hasn't been touched for thousands of years. But even on top of the signs of abandonment, the office has been trashed: all around it, there are burned up papers and residues of scrolls, little bags of components that are strewn out everywhere, some of them looking mundane, others more substantial. Piles of what is essentially magical trash are everywhere in the office, but there are no traps. The scrolls and components give a strong hint of abjuration and transmutation magic as well, and investigating it leads to the following clues about spells prepared or cast in this room:

* DC 5: spells to move water and earth
* DC 10: spells for teleportation and opening portals to other planes
* DC 15: spells of magical warmth and cold
* DC 20: spells to desecrate land and create hollowed ground
* DC 25: spells to change the climate

Looking at the spells, and the scale at which they were cast, it can be determined that there was an ancient evil cast on or in the mountain (see "History" on the Upnorth page).

Some of the destruction in this room can be identified to have been done intentionally, it looks like someone sloppily tried to hide evidence. Since then, the mine has been abandoned for maybe thousands of years. The fact that the magic that was cast in it can still be detected is a testimony to the power it had.

The etchings and markings in the backwall of room C hide an Arcane Lock. Behind the wall, there is a secret room stuffed full with riches, and in the centre of it is a teleportation circle inscribed with different runes. On the top of the circle, "Glaceria" is written in Elvish. The riches include many different jewels and precious stones, as well as gold coins, but there are no weird little items sticking out, no wooden cups that seem innocent at first. The teleportation circle does not lead directly to Glaceria, instead it leads out of the mountain, to the side facing Glaceria, and causes an avalanche.

## Notable Visitors

* **Arc 6 party** - on their search for riches, glory, and a safe way to Glaceria, the Arc 6 party climbs and explores Mount Ornament.