The Shatterhold / Torment of Kas (Patreon)

This series of releases is new to my Patreon - these are adventure locations based on maps I've drawn for official products over the years. The low-resolution sample version of the map is available for everyone, but the high-resolution versions are only available to patrons and people who purchase the release through the Patreon storefront. As such, these maps are not going to be included in the Patreon-exclusive end-of-month PDF, but will instead be released as their own PDF alongside the end-of-month one.

These maps are released under the new Restricted Release License as found on the copyright page of the blog.

The Map in this post is covered under my Restricted Release License and is intended for personal gaming use. Distribution outside of your own sessions is a violation of this agreement.

The high-resolution versions of this map are available exclusively through Patreon to patrons at the Level 1 Adventurer tier and above and to all Legacy Patrons.

This map was drawn for Vecna: Eve of Ruin and is copyright Wizards of the Coast.

The Annointed still guards the old hold, a mastercraft of machinery powered by something alien - something without body drawn from the far realms and then invested into this shell of steel and blades.

The Annointed is a massive warforged monstrosity, barely humanoid in shape under the various armaments that are integral to his form. It has been trapped here since the fall of the hold during the War of Six Hells. Geased by the fortress’s last court-wizard, “the Magister”, in the last minutes of the siege, the Annointed must now “Hold the line, No matter the cost.” The Magister was panicking and wounded when he made this last command, and probably didn’t choose his words with much care.

This has gone beyond the geas and is entwined with the magics that seal the far entity into this metal shell. The Annointed finds itself unable to cross the keep’s boundary without suffering a massive psychic feedback loop that leaves it stunned and distressed - not enough to kill the creature, but enough to make it never want to test the limits again. Further, the geas triggers an overwhelming compulsion to return to the centre of the keep whenever the Annointed thinks of leaving the confines of its ancient prison. The words of the Magister still echo within the Annointed, and it is always hearing the court wizard’s dying voice repeating the final geas.

The shatterhold itself tells the lie of the Annointed’s commands. This corner of the keep is all that remains from the War of Six Hells. All that remains are fragments of walls and this one corner structure of the keep proper, where the Annointed remains. This was, at some point, an audience chamber, and the east side of the main chamber contains a dais and throne that the Annointed can usually be found upon, seemingly deep in thought until it detects intruders.

The route into the audience room passes through a small bailey and then down a path between two sets of battlements flanked by defaced statues of ancient generals, all their heads removed.

Behind the audience chamber are two other chambers that remain intact from the original fortifications. The main one once had various wooden furnishings that the Annointed violently removed years ago, throwing them off of the battlements into the fields beyond. All that remains are four tapestries, damaged by time and angry blows from the Annointed when it loses itself to its more destructive urges. The smaller chamber is home to a fountain, but the fountain has been filled with a fine oil that drips down slowly from the highest point with no obvious source.

On its more calm and introspective days, the Annointed comes to this chamber as the sunset shines through the rubble and ruins of the west wall of the audience chamber. Here it annoints itself slowly with the oils of the fountain, in a ritual that it does not recall or understand. But the oils keep it from rusting and keep the blades ever sharp, ready to return to the fray and hold the keep in the siege eternal.