Dwarf

Fantasy Location: The Hidden Island

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Fantasy Location: The Hidden Island

The Hidden Island is normally avoided by ships. It lays in the deep sea, surrounded by a pod of kraken. The island itself has two buildings on it. Both are submerged just a few feet under the water, so are a bit of a navigation hazard, especially during storms.

The two buildings are ancient temples. Each has a sundial inside centered inside. If someone moves one of the dials, they will hear a rumbling sound.

One dial actually raises the island out of the sea. Once it’s out of the water, it instantly starts growing plant life. Within six to eight hours the island is fully revegetated like it was never underwater. Once the island is out of the water, the second sun dial opens a previously hidden door. This dial does nothing if the island is still under water.

This opens into a Dwarven Village which has a secret passage down into the Underdark. The Dwarven city is unnamed and empty.

From the Dwarven City passages in the Underdark eventually lead to a drow city of 3000. It sits upon an huge underground sea. If someone manages to get to the middle of the sea, there is a huge whirlpool that goes upwards to the ocean. Entering the whirlpool takes someone to the ocean surface. During storms the whirlpool reverses and instead sucks objects from the sea above down in to the caverns.

Magic Item: Legacy Rod of Lordly Might

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Magic Item: Legacy Rod of Lordly Might

From Okay Your Turn Forums

Legacy Rod of Lordly Might

Base item: +1 Warmace (CW)
Special ability: +5 to Survival checks to keep from getting lost. May tell depth as the Dwarf racial ability. Always knows direction of North.

The Warmace is a heavy, awkward weapon. Without proper training, it is a two-handed weapon that inflicts a -1 penalty to AC. With proper training, it’s a one-handed weapon that inflicts a -1 penalty to AC.

5th Level: Adaptive Weapon I
6th Level: Hold Person 1/day as touch attack
7th level: Flaming weapon
8th level: +2 enhancement bonus,
9: Adaptive Weapon II
10: Fear 1/day
11: Vampiric Touch 1/day
12: +3 enhancement bonus, Flaming Burst
13: Hold Monster 1/day as touch attack
14: Adaptive Weapon III
15: Climbing Pole/Surging Pole
16: +4 enhancement bonus
17: Hold Person 3/day as Touch attack
18: Fear 3/day
19: Vampiric Touch 3/day
20: +5 enhancement bonus

Adaptive Weapon I: As a Swift Action, the wielder may depress a button on the haft and cause a curved blade to spring from one side of the Warmace’s head, effectively turning the weapon into a Dwarven War-Axe. If the wielder is proficient with the Warmace, they are also treated as proficient with this form of the weapon as well. Pushing the same button causes the blade to retract as a Swift Action. Pushing a second button causes a long spike to extend from the tip of the mace as a Swift Action, letting it be used as a Spear; and pushing that button again retracts the spike as a Swift Action.

Spell-Like Abilities: the wielder may use the listed Spell-like abilities, which function as the spells, except as follows: the hold person/hold monster and Vampiric Touch effects require the wielder to touch the target with the Rod. Activating these effects is a Swift action, and the effects will function on either a normal melee attack or a touch attack.

Adaptive Weapon II: as above, except that the blade of the axe is now treated as Silver for purposes of overcoming Damage Reduction, while the spike is treated as Cold Iron.

Adaptive Weapon III: as above, but additionally, the haft can be lengthened, so possible weapons now include a Glaive and Ranseur.

Climbing Pole/Surging Pole:When button 4 is pushed, a spike that can anchor in granite is extruded from the ball, while the other end sprouts three sharp hooks. The rod lengthens to anywhere between 5 and 50 feet in a single round, stopping when button 4 is pushed again. Horizontal bars three inches long fold out from the sides, 1 foot apart, in staggered progression. The rod is firmly held by the spike and hooks and can bear up to 4,000 pounds. The wielder can retract the pole by pushing button 5. Extending the Pole in this manner requires a Standard Action, as does retracting it.
Additionally, the Pole may be used to force open doors, or attempt to push enemies away. The pole has a +12 Strength modifier; if used to push an enemy, treat as a Bull Rush attempt that does not provoke an AoO or require the wielder to move, but has a maximum distance of 50 feet from the wielder.

Wooly Mammoth went extinct about 1700 BC

Posted by Rick on in Endangered, History, Native Americans, Science 0 Comment

Wooly Mammoth went extinct about 1700 BC

Using Radio Carbon Dating (which is interesting in itself) scientists have determined that the last Wooly Mammoths died about 1700 B.C.

They were a dwarfed species that lived on Wrangel Island which is in the Artic Sea in North Eastern Russia. Dwarfism is fairly typical for animals that get trapped on islands, so their size is nothing unexpected and does not make them a separate species. The island is now home to the largest population of Polar Bears in the world, and Arctic Wolves have started living there.

It’s generally thought that the bulk of the species died off 10,000 years ago during the Pleistocene era. The exact cause is unknown, but ironically over hunting by humans tends to be the number one theory, although warming after the last Ice Age certainly played a huge part.

What is really interesting is the range of these animals. Remains have been found in Siberia (given), Alaska (on St. Paul Island where they lived up until 3,750 BC), Spain and as far south in North America as present day Kentucky, where William Clark, of Lewis and Clark,collected some fossils in 1806.

But despite the known extinction dates, rumors of live Woolly Mammoths have persisted up until fairly recent times. There are several stories of lone hunters in Siberia, or Native American tribes in the far North having seen such animals in recent memory. Based on the number of intact carcasses found over the years, 34 in 1929 and now doubled since then, plus rumors of soft tissue being used as an emergency food source by small villages in the winter time, it’s very possible that the 1700 BC date is still incorrect.

As the DNA sequence for a Mammoth is the most complete of any extinct animal, it’s generally thought that it’ll be a trivial task to use that information to clone one. Due to it’s large size and the (relatively) easier task of getting intact DNA samples from Mammoth corpses, it’s believed that if some intact sperm cells can be recovered, an Indian elephant can be impregnated, bringing the Mammoth back to life.