South-Eye Lighthouse, Green Flame Ward
The South-Eye Lighthouse is not merely a beacon for ships. It is a continental ward, a hidden machine of civic doom held in disguise as a harbor monument. Once each year its green flame burns low and must be rekindled with a soul gem containing 50 souls. If the fuel is absent, the lighthouse does not simply go dark. It begins to fail in stages, pulling unnatural frost inland and turning sea mist to needle ice. The stolen gem leaves the city facing a catastrophe that will not stay at the harbor for long.
South-Eye Lighthouse, Green Flame Ward
Defenses
Detection
“At dusk, the South-Eye Lighthouse does not shine with white lantern light but with a low, sea-green fire that licks upward behind the glass like a living thing. The flame throws long jade shadows across the harbor, and the air around the tower smells of brine, copper, and old candles. When it gutters, frost feathers across stone and rope in moments, and every sound in the district seems to go thin and distant.”
Standard Engagement
The annual fuel cycle fails when the soul gem is missing, stolen, or damaged, or if the green flame is deliberately extinguished.
The hazard operates in stages. Stage 1, Failing Glow: the flame dims, and the frostfall radius begins. Stage 2, Cold Reprisal: on initiative count 20, the green gale effect occurs. Stage 3, Harbor Lock: after 3 rounds without proper fuel, the district begins to freeze solid. If the soul gem is restored, the flame flares back to full strength and the effects cease after a short stabilization period.
The hazard resets only when the soul gem is restored and the brazier relit. Once restored, the green flame stabilizes after 1 minute, ending the frost effects in the surrounding area over the next 10 minutes.
Each round the flame is absent or failing, a 60-foot radius around the lighthouse becomes a zone of biting cold and slick frost. Creatures in the area treat the ground as difficult terrain and take 7 (2d6) cold damage at the start of their turns unless they are immune or protected by magic such as protection from energy or a similar ward.
On initiative count 20, the hazard lashes out with a cold wind from the tower lantern. Each creature of the hazard's choice in the radius must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 10 (3d6) cold damage and have its speed reduced by 10 feet until the start of its next turn. A creature that fails by 5 or more is also pushed 10 feet away from the lighthouse.
If the hazard remains unfed for 3 rounds, black ice creeps across the harbor approaches and the city block nearest the tower locks in place. Doors stick, ropes glaze over, and water in exposed containers freezes solid. Until the flame is restored, moving through the district requires a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw at the start of a creature's turn or it falls prone.
The lighthouse is a city-scale ward. While active, it suppresses the spread of unnatural frost in the region beyond the harbor district. If it fails for more than 10 minutes, the DM can escalate the effects beyond the tower grounds into neighboring streets, then farmland and roads, as suits the campaign.
Because the hazard is tied to a hidden civic secret, most city guards, priests, and dockmasters know only that the lighthouse is 'vital.' Characters who expose the truth may gain powerful leverage, but doing so can provoke the ruling authorities or trigger a cover-up.
Blood Throatfall's theft is magically prepared to resist casual scrying and divination. Until the gem is physically recovered or the wards are bypassed with a DC 18 Arcana challenge, locating it through magic is hindered at the DM's discretion.
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