Coldscale Pinnacle

(Town)

Character: Life on the ice is hard, and the people who’ve got the strength to handle it are in charge. As for the rest, endure and keep working, there’s prosperity aplenty, so long as you don’t ask for freedom or happiness and keep your head down when the powerful pass. Don’t trust outsiders, they’re unworthy and can upset and unsteady cart.

Ruler: Cryshallissos, an ancient Chromium dragon, is the one, only, and absolute master of the Coldscale Pinnacle. She rules by virtue of having made the place, populated it with those who were willing to stand her over-mastery, and controls her minions with a blue ice claw. She’s established a strictly tiered society. There’s her, then her first rank minions, then her lesser minions, and then there’s the masses below. Only her deadly secret police stand even partly outside this order.

Cryshallissos isn’t a bad ruler, in a way. Her power helps keep the place safe and the Djinn from conquering it or trying to haul it to a warmer part of the elemental plane of air. Her considerable business acumen and intimidating negotiation style keeps the deals good and the city highly prosperous. This feeds her hoard and fuels her grand ambitions, which involve gradually subverting just about every other dragon on the plane, and though indisputably evil and an enforcer of cruel laws, she’s quite fair, when it comes time for judgment.

Behind the Throne: Cryshallissos prefers to rule through a number of totally intimidating and suitably alien beings so their ambitions have little impact on the city. A half dozen or so Frostwind Viragos form her inner circle of minions, and the first among them is Freidel, a cruel and terrible fey being who loves nothing more than to see lesser mortals cower in terror. They in turn lord over the Yuki-On-Na who serve as the city’s rank and file patrol and law enforcement.

The bulk of the snow elven populace has their own leaders, and many are powerful merchants and wizards commanding vast riches, but they don’t dare stand up to their masters or they would have left long ago. Instead they listen to and stay carefully on the good side of the Frostclaw Shinobi Ryu, the ninja clan who serve as Cryshallissos’ secret police. Myjerya Nailiso (Female/Snow Elf/Planar/Ninja/LE) serves as the Soke and speaks for the clan, the jounin, their true master, remains dark, perhaps the dragon fills that role herself by taking on elven form. The ninja generally quietly take over handling outsiders here for some purpose deeper than trade, recreation, or mystical research. They aren’t very gentle though.

Description: Coldscale Pinnacle is a great snow elven city built wrapped around a mighty chunk of Paraelemental Ice in the shape of a mountain. It floats through the border region between air and ice, shrouded in cold vapors and fogs. The city presents a vision of terrified wonder, for though it has soaring, beautiful architecture and is decorated with wondrous ice sculptures and fascinating displays of jewelry, everything in the city is joyless and speaks instead of sorrow. Cold winds wrap around the city and all dwell beneath the shadow of the dragon’s castle atop the peak, living without security and under a constant shroud of low-level fear. It’s not as bad as places on the lower planes, or even a truly corrupt city on a low-class prime material world, but there’s a sense that all of the enjoyment has been drained out of this place and the residents have nothing but taciturn endurance left to them. While travelers may come here to revel among displays of ice sculpture and get drunk on fabulous elven wines, the natives almost never smile.

The city is organized in a strict matriarchy, because the dragon is female and so are her choice fey servants, so the elves have adjusted their society accordingly, though this is mitigated by their overall limits on power anyway. Still, the snow elves who tend to rise highest, among the ninja, or in the mystical arts tend to be female. Sorceresses tend to be the most highly placed among the city’s elven populace, though rich mechants hold great influence as well.

Almost all the permanent residents are snow elves, though a fairly sizeable portion of the populace has become dragontouched or feytouched over the centuries from interacting with their masters and it shows. Outsiders are not welcome and tend to be left alone unprotected until the fey make a meal of them, or dragged before the dragon by her stealthy ninja servants, to make whatever deal they might to survive. A bare handful or air genasi and half-janni scratch out a living in the city, but everyone else needs to stay away.

Of course, while settlement is very strongly discouraged, short trading visits or recreational excursions are welcome enough, and there is a merchant’s quarter in one of the basal rings of the city, as far from the dragon’s lair as possible. Coldscale Pinnacle’s snow elves have a justified reputation as extraordinary jewelers, and their mastery of clear and blue stones, diamonds, sapphires, aquamarines, and so on, and their setting in silvery fixtures, is legendary. So are their ice sculptures, which almost never melt in the city and may be preserved using magic for those who wish to cart them away. Magic is also for sale, as many of the city’s spellcasters are powerful Frost Mages, and know spells of cold as few do, at least outside the Paraelemental Plane of Ice (and that is much harder to reach).

Other outsiders come seeking the powers of the Frostwind Viragos, who are mighty fey in their own right, or the secret arts of the Frostclaw ninja, who are said to know ways to hide in the very openness of the Boundless Blue itself, blending into the sky behind them. Few can speak successfully of finding such secrets, however.

Militia: Yuki-On-Na, nasty fey women who wield the power of cold to freeze the hearts of others, especially men, float serenely all about the city, patrolling and watching with great care. They will swiftly seize upon any crime against Cryshallissos’ harsh laws, and call on backup from their sisters or their Frostwind Virago masters should there be a need. Against crimes hidden from the open, the Frostclaw ninja are constantly watchful and have ears everywhere. They hold special exemptions and powers over the normal law, and will snatch someone up on suspicion alone, to determine the truth in quite, cold rooms later on.

In the event of outside attack, from marauder Efreet, angry elementals, or some other disturbance, the fey will band together and turn out the more combat capable snow elves, mostly spell casters, by district. They will be joined by a small legion of ice drakes, who issue forth from Cryshallissos’ lair, and likely by the dragon herself, as the wyrm likes to take an active role in protecting her city.

Services: almost any normal goods elves would make can be bought in Coldscale Pinnacle, but the price is dear as the residents dislike selling day-to-day supplies to outsiders. Jewelry, however, is available in abundance, including mystical pieces such as rings, armor crystals, staves and rods with gemstone components, and much else. Prices are somewhat higher than they might be elsewhere, but the quality is unbeatable. Magic can be purchased as well, with scrolls or potions for essentially any effect involving cold available to be bought. Travelers looking to unload magic for gems or jewels will also find a willing market, as the dragon considers this a fair trade and would rather fill her hoard with mystical trinkets than stony baubles.

The enterprising visitor can also negotiate with the fey, or if very circumspect, the ninja, for other, darker services. If their draconic mistress does not presently need them, the ninja can be hired as spies and assassins, and have certain special skills that few others in elemental air possess. On a darker note, the elves here have lost enough respect for themselves that some few secretly serve in brothels of their own will, so those wishing to sample the exotic charms of snow elf women (or occasionally men) can pay a small fortune for the privilege. However, there is little satisfaction in this, for the elves are entirely faking any pleasure they experience.

Current Chant: There are always rumors about Cryshallissos’ latest schemes, but presently there’s even more upheaval than usual. It’s well known that the dragon recently met with several well known scholars of dragons and draconic magic, including the renowned Ijien Deepseeker (who wrote a report on the city and its dragon that is now circulating around the Inner Planes as is her wont). There are rumors that say Cryshallissos may have stumbled upon something truly powerful of late, an Orb of Dragonkind. Tying rumor upon rumor others note that the ice drakes seem to be rapidly increasing in number, and speculate that some of these new ones are white or silver wyrms dominated and polymorphed into hidden servitude. Considering Cryshallissos’ openly stated goal to rule over a vast draconic empire, it hardly seems farfetched. Of course, others wonder if the dragon didn’t deliberately pay Ijien and others to help foster rumors so adventurers would come calling in service of some other scheme. Whatever the case, the snow elves are keeping their heads down even more than usual.

Creature Sources: Chromium Dragon (Dragon Mag #356), Snow Elf (Frostburn), Frostwind Virago (Monstrous Manual V), Yuki-On-Na (Frostburn), Ice Drake (Draconomicon)