In the gloomiest and darkest part of the Wood, there’s a perfectly circular clearing whose ground is ash. None of the Wood’s animals dare enter this place. This is where the Dread Ring was built. It was both a fortress and a ritual tool for a grand spell that would have turned Szass Tam into a god. Though the spell failed, the ruined fortress now serves as the main base for the Thayans in the region.

The entire area of the Ring, both indoors and outdoors, is super cursed. Check it out:

  • It counts as both defiled and necrotic ground, the rules for which are found in the DMG 2. Basically, undead are boosted and HP gains from spending healing surges are halved.

  • Powers with either the arcane or necrotic keywords crit on 19-20. Powers with both keywords crit on 18-20. This is one of the only instances of “critical range” boosting in the entire game, it’s an extremely rare bonus.

  • Creatures take -1 to Will against powers or effects with the fear keyword.

Since this is also Lorragauth’s grave, some smaller areas in here might also count as acid-based fonts of power or elemental spouts, making them even more hazardous.

The Ring from the Outside In

Frequent clashes between Shadovar and Thayan forces have turned the outer areas of the clearing into a blood-soaked battlefield littered with corpses.

Inside the ruined outer walls is the Flesh Factory, where corpses, body parts, and sometimes living victims are stored and used as materials for Thayan necromancy and flesh-shaping projects. The place’s design lets it raise undead at a much faster pace and a much larger scale than usual, effectively mass-producing them. This is where most of the Thayan undead are made, and also the facility in charge of repairing the fortress’ walls. Instead of bothering with the logistics of procuring and shipping stone, they decided to patch the walls with slabs of undead flesh. These walls get a stat block as a trap, because they can sprout grabby hands that deal damage.

Past the Factory are the halls of the fortress, which follow no plan a living mind would consider sane since their main purpose was to act as a ritual tool.

The center is open, and it’s the current site of the Thayan excavation that’s trying to reach Lorragauth’s resting place. They’ve managed to reach his bones and partially unearthed them already, but there’s plenty of work to do before they’re free of the soil. The excavation pit is deep and hazardous, and the book has rules for navigating it and for operating the many cranes installed here during combat to either drop rocks on enemies or slam the crane arm into them.

The undead workforce here doubles as the Dread Ring’s garrison, so they get depleted to a, er, skeleton crew when the Netherese attack. They’re overseen by Praddak, an battle wight (stats in DMG 2). Also here as protection is the sacred totem of the Thunderbeast tribe, which as we saw before was a fossilized thunderbeast skeleton. It’s been animated by necromancy, with the stats of a rotclaw (an undead monster from the Draconomicon). This of course is a horrible blasphemy, particularly to the Uthgardt Barbarian PC.

Somewhere near the pit is the Dread Spire, the tallest surviving tower of the Ring. It houses the Thayan war room, the entrance to Valindra’s sanctum, and a perpetually dark room that contains a portal to the Shadowfell. It also contains the Chapel of the Dragon, where Kroskas’ cultists research how to raise Lorragauth as a dracolich.

The Shadowfell portal is what lets the Thayans bring corpses from Neverdeath Cemetery for reanimation, and to receive caravans that come from Surcross via the Shadowfell Road.

Valindra’s Sanctum houses her library and an arcane observatory that lets someone scry remote locations and perform astrological divination. It’s operated by Lurrens, one of her lieutenants, who watches it 24/7. Lurrens is a former wizard who was turned into an undead Brain in an Armored Jar (from Open Grave).

The observatory’s grinding machinery is hazardous terrain, should a fight break out here. PCs might find information on Gauntlgrym and other campaign secrets by either researching Valindra’s library or learning how to operate the observatory.

Impressions

Contrary to my earlier expectations the Dread Ring cannot rise as a floating battlestation or giant undead mech, though the possibility of them raising a dracolich is a decent substitute. The place is perfectly usable as an endgame dungeon, though it could also end up being “just” an important stop on the way to Gauntlgrym depending on the campaign’s focus.

And I have to say “Brain in an Armored Jar” is the best monster name ever.