Valley of Death

Climate: Oppressive

Ecology: Undead

Borders: Takaii, New Heavens

Location: Shagarath's Realm

The positive energies that permeate Ysgard make it a hostile plane for necromancy and the undead so Shagarath has created his own pocket plane to play within. When you arrive through the portal north of Takaii this does not appear too bad, but when you travel south from there you enter a valley filled with red mists and undead. This first section of his realm has three main attractions, or at least reasons to visit.

Death Spider Lair: These undead spiders can guard useful deposits of gems or ore and interesting or valuable items can be found in the many chests within the caves. The heart of their king can also be valuable if you know the right person to deliver it to.

Fey Queen's Lair: After the destruction of her artifact Gulli'veg showed she'd the foresight to have an emergency plan and the power for this to be the relocation of her entire lair from beneath the centre of Tel Woods to here.

Puzzle Labyrinth: This can be frustrating to pass through if you and the creators of the puzzles do not think along similar lines as answering those correctly is the only way to open some of the doors. It can also be frustrating if none in your party can pick locks as that would also end your venture. And finally it can be very frustrating and quite dangerous when you reach the demi-liches at the end of this and find just how little damage your weapons and spells are doing to them.

East of the Valley of Death proper is the start of some woods that Shagarath added to his realm as part of a revenge. Passing through some trees, one of which has the entrance to a Temple of Shagarath, and past a cliff-side entrance to a long corridor, filled with vampires and with a portal at the far end, you reach the fields outside a village. This and the woods around it are filled with undead mockeries of those adventurers who had defeated Shagarath and forced him into exile before. Fortunately most of these mockeries are not as tough and none are as skilled as the actual adventurers so it is possible to defeat them and put Shagarath to the minor inconvenience of recreating them.