This is the 90th in an ongoing series aimed to provide the overworked DM with ready-to run encounters.
The PCs encounter frozen or boiling elementals. Will their hot side stay hot, and their cold side stay cold? The base encounter is CR 5.
Before the gods cursed the D’Aoine Deighe with the Mallacht Oighir, they sent agents posing as concerned benefactors to speak with Banrigh Uisge, the greatest sorcerer of the D’Aoine Deighe. They told her that the great cold was coming and that they would aid her in saving her people. Banrigh Uisge’s first attempt was forging the Crown of Fire and Water. The hastily conceived plan was to bind fire and water elementals to serve as a magical means of providing endless warmth. Banrigh Uisge abandoned this plan when she realized the suffering the bound creatures would endure.
Due to a distorted desire to be parents, the D’Aoine Deighe wanted to conquer nearby kingdoms with their fleet and magic. Unfortunately for their dreams, their fleet depended on the cooperation of Banrigh Uisge and she refused to enslave the elementals.
After fleeing from her people, Banrigh Uisge made a deal with powerful elementals of fire and water. They routed elemental fire to an island, causing the water around it to boil and making the area certain death for the D’Aoine Deighe and thus protecting the crown.
Because Banrigh Uisge had acted with compassion and justice, the better sort of elder water elementals provided her with elemental guardians suitable to the conditions: frozen elementals and boiling elementals. Even the lords of elemental evil agreed to this arrangement, recognizing the threat presented by the crown. On a few occasions they have attempted to secure the crown for their own use, but these efforts have been thwarted.
While most water elementals initially found being frozen or boiling unpleasant, some elected to remain frozen or boiling after serving the time as guards of the crown. Thus, boiling elementals and frozen elementals can be encountered beyond the lands of the D’Aoine Deighe. In other worlds, these elemental types arose for various other reasons and thus they can be found across the possible worlds.
- from the publisher's blurb