The tales in chronological order :
1. Skyrealm Kolovisondra
The classic introduction to Skyrealms of Jorune. An ancient skyrealm broke loose from its mountain moorings in the Western Trinnu Jungle Lands and drifted eastward out across the Kymay Sea . Burdothians, Anasani, Sillipean pirates and ramian raced to harvest its wealth of crystals, limilates. Among them where the fledgling heroes of Burdoth.
2. The Pirates of Sillipus
The heroes were officially sent to Anasan to relieve a wealthy kladesman's relatives, who were under siege from an unfriendly woffen tribe. However, when out at sea, the true mission was revealed - to find the origins of new-found earth-tech among the pirates of Sillipus.
When investigating in the dangerous ramian city of Twathigire on Sillipus, the heroes found that a band of vicious trulga caji were responsible for selling the earth-tec items. The trulga caji were physically and mentally deformed caji who had advanced their weaving and isho storing capabilities by bathing in the dangerous boiling trulga pits of Sillipus. The dangerous caji had captured the earth-tec from a Jaspian crystal schooner they had attacked and destroyed off Sillipus' eastern coast. Following this lead and hijacking another crystal schooner, the heroes found a makeshift Jaspian base far southeast of Sillipus. Here the Jaspians had discovered a small research station from ancient times. Although not many energy weapons had been found, the small outpost was a gold mine of knowledge and still had links to a surviving orbiting satellite. However, as Tauther Frederyk led the attack on the new-found research station, he met his old Jaspian rival Chivallos. In the ensuing battle the research station was destroyed along with Chivallos. As a tragic finale, the ignorant human primitives of Jorune also managed to alter the orbit of the satellite and could later watch it burn in the atmosphere that same night.
3. Ardoth's Knife
A retired bronth emissary of the Ardothain Council contracted the heroes to find his kidnapped daughter. It turned out that the man responsible for the kidnapping was hiding behind an organisation known as Ardoth's Knife and sought vengeance for a previous council judgement the bronth initiated. After a fight with the crugar bodyguards the kidnapped daughter was returned safely.
4. Assassins from the past
Hlaji Hirod, a famous Burdothian explorer, had returned home to Ardoth after crossing uncharted seas far to the south. Among Ardoth's aristocracy he lectured about the exotic island of the Sharharras Sea and other exploits along the Sharras Jungle Lands and Southwestern Temauntro coasts. One misty night two black clad assassins attacked Halaji in the street. At this moment fate had placed the heroes nearby. Although they weren't able to prevent the assassins from fatally wounding poor Halaji, they managed to catch one of the assassins. Before they could interrogate the scoundrel, the assassin killed himself. His body however revealed a clue to his identity with marks on the forearm. It was obvious that the assassins were sent for Halaji, as they stole all his navigational equipment and his maps. Before Halaji died he revealed the importance of beating the assassins to their goal. An entire population of innocents were in danger. Providing them with information how to find a last copy of his coordinates, Halaji also told them to seek the harbour stones of Erucia, Ulthar, Argai and Melin, as these held some type of clues they also needed.
For their bravery the heroes were hired by the grieving relatives and the Ardothian Kim to find out what happened – at any cost.
Investigations show that the assassins were royal Erucian assassins (Silent warriors) and bore the ancient mark of the Erucian Emperor. The surviving assassins later escaped on a small black ship that seemed to sail against the wind.
In order to reach Erucia before the black ship, the heroes travelled the shorter land route through hostile Thantier. After a tiresome journey they arrived in Erucia and uncovered much of the old history of the Erucian people. The Erucian Empires downfall, the loss of its power to warp its great fortress ships. A legend spoke of how the controlling artefact known the sword of Benhuial was stolen many centuries ago by monks during a slave rebellion. The monks thereby broke the Ercucian people's naval power and reduced them to warring marine city-states, soon swallowed by one of the sagedomes of Thantier. The sword was hidden on Marui, the secret island of the monks – but was actually seen by Halaji during his visit to the long lost island.
Not knowing the terrible truth about the sword, Halaji told people about the great crystal studded sword during his lectures. This attracted the attention of the Erucian Overlord, Ryncaril, who immediately sent out men to distant Burdoth to retrieve the maps and coordinates for the island.
Receiving help from the agents of rivalling sage Alsinor of Moorshae, the heroes fled Erucia, and travelled to all the cities or ruins that Halaji had mentioned. They there copied the harbour stone markings still not knowing what type of clues these presented.
The heroes and sage Alsinor understood that the Erucian Overlord Ryncaril wished to restore his people to greatness. Fearing a cruel new great naval power the heroes raced the Overlord's isho gliding ships (black ships with strange large isho enervors tied to the lowest deck of their ships, enabling the ship to isho glide) to the Island of the Cross Monks.
On the island, the heroes tried to save the already captured monks and fought the Erucians valiantly, but were captured. With their harbour stone clues they managed to solve the puzzle and avoid the traps protecting the secret chamber where the sword Benuial rested. However, on Ryncaril's flagship ship the heroes managed to start a brawl and activated the great crystals on the holy sword. This opened a warp to the tormented evid that had been controlled by the sword for centuries. With terrible anger the evid killed the Overlord, destroyed the sword (killing all her young) and slammed the warp shut. Thus the power of the Erucians was broken forever.
The Christian monks (the only ones that still seemed to have this faith on Jorune) rewarded the heroes and begged them to keep their peaceful island a secret.
5. War
After the ordeal far out into the Sharharras Sea , the heroes returned to rest and reward at sage Alsinor's court in Moorshae.
However, a fter the death of the Erucian Overlord, his young son ascended the throne of Erucia and desperately tried to force the various Erucian ports and colonies to swear him fealty, as they had served his father. King Korligan of Huragach (another sagedom of Thantier ruled by the fierce skamaan people) saw the young prince's vulnerability and attacked Erucia with his armies. The city was swiftly taken and the young prince Ryncáras thrown from the walls. Shortly thereafter, the skamaan forces surprisingly rapidly marched against Terc and seized the city before they had time to properly mobilize. The sage of Terc managed to flee to Tan-Iricid.
The other sages of Thantier understood the threat the martial skamaan and their great boccord king Korligan posed. Another great Skamaan War loomed on the horizon. The powerful Coronian sages began fortifying their borders, while the more loosely organised and tribal theodiceans were worried that they would become King Korligans next target.
The heroes became drawn into the conflict when prince Alsinor was poisoned to create chaos. As the thodicean sagedom of Moorshae seemed likely to be the next target of Korligan, the slowly dying Alsinor and his sister Alina begged their brother, sage Masinor of Valarach to help them. They also sent the heroes to slay Korligan - a near impossible task. A ramian known as the rochera was bound by honour beyond his kin to the late prince Alsinor. Sagess Alina also freed him if he journeyed with the heroes to kill Korligan.
The heroes and the rochera managed sneak into the highlands of Huragach and into the great mountain fortress dressed as skamaan soldiers. They witnessed the massed main army and the very martial ways of the skamaan. Assembled were also wild crugar mercenaries. Despite being eternal enemies of the skamaan, the ruthless boccord king had brought them into Thantier to create more chaos and destruction in the countryside further south. They also saw the monstrously huge boccord king and his sly Burdothian caji Ogaver whispering in his ear.
With the aid of Alina's spies, some slaves and a lot of luck, the heroes managed to get into King Korligans throne room. In the ensuing fight the great boccord King was slain, while the rochera was killed by his Darkmane beasts. Caji Ogaver escaped through a warp, but the heroes followed him into the unknown wilderness, where their quarry soon was lost (or possibly had warped away). The heroes therefore found themselves stranded in strange and foreign lands.
6. Horbaal the Great
The heroes soon found that they were now in the dangerous wilds of Temauntro. Crugar spotted them and began assailing them day and night. In the end they were forced to hide in shantic ruins, where their caji dabbled with some shantic tech. This attracted the attention of the shanta who recognised their copras as having been close to the release of the great Horbaal evid.
Esashal (Sh. Keeper of Secrets), a human servant, contacted them in the ruins and heard their story. He then threw them the chewed and broken remains of the sword of Benhuial and told them to finish what they started. Without the sword, the evid was now unleashed and the shanta could not control it. As it would take time to gather an eelshon, it would meanwhile be wiser to try to destroy the ancient evid.
The heroes managed to track the evid to the volcanic Lake Alisvu (Kachalan “ High Lake ” in chaun-tse). After great terror, the death of one of the heroes trying to swim the lake (John Doe, as his name is forgotten) and much building of huge traps and war machines - they managed to slay the evid.
They were rewarded with crystals and sent through warps to nearby human civilisation – Khodre.
7. The Doom Priests
Arriving through an old shantic temple close to Margeen in south-western Khodre, the heroes found a border town in panic. Townsfolk had been attacked by shanta and strange human priests with red circles on their garments and hideously burnt faces preached about the end of the world if the town wasn't abandoned. Rumours of ghosts and a strange death or plague, which made even the birds fall down dead from the sky, abounded. It did not take long before the heroes were blamed for the recent disasters and Cyralla, the local rhakeshtia imprisoned them. She granted them freedom only if they could free the town of this new evil.
Consulting wise old thivin (The four Turaan) living in symbiosis with scarmis in their great hive and reading ancient shantic scriptures among the ruins of the surrounding hills, the heroes found that a roving skyrealm was about to enter the valley from the deep vales of the Dowtrough Mountains on its long cyclic journey. The nearby shanta revered the skyrealm, which held important structures, artefacts and temples. Although the crugar of the region knew that the valley was taboo, humans had only settled the valley over the last two centuries and knew nothing about the skyrealm or the shantas returning to protect it. Ca-Desti and Ca-Du shantas first tried to persuade humans to leave the region without letting them see the skyrealm by letting their human agents scare them as doompriests, incite the crugar to attack the humans or scorch the land with foul human radioactive substances. The first to die were crystal prospectors.
Now, the Ca-Desti and their fanatic human slaves had even planted an ancient earth-tec weapon under the town. Defying dichandra in the subterranean tunnels, the heroes managed to stop the countdown and save the town. The skyrealm was finally seen coming out of the great valley and a great amount of miners fell upon it. The heroes were rewarded by the city chell and the mining families. In return they also earned the Ca-Desti as their enemies, who placed copies of their copras in crystals for keeping.
8. The Tirtive of Voligire
On their way home to Burdoth the heroes passed along the bandit infested caravan route of Doben-al and once again found a shantic temple. Without hesitation they began searching the temple for any relics they could find. Instead they became lost in the great underground labyrinth and couldn't find their way out. As food ran low in the darkness they were saved by a human with a light orb. It was the strange human servant Esashal again. Once again the shanta had felt the presence of their copra (coincidence?).
Esashal showed them the way out, and also gave them a satchel that was found upon a dead Burdothian emissary in the nearby Coastal Kingdoms. The emissary's ship had been attacked, probably by ramian, and he had fled ashore, where he died of his wounds. The satchel contained a coded letter and a ramian shield of passage.
The heroes managed to break the code, finding that the emissary had been travelling to Voligire. The letter was addressed to the ruling Tirtive of Voligire demanding that they should return the symbolic and holy pillar of the temple of Sydra that had been stolen during the last invasion of Lusail. Burdoth offered the ramian a shipload of shirm-eh and quite a lot of gems in return for this religious relic.
Esashal explained that Sydran tolamuun priests had replaced the holy pillar with a crystal studded pillar stolen from a shantic temple. The shantic artefact was of great value and the shanta had now found the thieves and wished to have it returned. When the Sydrans refused, the dharsage feared animosity between the shanta of the region and the humans. Instead he was willing to barter for the original pillar with the ramian.
The heroes could see that the letter now also contains added threats from the shanta, written in unreadable rorch-ko. As the heroes couldn't read this added text to the letter it worried them. But before they could get an explanation, Esashal mysteriously disappeared.
The patriotic heroes hired a ship foolish enough to travel to Voligire. They were saved from ramian attack thanks to their shield of passage and finally reached Vinteer. Here they were formally welcomed but kept in their great houses as prisoners or guests. Uncertain of whom to turn to, the heroes chose to address Reveen, one of the four tirtive (All-Rulers of the ramian) whom had had most contact with humans. While they waited and were entertained by Reveen's minions, their letter was taken before Reveen.
While the ramian decided upon the matter the heroes watched gladiatorial games and attended hunts. Always uncertain of the ramians intentions, the heroes remained wary and on their guard. In the arena they saw a glimpse of a tologra, a creature they had never seen before. During a daji whale hunt Reveen finally sprung his trap and through trickery had them thrown in the water amid the dangerous whales. During this terrible ordeal one of the heroes was eaten by one of the great daij whales. That it was Reveen who had planned to kill the original emissary was now obvious.
Fleeing Reveens house, the heroes managed to get protection from another Tirtive - Triax the Holy, although they had initially suspected him to be their greatest threat. Although clearly being mad or touched by the gods, Triax – Master of the ramian priesthood – understood the concern of the Burdothians.
Reveen was expulsed from the Tirtive for his treachery and attempt to destroy newfound relations between Burdothians and ramian. He was lowered in caste to a Matirikiv (provincial ruler) and ordered to govern in Sillipus. This created a new great and terrible enemy for the heroes.
The pillar was returned and the heroes were shipped quickly back to Burdoth with their treasure. In Burdoth they were rewarded for their daring quest with copras from both the High Priest of Sydra and Sydra's Kim for keeping the peace.
Frederyk was elevated to Drenn Status.
9. The Yorlisssen of the Doben-al
Over the last two years, daring Doben-al raiders had plagued the caravans travelling between Khodre and Burdoth on the famous Khodre Caravan Route . Trade had become interrupted and the klades complained to the Dharsage. After some weeks of rest from their dangerous trip to Voligire, the heroes were sent out to investigate.
During their scouring of eastern outskirts of the Doben-al, the heroes came upon a fransei village being rectified by a cruel Burdothian military commander. The villagers were accused of helping and protecting the raiders and their village was burnt to the ground.
The heroes heard from the villagers that the band of humans and outcast crugar followed three leaders who called themselves the Yorlissen of Doben-al. Clues from the villagers pointed to the haunted Valley of a Thousand Towers.
In the haunted valley, among strange high piles of stones, the heroes found the underground base of the bandits. The bandits had used natural caves, but also eerie ancient ruins as their base. Together with fiery green liquid found deep underground in the strange ruins, the heroes managed to route the Yorlissen and attract the attention of the Burdothian army close by. One of the yorlissen had an energy rifle of Dharsage Silver and his final fight on a bridge plunged him to a cold death in a great waterfall.
Once again the heroes were rewarded for their patriotic deeds.
10. The Warp Mystery (Haisvana Campaign)
[ Note: The settings for this campaign were inspired by a text in White Wolf Magazine which stated that only half of Jorune has been mapped in the RPG, the other half was up to the GM. Since then both Skyrealms and my view of the world has changed. There is no longer an unknown half of Jorune. ]
Drenn Frederyk and his followers were given the task to find the remote islands of Delsha and establish a trading station there. They were equipped with men, two ships and fine gifts, as well as several official documents stating their authority to speak for Burdoth. Jaspians and ramians had already found the way to Delsha, but would of course not share this secret. As relations with jasp were not to be risked, the players set out to find Clafe, a renegade ramian from Sillipus who had offered to sell the charts to Delsha. Daring the gire port of Twathigire and their great enemy Matirikiv Reveen who now resided there, the heroes finally managed to buy the ramian sea charts off Clafe. After fleeing Reveen's pursuing ships by crossing a treacherous reef the expedition set course westward, rounding Temauntro to reach the Sharharras Sea .
However, off the coast of Ros Crendor , one of their ships unknowingly entered an ocean warp during the dog's watch. Therefore, they woke up in an entirely unknown ocean.
After having sailed for days without seeing land, a storm hit them and hurled the ship upon a rocky reef.
Suspecting that they were on an island, a foraging party was sent out. They soon found strange deserted buildings and great crypts housing armoured corastin skeletons. Armoured corastin was unheard of, as well as the notion of corastin burying their dead in crypts. As the explorers exited the tombs with their plunder, they came face to face with the corastin who guarded the tomb of their ancestors. They were imprisoned immediately and brought before an old corastin queen Nanachni. Once again the heroes were very surprised to find such organisation and sophistication among corastin. They were accused of theft, but instead of killing them, a human priest of an unknown religion persuaded the queen to use these strangers to rid the corastin of a local problem.
11. Bandits of Mylosk (Haisvana Campaign)
Human bandits plagued the lossely knit corastin realm of Mylosk. Their base was among the mountain coves of the north. If the heroes could rid Mylosk of these bandits they would be set free.
When returning to their ships they found the bandits had found them first. Killing or driving ashore the sailors, the bandits had stolen all the expedition's funds, food and gifts. Before they left they had even sunk the ship.
Pursuing the bandits north, the heroes learnt from the human priests Olvander that he served the great Emperor Delamon of Haisvana. The great human realm encompassed most this unknown landmass and the small realm of Mylosk existed merely as a stable breeding ground for the emperor's corastin troops. As Olvander had heard nothing about the iscin races or even ramian and thivin, the heroes understood that they must be in uncharted lands.
Confronting the bandits and driving them out of their mountain stronghold, the heroes earn their freedom from the corastin. They are them immediately invited by Olvander to the Imperial Court in Rowenta.
12. Betrayal (Haisvana Campaign)
The heroes were taken as guests before Emperor Delamon of Haisvana to tell their strange tales of foreign lands. Shocked by his appearance the heroes believed him to be the mysterious shantic agent Esashal. Claiming that his twin brother Acillos was dead, Emperor Sarkallos was still interested in hearing the stories about the man called Esashal. Like Esashal, the Emperor seemed strangely capable of weaving isho, despite the fact that he was human. The heroes were also charmed by Sarkallos fiery but beautiful daughter Hekra who ruled much of the Golden Palace with her iron will.
In court the heroes could see how muadra were despised by the priesthood and how they warned the Emperor about these lying strangers. The shantic advisors also seemed disturbed by their presence. When caji Snogard nearly was assassinated one night, the priests are blamed and arrested. A great underlying conflict can be detected in the great realm and the heroes seemed to be caught in the middle again. Rulers of the Empire's outskirts tried to break free and the Emperor fought constant political, military and religious battles to keep the realm stable. One day when speaking to the emperor, the heroes manage to save his life from assassins. By doing this they gained his trust. Or so they believed – while in reality the emperor himself had staged the assassinations upon Snogard and himself.
Believing that they had gained the trust of Emperor Delamon, the explorers were sent to seek the great gathering of the Tekara mountain tribes to negotiate a truce between the Haisvana Empire and the tribes. They gained the trust of the mountain tribes by speaking well in front of some of the chiefs. But at the gathering, Haisvana's northern army fell upon the gathered chiefs. Emperor Delamon had betrayed his word and had used the explorers to lure out the unruly tribes to ambush them. In the fray the emperor also sought to rid himself of the troublesome strangers with their new strange and dangerous powers. By saving one of the most important chieftains, the heroes managed to stay alive among the Tekara tribesmen and began hearing tales about the Emperor's cruelty and expansionistic politics.
13. Valley of Mists (Haisvana Campaign)
To prove their innocence, the heroes were put to a test by the tribal leaders of the Tekara tribes. They wre sent down into the haunted Valley of Mist to steal a handful of sand from the Demon God's tomb.
The heroes lowered themselves down sheer cliffs into the mist-enshrouded valley. There they encountered dread jungle beasts, some never seen before. Finally they reached 3 ancient gargantuan moats of carved hardstone that surrounded a large city of ruins. Placed over the ruins was a large scarmis hive. Daring the territorial and dangerous scarmis, the heroes sneaked down into the bowels of the ancient ruins. They discovered that they were of unknown origin (lamorri) with remains of strange petrified giants inside. The golden sand was found in a great bowl holding a strange giant skull, in front of a fossil throne holding the petrified remains a ramian-like giant with a squid-formed appendage on its head. Triumphant, but injured the heroes returned to the mountain chiefs with a handful of golden sand.
14. The Shal Forge (Haisvana Campaign)
Allying with the last free northern realms and leading the mountain tribes down into lowland Haisvana, the heroes also managed to raise the oppressed people of the Empire against their cruel emperor. Soon the great armies clashed in central Haisvana. Despite winning the first battle, new imperial troops were rapidly moving up from the south and west. In order to stop the great destruction and killing that was beginning in the Empire, the heroes agree to the mysterious old man Hamac's plan to try to find and capture the Emperor in the capitol of Rowenta. Disguised during the great Carnival of Bells, the heroes managed to sneak into the Golden Palace as this was opened only during this great festival for the priests to lead the awed populace through the Forbidden City . The heroes then started searching for the Shal Forge where the Emperor according to Hamac would be vulnerable
The old shantic temple known as the Shal Forge was used by the Emperor to regenerate his strange isho powers. They managed to sneak past his many human guards and searched for him in the labyrinthine underground temple. During this search, Killimanjaro the boccord Condrij of Gauss, got separated from the others and stumbled upon the Emperor's temple guardians – 6 croid. The croid slew the boccord hero but were dispersed as the other heroes appeared, leaving Killimanjaro to curse and mutter his final words.
The Emperor himself was found floating in the isho furnace of the Shal Forge. When he was disturbed and awoken he began battling the heroes, using all his great powers. However, the isho had finally maddened the human and by using too many of his powers and drawing upon the great isho reserves of the temple, the Emperor ignited the isho within himself and was destroyed.
The great Emperor was place upon the great ceremonial pyre in Rowenta and peace came for a while to the realm of Haisvana. To the funeral pyre came also in secret the man known as Esashal to mourn his brother – the last of the Delamon family who had been raised and trained in the ancient shantic lands.
Thankful for the help in restoring the peace in the human realm, the shanta of the Valley of Lights rewarded the heroes with crystals and knowledge about the terrible lamorri, whose ruined outpost they had stumbled upon in the Valley of Mists . It was the heroes' first contact with the lamorri. Eager also to get the heroes home and away from the Haisvana people who had no contact with the other human realms, the shanta sent them home to Burdoth through warp walking. They saw how carefully the lost continent was guarded from warps and understood that the shantas had some reason why they keep the continent hidden from other realms. Maybe they did not want all humans united? Maybe they had some secret artefacts or their own sensitive realms there?
When the heroes returned home with their incredible tale they were accused of fraud and treason. Vast funds had been spent or lost and were not accounted for. Lives of sailors and two ships have been lost. The only thing the heroes had as proof of their incredible adventures in Haisvana were flimsy tales of a lost realm and dysha wielding human. The outcome was disastrous, but for some reason the heroes were left unpunished. They only received public humiliation and ridicule from important iscin who could prove their theories wrong. However, the Dharsage and his advisors listened carefully to their tales and recorded everything they said.
15. Vucian Mystery
West of the Kuggin Mountians lived a secluded, ignorant and prejudiced people who called themelves Vucians. One day the Vucians of the fortified town of Shatur suddenly started to arm themselves. They began manufacturing weapons, hired bands of condrij and generally prepared for war. As the vucian crystal mining town of the western Kuggin Mountains was a part of Burdoth (although the Vucians had always refused to acknowledge this) Burdoth feared a rebellion was at hand. Furthermore, three iscins and the former Burdothian Rhakesht (provincial ruler) of Shatur had disappeared.
Drenn Frederyk and his band of heroes were ordered to accompany the new Rhakesht Nohecca IV and his troops to Shatur to help investigate the matter. The very secretive and religious Vucians clearly had many ancient secrets and on one occasion even drugged to the Burdothian garrison to prevent them from seeing their ritualistic opening of an ancient tomb of artefacts. After finding some evidence among the murdered iscin, the heroes understood that the Vucians weren't preparing a revolt against Burdothian rule, but instead prepared themselves to fight an ancient enemy returning to the lands - the Lunghoth. The Lunghoth tribal nation migrated around the Doben-al in a holy 500 year pattern. The last two times the cultures had clashed, the once great Vucian Empire had been destroyed. Now only Shatur remained.
The heroes journeyed into the west and found the great Lunghoth tribes moving eastward. The Lunghoth were superstitious and their legends still told of the feared old slaver Empire. After some parleying, the heroes managed to force the Lunghoth to refrain from attacking, by telling them that the might of Burdoth stood behind the Vucians. Tribal leaders were instead summoned to peace talks with the Vucians, supervised by the Burdothian Rhakesht.
The Vucian Priest-King had sought to destroy the age old enemy of the Vucians by using ancient weapons from the tomb of their sleeping god. The Priest-King therefore sabotaged the peace talks and took Tapeka, the High-Chief of the Lunghoth nation prisoner. The Rhakesht and his troops were betrayed and imprisoned. The heroes managed to escape and disguised as priests made their way up to the higher restricted levels of the temple city to try and prevent the execution of Tapeka. Chaos finally broke out as the heroes opened the old tomb of the Sleeper. Instead of a god awakening to avenge his people, an old malfunctioning cryotube was found, containing the skeletal remains of a man. In an attempt to restore order and destroy the Lunghoth encampments outside the city, the Priest-King wielded and ancient shoulder cannon of Dharsage Silver to rain fiery death upon the nomads. However, after some shots the Priest-King's weapon malfunctioned and destroyed him as well as a part of the city.
Soon thereafter, Burdothian support troops arrived and the Rhakesht and his troops were freed. After the Burdothians had restored order, the Priest-Kings old champion, Avicca, was instated as new King of Shatur by the Burdothians. He assumed only the King title, as the Burdothians refused to let the Vucians once again combine a religious fanatic with the ruler of one of their provinces.
The heroes were again rewarded with copras for their deeds by Rhakesht Nohecca IV as well as Dharsage Silver Iscins who poured into Shatur to examine and dissect the Vucian religion based on sleeping human ancestors.
16. Price of Immortality
As the heroes travelled homeward through the Gauss Valley on their way to Ardoth, they enjoyed the hospitality of two drenns at their lerrin. The drenns were however troubled. Something was wrong at the old family estate in the Sha'kollar Mountain Vale. Several thivin corpses had been found downriver from castle Kyper and their grandfather Kesht Vensha would not allow them to enter his domains. The heroes set out to solve the mystery and found that the unscrupulous caji Hystra and some crugar had usurped the power of the small estate. Fooling the dying old man that thivin blood could be made into a life prolonging elixir, the rouges were slowly moving all valuable assets out of the estate as well as robbing the toth of the area through heavy taxation. Using strange alchemy as well as the ramian hemgaal flute together with hypnotic limilates, Hystra controlled the kesht.
Uncovering this hellish plot, the heroes also learnt that the caji had already tried to poison the Kesht's youngest grandson but had instead destroyed his mind. As the heroes and the people attacked the castle, caji Hystra managed to flee. While his crugar fought the heroes and enraged toth, the heroes pursued caji Hystra to the Haijicas Nest - a closed caji school, crafted out of the living tissue of the huge, coral-like isho enervor known as the Coric Haijica. Following the rules of the Caji School , caji Hystra was allowed to challenge caji Igari Dramura to a duel. The famous duel brought the two caji through the great Hajica's halls and finally up on the roof where caji Hystra plunged to his death.
Despite the acts of violence, the heroes managed to befriend the sholaris of the school and even met sholari Ashana Copra Tra, a shantic priest attuned to the great Hajica and living in the highest part of the nest.
17. The Temple Stone
Before the heroes continued their journey, sholari Ashana Copra Tra kindly asked them for help. He had heard of human bandits who had attacked a shantic temple in the Liggit Mountains close by. They had stolen a very important artefact, a wheel of stone, which maintained and stabilized the isho of the area and was vital for the shanta living there. The bandits had fled eastwards with their quarry, choosing to travel through the Glounda Forest . The heroes agree to help the shanta and were given a talisman of protection as well as given kober leaves to cover the stone with, as it attracted isho and caused havoc with the sho-sen.
The heroes hunted the bandits and eventually found their camp. They sneaked into the camp and stole back the stone, along with a mysterious encrypted letter. During the brief skirmish one of the heroes noticed that the leader had a Redcape tattoo (Burdothian elite military) on his chest.
The heroes managed to break the code and read the letter, understanding that the stone had been stolen by Redcapes, under direct order from the Dharsage. According to the letter the stone was a vital part of a newly restored shantic weapon, a thosk, which was a threat to all humans.
The heroes decided to hand the stone over to the bandits/redcapes who were now hunting them. Turning back they found the bandits slaughtered. Their leader, Rasec, was found wounded but alive, and confirmed the letter. He told them that they had been attacked by fierce shantic warriors who had most probably been drawn to the thosk stone.
They heroes and Rasec hurried eastward to civilisation, making sure the stone was covered in kober leaves. Just as they reached a Redcape safe house, they were attacked by Ca-Desti warriors and the evid Griagaal. The Ca-Desti warriors retrieved the thosk stone but did not slay the heroes, as they had a talisman given to them by Ashana Copra Tra. Instead they took the heroes copras, saying that they were allowed to live in order to perform the Ca-Desti a service in the future. Before departing in warps the Ca-Desti promised that they would return in the future to call upon their services
By aiding the redcaped, the heroes came into contact with the secret branch of the Burdothian Redcapes involved in espionage and other covert operations. These troops and spies were loyal to the dharsage and always operated in utmost secrecy. For their loyalty and patriotism the heroes were rewarded.
18. Storm over Ardoth Marsh
Beginning as a fairly simple querrid errand, the heroes were sent into the Ardoth marsh by the thriddle Raltough Go-Holo to find a new type of reco crystal digger that was rumoured among the merish to have been discovered there. Instead the heroes bumped into a secret incupod field with strange red water protected by rough unfriendly men. Their meirsh revealed that the field was goverened by a rogue bio-tech iscin iscin by the name of Veratta Komlesh. Having gained the heroes attention, the field and adjoining iscin laboratory was studied closely. The heroes finally discovered that Veratta Komlesh was trying to breed shirm-eh producing recos and that hidden ramian lookouts were overlooking the work. A ramian ship covered in Deshli weeds even lay in hiding in the marsh outskirts.
As the heroes set fire to the incupod field with green fire water to prevent further research, the ramian took the iscin with them against his will. However, the heroes also managed to fight their way to the ship and set it on fire with the green fire water. During this skirmish, Veratta Komlesh was horribly burned but never found among the wreckage.
As a storm approached, the heroes fled the rapidly flooding marsh.
19. Jungle Darkness
For years it had been known among jers that t he cleash existed in great numbers in the Trinnu Jungle Lands. Suddenly, a large force of cleash and scarmis attacked and totally destroyed some villages in southern Sobayid. Volunteers and Burdothian militia flocked to the area. Among them were Drenn Frederyk and his brave Burdothian heroes, who lead a scouting party.
In the initial onslaught the Burdothians headed off the cleash war-party and fought them in a great battle. The Burdothians were not prepared for the new, terrible weapon of the cleash and were forced to retreat before the bio weapon/creature known as the Blood Boiler. This strange tentacled, turtle-like creature was carried by the cleash like a great chest (maimed as it was by the cleash) and created ultrasonic sound that cracked bones and boiled blood and tissue, rupturing terrible wounds.
After the defeat, the heroes, lead by Captain Shallic of the Burdothian military, pursued the cleash to their lair in the Trinnu Jungle Lands Here the cleash leader was reprimanded for marching too soon against the humans and revealing the cleash intentions in the Trinnus. A newly arrived cleash leader from the Ice Fields of Gilthaw, Cyr-Kirr, ritually dismembered the insubordinate commander and ate him in front of the other cleash.
In the cleash lair, the heroes managed to locate the dormant and feeding Blood Boiler and killed it. During their escape one of the heroes (John Doe again) was killed by scarmis as he bravely defended the rest of the retreating heroes.
When the Blood Boiler had been neutralized, the Burdothian military moved in and destroyed the cleash army. However, some cleash, including their leader, managed to flee back into the Trinnus.
Upon returning home and reporting what they had seen, the heroes were rewarded for their heroic deeds with copras from the chell of Bayis (the town that was saved from the cleash army) and were given a rinis (medal of honour).
In Baysis Lukazail met a crey-man of terrible strength and uncanny senses. The source of the crey-mans powers came from the crey parasite he carried over the side of his face. It was a gift bought dearly from the ramian, which must had to be repaid by two brief periods of servitude. Desperate to have a crey, Luckzail paid for the privilege of enslavement under foul ramian magic and was given a crey offspring from the crey-mans crey. His physical attributes and his senses were enhanced greatly along with his addiction to the rare limilate lunnica, which kept the crey's parasitic properties stable.
20. Fire and Ash
Having acquired a taste for warfare, the heroes signed up as hired condrij to defend a town in central Heridoth.
The town was populated by the Children of Lenkha, descendants of mutants evolved during the age of monsters who had been banished from neighbouring human tribes. These were not the regular muadra or boccord bloodlines that would stabilize over the centuries, but from those with much worse mutations. They had been driven out, but later grouped together under a mythological four-armed dysha-slinging (strange, as it was long before Caji Gends) leader called Lenkha. Over the centuries they built towns to protect them and lived first as bandits, then as waterholes for merchants crossing the barren southern lands of Heridoth. Soon they became wealthy as they let traders of all nations (and those not belonging to klades) sell their goods in their towns. During troublesome times in Heridoth's past they were even given the guardianship over the trade routes and started collecting cletch (tax) for their services. Now wealthy, their town Lendûra was under attack from the impoverished sage of York who sought their wealth.
Arriving in Lendûra the heroes got acquainted with Howdha the woffen, Treydell the albino condrij and the lovers Brenon and Teluva. The heroes fought alongside other hired condrij and the defenders of Lendûra against the more numerous yorkni forces. They faced trebuchets, battering rams, disguised earth-tech turrets, spies, traitors poisoning the city's water and much more. In the end the enemy breached the walls and poured into the city and the heroes and the citadel guard were pushed into the temple of Lenkha . High up in the tower of Lenkha the traitor showed himself as Treydell the albino condrij they trusted and killed Howdha. He also stole the artefact known as the Heart of Lenkha and extinguished the Holy Fire of Lenkhas soul that had burned since the great leader's death. As the priests, rulers, citadel guards, women and children fled through underground passageways out of the city they were attacked. Treluva was killed and her lover Brenon swore vengeance upon the sage of York .
After the city had fallen the citadel guard and the survivors gathered in the wastelands. The heroes promised to help them find the Heart of Lenkha and the traitor Treydell. They set out for York while Lendûra was still burning behind them. In the city of York they bought the help of the githerin of Shadowtown to get onto the Yirga Skyrealm housing sage Kelir's palace. Disguised as drenns and keshts some of the heroes infiltrated the palace during festivities. They found that the main reason for sage Kelir's attack upon the Kan Lenkha was the new pluran bishop's influence. It was the sage's enchanting new thanterian concubine Lady Laita Tarenté, a coronian, who brought her uncle, Bishop Hansh Tarenté to Heridoth. The pluran bishop hated the Kan Lenkhas even more than the yorkni and wanted power over both. It was he who had ordered the artefact stolen, to crush the religion of that area. His scheming even included overthrowing Kelir during a loosh hunt with raldin lions. The whole plot was uncovered when the heroes confronted the bishop openly and Sage Kelir exiled his concubine and the bishop while officially excusing his attack upon Lendûra. After pressure from the Sholian Whitehand Houses, Sage Kelir grudgingly returned the city and the Heart of Lenkha to the Kan Lenkhas - but only some of the wealth. In reality he still needed the Kan Lankhas to guard his western border and succeeded in forcing them to swear fealty to him. Too many lives had been lost though.
The heroes were rewarded by both the Kan Lenkhas for saving their people and faith, and by Sage Kelir for uncovering the plot to kill him. They were granted hero status and eternal welcome in Lendûra and a song was written about their heroic deeds. Sage Kelir gave them a letter of protection in York .
21. The Shendarri Twins
Returning home from Lendûra, the heroes' night camp was disturbed by Merissa, a wounded woman rushing in with two small bundles in her arms. She begged them to protect the twins, the only two out of seven siblings that had been ambushed on their way from the secret Shendarri Skyrealm. Before dying, she begged them to take the twins safely to the Cryshell Palace .
The heroes sneaked past several patrols searching for them, most of these seemed to be Jaspians. Even inside the city walls they were harassed and followed. While besieged and holding off the attackers in a house in the city, one of the heroes managed to get away and notify the city garrison of their predicament. The palace responded immediately and sent in earth-tech equipped Redcapes to relieve the heroes. The two twins were escorted into the palace and the heroes got to meet the Dharsage himself, who thanked them for their deed. However, they were commanded to tell nobody about what had happened that night and officially rewarded with copras for something totally different.
22. Desti Rises
One chilly crith night, t he Ca-Desti summoned the heroes to repay their debt to them. The cruel shanta had gathered other humans, their copras bound by Fey-Du crystals, and gave them all a quest. To find the ruins of Meshka-Tra in the East Trinnu Jungle Lands and destroy the stable warp in the main temple. The shanta claimed that they could not do this themselves, as a cleash horde held the city ruins and had weapons that could destroy or otherwise blind the isho sensitive shanta. The warriors of the Ca-Desti and Ca-Du were given the task by the eelshon, but preferred their indebted humans to perform the hard work, before they risked their own lives.
Together with Merraja, a jer of Miedrinth who knew the location of the ruins, the heroes braved the jungles and finally found Meshka-Tra. They fought chemically enslaved scarmis, strange pincher equipped cleash bodyguards and trapped lesser evids during the exploration of the ruined shantic city. During the ordeal the heroes got a glimpse of the strict genetic hierarchy of the cleash and understood that the cleash efforts in the Trinnus were led from the Ice Fields of Gilthaw. The cleash were much more organised than humans had believed and seemed to have terrible plans for the area. The heroes also witnessed the arrival of several important cleash from the Ice Fields and saw the cashiln map the cleash controlled. In a true act of bravery, the heroes managed to destroy the cashiln map and fled by warp hopping to several locations they had memorized from ancient shantic texts, before ending up in northern Sobayid.
Tired of war and death, the heroes settled down in Ardoth for more than two years, assuming their main civic chores as Drenn and Tauther.
23. The Hell Above (Only Lukazail)
As his crey passed into its second cycle, Lukazail became ill and weak. He consulted a captured ramian priest and learned that he had to travel either to Sillipus, Voligire or Ponteer to receive help from the ramian priesthood. Choosing the politically more neutral Ponteer, Lukazail left Ardoth.
After having passed the test of reaching the mountain top temple known as the Hell Above and consulting the strange dwarf god living there, Lukazail served the ramian for 4 months. He learned much of the ramian ways, their language and religion during his servitude. Lukazail also noticed how the powerful ramian rochka (priests) could control him through his crey and how chiven rachu-eh ramians seemed able to find him and understand his thoughts. This was an uncanny lesson to learn. In Cerin he saw the final, fourth stage of the crey, where it had grown to engulf the human host, creating a monstrous creature half-human half-crey. The hapless human had been placed in a holding pen and was used for arcane ceremonies and communication between the ramian rulers as well as to commune with their foul hidden gods. It was a cruel fate which Lukazail was destined to suffer.
Lukazail befriended one such hapless crey man, Utam Gatchubar-Crey and learned many secrets about the ramian and their religion Volo-Korochka.
Finally, Lukazail was released from his service and allowed to return to his homeland. However, the ramian rochkas promised that they would call upon him again.
24. The Gire of Sillipus
Upon the return of Lukazail, the Redcapes of Burdoth questioned him and the other heroes about their ties to the ramian. They were also asked questions about their ties to the shanta, as they openly carried shantic amulets and had been involved in the Thosk Incident (see the Temple Stone adventure). Especially Red Martin was suspicious about their loyalties. Despite Rasec assuring that they were loyal to Burdoth, seeds of distrust began to grow in the Cryshell Palace .
The heroes were then sent on a secret mission to Sillipus on behalf of the Redcapes. Their mission was to assassinate a Jaspian renegade by the name of Khendar Jetelpo. It was Khendar who organised much of the shirm-eh trade out of Burdoth and Heridoth. Thanks to Khendar's organisation and network of contacts, the ramian had enough shirm-eh to raid the civilised realms. As they prepared for their journey, they were mistaken by a dying agent for his contact. The dying agent had been sent by a Sardon D'Obreth of Sillipus to find information about how the gire ships moved between Voligire and Sillipus. He was now returning to Sillipus with the coordinates for a great ocean warp. As he was hunted by two fusheen klade assassins, the heroes soon got involved (and poisoned).
The heroes set sail for Sillipus and the human town Kithaq. After some initial trouble with gire at sea and the human pirates of Sillipus, the heroes arrived in a town rife with violence. The two human pirate lords, The Dreglamon and Sholari Nebbon of the Blue Legion, were at each other's throats. The heroes got their first glimpse of the deadly and powerful Blue Legion and their unknown, dangerous dyshas.
Maneuvering between the two fractions, the heroes managed to find information about Sardon D'Obreth, but nothing about Khendar Jetelpo.
Sardon Do'breth turned out to be a very wealthy and influential human with a huge estate and many men in the Inner Reach of central Sillipus. He bred horses and some other terran livestock and crops. He also had a small collection of Earth-tech artefacts. When speaking to him they understood that he had contacts and influences in many realms. Now, Sardon was making his bid for power in Sillipus.
Sardon claimed to know where to find Khendar and offered to help the heroes in return for their help in cementing his power.
Now having the location of the ramian's ocean warp, Sardon aimed to demonstrate how he could shut the warp as well as reveal its location to Burdoth. The heroes, and especially their caji would be his tools to do this.
Braving the ramian gire, the heroes set out in Sardon's ship and passed the ramian blockade. Showing with false crystal devices how they could control the warp, they managed to negotiate with the gire and presented Sardon's terms (freely controlling central Sillipus).
Having gained several enemies among the ramian, the heroes then had to infiltrate Twathigire, the largest ramian port in Sillipus and seat of the Ruling Four. According to Sardon's information, Khendar could be found there. In Twathigire the heroes bumped into Reveen, an old acquaintance from Voligire (See the Tirtive of Voligire adventure). Reveen had once been one of the great Tirtive, but was now reduced to a colonial ruler and one of the Ruling Four of Twathigire. He hated the heroes for causing his exile from Vinteer and the sacred position of Tirtive of the ramian. Managing to assassinate Khendar, the heroes were shocked to find that he looked like Lukazail's twin brother.
After this they fled from Twathigire through the cleash infested jungles and made their way back to Khendar Jetelpo's Dharlerrin.
As their mission had been completed, the heroes set sail for Rhodu in Anasan, as instructed by the Redcapes when leaving Burdoth.
On their way back their ship was intercepted by ramian ships led by Hasjaar the Kinslayer, Reveen's insane offspring. Feared even by the ramian, Hasjaar had a rewired earth-tech turret manned by humans on his flagship. Their ship was crippled and boarded, but before the battle was lost they were rescued by the arrival of Burdothian war ships and patrolling Loo Raums. Hasjaar the Kinslayer was defeated in combat by Lukazail during the chaos of Burdothian and Dobren intervention and the ramian ships retreated.
Onboard one of the Burdothian war ships was Dayvid Terra, a bright and eager teenager who seemed uncanningly clever. He even repaired one of their earth-tec devices. Before leaving them in Port Teng Dayvid thanked them for saving his and his brother's lives. Only then did the heroes suspect that he somehow was one of the Shendarri twins (See the Shendarri Twins adventure). But how could he be so old already? Less than 2 years has passed.
25. Spies I (Thantier Campaign)
When arriving in Rhodu, the heroes were met by covert Redcapes who demanded their services in the name of the Dharsage. Especially Lukazail was important for his likeness to Khendar Jetelpo the Jaspian. Dazzled by the chance to perform patriotic deeds and earn early drennship, the heroes accepted and were trained as Redcapes in secret.
After having spent half a year training to infiltrate Thanterian society by learning some of their languages, religion, culture, etiquette, politic schemes and background of Thantier and its dakrani (nobles), the heroes were given a mission:
- To infiltrate the Thanterian dakrani court of Lanna and find the Halls of Wisdom -
In order to do this they underwent further training for two months in Anasan, regarding the personalities they were supposed to replace. Meanwhile, in other places of the world, these persons were killed or captured to make way for the heroes.
Khendar had worked for the Thanterians and had access to the Halls. Within the Halls of Wisdom was an ancient terran message known as Jasons Will. Lukazails mission was to copy or steal this message at any cost.
At this time the Redcapes also informed the heroes of humanity's once glorious past. Although some of the heroes had heard vague legends about this and suspected a lost high tech civilisation, all were stunned to hear of their origins on another world. To many of them, the truth was a bit to hard to swallow.
The heroes, led by Lukazail, now known as Khendar Jetelpo, then set out for Thantier. They travelled by boat from Rhodu to Dreikiss and crossed the See´iss desert to enter Thantier from the east. In Lanna, the city of the Thankrani, they managed to get into the court at the Thankrani's Palace with stolen Dryconium Rings. There they nearly bumped into bishop Tarenté, Lady Laita and Treydell (see the Fire and Ash adventure). Treydell was now one of the honorary Thotyan Condrij who protected the Pluran Church .
In the palace they also overheard the great Pope Rotiscon talking to his bishops and the skamaan ex-generals who had converted from their pagan ways to become good plurans in order to find protection by the Church (they were dishonoured and banished after the death of their leader king Korligan of Huragach – see the War adventure). They heard details about the Pluran Church 's glorious future. Finally they found clues to the ancient tunnels leading to Halls of Wisdom and fled the Palace.
They travelled to Oldwater and found the guarded secret tunnel entrance, as the clues from the palace has implied. For his likeness to Khendar, Lukazail was allowed in and explored the last stronghold of the original Thanterian colony survivors. He saw the depleted grain and food storage vaults and learned details about the final days of the garrison. Many old defence and security systems had recently been brought online again, but much was aged beyond repair. During his risky exploration, Lukazail met many important Thanterians and even saw a well guarded important visitor clad in a great cloak disguising his face. One of the inner chambers held several cryobins, which had been opened. Among the information found there was Jason's Will.
Jason's Will was a holographic message recorded by a scientist who introduced himself as Jason. The message was a warning to all survivors of the native shantic attack. Jason and his colleagues had noticed how shantas seemed to seek out and attack survivors using powerful technological devices. Their research had showed that the enigmatic energy field of the planet was somehow disturbed by high power terran technology. These disturbances seemed to be easily found by the natives, who evidently mastered this energy source far beyond human comprehension. Jason and the other scientists therefore agreed with the warning sent out from Northfield Research station to hide all high-tech devices until they knew more. Their assumption had been that the shanta seemed to have been greatly decimated after the biotech attack and would probably not be able to pursue humans using everyday technology to survive. This would buy them all time until they were rescued. As an Earth-launched rescue operation could take up to 7 years, 18 of the scientists would place themselves in cryogenic hibernation with the high tech tools. Before ending the recording, Jason also showed a map over the Phoenix and Northfield network research centres and provided the coordinates to find them (based on ancient terran maps of the world).
Unable to copy Jason's Will, Lukazail instead managed to memorize most of the information with ambreh and barely escaped capture. Returning to Lanna, the heroes sent the information home to Burdoth through their contact network.
26. Spies II (Thantier Campaign)
Their contact in Lanna gave the heroes their new orders: to find Dayvid, a young renegade iscin with vast knowledge about earth-tech and bio-tech. He had slain some iscin before he fled Burdoth and was now working for the thanterians. As the story unfolded, the heroes understood that Dayvid Terra was the last of the Shendarri Twins. They were told that the Shendarri Children were incupod babies found in an earth-tech cache. Once born, they grew at an alarming pace, reaching adulthood in less than three years. However, due to mutations or lacking substances during their growth, only two children survived. With brilliant minds, the two remaining Shendarri twins learnt all there was to know about earth-tech. Their memory and sense of detail seemed endless. However, one of the brothers went mad and the other started to show signs of deviating behaviour. Finally, Dayvid mercifully killed his mad brother before fleeing to Thantier.
Now he had joined Thantier. The renegade iscin had to be convinced to be brought back or killed.
Shortly after, their contact in Lanna was taken by thotyan condrij, suspected of treason. Knowing that their contacts were being revealed one by one, the heroes fled Lanna.
They understood that the mysterious, cloaked but honoured guest that Lukazail had seen in the Thankrani's Palace as well as the Halls of Wisdom must have been Dayvid Terra.
A clue they had, was that Dayvid seemed to have been wearing Krang clothes. Visiting the poor Krang people working as slaves in the sholoza fields, the heroes learnt that Dayvid had cured the Krang people of their inherited disease during his stay there. They were now free to return to their otherwise poisonous home in the Thodic Mountains .
Following in the footsteps of the miracle maker known as Dayvid, the heroes learnt that he was now under the protection of sage Berucca of Valarach. Disguised as merchants, the heroes journeyed to the thodicean realms in western Thantier. There they found the realms Valarach and Kulai preparing for war against the two realms Kralarch and Moorshae.
Meeting with sagess Alina of Moorshae again (See the War adventure), the heroes learnt that prince Berucca of Valarach wielded some new and terrible kind of weapon, and was about to launch an attack on Kralarach in order to lay his hands on the many shantic artefacts there.
With his new weapons, Dayvid was uniting the thodicean armies against the coronians of eastern Thantier. A threat of war loomed over the thodicean lands as well as over the rest of Thantier.
As the armies met outside the great fortress of Kralarach, Dayvid appeared, clad in full power armour. Hovering far above the armies and declaring with a booming voice that the war must end, he destroyed some of the dakrani and siege weapons with his rockets of fire. A huge beast of iron also came out of the forest to spread death and fire (a tech-ton). Dayvid ordered all dakrani and sages to meet at the Valarach fort in 10 days.
The heroes manage to sneak into the cliff fort of Valarach and found a network of spy tunnels. Caji Snogard, the only one small enough, crawled up through the airshaft to the assembly hall to await Dayvid. However, he saw several soldiers hiding behind great tapestries and others behind adjacent doors.
Dayvid finally arrived, flying in through the great window in his power armour. He spoke to the assembled lords and reprimanded them for using his inventions for war. He spoke about a great future for humans – united humans - and told them that he had gifts of vast earth-tech and a great flying ship that could take them beyond this world. Dayvid then continued to speak about great realms that could be created from the ashes of the old.
Not understanding the greatness of Dayvid's plan and seeing only great treasure held by a madman with mad dreams, the scheming sage of Valarach and his father, as well as most of the assembled dakrani, planned to betray Dayvid and steal the earth-tech for themselves.
But Snogard warned Dayvid from his lookout just as the soldiers emerged and began attacking Dayvid with earth-tech weapons. Sage Berucca's father was killed by Dayvid's powefull weapons along with several other Dakrani, while sage Berucca himself was badly burned and wounded. In the end, Dayvid himself was flung out of the window and fell to his death on the cliffs 100 meters below. Snogard, who had been terribly wounded during the skirmish, understood that he would surely die if caught and opened a warp with his large white crystal. He fell through, lost consciousness and was gone.
Below the great fort, the tech ton picked up the broken remains of his master and carried him back into the wilderness where it had come from. Farmes claimed to have seen the beast several days later entering the old, endless forests of the thodicean battle lands.
The heroes managed to flee the great fort and were aided by sagess Alina out of Thantier. Far too many people were looking for them now. They travelled to Tan-Iricid to heal their wounds in safety. There they met with Burdothian emissaries and a Redcape who rewarded them for their assignment in Thantier. As Thanterian spies in Burdoth might try and retaliate, they were suggested to remain hidden for a while on Tan-Iricid, so that everything would calm down.
27. The Lost City of Meg-Aleisha
While spending some months in Tan-Iricid, the heroes met a famous, friendly Jaspian explorer by the name of Khalajos Jay of House Jay. He sought brave men who could protect him and his expedition when he set out to find the fabled lost city of Meg-Aleisha deep within the uncharted wilderness of Drail. The great shantic city was said to hold all the riches of the shanta, endless halls of crystal deposits and the world's largest shal crystal called the DharShal.
Not being able to resist such a quest the heroes joined Khalajos' expedition. Drogan, a beaster and travelling circus artist, also joined the expedition for his expertise in wild and dangerous creatures, long with several other jers, and monteers.
Following the instructions recently uncovered in a last testament and map of a famous Erucian explorer and crystal smith who claimed to have been to Meg-Aleisha and seen the DharShal, the expedition set out for western Drail. They travelled along Drail's northern coast and the Thanterian colonies there, picking up supplies and a map-maker by the name of Kamarish.
When reaching the independent Erucian colonies far to the west, the expedition was attacked by both ramians and human pirates, but managed to ward them off.
In Cereicel they managed to get hold of an Erucian crystal compass and charts that were needed to follow the map. In Cereicel they also learned that another expedition, led by lord Karkiril and his Jer Dirakka, also searched for the lost city. These followed the incomplete map of the Erucian explorer's son. A great race began.
They followed the strange and cryptic clues past great deserts, torrent rivers, steaming jungles a waterfall canyon and countless dangers of Drail. Finally they reached the city, only to find it guarded by a trarch tribe. Regardless of the trarches unfriendly reaction to intruders, the expedition underestimated their numbers and Drenn Brett “Soldier” Olsen was killed by the savages. Despite the attacking trarch, the expedition managed to get past the dreaded giant do'odreh guardian placed outside the subterranean city entrance and slipped away from their pursuers.
Inside the mountain they explored the huge and ancient shantic city, once the seat of the Southern Eelshon . A Ca-Shal stronghold, it held many ancient records and Halls of History. A large portion of the houses of the lower city had been hastily converted to a mass of tombs for those that perished in the leesh-ebeeca and several tragic texts portrayed the doom and abandonment of the great city. Evids, isho locks and traps riddled some of the halls and the heroes soon lost their jer guide and accumulated many injuries.
Meanwhile, the other group of treasure hunters, led by Karkiril reached the city and soon fell upon the heroes who were taken prisoner. They forced caji Snogard to open several forbidden tombs and the gates to the Upper Halls.
The upper halls, however, were guarded by the Shomorac Do-Desti, a powerful ancient evid which was awakened. Killing several of the treasure hunters, the evid scattered everybody and by chance the heroes were freed. A deadly game of hide and seek began with the nigh indestructible evid.
This brought the heroes to the Eelshon Halls and to the High Temple . The temple was guarded by Sholari Myralaish Copra Shal, an old Ca-Shal priest and his Coshil warrior, Malenash (Coshil shantas suffer from a genetic afflicment and are deemed “cursed” by Desti to never evolve out of their more aggressive childhood bodies with claws, short necks, stripes and high concentration of Desti isho). Together they guarded the sacred ellishondu that still rested within the High Temple in the Keeper Rods.
Using his earth-tech weapons, Karkiril took the old shantic sholari hostage and threatened to activate his stone burner bomb. However, on the treacherous bridge he slipped and nearly took the shanta with him if it wasn't for the unusual bravery of Drenn Khaine Johennon. Karkiril fell to his death and his bomb burned a great hole among the mountain cliffs.
The heroes were rewarded with knowledge of the Ca-Shal. One question of lore and mystery each, but also with crystals and artefacts. They learnt about the ellishondu, the lamorri, the Leesh-Ebeeca, the restoration of the Way of Life and the Red Shanta who had recently been awakened and demanded war upon the humans.
But as they spoke to the sholari, word reached the Ca-Shal temple that Ca-Desti warriors had responded to the sholari's plea for help and were warp-walking to Meg-Aleisha. To save them from the wrath of the Ca-Desti, Sholari Myralaish Copra Shal quickly sent them home along another warp route. Their first destination would be the Ca-Launtra haven in Drail.
28. The Southsea Girelords
When the heroes stepped out of the warp, they found the Ca-Launtra temple abandoned and in the hands of cleash. A dying shanta told them that the cleash had come from the southwest, from the southern jungles. There was a new and strong cleash presence there. Fleeing from the cleash, the heroes travelled further south. Trapped in the unknown wilderness of Drail and far away from any kind of civilisation, the heroes despaired.
After a week of dismal survival along the wilderness coast they suddenly saw a ship and hailed it. It happened to belong to captain Khanat of the Dargeda Brotherhood. He and his well armed crew had been well paid to round Deathcliff Peninsula and assassinate the ramian Southsea Girelord Kroteer (a matirikiv) on the island of Kharchoko . He had been paid handsomely and told that the ramian there had been weakened by a plague. Captain Khanat informed the heroes that they were immediately south Deathcliff Peninsula and close to his target. After he had performed his quest he promised to return to Shamento and deliver the heroes there. In return he wanted their swords to aid him.
The heroes and the pirates sneaked up to the watchtower of the ramian island and silenced the lookouts, which indeed were afflicted by a plague. They then attacked the ramian fort and slew the SouthSea Girelord Kroteer and took his holy Ro-Charvi (symbol of power). In the matirikiv's private chambers, the heroes also saw many strange ramian artefacts and a sort of milky white semi-transparent communication stone.
Shortly thereafter, several ramian ships arrived, having waited for the outcome. The quartermaster Dukerik of Coronia and several of the crew betrayed Khanat and the heroes and received their pay from the ramian.The ramian took the heroes and Khanat's loyal pirates prisoners, thanking them for the aid in killing one of their enemies (as the ramian, being unable to harm a member of their own species, could not do this themselves). They had conspired by preventing shirm-eh to reach Kroteer and his minions and then sent Khanat to do the dirty work.
Out of the four Southsea Girelords that ruled the ramian Southsea colonies, two had been opposed to the opening of ancient Vaults of power and the split from the Tirtive of Voligire. Now, one of these two had been killed and the colony would finally separate themselves from the distant rulers of Voligire. A rare event and a new chapter in ramian history. Unfortunately, the Southsea girelords claimed not to have the Tirtive's patience with the humans and would muster to get them out of Drail (and hopefully more than that).
The heroes were taken as the slaves of Talanki Mag of Sharcoth and all their possessions lost. They were branded with Mag's sign on their chests and their souls were taken by ramian rochka, so that their bodies would wither and die if they ventured to long and far away from their master.
After having toiled hard in the ramian mines the heroes were finally given an important assignment. To travel up along the Dolosha River and destroy the cleash fort of Chei'kcrics that constantly assailed the ramian foragers.
Leading a small army of slaves the heroes did so and ventured deep into the murky swamp fort to fight the cleash. During this fight many slaves died and captain Khanat was captured and tortured by cleash. The heroes found him flayed alive and promised the dying captain to avenge him.
With great cunning and great bravery the heroes and their army of slaves managed to destroy the cleash and also relieved Lenosha Ca-Launtra, a shantic priests that was besieged in the swamp's ancient shantic ruins. The sholari rewarded them with a strange talisman with Mag's mark on it and told them to give it to their master so he would set them free.
The heroes presented the talisman to mag upon their return and Mag was terrified. The talisman held the mark of the ancient ramian fiend Vrochma-Keel (Rorch-ko: “The Skull Collector”). In panic he dismissed the heroes and sent them on their way with a few hints on how to reach the Kitcharka Sea where they could find passage home.
The heroes decide to follow Mag's advice and followed the inland treck across the inner mountains and over to the ramian Southsea colonies around the Kitcharka Sea .
During their trek, Karuciel Tutchubar-Crey, a crey-man bounty hunter and his darkmane beasts caught up with them and even managed to defeat Lukazail in a duel. The older crey-man however felt pity for Lukazail and surprisingly set him free, as he still had a chance to break the chains of the crey.
Disguised as slaves toiling in the shirm-eh fields, the heroes finally managed to slip into Co'Chorveer and spoke to a slave foreman who helped slaves escape the city for payment. A ramian from Jasp by the name of Rotoir agreed to take them through the ocean warp and even drop them off in Jasp if they helped him first.
The ramian was on a dangerous mission to the mountainous region east of Drail. It was rumoured that the renegade Southsea Girelord and Korochka (high priests) by the name of Chokulsha, planned to open the ancient Vault of Tchobyska Chorachka that lay there. Rotoir had to find out if this was true, as this could spell doom on all ramian and herald a new age of darkness for the world.
Together with the ramian, the heroes sailed to Ma-Roch and silently travelled up the inland road, avoiding patrols and sentries. They finally reached a great lifeless valley among the mountains, littered with huge standing stones and ancient ruins. A foul, noxious mist lay across the desolate valley floor that seemed to come from a huge excavation site. Huge beasts of burden transported stones and dirt from the great pit and hundreds of slaves worked until they fell. Rotoir sneaked closer in the mists that were clearly noxious to humans and confirmed that the Vault had been opened and that foul magic was at work.
Detected by ramian guardians the heroes fled back down to the coast and aboard their ship. Soon their ship was pursued by other ramian and a black cloud of small poisonous winged lizards ascended upon their ship. Rotoir told them that this was the Tremla Bloodseekers, foul beasts from the Vault. They were programmed to find and kill Rotoir. The heroes hid in their cabins while the Tremla tried to chew their way through. Meanwhile Rotoir stayed at the rudder and was covered in the foul creatures that stung through his thick skin. After the Tremla left, the other ramian ships drew closer and were ready to board. It became a race for the ocean warp that was drawing closer. The dying Rotoir begged them to tell his father Choi Sterneye of Aylon that the Vault had been opened and then helped the heroes fight off the boarders. In the middle of a desperate fight, the heroes activated their warp crystal, enticing the great ocean warp to open. Their ship passed through the warp, but the pursuers ships were destroyed as the warp slammed shut behind them.
With a badly damaged vessel and no ramian guide, the heroes found themselves off some exotic islands.
After some island hopping they stumbled upon some tribal salu who after some persuasion helped them repair their ship. Some salu claimed that they and their ship was cursed and followed by ill fortune. The heroes learned that they were among the Ajiltu islands far south of Sillipus.
With the aid of salu star navigation, the heroes made their way to Anasan. Off the Anasan coast they found that something was slowing their ship. A strange beast was nailed to the hull of their ship and had grown immensely every passing day. It was probably done in Ma-Roch and it sent off a whale-like howl for other ramian rochka to hear. Now the rek-lakla boatkiller was ready to destroy the ship and slowly crushed the hull. The heroes escaped the doomed ship by swimming to the coast. In Port Teng they found passage to Ardoth with a trading ship.
29. The Doomed City
Arriving in Ardoth after an unusually storm-tossed journey, the heroes found the city in turmoil.
As the moons aligned for the first time in 700 years, terrible forces of nature were unleashed upon the human realms. Several storms were ravaging the Ardoth Bay and the water was rising to flood the city. Shantas had hastily abandoned the Sho-Ecta temple outside Ardoth and doom priests declared that the end of the world was coming. All events were seen as bad omens.
The heroes found that assassins had killed the parents and relatives of Snogard, Khaine and Lukazail (and his cousin the late Killimanjaro). Thanks to the intervention of Drenn Fredrycks men, a poisoned letter that had found its way to Drenn Khaine Johennon was intercepted. When meeting with Drenn Frederyk they found him crippled and weak since 6 months after having survived a poisoning. This turned out to be the work of Emperor Delamon's daughter, Hekra, (see Haisvana campaign) whom with the aid of the shanta had come over the seas to avenge her father (and destroy evidence and witnesses to Haisvana's existence). Despite living under the protection of wealthy Drenn, the heroes managed to find her. During the brief showdown in the Cryshell Palace , Hekra Delamon got the overhand but repented when understanding her father's guilt and refused to kill the heroes. She disappeared, never to be heard from again.
The heroes also picked up rumours and news of the latest political events. Tologra had sailed into Ardoth harbour in a gesture of peace, having abandoned their former ramian allies. Burdothian emissaries had departed for Sharden. A Sobayan skyrealm and an ancient Thanterian fort had been destroyed by a terrible and unknown blast.
As the storm approached, the heroes were given by the Chell the task to protect Keshtia Sindra Dharpella during her very inconvenient party. Just as the Chell suspected, the insidious diyorda known as the Vodra struck again and stole Sindra's earth-tec family heirloom. When investigating, the heroes uncovered an organisation of smugglers and dytes. The Vodra agreed to help them and turned out to be Caji Snogard, who had last been seen in Valarach, western Thantier, when warping away with terrible wounds (see the Spies II adventure). Upon his return to Burdoth he had created himself an organisation of diyorda in Ardoth's slums. Snogard had been double-crossed by the Yethercans whom had contracted him to steal the artefact and provided the heroes with clues to someone else stealing other earth-tech artefacts in Ardoth. It was part of some strange conspiracy.
As the greatest of storms approached, tolamuun stargazers, Dow astrologers and Doom Priests all predicted the city's end. The prophecy of Nuah Palactine, a long dead prophet who had a vision in Lower Manser, was once again repeated in the street. The city would perish in a great fire and flood.
Roofs were blown off buildings or otherwise ignited by the chaotic isho storm. Houses collapsed, ships were destroyed in the harbour, the sea wall was pounded to pieces and large parts of the city were flooded.
During all the chaos, the heroes continued investigating the Yetherca sky gazers and their strange fulfilling of Nuah's prophecy. Knowing that the Yethercans followed the instructions found on mystious yellow tablets that the ground had spat up, the heroes infiltrated their star-gazing tower of the Yetherca School . Here they overheard a dispute that was dividing the Yethercans. Both believed that the city was about to be destroyed by an ancient evil awakening in Lower Manser, the area the shantas referred to as Mah-ashalta-ca. However, the fractions disputed what to do. Warn people and flee or continue their plot to destroy the evil machinery under the city. A captured thruiddle even tried to warn the Yethercans that the machinery under the city kept Ardoth alive somehow and must not be destroyed.
Without loosing any more time, the heroes sent for help from the Cryshell Palace and hurried to Lower Manser. There, among the putrid, sinking parts of the city, they found strange stone columns rising out of the mud from below. At the entrance to a new, strange mud covered building, they found a strange beast that lay motionless in the mud, still wrapped in its umbilical cords and shredded cocoon. When Lukazail attacked it he heard whispers in his head and was thrown into a coma.
Leaving the strange beast, the heroes stumbled upon a relief party of Redcapes. They had been killed by energy weapons and their own weapons stolen. The last survivor revealed that they had come to relieve the guards secretly stationed at the entrance to mah Ashalta Ca. Finding them drowned by the flooding, the Redcapes had then been attacked by the Yethercans with their stolen energy weapons. The wounded guard warned them about the dangers below and then fell unconscious. Hurrying through scary, alien halls and passageways, the heroes finally encountered the Yethercan fanatics. Despite being pinned down by vicious blaster fire, the heroes managed to prevent the Yethercans from destroying the underground machinery with throw explodes. In the end, more Redcapes arrived and swiftly killed the Yethercans.
When venturing out of Mah Ashalta Ca, there was no sign of the beast. Only large footprints disappeared into the murky water.
The heroes were rewarded for their bravery, but instructed to tell nobody what they had seen in Mah Ashalta Ca. Rasec of the Recapes also told them that the destruction of the ancient machinery would not have been as dangerous as the thriddle had indicated. It was all a great exaggeration. Somehow the players believed he lied…..
30. The Ramian Invasion
As the clouds dispersed after the worst storm in centuries and ardothians started to clean up their storm torn city, word came from the north.
The ramian were invading.
The beacons of war were lit all the way from Sydra to Ardoth and a great fleet of ramian had landed in Sydra.
The drenns among the heroes were immediately called in as officers and the tauthers enlisted as soldiers. Burdothians from all provinces united to cast off the invading ramians. Instead of fighting for the Burdothian cause, a travel weary Drogan the Beaster chose to return south to Tan-Iricid with a thivin caravan.
As the invasion picked up pace, hero drenns were given the task to travel to Glounda City, deep in the Glounda Forest, and there muster a Gloundan force. Furthemore, from Glounda City they would escort a group of iscin and their wagons to Mar.
Meanwhile the great armies of Sobayid and Ardis mustered outside the Ardoth city walls and marched northwards.
When reaching Glounda, the heroes faced fractions between the original inhabitants and the northern people who had fled to Glounda during the last ramian invasion. The situation was especially infected when it came to religion. Tolamuun versus Sajja worshippers. However, the heroes managed to get attention to the situation and were given an escort of soldier and Gloundan shadow warriors for the iscin.
As they exited the forest and reached Mar, they found half of the human army slaughtered upon a great field. The other half seemed to have continued northward.
Refugees fleeing south and scouts who had been separated from the 4 th and 5 th armies could inform them that Sychill was under siege and Sydra occupied. From these northern cities chiveer maddened ramian warbands and raiders struck out southwards. One or more fast moving ramian armies were also roaming southern Lusail. However, the main army of Ardis, Sobayid and Essanja were still pushing northwards towards Sychill.
When continuing northwards, the wagons the heroes were escorting were spotted by ramian scouts. Soon a warband of ramian fell upon the wagons and one wagon exploded, taking both humans and ramians with it. The heroes learned that the iscin of Glounda were actually transporting some new kind of experimental weapon (gun powder). During the fray Snogard learned not to counterstrike a ramian with a hardstone sword and looses an arm.
Despite the terrible losses the heroes and their soldiers drove off the ramian warband and joined the main army.
As the regrouped Burdothian armies of Ardis, Sobayid and Essanja pushed towards Sychill the ramian armada and landed army broke off the siege and regrouped inland.
Early in the morning of crith 19 th a terrible battle was fought. The ramian used natikvi beasts as flying steeds and fired great bows upon the advancing Burdothians. Trarch carried great steel shields to take first hits from energy weapons while their ramian masters drew closer. Choosing also to fight in forested, covered terrain the first minutes of the battle was grim for the Burdothians. However, with the force of sheer numbers, dharsage silver and the new experimental gun powder, the battle turns and the ramian retreat.
The army of Lusail was broken and scattered and the army of Gauss was busy outside Salam'arine. The armies of Ardis, Essanja and Sobayid were decimated, but strong enough to pursue the ramian force and lay siege to Sydra where the ramian armada awaited. Busy loading their troops back unto the ships, the ramian left far too few forces and wild trarch on the high walls of the city.
In a great act of heroism, the heroes managed to sneak into the town and helped to open the gates so the outer walls could be taken. During chaos and fire the ramian retreated back out to sea, suffering great losses and abandoning many trarch behind. All who were there that day would forever remember the songs of victory among the burning city houses, when the black ramian sails disappeared to the north.
It took time to route the remaining ramian forces from all of Lusail. Even after this, the ramian still had their new bases in the overrun Coastal Kingdoms to the west. From there they would continue to launch terrorising attacks upon the crippled towns of northern Gauss and Lusail.
The heroes were granted copras and some land in the Gauss Valley as a reward for their heroic deeds during the ramian invasion.
Half a year passed as the heroes saw to the more mundane tasks of rebuilding the Ramov dharlerring after the ramian invasion. The heroes also wrote a letter to Choi Sterneye of Aylon to tell him about the death of his son/offspring in the SouthSea and pass his warning to him.
31. Jason's Tomb
The heroes were soon called upon again by the Redcapes for another mission. Burdothian iscin had interpreted the coordinates in Jason's Will, which the heroes had stolen from the secret Thanterian Halls of Wisdom (See Spies I and II). They now knew of a network of research stations that had existed in the eastern Doben-al. As the Sleeper of Shatur (See the Vucian Mystery) had most certainly been a member of this network, the Redcapes wanted the heroes to find the other research station to see if they were intact. Their previous experience with the Vucians and their contacts there could help them access old Vucian records. If this would not help, authority was given to gain access to these records by force.
Led by Yethro DharMarlevin the Redcape Captain and Danyell Comorra, the heroes travelled to Shatur. There they met the new but troubled King Avicca, whom they had helped gain power after the conflict with the Lunghoth (See the Vucian Mystery adventure). Since the conflict with the Lunghoth, the Burdothians held the Vucians by the throat and forced their way to their old scriptures. Everything in Shaturs otherwise closed and holy temples had already been accessed, copied or otherwise stolen by Burdothian iscin. The Vucian were not happy with the stern rule of the Burdothians searching for earth-tech. Especially Mycel, the High Priest of Shatur and Queen Miryam, Avicca's spouse, were aggravated.
Rummaging through all the documented finds, the heroes began reading about the long gone Erucian Empire and the great cities there. Uncovering that these cities had been built by the expanding Vucians upon the remains of a peaceful system of highly developed villages, the heroes understood that this could have been the sites of the ancient research stations. They set out to search for them.
The night they left Shatur, Avicca met with them in secret and left his son, Prince Vucarin, in their care. The martial king seemed sad, but claimed that the spoilt boy had to see the world and learn the ways of the condrij and the Burdothians in order to be a good king. He also said that his queen conspired against him and that it was not safe for Vucarin in Shatur.
As the heroes set, they learnt that the prince was truly spoilt and detested lower humans. He even tried to flee from the heroes on several occasions. But slowly, he got to know them and started to see the world in a different way when the boccord and muadra saved his life.
When the heroes investigated the ruins of Turacca they bumped into the Stern circus. At first seeming to be innocent entertainers, the members of the circus soon proved to be deadly Thanterian spies.
On their way to Podrola, situated on top of the ruins of Nokura, the heroes met a caravan coming from the east via Shatur. The caravan leader reported that there was once again unrest in Shatur, as the king has been assassinated. Queen Miryam ruled now and was harassing the Burdothian rhakesht there. Vucarin was shaken by this and the spoilt prince wept for the last time.
Following ancient clues and avoiding the dread Thanterian circus, the heroes travelled to the Coastal Kingdoms to consult the scriptures of the Keepers of the Written Word in the city of Podrola , who constituted the remains of the old Vucian religion in the north. The sinister death cult did however not allow people to visit their great library, so the heroes had to sneak in at night. It turned out that the library in fact was a deadly maze devoted to the sinister ramian prophet that greatly had inspired the Keepers. The deformed librarian played a deadly game of hide and seek with the heroes amongst sinister traps, before they captured him and found what they were looking for. Upon leaving the temple grounds and accidentally burning the holy library, the heroes got into trouble with King Nicolai who sent his men, led by the ruthless boccord captain of the guard, Taraque, after them. They also bumped into the deadly Thanterian Circus again, who managed to steal the scriptures.
A hunt for the city of Curávion began.
Following the clues that a Bright Green Road of Messengers would lead them to the lost city ruins, the heroes journeyed to ruined Cahtur. There they found a crugar band of bandits inhabiting the cliffside ruins. With a combination of brute force and cunning force, the heroes fought their way into the ruined city and activated the Green Road . This was brightly buring substance called lamcra oil, which had been mined in the city. When directed through a prism, a green laser beam used for communication pointed deep into the desert, where Curávion once had lain. Facing the deadly flesh-ripping Man-Taliga storms the heroes navigated into the deep desert and finally found the ancient ruins of the Vucian capitol. In Curavion they found that the horrors and legends they had read about in their quest to be true and were faced with demonic perenn creatures.
As if fate had a hand in the exploration of the wind swept ruins, a tremor opened up a deep cavern where the Vucian Emperor had made his last stand, but had been buried alive. The battle helm of the Vucian emperor was found along with armour made of thick Ridellium steel from the colony ships. An intact cryotube was also found, containing a human male in hibernation.
The heroes quickly began transporting the cryotube to a harbour with Redcape contacts and Burdothian emissaries in eastern Ros Crendor. However, when they stopped in Makvar, a boccord man was killed and the heroes blamed. Yethro DharMarlevin killed Danyell Comorra and betrayed the heroes, leaving the cryotube in his possession. Surrounded and captured, the heroes were found guilty of the crime and sent to the dread Prison Mountain from which few ever returned.
32. The Seven Seals
According to the custom of the Ros Crendorians, it was the family of the victim that decided the punishment of the offender together with the judges. This could, however, not be done until 6 months after the crime (to prevent rash decisions).
So, after having spent 6 months in the deep, dread halls of Prison Mountain , the heroes stood before the judges again. Naracine DharKree of the Loturbain Clan, sister of the deceased, saw no point in taking their lives. Instead she offered them pardon for risking their lives and helping her. She needed brave men to get onto the twin skyrealms Nakraateh and KorMaas, where her father Bodain lived. No word had come lately from her father and the watchmen of Nakraateh skyrealm did not allow anyone to land.
Daring the chill, cold crith, the heroes flew by talmaron to the skyrealm. Just as Naracine had said, they were attacked by the watchmen. An aerial fight took place that nearly cost their lives (especially Lukazail was close to loosing his life when he chose to dive into a frozen lake).
Khaine Johennon was seemingly killed. Others were captured while a few managed to escape and hide on the skyrealm. The heroes found that a third, smaller skyrealm accompanied the two larger. It had appeared during a terrible isho storm and held a crypt of a Dreamlord that had been foolishly awakened by a young, rash priestess. The now possessed priestess experimented with the captives (distorting the bones of the wounded) and seemed to bring Khaine back to life (a black centipede crawled out of his mouth). She was in fact ridden by Groschraurr the Dreamlord from the smaller skyrealm.
Evidence could be found everywhere in the form of strange blueprints and plans, to build some kind of unholy machinery.
Understanding that the source of all the new evil was to be found on the small skyrealm, the heroes freed their comrades and followed the priestess and her sacrificial slaves to the Dreamlord's crypt. Shantic warnings about traps and curses to anyone opening the crypt could be found at the entrance which had been forced open. Other shantic texts revealed that the crypt also held the Matra-Galiga – a doomsday weapon of countless sun-powered, winged machine-insects that could spread over the lands.
When entering the deadly tomb Lukazail was possessed by Groschraurr, as he was more susceptible to Dreamlord possession through his crey. He began attacking and hunting the other heroes in the nightmarish corridors. The Dreamlord also further attacked the heroes with his mind amplifier and filled their minds with illusions of great beast and fake deaths.
However, during the entity Groschraurr's momentary distraction with the hereos, Pretéss Myriel momentarily woke up from her possession. Understanding what she had done, she forced her mind clear of Groschraurr for a moment and gave them a chance to kill her. When the regrettfull young priestess died, the Dreamlord's hold was broken and its mind without physical focus.
With the aid of the arriving Ca-Du warriors the tomb could once again be sealed and the skyrealm “cut loose” from the isho of the Twins. Having declined for millennia, the shantic wardens of Doben-al and Ros Crendor had lost much knowledge about the locations of lamorri tombs. The rewarded the heroes for leading them to this awakened terror before they left.
The heroes were also rewarded with Kree by the Korrum tribes of Ros Crendor for freeing the villagers of the skyrealm. Naracine DharKree was now convinced of their true intentions and believed that they were innocent. With words of pardon she helped them get on their way again.
33. The Sharussa
Knowing that they could only return to Burdoth in shame, the heroes tried to pick up the cold trail of Yehtro DharMarlevin the traitor. He seemed to have been in league with a Ros Crendorian pirate by the name of Captain Delange who had been waiting for him in Makvar. Delange's ship, the Sharussa, had left for Auklin more than half a year ago. Following the cold trail the heroes set out for North Khodre .
Khaine was still acting strange since his encounter with the Dreamlord. Sometimes he developed nightmares and spewed up small insects. This, as well as his close brush with death greatly troubled the heroes.
I Aucklin the heroes heard that Delange had sailed on northward. The trail led them all the way past the Jaspian Protectorates and to Jasp itself. Here Delange had settled an old family affair by killing his brother. He had then acquired sea charts from a jaspian contact and left his boatsman behind when departing for eastern Temauntro. The boatsman turned out to be a female pirate by the name of Caji Charis. She was eager to find Delange and avenge what had happened to her. She knew that Delange had been contacted by something called the Berella and given precious sea charts, funds and a way to get into the Dargeda Brotherhood of the Sharharras Sea . Delange had also been given a ramian shield of passage to pass the territories of the ramian Warlords of north-western Temauntro.
The heroes also met Choi Sterneye for the first time. A skvaar-ridden sickly old ramian who held on to his life by sitting in his steaming shirm-eh pool, tended by countless healers. The heroes told him about his son/daughter in the SouthSea and brought him his warning. Choi had read their letter and warned them about an ancient evil about to be unleashed by the ramian rochka. Those of the heroes that agreed, were adopted by Choi as his children and gained his protection. They were also to be his eyes in ears in his search for the ancient evil. Especially they were told to search for the Swordbearers, the ones who came first and would herald the return of the old gods. The coming of these beings would herald a terrible war between ramians and humans. When describing the beast found in Ardoth during the Great Constellation (see the Doomed City adventure), Choi had gasped and proclaimed that this had been a swordbeared. Times were bad indeed.
Lukazail consulted Choi about his crey and his wish to remove it. Choi told him that Lukazail had bound himself and his soul to the ramian rochka forever. However, there was a way to break the curse. It had to be done before the third phase of the crey has been established fully. Choi named several ingredients that were needed to weaken the crey's power and a ritual that had to be performed to remove the crey. The ritual would call back Lukazail's souls from captivity and cut the bond to the crey. However, the ritual had a price. Lukazail had to find another host for the crey. Only then would the crey leave Lukazail, which it would believed to be a sick and dying host. The whole procedure and ritual was of course very dangerous and could result in the death of both Lukazail and the new host.
Using their contacts, the heroes and Charis travelled with a jaspian crystal schooner to western Thantier. There they equipped a new ship and began searching for the Sharussa. They heard about Delange's new career in the Dargeda Brotherhood and managed to get passage to the pirate town of Shamento , where they found information with the aid of money, swift lipped captain Ranihyn and Mother Gobey of the Nightladies.
The heroes and Charis then attacked Delange's and his new partner, captain Mennic's, small island, freed one of their hostages and found information about where Yehtro and his cargo had been delivered. In the process, delange's ship, the Sharussa was taken and commandeered by Captain Charis.
The hostage turned out to be princess Nacila Ricaras whom her brother Ceratil Ricaras, High Assassin of the Erucian colonies, had been searching for. The heroes were rewarded by her father, the powerful Lord Volec Ricaras who promised them eternal gratitude and helped them get to the town of Cereicel , where Yehtro had been delivered by Captain Delange.
In Cereicel the heroes where hosted by the sly Lord Cerecil Cyratas and his assassin dancer Tamya. In return for an earth tech artefact, Lord Cerecil sold them information that an organisation called the Berella had bought information and help from him. He had arranged sea charts for the Sharharras Sea , membership in the Dargeda Brotherhood for Delange and had hid Yehtro until he could travel onward. Lord Cerecil also told them that X had seemed sick and worn. His hair had been white and his skin sickly pale.
Further information revealed that Yehtro had been a member of the DharMarlevin family and had left for the Burdothian colonies.
Glad to get out of Lord Cerecil's keep, the heroes travelled to the Burdothian colony in northeastern Drail and raided the great DharMarlevin's dharlerrin and mining towns together with the Redcapes farms in their search for Yehtro. They finally found Yehtro sick and dying from radiation. He had delivered the cryotube to the Berella who had paid him well. He also knew where the Berella base was. However, when the Redcapes launched a major assault on the Berella base, they found it deserted.
The Berella had outwitted Burdoth and the trail was lost. For now……
34. Mysteries of the Ramov Dharlerrin
Upon returning home the heroes were rewarded for their loyal and patriotic service and the drenns were jointly given more land in the Gauss Valley and a DharLerrin whose previous owner had been killed during the ramian invasion. The drenns were ordered to officially claim the dharlerrin, organise it and restore it after the ramian invasion, so that it could start producing again.
Before leaving Ardoth, the heroes witnessed the gruesome tunnel worm execution of Yethro DharMarlevin, the shissic of Burdoth.
At this time, Lukazail felt the change in his crey and understood that the crey's third cycle was approaching. This would be the longest cycle and would prolong his life. But it also meant that the crey would be part of him forever. He therefore set out for Ponteer, Holy Lands of the ramian, again - searching for the ingredients needed to rid him of his crey.
Caji Snogard found that his second in command of the Vodra organisation, Caji Morconda, had usurped him and tried to kill him. Bu before Snogard had the chance to avenge the treason, he was invited by sholari Anasha Ca-Tra to become his apprentice and journey to the Shantic Lands east of Lundere. Giddy as a school boy Snogard left on his apprenticeship.
When the heroes reached the Ramov DharLerrin they found many problems. It needed rebuilding or repairs of houses, barns, fences and walls. The fields were not productive and many toth had fled. Those remaining were dulled by drugs and secret cult worship. Fear of violence from the neighbouring Dharlerrin owner, Drennit Tereged Dharnevic, and his armed men, bandits in the forest and rumours of a terrible beast that killed livestock and men, crippled the Ramov DharLerrin. However, adding to their ranks was Finn Manjaro, game keeper of the Dharlerrin and cousin of the fable Kilimanjaro.
After some investigation, the heroes found that the Drennit neighbour was in fact organising the bandits. Even though the bandits were dispersed, it was hard to find evidence linking them to Drennit Tereged Dharnevic.
In Salam'arine they were introduced to all important persons by keshtia Jarilla Gellip, including the gentleman githerin who robbed Jer-Emiah Gerrig blind.
The great beast of Misty Mountain , was in fact a natikvi left behind by the ramian. But other terrors lurked amid the mists and were responsible for the polluted river. The heroes uncovered a plot by ramian rochka that had stayed behind after the invasion to breed Swordbearers (a deadly lamorri machine beast) high up in the Misty Mountain massif. A huge and strange beast laid eggs that grew into plants, where the swordbearers gestated in the roots. Two Swordbearers had already hatched and the heroes barely escaped them alive. They consulted the imprisoned ramian rochka seer in Salam'arine's prison tower who told them that the Swordbearer heralded the return of the old gods.
The heroes returned to the Misty Mountains with soldiers and the Salam'arine garrison equipped with earth-tech weapons. Still, the swordbearers proved tough opponents. In the end the egg layer of the lake and the trees were burned.
As an epilogue the heroes managed to deal with Drennit Tereged Dharnevic's claim to the DahrLerrin and got the farm on its feet again.
Another year passed as the heroes struggled with the more mundane problems of governing a DharLerrin. Some of them invested in the new postal courier network, the Dharsage Messageries. Others engaged themselves in local politics and made friends among the other lerrin owners.
35. The Hobeh Ruins
One day an Ardisian courier summoned the heroes to Ardoth. The dharsage had a new quest for them. Leaving the DharLerrin in the care of Celiok the foreman, the heroes journeyed to Ardoth.
Being experts in exploring old civilisations and trekking through jungles, they Dharsage asked them to lead an expedition to investigate the strange new human ruins found recently by a famous Burdothian explorer in Hobeh's inland. Shona Metullah the explorer had mysteriously died of a jungle disease, but the heroes managed to find his encrypted map through his assassinated partner Mende Lankis, who revealed its hiding place aboard their ship with his last breath.
Enlisting a half-mad and dangerous trulga caji from wild Sillipus, Jobe Nebuka, the heroes set out for the wildlands of Hobeh.
When they reached Dowsen in Heridoth to pick up Rhobert Trohill, a guide that had been to the location in Hobeh, they found him under a death threat. He didn't know from whom, but several caji had attacked him. The heroes and their boat were later that night attacked by caji wielding desti dyshas. Their boat was destroyed by a rare desti fire crystal that burnt with flames so great they couldn't be extinguished. The attackers were scarred by fire and acted like fanatics. They bore a red circle as a symbol, but nothing else about them was found.
Equipped with a new ship they once again set out for Hobeh together with Rhobert Trohill. Passing ramian gire and savage salu they reached the wilds of Hobey and sailed up the uncharted jungle coast. Following the map of Shona Metullah, the explorer, they navigated up the Snake River , past a cleash fort and a colossal Vattramon Beast. After crossing Corondon Valley , they finally reached the southern arm of the Red Mountains . There they bumped into a cleash scout party who retreated when encountering them. The cleash were part of a large war party heading towards a shantic village. Warning the Ca-Du shantas living in the village, provided the heroes with valuable allies who helped them and warned them that the lands north of the mountains were controlled and governed by the Ca-Desti. They advised them against going there.
Ignoring the warnings, the heroes dared the guardian of Howling Pass and the natural obstacles of the Glass Plains and the Kauwtha Desert and finally reached the ruins. Among the sand covered ruins they found ancient records written upon stone. They told the history of New Berlin and the colony survivors and Millinot warriors that founded it. The community had been isolated but thrived and tried to maintain its knowledge through scientific traditions. Much was lost over the years and a splinter group left to find fabled Millikosa. Mutants were discovered among them after the great lunar alignment but where cared for. Then one day lights were seen among the Red Mountains of the north and the Ca-Desti shanta returned to their old forts and strongholds of the area. They were disgusted to find humans in the area and destroyed the culture.
As the heroes emerged from the deep chambers they were attacked by a wild woffen tribe who had been appointed guardians of the ruins by the Ca-Desti. They managed to take some of the heroes prisoner and presented them to Ca-Desti warriors riding great duradon.
Not knowing where the prisoners were taken and searching for them in the north the heroes found nothing. Distraught by this, they returned homewards, but passed the Ca-Du shanta of Howling Pass. These helped them finding their friend's copras, but discovered them to be held in Tonondra – a Ca-Desti stronghold. For saving the village the shanta helped them, but did not want to get further involved.
After having been given rare limilates to mask their signatures from a distance, the Ca-Du opened a warp to the cashiln tunnel leading to Tonondra. With a crystal seeking the copra of the captives, the heroes swiftly made their way through the great mountain stronghold. They saw great acitivity among the Ca-Desti and sensed that something monumental was going on. With the limited shantic known to Trulga Caji Jobe Nebuka, they also heard mention of The Desti rising. All the activity held the feared Ca-Desti shanta occupied and moving quickly and stealthily the heroes avoided shantic warriors and found and freed the captives. They fled from Tonondra via the cashiln tunnels they came from, their goal to reach the human friendly shantic city of Thulashu .
As they raced from warp location to warp location they exited on skyrealms, the Ice Fields of Gilthaw, and various abandoned temples. All the while the Ca-Desti hunters came ever closer. Jer-Emiah and Khaine were the only ones who finally managed to get through the final warp when it suddenly closed, leaving the others behind. The heroes became separated.
The Ca-Tra shanta of Thulashu received the two refugees but were afraid of enraging the Ca-Desti whom they knew were hunting the heroes through the warps. Therefore they placed Jer-Emiah and Khaine in keeper rods to hide their copras from the pursuing Ca-Desti warriors.
Tavar, Falkem, Nanook, Mojjk and Jobe fled from the warp site, eating keether to hide their copras. They were not followed by the Ca-Desti but found themselves lost in foreign lands. After some wandering in great grass plains that stung them when they tried to stop and rest, the heroes came upon a cygra hunting party. Finding that they were in northern Temauntro, the heroes made their way to Jasp and to Choi Sterneye of the Silent Ramian. As Crith approached, there were no ships leaving for Khodre or Burdoth. Choi promised to lend them funds and means to get home after Crith, if they served him during their stay in Jasp.
36. Lukazail Tuchubar-Crey (Lukazail only)
While the other heroes explored mystical ruins and had the time of their life, Lukazail journeyed to Ponteer to serve the ramian and hoped to find a way to break their hold over his crey parasite. He learned many useful skills among the ramian and most importantly about the ramian culture itself. In the end he found some of the ingredients for the ritual to remove the crey taught to him by Choi Sterneye. Before he left, he granted Utam Gatchubar-Crey, a crey man in the horrible last stage of the crey a last wish – to take his life so that he would not continue to live like a crippled tool of the ramian rochkas who seemed to use crey men as communication devices.
Lukazail fled from Ponteer with a hefty price on his head.
37. Skipping School
After having served Choi Sterneye during a long and bitterly cold Crith in Jasp, the heroes learned much about the Silent Ramian and Jasp. When Eris finally came they left for Burdoth with the first ship and landed in Salam'arine. When they reached the Ramov Dharlerrin, they found Lukazail, back from Ponteer. He was grim and did not tell them much about his time there. He did however give them clues about how he killed one of his best friends, Utam, an old crey-man crippled by his enormous crey, who was loosing the last of his free will and humanity.
Sadly, they found no word of their missing comrades. They were labelled lost in the wilds of Hobeh.
Two years passed and no word was heard from the missing members of the Hobeh Expedition. Sailors and explorers returning from southern Hobeh had no word of the missing and they were assumed dead. Although the Ramov Dharlerrin started to yield a steady income, the heroes grew restless governing it and attending Drenn dinners and parties. They followed international politics intently from Salam'arine and heard about the Tologra withdrawing the Burdothian invitation to Sharden, claiming Burdothian attacks upon their ships. Skirmishes continued in the south as Thantier launched a full out invasion upon Anasan's western lands.
One day as they returned home from a hunting trip they found two letters from Prince Vucarin's school in Ardoth waiting for them. The first detailed the young princes disturbing behaviour, while the DharFadri said in the second letter that the young prince and his chamber comrade had gone missing and that he suspected foul play.
The heroes rushed off to Ardoth and started investigating prince Vucarin and Aleyksander DharKella's secret affairs. It seemed Vucarin had participated in illegal sherja fights and that both of them had conducted strange experiments with hybrid earth-tec/shantic tech, which they had learned how to use in school, but also secretly in kerning bays.
Dyte punks and a man with a tarro had been tipped by a fadri to kidnap the boys for money. The nervous and addicted fadri Jisip Tillum revealed that his supplier of ambreh, a mean woffen and his band, had introduced him to a foreigner (thanterian) who wanted a list of wealthy students. Vucarin and Aleyksander were easy targets.
During the heroes investigations stealthy followers were discovered and confronted. They however pulled a laser weapon and a Dharsage seal upon the heroes and told them to drop their investigation.
However, the heroes persisted and after some investigation found that the boys were held in Lower Manser. They stumbled into the mad Coylin Beagrekesht and his strange friend the swordbearer known as Charlie the Mute. All of Lower Manser's scum feared Coylin and his dread beast, but the two seemed to have a strange, if scary relationship. It was clear that the swordbearer was somehow damaged due to serious injury to the head. Lukazail understood that it was the same swordbearer he had encountered in Lower Manser three years ago (See the Doomed City adventure). Strange whispering was heard in his head and the Swordbearer seemed to understand who Lukazail was. Despite this, the Beagrekesht helped them and told them that he had seen the boys, who often came into Lower Manser. He also knew where to find the dyte hideout and helped them get there.
Another man from the Vucian city of Shatur had answered the ransom letter and was present to kill Vucarin by orders of the new Priest-King of Shatur.
At this point the heroes chose not to use stealth or cunning, but instead attacked the dytes head-on. This failed abysmally and caused the death of Aleyksander, while prince Vucarin was rescued with only minor injuries. Soon after the Redcapes burst in and threw them all in the herris.
It turned out that Aleyksander was not whom all but Vucarin had thought he was. His real father had not been Drenn Johann Dharkella, but Dharsage Khodre Dhardrenn himself. The kidnappers never knew the boy's true identity and now the heroes were accused of having caused his death through their incompetence. Only the sorrowful dharsage's forgiving nature pardoned them from certain death and they were freed.
Even though |