Howling Halls

Howling Marauders

Howling Halls is the abode of werewolves, dire wolves, normal hounds and slave pens holdings humanoid food stock. One unit of this place are the Howling Marauders. They act as bandits during the day and beastly predators at night. Much of their activity is focused on the heavy traffic coming and going from the Shadow Rift.

Howling Halls is a mighty fortress, constructed long ago by the Umahanbad. They named the place Bazundabil, building it over a very rich silver mine. To get this ore back to the markets of Naram-Gunal, caravans had to travel though the deeps woodlands of Singarban and Maegorion. This was a hazardous road to travel with frequent attacks by packs of wolves and leucrotta. The latter of these are descendants of abyssal-born hounds that fought alongside Demogorgon's armies in the Demon Spawn War. To cull this population, hunting parties were sent out to reduce the wolf and demon dog population. The hunters were overzealous, soon forming hunting lodges, and doing it for sport rather than predator management. The god Silvanus took affront to this and in violation of the rules of The Balance, gifted some of the wolves with the curse of lycanthropy. After a decade, werewolves were running amok in the forest and infiltrating Bazundabil. On 19 Lunar 1118, a rare event happened when all of Bal-Kriav's moons were in full phase. The werewolves powered by four full moons, were unstoppable. Bazundabil fell to the hunger of werewolves and ever since has remained in their control.

Today, Howling Halls is manned by a crack garrison of lycanthropes and dire beast pets. A number of shadow giants, acting as assassins and spies, serve the beastly leaders of this place. Numerous caves and hideouts are located in the rocky slopes surrounding the Howling Halls. The more savage and reckless werewolves and bandit forces live in these places.

Anglor Hellion

Anglor Hellion

This pearl colored walled and aquamarine domed bastion sits half-submerged in the waters of lake Lethiel. It was built in the Second Kizan War as a counter to the increasing threat posed by Geb's Chosen. Anglor Hellion has watery passages and underwater gates for its aquatic inhabitants. There is no access to the place by land. When boats arrive, travelers and supplies are raised to the entry-ways on steam powered elevators. For the help of Anglor Hellion's first lord in the Second Kizan War, these steam engines were gifted to them from the people of Rumaktharga,

Anglor Hellion is the regional church for followers of Lokestant. She was the first lord of Anglor Hellion. Construction on the first church to her began when she was elevated to godhood on 22 Bliss 1335. This church is at the heart of Anglor Hellion and like her other churches a waterfall serves as the altar.

Some of Anglor Hellion's most powerful guardians are water elementals and water weirds. Some of these creatures are leftovers from the re-routing of the river Guirfeint. As it was too much trouble to round them up and send them back to Chaos, they were left in the lake. During times of trouble, be it hostiles or natural like forest fires, they are either hired or convinced by Anglor Hellion's priests to give aid.

Witch Pipe

Witch Pipe

Witch Pipe is an active volcano sited along the eastern slopes of the Sournbracks. Like most volcanoes it begins somewhere in the deeps of the Underdark. Witch Pipe is nothing more than a cone, or pipe, in the Underdark region Phangul. It spews no lava in this region, but does warm up the waters of the Heliotrope Sea. In some areas near where it touches the sea, water seeping into pockets turns into jets of steam or pools of boiling water.

On the surface, a common misconception is that Witch Pipe is named for the Witch Horde or the many witches among the area's Theegans. The truth of the naming was that in the Horgon Era this volcano was the abode of a powerful fire troll shaman named Vuzara. As a mortal, she ruled for three decades, putting large tracts of Skycius under iron rule. Once she started getting old, Vuzara became a lich. It is thought that she learned how to do this from a set of scrolls or books plundered from what was then the ruins of Incubus. As an undead shaman, Vuzara ruled for another three centuries. In addition to an army of fire trolls and gnolls, she had a few red dragons. The hill and stone giants of the Sournbracks were her greatest foes. Many giant-built strongholds dot these mountains, with most built to defend against Vuzara's raiders. The reign of Vuzara ended when she was killed by a stone giant champion named Grazafar.

Witch Pipe has a lot of ruins on its outside and many labyrinths within it. Most of these were built during Vuzara's Reign (62 HG - 392 HG). These places are now the abodes of monsters and beasts with some of the higher ruins serving as aeries for chaos rocs, griffins, and dragons. The honeycomb of passages inside the volcano go all the way down into Phangul. They are the main reason why Theegans can be found pirating the waters of the Heliotrope Sea and living in the holds of the Underdark empire Gaereaus.

Locals say that Witch Pipe is cursed. This is because a number of liches have come to power in this volcano. Some are just a nuisance, but a few have been real problems for the region. In more recent times, two liches born to Vuzara's Curse joined up with the dragon cult at Phanaca.

Bingatho

Bingatho

Bingatho is one of the moons orbiting Marragh. It is a small habitable world, being only 1/20th the size of its parent. Bingatho is covered in jungles. It is a rainy, stormy place dotted with massive swamps and lakes and some few ridges and hilly ranges. Some of the more common things to encounter here are hydras, basilisk, displacer beasts, leucrotta, and similar terrors. The world is devoid of humanoid lifeforms, except possibly adventurers or those marooned here.

At the core of this moon is a trapped God of Creation. This being is who the moon is named after. Bingatho was a Tier 1 Creationist that worked with the same purpose of Io and others on the side of Law. They drew entropic energy from the Elemental Chaos and used it to create planes, worlds, and everything that goes in them. While Bingatho was creating Marragh's moon Githo, he was struck by psionic energy from within one of his conduits of creation. The psionic blast was so powerful that it made Bingatho lose his wits. Instead of making Githo diverse, he turned the entire moon into iron. On investigation, Io and Moradin found Bingatho to be insane and growing ever more chaotic. Bingatho followed the dictates of the Creationist Board of Inquiry and accepted imprisonment until a cure could be found for his mind and chaotic taint. Moradin and Io worked in concert building a moon, his prison, around Bingatho. They never found a cure but his chaotic taint did stop progressing once the moon bound him to its core. The mind blast that brain scrambled Bingatho came from a powerful psionic primordial named Nakh-Zennîm. Like other primordials, this being was intent on unmaking works of creation and returning it all to the Elemental Chaos.

In the Dawn War, the Anaz Rift was created by the primordial Beldileck. He did not use the rift as his skills were more suited for research and tinkering. It was instead used by Bryakus to invade Bal-Kriav from the area of Felbarum. The Anaz Rift is still open; serving as an inter-planar link between the world Bal-Kriav and this moon. The imprisoned Creationist serving as moon's core still carries on his works of creation. Bingatho no longer has the powers of a Tier 1 Creationist with his power having naturally degraded to that of a Tier 4 Creationist. The Anaz Rift gave him an avenue of spreading his creations to the world Bal-Kriav affecting areas like Goldarah and Turuk.

Ingu'lumin's Second Rift

Feeding Gunul-Birum

This rift was opened five months after the closure of Ingu'lumin's First Rift. Like the first, Ingu'lumin's Second Rift was created by a primordial disembodied thinker named Ingu'lumin. Unlike the first rift which was opened from the side of Elemental Chaos, the second was opened from the Prime, inside the mountain Gunul-Birum. A mountain soon turned volcano from the rift's opening. He opened the second rift on the Prime side because the volcano was once part of the Elemental Chaos, made of entropic matter and fed by entropic fire. Its natural entropy caused instability in the area's Web of Magic, thereby making it much harder for the Web's weave spiders to repair.

Due to Ingu'lumin's lack of experience, his second rift collapsed on its own accord. When this happened, it sucked most of the volcano back into the Elemental Chaos. This left in its wake the great sinkhole Zurukthûr. It also tainted the land around it, creating the desert Rukhs. The volcano Gunul-Birum has internal fires that come from an entropic core still linked to the Elemental Chaos. This link is a narrow channel where only enterprising fire mephits could hope to squeeze through, yet big enough and with such constant lava flow making Gunul-Birum an active volcano.

Bul

Bul Cambion

Lake Bul is sited in the northern reaches of the Khizunul mountains. Its shores are a hazardous place to travel and its depths far worse. This is because in the Demon Spawn War, it was stocked with specimens brought over from Abyss.

It is said that Yeenoghu had an insatiable desire for fish and other aquatic delicacies of his abyssal home plane. When his forces captured the area around lake Bul, he had minions stock the lake with abyssal specimens. As his forces faltered in the Demon Spawn War, they were forced to abandon the eastern tracts of the Clans and his favorite fishery. Some of the things his minions put in the lake were intelligent, like the dim-witted skulvyn. These bestial demons normally haunt the reeking seas of the Abyss. Some out of either lust or macabre mortal experiments, mated with gnolls and other mortal humanoids resulting in a population of aquatic cambions. These half-demons are perhaps the most dangerous foes of lake Bul and the area around it. Over the ages, some have cajoled gnoll tribes into paying tribute and even serving them. An order of demon hunters called the Khalag Narkûn are based out of Dul-Kiz. This organization was established to deal with Bul's demon problem.

Hettar

Hettar

Hettar is a primordial creation of Piranoth. For a time, Hettar had the gift of creation. This boon was given to him by his father. One of the races that Hettar created are the hill giants. Piranoth later stripped Hettar of this power of creation after he sensed that Hettar had aspirations of becoming a Primordial Lord. Hettar would eventually become such, but only after proving his leadership on the fields of battle.

In the Dawn War, Hettar was a general of a super army group that invaded Bal-Kriav. He was a brutal and domineering leader. This war caused him to shift from chaotic neutral to chaotic evil. His success on the field of battle, even though he was becoming more dark, led to him being favored over the neutral ways of his brother Geb. Where Hettar would use any measure to defeat the enemy, Geb was more forgiving, thus more likely to act civilized to the defeated. Hettar's war activities were focused in the Great Expanse region. In sector Crotheise he had a permanent base in the Radveig valley. This area was a vast source of gold deposits. This gold was needed to cover the costs of Hettar's war operations on Bal-Kriav. The heavy mining of the area would leave the valley pockmarked with mining pits that came to be called Hettar's Spittoons.

Hettar was defeated by the dragon Bahamut. In the battle between these two, Bahamut drank the blood of a previously defeated primordial which combined parts of a hydra with that of medusa. The blood of the defeated foe allowed Bahamut to temporarily change his breath to one of holy petrification. Bahamut's holy breath of petrification overcame the immunities of Hettar, causing him to go rigid and fall backwards into Rumak. Even though he was petrified he did not lose conscious or die. His primordial essence took thousands of years to completely drain away, with him finally expiring late in the Horgon Era.

In the Horgon Era, he was worshiped by the Cûngin-Zar. The people of this empire dedicated many shrines and temples around Rumak to a figure that once led their ancestors in the battles of the Dawn War.

Maeraddyth Brigade

Hezxis wielding Webreaver

In the Demon Spawn War, the demon lord Hezxis sought to carve out territory for himself on the world Kriav. Opposing him, was the supreme commander of Kriav's military operations, the archangel Corellon. In a bold gamble, Hezxis sought to surprise and overwhelm the forces at a Covenant Holy Bastion named Liamenor. Hezxis, never one to lead from the front, sent nearly all his forces through the Hezxis Pocket with himself remaining behind in his Abyssal hold Una'gah. Corellon's spies, some even say a demon traitor lured by finery and precious stones, gave up information on this planned attack. While Hezxis's forces were besieging Liamenor, Corellon sent an elite unit to attack Una'gah and take out their leader. The elite unit was the Maeraddyth Brigade. Its leader a crafty and charismatic figure named General Maeraddyth. They stormed the place, beating down a token defense and trapping Hezxis with magic preventing the use of inter-dimensional escape. This all happened while the demon forces back on Kriav were close to breaching the walls of what was thought to be an impregnable bastion of good. Hezxis's head was taken back to Liamenor and displayed from high atop the battlements. This caused such confusion in the demon ranks that they broke-up the siege and began to quarrel over who would now lead the army and enjoy the piles of loot rumored to be in Una'gah's vaults. Those that escaped the wrath of Corellon's forces went back through the Hezxis Pocket and headed home. Along the way, they ran into the Maeraddyth Brigade which were hastily trying to make it back the Hezxis Pocket and home to Liamenor. In the fighting, the demons outnumbered their foes by two to one, had the advantage of mobility with many that could fly, and 1:1 on the demons were far superior to most mortal elven soldiers, with only the celestials able to go toe-to-toe, but they were only about 10% of the unit's composition. The demons captured all that they could, tortured them to no end, and then infused them with demoniac energy. This transformed the captives into something with only a vague resemblance to an elf, creating what is now known as the orc race. They were instilled with a hatred of elves that often supersedes other enmities. General Maeraddyth ditched his elven name, thereafter calling himself Gruumsh. The Maeraddyth Brigade ceased to exist, its soldiers divided out to various demon commanders. In the Demon Spawn War, they were taken to various war theaters, scattered across Prime worlds serving the demons until they could escape and even turning on them when given the chance. When it suited them, some allied with Covenant forces, but never to those answering to Corellon.

At Liamenor the actions of the Maeraddyth Brigade are honored with a memorial. At Aphalur, can be found a plaque expressing Corellon's grief of what happened to them.


If I could have helped General Maeraddyth and his men I would have done so. Kriav was being assailed by demons in great numbers, so to risk opening a rift and going to the Abyss was not something I could afford. They succeeded in killing a demon lord, saved Liamenor, but suffered a terrible price. They became twisted and malevolent and having a hatred for elves that only the demons could have conceived. When he became an orc, my old friend Maeraddyth changed his name, becoming my arch-enemy Gruumsh.

- Corellon, from a Plaque of Aphalur - "Maeraddyth Brigade"

Amphitrite

Amphitrite

Amphitrite is one of fifty daughters (the Nereids) of Nereus and Doris (the daughter of Oceanus). Poseidon and Amphitrite were lovers. One of their most well-known children is Triton.

Midway through the Dawn War, Amphitrite had a change of heart, she left the destructive side of chaos and joined the forces of law. She rose through the ranks of the Nawirrûs Covenant becoming a general of operations in the Sea of Mourning. Her song of the deeps, the Amphitrite Hymn, was so strong that it could calm sea creatures and break any mental domination of them by even primordial lords like Poseidon. She became such a problem that Poseidon forged the artifact Buldadel to capture her. He reasoned that this Cairn Scythe weapon would hold her and over time he could bring her back around to helping the primordial cause. Sadly, the weapon was used with malign intent by one of Poseidon's merfolk champions. The killing blow to Amphitrite was supposed to capture her soul energy, but the weapon broke causing her essence to be drawn back into the Elemental Chaos where it dissolved into raw entropic energy. Amphitrite was so highly regarded by her triton army at Fëamanirya, that they had the citadel renamed in her honor.

Shift Tome

Shift Tome

The Shift Tome is a book of conjuration and summoning. It holds spells from across the ages, from as far back as the Dawn Era to the present day. Work on the tome began with Piranoth, and when he abandoned the realm of his creation, Piranoth's Steps, to the demons, it fell into the hands of one of his garrison commanders. This garrison commander of the remote outpost of Lyktion was a twisted, depraved warmonger named Baphomet. At the time, Baphomet was already half corrupted and warped by the chaos creeping across a realm that would become better known as the Abyss. In the Demon Spawn War, Baphomet used the Shift Tome to move his forces across vast distances.

The book ended up on Bal-Kriav in the Horgon Era. Tiefling agents, working with information from Dispater, snuck into Baphomet's maze-hold Lyktion and absconded with it.

The Shift Tome holds some very powerful spells that can get its user(s) in trouble. In the Horgon Era, tieflings wizards of Lod Stohl tried to use the book to summon an army from the Nine Hells. This was to be an army of lowly spine devils but instead the wizards were tricked by Dispater. Instead of summoning an army, Lod Stohl was summoned, "shifted" from Bal-Kriav to the Nine Hells. The abrupt disappearance of Lod Stohl from Bal-Kriav caused a split in the earth to open up under where it once was, creating a smoking rift called Ausul Raf.

In 1778, the minotaur wizard Mishat-Kurse used the Shift Tome to shift the city of Huaglim from Azrik to Karnegmoth.

Ukhilgam

Sehkmora, Ukhilgam's First Harpy Queen

Ukhilgam is a sea cliff on the northwestern edge of the Clans. It came about in the Demon Spawn War, when the primordial Ingu'lumin opened his second rift to the Elemental Chaos. When weave spiders shut the rift down, it created the great sinkhole Zurukthûr sending shock waves across the land beneath. This caused powerful earthquakes and the collapse of a 120 mile section of Narbuzad's western seaboard. The land crumbled downward into the sea and into great piles of rubble making it nearly impassible out of crustaceans and sea spiders. The coastal seabed was blanketed with boulders and rocks for 4 miles. This area became a rich reef and into later ages a fishery for anglers out of Spirachiln and Grimmarsveinn. The cliff's large population of harpies, wyverns, and other predators are the greatest dangers for those that fish here.

Ukhilgam's cliff walls tower over the Nielalroch strait. They vary in height with the land behind it, ranging anywhere from a few dozen feet to a few thousand feet. As mentioned, the area is rich in predators, but also rich in wealth. The cliff is dotted with rubies and veins of platinum. Some have taken to scaling the cliffs to cut out gemstones but larger operations create structures descending the cliff with cranes and mining shafts following the veins into the bowels of Unaraggumak.

In 544, the Daklode city Lokumord came under attack by organized bands coming out of Ukhilgam. These raiders were a motley of races - goblins, orcs, ogres, hill giants, and even some dwarves. It was soon learned that these attackers were under the harpy's charm. They were too well organized and commanded to be under just individual harpies, so a force was sent out to gather intelligence. The few that made it back reported that a harpy queen named Sehkmora was the leader. They also said that she was much more powerful than a normal harpy with a priestly connection to Graz'zt and overpowering charming abilities. The conflict with Sehkmora became known as the First Harpy War. To date, Daklode has waged five wars with the harpies and malcontents of Ukhilgam.

Hurguulich

Hurguulich

Shortly after the formation and stabilization of Sphere 411, Io put a young green dragon named Hurguulich in a region that would one day become known as the Aerie of Dragons. Hurguulich was put here along with many other young dragons of different colors, and in time they would spread outward across the world.

Hurguulich was extremely intelligent and cunning, such that she became one of the mightiest green dragons of the Dawn Era. In the Dawn War, she became the leader of all the dragons of the Aerie. She kept the primordials and angelic forces out of this region and even schemed to take on whoever proved victors of the war, hoping that they would be weakened from the conflict. Her designs were interrupted when Maen Grirngrim came to the region and started capturing dragons for use in his necromantic experiments. Hurguulich attacked the chaos archons and other primordial minions but could never make much headway against their seemingly endless numbers. She was ultimately duped into meeting with Maen Grirngrim, convinced by a master diplomat named Rilthang. At this meeting, she was incapacitated with a gas composed of primordial essence and then bound. Maen Grirngrim then used his necromantic skills to turn her into the first dracolich; up until this point she was aligned chaotic neutral.

As a dracolich, Hurguulich proved to be very difficult to control. Her great power and heightened mental prowess made her a constant threat to Maen Grirngrim and his minions. She knew that she was under the control of her creator, yet cunningly found ways in the logic of his rules which allowed her to bring harm on his minions while at the same time keeping to the wording of what she could and could not do. When the Golden Seven did battle with Maen Grirngrim, they did it against a primordial with only the remnants of his army. Hurguulich had strung out his army over fifty miles with her magic and deadly clouds of poisonous vapor. By the time they arrived to the battle site, they came disorganized and in small groups and became easy pickings for the army of the Golden Seven.

Hurguulich was never seen again after the death of Maen Grirngrim. The Golden Seven, angels, and even the gods searched far and wide across Bal-Kriav, but found no trace of her. In the Second Epoch, Sammaster found a powerful source of necromantic energy in an ancient dragon burial ground. Sammaster employed an army of ghouls, ghasts and grave golems to excavate an area of Viing Qeth. He left the place with dozens of mottled green and black scales. These are said to have come off Hurguulich while she fought to free herself from the clutches of Maen Grirngrim.

Mark of Talos

Birth of Talos

The Mark of Talos is a vast crevasse that begins in Badmaer and ends many Underdark regions beneath. This unusual area was created in the Dawn Era with the birth of a primordial storm giant named Talos. He was primordial blessed on an altar of gloomstar and then barraged for twenty days by lightning storm. The continuity of this lightning storm came from 26 primordial minions having the powers of a arcane hierophant. The lightning pulverized the ice and stone of the surface and then took on a life of its own as Talos grew from a baby to a over-sized adult storm giant. As he grew, the living lightning storm around him carved out a canyon with the altar buoyed aloft by continuous stream of electricity. As he grew over twenty days, the storm continued to burn and disintegrate a path downward. As it plunged further and further into the deeps, energy from the storm was absorbed by Talos leading to the narrowing of the canyon and then many smaller crevasses leading even deeper in into the Underdark. On the last day, the living lightning storm was absorbed by Talos giving him his awesome lightning powers. During the storm, Talos was fused with the altar of gloomstar. Some theologians says that Talos's great regenerative power is because of the gloomstar fused into his bones.

The Mark of Talos ranges from one mile to four miles in width at the top, but as it goes down it narrows to shelves of stone several hundred feet in thickness. On each of these shelves are a number of smaller crevasses that continue into the deep regions of the Underdark. By way of the surface, a huge flying creature could descend downward through three Underdark regions. The Mark of Talos is 28 miles long at its top, narrowing to a crack of several inches width at twenty miles down.

The entirety of the canyon and all the smaller ones beneath are a Focus for Lightning. This makes all electrical spells 25% stronger and their DC increased by 4.

Ark of Devgwer

Raptor Calvary

When the primordials were defeated in the Dawn War, some of those captured were imprisoned on the Prime in powerful warded vaults. This was necessary because moving them across the planes was just too expensive and time-consuming for the Nawirrûs Covenant; especially when they were now facing another threat from the demons in what became known as the Demon Spawn War. In the Horgon Era, a primordial engineer named Devgwer escaped his vault on Gatheghu. He was bound to the land with angelic runes so that he could not leave, so he devised a scheme to stay with the land while cutting it free of the continent. He put Cari'phis Icicles, powerful magical devices used to convert rock, sand, and earth to ice, across the northeastern part of Vhurghad. When these were activated, they turned the ground into a deep seam of ice forming a great half-circle all the way to the coasts. He then hired on storm giants, paying them with angelic and primordial spoils hidden away and left behind from the Dawn War. The storm giant workers were put to work with Mauls of the Titan (primordial relics first created in the Dawn War). These magical hammers were used to shatter an ice seam that stretched for three hundred miles. It was not necessary to shatter all of the ice, only crack it enough for it to weaken under pressure and heat. Two months later, part of Vhurghad's landmass broke free of the continent and began drifting out to sea. Devgwer rode this newly created island, the Ark of Devgwer, eastward into Nielalroch's powerful ocean currents and waves. The gap in Vhurghad's coastline became known as the Devgwer Rip. As the Ark of Devgwer moved across the ocean, parts of it broke free leaving a string islands that stretch from the Devgwer Rip to the mouth of Tarag-Khâlu. When the remaining Ark of Devgwer reached the continent Brucrumus, it smashed into sector Ara'phis of the Troll Bogs. This created an uprising of the land that is now called the Devgwer Humps. Devgwer was not the only thing riding on this short-lived island. On an island of nearly 10,000 square miles, thousands of dinosaurs were brought to the shores of Brucrumus with the Devgwer Humps and the Tiyalashe plains becoming their new abodes, and hunting grounds.

Varous holds of the Tarag-Khâlu Enclave employ dinosaurs as pack animals and steeds. Some even use raptors and like meat-eaters but this practice is rare. It comes with costly upkeep with the beast's high meat requirements and dangers of predatory instinct like when the mount turns on the rider to sate its hunger.

Plague Gullet

Otyugh

The Plague Gullets were birthing pools for otyughs, deadly molds, and other horrors that thrive in areas of rot and decay. The first Plague Gullet came about in Andibutt's sewers. This city was a refuge for mortals fleeing the primordial invasion of the Dawn Era. The primordial lord Mephirouth sent his agents into the sewers beneath this city and begin the process of turning this cesspool into a spawning area for his distasteful minions. These included those previously mentioned along with rats in the millions, hordes of dire rats, rat swarms and plague spewers. Andibutt suffered many years of plague and death from the sickness brought forth by all the carriers of disease coming up from Andibutt's Plague Gullet. Ten years after Mephirouth began his misdeeds, Andibutt was abandoned and then set on fire by forces of the Nawirrûs Covenant. There now being no hosts left in the area, Mephirouth lost interest in the place and moved on. He left behind his minions where many turned to preying on each other or perishing from starvation.

The second Plague Gullet formed in the triton stronghold Natar. This bastion served as a training area for angels and other water-breathing Nawirrûs forces. Here, the tritons trained those who may be able to breath underwater and get around, but were not skilled in underwater combat like those born to the element. Natar was built half underwater in the deeps of Nielalroch and half into the open chasm Irôchâr Plunge. Like at Andibutt, nefarious agents of Mephirouth came and polluted the area such that it had to be abandoned for nearly five centuries. Today, Natar is a powerful triton city-state.

Springs of Sehanine

Cresting Vats

In the Second Epoch, the High Wood Quake devastated an area of northern Voternil. This resulted in the desertification of a slither of the Taurquion forest and the creation of the wasteland Baranarth. In 1562, priestesses of the god Sehanine, traveled to the Elemental plane Cresting Spires and brought back three clusters of Cresting Vats. They were able to do this because of a deal struck between Sehanine and Poseidon. This deal stipulated that water would flow from the Cresting Spires to wherever the Cresting Vats were put on Bal-Kriav. One of the points of this contract also said that from time to time water elementals would come through the vats and that no measures should be taken to restrict their occasional use of these inter-planar gateways.

On Bal-Kriav, Sehanine's priestesses placed clusters of Cresting Vats in and about the wasteland Baranarth. There goal is obvious, to rejuvenate the wasteland and perhaps in a thousand years return it to the verdant forest like it was before the High Wood Quake.

Cresting Vats are primordial devices built in the Dawn War as a means of getting troops and elemental water to other planes and worlds. They come in pairs with one permanently fixed on the plane Cresting Spires and the other somewhere else. On Bal-Kriav, the three clusters of them in the High Wood Country are collectively called the Springs of Sehanine.

High Wood Quake

Mîm Khazun Zealot

The High Wood Quake was no normal earthquake. It came about in 1251 when Mîm Khazun zealots out of Tarbhunarâg evoked the last words of a mighty enchantment. This spell involved draining the power of an entombed primordial and transferring it into a weapon that would become one of unsurpassed power. The Mîm Khazun enchanters seem to have greatly miscalculated the amount of power in the primordial because it caused excess energy to spill over in great pressure waves. All those around the enchanting area and most living things up to ten miles away were pressure pulverized and killed. The Mîm Khazun enchanters failed to create an artifact, with the hammer reduced to dust by an onslaught of pressure waves. It is believed by some though that making an artifact was never their real intent. Alatáriël, Spirachiln, and other elven groups of the High Wood Country, and even some Tarbhunarâg historians, say that the true intent of the zealots was to cause a great earthquake that would even put a smile on Geb's broad face. Hopefully then, the quake would drain lake Nelshreen into the bowels of the Underdark causing an ecological disaster for the elven peoples of Voternil. This would then make conquest of the area easier for Daklode's armies.

The High Wood Quake caused breaches to open between the Underdark of the world Kriav and with that of Bal-Kriav's Underdark. These feydark fissures devastated Baranarth and Einreth. Both of these once verdant forests were turned into desolate wastelands. It also led to the development of Nanyerien's entropic breaches. Some of the creatures that have come to inhabit these areas of Voternil and beneath, have blood-lines tracing back to the world Kriav. Today, creatures still come over from Kriav's feydark fissures coming up from Menortamon and then up tunnels that breach the surface in the wastes of Baranarth and Einreth.

Zendanul

Mêzelurûs

Zendanul is a great jungle bounded by the river Spinnaker to the west, the Hurtugen mountains to the north, the plains of Shathirmun to the east, and the looming mountains of the Elephant Backbone in the south. The plants, trees, and animals of this forest grow very big. The typical specimen is at least twice normal size and most animals in addition to their large size are classified as dire creatures. The larger than normal size of things in Zendanul is a product of the inland ocean Mizzen. In the Demon Spawn War, the nature god Mêzelurûs was killed in this ocean by the Obyrith Lord Dagon. Rather than have her soul devoured by Dagon's Cairn Scythe, she released all of her nature energy into the surrounding waters. This caused the ocean and the area around it to be bolstered; resulting in an increased size for all creatures of animal intelligence and plants that live in the jungle surrounding the ocean and in the ocean itself.

In the Lith-Crillion Era, residents of the Ivory Pyramid made forays into this area. This was initially done to study the large size of everything in the area but then changed to finding ways of destroying Zendanul's overgrown predatory plants.

Pickaxes & Loincloths

Pursued

There you are, waiting for the “The Chief” [party selects someone] to make the break and get a chance at freedom.  This escape attempt had been in the works for over a year now.  All except one of you are in position.  Even if you have to leave “The Quiet”[party selects someone] behind, you know that you can pull this off, hell you  rehearsed it 22 times now, it will go-off without a hitch says “The Planner”[party selects someone].   The Quiet only needs to do one or two things to get the dwarf “Tang”, today’s water bearer, to switch positions with him.  The choices are to take care of him in the most humiliating fashion or murder him.

This serious desire for freedom all started after diggers found Zugg’s Gullstones, a name given for a time in the God Era when a slave force of Zuggtmoy was put to work in mines surrounded by the stuff.  This caused many to perish, but others to mutate into the first fomorians. The slaves got to calling these rocks Zugg's Gallstones, or at least that is the tale spun by “The Brain”[party selects someone].   After finding this stuff a pond was drained and then its spring was damned.   This was done with some trepidation since once that stuff was left to dry, if The Brain’s story is true then miners are going to die or be contorted into something hideous looking.  One of your present crew was so bold as to stand out and contest “Ole Stunty’s” (the goblin mining master) order.  This back talk was not something his enforcer, a deformed cyclopean-looking war troll named Naxor, was to let go, so on the nod of Old Stunty, the troll severed off the arm of “The Tool” [party selects someone].   The Tool would have died if not for the healing herbs and skills of “The Hand” [party selects someone].  The Tool was saved, though armless he would be useless as far as the slave masters were concerned.  You were not benched until some cooking or cleaning job opens up.  Most likely he would be armed and send forward as cannon fodder in a wave attack against the Mizagûm.  Luckily, “The Tinker”[party selects someone] called upon a close contact at Brachypelma to patch him up.

Singing then begins from up the southeast passage as you swing your pickaxes into the precious rock seams.  This is it, the signal that The Quiet made whatever choice needed to join the escape.  With one great blow, the Chief smashes a dam engineered for an easy break.   Water gushes into the chamber, with each of you stepping up into hidden grooves and footsteps and making your way for the broken dam.  The neogi overseer tries to signal the alarm, but is swept down the passage along with other hapless miners.  The south passage is above the torrent of water.  Miners run down to gawk at the escape artists.  One even jumps in and with powerful strokes makes it to the last of your group, grabbing onto their leg[party determines who is the last in the line].  The rest of you head north bolting up a draining passage.