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.

Damned Marines

Damned Marines

These units are long-dead marines of many nationalities - Ivory Asylum, Paradomea, Council of Bile, and any other who happens to fall victim to death ships of the Armada of the Damned. There have even been times that Grimsuvelth Trawlers sailed with the fleet, crewed by skeleton, zombie, and wight hill giants.

The undead marines of the Armada are just like their living counterparts as far as acting like marines - they are boarders of enemy vessels or used in amphibious assaults on coastal dwellings. There can be as many as 50 of them on one death ship if it is a warship or none if the ship was once a merchant or fishing ship. Across all 31 ships of the Armada of the Damned there could be as many as 400 under normal conditions. In times of great wars among naval powers, like in the Black Tide War, there have been as many 800 dead marines. This usually comes about from the ships being added to the Armada being warships won in battle with weaker non-combatants often falling first in battle.


One of the most harrowing sights of these marines is seeing them use their innate power to walk on water. They run across the waves as if it were land, storming a town and running off with future shipmates, all before the hapless settlement can muster a defense. Fortunately for the coastal holds of the Pearl Sea and the Sea of Mourning these raids are extremely rare with the Armada of the Damned resting in the deeps.

- Phoslomor, cartographer of the Third Epoch, excerpt from the book "Phoslomor's Survey of Midrêth, Ch. 4-1"

Otriring

Otriring ruin

Otriring is a vast cavern network near the center of Huzar-Arân. In the God Era, Set created the Khazarkar race and sequestered them in this area. He used life energy and powerful magic to bring the Underdark area to life as if it were a surface area basking in the rays of Merioss and Juniger and experiencing weather and the changing of the seasons. This artificial environment along with efreeti educators allowed the Khazarkar civilization to rapidly advance and catch up with the other advanced races of Bal-Kriav. In 255 LC, Set's use of Moradin's Surveyor to create life was found out. Moradin, a true God of Creation, went to the Quara'tun Council of Gods and had Set charged with theft and the illegal use of the powers of creation to create a race that would help him gain Divine Power. Set was ordered to give up the artifact Moradin's Surveyor and have his people abandon Otriring.


They are to go elsewhere and eke out a living without divine help, like all the other mortal races.

- Io, to Set, reading out the courts decision - "Direct Assistance to Mortals is Forbidden"

So that Otriring would not be re-inhabited by others seeking to benefit from its artificial environment, the life energy in the area was accelerated so that things here grow extremely fast resulting in accelerated aging such that one would age a life time in a matter of days. This results in anything living in Otriring to grow and age faster, reaching adult hood in two or three days, yet dying a few days later. This area is so dangerous that anything can succumb to its super-charged life energy - including the Higher Powers. Undead that enter the region find themselves withered away in a matter of hours or seconds for the weaker ones, and constructs which are themselves touched with a bit of life energy, break down after a few weeks. After death it does not end for the living, for they are reborn in hours and continue the cycle. This endless cycle of rebirth led to some calling the area Phoenix Gut.

The Khazarkar civilization thrived in this area for three centuries. There ancient ruins are scattered all over the area.

Abyssal Hegemony

The Abyssal Hegemony were the forces of the Abyss that opposed the Quara'tun Covenant in the Demon Spawn War. The leadership that made up the the Abyssal Hegemony was in no way organized on a hierarchy like its opposition. It was instead one of chaos with individual commands that worked in the interest of some demon and only allied with another if it served their self-interest; and woe to the "ally" if at the end of the battle they were badly beaten, for they would most likely fall victim to the superior might of their former ally.

Some of the demons that were part of the Abyssal Hegemony's leadership became demon princes during the Demon Spawn War or some time after it.

Megrlof

Megrlof

Megrlof is a half-submerged giant built ruin. It rests in the waters of Allof Stond, yet this was not always so. Before the Allof Stond War, it was a lake of molten lava and Megrlof was a seemingly impregnable bastion with fire giants patrolling its great walls.

In the First Epoch, fire giants built Megrlof as a base to help guard and spread the lava of Ofli Hrolmir, and indirectly the expansion of Surtur's Artery. They did this in such a way as not to be too upsetting to the locals. For a time they had good trade relations with the Underdark city-state Hlothrabatta and the surface empire Melephaeusan.

Megrlof was abandoned at the end of the Allof Stond War. As terms of the surrender, the city was abandoned; this was not a bitter pill to swallow since the fire giants were none to happy with the cooling of the area from the lava lake Allof Stond being cut-off from its source of lava. On leaving the city, the people headed south to Trelshum and Thrammaer where they split up as refugees among the various holds of those areas.