Free City of Yex | Acolytes of the Bone Conclave | Village of Azagirn | Gates of Hast | Six Urban Adventure Hooks
Free City of Yex
Free City | Fallen Land
Once the glittering capital of fallen Yex, the Free City of Yex endures as the lone glimmer of civilisation and hope amid the gathering gloom and shadow that smother that once-mighty kingdom. Straddling the mighty Taemar River, the Free City’s proud ramparts endure when so many others have fallen and yet keep the chaos and death without from within.
Without the walls, the scars of war run deep, and the Free City itself did not escape unscathed the blood-red tide of war that flooded the kingdom. The fertile lands surrounding the city remain a shadow of their former productivity; it is dangerous to farm them for marauders—human, orc and worse—remain abroad in the kingdom’s heartlands. Thus, the city struggles to feed itself, and if it were not for the brave merchants eager to turn a handsome profit, sailing up the Taemar to deliver their goods, famine would stalk the streets.
The Free City’s population is much reduced. Thousands died during the fighting, and thousands more fled as doom and destruction hovered over Yex. At the height of the fighting, rival nobles led their household guards into the streets in a bid to place the kingdom’s crown upon their own heads. The resultant fighting reduced entire parts of the city to blackened wastelands of tumbled stone and charred wood. Depopulation has left other parts all but abandoned.
The political situation in the city is grim and confused. Scions of five noble families survived the fighting, and all claim the throne. No single family has the strength, however, to force the others to accept their will, and so they govern as a council, albeit a council riven with infighting and intrigue.
See Also: The Grim Lands
Acolytes of the Bone Conclave
Cult | Orcus | Wizards
Dwelling deep in the midst of a range of barren and inhospitable, orc-infested craggy hills, the Acolytes of the Bone Conclave worship Orcus, the Charnel One.
This powerful death cult of necromancers and priests has existed for centuries, but only in recent years, with the rise—or some say heralded return—of the Conclave’s cowled leader, have they come to the attention of nearby nations. Whereas for centuries uncounted the Conclave lurked in the shadows, they now openly practise their foul religion—seemingly daring the goodly folk of the world to interfere in their doings.
The Conclave venerates its goat-headed lord with great sacrifices of captives who are driven screaming into the ever-smoking, undead-infested Slaughter Pits that riddle the hills around the Conclave’s terrible fortress—the Bone Citadel. Countless souls have been gifted to the Charnel One in these pits in blasphemous services that last for days. Such veneration requires many sacrifices, and the acolytes pay the orcs of the surrounding hills to raid the nearby lands for suitable offerings. Sometimes the tribes raid each other, and many orcs have also died in the Slaughter Pits, while uncooperative tribes are annihilated by hordes of the undead or bent to the Conclave’s will through the judicious taking of hostages or sacrifices. The orcs dwelling in the surrounding hills learned many years ago that to trifle with the Conclave was to invite certain disaster.
Village of Azagirn
Dwarves | Hills | Village
Set atop an isolated and high, wind-gnawed crag, the peaceful, tiny dwarven village of Azagirn was born of madness, violence and the near-annihilation of the reputedly cursed Azacral clan. Clan Azacral’s final years were marked by falling birth rates, madness and incessant troll raids.
The handful of survivors of the clan’s final ruination founded Azagirn as a haven of peace and tranquillity. Eschewing the deep and dark subterranean home of their ancestors, the dwarves of Azagirn dwell amid the stark beauty of the high and windswept craggy hills sprawling at the base of Kuldor Pass. The dwarves believe some nameless, ancient spirit of the deep earth cursed their progenitors for delving too deeply and too greedily, and they dwell above ground under the impossibly wide blue sky to avoid their ancestors’ terrible fate. A century after Clan Azacral’s fall, the dwarves have grown to love their new home, and only a few villagers remember their ancient clan-home. Thus—slowly—the memories and traditions of the old ways are dying.
With the aid of domesticated wolves, the dwarves tend their sheep and goat herds and fend off their ancient enemy—tribes of half-mad, homicidal trolls—that lurk in the nearby mountains. The wolves, domesticated shortly after the dwarves founded the village, dwell with the dwarves in their homes and are viewed—for all intents and purposes—as part of the family. Working together, the wolves can take down or drive away the solitary mountain lions, which occasionally prey on the village’s herds.
See Also: Lanthorn
Gates of Hast, the
Caves & Caverns | Subterranean
The vast subterranean Starless River flows for hundreds of miles through a succession of dark lakes and over many lightless waterfalls. One such lake is the Grimwater. Two towering rock columns jut from the Grimwater’s frigid waters where the lake narrows at its western end; these are the Gates of Hast. Named for the dwarven hero who discovered them, beyond the Starless River roars over a miles-long stretch of dangerous but navigable rapids, before flowing deeper into the inhospitable Ebon Realms.
A shelved beach of shingle and rubble runs up to the northern column, and a series of worked caves—once Hast’s Haven—riddle both pillars that in years past were linked by a rope bridge of cunning construction. Here, Hast dwelt and offered sanctuary to other delvers and adventurers exploring the nearby reaches of the Ebon Realms. While Hast’s Haven is hard to reach without a boat, a difficult (but defensible) cliff-hugging path of sorts links the southern pillar to the surrounding caverns.
Hast is long dead, but delvers still use the ruins of his home as a base from which to explore the surrounding caves and caverns. (Persistent rumours of Hast’s lost fortune also draw a trickle of adventurers to Hast’s Haven.) Such folk should beware, for the Ebon Realm’s denizens have learnt that tasty food and shiny loot are often found within.
See Also: The Starless River
Six Urban Adventure Hooks
Six Things | Adventure Hooks
Mistaken Identity: A stranger thrusts a small, heavy parcel into a character’s hands and mutters, “The house with the red door on the street of Roses at midnight” before scurrying away. Wrapped in thick leather and secured with numerous lengths of thick twine, the parcel contains a set of counterfeit coin dies for the city’s coinage.
Prison Break: Three prisoners are being transported to the castle to await sentencing for their terrible crimes. As the armoured and be-caged wagon passes by the characters, the prisoners’ friends launch a rescue attempt.
Merchant, Attacked: A merchant is waylaid in broad daylight by a gang of thugs working for a rival. The merchant’s single bodyguard is quickly overpowered. If the characters do not intervene, the merchant will likely be brutally slain.
Falling Corpse: With a sickening wet thud and crunch, a corpse plummets from the rooftop above and lands at the characters’ feet amid a welter of roof tiles. The man is dead. Dressed like a thief, he wears a bulging backpack filled with his last score.
Angry Beggars: A swarm of beggars clusters about a well-dressed young man handing out fistfuls of silver coins. When he runs out, the beggars who have not yet received any coins get angry. Some accost the young man while others attack their luckier companions. A street brawl quickly develops and threatens to draw in innocent folk going about their daily business.
Mysterious Sinkhole: A sinkhole opens under a nearby building, undermining its foundations. The building slowly leans drunkenly over the street before toppling into the building opposite. People are trapped within the wreckage, and several minor fires break out.
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