Random Sasquatch
Sneak
132 Posts
    
 | | 08/03/2007 7:09 AM |
| AREA NAME- Montavrail
USERNAME- Random Sasquatch
LOCATION-AF
POPULATION- 85%Human, 3%Elves, 3%Dwarves, 6%Half-Orcs, 3%Various
SIZE-1600 Square miles
ALIGNMENT- The general population is composed of mainly Neutral Good and Chaotic Neutral people. The land itself though, seems to emanate evil from its very core.
MAJOR CITIES AND LOCATIONS- Eskrad, Svertek, Nalshakar,
GUILDS AND ORGANIZATIONS- The Holy Templars of (god of lawful good/paladins/knights), The Wizard Thieves of Nalshakar
LEVEL OF TECHNOLOGY- Low. They land has mills and basic Medieval technology, but nothing fancy here, the majority of the people are poor.
MAIN TRADE GOODS
--Imports--
Virtually anything
--Exports--
Wheat, Oats, Barley and near the village of Atton, there is said to be a man who makes the greatest clocks in all the realm.
ALLIANCES- Not very many people travel to Montavrail by Choice. It is a land teeming with evil and is often avoided. The church of St. Evram rules the land, and its smaller satalite churches often report back with the political situation within the world.
KNOWN ENEMIES- The church is quick to ferret out anyone who it sees as a potential enemy; and charges of heresy and witchcraft are common. The church has eyes everywhere, and one minute they may be marching through the street in force, the next minute, they are little more than a whisper in the wind.
ADVENTURING- Since corruption and multiple scandels have been brought to light recently, the influence of the church is at an all time low. The land has seemed to realize that good is waning and evil has seized control.
Two of the more recent horrors to be whispered of throughout the land are those of the "Puppet Master" and of the "Nightmare Candyman."
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-THE PUPPET MASTER-
The "Puppet Master" is actually a scholarly old gentleman by the name of Dr. Einrich Von Nordenstine. He is a scientist and surgeon who has a pechant for creating...things. He claims to be working on a cure for the plague, which still lingers from the strength it held over a decade ago. Most people suspect he has darker intentions, and many adventurers have slain beasts who appear to be stitched together by a combination of magic and medicine.
He lives in a grand old mansion on a hill at the north of the island, and villagers in the nearby town often try to calm travelers by telling them that they will get used to the screams.
The mansion has an enormous courtyard garden, full of statues and flowers, which are sickly-looking and said to be kept alive only by magic. Some people who venture near the mansion claim, that at night, the statues come to life and move about the courtyard as if they were sleepwalking humans searching for point of escape from their flowery prison.
Dr. Nordenstine does have a son, Finian (Fin-ee-yon), who lives with him in the mansion. An extremely intelligent little boy, who, in his little black bowtie and with his neatly combed hair, is the picture of a well-kept youth; except for a large patch of scar on the left side of his face (which appears was caused by chemical burn).
The boy often visits the town to get supplies for his father and his extreme cheerfulness and overly friendly demeanor is unsettling at best. He tends to stare at people (especially pretty girls) with a grin that has made many a villager's skin crawl.
Most of these girls eventually go missing.
*NOTE* DM'S EYES ONLY
The boy, Finian, is in actuality a 52 year old man trapped in a child's body. What people think is Dr. Nordenstine is really only a large puppet which Finian magically animates to protect his secret and maintain his illusion of youth.
Finian is actually the "puppet master," and creates his monstrocities purely for his perverse pleasure. At any time, there may be up to three young girls held at the mansion. Since the mansion has no dungeons, Finian has dug several small pits in the earthen floor of the basement. These pits are eight feet deep and six feet in diameter, and each one is kept in a location far enough from the others, so that no contact can be made among the prisoners.
Finian does not seem to have any clear goals, other than to maintain his sick forms of entertainment.
He is monster in the truest sense of the word.
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-THE NIGHTMARE CANDYMAN-
The "nightmare candyman" makes his home in Lorren Wood at the south edge of the land. Most who've heard the tales claim he is the boogyman himself, others think that perhaps he was once a lone woodsman who spent too much time in Lorren Wood by himself. Whatever the case, he appears as an extremely large fat man, who wears a brightly colored suit and makeup similar to that of a clown. He floats through the forrest as ensorceled by a permanent levitation spell and if you are travelling through the Lorren Wood and hear a faint whistleing tune, chances are you will have an unpleasent visit in the next couple of moments.
-Gormie the candyman-
Gormie is the "nightmare candyman." He will usually not attack travelers through Lorren Wood outright. In fact, he enjoys pleasent conversation and has a fondness for children. Gormie is not the boogyman or a lone woodsman who went mad. In fact, he isn't human at all. He is an Efreeti, an evil genie who wanders through the wood to feed his insatiable appetite for small children, though, if bored or hungary, he would be willing go after larger prey.
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-The Cursed Kingdom of Dacheron-
The kingdom of Dacheron is a small kingdom located in the centeral
part of the land. It is sparsely populated by farmers and a few mills along the Gitch River. It is well known throughout the land of Montavrail that Dacheron is a cursed kingdom.
-King Gethimir
The cursed king of the land is King Gethimir. He is incoherant and disheveled and appears as if he hasn't slept in years, which, coincidentally, is not far from the truth.
-Rizible (the court jester)-
Rizible is a small child-like man who is notorious for his tasteless jokes. He dances around the king's throne hall, eager to meet anybody who wishes conference with the king.
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Hagathes and Thugg
Hagathes
Hagathes (Hag-uh-thus) is a witch who makes home in a little shack in Lorren Wood. She is very methodical and evil to the core. She keeps only one henchman, a brutal, and actually quite clever, ogre named Thugg.
-Thugg-
Thugg is larger than most ogres and also keeps a fitness regimine that makes him quite a physical speciman among his kind. Not only has he inherited a formidable physique, but he has an astounding intellect for being an ogre. He and Hagathus have a symbiotic kind of relationship that neither of them really understand. They do, though, trust each other implicitly and will defend each other to the death.
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-Notable Heros of Montavrail-
Dran Draggor= A legendary knight of the codex. Successfully slayed the great red wyrm, "Matruycus". Body has been placed in the "Tomb of the Hallowed".
Shem= The current Grand Master of the Ehrahmahdi Brotherhood. Rumored to have ascended into sainthood.
more to come...
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-The Plague-
The plague of Montavrail is quite possibly the most horrific disease in all of the NEW WORLD. A person who has contracted the horribly contagious disease, moves through a series of stages, each more horrific than the last, until they reach a state of living death in which they appear dead, but actually are conscious (can think), feel pain, and can see and hear everything going on around them.
The plague is spread through the bite of an animal or humanoid creature and can be spread to another as early as the 1st stage of the illness.
There is no known (non-magical) cure for the plague (though it is rumored that the magical dragonspice can be used as a treatment). The stages of the disease are as follows:
*NOTE= Effects are cumulative
1st STAGE
profuse sweating
unquenchable thirst
sunken eye sockets
increased strength +2
DR 2/magic
2nd STAGE
Minor Disorientation
Sleep difficulty
increased strength +4
DR 4/magic
3rd STAGE
Major Sleep Difficulty
Minor Hallucinations
Skin sores/rashes
Hair Loss
Increased strength +6
DR 6/magic
4th STAGE
Total Sleep Loss
Major Hallucinations
Scales/ Shingles
Complete Loss of hair and nails
acidic saliva
Increased Strength +8
DR 8/magic
5th STAGE
Insanity (per spell)
Flesh hunger
Increased Strength +10
DR 10/magic
A person who has progressed through to the 5th STAGE can live for up to a year (albeit with insanity), as long as they regularly feed on flesh.
When buried, a plague victim's corpse kills all foliage within 10 feet of the burial site, no matter the depth of the grave.
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-The Drifter- (A salesman of the lost and collector of Montavrail occult)
The drifter is a strange merchant who travels the lands of Montavrail with seeming impunity to the dark forces that saturate the land. He wears an oversized pack that has items almost spilling out of it and no one has ever claimed to have seen his face (as it is covered by a grey cowl). He does not approach adventurers, but waits to be approached, he then offers in a friendly manner to show some of his wares. His voice is dry and scratchy and it sounds as if he smoked acres of tobacco in his youth.
He carries both a walking stick and a lantern with him. The stick doubles as a pointer when he is showing a rare or exotic map of somewhere in the world and a weapon when accosted by something threatening (curiously though, he never appears to be nervous and even facing overwhelming odds he always manages to get by without a scratch). The lantern, on the other hand, is the drifter's calling card. It emannates a sickly blue glow and when its seen in the distance, chances are that a group of adventurers are likely to cross paths with him.
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-THE MAGIC TESTING SITES-
The magic testing sites are a group of small wastelands in the eastern part of the land. They were once used to test experimental spells, incantations, magical item creations and curses during the 5th age of the world.
Now that the balance has shifted, things have started appearing in the "testing sites". What was once a quiet desert that travelers could move through peacefully, is now an area in which people frequently go missing.
-THE FACELESS-
The faceless is the name given to the people who may, or may not, inhabit the wastes. The few survivors that have escaped an encounter with the faceless, talk of hideously deformed people who have regressed to their basest being. These deformed "freaks" are outright cannibals, and they have no qualms with raping and tortureing capturees.
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The Cult of Hennius Kurr-
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-The Erahmaddi Shepards-
The Erahmaddi Shepards are a group of monks live in a monastary in the southeastern portion of Montavrail. They are simple in their needs and steadfast in their ways. They herd and slaughter both cattle and sheep to support their monastary, and practice a variety of strange rituals. Living in such a dark and dreary land, the monks have learned to specialize in the manipulation of shadows. This proves useful not only for combat, but also for more menial tasks.
Few have ever broken away from the monastic sect (but no one would know since they rarely speak to strangers and nearly all of them dress in identical garb).
They are left alone for the most part by the nearby villages of Tulla and Bercstad, and have a reputation for producing some of the finest beef in the land.
ALIGNMENT: Lawful Neutral
NEARBY VILLAGES: Tulla, Bercstad
THE MONASTARY: The shepard's monastary is an architectual oddity. It has no windows with which to let light in, and it is said to have a permanent silence spell cast upon the entire structure.
LEGENDS AND LORE:
-DEMMA-
One of the few to ever break away from the shepards was a prodiginous youth named Demma. Demma felt that that the simple farming life was a waste of the shepards potential, and though he did not flaunt his skill, he encouraged others to hone their martial skill and shadow play to perfection.
Demma soon left the monastary with a small group of other young shepards. They traveled to different parts of the world learning everything they could to reach a point of enlightenment and power, not yet known to others. Before long, Demma's power was renown and his might was both feared and envied, by both his followers and others around the globe. Many powerful people around the NEW WORLD enlisted Demma's destruction as a priority; and before long he was in need of help.
While battling a particularly powerful group of high-level Templars of St. Evram, he called out to the dark forces to aid him...
His calls did not fall on deaf ears. He was awarded a dark power with which he was able to easily vanquish his foes, and once again he roamed the world searching for any and every was to extend his personal power. After it seemed his searching could bring him little more, he traveled back to Montavrail and started enlisting followers for what he termed "the last days of the world".
A vast temple was errected in honor of him, and his followers grew to number in the thousands. When the time finally came for him to attempt his ascension into ultimate enlightenment (godhood), he stood at the top of his temple and called to his masses. There, the followers, one by one, set fire to themselves and lent him the power of their pain and their faith.
The gods, feeling the sharp pain of the dark ritual this mortal was beginning to undertake, quickly moved to destroy Demma. At the apex of his might, the gods of good threw down a blinding stream of pure holy energy from the heavens and denied Demma the thing he had labored so long for. The light struck the temple and burned the entire stone structure to ash. Demma himself burned from the fire of the gods until only a small black sash remained, and then the wind carried that away too.
In later years, friends and family of the people who sacrificed themselves for Demma's cause, came and laid their loved ones to rest, creating a massive ashy cemetary where the temple of Demma had once stood.
Legend has it that Demma's spirit still inhabits the cemetary of ash, willing to give undaunted travelers to the site, knowledge they seek or... (the gods protect us) advice.
These gifts though, do not come without a price.
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-THE WIZARD-THIEVES OF NALSHAKAR-
Nalshakar... the demon city, the city of lost souls, a city of secrets, of new identity and of escape from the rest of the NEW WORLD. Nalshakar is famous for many things: Not only is it the largest city in all of Montavrail, it is also said to be a place where you can get almost anything. Legality is a non-issue in Nalshakar.
In a city governed by martial law, might makes right, and secrecy and anonymity are the two warm blankets that everyone goes to sleep at night with.
One of the many groups rumored to control/rule the city is the infamous "Wizard-Thieves of Nalshakar". The Wizard-Thieves are a clandestine group of high-ranking mages who work to shape the happenings in the NEW WORLD to broaden their own influence and aquire certain items of power they believe can be used to commune with other worlds.
More to come on all these posts... | |
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