Kasdalan: The Qlippothic Menace

Source! Neat site, check it out

This particular plot thread started in a different context, with the intent being to create a zombie apocalypse scenario in fantasyland. It eventually migrated into Kasdalan, a suitable home for such a threat:

Adventure Seed: The Qlippothic Menace

This adventure takes place as a side effect and consequence of the events outlined above in “The Lurking Shadows of Kasdalan.” The characters of this adventure might be the same, or entirely unrelated.
The adventurers are hired by Lord Osterman of Castle Mordren (along the northern Darkwood) to negotiate a peace with the vicious Kasarak barbarian warlord Gamhar of the fortress of Chaz’Godar. The Kasarak fortress sprang up during the previous winter and has been harrying the province ever since. Lord Osterman was gravely wounded in the last excursion, but word has it that the warlord also suffered a crippling blow. He has asked the adventurers to escort his seneschal Tanenbray and his daughter Nestymere to the fortress, to sue for peace.

Journey

Along the way the PCs pass through the battlefield of the recent conflict where bodies still riddle the landscape, and only a handful of harried peasants and soldiers remain for clean-up. Further on is the old graveyard of Algent’s Last Respite, where a nearby crossroads has cages for criminals. In one cage is the prisoner Yaelden, a male necromancer of some ill repute who was accused of practicing necromancy, grave robbing and raising the dead for cheap labor; in the cage beside him is the merchantman Talbor, who was also accused of purchasing the necromancer’s undead agents to serve as free labor in his mines. Yaelden will warn the PCs that he can sense “something coming,” and that he can hear them scratching up through the earth even now. He doesn’t know what it is, exactly; just that it is a wondrous thing, like a great blanket of darkness which has enveloped the land.

Arrival

It takes three days (and 80 miles) to arrive at Chaz’Godar, where there appears to be some consternation on the part of the barbarians, among whom the elder berserker named Madrak will charge out and accuse the arrivals of witchcraft. Assuming they survive an encounter with Madrak, the warlord’s right-hand man and son Andrel will meet with them, and admit that they will concede to peace if they can help Gamhar.

Gamhar, unknown to the superstitious Kasarak, suffered mortal wounds and has perished, to be possessed by one of the first of the Qlippothic demons. He is presently strapped down, speaking in tongues (what the Qlippoths call the Lost Language, though only one who has studied the language of the Ancient Mythrics would suspect it) and frothing at the mouth, seeking a means of escape. Indeed that escape will come if Madrak was fought and slain in the courtyard of the fortress earlier!

A study by any average adventurer will reveal that the man is out of his mind and probably delirious, but a knowledgeable healer will know something is wrong, that the man’s body shows the many signs of death. It will become painfully apparent that the warlord Gamhar is somehow a wight.

By nightfall, the fortress will take on a strange solitude. Outside, moving in the darkness, assemble a large army of the dead, dragging themselves from the graves and barrows of the land, from the murder pits filled with the massacred villagers of the province, and more. They gather to the call of Gamhar, who is filled with the Qlippothic spirit called the Reaver.

So begins the first chapter.

Part 2. Escape from Chaz’Godar

The adventurers are trapped with the Kasarak in a fortress surrounded by a vast army of the risen dead. Somehow they need to escape, bring Nestymere to safety and make haste to warn Castle Mordren. The situation looks grimmer and grimmer as each fallen Kasarak raider rises within moments, a member of the invading undead.

Andrel can help, though. The fortress was not built without contingencies. There is a hidden passage that leads to a cave system, in which they found a number of old dwarven signaling gems. These gems lead the way to safety, he explains. When it becomes clear escape or destruction of the undead is improbable he will reveal this secret passage.

Fighting to the passage and using it to escape are tasks enough, but once in the caverns it becomes clear that this plague of undead is affecting everything. A group of dwarven prospectors led by the dwarf Darius Zern is trying to make a fast escape, for a number of their own as well as a motley assortment of monstrous beings have risen from the dead and now clamor for their blood. It grows worse, for the orcish war tribe called the Zothesk led by the Battle Maiden Chirosca are also seeking to escape, but appear less than happy about the dwarves getting in their way.

Part 3. The Isles of Wintermist Lake

The dwarven escape route ultimately exits in to the ruins of another castle: Greymist, a near-famous ruin in the region reported to have been a great city of fabled Trelithane. Trelithane rests on the edge of Lake Astrahar, and many of the old ruins are centered on a trio of islands just along the shore. Here the adventurers will discover that villagers from the village of Darnesh are traveling to seek refuge from the undead attacks, and are following an old witch named Ygartha, who says that the dead cannot cross the water, which is untrue; anyone who makes a DC 15 knowledge (dungeoneering or religion) check will know this.

Still, at this point the adventurers are just ten miles from Castle Mordren, and the undead seem sparse in this region. It becomes clear from talking to the peasants that the army of the dead was not unique to the region around Chaz’Godar; they are rising everywhere!

New problems arise: the people seeking refuge on the Three Isles of the lake Astrahar are waiting for their scouts to return, to verify the safety of the isles, but the men have yet to come back. They will seek the aid of the adventurers, begging them to investigate or lead them to safety.

The isles are actually under the protection of an old wyrm, the white dragon known as Glimmerwing and her small cult of draconian followers. They might be willing to share the island, but would require much persuasion, for hidden deep beneath the ruins is Glimmerwing’s cache of treasure, as well as a shrine to the spirit Caedra, mistress of beauty. Flattery, ultimately, is Glimmerwing’s weakness, though her elder acolyte, the elder draconian Magastus, will seek to dissuade her from offering shelter to the humans.

Glimmerwing is also lustful, and she presently holds the elvish xernethian knight Elasmus in custody, seeking to persuade him to bed her with her polymorphed elvish charms. He has resisted so far, but will seek to bargain for his freedom with the arrival of the adventurers.

In the end, though, it is only the might of the dragonkin that will save the humans, for the undead are not in the least deterred by the waters of the lake.



Part 4. The Return to Castle Mordren

Mordren has been assaulted mercilessly by the undead, but in the midst of these attacks there is a lone spark of hope. The imprisoned necromancer Yaelden will have either spoken to the adventurers or possibly have gained control of at least one undead being to relay a message: he can save the city, but he demands three things: he is pardoned of all his crimes, he is granted the legal right to practice necromancy in Kasdalan, and he wants lady Nestymere’s hand in marriage!

The city remains under siege in the interim from a horde of immense size, dedicated to the undead Qlippothic lord called the Reaver. Though the city holds firm so far, it is only a matter of time before it falls; it can withstand ten weeks under siege, but the foes in this case can last a lifetime, and their numbers seem to gradually increase over time, for there is no shortage of the dead.

If the form of Gamhar had been previously destroyed, then the Reaver will be here in a new, dark form, having gained control of the body of the ancient fallen hero Licorius. Wearing the fabled azure armor of Licorius the Slayer, the Reaver will lead the dark armies against the city mercilessly day and night, his undead horde clamoring for the flesh of the living.

Getting in to the city is a major feat in itself, should the adventurers seek to do so. With several thousand undead between them and the city the castle may as well be a thousand miles distant. There is a known passage underground, which a close relative or direct agent of Lord Osterman might be familiar with, but this passage if revealed could also lead the undead in to destroy the castle from within if it is discovered. The passage is a long narrow tunnel dug through as a means of escape for the castle lord and his clan if all else fails, and has several small stock rooms of equipment and goods in case of emergency; it’s exterior entrance is located beneath a nondescript barn two miles distant in the village of Hawksmoor.

There are a few options when it comes to resolving the siege on Mordren. Saving the noble family is one option, if the adventurers get wind of the dire intentions of the Reaver; they know that there will soon be a much larger force arriving from the north once the army of undead from Chaz’Godar arrives here. At this point it should be reasonable for the adventurers to assume that other cities, including the regional capitol Tursos to the south-west are probably under siege as well. Running from the problem will not solve it.

Part 5. The Necromancer

Turning to Yaelden reveals a different solution: the necromancer will have likely escaped custody and returned to his own residence, a remote ruined keep located at the height of the Taradys Mountains to the south and east. Mordren is nestled in a deep low valley of these mountains. The exact location of his keep is unknown, but it is said that Yaelden grew up in the village of Tarnish, a logging and mining community in the mountains proper, and there might be a clue as to his location from there. Alternatively, he may have sent an undead minion to the Mordren with his message and to serve as a scout or guide for those who would seek to petition him for aid.

Yaelden is young as necromancers go, just reaching forty years of age, but he has learned much, having pilfered from the subterranean study of his predecessor, the ancient necromancer Yoth’gol, who built the keep two centuries ago. Yoth’gol learned the secret of undead immortality too late in life, and perished of an unknown malady.

When the party seeks out Yaelden, they will find the necromancer is under siege in his own keep, for the body of Yoth’gol has returned to life, and with its vast necromantic energies within the Qlippothic lord known as Stigmata has sought to cement his own power by trying to gain control or possession of the necromancer. So far it has been a game of cat and mouse, and both have given up on the use of too many undead minions, for one could easily trump the other in gaining control over such.

Yaelden will seek to get the adventurers to eliminate his new unexpected rival, then promise to use his undead wards to protect the city itself. He has secured the mystical runes of Death and Repose, and has a potent sorcerous ritual that will insure the castle and region around it remains safe. He has failed to use such a ward on his own domain precisely because he would force out his own studies of undeath.

If sufficiently convinced Yaelden will concede his aid without requiring Lady Nestymere’s hand in marriage, but he will still demand he be exonerated for all wrong-doings. He will also hint that he has some insight on this mysterious threat of the undead. In truth, he mostly has sensations of what is going on and few hard facts, but he has determined the following:

1. These undead speak a dead language that seems reminiscent of the language translated from the ruins of the ancients

2. These undead are possessing ghosts or spirits, and are reanimating bodies that were never their own

3. The day the dead began to rise he sensed a strange magical “darkness” overlay the land, something which occluded the ley lines of magic. Its presence is almost intoxicating. The source is difficult to pinpoint, but is definitely somewhere deep southeast.

Yaelden, if ever slain, will be immediately possessed by a Qlippothic spirit that calls itself the Irredeemable. The Irredeemable will use the memories of its host to tap into deep necromantic magic and lore and begin forging its own army to go against the Reaver and Stigmata. The PCs might be clued in to this event (or from talking to Stigmata if Yaelden remains alive) that there are distinct forces at play among these possessing spirits, and that certain key figures, these “Qlippothics,” seem to see each other as rivals to be destroyed or subjugated.

If Yaelden is ever slain, he will likely have imparted or left enough clues for the heroes to figure out that the large contraption in the middle of his hidden laboratory is the key to protecting Mordren. The device is called the “Resonator of Malin’ithaer” and it is allegedly able to create a dampening field that drives away or disables the undead by siphoning the vestige energy of this lost god of the ancients. The device has a complicated ritual to activate, but once activated it requires no further action to work. An unknown side effect is that it does summon the vestige of Malin’ithaer, who will begin to pull people in from the Beyond to his strange nether-realm of Dericantus to toy with before devouring their souls, but this is an event which happens slowly and can be negated if a scholar-mage of the vestiges should ever be consulted about how to ward this new threat.

Part 6. The Defense of Mordren

By the time the adventurers make it back to Mordren the city is in dire straits. The easiest way (if it remains available) to transport the machine is by the secret passage, but a direct path can be hewn through as well; Osterman will send out the best cavalry and knights of the castle to cut a hole through the army of the undead, but the Reaver himself will manifest, his form polymorphed in to a demonic guise, to seek to stop the heroes from entering Mordren and saving the city.

If the heroes survive and the device is activated then the undead drop in their tracks, almost immediately; the Resonator actually forces out possessing spirits, and any and all beings with such Qlippothic entities will have the invaders expunged and forced out of the device’s radius, which is approximately ten miles, though it gets progressively weaker towards the edge of its coverage. With this device in action the region is now safe and the defenders can set about to destroying the bodies of the dead, lest they get a chance to rise again.

Conclusion
Osterman will commend and even knight the heroes for their deeds. He will then declare that word must reach the capital of the Northern Province in Tursos, and that it must be determined if the kingdom of Nazdranar at large is in danger, and if so how best Osterman and his knights can help. He tasks squads of armed knights to seek out the capitol and other cities on the region, including Drenaem, the grand capitol of the kingdom along the southern coast where King Charathain himself rules. It is Osterman’s intention to travel to the capitol (though some convincing that he should stay and protect his kingdom while his knights do the journeying could happen) while he sends the heroes to Tursos to seek out governess Tyrenias-Naelinor Poe.

In the meantime, if Yaelden is alive he will seek a way to replicate the Resonator of Malin’ithaer or something like it, though he admits he doubts he can recreate such a singularly unique device. He knows wards against the undead, but they are considerably weaker than what the machine can accomplish. He suggests that there may be one who knows enough about the mysteries of the ancients, the ancient wizard Calim Darithas, founder of the Society of Antiquarians. Of all the students of lost lore, Calim might know what it takes to create such machines, or where to find them.

At this point, PCs can convince Osterman to let them accompany him to see the king, take orders and journey to the regional capital, or venture off to locate this Calim Darithas (who may be at the capitol of Kasdalan, although rumors abound that he actually dwells in the Isles of Mezesor these days). Either way, the threat of the Qlippothic invasion has only just begun…


 
And with this article concludes my Kasdalan special. More to come soon!

Kasdalan: The Lurking Shadows

Adventure Seed: The Lurking Shadows of Kasdalan

A darkened tomb, deep in the Darkwood, once part of the long-forgotten civilization of the ancient Southern Empire, which was all but destroyed in the era of the Apocalypse. A crew of dedicated adventurers in the service of Pale Queen have been searching for this tomb now for over a decade. Inside, the legacy of the Last Emperor of the lost empire can be found, where the vile Emperor Tacaitus was laid to rest, deep in a remote land where he perished on one of the last great battlefields of the war. Indeed, it is said that the uncharacteristically dark and evil aspect of the woodlands in the region is a byproduct of the terrible death and destruction wrought in the final hours of that ancient conflict.

Emperor Tacaitus and his secrets remained buried with him for twenty six hundred years, until the enigmatic Pale Queen came in to exile in the farthest reaches of the Far Realm. Here, she learned over her centuries of exile of an even more ancient, primordial race: the Qlippothic demons, proto-lifeforms that existed before the gods themselves had created all other races. Beings filled with hatred and a desire for invasion, riddled with ancient evil predating all known existence. They were a relic of an age before the known universe. The Pale Queen discovered their dark bargain, of how the Emperor Tacaitus tried to summon these beings as a weapon of ultimate destruction in the final hours of the Apocalypse, and how his actions forever stained the very earth of Kasdalan with evil. When at last she found her way back, through the possession of her young flock of cultists, to the mortal realm, she realized that the same gate which the emperor possessed that allowed the dreaded Qlippoths to pass into the physical plane would also allow her to escape her prison in the Far Realm…

Speaking to her followers in dreams, she lured a collection of her dedicates into seeking of the Emperor’s ancient burial tomb, centered in the battlefield where he fell, shortly before his dreaded Nether Gate allowed hundreds of Qlippoths to infiltrate the mortal realm. She has sent these cultists to find the gate and reactivate it, in exchange for immortality…

Here the adventurers are played by the PCs, who are either cultists of the Pale Queen or working for her dedicated agent, the sorceress-priest Medea, who is in direct contact with the Pale Queen through her dreams. They inevitably find the gate and open it, only to be overwhelmed by the freed Qlippoths. Thousands upon thousands of Qlippoths escaped imprisonment along with the Pale Queen, and now threaten to destroy all around them. The mere existence of these entities is causing a breakdown of the Barriers Between Worlds, an unraveling of reality. In the end, even the adventurers seem to have become possessed….

Much later, the adventurers awaken, not far from the town of Tursos, trapped in cold iron cages covered in ancient runes from the Supernal Script. Three women, one ancient, one elderly and one young who are called Alecto (unceasing), Megaera (grudging) and Tisiphone (avenging murder) have somehow found, caged and freed the adventurers of their terrible possession. The three are the Furies, and they quickly explain that they, and other immortals, have long been charged with insuring that the Qlippoths never escape into the mortal world from the doomed gate. They charge the adventurers with a dire task: to seek out the Nether Gate, and to seal it; to purge the realm of Kasdalan of its evil, by finding a means to do so. This means, they contend, can be found only by seeking out the wisdom of the Oracle of Gothas, and that the men of the Lake of Horses region can lead them to this mysterious being in the south.

Characters studied in knowledge (religion) may divine some bit of information about their plight:

DC 18: The Furies are three immortal spirits worshipped (or at least feared) by the Pelaeans in the east and among some underground cults in Kasdalan. They are three sisters of Fate, powerful beings who once served the gods, spinning and weaving the destinies of men as the Twelve decreed.

DC 22: They represent an unstoppable, unrelenting force (Alecto), unforgiving force (Megaera) and murderous vengeance (Tisiphone).

DC 26: Moreover, they are neither truly living nor dead, beings created of divine essence at the behest of the gods themselves. One cannot kill one of the furies, for they merely reform at a later date to seek revenge.

Plot Complication: Emperor Tacaitus

The Emperor, dreaded Tacaitus (tah-site-us), has risen from the dead. His moldering body has come back to life as his own spirit, once bound in the ring of the Nether Gate, has been freed. One requirement to close the gate is that Tacaitus must be found and destroyed, to allow his spirit to once more enter the gate and seal it; such is his terrible burden for the horror he unleashed in the days of the Final War.

Tacaitus has other ideas, however. He has awakened in a fugue, much of his “self” having been devoured and distorted over the untold ages he was trapped in the Nether Gate. He is no longer quite “human,” and he does not ever want to be trapped like so again. Seeing the world alive and well has him curious, and he now seeks to travel the land, recovering his memory and learning of what has happened in the two millennia since his entrapment.

Next: The Qlippothic Menace

Kasdalan: Agents and Agencies

Agents and Agencies of Kasdalan


Lady Poe relies on a number of organizations to support her empire. At the top of the chain are two orders, being the Black Hand Necromancers who serve her faithfully in the City of Bones and the legendary Blood Guard, all loyalist men who gave their lives and were reanimated as undead vampires in servitude to the Dark Queen. Together, these two groups form her most faithful agents. The ruler of the City of Bones is presently the witch Sinerre, who is a faithful servant of Lady Poe, raised as if she were a daughter though never acknowledged as such. The Blood Guard, meanwhile, is commanded by General Agraven, a powerful and ancient undying Umbraiin elf of great power and madness. His immediate second in command is the ancient and bloody vampire lord Tolsten Kaeranos, said to have been Lady Poe’s own personal champion for more than two centuries now. As always, the most powerful males in the chain of command around Lady Poe are undead, and the most powerful women are witches and sorcerers.



Poe’s Daughters

Aside from her personal agencies, Poe relies on her loyal daughters, which include her eldest daughter Etrana, little adopted Yaela, the warrior Druuna, the half-elvish Sindatra (who’s father was the Kulaidoriin warrior Angarest), the half-elvish Tyrenias-Naelinor who rules Tursos, and Vareshna, whose sorceries are so potent some believe she rivals her mother’s skills as she rules over the city of Pollahar. Elsewhere in the world are her two renegade daughters Ennata and Arvyllia. Of the two, Ennata has proven to be a loyalist to her own father, Zam Redar, and has united with him at Andos in the north. Arvyllia has been seeking her own greatness, and was last heard to be traversing the depths of the Hoagarit lands in search of ancient draconic power.

Kasdalan: The Slaughter of the MInotaurs and other Plots

The Slaughter of the Minotaurs


Six years ago Mardieur Mardieux roamed the swamps and forests of Kasdalan, warring with the Dark Queen. Lady Poe sought to gain control of the avatar before he knew his own worth, but in his rage the minotaur lashed out, slaying seven of her thirteen living daughters. It was a harsh blow to the queen, who had bred each of her children to be merciless and efficient necromancers, assassins and warriors in her service. She never forgave Mardieur Mardieux, but unable to lash out at the avatar who disappeared four years ago in the West, she has instead resorted to gaining cruel satisfaction out of capturing and slaying all minotaurs she can find.

Pallaeus and the Lakemen of Piridion both have regions with several populations of minotaur tribes. Lady Poe has sent forth several forces aimed at finding these tribes and slaughtering them or capturing as many as possible, for transport to the arenas of Mordren, or for experimentation in the City of Skulls. This has led to cause for alarm in both neighboring nations, as some minotaurs have united together to protect one another, and perhaps even to strike out against her. The minotaur chieftain Muurn Hadronias has united five of the greatest tribes in the region in to a powerful retaliatory force, and they intend to wage war against the Kasdalani forces until the revenge attacks stop.



The Breaching Darkness


Throughout the vast and dark Krylliathe Woods which encompass most of Kasdalan, darkness has consumed vast swathes of the wilderness. For reasons as yet not entirely understood, something is seeping in to the mortal plane from the spirit realm of the Shadow, and it is gaining a permanent foothold, it would seem, in the vast expanses of this largely untamed woodland. Lady Poe and her agents are aware of this manifestation, and indeed they have always known that there is a deep connection with the Krylliathe Woods and the Shadow Plane, but never before have permanent portals between this realm and the shadow plane been made permanently manifest, nor have the strange entities which have come forth from this darkness been so antagonistic, or even stayed permanently in the mortal realm. The concern is that there is a new agency, something which is so powerful that it is reaching out to consume the mortal realm from its shadow domain, and Lady Poe is deeply concerned about its intent.

While the threat is initially a worrisome curiosity, she will dispatch agents to investigate the stories of portals to shadow opening in the remote vastness of the woods. Adventurers in her service are quick to learn that indeed strange and deadly beasts are manifesting in the shadow, and indeed stories suggest that Kasdalan is not the only realm to be so affected.

In time, it will become clear that the source is a single being, one of uncertain origin or allegiance, called Molabal. Little else is known (at least in Kasdalan) as to Molabal’s true nature, but rumors that undying cults to this enigmatic self-proclaimed deity in the ancient City of Shadows can tell of its intent, and its weakness, even…of course, Molabal has been freed far to the west in Pelegar, though his freedom is dependent on the imprisonment of the avatar Mardieur Mardieux….

Next: Agents and Agencies of Kasdalan

Kasdalan: The Eleventh Marriage

by Howard david Johnson, Check his work out, its quite exceptional!

More Sinister Plots in Kasdalan: The Eleventh Marriage

This year Lady Poe, Queen of all Kasdalan, has decided to take a new husband in marriage. The hapless consort is being donated by the Dreaming City of Ulos in the south, where she will retrieve Prince Araen Kyramesh, to be handed over by his own father as a way of appeasing the Dark Queen.


It has been known for centuries now that Poe seeks out her consorts in neighboring lands, and that those who are most generous in aiding her in her quest are in turn likely to be rewarded with gifts, tribute and open trade from Kasdalan, while those which do not comply often suffer misfortune or disaster. Five years ago the Lakemen of Piridion saw this happen when Lady Poe took an interest in highlord Camaden Joss of the city of Jezer along the northshore. Highlord Joss did not reciprocate, and instead rebuffed Lady Poe and subsequently married the Shaddizhari born noblewoman Atatha Zeshir. Poe seemed initially disinterested, but within the year an army from Kasdalan marched on Jezer, demanding that the city pay tribute for “unpaid taxes” or suffer the consequences. In fifty days of sieging, during which Poe called upon the power of shadow dragons to sink a fleet from Ulthar that was dispatched to aid Jezer, she unleashed plague and famine upon the city, and then at last, having forced the city to submit, strode triumphantly through its streets to the palace, where she accepted the highlord’s surrender, then took his wife hostage. Atatha Zeshir, now pregnant, was escorted back to Mordren where she subsequently gave birth to a daughter named Yaela Zeshir Poe, whom the Dark Queen adopted for her own. Zeshir was never seen again, though some suspect she is locked away deep in the bowels of the City of Bones.

Now, having once more decided she should marry, Lady Poe cast her gaze south to Ulos, where she had not received a husband in more than a century. Ulos has always paid its safety with a healthy tribute, much of it mined from its operations in the Gothas Mountains to the south, but the elder King Varden Kyramesh appeared to have no qualms whatsoever about handing over his own eldest son to the Dark Queen. Araen is locally known to be a wastrel and a disappointment, who is addicted to the opiates that the upper class of the city delight in, so it comes as no surprise that King Varden gladly offers him to the Dark Queen, preferring instead to groom his younger brother, Kalael, for the position in the future.

Problems will soon arise, however. Lady Poe is, in fact, interested in Kalael and not Araen. She intends fully to take the younger prince from Varden, and is hopeful that this will provoke a conflict with the king of Ulos, for she would delight in an opportunity to spread fear and chaos throughout the decadent city-state, or to even, at last, take it under her dark wing, to bring it once more in to the fold of Kasdalani control. She will soon travel to Ulos, with her eldest daughter Etrana Poe, whom she intends to give the city to as a gift, should Varden provoke her.

Next: The Purging of the Minotaurs

Kasdalan: Dark Plots

There are many sinister plots, schemes and threats lurking in Kasdalan. Some may require intervention by well-intended adventurers, others may become the focus of meticulous destruction by Lady Poe and her forces, for whom the adventurers might become mercenaries in the service of the queen. I present now the first of many plots in Kasdalan...

The Cult of the Pale Queen


The Pale Queen is the subject of a cult that has sprung up in recent years throughout Kasdalan. The Pale Queen is believed by those in the know to be a representation of no less than Tyrea herself, the first and eldest daughter of Lady Poe. The rumors, if they are to be believed, is that Tyrea has at last found her way back from the Far Realms at the edge of existence, and that she intends to seek revenge upon her dreadful mother as well as to at last lay claim to her heritage. Those who claim to have seen or spoken to her, either in visions or dreams, say that she is a dreadful entity now, far removed from the comely young woman of centuries ago, for the Far Realm warped and twisted her in ways unprecedented.

Throughout Kasdalan covens dedicated to this Pale Queen have arisen. They are not allied with or even sympathetic to resistance groups or cults of other gods in the land, all of which are equally persecuted under Lady Poe’s reign; rather, they seek to subjugate the kingdom to their will, to depose Lady Poe and pave the way for the Pale Queen to at last return and become a new queen of Kasdalan. The cultists believe firmly that Tyrea is destined to be the one who leads Kasdalan to world-spanning greatness.

The Lionhead Resistance


The Lionhead is the title given to those men and women who have banded together quietly to seek to overthrow the endless rules of the dark queen and to end her ages-long reign of terror over the land. They seek to cast out the evil and darkness that plague Kasdalan, and to return once more to the idealized ways of lost Pellucid. The leader of the Lionheads is a man known only as the Revolutionary, though the inner circle of this order knows him to be Araden Gilharad, a man who claims to be a direct descendant of King Gilharad, which makes him a blood relation to Lady Poe, and that his ancestors were among the lucky few to survive Poe’s fratricide in her early rise to power.

The Lionheads (a reference to the old heraldic symbol of house Gilharad) espouse a sense of traditional chivalric virtue derived from the old Pellucid standards, which have become almost sacred and magnanimously more significant to the Lionheads than the standards of chivalry are even now in Mercurious or Correnstal. They number a few thousand strong, but work in secret, for the overwhelming power under Poe’s control is still too great for open rebellion. Recent efforts have involved trying to forge meaningful alliances with the Pellaeans, the Lakemen and even the Kasarak barbarians in the north, to serve as mercenaries in what is hoped will be a major initiative within the next two years.

Next: More Plots!

Kasdalan: The Map

A Map of Kasdalan, reprinted from the Realms of Chirak:

I'm not entirely sure how well this map shows up in the blog, or if it can be copy/pasted to its correct size for easier reading. Shall have to experiment...

Next: Dark Plots in Kasdalan!

Kasdalan: The Secret History of Lady Poe and Zam Redar

Source!

Lost Tales: Kal Vassos, Zam Redar, and of the rise of Lady Poe


This backstory helped to explain how Lady Poe came into power, what her curious connection is with Chirak's most famous villain, and also served to outline the events which had a major impact on 2010's lengthy time travel campaign.
Once, centuries ago, Kal and Zam were young wizard apprentices studying under the tutelage of a now long-dead but great man named Tykarnias. Tykarnias was a rebellious soul himself, and he was perhaps overly permissive of his adopted sons and apprentices, letting them delve in to mysteries and magic perhaps best left untouched.

Kal and Zam were both orphans at a young age. Kal was an infant child found abandoned in the Mythric Isles by Tykarnias towards the end of his adventuring days. When discovered, he was preserved, seemingly perfectly, in a time-distortion bubble. Tykarnias deduced that Kal was, in fact, a child of true Mythric blood, and that he had been saved from death as a last act of defiance by his parents, using a time-displacement spell. Tykarnias in interacting with the bubble ended the spell, releasing the young child to a world far removed from his own time.

Zam Redar was the son of a chieftain who ruled a clan of loggers along the Legoran coast, and by the age of three he displayed profound natural powers of sorcery. Tykarnias found the child two months after his expedition to the Mythric Isles, while moving along the coast of Legora in search of a famous ruin. The village in which Zam was found had been razed to the ground in an attack by Blood-Drencher clan orcs, and all of the villagers had been slaughtered. Curiously, Zam was unharmed, but a hundred and more orcs around him had all been slain. There was a unique anima radiating an aura of dark magic around the child, and Tykarnias could sense a true sorcerer’s blood within the child. He adopted Zam as well, and named him after the chieftain of the village, whom he had known before in life on previous visits, for the child, bore the marks of leadership. In later years Tykarnias would learn that the chieftain’s wife had encountered a dark force within the woods of Legora, and that this entity had manifested as a black knight with whom she had frequent relations, until she became pregnant. Such was Zam Redar’s origins, though they were not to be known until much later.

Both children, in time, proved to be uniquely gifted in the magical arts, albeit in two different manners. Zam Redar’s perpetual anima seemed steeped in dark sorcery, which flowed naturally through the child’s blood. Kal Vassos was born in to natural power as well, and had about him an aspect of invocation, coupled with a natural penchant for wizardly lore. Tykarnios could not have been luckier to have two such gifted apprentices, though in time they taxed even his ability to keep up.

Tykarnios dwelled in a remote keep along the borders of what are now Mercurios and Nubirion, where he traded with all folks of the time. In his day Mercurios was a province of the Pellucid Empire, and Nubirion was a wild, untamed land with only the mysteries of the Yellow City to penetrate its vastness. The region was rife with ancient magic, a legacy of the cataclysm, and Tykarnios relished his studies in such. He was no arcanist, but his methods would not have been approved by the budding order of the Preservationists in far Eristantopolis.

The boys grew up under the tutelage of Tykarnios for magic, while their father’s retired adventuring ally, the Pellucid knight Morrick aided them in more physical arts, such as swordplay and horsemanship, neither of which were as good at such. Still, they did try. A third tutor, the elder priestess Nimrasa of southern Ur provided them with proper studies in religion and history. Nimrasa, though forbidden from marriage by her religion (for she was dedicated to the worship of Laddaskar) nonetheless was dedicated to Tykarnios and had stayed by his side for many decades. She had never borne children, and could not. The two adopted sons were a secret joy for her.

Life went well for this curious family of wizards and their adventuring allies who periodically visited. When the boys turned of age, they were tasked with journeying to the Pellucid Capitol, known even then as Mercurios. There, Tykarnios intended that they present themselves to the emperor, and that in turn they would dedicate themselves to him and his rule.



When Kal and Zam arrived, a journey in its own right for the two who had seen less of the world in person than in books, they did indeed present themselves to the service of the emperor, who was delighted to have the two sons of his valued ally and advisor as his new young agents. It was during this time that Zam Redar met the young Lady Erissa Poe, then princess of her father of Kasdalan, the King Gilharad Poe, who was negotiating a treaty with the Pellucids to insure peace and safe trade between their borders. Zam and Erissa became enamored with one another almost immediately, and did a terrible job of disguising their relationship. Indeed, not two weeks after the talks of treaty began, Gilharad left in anger when he learned of the tryst his daughter was having. The damage, however, had been done.

Kal Vassos remained loyal to the king, and petitioned Lord Kaledon himself for entrance in to his exclusive tutelage. He later went on to become the true advisor of the king when his father perished, and one day would be approached by the Order of the Chronomancers, who recognized his unique tether to the time stream, for entry in to their order.

Zam Redar, however, renounced his father’s name, and after being expelled from the courts of Pellucid in shame for his dalliance with Lady Poe, he set out on his own, to explore the world. He traveled for many years, and in his quests he discovered many powerful and ancient artifacts. Though none know for sure, Kal Vassos is certain that Zam was responsible for Tykarnios’s death, as Zam later showed he had acquired their father’s Robes of Wizardry, an artifact otherwise unattainable.

It was in the deep south of the Everdread Desert that Zam Redar found the Orb of Dragonkind, hidden in a ruined fortress where a last stand of the Betrayer Gods was made. Here he also met a powerful, ancient being named Skaddras, a Shadow Dragon which recognized Zam Redar for what he was: a Thousandspawn, a child of the chaos god Ga’Thon. This was revealed to Zam Redar, who upon discovering his nature, realized his true potential was as yet undiscovered…

Meanwhile, Lady Poe was the youngest child and only daughter of her father, Gilharad, and the Poe line had always been prolific, such that there were seven sons ahead of her who were destined to rule Kasdalan. It had always been a peculiar trait of Kasdalani blood that the women tended to have a strong talent for wizardry, and Erissa Poe was no exception. Her development of these talents was interrupted by the birth of her bastard child, a daughter she named Tyrea. Tyrea was unusual, and could speak as an adult by the age of one. Indeed, it seemed that Tyrea was a Thousandspawn, born of Zam Redar’s bloodline, and that unlike her father, she was fully aware of her nature from infancy. She told Lady Poe that she was destined for greatness, and that she would teach her how to manifest her destiny. Shortly after her child turned one year old, rumors of diablerie and witchcraft grew rampant, and Lady Poe was forced to flee with her daughter or be destroyed.

Ten years passed and in this time Zam Redar grew powerful, Kal Vassos joined the Chronomancers in studying the secrets of the time stream, and Lady Poe fled in to the swamps of Kasdalan, where she met the death cults of the Apocalypticists, who revered only the passing of the soul and the eternity of death. Each became important in a different fashion, and at last, after much time had passed, destinies once again converged.

Zam Redar, now powerful in a manner he had not previously imagined, sought out his true father, the Black Knight Voskos Redar of Legora. The two fought, for it difficult for Thousandspawn to tolerate one another. He nearly slew his father out of mere spite, choosing to steal most of his magical powers, instead. He then journeyed southward, after experiencing a sudden vision of Lady Poe, and remembering his lustful encounters with her.

When Zam Redar reached Kasdalan in the south, it was with a small army of draconian and mercenaries at his command. He quickly set about using his sorceries to depose and slay the elder Gilharad before the king even knew he was threatened, and then quickly invaded the land while its leadership was in disarray. Upon reaching the capitol, he declared that the rightful heir to the throne would be the first Kasdalani true blood to best him in combat.

One by one, the nobles, knights and princes of Kasdalan fought Zam Redar, each perishing against the man who wore chaos-inscribed armor, upon a steed that was at once horse-like and draconic. It was not until a sharp-eyed woman with raven black hair, now twenty five years of age with a young daughter at her side, that Zam Redar was fairly beaten. Matching sorcery for sorcery she soundly demolished his defenses and he immediately bowed before her, granting Lady Poe the rule of the kingdom. Lady Poe, knowing he had let her win, bade him to stay within Kasdalan, and be her captain of the armies. He consented.

Thus was born the reign of Lady Poe. In the decades to come, Kasdalan would be shaped as she desired, as she learned much from her captain and lover, as well as her half-god daughter. In time, her quiet, cautious ways coupled with her own profound instinct for magic allowed her to become more powerful than either Tyrea of Zam. Thanks in part to her participation in the death cult; she even learned the secret of conquering death.

Kasdalan grew powerful under the reign of Poe, and after a decade she consummated her well-known affair with Zam in marriage. She and Zam had several more daughters, and though it was never known if she had male children, most were sure any so born would be slain. Eventually, with seven strong daughters and her husband, it was decided that Kasdalan deserved to rule the world, and so the great and ancient war against Pellucid and the other neighbors of their kingdom began. Decades later, the Kasdalani would be the greatest nation in the world, having laid claim by force to more land than any post-cataclysmic realm. It was only hubris that laid low Zam and Poe, and their empire with them.

It began with Tyrea, the first daughter, who was loved by both, until the second daughter, and then the third, and so forth. Tyrea was jealous, and despite her vast knowledge and magic, she still had a child’s sense of emotion and jealousy. She attempted one day to slay her sisters in a fit of anger, and her parents ultimately banished her. She was sent to the far corners of Kasdalan, and locked in a tower protected by demons under Poe’s command. Poe had grown powerful, but feared her daughter, who had taught her so much.

Tyrea eventually grew wise when she realized her prison was too strong for her to escape, and she seduced the demon Mazradache that had been tasked as her jailer. She had a child of mixed demonic and divine blood. The girl she named Tythia, who grew to become a comely beauty. Tythia she raised carefully, grooming the child to insure the ultimate revenge against her parents, and eventually she sent her daughter forth in to the world, to play the role of a witch and lady knight in the service of Zam Redar’s conquering armies.

By this time, Zam Redar had spent forty years ravaging the land, and he had brought Pellucid to its knees. He had taken residence in his father’s now abandoned keep on the edge of Nubirion while he contemplated whether to move north or east with his armies, and it was then that he noticed Tythia, who had served loyally as a shield maiden in his army, and now commanded her own company of conscripts from the region. In turn, Tythia seduced him, and convinced him to journey eastward, toward the Sapphiritic Kingdoms in search of great wealth. In the midst of her seduction she spirited away the orb of Dragonkind, replacing it with a false artifact, as proof of the seduction.

With the betrayal complete, Tythia contacted her mother magically, and let her know that the deception was a success. Tyrea, in turn, arranged for word to get back to her mother, Lady Poe, that Zam Redar had betrayed her love. Though doubtful at first, Poe soon came to believe when Tyrea presented her with the Orb of Dragonkind. Enraged, it is said that Lady Poe banished the prison tower and its captor to the Far Realms.

Lady Poe, so enraged that she could not bear herself, quickly fell upon her old sense of retribution, which she had developed in the old days thanks to her father and brothers. She journeyed ahead of Zam Redar’s position and deep in to the Skeladani Lands, where she negotiated a treaty with the Skeledani in exchange for their loyalty. She then called upon the dragon lords using the orb, and negotiated with them a betrayal as well, and in exchange she promised to free them from the orb’s control. Lady Poe then arranged for an ambush of Zam Redar’s forces, once they were east of the Kyurtain Mountains and deep in to the journey eastward. She chose her three most loyal daughters with the greatest talent for magic, and when the time was right, they struck.

In the end, Zam Redar’s own legions were cast in to disarray, unwilling to fight against their queen, and Zam Redar was left to fend for himself with his most loyal legions and his dragons, who then turned upon him, and though his sorcery was enough to drive them back, it left him depleted and weak. It was then that Lady Poe came upon him, weakened upon the battlefield, and promised him an end to this. She assaulted him, as did her daughters, with powerful magic, until Zam Redar was spent and unconscious. They placed him in an ancient sarcophagus, said to have held the body of a lost god. This container was made of primordial material that resisted magic, and Poe bound it with even stronger chains and spells. As she placed him in the sarcophagus, she reached out and ripped from him the anima which had been with him since childhood, and bundled it in to her womb with dark sorcery.

In to this coffin she cast the Orb of Dragonkind and his other artifacts, to keep her promise to the dragons. She then carried the sarcophagus southward, to the Dreaming Plains, where she called up one of the ancient Great Wyrms of the earth, and used her magic to force the worm to swallow the coffin whole. The ancient earth lord then returned to the bowels of the earth, not to be seen again for several centuries. So ended the first reign of Zam Redar.

When Lady Poe was done with her vengeance, she realized that the mistress of her husband, Tythia, had fled. She looked among her most vile knights and agents, and found the undying elf Orgain, whom she sent to find and destroy the woman, lest she cause more trouble for her grandmother in the future.

Lady Poe went on to rule Kasdalan to the present day, and she gave birth to several more daughters, twelve in all, using the anima of chaotic energy that she stole from Zam Redar. She was so bitter about the experience, that she declared that no males in her kingdom would be allowed to be born who displayed sorcerous talent, and such would be put to death. She made the death cult the state religion, and dispersed the armies of Zam Redar’s reign, caring not to rule so vast an empire, and seeing dissent fomenting in every corner of the empire. In time, Kasdalan’s borders shrunk to what they are today, and new kingdoms arose from the ashes of Old Pellucid.

Next: A Map of Kasdalan

Kasdalan: Where the Dark Queen Won

This week I start a new and updated gazetteer entry from the actual Realms of Chirak, outlining the dark and twisted politics and history of Kasdalan. I will include the material available on Kasdalan from "The Realms of Chirak" as well as additional data sinced revealed. All of this will make it into the RoC revision to eventually be released for Legend and Pathfinder in two separate editions, some day.
Part I: Kasdalan: An Introduction

(From The Realms of Chirak, Chapter V)
Southern kingdom of Old Pellucid ruled by the Necromancer Queen

Cultural Level: steel age-renaissance
Population: Perhaps 2 million of the living, and at least as many undead some suspect
Government: Imperial dynasty
Rulers: Lady Poe is and for as far back as the history books say, always was empress.
Religions: Lady Poe permits no worship save perhaps to Ga’Thon or Shaligon.
Social Titles: thralls, peasants, barons, lesser lords, overlords, necromancer lords, generals.
Coinage: The copper sun, silver moon, gold crown, platinum royal.
Allies: Kasdalan has a loose alliance with Dragos.
Enemies: Kasdalan has been a thorn in the side of all Pellucid lands since the old empire fell. Mercurios and Correnstal are enemies, as is Pelaeus and the Skeledani nomads in the south east.

The Kasdalani Empire in the Deep South is a powerful nation ruled by a Necromantic cult, at the head of which is the ancient Sorceress called Lady Erissa Poe. Poe enforces her rule with her many sorcerously gifted children, and controls her mages though the promise of necromantic immortality. This is a dangerous place to live in, heavily oppressed and ready for war against hostile and fearful neighbors.

Lady Poe is said to have twelve daughters, possibly more, all spawned from strange rites and consummated by lovers both undead and soon to be found dead afterwards. The most legendary of Lady Poe’s ex's is Zam Redar, a Thousandspawn whom she married and manipulated in to leading a vast army many centuries ago to conquer and unite the old Pellucid Empire and beyond. When Zam Redar threatened her power, Lady Poe took the immortal godspawn and cast him down the gullet of an immense desert worm.

Lady Poe herself will tolerate no male suitor to the throne, nor will she allow a son to be birthed; she has used her magic, if necessary, to alter the sex of the child in the womb, or killed it on birth if necessary.

In a feud with the avatar Mardieur Mardieux, Poe lost many of her children in conflict; the minotaur who sought the path of Akquinarios took a certain pleasure in dispatching her agents and her daughters when traveling through her lands, and thwarting her necromantic schemes against Mercurios in the north.

Poe has one known daughter who has recoiled from her mother’s ways and (while still pursuing necromancy) seeks a way to atone for her family. This daughter is named Arvyllia Poe, and she travels with the rough Company of Khorst in the Syrgian lands to the far north. She also has a daughter in exile who is overly ambitious; Ennata Poe has expressed a deep and abiding interest in usurping her mother's power and taking it to the unnatural limit of evil.

Poe rules from Mordren, the capitol of her domain around the black waters of Lake Astrahar. Her chief general, Lord Cervicus, stands ready to engage in conquest or defense in the fabled Bastion of Castle Lost. Other prominent cities along the lake include Polahar, Tursos, and Pitch. South of the lake is the great swamp, in which the dreaded City of Skulls, an ancient college of necromancy, can be found. It is said that the first Dragosian necromancers fled from this city two centuries ago to start their own kingdom, and have feared to look back upon the region ever since, knowing what terrors can be found within. Rumors abound that the legendary Tomb of Horrors can be found deep within the great swamp.

Kasdalan may be so blighted because it rests in a region which was profoundly affected by Shaligon during the apocalypse, and some claim that the throne of the old empire from which Shaligon was most venerated could be found in the region. Beyond Kasdalan in the utter south lies a no man’s land which stretches in to territories feared by all, including the Weeping Lands, the Dreaming Plains, and the Dark Empire of the Seeping God.

Source

Next: The Secret history of Lady Poe and Zam Redar