Pelegar: The Ruins of Vornzak and the Mad King Amessus

This was the second part of my "Fall of Pelegar" campaign, though in terms of player focus it became the subject of the first area they explored. Many of the plot elements lurk in wait now for a future reboot as I burned out on Pathfinder before this one got properly resolved, and switched to 13th Age and a different setting. The campaign itself has a lot of potential, and will definitely be back for 5E however.

Lady Arondola

The Fall of Pelegar campaign

Plot #2: The Ruins of Vornzak and the Mad King Amessus

Six hundred years ago Pelegar had a firm ruler who held all the city states under his control. It is said that King Amessus was a storm and fair ruler….for a time. But it is also said that he gained the power to control the land from a dark pact of understanding from nightmarish immortals who visited him in his sleep. Sent my Molabal, these demons convinced Amessus to become increasingly cruel and depraved, and his pinnacle of vileness was when he forged his highmountain palace retreat called Vornzak. Terrible atrocities were committed there, all in the name of diablerie. Many stories are told about the mad king to this day, including how in the end he was driven to sacrifice his entire family and all who lived in the city to these nightmare demons in a day and night of bloody slaughter.

Vornzak rests to this day on the high peak overlooking the gloom-ridden walls of Valen, with its vast defensive walls stretching over nearly twenty miles of valley in the high mountains. Vornzak is noted for the great arch, with ancient Inadasir inscriptions upon it which marks the entry to the crumbling palace. Some say that any who pass beneath the arch will be cursed to death…

The Secret Truth

Amessus was power-hungry, and regularly engaged in séances with the dead of the land of Pelegar to seek out power and lore. He mined the region where he built his palace retreat for ancient artifacts, finding a plethora of Inadasir relics from a lost era. He consorted with nightmarish spirits of the dream world, astral beings which included Vorsag-Null. Unable to experience the mortal plane any longer these nightmare beings prompted the willing king to commit carnal…and charnel…acts that they might experience such sensations once more, if only briefly and at a distance. In exchange they told him secrets, and sometimes where to find lost artifacts and lore.

Amessus was fine until he met his wife, the lady Arondola, a Helian woman from the south of great beauty and mystery, allegedly the youngest daughter of the Helian Pharaoh at that time. Unknown to him this was only half true; she was adopted, under mysterious circumstances….for she was in fact a natural thousandspawn.

With Arondola’s prompting Amessus delved deep into forbidden lore, learning the secret of bonding demonic spirits to mortal flesh. He sought a means of opening forbidden portals to other worlds, including the Abyssal Rift and Perdition itself, even the forbidden lands of the Thirteenth Planet itself. He pulled from these realms even darker secrets, though sometimes at great sacrifice.

It was on the eve of his greatest discovery: the Tempest of Malador, an artifact of great power and chaos from Perdition itself that he pulled into his realm that Amessus had his fall. The night he pulled the artifact into his palace it activated, bonding alchemically the spirits which haunted him to the flesh of the family and servants of his palace. In a terrible rush these bonded demons slaughtered all others who came before them, and assaulted the city of Valen itself. The following day, after the demons had fled into the darkness of the mountains, an army was forged by General Vetarus to hunt them down, and to bring the emperor and his wife to justice.

It is said that when Amessos was found he was already dead, but Vetarus himself knew better; dozens of the haunting demon-spirits had bound themselves to the king, who was a grotesque monstrosity at this point, an amalgamation of foul beings tethered to his flesh. The general herded him deep into the dungeons beneath the palace and collapsed the entrance.

Queen Arondola’s fate was bloody but swift. Her form unblemished by corruption or possession, she was marked a witch and hauled to the city of Valen for trial. At the gates of the city as she passed beneath the archway Gloom descended, eviscerating her in one swift blow. As a thousandspawn her divine spark fled, migrating to whatever unknown souls would serve as its new habitation….but the queen was dead.

The Ruins Today

Arcanists led by Zhomas the Irredeemable, who has recovered from prior engagements some six years ago during his encounter with the avatar Mardieur, has begun a restoration operation in the high mountains to uncover the secrets of the old king. He has been paying for protection from the gnoll tribe of Giskos, which themselves have a somewhat vested interest in uncovering old relics in the name of their dark cult of Vorsag-Null.  Zhomas is working with two other agents of the Arcanists now: Sutra Leveros, an Abraheilite Samsaran magus and Kaladan Amoros, a local human mage of Pelegar who survived his family’s execution in Vanholm during the uprising. Serving as liaison to the gnolls they have employed is the toadie troglodyte Satropus. Together they have been uncovering the lost wealth of the old king, including hundreds of still magical Inadasir artifacts. They have also found the entrance to the old king’s dungeon-tomb…

The Plot

Amessus has long ago lost any true memory of what it was to be a normal human. He is now a mass of different minds and bodies jammed into one fluid form. He is desperate to serve Vorsag-Null, who calls to him constantly….but he does not understand why. The truth is that he contains a fragment of Vorsag-Null’s astral form, one shred of the demon lord which among many others harried him in his mortal years. Vorsag-Null needs that shred of his astral self to complete his own spirit, and so he needs Amessus to either give it up, or for his minions to slay the monster so that the astral shred may escape and return to the rest.

Rivals

Zhomas is not the only arcanist group interested in the ruins. A group of Sabiri bandits and “merchants” have been raiding the ruins for nearly a year now to move the artifacts to dealers in the east. They are led by one mage named Suvaian, who himself is an Arcanist and loyalist to Lord Shattarav Oldaran of Westgate. He works with his two younger brothers and his wife, the former Shumariin assassin Suladiri, who is a master of chain fighting. She has two apprentices studying under her. They are hauling artifacts to Fartheren…and even to Westgate, for sale to the eastern kingdoms of the Sea of Chirak.

Tales of the Cannadad Dei: Hnaka Warrior Women

Orders, Cults and Secret Societies of the Sabiri


The Sabiri are like any other civilization, and must have their special secret societies and closed groups. Unlike many other lands, the sabiri have some unusual influences to this effect, including the revived demon cults of the Kadelans, the religious cults of the enigmatic Kobal and Amorgas (which are worshipped solely in this region) and the many unusual martial orders that cater to unique characteristics of the local culture and its unusual gender divisions. Each of the key groups and their influence in the land shall be addressed below.

Hnaka Warrior Women

The hnaka (hih-naka, which means horse slayers) are small sects of warrior women scattered throughout the many tribes of Sabiri. The hnaka rite of passage is a special ritual that women who chose to eschew their traditional roles may attempt to pass. The ritual is a grueling quest to prove one’s worth as a true warrior, and is meant to frighten away would-be initiates who haven’t the strength or fortitude necessary to survive in the demanding roles of a hardened warrior cult.

Hnaka who pass the test are indoctrinated in to a curious new society, one in which they are expected to dress and act like a man, and to even adopt male roles of sexual dominance. In the southlands a few extremist tribes near the border to Helios are known to undergo rites of genital mutilation. A handful of hnaka refrain from all sexual relations and choose a path of celibacy.

Tribes which have a sect of hnaka amongst their number treat the women of this group as if they were men in almost all other ways save for ownership of horses (indeed they are forbidden from ownership of horses). The men in turn treat them in kind, and grant them all of the rights and status of male warriors. This means, in theory, that hnaka can even take husbands—or wives—as if they were men. A hnaka who chooses men as husbands in this manner does have some restrictions: the men must be foreigners, slaves, or captured in battle from enemy tribes. It is extremely rare for a hnaka to take on a voluntary warrior mate of a friendly tribe voluntarily, for it still means a loss of status for the man.

Hnaka in battle show the uncharacteristic unity of their kind. If a dozen tribes gather on the fields of battle to face off against another dozen, the hnaka sects amongst each friendly tribe will gather together as one and work as a united company. No one questions this, and the hnaka usually choose one chieftain among the tribal leaders to answer directly to, though the exact process by which they make this decision is enigmatic. The hnaka do seem to have some sort of internal ranking system, but exactly how the pecking order is established is unknown.

Hnaka in battle are distinguished for being ground troops. As a unit the hnaka are infamous for their ruthless and deadly efficiency at dealing with mounted warriors on foot. Their ability to bring down both horse and rider is how they attained their name.

New Feat: Hnaka Celibate


Prerequisites: Hnaka Warrior Maiden background, female, celibate

Effect: A small number of Hnaka warrior women believe that sexual energy depletes their warrior’s prowess. By restraining from sexual contact these women are perceived as achieving greater skill in battle.

A celibate Hnaka warrior woman who remains so gains a special property: she may expend a hero point as a swift action to gain one of two benefits (chosen when the point is spent): she may gain a bonus to all attack and damage rolls equal to her level for a number of rounds equal to her Chrisma modifier (minimum 1 round) until the end of the encounter or she may recover a depleted spell slot. Should she ever break her oath of celibacy, she loses this feat immediately and must replace it with a different feat.

Warrior women who were not virginal before taking this oath may subsequently take it and be eligibile for the feat, but they must also subject themselves to a process of ritual purification during which they prove their worth by abstaining from sexual congress for a year, first.

(Notes: First, one might be forgiven for thinking that I devised Sabiri female warrior cults with all their tattoos and leather specifically to have an excuse to use Royo's warrior women illustrations in my campaigns. Second, this is technically as far as I've gotten with "ready to release" content in the Sabiri line, but I hope to get more material done soon....maybe even by the time this edition of Tales rolls around (I've preprogrammed a bit of it so I have a couple weeks...)

Tales of the Cannadad Dei: Culture of the Sabiri

The Culture of the Sabiri I: Appearance and Horses


The Sabiri are really three distinct cultural groups: The Madalians of the north, the Sendenar of the coast and the Sabiri nomads of the mainland. There is a fourth group, rarely identified as such but still worth mentioning, in the form of the Eredites of the Jagged Coast. Details on the other subcultures of the Sabiri will be discussed in turn, but the overview of the nomadic culture shall be looked at here.

Appearance

All Sabiri are known for their distinct, almost eerie skin tone. Best described as “chalk white,” Sabiri have a sin coloration that is variably whitish or grey, and foreigners who first meet a Sabiri often believe them to be ritually painted at first. The Sabiri accent their skin with sacred tattoos, usually favoring stark black lines over colors, which further accents the grey-white of their skin. Despite their unusual appearance, Sabiri are otherwise completely human.

Horses and the Sabiri

The Sabiri are a nomadic culture. They thrive on being in a state of perpetual motion, maintaining an unhealthy obsession on transience. To the Sabiri, the sedentary life is something one assumes when death has at last come to claim its due.

Horses are extremely important to the Sabiri, though unlike other nomadic cultures in Chirak (or even the local orcs) the Sabiri regard horses merely as equals, as beings of flesh and blood that you can tame and befriend. Most Sabiri treat their horses better than their own kin. A well-kept and trained horse will see you through many conflicts; relative, maybe not so much.

Every Sabiri learns to ride the horse at a young age, and is exceptionally proficient in the art of mounted combat by puberty. Women and men alike excel at this task, though the women are generally expected to take up more supportive roles after puberty and to rely on their horses for tasks more mundane than battle.

Horses in the Sabiri lands are strong, robust animals, some of the largest breeds in all of Chirak a Sabiri steed is noted for its black coat, though some spotted black and gray variants exist, as do pure gray horses. As many horses as Sabiri wander the land, perhaps more, for there is a healthy number of wild horses that roam the region as well. Some Sabiri men find it a challenge to capture and tame a wild horse, but others consider it folly; most Sabiri raise their mount from the time it is a foal, to develop a close rapport with their steed.

Because of this attachment, Sabiri characters should begin play with a horse, one which they have spent most of their puberty riding and learning to trust. Female Sabiri do not develop as close a bond to their horses, though they sometimes develop close bonds with multiple pack horses.

Selling a horse is considered a serious offense in Sabiri culture. A horse that has grown too old to be of much use is retired to the ranks of the pack horses and tended by the women. A horse which is too frail even for that duty is still cared for until death, or until they are forced to put it down.

Next: Dress and Garb

Tales of the Cannadad Dei: Geography of Sabiri

Geography of Sabiri

Sabiri’s geography is best summed up as vast region of rolling hills and plains, with grass and scrub as far as the eye can see. This is not far from the truth; you do not even begin to see dotted groves of squat trees until you are far to the north, and the entire region seems to have been totally overrun by thick brush.

Navigating this land can be more difficult than it looks. An accomplished rider can maneuver quite well, and the Sabiri themselves learn to master the best paths and places of passage while avoiding the rockier and more overgrown regions. The land is also laden with small natural lakes that are actually cisterns and basins where run-off from the frequent storms collects. Thanks to a wide open swathe of coastland along the Sea of Chirak, a great deal of rainfall is funneled through to Sabiri. There is also the matter of Kobal, who generates a constant storm wherever he strides, but more about that shall be discussed later.

Although the land itself is quite stable, Sabiri experiences many earthquakes caused by the tumultuous volcanoes of the the Kossarit Mountains. It is not uncommon for vast swathes of volcanic ash to descend on the land for weeks or months as yet another volcano belches in to the sky in the West, occluding the sun from Sabiri for days, weeks or even months. There have been three major eruptions in the last century, and all have led to periods of strife and famine caused by the disrupted weather and the great ash clouds, so most natives of the region see volcanic activity and earthquakes as signs of ill omen and conflict.


 
Next: History of Sabiri

Tales of the Cannaded Dei: The People of Sabiri

The People of Sabiri

   There are three major population groups of humans in the region of Sabiri. The first group, after which the land is named, is the Sabiri proper. The second and third groups are derived from migrant and colonial populations that come from Grelmaine and Espanea.

Sabiri People

   The people of Sabiri are a unique offshoot of humanity that some scholars suggest are direct descendants of the Inadasir empire of old. As a people, Sabiri are unique in appearance, looking physically human but with distinct skin tones ranging from grey to chalk white. Although Sabiri seem to lack pigmentation common in other human racial groups they do not suffer from suburns and are most definitely not albinos. Almost all Sabiri have lustrous black hair and only a few have auburn or red hair; no one has ever seen a blonde Sabiri that wasn’t of mixed lineage. Their eyes tend to be steely grey and blue, but some women of sorcerous talent are born with compelling green eyes. Sabiri men who follow the ways of Vargre develop bright red and orange eye coloration.

The Gordoska

    Not all Sabiri are natives. In the last two centuries there have been efforts by the Grelmanics and Espaneans at colonizing the region. The people of Grelmaine long ago lost interest in what seemed to be a valueless landscape, but many coastal towns and a few inland communities can be found in the western region of Sabiri, where stout descendants of prior Grelmanic incursions eventually settled. These people call themselves Gordoska, after the Grelmanic word for “isolation.” The Gordoska take great pride in their meager lands and way of living, and are on generally friendly terms with the Sabiri people.

   Most Gordoskans retain the blonde and blue-eyed looks of their Grelmanic heritage, but an openness to the Sabiri has led to an influx in mixed-heritage children. After several generations, this has led to the largest population of chalk-skinned, blonde haired people in the region. Most Gordoskan half-breeds come from situations in which a Gordoskan man takes a Sabiri wife, usually in purchase from a Sabiri tribesman who has one too many, or perhaps a daughter deemed too sickly or weak to be marriageable to another Sabiri. Such women are sold for goods and valuables to Gordoskan men looking for the thrill of an exotic wife, and the beauty of the Sabiri women is quite famous in Grelmaine.

   Unfortunately Gordoskans are not the only Grelmanics to encroach on Sabiri lands. There are many slavers from this kingdom who seek to capture young Sabiri as well as the women to be sold in to slavery. Grelmanic law only proscribes citizenship and basic human rights to landed gentry in their own lands, and they view non-Grelmanics as having few or no rights. As such, trade in Sabiri flesh is a popular if dangerous pastime, for the Sabiri are so difficult to capture. They almost never take Sabiri men, who will fight to the death and are notoriously difficult to break in captivity.

Espanean Colonials

   About two centuries ago the first efforts at colonization of the Sabiri lands from Espanea were undertaken by an entrepreneurial governor named Lucas Fartheren. The long and tragic tale of Espanean conflict in Sabiri will be elaborated on later, but needless to say the Sabiri did not take kindly to foreigners from across the sea arriving and trying to enforce rulership over the landless natives.

  The Espanean colonial efforts were eventually deemed a failure, and the effort abandoned, but not before a fair number of would-be entrepreneurs and colonists had established themselves on Sabiri shores. In the end, the port of Westgate remained a viable city, serving as the center of trade between the distant kingdoms of the West and the land-locked nations of the Sea of Chirak.

   Deep inland along a natural reservoir stands Fartheren, named after its long-dead founder. Built atop the site of one of the ruins of the old kingdoms that preceded (and were destroyed by) the Sabiri nomads, Fartheren has become a hub of activity and one of several centralized gathering points for the nomads, where they can assemble to engage in seasonal trade and ritual activities. Fartheren has also become a center of religious activity for several regional cults, especially the nebulous fire cult of Vargre.

   Espaneans from these two cities are a hardy lot, descended from the pioneers who believed in governor Fartheren’s vision of an expansive Espanean Empire and those who came after. While some Espaneans have intermarried with the Sabiri and created distinct mixed ancestry in their kin, most surprisingly have not. The local Espaneans remain a largely cooperative but otherwise insular society in the region, developing their own local customs and mannerisms that work with their neighbors without giving up any of their own cultural identity.

     

Nonhumans in the Sabiri Lands

   There are as many nonhumans in the region as there are humans, some believe. It is certainly known that many orc tribes roam the lands as nomads, and that some centaurs and other demihumans can be found in the more remote regions of Sabiri. Although few elves are ever seen here, the Zamedian elves in the north around Madagar are most likely to be encountered in this region. A few races are completely absent from the region, found only as travelers passing through, including the smaller folk such as halfings, gnomes, goblins as well as larger monstrous kin such as minotaurs. It is believed that there were once a great race of local minotaurs with bison-like heads, but in various local tales it is believed that they were all slain by the last of their kind, the dreaded demiurge Kobal.

Ghuzdar’Shadoan Orcs

   The orcs of Sabiri are almost universally descended from the orcish tribes of the Kossarit Mountains. There are about two dozen known orc tribes, with such colorful tribal names as the Black Riders and the Storm Vipers. These orcs appear to have adopted their own identity from those of the mountains, and call themselves the Ghuzdar’Shadoan, which roughly translates in to the “War Riders of the Dark One,” the Dark One in that sentence being Shaligon.

   The Ghuzdar’Shadoan are friendly to none, although it is known they will on occasion trade amongst themselves or with the Helians in the south. A few of the orc tribes have taken goods and coin from Arcanists, members of whom have a strange interest in the fallen civilization from six centuries earlier.

   Physically these orcs look similar to the rest of their kind, but with slightly shorter builds to better accommodate riding horseback. Ghuzdar’Shadoan orcs hold a deep reverence for their horses, and appear to worship a dark spirit-lord which they call Gazdanak. Some have observed that this may be the same horse-spirit that the Hoagarit worship, across the Sea of Chirak along its eastern shores. This belief extends to a strange sort of animism, in which the orcs revere a variety of animal spirits, which they believe are in turn different aspects of their creator goddess, Shaligon.

Zamedian Elves

   The Zamedians are an expansive tribe, with small groups ranging from the northlands of Madagar and even in to Crystite, all the way south to the edge of Helios. Though they can be found throughout this region, they number fewer than five thousand, with most Zamedians dwelling in small groups of twenty to forty members.

   The Zamedians are not by nature nomads, but often live as such, migrating from one location to another, seeking out the same sacred spots where they will then settle for a few years before picking up again and moving on. Zamedians prefer to settle down whenever possible as they engage in a modest form of agriculture. They are also pastoral herders, and raise the butu, hardy goats native to the region. 

   They have a generally friendly relationship with the Sabiri, who see the Zamedians as a spirit race, something beyond mortal understanding. They also fear the Zamedians somewhat, for more than a few campfire tales of the Sabiri revolve around the passionate justice Zamedians are known for, as well as the terror a fallen Zamedian can cause when he or she returns as one of the undying.

Like many elvish tribes, the Zamedians have lost much of their old lore, though they have a rich heritage of local tales that go back at least one thousand years. They worship a variety of animal spirits, which they claim are local spirits who roam the Sabiri lands freely, and that the entire region is very close to the Spirit Lands. They revere no gods, and see the Sabiri demiurge Kobal as a blight upon the land and a cruel, genocidal killer of his own kind. Among the Zamedian tales is the implication that their ancestors were a part of the old kingdom that dominated the region, and that it was Kobal who was responsible for its downfall. The Arcanists and other scholars who have studied the region tend to believe there is more than a little truth to this, for ruins in the region clearly have a mixture of human and elvish influence.

Scarabanish Centaurs

   The Scarabanish are actually centaurs from the vast deserts of Helios who migrated northward over time and began to war with the Sabiri nomads, Ghuzdar’Shadoan and other natives in Sabiri. The Scarabanish are very warlike, and their culture is distinctly different from the more pacifistic centaurs to the east near the Everdread Desert.

   Stories suggest that the Scarabanish began their migration many centuries ago in distant Zann, where they were at last driven out by the local kingdoms. They migrated to Helios, where many centuries of warfare and conflict led them at last to being pushed out in the Sabiri. The Scarabanish have been here now for at least a century, and have proven a bane to all natives.

   Physically Scarabanish are like most centaurs, although they hold smaller equine bodies and human torsos to match, closer almost in size to ponies. This stunted size does not make them any less formidable, however, as they are extremely aggressive and rarely interested in talk.

   Player characters might find an opportunity to play a Scarabanish centaur that has been cast out from his own tribe due to some humiliating action, such as stealing another man’s wife, or slaying a rival caught unawares. Scarabanish prefer to cast out criminals and rejects rather than kill them; they prefer to keep their strength for killing the “two feets.”

Next: Geography of Sabiri