Kingmakers and Godslayers: Introduction

Four score years ago, the Roeblini Armada lay siege across the Forest Sea to the Empire of the Godslayers. Under the eternal bloody twilight of the great Southern imperium, the barbaric raiders and the decadent savages made war. In the end the Roeblini were victorious casting down the ancient emperor and destroying the capitol seat. In its stead rose New Roeblini City which soon became a thriving port and trade center.
The city is the centerpiece of a long curved belt of smaller outposts that stretch along the coast. New Roeblini City is a series of small islands nestled within a crater half open to the sea. Towering waterfalls falling from the forested cliffs feed the brackish but murderous currents of the city's shallow harbor. South of the ribbon-like nation is a great verdant rainforest that has swallowed, over centuries, the Godslayer Imperium. Throughout these jungles live great lizards some of whom have been turned to beasts of burden or war, and some too rapacious but to be attacked on sight. The landscape is dotted with active volcanoes heating the humid air far more than the tepid light of the waning Southern sun. Many blame the salt and wet for turning copper roof's green and tarnishing gold to black, but oldings say each year the decay seems to accelerate. All will admit that more and more of the walking dead have been seen in the last five years than ever before, although most would agree that the rapidly expanding population is disturbing more and more secreted Imperial tombs. Everyday the population of this booming nation grows both from natural production and immigration. Everyday prosperity abounds.
New Roeblini is the new homeland of this formerly nomadic nation. It is governed by an elected chieftain and two houses of representation. The first is the House of Heroes whose members are selected by their deeds of renown and service to the nation. Their opposition is the House of Merchants whose members are selected by monetary bids for seats. The two houses select candidates for the position of Chieftain who is then elected by the common populace and serves until they resign or die, currently this is Lady Andova, a merchant-magi who has served for the last 12 years. Laws and taxation are prepared by one house and voted upon by the other. In all other matters of policy the chieftain serves as absolute ruler.
Many leagues to the southeast lies the Draconic Confederacy politically silent and diplomatically neutral. The Tunnelweb of the Dwarves now reaches the distant coast of New Roeblini, although careful tariffs have kept the stout folk from completely monopolizing trade. The Feywild kisses reality from sea and sky. During mysterious solstices and equinoxes the jade waves of the Forest Sea become the rippling canopy of the Elven Homeland. Far to the north under the crisp light of the Young Sun, the Eladrin Realm winks in and out of existence atop the clouds.
Welcome to Kingmakers and Godslayers, do you have what it takes to one day rule this land?

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The Last City

The Last City is a vast and motley collection of dark gray stone buildings, manors, merchant halls, arenas, libraries, homes, and warehouses that sits on the End of the World Sea. The Last City has no graveyards, no mausoleums, and no way to keep the dead. The answer to this mystery is simple, because the Last City is the final mortal transit point for the deceased. The citizens of Last trade with denizens of the eternal resting places of the deceased, conveying their remains on the last step on the prime material plane and in return receiving the substance of magic, arcanium. The deceased are brought by caravan or floating down the river of Yuvrass. Those unwanted by the higher and lower planes are made undead by the Undead Clans, the bodies too broken to be used as thralls become part of the obscene Wall of Living Bones protecting the city. Meanwhile merchants, wizards, sorcerors, and artificers trade arcanium for their purposes, powering their own magiks and rejuvenating the magikal fonts of the world. Great spells and fantastic devices spring from the works of Last.

Despite the brisk trade and prosperity all is not quiet within and surrounding Last. Many factions vie for control of the soultrade and its arcanium riches. The schools of magik desire their own regulation of the mystical economy. The Sorceror's League insists their addiction to arcanium gives them rights to the trade. The Undead Clan increasingly tries to expand its "stock" while the churches of various deities alternate in their vilification of the Last City's business practices. Outside the gates of the Wall of Living Bones, the Luminant King increasingly provocative gestures of war upon the Last City. Occasionally the detente of the the upper and lower planes flares on the crooked streets of Last. Four moons ago a great, hulking metal war golem, scarred and smoking, came blazing through the transit gate for the nether hells only to sink in the End of the World Sea it's fate unknown its origin unclear.

Player characters are citizens of Last, making their life there as agents of one of groups within (or outside) the strange city. They will explore her mysteries and seek to wrest control of her amazing resources.

Mindsgate: Introduction

Many years ago the Empire of Mellas was faced by devastation and collapse, enemies both internal and external worried its borders with war, ravaged the city-states deep within its territories, and allowed monstrous denizens to maraud its lands. The good but young Emperor was beside himself and knew not what to do, until one day a bent cloaked figure was admitted to the Imperial court. The mysterious being told the king that it had a gift that would rid the Empire of its woes, but only one of the ancient blood of Mellas could use it to do so. With that it drew out a large sepulcher black opal, the Midnight’s Hunger. The Emperor was greatly intrigued and asked that this gift be bestowed on him. The cowled enigma responded saying that although the Midnight’s Hunger was a great and powerful gift, these powers came at great cost to the wielder: The Midnight’s Hunger could consume the evils of the land, but these evils would be trapped in the heart of the Emperor. Despite his loyal council’s dismay how little was known about the gift or the giver, the desperate Emperor said he would accept the gift.
The stooped shadow mounted the stairs growing taller and more menacing as it approached the Emperor the Midnight’s Hunger thrust before it in a claw-like hand. Now towering over the Emperor, it retracted its hand and then plunged the ebon gem deep into the Emperor’s left eye. With an unearthly scream the Emperor fell, clutching his eye from which a foul ember smoldered to the accompaniment of the cloaked figures cackles of mad glee. The Emperor’s bodyguards struck the figure down, only to find the remnants of a dark and tattered cloak on their blades. The Emperor lay pale and senseless on the ornate floor, bloody tears falling from under his quivering lids.
The Emperor was brought to the Imperial chambers where he lay senseless and feverish for many days. Finally, the Imperial Magus, Daerrus, and the Imperial chirgeons could wait no longer declaring they would examine the left eye of the Emperor entered his chambers and were never seen again. The Imperial Vice-Magus, Hasjan, sealed the Emperor’s left eye with spells and instructed the new physicians to tend their liege with care. For many weeks, the Emperor was delirious but with time came healing. Finally, he rose from his sickbed, pale and worn but ready to face the invasion by a small goblin kingdom to the North.
Riding to the North, the Emperor surveyed the goblin encampment pried off his eye patch, and the despicable horde vanished in a maelstrom within his left eye. With time more enemies fell to the Emperor’s dark devouring eye; the wyrm Grimspyne among others, the Sprayspawn barbarians and brethren tribes, the rebel lord Nolduran and his allies, as well as other criminals both enemies of state and ordinary murderers, thugs, and the like. Peace began to return to the Empire of Mellas as disquiet was sown in the mind of its Emperor.
Ever since receiving the “gift” of the Midnight’s Hunger the Emperor had increasingly intense and frequent headaches along with dark visions. His mood changed along with the fading joy and prosperity of the Empire. Now the source of the Empire’s despair came not from without but from the Mellian Throne itself in the form of increasingly heavier taxation, foul edicts, and brutal reprisals to perceived threats. Increasingly the disintegrating gaze of the Emperor was cast upon the unjustly accused. The Emperor was rumored to be mad.
Meanwhile Hasjan had been questing the Empire and beyond, gathering lore about the Midnight’s Hunger. What he revealed horrified him, the Midnight’s Hunger was not simply a magical pearl but the bitter, pitch black heart of the demon prince, Naberaxus. The Empire of Mellas had been established by a pact with this very demon but the Emperor’s ancestor had tricked Naberaxus and slain him. With his dying breath the demon had cursed his own heart to be used as a weapon against the Mellian Throne. The demon’s vile essence had survived within that opal prison for millennia. Naberaxus’ vile heart would devour the Empire at the willing hand of it’s own Emperor. Hasjan returned to the Mellian Throne only to provoke the wrath of the Emperor with this grave news. The Emperor tore his eye patch from his face, but before he could cast his ravenous orb on his faithful wizard, the Emperor’s sister, Larassa, leapt between the two and was consumed.
The Emperor went near mad with grief but felt his control over the essence of Naberaxus slipping further along with a shattering pain within his skull. A pain that he could only relieve by opening his left eye and absorbing more lives within its dusky confines. Hasjan knew not how to remove the Midnight’s Hunger but devised a plan to split the essence of Naberaxus that rode the Emperor’s shoulders and store it within several loyal retainers of the Emperor.
As Hasjan placed the arcane mirror before the Emperor and his valiant vassals to perform the ritual that would split the essence of Naberaxus, the demon prince struck, forcing the hungry eye of the Emperor to open…

The Elfdrown Sea

Many centuries ago the elven empire of Tasehaleen ruled the known world.  The elves of Tasehaleen were the masters of war, magic, and science.  Their power was great and their pride greater.  In the end this arrogance angered the gods who sunk their beautiful empire beneath the waves, forming the Elfdrown Sea.  The Elfdrown Sea is a great shallow, calm crystal sea dotted with numerous treacherous snags, reefs and small islands.  Like great teeth, granite mountains ring the sea.  The Elfdrown Sea is a treacherous water but with many rewards.   The waters are shallow enough that divers can easily reach the bottom and retrieve elfgold and arcane treasures, if they survive the horrid abominations that make the Elfdrown their home and the frequent witchstorms, fierce magical tempests that rage briefly and disappear as quickly as they came.   It is also rumored that some of the islands are clumps of petrified trees or buildings and serve as entrances to a great dungeon beneath the waves.  In addition, rumors abound of pirates and other cutthroats using the small islands as bases or even creatures making them their homes.  All elves feel a great melancholy upon these waters and no sea elf lives within the Teeth of the Elfdrown.

Noloc Maps is a cartographer of some note and greater greed.   In an effort to reap even more bounty from the Elfdrown he has planned the single greatest cartographic project of the Elfdrown Sea.  Noloc plans to create a series of maps detailing the thousands of islands, snags and reefs of the Elfdrown Sea, as well as density maps of witchstorms and the foul creatures that make these cursed water's their home.  To this end he has hired the PCs to serve as explorers, sailors, cartographers, etc. aboard his ship the Wayseeker.  The adventurers will start on the Wayseeker after several days travel upon the Elfdrown Sea.  So far you have noticed several things:

• Sound does NOT travel very far over the waters of the Elfdrown Sea the whole area seems muted or muffled.
 

• Magic is usually "well-behaved" but seems to be the catalyst for a witchstorm.  Woe to spell-caster who uses magic during a witchstorm.  However it seems to take 2-4 days before a witchstorm can occur again within a certain area.

• Even though the waters are usually crystal clear, threatening creatures seem to appear out of nowhere. Glass sharks here are fast, big, and blend almost seemlessly with the sea floor.  The great rager crabs are belligerent and very territorial.   The only welcome creatures have been the locathahs who like exchanging fish for small trinkets and saved a man from drowning.