The World of Eave: Moonsilver

Moonsilver was a small town that lied among the Sea of Morning.  It grew into a great city of great beauty and artistic endeavors.  Then the great catastrophe happened and the great earthquakes shattered the world.  Even though the earthquake happened hundreds of miles away along the now Shattered Coast it basically devastated the Eavelan and Neferani Continents.  For centuries it barely survived as much of the city lie in ruins.  It was not until the formation of Nerath Empire that Moonsilver finally started to bloom again.

One of the many natural wonders that happened however was the formation of many of the earth motes that now float above the canyon that now makes up the city.  When the Sea of Morning sunk during the great earthquake, it left the earth motes there, floating there.  When Nearth came into powers all those centuries ago, Moonsilver started to regain much of the beauty it had.  It was in that point that a young priestess to Sehanine came into her own.  Suli Bryghton was a young priestess of Sehanine at the time Nerath was beginning to come into power.  Not much is known about her early life save for a couple of things.  She became a great champion of the people for one.  Two, she was never seen without her mask that she always wore.  In fact she never showed even a glimpse of her flesh.  There were stories and myths about that point alone.  She was there when the first stone was placed upon an earth mote for the Spires of the Moon, the temple to Sehanine alone.  She was there when she Red Dragon Vaulthemox was rampaging through the lands.  Suli was there when the frost giants of the Ironroot Mountains raided the lands.  She was named the High Diplomat of Nerath for her works in keeping the peace, even traveling to Imperial Chael'lut'theas, the main drow city on the Eavelan Continent to help them beat off an incursion from the Far Realms.   Suli was there for over three hundred years before she died in the fighting that hallmarked the end of Nerath some twenty years later.  Many of the priests and priestesses wear masks to honor her.  New Moons which wear no masks.  Crescent Moons which are a metal bands that frame the eyes and face.  Half-Moons which are eye masks.  Gibbous Moon that are masks that go down to the lips.  Full Moons which are the full face masks like that Suli wore.  Only the High Priest(ess) is allowed to where the Full Moon mask.

But you see, Suli is not dead, but secretly works behind the scenes.  Even after all these years, Suli is the power behind the throne.  While Kometsu Moonhair is the high priestess of the temple and Lord Severan Thunderhand is the mayor of the city, Suli is given free rein to do what must be done.  A hundred fifty odd years ago, she saw spiral that Nerath was going down in flames, she faked her own death.  In the hundred and fifty years she has worked tirelessly as she ever did when she was 'alive'.  Suli was   The reason she did not show her flesh was the fact that Suli parentage was rather suspect but no matter how she looked she was special to Sehanine.  Sehanine saw the coming chaos and charged Suli to watch over her temple and her people.

The current High Priestess of Kometsu Moonhair, an elven beauty in her own right.  She has been the High Priestess for the last fifty odd years.  She is one the few handful who now who Suli is as she was there when she died all those years go.  She was a neophyte cleric in the church at the time and Suli has watched over her all these years.  That is something that Suli does over the years, taken in people and watched over them.  Margo Trapman was a young lady who lived with her father in the underdark city if Ironfang.  When her father died, Suli took in the young girl and raised her as her own.  While not a devout worshipper of Sehanine, Margo is one of the top agents of Umbra.  Then there is Elomyria, the Sage of Moonsilver.  Elomyria is an adult silver dragon who is on the verge of being ancient.  She is a devout worshipper of Sehanine and one of Suli's closest friends.  She has known Suli for four-hundred years and they have seen each other though many ups and downs.  Elomyria is different from the other silver dragons, being smarter and more wise.  She has used the intelligence to outsmart her foes on more than one occasion.  She often takes the form of a beautiful woman of with pale flesh and dark hair with a tail and sweeping horns which curl up under her ears.  She almost looks like a pale tiefling.  She is known as the Sage of Moonsilver and she has been known to give advice and dispense sage wisdom.  Often she can be seen flying on the nights of the full moon with rider on her back.  It is one of the few times that Suli goes without her mask as they go to greet the full moon.

The City of Moonsilver is bisected by the Streel River that cuts deep into the earth.  Mighty magicks of the time of empires have left earth motes, huge rocks that remain flying throughout Moonsilver.  The largest on houses the Spires of the Moon and it lays some two-hundred feet above the Sea of Morning.  There are many bridges and few teleporters that go from mote to mote.  Some of the other notable building that lie upon the motes are inns Cock 'n Dagger and Sehanine's Rest.  As for taverns there is The Flying Swallow, The Dancing Maiden and The Bard Stop.  The Rookery is a home to a temple to the Raven Queen.  All in all there are over a hundred  motes that can house a city block to those small enough to house a small team of soldiers and a siege weapon such as a ballista or catapult.  Those not big enough to carry people aloft are often festooned with colorful pennants and banners. 

The Darvan Coaster in one of the oldest trade houses around.  They have representatives all over the eastern part of the Sea of Morning.   However, they are being seriously threatened by Vorkaan Trade House.  The Darvan Coaster is run by Avercoss Darvan, the great-great-grandson of the Darvan founder.  He is a handsome man of human and elven descent and is married to Sira Naikel of the Moonsword.  Sira is not her name but her title as part of the famed Knights of the Moon.  A half-elf woman, she was just named the Lady Commander of the unit which numbers 127.  They are brave men and woman of a variety of different classes that stand for justice in a chaotic world.  The Knights Hall is placed upon a mote that floats close to the Spires of the Moon and has a solid bridge that keeps it tethered to the south end.  The Vorkaan Trade House is a new comer to the western shores of the sea having dominated the rest of the Sea of Morning.  While the Darvan Coaster as only a handful of the flying ships, the Vorkaan Trade House has five times as many flying ships.  The docks for the flying ships are located on Relkifar's Point, a rocky promenade on the north shore of Moonsilver above the main docks for the seaborn ships.  Darvan Coaster retains its favored status in Moonsilver.

Beside the Knights of the Moon, Moonsilver does have an eclectic defense force and possess quite a few number of troops.  It is made up of small sea navy, as well as a sky navy.  Its ground army does not contain that many troops but what is lacks in number it makes up for the wide types of troops peppered with arcane casters and acolyte of Sehanine.  All and all the number of ground troops they have is barely a thousand.  The city guard numbers some five-hundred souls.  The person in charge of the armed forces is a man named Akelnan Ullar, an older, silver haired gentleman who is soon retiring.  Bokendur Ironhammer, a dwarf and his second in command is thought to be the logical successor. 

Other temples are the Halls of Knowledge (Ioun and Corellon), the House of Change (Avandra ad Melora), and the Forges of Civilization (Moradin and Erathis).

The World of Eave: Aquatic Mummies

AQUATIC MUMMY

The sea is a mysterious place and there are some sects of evil priests of the sea that use the bodies of dead sailors, fisherman or peoples taken in raids of coastal towns.  With a maw filled with shark like teeth they are hideously bloated with the seawater and are constantly dripping.  Their flesh is hard and shark-like and their eyes are unblinking and solid black like that of a shark.

By the Will of Sekolah. Aquatic Mummies were first created by the sahuagin by the priestess of Sekolah.  The secret to creating them has passed to other aquatic races and some coastal towns.  They are used to raid the coastal communities or to guard against such raids. 

Cavador. The ruins of Cavador in the south are the remains of great battle between two empires.  Ancient magicks and mighty armies were used to take the jungle city, but it was a natural disaster which brought the city low.  A powerful earthquake destroyed the coast, and brought destruction to many of the towns and cities.  The ancient magicks that were used cursed many of the inhabitants and eventually turning them into aquatic mummies.

Bloodthirsty. Aquatic mummies are very shark-like in their appearance and their actions.  When not commanded to guard something of import, they are often swimming along ripping and shredding their way through the local wildlife, hunting in the way sharks do.  However they do not eat what they kill and will leave what they slay behind them a in a bloody mess.  Usually sharks will follow them feasting upon the unlucky targets.

Undead Nature.  An aquatic mummy doesn't require air, food, drink, or sleep.

AQUATIC MUMMY

Medium undead, lawful evil

Armor Class 12 (natural armor)

Hit Points 58 (9d8 + 18)

Speed 20ft., swim 30ft.

STR 16 (+3)  DEX 10 (+0)  CON 15 (+2)  INT 6 (-2)  WIS 10 (+0)  CHA 12 (+1)

Saving Throws Wis +2

Damage Vulnerabilities: lightning

Damage Resistances: bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons

Damage Immunities: necrotic, poison

Condition Immunities: charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned

Senses: darkvision 60ft., passive Perception 10

Languages: does not speak but understand the languages it knew in life

Challenge 4 (1100P)

ACTIONS

Multiattack. The mummy can use its Drowning Glare and makes one attack with its bleeding bite.

Bleeding Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) slashing damage plus 10 (3d6) necrotic damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or be cursed with blood-in-the-water. The cursed target will continue to bleed and suffer 10 (3d6) necrotic damage for each round the creature fails the saving throw or a remove curse spell or other magic is cast upon them.

Drowning Glare. The mummy targets one creature it can see within 60 feet of it. If the target can see the mummy, it must succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw against this magic or start to drown, dropping to 0 hit points.  A creature that successfully passes a saving throw is immune to the gaze for 24 hours.  Creatures who can breathe underwater are immune to this effect.

The World of Eave: Nuulsav'dum, The City of the Dead

Nuul'vasdum was once one of the greatest of dwarven cities in ages past.  It survived the Dawn War, a bastion of good and set about rebuilding their part of the world.  However, it did not last.  It became to decadent, and like all great empires of the past, feel to its own hubris.  The last king thought that he could overcome death and become immortal like the gods he revered.  His actions proved the be the fatal pin in what was his house of cards.  King Kharak Aasulve the Battlehammer of Moridan, was the final king of Nuulvas'dum and in his final act of insanity, on his deathbed he enacted his final protocol and shut himself in his chamber with his clerics, mages and smiths.  What came out thirteen days later was a powerful mummy lord wrapping in metal bands of admantine and bronze.  Soon his city and all its great works were for naught as the massive deephold died from the civil war that erupted between the old king and the new.  King Kharak's own son Brendek the Bold lead the people in fighting his father.  For five years they battled for control of the deephold until Brendek was struck down by his own father.  The remaining dwarves fled Nuulvas'dum and the name became associated with death and a common curse among the dwarves.

Over the years the rift to negative plane grew and lessened, the undead became attracted to the dead dwarven deephold.  Among them was Erikol Wros, a lich of incredible power who had just lost his lair when it became overrun by adventurers.  He entered into a tentative alliance with the mad king.  They called forth all known allies and set to create a city of the dead.  They have started with Brendek himself created in the form of a deathknight to forever guard their city, becoming the Lord Commander of Army.  His will finally broke.  He is a sad dwarf making do the only way he can.  Secretly he is trying to break his curse, end his father's life and bring down Nuulvas'dum, erasing it from existence.

The roster has changed over the centuries since the founding the Dead City.  The King still rules and his son still commands the army.  Erikol still does his eternal research greatly increasing the size of the planar rift between the prime material and the negative plane.  An ancient vampire, Lord Akartrin has taken up the mantle of slaver.  He and his brides (of both male and female vampires) search for slaves far and wide to feed the eternal hunger, such as Erikol's phylactery.

A cabal of three necromancers have taken up residence here.  There is Olaf the Heartrender, an old man who is going crazy trying to become a lich himself.  Little does he know that Erikol is sabotaging his attempts because he does not like the old man, but he is a bit too powerful to take on directly.  It is mainly due to his main apprentice Guldram.  He is a tall and handsome man who is fast overtaking his master in skill and power  He is also a sadist of the first degree though one would not believe it for he is a charming man.  Then there is Chant Ramka, a tiefling woman who is very gaunt and very pale of skin and hair, and is as evil as they come.  She is no one's apprentice having to scrape for everything she ever had.  She escaped from the slave pits of the Emaan Empire when she was younger and despises the Empire.  She would like to burn the empire to the ground but settles (for now) to take any and all Emaan slaves that Lord Akartrin brings to Nuulvas'dum.

Skavasta is an ancient and malevolent wraith of great power.  He alone has retained a semblance of who he is and has peddled that knowledge into something greater in undeath.  He was a spy and now that he is a wraith he is master of secrets and the spymaster of the dread city.

It did not take long for the Cult of Orcus to open a church in Nuulvas'dum.  The current high priestess in charge is Peogli Rotworm.  She is a fat, corpulent woman who goes around being carried by a palanquin that is carried aloft by eight powerful zombies.  Fat, naked and gray of skin, she looks like Orcus when she wears her mighty head dress, a smaller form of Orcus anyway.  She is an ugly woman who still commands great respect.  It is the center of all worship of Orcus on two continents and aspirants make a pilgrimage there to the main church. 

The Bonecrafters are a guild of craftsmen who make beautiful, if not macabre, pieces of art out of the skin and bones of the dead.  Using the ancient mummification processes, they have even learned to harden the skin and bones to make armor and weapons.  There is a secret guild within a guild however as some of the Bonecrafters are also thieves of skill and daring.  The head  of the guild is a half-elf man by the named of Jolic the Wizened, so named for the his body is horribly withered due to the fact that he was caught by Erikol were he wasn’t supposed to be.  He wants to bring down Erikol and he has a plan to destroy the lich for good.  Jolic has been hidden away for years plotting his revenge.

One might think that it is a charnel house, that no one alive could live here.  The city is divided into three sections.  The lower city is home to low, living caste of workers and slaves.  It is home to the living.  The Bonecrafthers are here as are many of the slaves for sale.  There is the high city were the wealthy live.  The High Tabernacle of Orcus dots the peak and the screams and moans can be heard day and night from its halls.  Then there is the under city where most of the undead citizens live, out of the light of the sun.  The under city is the main dwarven city that lies within the mountain.  The King holds court here in a pageant of old, hoary times.  Many of the dead dwarves go through what they have done in life, endlessly mining or forging or clearing away rubble from collapses in the deephold.  All the while Erikol works on increasing the fissure to the negative plane and open a gate to the dead plane and cover the world in enteral darkness and despair.

The World of Eave: Emaan Empire

The Emaan Empire is ruled by Wilsam damEmaan, a strong man who inherited the position form his ailing father.   A twenty-year old Wilsam spent the next twenty years to create the Emaan Empire as it is known today.  He solidified his power base and through a series of brilliant military moves he now controlled much of the southern part of the continent.  With his wife's sister, he instituted a campaign against the tieflings and dragonborn saying that they are the cause of the world today.  The fiendish nature of the tieflings and the avaricious nature of the dragonborn spurred his early war efforts.  He has consolidated much of his power base militarily and commercially, as his people are already tried of the all-consuming war.  They don’t shy away from it though, especially if they are holding off against their many enemies, tieflings and dragonborn.  Wilsam has four wives, eleven children and two grandchildren.  Dela neeEmberhall damEmaan is the head wife and has born him five of children.  She is powerful coming from the Emberhall family and is a veteran of the court.  She does not let her anger show but remembers every slight.  Her oldest child Resen damEmaan, fast coming up in the Emaan military.  Wives two and three are a pair of twins, Maska and Miska neeJunial damEmaan.  Maska and Miska come from a family of Krusadi that emigrated here some years ago.  Being the second generation that have been born in the Emaan Empire, they are still look exotic to the Emaan eyes, even though they are fully Emaani in culture.  They have five children between them.  They have caught the eye of the Wilsam for their father is a very rich merchant that plies the waters between the Empire and Krusad.  That, and they do everything together.  The fourth wife is barely out of her teens.  Santra Latani was born of simple parents but now holds the title of Fourth Empress.  She is young  and looks at the court with innocent eyes.  She has born the Emperor one daughter.  There is a story told at court that she looks like the spitting image of Wilsam's first love who was killed before he even became the Emperor.

Wilsam is very careful in his expansion of the Empire.  He is currently easing his way up both the east and west parts of the coast.  Currently he is using the problems caused by goblins moving in on Copperwood.  Copperwood is fast becoming a possible warzone between the Emaan Empire and the Moonsilver Alliance.  There are many among the Alliance that are saying the goblins are moving north because of the Empire plundering their lands.  All in all, the Empire has landed troops in Copperwood and the Alliance has shipped troops south to the beleaguered town.  They are both staring each other down while waiting for the goblins to travel across the river that makes the border on the southern end of the town.  Pol Hybreren the second in command of the army in in charge of the western expansion.  He is getting stymied by the growing presence of good aligned gods of Pelor, Bahamut and Mitra, forming a Theocracy of the Sun along the western coast.  Not only are they militarily strong they are commercially viable as they control the only ocean route from the Sea of Morning to the Adarac Ocean and The Shattered Coast of the Eavelan and Neferani Continents.  The Emaan Straights is a thin strip of water that connects the two bodies of water and is the only way people can travel between them.  They heavily patrol and tax every ship that sails trough.  East Tont is one the northern end of the straights along the Sea of Morning and is a major seaport.  It lies at the foot of the mountain range that split during the great earthquake during the Arkhosia and Bael Turath wars.  Controlling this thin strip of water has made them incredibly wealthy.   Arch-Duchess Sylvanre Emberhall the most powerful person in the Empire besides the Emperor because she controls the Emaan Straights among other things such as the propaganda against the dragonborn and tieflings.  The empire's exchequer is a dwarf named Joll Mardugal.  An older dwarf he oversees the wealth of the empire down to the nearest copper which is quite considerable.

There are churches to just about every god and goddess in the empire.  Erathis is the major deity of the empire bringing about her laws and civilization.  Bane is the second most popular god, especially among soldiers.  The Cult of Asmodeus is popular among the young aristocracy as it deals with domination and who better to dominate than the young, jaded and rich.  People are rich but it will soon become more of a disparity as the rich become richer and the poor becomes poorer.  Luckily this is still generations away but it will come if things do not change.  The current leaders of the Cult are the Arch-Duchess Emberhall's two oldest children.  Nonus and Riya Emberhall are both young and jaded and delight in showing off their power.

The Emaan Empire is a major stronghold of Nerath’s past and a strong contender to rebirth the ancient and glorious past.  Unfortunately, they see many of the "lesser" races as flawed, causing the downfall of the previous Empire of Nerath.  Elves are alright for many have fled Courvale and settled in the shores of Lake Myren in the Rashbuk Forest.  Halfings are fine, as are dwarves.  They have taken in many dwarven refugees from Khorag'dum when they have lost the city due to infestation of orcs and other darker foes nearly a hundred years ago.  Many dwarves work for the Imperial Foundries and their work is found all throughout the Empire.  Halflings control much of the lands that forms the breadbasket of the Empire, though some of them are beginning to question the Empire's policies.  Many of them just go along with the flow of things.  

They despise the dragonborn and tieflings.  They see them as carriers of the curse that led to the destruction of their respective empires.  Tieflings especially so because of the huge legions of slave-warriors that they used all those centuries before.  Slavery of non-human races is allowed as long as they are tieflings or dragonborn.  Slavery is a common punishment for crimes.  While tieflings and dragonborn are slaves for life if caught within the Empire, other people sentenced to slavery have to serve time before they are released.  Slavery is akin to a contract and many people who enter slavery for a short time leave with some sort of trade.  In fact many of them needing some work are often hired after their term is up.  They may serve as common laborers or they may serve in dangerous occupation witch will halve the time of their sentence.  The Auxiliary Legions is one posting.  They are usually the first to engage the enemy.  Though they suffer incredible casualties, many of the veterans continue to serve after their terms are finished, either continuing in the Auxiliary or with a more respectable unit.  Tiefling and dragonborn slaves are sent to the most menial of labor.  There are more tiefling than dragonborn slaves here as the heart of Bael Turath was in the north.  The halfling and many of the dwarves (being more pragmatic) go along with this propaganda against the dragonborn and tieflings.  There are some elves however because of their longer lifespans don’t believe in this targeted slavery.  They are more likely to help than hinder any slave attempting to free themselves.

The World of Eave: Bliss

Bliss is the name of a town on the southern continent, but Bliss isnt the name of town as it once was known as Cavador.  It is west of the Emaan Straights so it is held under the sway of The Empire.  It is not under Empire control as of yet.  The bay is hard to get into with any sort of ship larger than a typical sailing ship and most have to anchor beyond the reefs to be somewhat safe.  Besides the reefs, the Bay of Paradise is filled with many of the jagged ruins of Cavador that make up the northern part of the town.  As the story goes, the city was under siege from Bael Turath, the Tiefling Empire when a great calamity struck.  A massive earthquake tumbled the great keep and sunk most of the city of Cavador.  The dragonborn of Arkhosia were easy pickings to the tattered remains of the tiefling hordes. 

Bliss is anything but bliss.  Hot and muggy, the air is filled with insects that bite and sting.  But it is somewhat protected by sea and land.  The guards are generally corrupt and the people who make their living here are on their last legs.  They are either pirates, thieves and other lowlifes who have nowhere else to go.  It is a lawless town save for the fact that it is run by a boss that controls the remains of Cavador Keep.  Y'rok Vorke is an ugly human, a former pirate whose days of wanton bloodlust are over when he lost his left arm at the elbow in a gruesome battle.  He is much more sneaky about it nowadays, especially with the variety of attachments that come along with his new hand, his favorite is a large mace.  With control of the keep, he has the high ground over the town and the port.  Y'rok also controls the all the long barges that go out and unload the ships and brings their cargo into the bay.  As the only bay for hundreds of miles along the jagged Tanno Coast (thanks to the same earthquake that destroyed ancient Cavador), it makes Bliss the strongest and one of the only ports along the coast.

Bliss is wild and overgrown, much of it is still in ruins that lie sunken and buried since the days of Cavador.  The parts of the city that still appear above ground are what has been coopted by Bliss.  Some of the towers and buildings that were over two stories tall that have are under use by the citizen of Bliss have been cleared and the digging has started to reclaim the lost treasures of Cavador.  One of the largest towers, Moy's House, that remains belongs to Madame Moy.  A massive ogrillion, she stands eight feet tall and very buxom and dresses in the most colorful "dresses".  Smarter than you average ogre she soon became the local madame by bringing in all the prostitutes under her thumb.  All whores who work in Bliss, work for her organization.  She is not an ogre when it comes to business.  Moy is more than fair and often buys pretty slaves to set them free after they work off what they owe.  However there are two things you should not do.  One is cross her.  Despite her clownish nature is still an ogrillion and has been known to take things in her own hands.  The second one is don’t ever call her Madame Moo. 

The second business of note is a tavern called The Cursed Oyster.  The owner and main barkeep is an odd dwarf named Bartalmew the Cursed.  A dingy tavern that lies right along the docks and serves.  Bartalmew is the local contact for the thieves guild and besides a barkeep is a fence of great cunning.  The head of the local guild is Mager Rohj, a half-orc.  His guild is filled with the odd goblin and kobolds, but his number two (and lover!) is a halfling woman by the name of Kanoli, a thug who is worse than Mager and quite possibly meaner.  There are quite a few taverns and other gangs of thugs that run in Bliss.

There are many plantations that dot the lands close to Bliss, all built upon the backs of slave labor.  Natives, along with those captured aboard ships or traded with the slavers of Krusad all work the land under the harsh and brutal whips of their masters.  Hanloon of Krusad, is the local slaver who works for The Crimson Whip.  The Crimson Whip is a slaver concern and Hanloon controls over half of the slave trade in Bliss.  Krusad lies on the other side of the Tanno Jungle and the Lava Crown Mountains. 

There are people though, who live in Bliss actually make a living here, like the fisherfolk of the Fishertown.  They are hardworking people who live on the outskirts of Bliss.  The fisherfolk are rugged people of mainly human and halfling decent, who are a bit suspicious of outsiders.  Gar Carron is the defacto leader of the fisherfolk, is a tall but stout human who is a bit bugged eyed, as are most of the fisherfolk.