Spyridoula

Nobody has ever survived the night in the Three Valleys Bog.

Until now.

Attacked by waves of zombie hordes, the party's tiny hut was eventually overwhelmed. Not just a bunch of zombies, but hordes of them bit, scratched and pulled at the heroes, at one time slaying the lizardfolk rogue before the druid finally had them under control on a variety of fronts.

Before the attack, the Heroes of Tara discovered standing stones. In fact, they discovered a number of them, in what was later determined to be a semi-circle.

Each set of stones were carved with the cyclops princess Spyridoula and her devotions to her hounds. The monoliths formed a circle, with cross members linking them to a central pillar and a statue of an angry cyclops, it's mouth open in a roar. It was determined that hot air was venting out of the mouth of the statue, smelling of peat.

As the party searched further, the discovered additional standing stones every few miles, usually situated in an especially boggy location.

As the undead roamed the land when the sun fell, something else peculiar was going on. One in five of such hordes was a work party. They would dig up peat moss in big clumps and leave it to dry, but also taking dried peat from what was likely previous evenings. They all headed back to the center of the circle formed by the standing stones. Here they heroes discovered some sort of funerary building.

Additional undead could be seen coming and going from the building, including quite a few "free willed" undead, like spectres and talking zombies and skeletons (lords more than likely). Atop the building was peat and other bog debris, dripping down the side, as if the structure had just emerged from the bog itself.

This is more than likely the Tomb of Spyridoula, legendary guardian of the cyclops people, who they say gave her life to defend the island from revolting humans.

Four Streams

This druidic site is perpetually shrouded in fog as it sits on a small hill in the middle of a bog. The bog is the site of an ancient battlefield, a long running war between the cyclops and man.

The site is surrounded by a tall, wooden, circular wall with a small path leading up to a door. Inside the structure, in the center, stands a giant, four sided obelisk. Various runes and writings cover the obelisk, but rather than usual druidic script, the inscriptions are even older, thought to be the writing of Mannanan Mac Lir himself. Or as the caretaker, Pholus, refers to him, The First.

A pathway surrounds the obelisk and winds around it, sloping upwards as it spirals around. Off the path are various dwellings, and although only Pholus lives here now, it's possible to conceive of a large village once calling this home.

 The obelisk appears to tap directly into the elemental planes, based on the runes inscribed upon it. Activating it controls weather in a 24 mile (four hex) radius. Each additional standing stone controlled, increases the radius by an additional 6 miles (one hex). Activating the obelisk is risky, as the electrical charge projecting the magic is unstable. Pholus also speaks of a key required to use the obelisk, a key he'll provide once his quest is fulfilled.

There are no standing stones here, nor does Pholus believe there to be any in the Three Valley region.

Tower of Sakarbaal

Centuries ago, the wealthy Phoenician wizard-merchant Sakarbaal traveled to the Island of Redstone after hearing of the rumor of a Font of Youth. He brought his young apprentice. The boy knew he would not see his family again and might spend the rest of his short life in the wilderness with his old master. They sailed the long distance in the wizard’s opulent ship and traveled to cyclop ruins in the north, where they found The Machine of Creation, rather than the secret of youth the wizard desired.

Sakarbaal had an idea for his immortality. What if he could make the Font of Creation create a permanent, infinite plain instead of demiplanes? He could populate this realm with followers and achieve immortality through godhood! But such a plan would require enormous, near infinite power.

He carefully removed the artifact and brought it another site he had investigated, The Sea of Grass, where he recalled standing stones in the middle of nowhere on a planar conjunction to the ethereal plane, the plane of creation. He sold his ship to pay the cost of re-installing the artifact directly in the circle of stones, and over the years, found a way to tap the standing stones to power the artifact in an
infinite loop of creation.

The Tower is constructed of stone with a metal skin on the outside made from plates of Umbrite, which cloaks the tower in shadowy darkness, extending out into the lake. As Sakarbaal was about to realize his dream, the forces of nature revolted and performed rituals to bypass his source of power along the ley lines. Nature would not be hijacked for the sake of one man’s immortality. Life within a mile was destroyed and the artifact was badly damaged. The artifacts destruction resulted in a dweomersink in the area. The machine sucked the natural energy from where it sat, creating a ground sink that eventually filled up with water. The bottom two levels are now completely submerged,
and a lake has formed around the tower.

An arcanoplasm dwells in the lake, feeding on the residual magical energy and anything that stops by.

His assistant, who wished to obtain immortality with Sakarbaal attempted to turn himself into a lich, and failed. He’s also here.

Also see The Annals of Denbacan for more about Sakarbaal's quest.

The Three Valleys (History)

Around 1,000 year ago, the Axial Age was at its height. The cultures of the Yan Ki, Northmen, Phoenicians and Early Men reached maturity, right as the Cyclops civilization began to fall into disarray. Such high cultures could agree on one thing, slavery at the hands of the Cyclops could no longer be tolerated.

The center of Cyclops civilization was Redstone Island and the region most contested was the bogs of the Three Valleys region. Here, the Early Men made their home and the Northmen held sway. The Cyclops were hindered by the mountains protecting the Three Valleys, which made it difficult for them to defend it. Thus. many battles were fought here and the Cyclops made it a point to leave their mark so there was no confusion who was in charge.

Dozens of Cyclops standing stones were placed in the bog region, a show of their power, but otherwise not of magical significance. It's also said, the Cyclops lich, Thunderer, made his home somewhere in the valley region. Undead began appearing shortly thereafter, to the point nobody has ever survived the night in the open in the Three Valleys.

Towards the end of the Axial Age, the Battle of Three Valleys took place. The Northmen General Habgard had build a wall defending the region from the Cyclops. The Cyclops breached the wall, defended by the Northmen and Early Men warriors. In an act of betrayal, the Northman leader now known as Bloody Erik, allowed the Cyclops through to decimate his Early Men allies. He believed The Northmen would one day take Redstone Island and eradicate the native inhabitants, a view that it was later learned he received from his spiritual guide, the Cyclops lich Thunderer.

The Three Valley region remains in turmoil today. Slavers and goblins harass the Early Men tribes. The Early Men civilization is long gone and they hide in the cracks of the earth from their enemies. Undead run rampant through the region, with different groups acting in different ways. Those in the north of the region only come out at night, killing and dragging off their victims. Undead from the south rampage at all hours, often kidnapping who they find. The red dragon, Flameworm, considers everyone in the valley a trespasser, including the forces of Crannog. The druid Pholus works to maintain a balance, although his feud with Flameworm often keeps him gone for long periods. It is the chaos of the Three Valleys that keeps Tara safe from invaders from the east of the island, but that safety may end one day soon.

Tomb of Bonebreaker

Pursued by Ragna, a gargantuan Roc the size of a house, the party entered the "forbidden place," sandstone canyons leading to the Tomb of Bonebreaker. The Roc had crushed two cyclops the party had brought along, but it could not fit in the narrow canyons. Along they way, they discovered standing stones and a portal leading to the Negative Energy Plane. Negative energy permeated the area, as the portal was in a "bad state," nether open nor closed. A skeletal figure lay next to the stones, a hapless wizard who attempted, unsuccessfully, to utilize the powerful magical artifact.

Upon correcting the artifact, the portal was opened. A few minutes later, a badly injured lich emerged. The party parlayed for a few moments, but on his heals were five, gargoyle like creatures, their bodies made of a purple crystal. The evil sceaduinars killed the lich and began attacking the party. Calderon, the wizard, closed the portal, sending back two of the five creatures, as they hovered above the platform. A third cast a powerful spell at Calderon and killed him in a blast of negative energy, enough to destroy the wizard three times over.

The sceaduinars were eventually slain without further mishap and the portal was successfully claimed by the party. The wizard, now reincarnated as a vanara, was able to get the once dominated assassin back under his control and used the portal to alter his memories as a means to make him serve the party without magical compulsion. 

Proceeding on, the party found headless skeletons as they approached the tomb. These were once animated, before the portal was de-activated, but they now were piles of bones, the negative energy that dominated their feeble forms no longer flowing through them. The door of the temple held a nasty decapitation trap, which the party was able to disable.  

Within the temple, they found a large sarcophagi with the remains of bonebreaker, along with a 40 foot tall flagstone golem that attempted to pound the party into mush. Eventually the golem was destroyed and the party moved on, exploring the queen's chamber and discovering a secret staircase down to the treasure chamber.

Herein lies Bonebreaker the Bear, King of Aparnisi, jewel of the forest, and defender of the empire. May the full protection of all abjurations protect our great king.

Within the treasure chamber are various chests, additional sarcophagi of human servants, a reflection pool and a large platform where a servant of the empire should have been located. The plaque read:

The great Galanos, friend to the empire and keeper of men. For 500 years, great structures were built, order maintained and life preserved through the diligent effort of the great guardian from the East.

That's when the great Galanos, now an animated dragon skeleton, emerged from the pool to attack.

Order of the Silver Wolf

After defeating the corrupted bulletes in the farming region of Codaver. The Heroes of Tara headed back to town in hopes of discovering the location of the Tomb of Bonebreaker and the magic cloak that could lead them to a cyclops city. As they walked back to town, One Ball the druid discovered wolf tracks, right around the time the weather turned bad, with wind blowing and storm clouds overhead. Calderon the wizard confirmed that this was no normal storm, his last words before his death.

From atop a bluff, the bumbling soothsayer from the village shot powerful lightning from his hands. It hit One Ball and arced to everyone else, which is when Calderon was slain. The cleric quickly revived the wizard, but the battle raged on, with lightning bolts falling from the stormy sky. Attacks on the soothsayer revealed he was protected from both fire and electricity. Two wolves, perfect specimens, assisted the soothsayer in attacking the party. Eventually the soothsayer, who turned out to be a powerful werewolf druid of the highly secretive Order of the Silver Wolf, was defeated. Towards the end of the combat, a crowd of townsfolk had gathered to witness the spectacle.

Upon returning town and investigating further, the party discovered elements of The Order of the Silver Wolf amongst the people. When pressed, Verdandi the bard, admitted his membership and agreed to assist the party if they brought the werewolf druid back to life. He was too important to the order to be defeated in such a way. Verdandi explained his motivations to the party, and it was agreed they should work together. Meanwhile, the townsfolk venerated One Ball as their new druid, as it appeared he had defeated the soothsayer in mortal combat, a valid challenge under druidic law. One Ball had found a territory by defeating the old druid, his blade having dealt a decapitating blow to the werewolf.

After reincarnating the werewolf druid, who was now no longer a werewolf, and was, in fact, a goblin, Verdandi spilled some of the secrets of the order. The ancient order was created to prevent  robbers and adventurers from discovering the Tomb of Bonebreaker. Once such a discovery was made, it could eventually lead to the hidden location of the cyclops vault of artifacts. The vault contains the most dangerous magical items from ancient times. After the last great war, the order believed humanity could not be trusted with such power.

Verdandi arranged a meeting with the top members of the order. The party argued at the meeting that the malevolent Tuatha, Crannog, posed a great threat to humanity and was after the key in Bonebreaker's Tomb already. It was only a matter of time before he found a way in. The order knew of Crannog and some of his plans, so they listened intently as the party laid out their thinking.

Asked how they were different than Crannog, the party identified themselves as Heroes of Tara, and Verdandi was able to confirm this fact by quizzing them about details of their adventures. The bard had sung enough songs in praise of the band of heroes to be sure they were legitimate. The party argued they could permanently hide the ancient cyclops artifact on another plane, which seemed like an ideal solution to the order, and well beyond their power to achieve.

The Order of the Silver Wolf agreed to allow the party to enter the Tomb of Bonebreaker. Although they had no experience breaching the tomb, they agreed not to attempt to stop them. The horrors of the tomb would be theirs to overcome.

As for the mystery of the disappearances, or "curse," in Codaver, the order was responsible for that. Those of great strength and good heart were convinced to join the order. They left their old lives to defend the tomb, taking on the gift of lycanthropy with their brothers. Those powerful adventurers who were not of good heart or who only wished to raid the Tomb of Bonebreaker, were strongly encouraged to leave, while those who refused to heed the warnings, died at the hands of the order. The party found such tactics very much in line with their own and suggested they combine their organizations.

On to Codaver

The Heroes of Tara set sail for The Wall Lighthouse, an anchorage point half way between Tara and Codaver. They witnessed a caravelle following them from afar with likely bad intentions, but it was too heavily laden to catch the small, fast, empty ship of the heroes. The heroes made their anchorage and left the boat to proceed on foot. The Wall was now heavily defended by soldiers, thanks to income from the nearby salt mine.

They made their way through the badlands without trouble, arriving at Khu Sim Sim in the afternoon. The village in the badlands is in a lake valley, their homes on tall pillars of rock with wood suspension bridges in a semi circle. In the center of the lake is an island with standing stones. The stones draw the salt from the lake and are placed on a conjunction with the elemental plane of earth.

The party was at Khu Sim Sim because Maedoch wanted his follower, White Feather, to visit his home village. White Feather was now a half elf but even more shocking was no longer deaf, as the villagers puncture their ear drums to avoid their top predator, harpies. After much discussion in sign language, the village elder, Black Feather, decided White Feather could go through the ritual when he decides to return to the village for good. A party was thrown, and as is the tradition, new seed was sown, so to speak.

The next day the party returned to their ship and proceeded up the coast. As they slowly threaded the needle of treacherous rocks along the coast, the ship was attacked by an enormous octopus, a giant spyglass. It plucked several crewmen off the deck, including the captain, and submerged in an inky cloud as the party attempted to destroy it. It jetted away, badly injured, as Calderon jumped into the ocean and dove beyond the cloud. His Magic Missile spell, at the far extent of its range, was just enough to kill the creature. Aedh also dove into the water from his position flying over the battle and administered Water Breathing potions to the badly injured crewmen.

With the crew back on board, the ship continued north and again, the caravelle was following far behind. Halfway through the day, they came upon what appeared to be a castaway, an old man on a piece of flotsam off to their left.  As the ship came into range, Calderon, ever suspicious, cast a Detect Magic on the man, finding he indeed radiated magic. With enough time it was determined to be a Transmutation spell, and as the ship got closer, Calderon cast a Dispel Magic, which immediately submerged the bit of flotsam as the man transformed into a large bronze dragon.

 "Well, that's never happened before." Bruneus said in surprise. The dragon went on to tell the party how he patrols these waters for pirates and evil doers, punishing them as warranted. As he's fairly young, he's only been doing this for a hundred years or so.

When told of the caravelle and their clearly evil intentions, Bruneus asked the captain to take the ship further out to determine if their being followed might just be a coincidence. When the captain did so, the caravelle made clear course adjustments to follow and Bruneus became perturbed. He jumped overboard and a moment later a cloud fog could be seen in front of the caravelle. As the ship entered the cloud, flashes from within the cloud and shouts of surprise could be heard nearly a quarter mile from the ship. As the caravelle emerged from the fog cloud, it could be seen both its masts were in shambles, hanging off the side of their ship.

Bruneus appeared back aboard the ship and Calderon insisted they take the caravelle. Bruneus believed the damage done was punishment enough and would not assist in such an act. After much argument the party agreed with Bruneus and they headed to Codaver, albeit at a much higher speed, which Calderon believed was due to dragon magic from Bruneus.

As the party approached Codaver, a small ship came out to great them. It was the young sheriff, Kelda Skeen, and two of her deputies. She warned the parry not to land. Codaver was unsafe. Visitors were not welcome and many people who have visited have simply gone missing. Still, if they wished to dock, she wouldn't stop them. The party thanked the sheriff for her advice and decided to dock anyway.

Codaver turned out to be an insular community, a mixed race group of Northmen and Yan-Ki who cared little for outsiders and who exhibited outward signs of racism, except for Verdandi, a token half elf bard at Seamus' Tavern. The entire town smelled of rotting fish and exposed shoreline and it cloyed on clothing and in nostrils even when left behind. The party was greeted by Strom, the town grumpy soothsayer, who smelled horribly of dog, who threatened bad things if they did not leave.

Everyone told the party to leave, that they were in danger, and when the party discovered a problem with local farmers gone missing, they decided to take up the challenge. People thought they were crazy, except for Strom, who thought it was an excellent idea. He mumbled something about "two birds with one stone."

The party left town and headed to the nearby farms. Two farms were situated next to each other with a cairn on the hillside above. Giant holes in the fields led the party to believe familiar monsters were around, likely bulettes, common nuisances in the badlands. Entering the farmhouses, they discovered large holes in each, with blood around the holes where the hapless family was likely killed.

Rather than jump into dangerous holes, the party investigated the cairn on the hill above. Calderon used magic to open the door and Sfiri used her tracking skills to determine the caign had been entered before, but perhaps decades ago. The door had a name in Northman engraved on it, Solveig. History spoke of this Northman warrior priestess of Hel. She was a hero of battle who led her troops to victory over the cyclops of Redstone Island. She had little regard for her own men, the legend told, but she was an excellent general. This was likely her tomb.

The party proceeded down the subterranean passage, passing various graves, robbed long ago. As the approached a curve, they noticed a breach in the wall, with debris in the corridor, as well as a flickering red glow next to it, on a solid steel door. A malfunctioning magic mouth asked them to speak the name of the fallen warrior, but refused to open when the password was given. The red glow was a powerful protection ward, infused with infernal energy. The debris pattern indicated whatever came through the wall attempted to bash the door, despite the magical protections.

Proceeding down the breach passageway, the party came to a four way intersection. A loud chirp could be heard as two bulette's emerged from the side passages and a small one appeared ahead, apparently giving orders to the first two and rushing forward heedlessly itself. The small bulette had a red glow about it and exuded a powerful acid. It also turned out to have a poisonous bite, as Aedh, the cleric spent most of the combat attempting not to die from its toxic poison.

Calderon was later able to surmise that the infernal bulette was likely effected by the magic in the cairn. As bulettes are thought to be the creation of a mad wizard, they are perhaps susceptible to magical mutations.

The battle was furious but the bulettes were finally defeated, the small one charmed by Calderon, but not after being enfeebled by Sfiri. With a charmed bulette, Calderon was able to get it to breech the tomb of Solveig, after which the party was happy to loot her of her belongings.

Treasure: +1 Chainmail, +1 Flaming Giant Bane Morningstar, Masterwork Dagger (2),
Belt of giant strength +2, Iron unholy symbol of Hel.