Osmund-Davizid writes "Old sailors tell of many strange phenomenon across the Azure
Sea. One persistent legend is that of a
city of people lying on the seafloor.
Rumors and legends, in this case, are correct. There lies a city under the sea, protected by
a magic dome. Within it, resides the
last of a long lost tribe of Suel mystics.
Their story is a unique one.
Under the Azure Sea, protected by powerful concealing magic,
is a colony of Suel people from the pre-cataclysmic era. Housed within a domed city on the seafloor,
these Suel are a static culture from an age long gone. Driven under the water by a punitive curse,
the colony has managed to survive through their own resourcefulness, epic level
spellcasting and divine protection. The
city, known to the inhabitants as Mantor, has managed to exist in this
underwater dome throughout the centuries, but now several groups are vying to
discover the city and exploit its secrets.
History: In the year 5069 SD of the Suel Imperium, the
Emperor's own son, Zellif, crossed into the eastern continents from the Suel
lands. Zellif took thousands of his
followers, guided by premonitions, visions, and perhaps the simple call of
destiny to settle on a peninsula on the far side of the world. Among his followers was another man of vision,
an archmage of exceptional abilities (if not an actual Imperial Mage of Power)
who broke off from Zellif's group in order to pursue a mystical quest. This spellcaster and his substantial
household took to the Azure Sea, following his visions (Note 1). After some time, they discovered an island
that divinations revealed would become a "future home to the purest
members of the Suel Imperium".
With that, the Magus (Note 2) settled the island and
established a major cathedral to the power Lendor. Magus was a follower of Lendor's philosophies
and his top advisor was a powerful high priest of that order. The goal of Magus was to establish the purest
Suel society with strictest order. For a
time, the city began to thrive. Atop the
hierarchy was Magus, assisted by the priesthood of Lendor. Advising them both were the priestesses of
Wee Jas. The religion of Bralm led the
commoners to their work and was the favored religion of most of the
population. After the initial work in
establishing the colony was done, Magus began to become detached from the daily
maintenance of the colony and focused on spiritual matters in accordance with
the cult of Lendor (Note 3).
While Magus and the Lendorians were thus engrossed in arcane
philosophies and rituals, the priestesses of Wee Jas and Bralm took over the day-to-day
leadership of the colony. It is at this
time where the evil natures of these religions came to the forefront. The priestesses enacted a series of pogroms
to stamp out other doctrines. While the
entire Suel pantheon was respected, no unlawful influences would mar the
perfect order that the priestesses were creating. Chaotic religious practices would cease and
their active worship ended. In this
matter, they were mostly successful - the only other religions tolerated were
those of Xerbo and Osprem (due to their connections with the sea, no island
community could afford to offend such patrons), and Phaulkon (this faith,
though chaotic, had such a strong following among the colony soldiers and guardsmen
that even the priestesses of Wee Jas would dare not oppress them). The other religions held only token, passive
respect as part of the Suel pantheon as a whole.
The priests of Lendor and Magus himself were oblivious to
these power plays, being engrossed in complex mathematical formulas, obscure
divining, and mystical research. This
state of affairs may have continued indefinitely, but a dreadful hurricane
forced the Magus and the Lendorians to act.
In this respect, it was fortunate that the priests of Lendor were
otherworldly mystics, in that they were able to accurately predict the disaster
in enough time to establish magical protections for the city. While the hurricane did wreck havoc on the
colony, the mages and priests of Lendor were able to save most of the important
buildings through the creation of magical columns scattered throughout the
city. These columns were imbued with
magical essences, carved with power runes, and constructed with exotic stone. The columns each had a platform on the top of
them, manned by priests of Phaulkon, the god of the skies. Tutored by the Lendorians, the Phalkonian
priests maintained a chant that protected the city from the ravages of the
winds and weather. Between the existing
religious faiths and the magical power of the Magus, the weather was able to be
contained enough to spare the colony.
This project was a precursor to the domed city.
This colony remained isolated for years until by chance, a
group of Suel from the great migrations came across this island. It seems that this group of Suel was fleeing
from the wrath of a divine curse. This
Suel splinter group was a particularly nasty one, and engaged in cruel
practices whenever they would meet an indigenous people. This practice backfired on them when they
came into a valley in the Drachensgrabs.
Their barbarism toward a peaceful clan of Flan tribesman resulted in a
horrific curse that began to turn the offenders into stone. Most the of Suel succumbed to this curse, but
a few managed to reach the shore and craft ships to flee upon the Azure Sea
from their affliction (Note 4). They
stumbled onto this colony by chance.
Through these visitors, the people of Mantor learned of the
fate of the Suel Imperium. They welcomed
the fleeing Suel as brothers. With that
act of charity, they invited their doom into the city. It seems that the Flan deities that
originally cursed the Suel would continue their divine punishment. What followed was a tempest of epic
proportions, with the purpose of drowning the entire island. Again, the devotion of the priests and mages
of Lendor gave the city advanced warning of the incoming devastation. This time, however, the destruction was divinely
ordained and thus the city was doomed to sink beneath the waves.
It was at this juncture that Magus made the final sacrifice
for his people. He had already lived far
beyond the time of ordinary men (over four centuries it is believed), probably
due to years of magical artifice. In the
face of a divinely inspired cataclysm, Magus cast his final spell, an epic level
true dweomer that created a dome of force that surrounded the colony (Note 5).
The spell worked, Mantor was surrounded by a force dome that allowed the city
to survive the storm and subsequent sinking of the entire island. Additionally, the dome rendered the city
within to be invisible to all but pure-blooded Suel, as a concealing magic to
protect the people from further curses from other races. In a cataclysm worthy of ancient epics, the
island and city of Mantor vanished beneath the waves.
Aftermath: While the force dome protected the city and
its inhabitants from immediate doom, and concealed them from discovery, the long-term
question of survival in this new environment became the most pressing issue
facing the survivors. The cult of Wee Jas,
in her aspect of goddess of magic, took the lead. Because with the death of
Magus, the power of the Lendorians was much weakened, and those scholars and
mages turned to focus all their attention on maintaining the magics that kept
the dome intact, thus ceding any temporal authority they had to the Wee Jas
church. The high priestess of Wee Jas
saw the opportunity to gain more power, and inserted herself and her followers
into the Lendorian research. Together, the
Lendorian and Wee Jas cults created a complex series of chants, spells,
rituals, and ceremonies that had to be continually performed in order to keep
the dome intact and to keep the invisibility power of the dome working. A select group of Wee Jas wizards and priests
worked with the Lendorians on this task and it continues to the present
day.
Having created a process for preserving the dome, the next
major undertaking was to plan for long term existence under the dome. The most important fact was that the
resources for the now enclosed city had to be precisely and strictly
monitored. The cult of Wee Jas came upon
a solution to this lack of resources - they created a "living
mausoleum". This was a series of tombs under the bedrock of the city, in
which a large portion of the city were placed in a stasis so as to conserve the
food, living space, and air among the populace (Note 6). This eerie underground vault houses the
majority of the colony's population at any given time. The priests of Wee Jas safeguard and monitor
their sleeping charges, periodically waking a particular citizen as their
skills are needed or else to start up a selective breeding program.
Modifications had to be made in order to survive. The various churches were given specific
areas of the colony's administration to supervise. The church of Bralm took up the laborers and
farmers to creating vast landscapes of mushroom and fungus farms (Note 7). The
Lendorians dedicated themselves to monitoring and casting spells to keep the
dome and its invisibility screen intact, as mentioned above. Phaulkon's priesthood was given the task of
maintaining the air for the colony (Note 8).
The priests of the sea powers Xerbo and Osprem were to simply keep saying
prayers over the dome to placate these deities and keep the ocean at bay. The church of Wee Jas watched over everything
as the overall administrators and masters of magic.
The result of this has led to increased autocratic attitudes
from the cult of Wee Jas, to the point that they are practical dictators of the
colony. Every aspect of life is
monitored and subject to the ruling of the high priest or priestess of Wee Jas
(Note 9).
Current State of
Affairs: This is not a vibrant,
living city. It is stagnant, with most
of the population kept in stasis and the bulk of the living population spent in
drudgery keeping the highest caste in comfort.
The priestesses of Wee Jas and Bralm have no incentive to change their
ways. Indeed, they have actively rooted
out any attempt to try and contact the outside world or travel outside the
dome. The Lendorians, nominally in
charge, have long since removed themselves from any practical leadership
positions. It may be the case that the city is "doomed" rather than "domed".
The different factions generally split up over religious
lines, as any guilds or other political groups have been quashed ages ago. At the top is the High Wizard-Priestess of
Wee Jas, basically the ruler of this city.
She has the most power over the administrative and magical working of
the city and her status as the leader of the Wee Jas mages and priests is
undisputed. She claims that she was
revived out of suspended animation a couple decades ago, but the truth is that
this individual has died years ago and revived herself as a lich. She has been leading the city disguising her
undead status.
Nominally allied with the Wee Jas faith is the High
Priestess of Bralm. While early in the
city’s founding these two cults were close allies, the current leader of this religion
suspects that the High Wizard-Priestess is self-seeking and not forthright with
her background (she does not know that the cult of Wee Jas is being led by a
lich).
The closest thing to a rebellious set in Mantor is the
followers of Phaulkon. As described
above, their cult was allowed to exist as the religion of the warriors. After the city sank, their charge became to
continually refresh the air of the city.
On the various enspelled columns, every day a priest of Phaulkon has to
stand at the top and participate in a long ritualistic chant in order to work
the spell that transmutes foul air to fresh air. The priesthood chaffs under the restrictions
of the Wee Jas and Bralm leadership, but are too dedicated to their duty to
preserve the lives of the city to actively rebel. Instead, there has developed a passive
resistance – the priesthood regularly attempts to inform the Lendorians of what
they suspect is usurpation by the other powers, discusses possibilities of
exploring the undercity to find ways to leave the dome and make contact with
either the surface world or else friendly undersea races.
While Zellif's group later met with the followers of Maulk
to found the present day nation of Shar and the Scarlet Brotherhood, the city
of Mantor remains under the sea. A
static culture, this city is at least living up to the divinations of Magus of
so long ago that foretold that this city would be the home of the last pure
Suels. There are many groups which would
like to visit this place, to learn from it, lead the people into the current
age, or exploit it.
Locations of Note:
The Living Mausoleum:
A testament to the ingenuity of the priests of Lendor, this series of
subterranean chambers house the majority of the residents of Mantor in a time
stasis. The name is a misnomer, as the
residents are not dead, but held in coffin-like stone boxes, unfeeling,
ageless, and ready to be awakened should the need arise. The resemblance of these boxes to tombs lent
the people of Mantor to give this place the ghastly nickname in a bit of
gallows humor and the name stuck. The
location of these chambers is in the middle of the city and does not connect to
the sewers. Golems guard the place,
standing silent and adding to the eerie stillness of the place. Every so often, the priestesses of Wee Jas
determine that some particular citizens need to be awakened and will come to
the Mausoleum to take those individuals out of stasis, only to be returned
again once whatever task has been completed.
Some hapless people have not been revived in centuries.
The Grand Library of Lendor:
This edifice is still impressive, a tribute to the scholastic pursuits
of the Suel. It is a combination cathedral
and library that may be the most glorious temple to Lendor, as it has been
preserved due to the near fanatical level by a small army of Lendorian priests
and sages. The language used in all the
writings is Ancient Suel, making any translations difficult. The temple library may contain the most
complete surviving records of the Ancient Suel Imperium on Oerth. That fact alone makes this location an
invaluable resource, it is consequently well defended with mundane and magical
traps, summoned spectators (Note 10), automatons and other defenses, mostly to
keep unauthorized personnel from entering without escort. Within a series of secret passages and rooms
in a forgotten corner of the complex is the old private laboratory of Magus
himself. This alone would be a trove of
lore and arcane knowledge unparalleled.
The Tower of Wee Jas:
This is the dark heart of the city.
While the Lendorians are still the rulers in concept, it has been
centuries of domineering by the clerics of Wee Jas that have made the true
center of power in Mantor this forbidding complex. Entrance by anyone other than invited
personnel is punishable by death. The
church maintains its own body of guards and spellcasters to keep out the
uninvited. The rites and services to Wee
Jas are all done in this tower (no one outside the faith worships this power in
Mantor, her priesthood is that obnoxious).
Within the tower all manner of magical traps, wardens, summoned beings,
and creations occupy the various chambers, laboratories, salons, living
quarters, and other areas within. There
certainly must be some spatially enhancing magic in place here, as there are
far too many of Wee Jas’s priesthood, wizards, servants, and militia to account
for the relatively small size of this edifice.
The Hive: This odd
shaped building (its shape reminds one of an anthill or bee hive) in the city
center served as a storage area for grain and foodstuffs in the city’s early years. Since the sinking of the island, it is now
the center of the priesthood of Bralm and the food raising hub that the city
depends on for its survival. The
foodstuffs of the city are mainly fungus, worm, and insect mash, a vile mess
that the priesthood of Bralm makes the general population consume. It is rumored that the Wee Jas cult has
better sources of food and drink in their tower, but such inquires are hunted
down by the Bralm priests as being subversive.
There is a magical artificial globe that radiates sunlight that keeps a
grove of fruit trees alive. The tending
of this grove is the highest priority of the Bralmites, as the fruit is vital
to keeping the populace healthy. The
existence of this magical globe also gives the population better health than
would normally be expected of such an isolated city, with each citizen being
afforded time in the Hive to get a ‘sunbath’ for their general well-being (Note
11).
City Sewers: The city
had a small, simple sewer system in its days above the water. Currently, these old pipes still serve their
old purpose with a twist. To keep sewers
from overflowing, some mages had numerous gelatinous cubes introduced to the
sewers in order to dispose of the waste generated by the city. These “slime mages” carefully monitor the cube
population versus the amount of sewage generated in order to maintain an
equilibrium. While the city planners
were very concerned that any breach by the ocean into these tunnels could
undermine the dome, that has not happened, largely due to this monitoring by
the slime mages. Currently, these odd
wizards amuse themselves with conducting weird races throughout the underground
tunnels using their pet gelatinous cubes.
The slime mages install devices that can be tracked into the cubes and
monitor the results in a collective magic scrying device. Some slime mages have taken to doing
experiments on the cubes, resulting in strangely colored specimens, some oddly
shaped varieties, and other weird gelatinous cube variants. Additionally, the slime mages have developed
some specialized magic spells dealing with oozes, slimes and jellies that maybe
of interest to certain wizards.
Outbuildings: When
the island that housed the city sank beneath the waves, the dome protected
Mantor from destruction. But not every edifice
was under the dome when it was erected.
There were a few small buildings, fisherman’s huts, docks, and individual
locations outside the dome’s perimeter and thus now reside on the sea floor. Most of these are just the building of lower
class laborers and fisherfolk, but there is one exception. A ruined tower on the outskirts of the island
was the home of a wizard of Lendor. This
wizard, who may have been an apprentice of Magus, lived separately in his
declining years from the rest of the city, as he was a misanthrope. While the tower is now hopelessly ruined, the
eccentric old wizard had a secret tunnel running from his basement to a private
home in the city, and that can be a method in which someone in the present time
can enter the dome. To date, this tunnel
remains undiscovered. While most of the
tunnel is flooded, it rises just under the city to be an effective airlock. The tunnel still has some magical wards on it,
created by this ancient wizard, but these have weakened over time and can be
bypassed.
Personalities of the City:
High Wizard-Priestess of Wee Jas: She is the de facto dictator of this
city. Her proclamations have gotten more
and more erratic over the past few years.
Small wonder, seeing as though she had died about a century ago! She exists as a lich but takes obsessive
measures to conceal that fact from anyone else (the high priestess of Bralm
suspects that this woman is indeed the same high priestess from decades ago,
but has no proof of this). She casts
preservative spells on her body several times a day to maintain the fiction
that she is still a living woman. She
has changed her appearance through magical and mundane methods periodically to
perpetrate that she is a different high priestess than before. One aspect of Wee Jas is vanity, and this is
a trait that this high priestess exhibits many times over. Another aspect of Wee Jas that this leader personifies
is her evil nature. She has become
convinced that only she knows best what is in the city’s best interests. The fact that the city’s best interests and
her personal comforts coincide is a point lost on her. To help her maintain her steely grip on the
city, she is personally in charge of the Living Mausoleum project, and takes a
direct hand in reviving and suspending personnel. Those who raise questions as to her nature
are either put back into suspension or else quietly eliminated by being tossed
into the sewers to be caught by the gelatinous cubes. While this wizard-priestess still has a grip
on her sanity and humanity, that is starting to slip and all the preservative
spells in the world cannot stop the effects of time forever.
Bralm’s High Priestess:
Effectively the second in command of the city, this woman is a stern and
demanding figure to the work parties of the city. In charge of food production and all
construction projects, the priestess has a hand in every major civil act in the
city. To be fair, she does not spare
herself, ordering her priesthood to bear all the same deprivations as the
general populace. She is troubled by the
rumors that the Wee Jas cult is saving all the best resources for themselves. Still, she knows her place (all Bralmites
understand their roles in the world), and that place is being the taskmistress
of Mantor. It would take a lot of
convincing to make her investigate her nominal leader and the wizards of Wee
Jas.
The leader of the Lendorian Church is currently a sage with
no special abilities, but is highly honored in the Lendorian faith as being a
savant of many esoteric fields of study.
This makes him the perfect leader for the Lendorians (as far as the
Wizard-Priestess of Wee Jas is concerned) because this man is entirely absorbed
in his research and cannot be bothered with complaints from the populace or
from the Phaulkonians. Still, the
priesthood of Lendor as a whole is completely dedicated to the preservation of
their accumulated knowledge, and if they could be convinced of the self-seeking
nature of the Wee Jas leadership, they may be roused to action.
Phaulkons United: The
small force of warriors that enforce the laws and stand ready in case of some
infiltration (the priestesses of Wee Jas are paranoid that undersea monsters
may try to break the dome or tunnel under it and into the city) represent some
of the last independent thinkers of the city.
These troops, along with some of the more radical priests, seek to leave
the dome and make contact with the outside world. They dream of linking up with other Suel
survivors, or of goodly aligned sea elves, to introduce some change to the
depressingly bland existence under this dome.
These fellows meet in secret, and on occasion, have a few of their
number attempt to map out the undercity to find some method to escape into the
sea beyond.
Adventure Hooks:
Raiders of the Lost City:
The outrageous Keoish ship captain, known by his sobriquet ‘XYZ’ (Note 12),
has recently come across some coins and minor treasures that are of
pre-cataclysmic Suel design. He
evidently was taking his hand in underwater salvage and managed to find some
curious sunken buildings on the sea floor and gain some small coins and other
items from these ruins. The artifacts
collected were from the outbuildings area, not the city proper. But apparently, XYZ has enough Suel blood in
him that he was able to discern the dome while exploring the underwater area
around Mantor (Note 13). He is
determined to lead an expedition to visit the city under the dome and is
seeking out skilled adventurers to accompany him into what he believes to be
the find of the century.
Meanwhile, in the nation of Shar, a Scarlet Brotherhood
noble (Note 14), through his own network of spies (and XYZ’s own loose lips),
has found out about XYZ’s discovery.
Inspired by the idea of a pure Suel undersea city, he is personally mounting
a private expedition to find the domed city.
This set up provides a source of adventure as the two competing groups
hunt for clues throughout the world and race to the bottom of the sea to make
contact with the city. While the noble
in question is involved privately, an official Scarlet Brotherhood response
could have a third party against the other two in a race to contact the lost
city.
Possible revolt of the nobodies: The dismal conditions of the general
population make this city ripe for a revolt.
The enforced diet, servitude, isolation, and aloof leadership has
created a potential disaster in the lower classes making a move to wrest
control of the city. What prevents this
is mostly the fact that at any given time, only a small portion of the populace
is out of stasis. Should the magic of
the Living Mausoleum start to weaken, the population kept in stasis would soon overrun
the resources of the city and could potentially erupt in violent conflict.
Integration with the sea world: The Phaulkonians, along with the followers of
the sea gods Xerbo and Osprem, dream of coming out of their isolation and to
start to thrive again. They know of
various undersea races and long to leave the bounds of their city and swim
amongst the deeps. There is enough sea
faring and underwater survival magic present in the city archives, but the
Lendorians and the Wee Jas leadership do not want to explore that
possibility. Creating a situation where
an adventurous junior priest of Phaulkon could meet up with a friendly sea race
and establish some sort of understanding could be the basis of a diplomatically
minded party.
NOTES:
1. The archmage
believed that his own life was insignificant compared to the furthering of Suel
society (so much so that the Magus forbade any records of his name be
preserved, establishing the point that only Suel society mattered, not any one
individual). This peculiarity spread to
many of the Magus's followers, so that in Mantor's historical records are
references to people by their position or title and not name, such as
"High Priest" and "Harbor Master". Subsequent holders of office are designated
generally by numbers (i.e. "the Fourth City Planner" or "the
Third Captain of the City Watch".
This makes for some confusion when researching the colony's history.
2. Throughout the
rest of this article, when referring to this particular individual, the title
"Magus" will be used.
3. Lendor's faith is
notorious for being overly concerned with esoteric arcane matters that are far
beyond the care of normal people.
4. These Suel were a
band of exceptionally wicked spellcasters who managed to escape their curse by
taking over the bodies of a few hapless Suel followers. See the Greyhawk Adventures Hardcover book
for details on "The Twisted Forest".
5. Details of this
spell are lost to time, likely to have died with Magus. Certainly, the series of columns that were
installed throughout the colony for the first hurricane were essential to the
casting of the dome. These columns are
engraved with runes of air and weather control and blessed and maintained by
the priests of Phaulkon. They number
around a dozen and were placed along magically attuned points throughout the
island. This magical dome construct that
is large enough to cover the whole city and furthermore last underwater for
hundreds of years is epic level magic, on par with Slerotin's Tunnel. The stress from casting this last dweomer cost
Magus his life, as his body burned away to ash upon completion of the spell
ritual.
6. Again, this
represents an epic level dweomer, this time through the guidance of the goddess
of magic and death Wee Jas. It was
through the cooperation of mages and priestesses of the order that this spell
could have been accomplished on such a large scale. It is likely that such an epic act of
spellcasting could not be replicated without divine assistance. The similarity to how this city was spared
its fate closely resembles the magical force that saved the city of Lo Nakar is
worth noting. In the case of Lo Nakar,
the divine patron was Wee Jas as opposed to Lendor.
7. The food sources
for this lost colony are not what one would expect. Due to the nature of the sinking of the
colony, the people of Mantor have a great fear of the ocean and have
deliberately kept themselves apart from it.
Therefore, there has been no coordinated effort to create tunnels,
airlocks, or other means of exiting the dome.
All food must therefore be grown and harvested within the confines of
the domed city. The priestesses of Bralm
have managed to create some magic items that simulated sunlight, and thus have
been able to supplement fungal farms with approximations of terrestrial plant
life for food. Their skills in animal
husbandry resulted in the breeding of many nutritious insect life forms that
are the principal source of food for most of the population. While this diet can sustain life, it is not a
pleasant existence. The priestesses of
Bralm grimly force their farmers to keep working, grinding their spirits down
with each passing day as taskmasters of the strictest order.
8. The priesthood developed a spell to transmute foul air to
fresh air. It is a highly ritualistic
spell, involving a long complex series of chanting in order to keep the air in
the city breathable.
9. By coincidence,
the policies and practical working of the colony closely mirrors the current
policies of the Scarlet Brotherhood.
10. The church of
Lendor has a strange relationship with the creatures known as spectators. This edifice houses many of these creatures,
some of them have been divinely summoned to guard valuables in the Grand
Library. See Dragon Magazine Issue # 139
for details.
11. The average
citizen is still pale in appearance, but not overly so. The magic sun globe has been replicated in a
few other areas of the city, providing healthy light to the people, making
their existence closer to that of a surface city. The diet leaves a lot to be desired, with the
ration of fruit juice from the grove being the most valuable commodity in the
city.
12. This man is a notorious
scoundrel known throughout the Azure Sea as a ‘wild card’ among the great sea
captains of the current era. While he is
believed to have begun his career in the Keoish navy, he is now fiercely
independent (although his natural inclination often aligns with Keoish policy,
so much so that he is occasionally able to be persuaded to do some sort of job for
their intelligence service). He has
aliases for every port he visits, but often the name is a play on the initials
‘XYZ’ (i.e. Xander Yanez Zaar or Xavier
Yaro Zuckermon).
13. Indeed, the
concealing magics that render the dome invisible to non-Suels has weakened over
the years. This is to the extent that a
human with only trace amounts of Suel heritage can discern the dome of the city
if close enough. The
location of the city itself is in the Azure Sea, south of the Sea of Gearnat. XYZ has made a map to the location, but safeguards
it carefully against Scarlet Brotherhood spies.
14. This noble is a
member of the Homeland Nobility faction, so he has little real power. He sees an expedition to find this lost city
of the Suel as an opportunity to increase his and the nobility’s personal power
and to bring lost lore of the ancient Suel back to Shar. Of course, the Father of Obedience has spies
within this noble’s household, and knows of the rumored city. For now, the Father of Obedience does not
want to launch an official expedition to find the city, and is content to let
this noble do the hard work first. If
the investigation bears fruit, the official Scarlet Brotherhood response would
be positioned to swoop in and take control of the situation.
SOURCES:
The Scarlet Brotherhood Accessory
Greyhawk Adventures Hardcover Book for the history of the
Twisted Forest
Keoish Intelligence Reports from the Azure Sea on Canonfire
See a couple of articles by Nathan Ellis Irving about
another Suel city that survived the into the present time; "An Overview of
Lo Nakar" on Canonfire and "Lo Nakar The Last City of the Suel"
from the Codex of Greyhawk available at http://www.oocities.org/timessquare/5878/wogtexts.html
"