Oct 19, 2016

Another Wednesday, another map.

This one continues east from the previous map of the Blade and Badlands.

As one goes further north and east the horrors of the Badlands, only rarely crossing the borders formed by river at the east and mountains to the north.  The mountains also mark the southernmost border of the Zaltruscan empire, though this fact is sometimes forgotten thanks to the presence of small outposts of Zaltruscan soldiers in those towns and cities of the Badlands most vital to the trade routes.

The eastern border of the Zaltruscan empire is formed by two branches of the World’s Cleft river springing out from the continent’s largest (and most unusual) lake - Lake Moiyrnthan.  Pentaz’ travels take him no where near this during Magus, but it is seen in book 2 (Exile, Hunted) as well as book 3 (tentatively titled Exile, Seventh).  If you want to read about the dwarven trios visit to the Lake I’ve posted it up on the Exile, Hunted page and you can read it here.  It covers the unusual nature of both the Lake and World Cleft rivers as well as the myths surrounding them.

Across from the Lake is a small corner of Hanaen and its various counties.  Crossing the river south from this you have plateaus upon which two more counties of Hanaen sit, only the westernmost of which is visible in this map.  These plateaus descend southward into the great Kalthean desert which expands further east than is visible here, and also encroaches west back into the Badlands.

The massive bridge visible is a towering marvel of engineering built during the last days of the Melexi and Thirosian empires, and judging by the nature of the markings and decorations it was presumably a Melexi construction.  The bridge’s immense size means that an army could easily fit on it, making it the most vulnerable point of defense against Zaltruscan invasion for modern day Hanaen.  As a result there is a small military outpost of Hanaen to guard and man the bridge.  A handful of Magi skilled in hydromancy are stationed with the soldiers here, their control over water allowing them to more rapidly use the bridge’s hydraulic mechanisms to raise the bridge to prevent an invasion should the Zaltruscan empire try to march an army across it.

That’s all I’ve got for today.  We picked up in orders for a short bit, but have levelled off again, so I’m hoping I can get more orders coming in soon.  We’re only 2 new readers away from me being able to release a new chapter, and if we reach that before the end of today(10/19) I’ll go ahead and release 2 new chapters.  Also from this point until the end of the campaign I’ll be lowering the threshold for new chapters from 50 readers each to 20 readers each, hopefully I’ll get to share more of the story and at least hit Quill by the time this campaign ends.

Thanks to everyone for your support and time.  Friday I’ll be talking a bit about dragons.  Keep reading and enjoying!  (Also, for my D&D people, I meant to post a stat block for a peculiar animal with last week’s map, but forgot to so you’ll be getting that below.)

This is an animal which Quelzhumi turns into during a pivotal moment of Part 7 - Graduation, and I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve not gotten around to coming up with a name for it.  So for the time being we’ll just refer to it as Sloth-Bear-Anteater-thing.  Quick description from Part 7 before I move on to the stats.

It hunches over him, but even in this stance it is a towering beast who’s head is a full yard above the lieutenant’s. This massive head is dominated by five almost comically oversized and lidless eyes which form a semicircle around the front. The eyes are flanked by large bat-like ears, and the entire face draws suddenly in and forward from these, reaching a length of nearly a yard and coming to a tapered point just barely larger than a man’s thumb. This snout is nearly all nose on the outside with multi-layered teeth and absurdly long tongue inside. The creature has no recognizable neck, only a widening of its frame drastically down from the ears, so that its shoulders are just a foot below the snout’s beginning but are over six feet wide.

The trunk and legs beneath have the shape and proportions commonly seen in a bear, but the arms are another matter entirely. They are monstrous protrusions crowding against the beast’s trunk where they sprout from the shoulders and are easily two feet thick. Their length is ill proportioned to the body, being nearly ten feet long before the claws protrude. These claws are the most terrifying features on the beast. Three spring from each otherwise featureless paw, with each an equally sized mixture of sabre and shovel head measuring a foot wide at their bases and tapering down along the two feet of their length.

The claws mentioned in the description are normally used to dig into ant-hills or other insect mounds(or termite infested trees), but there still pretty deadly weapons.  The actual animals are rarely seen because they’re actually a bit cowardly, preferring to run from humans or other potential predators, but they will fight if forced to(though only a fool would force one to really).  Now for stats.

Large Beast,  Neutral

Armor Class:  10 (natural)

Hit Points:  92 (8d10+48)

Speed:  15’ / Burrow 5’

Str 20 (+5),  Dex 5 (-3),  Con 22 (+6),  Int 2 (-4),  Wis 12 (+1),  Cha 6 (-2)

Senses:  passive Perception 11,  Tremorsense 10’

Challenge 3 (700 XP)

Relentless (recharges after a Short or Long Rest):  if it takes 13 damage or less that would reduce it to 0 hit points, then it is reduced to 1 hit point instead.

Wounded Fury:  while it has only 10 or fewer hit points, it has Advantage on Attack rolls.  In addition, it deals an extra 2d6 ; damage to any target it hits with a melee attack while this is active.

Claw: melee weapon attack,  +7 to hit (3d8 +5 piercing) ;