Turak
The Haunted Isle
Written by Drac, VWD
Once a city of 50.000 inhabitants but it was razed during the wars never to be rebuilt again. Hoards of demons wrecked havoc on the streets for weeks, people died by the thousands every day. Soon no living being was living in Turak anymore. Those who did not manage to escape were slewn.
Those parts of the population that survived the slaughter fled inland, never to return to the horrors of Turak. Left amongst the ruins are only the dead, demons, curses and treasures.
The Palace, once a magnificent building is now standing as a quiet skeleton amongst the ruins. it's empty windows looks like eyes overlooking the destruction and ruins. Inside are still traces of the terrible battles that that ended the great empire, and if you go deeper the perceptive can still find valuable objects that has escaped the destruction and aging. Down in the cellars in the royal treasury it is plundered though.
The Harbor
The site of a terrible battle where the inland fleet of Saralis was sunk while still in harbor. most traces of the ships are long gone, left are only the gloomy memories and the unfortunate souls of the dead sailors. Showing themselves now and then to get company in their dark cold dwellings. Many are those that has not been able to resist the alluring lights and been drawn to a certain death. [Corpse Candle and Corpse Lantern].
The Palace
Once a magnificent building, until the war swept the city, now are only ruins of what was considered one of that times most beautiful buildings.
Already when one is coming closer to the gate, traces of
the great battles, still here after the eons that has passed. The once so
beautiful marble stair is cracked and worn by weather and wind. The first
two floors are passable and everywhere are traces of battle, bone
fragments and the remains of creatures that has been anything but human.
On one of the larger (10 feet) non-human skeletons can be
examined [Very hard perception] {Per-3}
and one can see something glimmering inside it's ribcage. If the ribcage
is broken a very large (as a closed fist) uncut red jewel comes forward.
It is a demons heart, very rare artifacts and very powerful in the hands
of the right (or wrong) person. [worth about 1000 gp, but
as a focus for a demonolog it is worth 10 times that, it can be considered
evil in nature and can be destroyed by holy weapons].
In the palace are lots of other things of value too, in hidden rooms that was never plundered [Extremely hard perception] {Per -4}. All secret rooms are cant be opened in the way they were supposed to and all traps has seized to function due to age. They have to be broken up. (a sadistic GM can still let them find the traps and try to disarm them)
The palace is now only inhabited by the ghosts of the people living here before.
The Royal Catacombs
Above the city lays the Royal Catacombs, a place guarded
only by the dead and ancient traps. It is consisting of 5 floors with
about 20 rooms in each. From the third floor and down the undead haunt.
The first two floors are plundered but as one goes deeper there are no
signs of graves robbed. the only thing that misses here and there are the
inhabitants of the graves. Before the forces of evil left this place they
put a curse on the tombs that has made some of the dead kings rice as
undead. Down on the third floor in a room deep in, there are two
skeletons, crawled together as if they died of starvation next to a grave.
Inside the grave is some remains of a long gone king, and a cracked and
blackened crown... the Wyvern Crown.
Most of it's magic is gone since it's destruction but it is
still a very well known symbol of unity and is very valuable for the right
person, most kings in Saralis wants to get their hands on that old
artifact.
Down on the last floor (5) the main passage is razed, apparently by a fire or explosion [Perception -10] {Per-1}. It was done by the invaders when they sealed a might demon there as a guardian (or if it was to dangerous to dispose of) [a Xyr], the creature cannot get out as it is sealed both by stone and by magic {40 active points} and it will not be grateful towards the one that lets it out. If someone analyzes the magic ward they can find out that it is a ward, protecting from something on the other end, not this end. It can be dispelled by a fairly good magician, but it will require a more then fairly good magician to stand a chance against the monster inside.
Misc.
The Royal House
Examinations in the royal catacombs show who was ruling at the time before the wars, it is the best information source about the royal families. Comparing that information with for example the royal library in Cerrmor shows that the royal line died out after the wars with the city, all searches for a relative to that family has been in vain and all claims are false.
Artifacts of Turak
This page is a part of
by Jonas 'Drac' Cedher.