Posted on February 15, 2025 in Steel-Realms
The Maithen Plateau is in Hopalen Mountains – a spur of the Hawktail Hills – in the Riverdan of Tuflim.
The plateau has a palpable air of loneliness and the wind whistles mournfully through the hills and ruined settlements. Animals are few and far between in any areas that were once settled or inhabited by humans. The ones in the area are wary and overly fearful.
Each location and the Plateau in general will have a chance of a character being possessed by a momentary vision in the daylight hours. While these are terrible, the one that comes in the nightmares after sundown are worse – may even permanently mentally scar a victim.
Daytime Encounters:
Nighttime Encounters:
Common Preceding Experience: Mists swirl around you, and you hear muffled screams all around you. One moment things were normal, now there is a whooshing sound and you feel like you are falling towards a fire. Smoke fills your nostrils and the screams get louder…
Vision 1:
Up against the base of the hill, the redoubt allows you to withstand one final assault. The bodies pile up, sweat stings in your eyes, and you can taste blood from a cut on your scalp – your helmet is gone somewhere. Screams of agony fill the air, and after hours the walls and your defenses hold and the dozens of citizens in the stone box are saved – the dawn is coming. The Orrish quickly move off of the battlefield. You breathe raggedly with several of your fellow soldiers, out of breath and exhausted. No one will move until the sun comes fully into view – that will be a painful stretch between the false dawn and then. After several minutes of waiting, you can see the wreckage of the village – it can be rebuilt. A count has begun of the survivors when the avalanche comes. One final act by the Orrish sappers above you… you feel and hear it as your reach towards the first rays of light… Then all goes dark, and you wonder your fate – pulverized to death or buried alive.
Vision 2:
You find yourself bound and gagged, being pulled by your hair by a large figure as Orrish dark in the darkness around you. Your shoulder is dislocated, and blood covers your right eye. You are dumped in the midst of goblins… all of them hold you down and pull your clothes off… they pull your legs apart as you writhe and twist trying to get away, you feel white hot pain in your groin… then things go dark.
Vision 3:
You are hiding in the shadows. There are fires around you, screams fill the air. From under the porch, you see your father cut down a pair of goblins with a spear, before they swarm over him and cut him to pieces. They flay pieces off while he is dying, stuffing their mouths full of bloody chunks. Suddenly, a guttural laugh is next to you and a goblin’s face snarls at you. You try and roll away, but they are grabbing you from multiple sides. Screaming, they pull you out, two of them hold your small child’s frame by the legs. Confusion reigns and you look to your left and see the flash of a blade and feel a warmth on your chin and you know you are dying. The last you hear is their laughter.
Vision 4:
To your right a swarm of goblins pulls down your comrade. He claws at the multiple daggers in his chest, though he took three down before they took him. You hear a snarl behind you and dodge out of the way of a massive ork that swung a maul. The goblins roll through your space, tripping you. They are on your back, jeering and screaming as the ork ignores them, but brings the maul down on you, caving in the skull of one at the same time. You can feel the bones in your back break and you cannot scream. The smoke creates a haze over everything, but suddenly you are on your feet. You dont know how, but you are willing your body up. You rise even higher up, trying to warn another comrade nearby, but no words come. Then you turn around and stare into the eyes of the ork… and realize your head has come away from your body and these are your last thoughts…
Vision 5:
Cowering under the house in a hidden pit, you hear the screams and wails of the pillaging going on. The air is hot and heavy, smoke is drifting down. You pray to the Light Beingers to deliver you through till dawn. Suddenly there is light all around you, an answer to your prayers. But you are deceived when you realize the floor above you is fully engulfed in flames……there is no light, there will be no dawn. You scream as your flesh begins to boil, but thankfully the smoke fills your lungs before you feel the flames deeply. The last thing you hear is the jeering and laughter of the Orrish…
Vision 6:
Your warband has been fighting all night. The fires burn at the mine entrance, reflecting off the polished bronze and illuminating the area. Inside, miners and villagers are safe – the tunnel slab dropped to prevent the Orrish from coming up the mine passages. The bodies of Orrish, locals, and soldiers of the Riverlord are strewn all around. Three orks slain and dozens of goblins and the same off-spawn. The druids are trying to fix the wounded with their magics, but so many fall so fast. The smell of burnt flesh is everywhere – swarms of creatures sent to overrun you, met by swarms conjured by the druids and then set alight by the radiance of the priestes of light who keeps the beacons lit. The Orrish back off for a moment, and in the midst of the growing quiet, the light is snuffed out. Above you and to your left, a goblin dark priest savagely cast magic, his followers shielding him from the arrows that fly. A retributive bolt comes from the darkness and his chest explodes – but the distraction was enough and a murderous spider of Go-zen scuttles into the foray and kills one of the druids providing cover with a swarm of bats. The slingers, the air now cleared, swarm the priestess and as you hear her dying wail you lose hope, The braziers go dark one by one around you as you fall to your knees, lost in your own thoughts of self pity and hate. You barely notice as your body is pierced several times, disassociating until you feel as if it is all a dream… then the night sky is above you. And all is cold and still…
Item Powers (common and Attuned) can be found under Common Knowledge tab.
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Information Sources: Mundane Reference | Associated Phenomenology Only | Specific Lore
The Maithen Plateau is in Hopalen Mountains – a spur of the Hawktail Hills – in the Riverdan of Tuflim.After the battle that tore the area apart, a few attempts were made to reclaim it and rebuild. However, the terror of the Fall of the dog fort permeated the ground over which the Orrish spilled so much blood. People would have visions and dreams that infected them with the memories of the dying – and it was abandoned.
Posted on February 15, 2025 in Steel-Realms
The Hopalen Mountains are a spur of the Hawktail Hills in the Riverdan of Tuflim. It consists of three large peaks and several smaller ones, and The Maithen Plateau that was once a thriving settlement.
Posted on February 14, 2025 in Steel-Realms
Geoxylish are a fibrous stunted tree that grows in shallow caverns underground. It has a root system that extends up through the system to above the soil. It is referred to as an “underlands tree”, though in reality it only grows on the edge of the Curtain of Night in obscured and concealed valleys or foothills by the Orrish. This is coveted materials as it is a type of wood that can be used in making weapons and does not quickly break down in the dank Dark Lands once harvested, if treated properly with a special resin. Such weapons or items are reserved for the elite of Orrish society or built up as part of a raiding force.
Posted on February 14, 2025 in Steel-Realms
Elven Wealds of the Steel Realms are representative of the common elven Weald.
Moon Spider Threat: The Spiders of Go-Zen are also called “Moon spiders”. In the Time of the Cold Moon, they travel on beams of moonlight and can access to Aelfpaths of the Steel Realms to attack the enclaves and Wealds of their hated faerie foes of Helca.