Ennead Dossier: Lord Charrox of House Vaspil

Lord Charrox thrives on warfare above all else. He is the overall commander of the Ennead’s military forces, answering only to Lady Ashgrave. His face was burned half off long ago by an acidic blast that has never healed; his right cheek is open to the bone and his teeth can be seen through it.

Arosi’s Dancers

On a green hill at the very heart of Xoth Sarandi stands nine stones in a circle, each one white as sea foam, in graceful curved forms that suggest dancing figures.

This is the node of Xoth Sarandi, the most sacred of all the elven stone circles outside of Shallenoi. And where Damon is revived with dire news.

Cyril confronts The Devourer

At the last Equinox, many of the family of the Dragon-Kings were destroyed, along with their patron golden dragons. At the head of this massacre was the black dragon Scallandriax, The Devourer, who had grievously defeated the silver dragon Aristeele above the mountains of Svarth and was now convinced of his own invulnerability.

The tenacious rule of the golden ones in Kandang had been an irritation to Scallandriax for decades, and he tore into their civilization without mercy. Many of the humans fled into the eastern forests of Qual for refuge, where groups of elves known as the Sylvan Covenant took pity on them and helped to shelter them.

The Plane of Irilian

Irilian is earth-dominant and strongly evil-aligned. The majority of the plane is made

up of solid rock with infrequent tunnels, Travelers run the risk of suffocation if they do not reach a cavern or other air pocket within the earth. Worse yet, individuals without the ability to burrow risk being entombed in the plane.

Ennead Dossier: Huntress Cestine of House Sathron

The Huntress, is a wild one among the Ennead, with an insatiable appetite for depravity and wickedness. Cestine’s strength is in her popularity among the drow. They look to her as a war hero.

The elves of Ashfar call Cestine ‘the Blood Bitch’. She was in charge of the genocides during the second Equinox of the Heroes in which over three thousand captive elves were systematically beheaded at the Ziggurat of Smoke, a now-destroyed drow sacred site at Brith’s Folly.

Cestine was revived after spending more than a millennium in stasis, in accordance with a covenant that she would return to again lead the drow when the Equinox of the Heroes came round again.

Lost Athul

This island was once home to the Myrrik, a species of sentient tentacled bipeds that has now died out, who worshiped a vast sea-beast as an incarnate deity. Although the Myrrik never allowed visitors further inland than their ports, leading to speculation that they were carrying out horrible rites in their lopsided temples, they were still willing to trade. They supplied Xoth Sarandi with pearls, whale oil and fish in such quantities that a sea-portal was built by the harbor in order to deal with the volume of shipping.

Athul was lost in a titanic cataclysm that submerged the island completely. The Myrrik appeared to have been wiped out entirely; the trading ships that came found thousands of floating bodies. The sea-portal is still standing.

The Low Mountain Brightmantle Purchase

In 1312, after the elves of Xoth Sarandi bribed the humans of Jehennum to break their treaty with the Drow refugees, the Brightmantle forged the first written land purchase. A streatch of low mountain chain and their foothills extending to the river bordering Ghael.

Duke Taggarac of Jehennum and Hagan Brightmantle agreed that if Jehennum default on their responsibilies. The governship falls back to the Dwarves.

Chillhame a year later.

Chillhame had suffered greatly when the rogue Drow house Arakh assembled in ranks with the duergar. The towns north of Litchgate bled and the land blighted- making life hard for those who live on the fringe. Vannondale, Chalksmere and Hocton Barrow have been rebuilt in the arduous fifteen months since the attack. A responsibility that has only strengthened the resolve of the ffolk.

Another element that has strengthened the people is the Church of St. Damon. A symbol of leadership and preservation on the fringe of blighted land.

Hoary Hunter

The Cold-Maiden appears as a gaunt night-elf, with sharp, exaggerated features that are always unsettling to behold. Everything about the hunter is blue-white, from the wild mane of hair atop her head to her pearly, luminescent nipples.

The first day of winter and the coming winter months are when Cold-Maiden ascends to the crown of the Unseelie Court.

Nonachranon

"By measuring the cosmos, the Machine would define it."

Its knowledge, though immense, is limited to the state of the cosmos as it currently is; it cannot predict the future, nor can it look into the past.

8-bit Theater Presents: D&D

Inspired by 8-bit Theater, based on the Dungeons and Dragons skit done by The Dead Ale Wives.

Thanks-give-away

RPGNow and over 60 of our publishing partners are offering the dozens of FREE for your very own ThanksGiveAway holiday, Monday, November 12 through Friday, November 16.

Ennead Dossier: Lady Ajav’Andu of House Ormil

Lady Ajav’Andu is the member of the Ennead in charge of religious rituals and communal worship. Lady Ashgrave is the titular head of all drow churches and she alone may rule on matters of doctrine, but Ajav’Andu has the executive office of supervising worship and officiating at ceremonies.

She has the title of Supreme Hierophant. Her House, Ormil, supplies the drow community with more priestesses than any other House. Lady Ajav’Andu is withered by age. Her hair is long gone, as are most of her teeth. She wears a ceremonial wig of fine silver chains that look nothing like hair. Her actual age is unknown but there are reliable accounts of her presence at the first attack on Shallenoi when the Drow Wars began. Some of the younger drow, drawing wild conclusions from her obvious old age, believe that she is a genuine immortal and cannot be killed.

I attack my foe with the strength of the bull…

I thought it might be a good idea to speed up combat. For the Attack roll: d20 +d10 (miss %) +d10 (blind-fighting) etc. And. Feel free to average your damage dice: d10 to 5, d8 to 4, d6 to 3, and so on. Since were all rolling handfuls of dice.

Bonus XP

If anyone is interested in some extra XP, help make Astercote a dynamic city. Write a 'comment' with a shop, scenic location or some other place you'd find in a typical dnd town. Please include a NPC or two.

No stat blocks- just a cool hook or two for our City in the Clouds.

Goddess of Secrets, Intrigue, Magic & Knowledge

Knowledge (Religion)- Vecna (or Kovanielle ) is an Archon who works at a Brothel on Blue Lethary. Most know little of her story; perhaps she was cast out of the Heavens for rebellion and lost her wings. Of them- believe that either she is forced to work in a brothel as an act of humiliation for her pride or other sin and has entered the trade as penance.

Neither story is wholly true. Though she did leave Heaven, it was a voluntary departure. Vecna has a deep and tragic love for mortals and has borne half-celestial children to many. She is moved by unbearable pity for them, simply because they are doomed to die after such short lives. Instead of serving the cause of the Arch-Angels in Heaven as an obedient soldier, she chooses instead to comfort mortals directly. Here, in a place of vice and indulgence, she has found many in need of her comfort.

Old Money!

"I have found a way to discover what plane may be next!"

"The Grey Magi thought that if the universe was, as they believed, fundamentally mechanical, it ought to be possible to build a magical simulacrum of it. By studying that model, they could extrapolate everything that could ever be known.

To this end they created a sub-plane using epic magic and named it Nonachranon. Within their plane they built their wondrous simulacrum. The machine’s purpose was to observe, calculate and predict."

Fallen Angels

Many of the Arch-Angels of Virtue believed that the Denizens of Sin were coming soon. The Arch-Angel Melandrith said they would have to be ready to defend the souls of men from their sinning ways. Walking away from Heaven when she did, Vecna was seen as the worst kind of deserter. Melandrith's conviction was apparently based upon a prophecy, sealed in a vault in Heaven and accessible only to archangels.

• Very little is known about the Dark, even after all this time. The angels believe the Dark is a mindless force, a mere lifeless void. When it began to act through the drow it caught the Heavens by surprise. It was clear that the Dark had some how spontaneously developed sentience and was motivated.

• One arch-angel, Tuvellan the Firecrowned, Brother of Melandrith- was certain that the Dark had been conscious all along and was only now choosing to act. He was determined to make contact with the Dark and parlay. Tuvellan insisted that the Dark was perhaps not evil but a dark elemental part of the Universe. Perhaps it could be spoken with, reasoned with. Tuvellan departed Heaven on a quest to find the conscious core of the Dark and speak to it. That was over two centuries ago; he has not been seen or heard of since.

Imponderable Wednesday

It took an entire Pantheon of Demi-gods to destroy the Eye of Igrath. The Imponderable Pantheon is complete once again.

Arcadia- Also the name of the Plane she calls home. She is the first of this small group of Archons who have each in their own way, become demi-gods.

Damon Greef- The second of this Pantheon to be a Starborn. While Damon was on hiatus, Hombel assumed his domains.

Mountanious- Also called Kavaki "the Ram Lord" by the Goliaths. Strong and virtuous lord adventurers.

Maruis Lathander- The youngest if the Pantheon. He was 'crucified' by elves and ascended as lord of travelers and oracles.

Vecna Kovanielle- A Starborn in the first equinox, she has a tragic love for mortals and their magic. Her name is the most misused and misunderstood in the planes. She is the only non-good, non-lawful in the pantheon.