Difference between revisions of "Ascarlin mountains"

Revision as of 08:19, 2 March 2010

Danger: Normal
Sub zones: great ascarlin mines, great diamond mines
Inhabitants: rock harpies, humans, earth mouths

Standing as one the highest points on the map, these majestic mountains are a great place to get a view of the surrounding lands. The Ascarlin mountains are famous for their wide variety of rocks and minerals, especially the large deposits of ascarlin.

Ascarlin, also called dreamstone, is an extremely rare gem, greatly sought after. A single ascarlin is easily worth a dozen times that a diamond of the same size, and empires have waged wars for just a handful of them. Ascarlin is a semi-translucent teal-blue stone with red veins running through it. It's incredibly beautiful and, when socketed in magical artifacts, it can increase their power tenfold. The Ascarlin mountains are legendary on some worlds, and their name is often more famous than Felarya's. They attract many people from foreign worlds and their resources are the basis of power for the great city of Negav that lies at their feet. The mountains are riddled with mines, tunnels and underground cities.

Despite the intense human activity inside, the exterior of the mountains is surprisingly devoid of any trace of human civilization, aside from a few outside passageways. Few predators live there but those that do are dangerous. Rock harpies in particular pose a big threat to reckless miners, with their huge appetite and fearsome wind-based magic.

Great diamond mines

Danger: Low
Inhabitants: shadow fishes, humans

An expansive network of winding tunnels, dug by humans in the upper to mid parts of the Ascarlin mountains, and riddled with veins of diamonds. Over the course of many long years, activity here has decreased in favor of the more profitable ascarlin mines, but because of a recent surge in predator activity there, many miners have come back to the much safer diamond ones.

Indeed, aside from some shadow fish dwelling in the deepest parts, the tunnels are mostly empty of any dangerous creatures. The main danger comes from the Rock harpies that fly over the mountains and will sometimes vacuum whatever is inside tunnels that breech the surface, or attack outside structures and passageways. Both the diamond mine and the ascarlin mine share their entrance, a reinforced tunnel that is next to Negav, within the radius of protection of the Isolon eye.

Great ascarlin mines

Danger: Hazardous
Inhabitants: humans, silver succubi, fire succubi, earth elementals, night anemones, shadow fishes, glophorbias, lucicamps, demons

The upper section of this immense network of tunnels is brimming with activity. Miners, Negavian guards, merchants, wizards, and adventurers from every world are gathered there, chatting, forming plans, and buying artifacts. Once your go deeper into the mines however, past the protective magical wards, the place seems to be abandoned.

That's actually not the case, but only solid teams of miners dare to venture there. It's not uncommon for them to hire powerful wizards and mighty mercenaries to escort them along the way, for going this deep is very dangerous. In their frenzy to extract the precious ascarlin, the human miners have dug too deep and attracted the attention of the many strange, dangerous, and hungry creatures that dwell in these depths; countless miners have fallen prey to them. Some demonic monsters roam the deeper parts of the mine and, sometimes, a whole tunnel will suddenly turn to flesh, becoming the digestive track of an earth elemental, trapping the miners inside.

At first, the unbearable heat of the deeper tunnels was thought to be due to volcanic activity and yet there is no lava, tremors, or any of the other normal signs of it. The sweltering atmosphere may instead come from an open portal to some place of extreme heat.

• credits to XLRP for some ideas to develop the Ascarlin mines.