Mountains of Vhaskus
Stark Mountains, haunted by the ghosts of Horrors Past.
11/01/1107 New Mining Outpost is off to a great start, good stone, solid land, high enough area to not get hit by the summer floods. The prospectors did a number on getting this set up! 11/27/1107 The Boys are dropping a new shaft into the mine, claim they heard a cave deep in there. Might be enough bat gunk in there to get some interesting results? Besides, who doesn't like spelunking?! 11/29/1107 I don't like spelunking. The damn walls have more writing than bat guano, most of it's in Orcish which nobody here can read... But I recognized the script, it's old. I swear, did the surveyors do any looking in the surrounding caves?! Getting a bad feeling, but maybe we'll get some archaeological teams down here in a few years. 12/01/1108 Damn it. Reminds me of the Hard Times. I came down here then too, well not here. Bit south, and I started down from IwaSunna instead of following the contours of the sea. The boys blew a shaft after saying they saw dead things... Dead things that moved. 12/06/1108 They dug their way out of the shaft. They dug through the shafts we collapsed after that. We haven't heard back from the Fengs and our next supply delivery is too far away. We can hear them digging at night, digging through the shafts. 12/08/1108 MasToch Save us, we collapsed the mine, but they've pushed through. They've pushed Through! The-The mighty fortress of Vhaskus once stained these mountains with its presence, the mad orc lich dominating the will of his orcish brethren and ruling with a cruel hand. Now, the fortress, having been emptied by efforts during The Orcish Incursion, has repopulated with monsters and beings that are not generally welcomed in the more-civilized lands. Worries about the immortal lich returning are easily assuaged, the last remnants of Vhaskus having been extinguished at the end of the Orcish Incursion by The Lichdom. The valleys and landscapes around the mountains, however, have no such benefit. Much of the area is a deeply cursed landscape with remnants of undead experiments and legions of ghosts doing battle against each other for eternity. Tribes of Deep Serpen do battle with tribes of Half-Orcs in a constant struggle for dominance as those under Darchada's sway attempt to solidify their grasp upon the surface. This fighting rarely extends from the depths of the mountains. This region is covered in traps, both magical and mundane. The deadlier the trap, the more likely it hides a secret left by fleeing followers of Vhaskus, or sealed by mortals during the search for his fortress. As such, the Mountains of Vhaskus have a number of dedicated groups, including one of the Draconic Councils which pre-date Vhaskus’s reign, as well as groups seeking lost secrets and treasures of the god MerGus. Some say that the very tips of the south-most peaks are enchanted with necromantic energies that can help one who is willing to sacrifice their soul, to achieve the immortality provided by lichdom. People of ill-repute and intent often make their way on pilgrimages through the mountains to find these secrets, and adventurers often chase them to stop their ascension. As of The City of Vhaskus, it’s stark walls have an eerie likeness to the walled cities of Forkden, giving credence to theories that Vhaskus himself may have guided the construction of the many high-walled cities of the Southern Floodlands. Within the city is barely contained chaos, with Deep Serpen dominating their sections of the city and the rest being divvied up in an anarchistic display of government and tribal politics. It remains one of the very few cities that humans have yet to find an overwhelming place within.
Geography
These Mountains have sharp peaks that jab towards the sky in an attempt to hide away the deep twisted valleys of the range from the view of those that have no business seeking out the secrets buring there. It is a war-torn landscape, with countless craters and holes pockmarking the landscape and bones buried under mere inches of sediment. Truly, the stories told by this landscape knowing war on a scale unseen by the rest of Ithungsida.Flora and Fauna
Monsters lurk in the shadows of these mountains. With the greatest concentration of undead and spirits that have been discarded on the sides of the mountains, the worries of the landscape hold deadly points to one's soul as well as the body. When it is compared with the monsters formed by forceful culling in the Dragon's Thorn, no person in their right mind will call the two destinations equal. Outside of these creatures, the landscape is populated by bears and other predators who remain at the bottom of the food chain.Natural Resources
SosIwan Surveyors have passed through this mountain range more than once, with the stated goals of seeking out new areas to set up mines and the following reports of countless resources found in the hills. However, all attempts at mining the landscape have ended in failure.
Alternative Name(s)
Southern Mountains.
Type
Mountain Range
Location under
Characters in Location
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