Xotani
Wrath-Blazing Xotani, the Firebleeder
The beast Xotani, called the Firebleeder, is said to have possessed sharp claws, a massive maw, and a burrowing body shaped like that of a colossal worm, yet little else is known of its outward appearance. A number of accounts suggest that it bore empty eye-sockets, some claiming dozens or even hundreds of them, which may have once provided the creature with sight; alternatively, the orifices may simply have been nostrils or open wounds, forever belching forth waves of wet flame. What force or creature could have blinded such a beast, or as some say, caused it to claw forth its own eyes, remains uncertain.
Without fail, all tales of the Firebleeder focus upon a specific aspect of the creature’s bizarre anatomy: the churning, pressurized magma that fed its unknowable organs and burned alive those who succeeded in piercing its flesh. In addition, it is known that Xotani was a land-bound creature, capable of traveling through the soil and even solid stone with frightening ease. Its depredations and hunger were never noted in faraway Casmaron, though it ranged across Garund unopposed for some time before it was slain by the hundred-strong gathering of mages called the Legion of Wands.
The attacks of Xotani are not as well documented as those of the great Tarrasque, for the creature spent much of its time sunk beneath the surface of the earth—strangely, the magma-blooded beast could not stand the light of day, and usually emerged at nightfall to wreak fatal damage across the landscape. This was not always the case, however: confirmable records attest that the Firebleeder famously annihilated a mountain fortress-city 3 days north of Solku (high into the Brazen Peaks) during the height of midday, and that the plumes of black smoke produced by the incinerated banners, tapestries and grain supplies within could be marked from a hundred miles away. Even submerged within the cold darkness far beneath the dunes of Katapesh, however, the beast’s presence was deadly, turning crops to ash, huts to tinder, and sand to glass with its scorching passage.
Some tales suggest that, in addition to the terrible tremors and unnatural heat that boiled up from groaning earth in the wake of the Firebleeder, a certain phenomena of thunder from an empty sky and electrical discharges that spun in waves out of the creaking sands were viewed before the arrival of Xotani; certainly, vast lightning storms without clouds were reported across the whole of Garund during the time of this Spawn’s monstrous acts.
Many heroes sought to best the Firebleeder, tales spreading far of the terrible fire wyrm of Katapesh. Yet none were prepared to face the spawn of a god, and a generation of the world’s greatest knights, most infamous dragonslayers, and highest-praised heroes were consumed as completely as straw in a forest fire. The people of Katapesh fled their lands, becoming nomads who would never again dare to settle, and the streets of the realm’s greatest cities emptied in fear of the inevitable fire.
It was a band of wizards, united under the banner of the Legion of Wands, that finally confronted the beast. Genie-binders of Katapesh, sand mages of Osirion, archmages of Nex, and dozens of other arcanists from all corners of Garund met to face the horror that threatened to spread its flames across their lands. When finally they confronted the living holocaust, half their ranks burned away in a wave of the Firebleeder’s fiery breath. For a day and a night the survivors rained magical ice and water upon the Spawn of Rovagug, weakening it amid a cloud of steam that could be seen for a hundred miles. Then in unison, the wizards intoned a spell of a single word to eternally douse the thing’s nightmarish flames. Shuddering, the Firebleeder fell, being buried amid a mountainous avalanche of searing ice and its victims’ bones. Ragged and few, the survivors of the Legion of Wands claimed victory, but deep in the heart of a pale mountain, an ember, the Firebleeder’s heart, still burned.
Without fail, all tales of the Firebleeder focus upon a specific aspect of the creature’s bizarre anatomy: the churning, pressurized magma that fed its unknowable organs and burned alive those who succeeded in piercing its flesh. In addition, it is known that Xotani was a land-bound creature, capable of traveling through the soil and even solid stone with frightening ease. Its depredations and hunger were never noted in faraway Casmaron, though it ranged across Garund unopposed for some time before it was slain by the hundred-strong gathering of mages called the Legion of Wands.
The attacks of Xotani are not as well documented as those of the great Tarrasque, for the creature spent much of its time sunk beneath the surface of the earth—strangely, the magma-blooded beast could not stand the light of day, and usually emerged at nightfall to wreak fatal damage across the landscape. This was not always the case, however: confirmable records attest that the Firebleeder famously annihilated a mountain fortress-city 3 days north of Solku (high into the Brazen Peaks) during the height of midday, and that the plumes of black smoke produced by the incinerated banners, tapestries and grain supplies within could be marked from a hundred miles away. Even submerged within the cold darkness far beneath the dunes of Katapesh, however, the beast’s presence was deadly, turning crops to ash, huts to tinder, and sand to glass with its scorching passage.
Some tales suggest that, in addition to the terrible tremors and unnatural heat that boiled up from groaning earth in the wake of the Firebleeder, a certain phenomena of thunder from an empty sky and electrical discharges that spun in waves out of the creaking sands were viewed before the arrival of Xotani; certainly, vast lightning storms without clouds were reported across the whole of Garund during the time of this Spawn’s monstrous acts.
Lore
The lands of Katapesh, Nex, and southern Osirion were once much greener than those of the modern age, their scars of dust, burning sand, and shattered mountains encompassing centuries-old evidence of Xotani the Firebleeder’s rampage. Dragging its blazing bulk from a massive abyss deep in the Barrier Wall, the Firebleeder writhed in pain upon exposure to the burning sun. Burrowing beneath the earth with its countless terrible limbs, its burning spines sheered great chasms across the land, sundered mountain ranges, and lit vast planes afire. By night, the horror emerged, titanic and blazing like a murderous sun, its all-consuming flames searing land and city alike, filling the horizon with enough black smoke to smother the rising dawn.Many heroes sought to best the Firebleeder, tales spreading far of the terrible fire wyrm of Katapesh. Yet none were prepared to face the spawn of a god, and a generation of the world’s greatest knights, most infamous dragonslayers, and highest-praised heroes were consumed as completely as straw in a forest fire. The people of Katapesh fled their lands, becoming nomads who would never again dare to settle, and the streets of the realm’s greatest cities emptied in fear of the inevitable fire.
It was a band of wizards, united under the banner of the Legion of Wands, that finally confronted the beast. Genie-binders of Katapesh, sand mages of Osirion, archmages of Nex, and dozens of other arcanists from all corners of Garund met to face the horror that threatened to spread its flames across their lands. When finally they confronted the living holocaust, half their ranks burned away in a wave of the Firebleeder’s fiery breath. For a day and a night the survivors rained magical ice and water upon the Spawn of Rovagug, weakening it amid a cloud of steam that could be seen for a hundred miles. Then in unison, the wizards intoned a spell of a single word to eternally douse the thing’s nightmarish flames. Shuddering, the Firebleeder fell, being buried amid a mountainous avalanche of searing ice and its victims’ bones. Ragged and few, the survivors of the Legion of Wands claimed victory, but deep in the heart of a pale mountain, an ember, the Firebleeder’s heart, still burned.
Resurrection
As with any of the Spawn, there exist myriad legends that suggest the Firebleeder might, by vile means, be somehow restored to life; yet, in the case of Xotani, one legend surpasses all others in the frequency with which it is repeated: 1,000 wish spells, spoken above its broken corpse—one for each of the wounds it suffered at the hands of the Legion of Wands. Thankfully, there could scarcely exist any way to generate or acquire such monumental arcane energies; similarly, no sane mind could conceive of unleashing such incomprehensible power with the aim of returning breath and strength to nightmarish Xotani, a creature that sages speculate was birthed with the sole purpose of searing a hole out of Rovagug’s prison.
Species
Children
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