The Black Pyramid
Hidden deep in the Underdark, below the eastern Mediterranean sea floor is a gateway. This gateway is like no other. A tomb of excessive size, and made of worked obsidian, is the Black Pyramid. Dating back to roughly 1.5 million years BC, it was originally used as a temple by the Yuan-Ti, and used to worship Set & Apep. Small elements of its power, dimensions, and knowledge over time made its way to the surface helping to bury itself in the Egyptian culture thousands upon thousands of years later. Although buried at depth, both deep in the Underdark, and now with the Mediterranean above that, it still holds a sway over the Yuan-Ti, at least those who know something of its existence. As much a library of knowledge of the occult as a tomb for an ancient black dragon, who used the name of Leviathan after who it followed as its master, many other black magic users search for it when they hear of it.
The only way is to find a way in the Underdark in the countries surrounding the Aegean Sea, or from the western Middle East & north east Africa. Ways in are rumoured to be in the Seas here too, but are unreliable too. It sits with ambient light shining somewhere on the roof of the Underdark from what is rumoured to be a captured sun. Groups like the Black Elves, Yuan-Ti, the Necrocult, the Children of the Nazarene, and other esoteric groups search for it on pilgrimages to try to tap it's secrets. Some rumours place a hidden passageway in the Library of Alexandria leading to the region of the Underdark where it sits, surrounded by a devastated landscape of cooled lava flows, dark sandy patches, and clouds of dark to black clouds flowing through the sky. Cold wind blows through it region giving a slight sulphurous smell to the region.
Purpose / Function
The Black Pyramid is a huge tomb and library for the study of occult matters, usually leaning to the darker arts of magic & psionics. Everything about it reflects and enhances any spell or psychic energy that has a negative effect, whether on a specific individual, a group of living creatures, or on a region. The whole region is steeped in death, destruction, and harmful magical & psychic energies. Treatise inside the pyramid also specialise in toxic substances, from the inorganic to the organic. Only the most truly evil creatures can hope to make use of the region, and the pyramid as well as its contents.
It also has at it's heart a sarcophagus far larger than ever seen. In it is the remains of the black dragon called Leviathan.
Architecture
The Black Pyramid is built of pure obsidian, and follows the pattern later used by the ancient Egyptians. Its smooth sides has only one entry point, and this leads up to the burial chamber with the library just below it. A treasure room is rumoured to be hidden below the library containing ancient secret caches of coins, gems, and magical items, all steeped in energies that dulls them, yet makes any magical properties more potent.
Defenses
The defences are unique in that the pyramid is quite indestructible. Any damage caused to it is reflected back on the individual or group that attacks it. Also, the environment is very hostile. Pockets of poisonous gas are found throughout the region, and the wind stirs up ground down obsidian & igneous rock particles that can strip a living organism of tissue. Hostile creatures such as Yuan-Ti can be found making the journey home or to the pyramid, and packs of undead (such as zombies, skeletons, and ghouls) wander here and there. The pyramid also contains the mummified remains of dragon priests who rise as mummies if anything is disturbed by those who should not be there. Curses are woven into the fabric of the pyramid too, especially the grand burial chamber which is rumoured to lay any number of curses on the individual. Also, it is rumoured a certain set of the curses will waken the ancient black dragon. Traps are also rumoured to exist too, usually leading to or built into dead ends.
History
The Black Pyramid has been inexistence for 1,500,000 years or more, and was originally built by the ancient black dragon called Leviathan. The intended purpose was to allow her to gather information on all magic in existence into one library. Knowing that she could die by the magic itself, she secreted a few eggs around the local region of the pyramid guarded by undead, and poisoned the areas to prevent any further life from getting at them. In the process, she found the Yuan-Ti who had sensed her presence, and wanted to learn all that she knew.
After a few years of keeping the Yuan-Ti at bay, she had studied enough to have made contact with the original Leviathan, as well as Set/Seth and Apep. Learning everything she could, she modified the pyramid to become a de-facto phylactery for herself, knowing the energies she conjured from other worlds more foul were killing her. At the same time, she offered the actual Leviathan her soul on the chance of returning if the stars were right, as his servant on Earth. By doing so, she offered to train the Yuan-Ti and bind them closer to Set/Seth & Apep, to appease them, and for protection from their wrath. In both cases, it allowed her even more magical power.
When the time came she started to teach the Yuan-Ti, and bound them in servitude to her as much as their gods, and they started to worship her as The Black Serpent Whose Breath Poisons The Land. They brought her more magic and treasures, as well as protecting this hidden cache of knowledge.
Unfortunately, the Yuan-Ti are as arrogant as can be, and thought they were the only ones to truly deserve ruling the world. By this time the Children of the Nazarene had appeared in their original incarnation, and started to seek out this region. They cause untold damage to many access points all around it to stem the flow of the Yuan-Ti, and to avoid other groups that were now well aware of the pyramid. The Necrocult sided with the Children, and caused even more damage around the perimeters to the north, setting of earthquakes, a volcanic eruption, and the Mediterranean Basin filling with water to knock out many entry & exit points on the surface. And all the while, far to the north, the Black Elves had came through with their kin, and felt the pull of the pyramid. They played one side against the other until pushed back, though elements of them helped to finally blast shut many of the entries & exits, sealing off a great many. Their view being if they can't have it, no-one else can.
After about 1.2 million years, the damage was done, and the toll it took on Leviathan was enough for her to finally die. At the same time, most of the races could barely remember the ways inside & out, and it now drifted into infamy & myth. A few still know, and make the trek to learn what they can.
At the same time as this a great many portals had existed in and around the pyramid exploded causing the blasted landscape around it. At least two still exist, at least somewhere, one to the hell dimension of Leviathan & the Labyrinth, and one to the domains of Set/Seth & Apep. All during this time humanity started to rise, and the end of the portals caused magic to blow out so far & so powerfully, that it affected the early Egyptians that over time, it started to affect their own beliefs & customs. At the same time, for millennia right up to this age, there are individuals waking up to the powers of the pyramid, and setting up cults to worship the black dragon. Many use the symbol of the Black Pyramid, and when they change the world around them through their rituals, a siren of strange origin can be heard. They also, seem to alter reality enough to remove their pocket of reality into another dimension in line with the pyramid.
" I can feel it. The stench of rotten eggs, and the hollow eyes of it looking at me. Behind those blank sockets, the eyes of others, serpentine and glowing. The hardened sharp rocks below my feet one moment, and the grit & sand all black in colour whipping around me, on my skin, cutting me like finely crushed glass. All the while, a feeling of dread, yet the notion of knowledge.... forbidden knowledge. The knowledge that if I open up and accept them in I will truly live forever, and the strength to dominate others. And the flesh, the flesh is weak, malleable, able to be removed, reshaped, or replaced. Replaced with what though. To give myself to them, what power!!
What would I lose though? My soul, that's all they ask. All they want is for them to reshape to a different form, to take on the serpent aspect, the snake in the grass, the avatar of the winged one. After all I lost to those damned to the night, to those who believe the blood of the living is the life force spoke in scriptures. Their promise though, as long as I bow my knee to them, they will allow me to keep my soul as long as I appease them.
No more, I am a simple man, cursed by knowing too much. Ever since the village was run over by those bloodthirsty bastards, and that diabolical being from the Far Realm coursing through me, giving me the power to burn them all in one stroke...."
Last entry in the journal of Wilhelm Smit, dated 31st Oct 766 AD. Executed by fire, on 1st Nov 766 AD. Heretic and warlock, Wien, Austria, by the hands of the Ulmist Inquisition.
Leviathan. An ancient black dragon who fought and killed many other dragons, along with the destruction of many conclaves of giants during the time of Pangea. She was known to have mated with many other black dragons, and the odd brass dragon. How many of her broods survived is another matter. She supposedly sacrificed a great deal to bargains with demons & devils to gain access to otherworldly riches, and knowledge. All that is known is she vanished millennia ago, and rumoured to have become a servant of her namesake, Leviathan, the Lord of the Labyrinth, and the Master of Flesh & Order. She was known to have killed countless lesser races to appease her master, and talked of as being in league with both the Egyptian being Set/Seth and Apep, as well as a race known as the Yuan-Ti. The latter seemed to have given her the name of The Black Serpent Whose Breath Poisons The Land, and worshipped her as an avatar of the god Set/Seth.
Up to her disappearance all that time ago, many sources in the giant & dragon communities, and the Yuan-Ti, all speak of her as seeking knowledge. To what end nobody knows. It is known that other worlds have dragons fitting the basic descriptions in looks & behaviours of the same types spread across each one. When one dies, one of these others are suggested to absorb the lifeforce of the deceased. Maybe she was looking to escape this happening. Maybe all her incarnations are trying to do the same. Why? We can only guess.
From the Tome of the Dragonkin, by Mohammed Alhazred, 424 AD, Jerusalem.
There has been cult activity again in the mountain borders between ourselves and the damned Franks again. A small cult of members dressed in white garments from head to toe, with a black veil at the centre of the hoods were found shaped like a triangle. Their leader was a learned man, a healer, who had lost his daughter. His name is unimportant, but when we entered the village, there was a strange noise. Almost artificial somehow. Sounded to go up and down, and a few of the lads wanted to flee. Seemed we couldn't anyway. There was nothing to see for miles around except the world turning to blackened ash and darkened sand a few miles outside the boundaries.
We eventually had to cut our way to the healer's hut. There we found a horrific sight. Standing over a woman, mutated by some type of organic growths sprouting from her, and something moving unnaturally in her belly, was the healer. He had clearly mutilated himself, removing patches of skin, and with incisions. They looked like some type of sigils, of what I cannot say. He was laughing saying that it was near time for the world to be born anew.
At this point, surreal sounds could be heard from the woman's abdomen, while she seemed to groan of her own accord. A triangle of pure light appeared in the wall behind the healer at this point. A couple of the lads who were at breaking point eventually lost it, but thank the Gods they did. One rushed the woman stabbing her in her abdomen so whatever was there died. She died pretty quick afterwards, smiling, and mouthing thank you. The other lad, he charged the healer and managed to knock him of balance. both careened into the triangle of light, both of them & it vanishing almost instantaneously. After that, after leaving the cultists were found dead, as if they had just dropped down. That and everything beyond this little area had returned to normal.
Report submitted by Thegn Stefan Hindenburg to Jarl Cwenhild Saxton.
Founding Date
1,500,800 BC
Type
Tomb
Parent Location
Included Locations
Owning Organization
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