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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack7" data-source="post: 4871054" data-attributes="member: 54707">Possible Adventures: From the Dreaming DM, Part ThreeThe Adventure for the Dream of the Thing Under the WaterD&D/Fantasy Adventure/Scenario: Beneath the Glass – This adventure would begin at the City of Kwåhąlk. It takes place on <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/254759-worlds-apart.html" target="_blank">Ghantik</a>.For several months merchants who have passed close enough to the city to gain sight of it have spoken of strange lights and movement on the surface of Kûrne-slurýn (Lake Glass). Word eventually reaches Samarkand who send the Caerkara out to investigate. The lake was said to have originally been dug out by the giants in order to provide their city with water for all of their needs. It is a huge lake, almost an inland sea, and no-one is really sure exactly how deep it might be. When the Caerkara arrive they discover that an odd device seems to rise on occasion from the lake, near the shore. There is much lore and history that is recorded regarding the various incarnations of the city of Kwåhąlk, but none have ever made any mention of anything like this object that rises from the lake at night. (<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/254946-dreaming-dm.html#post4871062" target="_blank">See description of Object here</a>.)No mention can be found of the object in any record, who made it, or for what purpose, and no oral tradition or legend makes any mention of the thing either. But after observing it on several nights the Caerkara notices that it changes shape most every time it appears (with no real discernable pattern), that it occasionally seems to split open, then it seems to repair itself or meld back together, and then resubmerge. When it splits apart it seems to allow entrance to an internal system of gears and devices, as well as to what appears to be a sort of shaft reaching down into the lake.How to Use the Thing Under the Water: The thing under the water will lead, through the shaft, into a series of dungeon complexes. Each different appearance (that is each different shape-appearance of the object) will lead to a different dungeon complex, one of them located under the lake, one traveling back in time to a point just after the original city of the giants was abandoned, and one leading to an underground maze complex on Earth (Terra – in Egypt under the city of Karnak). One will also lead to a secret and long-abandoned complex of the Nephýařla.Several of the appearances will also contain complex traps, as well as the occasional monster (ones never seen elsewhere), and other challenges that must be overcome before one can proceed to the real destination. Notes on the Ruined City of Kwåhąlk – The ancient “Bridged City of the Deven,” which was abandoned without warning. None of the occupants were later ever discovered. They seem to have simply disappeared. Kwåhąlk was built over the remains of Six Older Cities, the oldest having been built by the ancient Beiãrygn (Giants). The giant builders were also said to have disappeared according to ancient lore. The original name of the city has been lost to time with the long vanished giants.Kwåhąlk was the only city ever built by the Deven (Dwarves) completely above ground, though old and still visible passages led to the Sixth City, or Underground Kwåhąlk.Kwåhąlk was said to be the city the giants had built as a defense against the H’alel. Yet after three hundred years the giants disappeared, and their city was abandoned, and eventually it was covered over by the dust of time. Many years later however the first site was built over, for the city lay upon a strategic point of both migration and trade. Two of the cities were sacked and burned, some were simply covered over by time and decay and new construction. Six cities had lain destroyed or abandoned or in partial ruins by the time the Deven decided to locate their city at the same location. The sixth city had long fallen into decay and was used for very little other than a merchantman’s and caravan station. The Devens negotiated to buy the city remains and to have all of the old inhabitants relocated. They then set about to raze the existing city and then to build a new city such as no other that had ever existed. Dev (dwarves) from many lands, including Samarkand (who lost many of their most skilled craftsmen, and political and military advisors to Kwåhąlk), decided to make their home in the new city. Contrary to all previous building inclinations of the Deven Kwåhąlk was built entirely aboveground. It is said that the construction was so amazingly precise, original in design, and interlocked in nature that sound from a great distance outside the walls could be heard at any point inside the walls through horns made of bone that many of the people carried with them. And that the entire city would vibrate gently when certain tones were produced during yearly festivals and holidays, leading to visions of the past and future, as well as instances of near miraculous healing of the sick. It was also said that when the nearby Kûrne-slurýn (Lake Glass) rose in flood the entire city would change in color and become reflective like a mirror, as if covered in Elturgical Quicksilver. When so enchanted the city could be seen like a reflected gem from many miles away. The Deven peoples lived in Kwåhąlk for approximately seventy years. Then one day they simply vanished en masse, with no sign of struggle, disease, starvation, or disaster.After the abandonment of Kwåhąlk and the disappearance of the inhabitants, the government at Samarkand launched a series of investigative expeditions to Kwåhąlk to see if they could determine what had occurred. Nothing leading to any concrete clue as to the nature of the city’s fate and abandonment ever surfaced.The City was renowned far and wide for it’s number of huge Bridges, which connected one part of the city to another, Kwåhąlk having been divided into Seven smaller sub-districts, each encircled by a wall, inter-locking tower grid, or defense system of some type. It is said that fourteen architectural wonders are enclosed within the bounds of the city, including the famous Dome of the Summer Stars (Klərstahlbřyn), which is the largest dome on any one building known to exist yet it is supported by only four slender columns of an unknown marble-like substance which reflects moonlight, but absorbs sunlight.After the expeditions from Samarkand failed to discover any real reason for the abandonment of the city and the disappearance of its inhabitants few people have ever ventured there again, and none reside there as residents. The city was abandoned by the Deven about 50 years ago (game time). There are weord prophecies going back to the time of the Giants said to be associated with the city, but most of these now exist only in fragmentary form or in lost languages.</blockquote>

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