Kelleris
Explorer
Okay, I've got some additional info for everyone: a brief account of Droman pre-history, a description of life in Dromus, and the first of the planar touchstone write-ups. Oh, and just so you know, the current year is 198 CP.
Dromus Regional History
The entire regional history of Dromus spans only some 460 years since the creation of the plane of Khatheram, as reckoned by the universal calendar adopted by the seven planes following the Crossroads War. Therefore, all dates are given from the Treaty of Capitulation, signed on year 1 of the CP (cessenti pactum) calendar.
According to the best guesses of arcane scholars and historians, Khatheram began to form in the year -362 CP, but was uninhabitable for more than a century and a half after this time; the primordial landscape was too malleable and twisted to support anything like demihuman life. The first recognizably humanoid peoples to arrive on the plane were small groups of Tangler elves, which had arrived and colonized the verdant and newly-created forests by -207 CP. More organized settlement began shortly thereafter, as surface-dwelling Yesheveran paid for the use of drow-created portals and settled in the flatlands of the new world.
Caeldwyste soon got in on the settlement game by dispatching an expeditionary force in -181 CP, paid for by a small group of thrill-seeking nobles. The force encountered both the Yesheveran settlers and Tangler villagers while exploring the plane, and skirmished with both, but eventually established a permanent camp in the prodigious mountain range that formed a barrier between the fertile plains and isolated woodlands already settled by various parties. They named the mountains the Wyrgeord (cursed earth) Range because of the biting cold’s ability to keep out all but the most adventurous of settlers not used to the arctic cold of Caeldwyste.
-179 CP saw the first Kellunan templars dispatched as missionaries to the rapidly-growing population of the new plane, which had come to be known as Khatheram – the name given to it by the original Yesheveran surface-dwellers who had colonized the flatlands. The Proxies formed the first major links between the three expanding colonies as their influence on matters spiritual came to be of greater and greater importance. By establishing temples with little regard for national boundaries, these templars made the first serious contacts possible between the cross-planar settlers of Khatheram.
By -148 CP, however, the steady flow of immigrants had increased the scope of the colonies to the point where they began to come into steady conflict over precious resources difficult to acquire in their homelands. The Caelder emphasis on rugged individualism and preference for haggling over Yesheveran price-fixing led quickly to trade disputes between the two major powers, which led to border skirmishes, and finally to a complete cessation of trade and vehemently bad relations whenever contact was unavoidable. War loomed on the horizon, but was averted by two events: the interventions of the drow noble houses and the discovery of a new faction, hidden in plain sight. As tensions between the Caelders and Yesheveran grew, the drow had been taking a more and more active hand in directing the affairs of the settlers, who had originally consisted entirely of surface-dwellers; early -145 CP had already heralded the arrival of the first dark elves, and their presence in Yesheveran lands mounted steadily. As these magically-adept beings consolidated their control over the established surface-dwellers, who by this time had become alarmingly independent, they noticed that a great deal of strange and subtle magic was being used in their lands, and an intensive covert investigation was begun
After several years of quiet research, a team of drow wizards isolated a new and unknown form of magic, in the year -142 CP, and revealed an impressive program of systematic, magic-fueled deception. The revelation shocked everyone and dangerously shifted the balance of power: a small confederation of monastic ki-users had long since been isolating and controlling key mining locations rich in iron and stone throughout Yesheveran land, using their abilities to conceal their presence from those they deemed to be unenlightened. The abbots of several powerful monasteries, viewing the rich resources of the new plane as a threat to the peace and tranquility of their home of Tila’kun, had agreed to prevent this material wealth from reaching the hands of the savages that so frequently disturbed the order of things. Of course, as these newcomers had never demonstrated enlightenment themselves, they could not be trusted either, and so a very effective campaign of deceit was begun. Many places that had been thought before to be under the protection of the fey were found to be controlled instead by quite impressive monastery-fortresses, which had seemingly sprung up overnight, and Yesheveran settlers discovered that they had a power to match their own hiding right under their noses. War was only averted by masterful Yesheveran diplomats carefully working out a trade agreement, under the watchful eyes of Caelder settlers who would have been only too happy to see their biggest diplomatic problem “solve itself” without any interference on their part.
Things continued in this rocky vein for more than 50 years, until a new player arrived in -93 CP and completely annihilated the already-tenuous balance of power. That new player was the Imperium Mechanus, who arrived with seven full legions, some 350,000 men and women, and a small army of war machines all set to conquer everything they could lay hands on. Having finally jury-rigged an ancient portal to take them from their home plane to this land of uncivilized fetish-waving sorcerers just begging to be civilized, they went about their “civilizing” with gusto. Unfortunately, they arrived right in the foothills of the Wyrgeord Range, next to a Tila’kun monastery, in a grove protected by templars loyal to a fiercely protective nature Proxy, and less than three miles from a key Yesheveran trading post. In the orgy of conquest that followed, all four of the previous inhabitants of the plane found themselves under heavy and confusing fire from out of nowhere. When the attacking army vanished overnight (as the Imperial war machines and their soldiers’ advanced gear spontaneously quit working in the magic-rich plane of Khatheram) all sides blamed each other and began to war in earnest as the Imperials slipped off to an out-of-the-way corner of their swath of destruction to try to figure out what had gone wrong, founding the city that would one day become Dromus in the process. Fortunately for the Imperials, they had dwindled to a completely unimportant strategic foe in a matter of days, and were ignored for the entire Crossroads War as they quietly got along without interfering with anybody, thoroughly cowed by the failure of their mighty legions.
The war dragged on for almost a century after this initial outbreak, due to repeated failures of any direct assault on the off-plane power centers of each force. Whenever these invasions were launched, any one of which could have put a decisive end to an impossibly drawn-out conflict, some natural force of the defending plane inevitably thwarted the invaders’ ambitions. With an entire impregnable plane to fall back to and draw resources from, it seemed that no side could really lose, despite the best efforts of all the other sides. Just when it seemed that the only options were an endless war of attrition or brokering some kind of peace, a third option arrived on the scene, in the year -6 CP. Unfortunately, this third option involved a lot of screaming and a whole lot of unnecessary tentacles, in the form of a Far Realms incursion the likes of which had not been seen in the entire recorded history of the seven planes. In a matter of months it became clear that these invaders would wipe out all life on Khatheram unless they were somehow stopped.
A brief respite came when the warring parties hurriedly forgot their differences and joined forces against the greater foe. Their combined tactics proved extremely effective, combining Caelder hunting techniques and Yesheveran wizardry, Tangler rangers with the powerful ki magic of the monasteries, and unfailing support from every Proxy that could be reached, good or evil. Despite this, by -3 CP the alliance had fallen apart under internal pressures. Each group was desperate to defend the permanent portals leading to their home plane, a priority that overrode all others, and any attack by enemy marauders that threatened these crucial strongholds led to the collapse of critical alliance initiatives. Soon, the alien monstrosities roamed nearly unchecked, with only a few fortified places remaining under demihuman control, clustered tightly around the ferociously-defended portals.
In -2 CP the last of these fortresses fell, and all that remained were tides of disorganized refugees cut off from their homelands by the loss of the portals. But, gradually, an incredible rumor spread through the ranks of the refugees, a rumor that there still remained one city, practically untouched by the ravening aliens and capable of providing shelter from the powerful and merciless beings that still sporadically appeared. This rumor, miraculously, turned out to be true: the long-forgotten technologist enclave of Dromus was hardly touched during the last cataclysmic months of the Crossroads War. Hundreds of thousands of refugees crowded into Dromus, a disordered horde that made life inside Dromus scarcely better than life in the fiend-haunted wilderness. With no reliably functioning portals the city had no power to relieve the pressure of the refugees crashing against it, and Dromus slowly descended into chaos. Finally, a heroic band of adventurers succeeded in penetrating the old fortresses, now haunted by unspeakable horrors of every description, and retrieving the remaining portals, turning a rapidly decaying situation around almost overnight.
By the year 1 CP a degree of order had been restored and it was possible to declare martial law and bring a brutal but effective justice to Dromus, maintained by the remnants of the old warring forces. A treaty was quickly worked out wherein every signatory surrendered to every other, and the modern-day city of Dromus was founded. The Far Realms incursion had died down as inexplicably as it had begun, but the horrified survivors were not inclined to take any more chances. Any travel outside the borders of Dromus was strictly prohibited, for fear that any activity outside this “safe zone” would call down the wrath of the Far Realms once more. Since that momentous day, Dromus has been slowly struggling to find its own identity and place in the cosmos, and remains the only known settlement of any appreciable size on the plane of Khatheram.
Dromus Life and Society
Dromus is undeniably a place where things happen, an important center of trade and change. Dromans simply accept this as a fact, without showing any noticeable appreciation for the nuances of history or politics. Obviously everyone would want to control their city – it’s the really interesting place to be, after all. The astute see that Dromus is an artificial bubble that many suspect cannot last – the forces tugging it in every direction are simply too strong as observance of the Treaty of Capitulation becomes increasingly a matter of lip service rather than sincerity. For now, the city remains the place where power can be won or lost with a swiftness unmatched anywhere else.
This bubbling instability, and the pressures that threaten to burst it from within, are the planar powers locked in a struggle for supremacy that remains just below the surface most of the time. Craftsman’s Guildmembers, Arcanists, Kellunan templars, forbidden cults, Yesheveran nobles, Imperial administrators, Caelder merchants, urban thieves’ gangs, mercenary bands and many others constantly squabble on behalf of their respective interests, while the populace just gets by as best as they can.
Some find life in this tumultuous city to be a drug they can’t stop taking. Powers of all sorts find it expedient to keep spies and agents in the city, engaging in tactics as underhanded as they can get away with. Although Dromus has room for anyone who wants to make his fortune (or even just a living), it is also the place where life can most easily take an unexpected turn for the interesting.
Caeldwyste Planar Touchstone
The cold is palpable in the air of Caeldwyste. It permeates buildings, quenches fires, fills the wide-open skies. Academics speak of the proximity of the Paraelemental Plane of Cold and of the planar forces that determine the weather, but anyone can see the endless fields of ice and snow and judge for themselves. It seems impossible that any human or demihuman could survive in such an inhospitable place, but the Caelder civilization is testimony to the adaptive power of these seemingly puny races.
The energies that institute the year-round winter of Caeldwyste are such that anyone born there can instinctively protect themselves against the cold. Foreigners freeze and die quickly, but native Caelders are so inured to the cold that they can, and often do, venture out into the snows with only minimal protection. If they can survive the cold long enough, even those from another plane can find the strength to overcome it entirely. Those who do come to appreciate the frigid beauty of the landscape.
Initial Encounters: This is a special planar touchstone that covers the entire plane; therefore there are no special encounter tables for the area as there are for more precisely localized touchstones. Instead, any character who spends at least 3 months on the plane, without leaving for more than 24 hours, is considered to have attuned him- or herself to the plane, and automatically gains the base ability without the usual ritual.
Subsequent Encounters: See above.
Base Ability: You gain resistance to cold 6.
Recharge Condition: Participate in a successful Odensjakt hunt. This entails hunting one of the mighty beasts of the tundra, alone or in a group of no more than 7, and claiming the kill for the people of Caeldwyste. Roll on the encounter chart below for a creature eligible for the Odensjakt, though this hardly exhausts the possibilities.
Odensjakt Encounters:
d% Encounter
01-20 1 Feral Frost Giant
21-30 1 18-HD Gargantuan Ice Toad
31-60 1 16-HD Remorhaz
51-70 1 Dire Polar Bear
71-100 1 11-headed Cryohydra
Higher-Order Ability: Drawing on the power of Caeldwyste and the self-confidence taking down (very) large prey inspires, you may invoke the effects of a righteous might spell as a 10th-level Cleric, except that the damage reduction is bypassed by cold iron instead of an aligned weapon.
Higher-Order Uses: 2
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