Krors Ra Drugan and Zlo the Thief of the Silt

Krors Ra Drugan

Biographical Details

Clan: Mrenbar, on the Crimson Atoll

Uhrnomus: Nado, a powerful earth cleric and psychometabolist

Clan Focus: To accumulate enough wood, stone, and most importantly obsidian floater domes so as to construct their own, strictly dwarven atoll. Before the attack of Alteric, they nearly had enough material to do this.

Clan Religion: Earth. Hardland is corrupt and dangerous. The dwarves of Mrenbar Clan must build hardland anew amidst the Silt Sea, to ensure that it is good land, and not corrupt.

Clan Enemies: The Silt Sea. The Mrenbar dwarves hate the Silt, and oppose it religiously. Their rival dwarven clan aboard the Crimson Atoll, the Randor Dwarves, revere the Silt, and possess several silt clerics. Unlike the Mrenbar, they worship silt, and train their youths with a legendary being called the Old Man of the Sea, who is in fact a kreen of some sort.

Family Patriarch: Morz the Old, a powerful psychokineticist and Mrenbar Clan uhrnius or leader

Family Matriarch: Bezra, a clothesmaker out of creatures from the Silt Sea

Father: Drugan Ra Morz, a stonemason, sailor and silt horror fisherman

Mother: Yera, a silt farmer

Siblings: three living sisters, two living brothers (none of repute)

Maternal Cousin Ora: Ora was a dwarven thiefess, who managed to steel gold and steel from Zhor's treasury aboard the Atoll. Ora was caught and banished to the Silt Sea (executed). Ora is the one who taught Krors the basics of his thieving skills.

Laz of Urik

Biographical Details

Father: Drogu, dwarven gladiator of House Escrissar of Urik, killed in Urik's gladiatorial arena

Mother: unknown human woman, died during childbirth

Half-Brother: Khorbus, an elder gladiator mul half-brother, status unknown

Former Owner: Elabon Escrissar, a deceased High Templar of Urik; the Crown of Urik

Appearance

Laz was burned very badly by the Black Death of the obsidian pits. All over his body, he is covered with lacerations from serrated obsidian, especially along his arms, feet and hands. When he used his detonate power in the obisidian tunnels, shrapnel cut into his face, leaving scars. A "gift" from the Fire in the Dark, Laz's irises are burned black.

Childhood

Born in the 27th Year of the 190th King's Age, the Year of Wind's Reverence, or Free Year 2 in the calendar of emancipated Tyr.

Drogu, a dwarf of immense stamina and strength (21 strength/21 constitution) had become a cruel and evil gladiator in the stables of House Escrissar, a Urikite high templar family. Drogu was rewarded for his many victories by being bred to human women at a Urikite obsidian slave mining camp outside of Makla at the Black Crown Mountain. Sentenced there for crimes, real or imaginary, against Urik and its citizens, these slave women were brought bleeding from the obsidian mines for Drogu's pleasure, and the pleasure of other dwarves chosen by the templars. Once pregnant, these women were taken and placed in special pens, where they were forced to bring the pregnancy to full term, being well-fed and watered. At the end of the pregnancy, these condemned slave women would mostly die during the traumatic birth of a large mul child. The children would be suckled by the surviving women, and once the children were capable of maintaining themselves, they were taken by officers of the Urikite army, and raised to be slave-soldiers for their god, Hamanu the Lion of Urik, and king of that city. Laz was one of these mul youths.

Laz was harshly trained in the ways of the Urikite army, becoming brainwashed and a fanatical slave-soldier candidate. While still a boy, Laz's father Drogu appeared before him, having won his freedom by the hand of the King himself. Drogu still fought in the games however, although now as a freedman. Having completed the first half of his military training, Laz was on occasion given liberty to go with his father and to see him fight in Urik's Pit of Black Death, the Royal Arena. Laz saw Drogu fight several times, during which his brutal and evil father would butcher convicts, petty challengers, and sometimes worthy opponents. Drogu would never let any opponent live, despite the demands of the spectators, but since he never lost, he was becoming a great champion. At last Drogu had nearly enough money to purchase Laz's freedom, as he had done with at least one other of his sons, a mul named Khorbus, at which point Drogu intended to train Laz as a free gladiator who would fight in the arena. However, all this fell apart when Drogu accepted the match of the half-giant slave-gladiator Badwah. A monstrous and bloodthirsty champion from the city-state of Raam, Badwah hacked apart Drogu's living chest with his barbed battle axe, then smashed Drogu to death against one of the spiked obsidian pillars in the Pit of Black Death. Badwah removed Drogu's head and lanced it upon one of the spikes for all to see. All this Laz beheld for himself.

Adolescence, and The Rebellion of Xal'gren

Shortly after beginning the adult phase of his military training, a massive slave revolt erupted on the outskirts of Urik. The slave revolt was led by a human gladiator named Xal'gren. Although at first without any soldier-slaves, Xal'gren amazingly defeated several of the outlying town garrisons with only liberated field slaves and a small contingent of freed gladiators. His ranks swelled into the thousands. At length, Xal'gen came to Laz's garrison. An immense human man, Xal'gren was already a famous gladiator, and one of the champions of the city. With an impassioned speech demanding freedom for all, Xal'gren's awesome charisma washed over the assembled slave-soldiers-in-training, and so they turned on their training officers and slew them.

Laz participated in the rest of the rebellion, for as long as it lasted. Drawn by the leadership of Xal'gren, the human gladiator believed the Urikites would never let his slave army escape Urikite territory, and so he planned nothing less than the siege of Urik itself, the defeat of its army and templars, and the overthrow of the king himself. Such was the awesome power of Xal'gren's leadership and combat prowess that his slave followers soon fanatically believed that such incredible feats were possible.

In those tense days, Laz fought hard in Xal'gren's army, and on several nights soaked in the world-deep wisdom of the strange gladiator, during which times he would sing and talk to his followers. Preaching the most profound vision of freedom Laz had ever heard, Laz learned that Xal'gren desired no crown, but that instead he wished to free the slaves of Urik from their masters, and then return to the desert. Laz heard the songs and parables of Wind and Air that Xal'gren would sing, and he learned that Xal'gren had been raised by thri-kreen in the deserts of the Tablelands. Amongst the thri-kreen Xal'gren had learned the love of true freedom, and a reverence for the breeze, gales and airs that symbolized this freedom. Xal'gren seemed almost more than human, although he was a man, but declined the crown of prophet that many of his followers wished to offer him.

Xal'gren's two weeks of freedom ended with a direct assault and siege of Urik, as Rikus and the Free Legion of Tyr had done over a decade before. But just as Rikus had failed, so did Xal'gren. Xal'gren did not even bring down the gates. The slave army was routed by the legions of Urik, and his force was placed in double envelopment before the walls of the city. There was a great massacre of the rebelling slaves, and Xal'gren, the champion of freedom for Urik's oppressed, was taken alive, if much against his will, by the order of the king.

Laz's unit of "traitorous" boy-soldiers were fettered and disgraced. No longer candidates for slave-soldiers in King Hamanu's army, the entire battalion was sent to living death in the Royal Obsidian Mines beneath Black Crown Mountain.

The Fate of Xal'gren

Although Laz did not see it, he would soon hear of that fate of Xal'gren the Free. The gladiator was abused and thrown into the Pit of Black Death, where he was to be put to death before the eyes of the vengeful king by the most powerful and vicious monsters of the desert that the King's reavers could possibly find. Over the course of months, the great gladiator survived combat after combat, and at last in an open desert arena near the Lake of Golden Dreams, he slew a fire drake, perhaps the most powerful creature of the desert besides the Dragon himself. Now immensely popular within the city, Hamanu allowed there to be a final gladiatorial combat in the Pit of Black Death against a great champion. King Hamanu arranged for the Champion of Raam, the half-giant Badwah, to come to Urik to put an end to Xal'gren. The two great gladiators fought a horrendous battle, to a draw, and so upon the screaming demands of the fanatical spectators, Xal'gren was allowed to live and be sold to the great city-state of Raam.

Laz and the Black Death

Few fates are worse than being sold into slavery to

work in the quarry pits. The sharp edges of the

glassy stone will slice your fingers, hands, and arms

to a point of uselessness within days. -The Wanderer's Chronicle

The free winds of Xal'gren's revered spirits of the air stopped with the great gladiator's capture. Bereft of all hope, Laz and all his companions were doomed to die in the King's obsidian pits. Within a few weeks, all but the hardiest of the humans and half-elves of the rebellious slave-soldier battalion died or were put to death for exhaustion. For all but the strongest, the black glass amplified the heat of the afternoon to lethal levels, and the cruel guards spared no brutality for the condemned slaves.

However, the continued rumor of Xal'gren's survival gave Laz hope.

With his thicker skin and incredible bodily constitution, Laz, like many of his mul companions, survived, if only barely, the extreme harshness of the Black Death, as it was called. Remembering having once desired to emulate his father, Laz saw the handful of favored or even free dwarves come to seed the condemned human women of the mines. As time went on, Laz heard the horrid death howls of many of these women as they gave birth to more future mul slave-soldiers for the King.

Every day Laz would emerge from the pits, his body cut and bleeding, and the guards would push he and his fellow muls harder, for they knew the muls were traitors and that they could work harder then the humans. His skin became burned and hard, and his eyes singed from the blinding glare of the black obsidian. His feet, arms and hands became completely covered in cuts and scars from the valuable black glass. But Laz endured. Already blessed by his mother with a probing and speculative mind which could peer into the hearts of his fellow creatures, Laz's short time with Xal'gren had opened new and vast horizons for his mind. The songs of freedom he had heard for but a few days from the mouth of Xal'gren now spoke through him, and Laz imagined running free in the vast deserts which he could see from some of the harsh rocky perches of the mine camp. Like Xal'gren had done, Laz tried singing to the wind, even for aid, like the great gladiator had said an elder thri-kreen could do, to provide healing and protection from the woes of the world. No wind ever came for Laz, and he did not hear the Wind's voice, as he was sure that Xal'gren could.

By the end of the first year of such captivity, Xal'gren had been sold to Raam, and so the last great hope for the condemned slave-soldiers, that Xal'gren might lead another revolution to save them, faded from their minds. Despair and suicide began to take their toll. However, also by the end of the first year, a new hope came to fill the absence of the old one. Special templars came from the city who worked for the king's arena, and they chose several of those muls who had survived the year, for such muls had proved themselves exceptionally strong and resilient, and were thus deemed deserving for the chance to become a gladiator. Laz had been sent down one of the mine shafts when such templars came however, and was not selected, but it gave him the hope of being selected next time they came. Perhaps Laz could become a gladiator like Xal'gren after all.

Laz Explores the Depths of the Obsidian Mines

Another year passed, and Laz was passed up again for selection. A fiery despair had set in already, but at one point there was an impromptu attempted escape by many of the mul youths. They were stopped by the templars not far from the mines, and crucified so as to be exposed to death by the blazing glare of the obsidian. Laz watched as many of his old companions--some of the very strongest among them--die slow and transfixed at the edge of the pits.

By the third year, Laz was one of the few muls left of the original group, the rest either having died or been granted the blessing of enslavement somewhere else. Now however, although still very young, Laz was one of the more experienced slaves in the mines, and desiring his experience, the guards prevented Laz from being selected for gladiatorial training or any of the other hard labor positions away from the obsidian quarries that a good number of the other ex-slave-soldiers had been given.

Equipped as he was with the dwarven infravision of his father, Laz was sent out of the sun-exposed open pits and down into the dangerous obsidian tunnels, where special pieces obsidian intended for more unique purposes were quarried. Day after endless day Laz descended with small teams out of the blazing sun and into the murky and cool depths. Laz soon learned from the most experienced subterranean slave-miners how to rough-cut great slabs of obsidian, which it was said were refined by master slaves in Urik into strange stones and objects for unknown purposes.

By his fifth year in the mines, Laz was amongst the most respected slave miners in the camp, for he had become quite adept with the iron tools that were used to cut the strange and large shapes out of the obsidian. Laz was mentored by the most experienced slaves, and became privy to dark rumors of creatures and magic which lay at the center beneath the Black Crown Mountain. He was told by an elder human slave named Evrens that the high templar of the mines himself desired round obsidian balls, which had to be cut from perfectly pure and unblemished obsidian, and that such veins only existed deep beneath the earth and beneath the Black Crown. Laz already knew that the deep teams often tried cutting such obsidian, but that they were rarely of high enough quality for the templars. Nevertheless, entertaining a rumor that one who could cut such pieces of obsidian would be granted their freedom, Laz pursued such cuts of obsidian with vigor when the templars told he and his team to find such a piece.

Another year and more passed as Laz and his fellow deep miner slaves plumbed the depths of the obsidian tunnels and caverns, hoping that they would not run into the monsters that were rumored to wander the deeper places. Certain teams would disappear from time to time, and well-armed squads of templars would descend into the depths, but Laz never saw any such creatures.

One day, exploring the depths of the mines, the team found an exceptionally perfect section of obsidian, and so they went to work. Laz thought he had cut a promising piece that could be finished at the surface, but a highly experienced half-elf slave on the team named Niroko claimed that he had been responsible for selecting the perfect vain of obsidian, and demanded that he be the one who displayed the obsidian to the templars. Laz and others refused, and there was a struggle. Niroko, an accomplished thief before his enslavement, managed to take the rough globe from Laz, and ran down the tunnel and back towards the surface with the treasure. Laz's rage grew, and his psionic wild talent, which hitherto had been unknown to him, was released. The obsidian above the half-elf detonated, killing the half-elf instantly. The obsidian tunnel cracked and its ceiling fell, separating Laz from his companions, and threw him down a jagged fissure his own psionic power had created.

Laz and the Fire in the Dark

Where Laz fell, he found himself unable to see, his infravision somehow failing him. He could feel the obsidian all around.

With bones broken and his flesh badly bleeding from lacerations during the fall, Laz begged once more for the Wind of Xal'gren to guide him to his escape from the fissure, to heal his broken bones and to light his way. The wind did not answer, and so he prayed for any power that could hear him to come to his succor. There was still no answer.

At last, Laz's great will began to fade, and as he despaired, he clutched the iron piton he was contemplating plunging into his heart. In his desperation, the tip of the iron piton began to glow a low red color. Fixated on his own display of Will, the piton grew hotter and hotter, and its tip began to glow brighter and more intensely, and at last a tiny flame danced on the point of the tool.

Now with a light, Laz beheld that he had fallen into a strange corridor of what appeared to be very rare perfectly black obsidian that had somehow melted, as if from a great heat, at some time far in the past. Laz limped down the passage, and saw that the round seven foot diameter egg-shaped corridor went forward some thirty feet. There the corridor opened into a large chamber, forty feet high and teardrop-shaped perhaps, and completely composed of the very blackest and unblemished obsidian Laz had ever seen. The floor of the chamber seemed to be frozen in a molten state, like flowing pitch-black glass.

Upon walking into the center of the chamber, Laz's glowing red piton suddenly erupted into a blaze of fire. Alarmed, he threw the iron to the ground, and the fire grew greater, until it burned as a dark pillar in front of Laz.

All the while, Laz heard a great many indecipherable voices, speaking everywhere and nowhere. Laz stared upon the pillar of fire, which hurt his eyes, but he did not look away.

The voice from the flame said: "There can be no Freedom without Light, for in the Darkness there is Nothing at all... You call upon the Winds, but they cannot hear you here. This is My sanctuary, here at the door to the Heart of the World."

"Who are you?" Laz asked, staring into the fire.

"I am the Freedom you seek: the Fire in the Dark. Only I know the path to Freedom. Only the Flame can light your way. The Sun must set, but the Fire lights the way in even the deepest Dark."

"Why have you taken my night vision?"

"Look away if you wish to see the Dark. There is Nothing there. But if you look away you will never see the Fire again.

"Why do you appear to me?"

"Only the Fire can burn away and forge anew, and only the Fire can truly cleanse the world of the Darkness you would ask the Winds to but blow away. I am the Guardian of the Doors of the Dark, and you have summoned fire to find me."

"Where are we?"

"The Way is Sealed, for I have melted the Doors to the Heart of the World. None but the Fire in the Dark can pass here. Only Darkness lies beyond."

Laz stared downward and almost away from the flame, for it hurt his eyes greatly to look upon it.

"You alone have found me and are worthy to gaze upon me. Only I can light the way to your Freedom. Earth, Water and Air will not come to your succor. But the Fire in the Dark will its servant. Gaze upon me and see no more the Darkness, and forever after be illuminated by the Fire. Look away, and die in the Dark."

Laz looked into the fire. The voices, everywhere and nowhere, incomprehensible and without language, spoke to Laz. He stared into the fire so long that Laz's irises burnt black, and forever after he could not see in the dark as he could before. Never again did Laz look away from the fire.

Freedom

With new-found powers, Laz set and healed his broken bones, and with a whispered spell created a magical fire on another iron tool. He climbed out of the shaft from which he had fallen, and with the way back to the camp blocked to him, Laz explored secret ways in the narrowest of tunnels. Breaking into the lower vents of the volcano itself, Laz called upon the aid of the Fire in the Dark to protect him from the tremendous heat. Although badly burned and scorched, Laz emerged alive, and fled into the volcanic plains east of the Smoking Crown Mountains and away from Urik. There Laz met remnants of the Shesh, a chaotic federation of tribes of ex-slaves and the descendants of ex-slaves, who worship the lava and volcanoes of the mountains. The Shesh told him that Xal'gren had recently freed himself once more, and was gathering an army near Nibenay. Many of the Shesh warriors were going to help Xal'gren.

Laz began the travel to Xal'gren's camp.

Laz and the Army of Xal'gren

Laz returned to Xal'gren not long before the destruction of the main part of his army outside of North Ledopolus by Nibenay. He was welcomed by Xal'gren personally, and invited as a guest in Xal'gren's personal camp. The great gladiator actually took time to speak to Laz, for he remembered him from the Urikite revolution. Xal'gren seemed to know everything that had happened to Laz without Laz having to say much of anything at all. Xal'gren seemed to understand in a very profound way just what Laz had experienced in the obsidian cave. Laz also realized that Xal'gren's faith in the winds and air had blossomed since last they were together, for Xal'gren was now surely the friend of the air spirits, for he could command them and bring cooling and healing airs to his whole army, if he wished it. Once again overwhelmed by the spirit of Xal'gren, Laz's spiritual crisis/awakening blossomed in the company of the arch-gladiator, and although the slave general could not spend much more time with Laz, the short time he did spare would affect Laz for a long time to come. Knowing the great mental wounds and spiritual trauma that Laz had endured very recently as well as over the last seven years, Xal'gren recommended that a formal study of the Way of the Unseen might be able to calm, control and order Laz's troubled mind, soul and body. Laz agreed, and so Xal'gren asked his personal mindbender, the ancient dwarf Shardivan of North Ledopolus to instruct Laz in psionics. Although pretending only to be a village psionicist, Laz soon realized that secretly Shardivan was one of the most powerful psionicists in the all the Seven Cities, greater even perhaps than the sorcerer-kings themselves. Laz only studied with Shardivan irregularly over a three week period, but so great and deep was the dwarf's wisdom and insights that Laz made incredible steps forward, and very quickly.

Laz was not present for such destruction of Xal'gren's army by the Shadow King of Nibenay, for he had been meditating upon one of the dwarven pillars in the middle of the silt Estuary of the Forked Tongue that the dwarves of North and South Ledopolus had set up as guidemarkers for their great bridge across the silt. Laz was meditating there, for he had been instructed to do so by Shardivan.

Laz gathered with Xal'gren's new army, and completed his psionic training with the various minor psionicists that had joined the slave general's cause. Laz was present for the entire Balican peninsula campaign, and participated in most of the battles. Laz was pressed to stay in the rear so as to use his healing powers for the wounded.

After the conquest of Balic itself, Laz remains in Xal'gren's field army. His most recent campaign was the defeat of the rebellious former polemarch of Balican, General Xyestes. Distancing himself from the immediate front lines, Laz focuses on his budding power over Fire and the Way, which he is beginning to realize can potentially be far more mighty than the spear and shield.

Zlo

"The White Sail", House Rees, and Balic Information

Crew of the White Sail

Captain Temsayn, half-elf fighter/thief: KIA

1st Mate Tholavric, human fighter: KIA

2nd Mate A'Ket'ek, thri-kreen fighter/silt cleric/metabolist: escaped

3rd Mate Arvane son of Temsayn, human fighter: captured

Boatswain's Mate Baernak, dwarven fighter, born on the Crimson Atoll:  ?

House Rees Pay for Service Aboard the White Sail: 840 bits

Biographical Details

Tribe: Black Spear Tribe

Tribal Chief: Urga-Zoltapl, high level fire cleric/psionicist

Clan: Dark Rainbow Clan

Clan Leader: Olmot, Seeker of Secrets

Early Life

Zlo was to be a hunter by his extended family, but disappointed them when he fell under the charismatic spell of Olmot, a renegade halfling who lived by himself, but who had discovered dark magical things he had found in mysterious ancient caves beneath the earth. Intrigued, he accompanied Olmot on several adventures in the strange caves and ruins beneath the earth. He learned much from Olmot.

Harassed by his extended family for failing to become a hunter and not engage in the normal activities of a halfling youth, Zlo began to use the skills he learned from Olmot to trick and harass his family. He would steal their tools or weapons, and place them with the equipment of yet another family member, causing the two to squabble. He would weaken the bow strings of his stronger elder brothers, so that they would fail when an important hunt was taking place. He would even steal food from his father, and eat it himself, for his father was ever disapproving of him.

A popular cousin named Noncul had been particularly cruel to Zlo, and would boast of his strength before Zlo and mock the smaller halfling for his weakness. One time, Zlo fought back, but was defeated, but not before being slashed in the face by Noncul's obsidian blade. When they were more fully grown, Noncul departed on his coming of age quest, which was to prove his worthiness to the chief as a warrior for his tribe. Noncul eventually returned from his coming of age quest from the Ringing Mountains, and once again boasted, showing his clan the strange golden figure he had found in a cave atop one of the snowy mountains. Noncul said he would present it to the chief the next morning during his confirmation ceremony, and heartily expected to be mightily rewarded with the chief's magic. During the next morning, when Noncul climbed the chief's pyramid and was to present Urga-Zoltapl was the talisman as proof of his worthiness, he opened the cloth he had placed the figurine in only to discover it had been replaced with a golden painted rock. The Chief was angered, and sacrificed the cousin right then and there to the forest.

Shortly after this, Olmot found a magical treasure beneath the earth, and gave it to Urga-Zoltapl. The chief was pleased, and made Olmot the leader of his clan, on the condition that Olmot secret further magic beneath the earth. The next day, disaster befell Zlo when the golden figurine he had stole from Noncul was found amongst his things. Zlo managed to make the claim that he had found the golden talisman on one of his subterranean adventures with Olmot. His fellow clansmen disbelieved him, but Olmot supported his apprentice, and explained that Zlo indeed had found it in the tunnels beneath the earth. Zlo was saved, but was effectively ostracized from the rest of his clan.

Zlo, the Spirit of Naulantis, and the Magic Ring

A few months later, Olmot and Zlo once again descended into the earth. They found a secret cave and tunnel near to the one where Olmot had found the magic he had given chief. Passing strange and wondrous underground ruins and going deeper and farther than they ever had before, they discovered a stone tomb astride a subterranean creek, and before it beheld a golden spirit of an elf. Zlo had never seen an elf, much less a dead one, but the elf spoke to them, warning them not to take the treasures of that place, for it was a temple to ancient gods, and was sacred. Zlo boldly asked the golden spirit of the ancient world, and inquired as to what had befallen the spirit. The spirit said it had been a warrior in a great and ancient war. Named Naulantis, the spirit said that its side had lost the war, and so it fled to a secret city with its many followers, where a secret psionic gateway was kept which had the power to open doors to any location on Athas, and even to places beyond Athas. The spirit even said that the gateway could behold other universes and dimensions. The spirit said that they begged the king of the city allowance to use the gateway so that the spirit's people could be saved. The king, called Taraskir the Lion, assented to their use of the magical portal. The spirit said that once having fled, his people built a new secret city to hide from their enemies, but the evil general that had long fought them at last found them many years later with his powerful magic, and slew the spirit and all his followers. Since then the earth had long ago swallowed their hidden home. Zlo asked where this gateway was now, and was told by the spirit that the city which housed it was now only ruins, but was called Guistenal in ancient days, the city of Taraskir the Lion before the Lion and his city were destroyed by Dregoth the Ravager of Giants.

While Zlo was enraptured by the spirit, Olmot stole the spirit's magical tomb and took from its corpse a magical ring. Olmot, from his long wandering amongst such ruins, could decipher the writing on the ring, and used it to try and destroy the golden spirit. The ring summoned forth a great frost, but the spirit was not harmed, and so it slew Olmot with a golden spear for defiling its lair. At just that moment, Zlo ran forward and took the ring for himself, and then ran immediately away back towards the surface. The spirit was enraged and followed, but Zlo hid amongst the rocks, and the spirit could not find him.

At length, Zlo escaped, and returned to the surface with his prize. That night, the spirit haunted him with the Way of the Unseen, warning Zlo of his impending doom for the theft. Zlo approached the Chief that night, looking for protection and offering the Chief the ring, but Urga-Zoltapl scoffed at the present, saying that it but commanded water, which was antithetical to the sacred fire of the village. The golden spirit came that very night, appearing in the depths of morning and using the Way of the Unseen to find its way to Zlo through the minds of his fellow tribesmen. Zlo hid on the pyramid, forcing Urga-Zoltapl to do battle with the spirit. After a great duel with the Way of the Unseen and the powers of Fire and Water, the spirit at last abated, but the Chief had himself fallen, and was taken, near death, to the stone huts of his wives and priests.

Early that morning the priests announced that the Chief would live, and in that moment Zlol knew that when the Chief awoke he would sacrifice Zlo to the Forest. Most all halflings would have accepted this honorable fate, but Zlo's malign heart had no wish to die for the Forest or anyone else. Instead his mind turned towards the magical gateway of which the spirit had spoken.

Knowing he had to leave, but wishing vengeance upon his family, Zlo summoned his extended family to the clan sacred fire, telling them that Olmot had died, but that he had claimed a magical ring which he would give to the clan as a gift so as to make amends for his ill ways. The leaders of his extended family came, curious about what Zlo was announcing, all the while not knowing that it had been Zlo who had brought the powerful spirit that had killed many warriors and felled their chief but hours before. Once they family elders had gathered, Zlo admitted to them that he was to be sacrificed, and admitted all his past evils and trickeries to their shocked faces. Then, at the critical moment, before they seized him, Zlo used the command word he had heard from Olmot, and rained down frost and a storm of magical hail upon his family, killing them all save for his powerful grandfather, who Zlo was forced to backstab from the frosty mists with his father's own obsidian dagger which he had just recovered from the corpse.

Zlo Flees Ogo

Zlo then fled Ogo, going west, in the vain hope of discovering the ancient magical gateway of which the spirit had spoken. The warriors of Ogo soon followed the evil halfling, but Zlo soon realized the ring allowed him to walk on the waters of the rivers and streams he passed. He fled up the rivers themselves, and even the best of the halfling hunters could not track him.

With each night that he traveled, Zlo was haunted in his dreams by the powerful mind of Naulantis, the spirit from whom he had stolen the ring. The spirit itself also followed. When Zlo had reached the edge of the forest and the Ringing Mountains proper, the spirit appeared out of the waters and sent great waves and magic upon him. He might have been killed if not for the ring, but instead he managed to escape, and ran into the forest and into the night, where he knew a strong war party of halfling hunters was searching for him. Running into their midst to obscure himself from Naulantis, the vengeful spirit slew many of the warriors, whose weapons were useless against him. Zlo only hid, deep into the forest.

Realizing the spirit could only manifest at night, Zlo entered the mountains and the high snows, which the ring allowed him to navigate with relative ease. Several nights into the snows, the halfling encountered the spirit again. Zlo's mind was almost instantly crushed with the Way of the Unseen, with powerful waters blasting his mind, but the rogue at the last moment managed to use the ring, which summoned forth a storm of magical hail which in turn caused an avalanche that buried the spirit beneath a second tomb. Zlo fled into the night, half alive, and heard the terrible threats of the spirit, and saw its eldrich golden glow from the heights above. That was the last time Zlol actually saw the spirit, although it continued to haunt his mind long after these early days.

Zlo's adventures through the Ringing Mountains were many, and he nearly died a great many times.

Starving and near death, Zlo at last emerged from the Ringing Mountains weeks, perhaps even months, later. He happened upon unfortunate elf herdsmen, and slew one of them, and ate him, to regain his strength.

Knowing of his tribe's agreement with Urik, the only human city Zlo knew to exist in the modern world, Zlo found his way to the warlike city-state. There he found his kinsmen, who were yet ignorant of his crimes, telling them that he was to join their number, and that he needed their aid. They were suspicious, but gave him food and shelter in their special camp provided for them by the army of King Hamanu of Urik. Knowing his time was limited, Zlo found a defiler-sage, and traded some of Olmot's gold which Zlo had taken before he had fled Ogo in return for knowledge about the ring. Instead, Zlo was betrayed by the defiler, for the defiler had just learned from the halflings of Ogo that Zlo was wanted by them for his evil crimes. The defiler poisoned Zlo with a magical sedative tea, and took his magic ring. Zlo awoke in bondage in the defiler's hut, but the halfling twisted out of his rope fetters and fled.

The soldier-halflings of Urik hunted Zlo as the rogue fled further east, where Zlo nearly died in the extreme heat of the Athasian deserts. He found mercy from a passing merchant caravan just when he knew his kinsmen were drawing near to tracking him. Zlo paid the merchants with trinkets he had stolen from the defiler's lab for passage. They let Zlol aboard, but the halfling was once again betrayed, and thrown in wooden fetters, a slave.

Zlo arrived in Nibenay, but once again managed to escape. He stole and scavenged on the streets of Nibenay, and slew two street urchins in alleyways and fed upon them to regain his strength. Tenacious warrior-hunters from the Urikan halfling company somehow managed to trace Zlo however, and so once again Zlo fled, and even managed to slay one of his pursuers by backstabbing him and pushing him into the boiling water springs that surround Nibenay.

Zlo hunted and scavenged for many months, becoming a creature of the desert, and living in spaces beneath desert boulders, always fearful his kinsmen were still right behind him. In the desert, Urga-Zoltapl contacted him telepathically once, reminding Zlo that he had done nothing by his murders but add his family and other kinsmen as sacrifices to the Forest, and that he too would soon join the Forest. Alarmed, Zlo continued to move east.

Zlo in The City-state of Balic

Nearly dying once again from thirst and from the extreme cold of the open desert night, Zlo fell in one night with a party of bandits, pretending to befriend the useless giants while he stole precious water from them. He saw the eyes of his chief amidst the camp fire however, and fled.

Another year passed in the wastelands until Zlo arrived, his mind all but broken, at the gates of the city of Balic. Not knowing where he was, he slipped into the city and for the first time beheld the Silt Sea. After slaying another street urchin to regain his strength, Zlo pushed himself on a silt skimmer, working for free on the ship in return for room and board, hoping to use the ship to find the fallen city with its secret psionic gate. Zlo felt free on the Silt Sea, and when he was on it, the dark and watery dreams sent to him by Naulantis at last ceased. After some months as a member of her crew, Zlo left the silt skimmer and found work on a silt schooner, a psionicially empowered ship which floated over the silt and allowed passage into the depths of the Silt Sea. He did very well aboard the schooner, earning the praise of its captain. This ship travel far to the south, trading for precious woods, spices and rare foods from a strange people who lived on enormous fields of reeds in the middle of the Silt Sea.

Zlo and The White Sail

By now having learned the common tongue of humans and having earned a good reputation for himself, Zlo was able to become a member of the crew of the White Sail, a ship that was rumored to be piloted by an adventurous dwarven captain named Cassander who would go very deep into the Silt Sea, indeed deeper than most any other.

Zlo sailed with Cassander for the better part of a year. They went so far so as even to pass through the Great Ash Storm, an all but insurmountable permanent storm of silt which lies at the center of the Silt Sea. The dwarven captain navigated the barrier successfully, and Zlo has seen the land of the extreme east, a blasted volcanic continent of fires with almost no life of any sort. Yet he learned from Cassander that even this land was not the absolute furthest east, and indeed it was only a massive island in the middle of the Silt Sea. It was on the return of this voyage that Cassander landed at the extremely remote and strange Crimson Atoll. The Crimson Atoll is a village of wood and stone which floats on the Silt Sea by a continuous team of psionicists. Hoping to use the Atoll as a base to explore yet even further east, Zlo begged Cassander to let him stay aboard the Atoll, which the dwarven captain accepted.

Zlo earned his keep for a over a year as a sailor for various native ships of the Crimson Atoll. After a year, always paranoid about being persecuted telepathically once again, Zlo paid the psionicist Melenarchus to tutor him on how to harness the Way of the Unseen well enough to defend himself.

Zlo saw the otherworldly magical gate created by the dwarf Artan at the behest of Zhor of Tyr (see Artan). Zlo saw the magical ocean on the other side, but was unable to ever get on the Trilith to try and walk through.

After the recent raider attack upon the Crimson Atoll and the destruction of the magical gateway Trilith, Zlo once again saw the White Sail at the Atoll, and boarded her once again, believing he just was not sure where the ruined city Naulantis spoke of was.

Zlo was aboard the White Sail for nearly another year until she was sunk on 21 Octavus, Free Year 19...

Deep Silt Cultural Terms and Vocabulary

cay: cays are tiny islands, sometimes with a few plants, that are formed from dead deep sponges which float to the surface when they die. On occasion, tiny communities settle on these unstable islands, and are called "cay people."

char: a clump of hardening silt in the middle of the Silt Sea, which often rise up out of the silt, and look like small islands. It is possible but very dangerous to walk on chars, as they often fall apart under pressure.

chinampa: a quagmire of sweet water and human waste, upon which are planted hardy fields for agricultural purposes. Boards are often put on the chinampas, which combined with the root systems of the plants, prevent people from sinking into the silt.

deep silt farmers: After procuring deep water, which is refined into drinking water, Deep Silt farmers use the water to grow fields of hardy plants for Deep Silt communities, using the feces and waste of atolls as fertilizer.

deep sponge: deep sponges are enormous creatures, similar to normal sponges, that feed off trace food in the silt and are watered by trace moisture locked in the silt. Deep sponges are usually found at the bottom of the Silt Sea, but on occasion deep water farmers manage to drag these creatures to the surface to plunder them for their water. Dead deep sponge that is drained of all its water actually floats on silt, and is often used to as part of the construction of atolls.

deep water: the brackish water that lies embedded with the loess at the very bottom of the Deep Silt. This is opposed to sweet water, which is potable.

deep water farmers: people who dredge up deepwater

farminder: a clairsentient

floater: a psionicist who specializes in keeping ships afloat on the Silt Sea.

hardlander: someone who lives on a continent, and a stranger to Deep Silt culture

hetman: a typical title for the leader of an atoll. The title is usually for life, but the hetman does not possess autocratic power, and often must gain a consensus amongst other atoll leaders before he carries out any important action.

highminder: the most powerful psionicist in a given area

kibasha: tiny artificial islands on the silt made of reeds, wood and whatever other materials. They are built by making a wide weave over the silt, and are initially buoyed by that are home to small clans

outboarder: Deep Silt culture sailors who live primarily upon their ships

reed people: to the far south of the Deep Silt culture is much shallower silt, which is home to communities of of people who live on and around vast fields of reeds and even trees. These strange people are called the "Reed People" by Deep Silters.

sea mounts: the Deep Silt is generally avoid of large islands. On occasion however, there are tiny islands of rock which emerge from the silt, as the pinnacles of mountains which lie underneath the silt. Sea mounts occasionally have communities on them, but they are often dangerous because the silt on occasion swallows them. Those who live on sea mounts are called sea monks, on account of the strange ancient buildings which sometimes lie on sea mounts.

stylites: occasionally, tiny outcroppings of rock emerge from the silt. Silt clerics or psionicists often climb these, and meditate or contemplate alone for vast amounts of time on these pillars.

sweet water: potable water, usually derived from deep water

windskimmers: very light and usually very fleet ships that are buoyed up not by the Way, but rather by precious lighter-than-air gasses stored in the hulls. These ships have the advantage that mindbenders are not required to keep them afloat.

Zufaidh: a mystical and perhaps mythical dibin near Vanishing Lake in the part of the Silt Sea inhabited by the Sea People. Palaces and jinn are said to be upon it, but madness comes to all who approach.