Star Mountains

"I arrived in Neubodenwald after midnight. When I stepped out of the teleportation circle, the thin air made my ears pop. It took me some time to get used to this unpleasant sensation, and after a few steps I feared I was suffocating.
But when I reached the exit of the Bodenwald Gate building, I was treated with a spectacular sight: The night sky over the Star Mountains. Modern city-dwellers are rarely able to see many stars, thanks to the light of the city reflecting in the humid air and obscuring the heavens, but in Neubodenwald the lights are few and the air is dry, allowing an unobscured view of the celestial bodies. The queer effect that all such objects appear to have twice the usual diameter - or four times the luminosity - over these mountains only further intensifies this sight. I marveled about the many worlds that we know must be out there, and how few of them we have visited. And soon I, too, would take my first step on another world, and I fantasized about my experiences in such an alien environment.
At this point a Surturan sand badger that had somehow gotten loose in the city attempted to mate with my trouser leg."

- Gottfried Dillinger, My Time Among The Stars, Neuer Weltverlag (1420)


Population: 1,243,560 (chuuls 41%, surathi 28%,daresh 17%, humans 15%, ropers 5%, destrachans 3%)
Government: Varies by species
Imports:
Exports:

This equatorial mountain range is named for the fact that the stars seem closer here. The moon and the planets often appear twice as large as usual, and the stellar constellations in the night sky shine much brighter than elsewhere. This isn't just a trick of the light - while traveling to other planets normally requires mighty magics (usually involving the support of a nexus tower), in this region a simple teleport spell will do. As a result, some scholars, mages, and explorers maintain bases here to support their exploration of other worlds - and beings from other worlds have colonies in or beneath these mountains.

Industries

Life and Society

Government and Politics

Groups and Organisations

Religion

Important NPCs

Burallux (LE male adult blue dragon) is the ruler of Ardraxal. That Tallanggarul has chosen him to found this critical colony - the first dragon-founded city outside of the Desert of Thunder - despite his young age speaks well of his intelligence, which is only surpassed by his ambition. He dreams of making Ardraxal the gateway to the other planets, thus filling his lair with the treasures of many worlds from the tariffs and making him rich even by draconic standards.
While Tallanggarul has forbidden him from starting any hostilities with Neubodenwald, seeing that community as no threat to her plans, Burallux sees it as an obstacle to his own ambitions - as long as Neubodenwald sees business, he won't be able to establish a monopoly on off-world trade. For the time being, he tries to woo the merchants away from Neubodenwald, makes entreaties to all cities (dragon-ruled or not) who are interested in exploring and exploiting these other worlds, and sends agents to commit the occasional bit of sabotage when he thinks he can get away with it, but he might decide to take more drastic action in the future. He is patient like most dragons, but he also knows that once the off-world colonies start to grow in earnest, the window of opportunity for establishing a monopoly will close, and he is therefore willing to do whatever it takes to gurantee him a head start.

Major Geographical Features

Blink Valley: Regarded as a myth by most explorers, this small and remote mountain valley actually shifts position with similar locales on other planets. The schedule of this effect is unpredictable, but it generally happens about once a day, and if an explorer is unlucky enough to be in it at this time, he will be taken with it and exposed to the alien environment of another world. During the times when Blink Valley is not located on Rothea (most of the time), outside observers will merely see a solid mountain side.
Upon first stumbling across it, explorers might notice the near-total absence of local flora and fauna, and the few plants and animals that do exist there tend to be very alien, since only the hardiest species can survive the rapid changes in atmosphere and temperature. The valley currently seems to be uninhabited, although there are several abandoned and partially crumbling building complexes which were not erected according to any human sense of aesthetics.
Mount Kayode: The tallest mountain in the range, Kayode is covered by a huge glacier. Explorers who flew to the top with magic reported encounters with a strange species of fey inhabiting it, although it is unknown just how many fey live there.
Mount Uzuma: One of the taller mountains in the range (so tall that it is actually topped with snow, despite the equatorial temperatures), Uzuma hides several entrances to a cave system terminating in a vast subterranean lake 50 miles in diameter deep below the surface. Completely unknown to humans from other lands, the shores of the lake - and the islands within it - are divided between a large number of different subterranean species, such as aboleth, chuul, daresh, derro, medusa, sea hags, spirit nagas, and svirfneblin which alternately war upon or trade with each other. Meanwhile, monsters such as cloakers, destrachans and lacedons prey on everyone, but the vast bounties of the lake and its unusually fertile surrounding areas keep these species there.

Important Towns and Cities

Neubodenwald (Large Town, 34,572): This heavily defended town serves as a major way station for the Astromantic society. Many prospective off-world colonists spend some time here before being transported to their final destinations.
Sslush'tra (City, 123,276): The daresh who rule this subterranean city are known to experiment with the creation of new species - and the modification of old ones. They use the easy access to other planets in the Star Mountains to capture creatures from other worlds and use them as hosts for their larvae.
Ardraxal (Town, 18,452): A new competitor to Neubodenwald, this city was only founded three years ago and has been growing rapidly ever since. It was founded as a way station to support the colonial ambitions of the draconic rulers of the Desert of Thunder, and already the profits from the trade with off-world colonies are so promising that traders have flocked to this community.

Important Sites

Regional History

Adventuring in the Star Mountains

Adventure Seeds



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