Skyfall Lake - Handouts
From the Employer
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Note! The conversion of this scenario to Hero Wars is a
fan work. The hard-working volunteer has made all interpretations of
game stats.
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Instructions to Skyfall Lake from the Employer
Your journey will begin at Ironspike Fort. This is the stronghold of the hill barbarians who
live in Jaskor's Hold, their name for their valley. It is the last outpost of civilization and
all outfitting must be completed there.
The journey is simple but dangerous. I have gone to great expense to prepare the way for the
group and as long as instructions are followed there should be little risk.
You must set out early on the first day, with horses, and not slow for anything until night camp
is made.
The first leg of the journey is 25 km northward, following the winding Jaskor River through the
hills to the flat plains which surround Skyfall Marsh. From there travel on this plain northeast
for another 25 km until you again reach broken and difficult ground. There is a wide river there,
which has no name; make a well-defended camp in that area.
The single day's journey becomes more dangerous with each passing mile. Once the shores of Skyfall
Marsh are reached you will be upon Giants' Walk, a place where the largest giants known sometimes
come. Their footprints may be visible.
This is also the entry into troll territory, and they are very jealous of their lands. My contacts
have purchased you what safety can be bought by a humble man like me, but my friends have enemies
of their own kind, and there are also many lawless trolls.
On the second day you must search the hills for signs of the Frog Grog Shoppe. Signs, obviously
troll-made, will point to it. If trolls are sighted in the vicinity, they can be appeased by
shaking a wine bottle, beer keg, or kvass skin at them.
At the Grog Shoppe, the person hired for drinking will show his stuff. This test should be no
problem for a hearty adventurer. Don't believe what popular rumor says about troll drinks - they're
harmless.
You will see signs which will lead you to the shop.
There is a large curtain which covers the entry. Murius will give the drinker a piece of food to
hold. Go to the curtain, enter quickly, and shut the curtain as fast as you can. They do not
like light. Throw the food to the left, and do not even look that way if you are squeamish.
Do not eat what they offer. It is poisonous.
Any number of you may enter at once, but only one of you must drink. Others should behave themselves
peaceably, and may imbibe if they wish.
Enjoy yourselves!
You must say, "Rom Born Ga Ga ooooo. I say I can drink my way into Crabshell!"
After that they should be friendly. If they are not, flee at once.
Once the small task is accomplished at the Grog Shoppe, there should be a guide to bring the
party to the town. Once there, the humans will remain, and rest or amuse themselves in any way
not offensive to the natives. I suggest you hide and stay hidden, or stick close to Murius.
Murius will do business with my customer, and everyone will remain in Crabcity for the day and night.
The next morning everyone will depart. The first day's journey will be to the previous campsite,
or thereabouts. There is no need to stop at the Grog Shoppe, unless you desire to do so.
The next day's journey is the last. It is the hardest, for many miles must be covered going
through Giants' Walk.
The duty of the hired guards will cease at Ironspike. Murius will follow private orders in
returning home on his own.
Enclosed is a map for your purposes in the journey; you are welcome to keep it afterwards.
Lunar Report on the Skyfall Lake Region
[compiled 1584]
This populous troll queendom is ruled personally by the heroquester called Cragspider. Her
impenetrable castle, Cliffhome, perches atop the highest mountain of the region. Many able
lieutenants assist her in dealing with her populace, for she is never seen outside of her home.
There are no cities here, though many tiny villages dot the shores of the misty Skyfall Lake.
Crabplace is the name of the largest. Except for the immense shell which forms the roof of the
city temple, the place is a fair example of what a troll village is like. This giant shell is
located on high ground and is near the center of the buildings. The buildings themselves are in
usual troll disarray, with sprawling streets and small filthy markets where they steal from each
other.
Another town is built only of driftwood, and is called Driftwood in the troll tongue. Another is
called Conch, and is said to whistle with a thousand eerie voices whenever the wind blows. Most
are made of flotsam and jetsam.
Occasional stone structures are kept by wealthy trolls interested in keeping out other trolls,
but there is no military defense of the ville. If a sizeable enemy force ever approaches with
hostile intent then the trolls abandon their village and temples and take to their boats or to
the hills to hide.
Once a week, buyers from Cragspider's castle descend and tour the villages on the lake. Their
browsing and shopping may take hours or days, depending on their training and skills. Whatever
they do not wish to purchase immediately is given a price which the owners remember religiously.
For that price they will thenceforth sell their items, but most of their stock is accumulated
and worthless junk. Since trolls buy little from each other, their shanties are built of the
previous years' catches.
I estimate their army to consist of 600 troll militia-type hunters, all of whom can assemble
within forty-eight hours at a spot hidden in the hills. There are also many great trolls, maybe
another 800 in sight or rumored to be nearby. Trollkin are limitless and sometimes roam the hills
in wild packs.
Myth of Skyfall Lake
[A Tale Popular in all of Dragon Pass]
Why is there a place called The River? There are many rivers in this stormy land.
The source of this mighty river lies far to the north, in the wild regions of the land. This river
is famous in all the tongues of the world, for this was the first river which was born to flow
downhill, from the hills to the sea.
During the War of the Gods there was a deity called Korang the Slayer. He was of chaos, a tainted
monstrous god. He suffered both for and because of his ignorance, and revelled in it. He carried
a long iron spear which pierced many foes with Death. He strode through the darkness leaving a
poisonous wake; the peaceful of the world conspired to confront him.
Three deities set forth: Hard Earth is one, Skyriver Titan is the second, and the third is no
longer remembered.
Korang the Slayer met them in combat. The god who is no longer remembered was struck and the
life and soul and magic and energy flew out of him and burned up his body so that there is nothing
left of him now.
Skyriver Titan thought to avoid this death, but was wounded anyway. His life-blood gushed out
upon the land. He tried to flee skyward to his safe home, but the flow of his life broke through
the worlds, and as a result that place is always raining. His life blood will always stream through
the regions he fled.
Hard Earth thrust himself at the weapon, and the strength of his body shattered the tool into
many pieces. But he was thrown down too, and became those hills where the Black Dragon lives and
the spiders are servants to the trolls.
Once unarmed, the monster was nothing of power, and the great flowing of Skyriver Titan's blood
cascaded upon it with a frothing and furious struggle. The monster was drowned, and violence of
the blood and his soul churned up the marshes which surround the lake. Under the lake lies the
ruins of a dead city where the chaos gods once lived. And overhead the Skyriver still continues
to flow, washing upon the region in great torrents to cleanse the earth.
An Issaries Report
(Can be gained by talking in most marketplaces. Documentation is available upon request, and has
been gotten for the players.)
There is a town called Crabcity which is the biggest troll settlement in all of the Dragon Pass
lands. An immense temple made out of a single crab shell protects the shrine of Kyger Litor, who
reportedly killed the monster.
Like many trolls, these tribes use various insects as guard animals. They are especially fond of
their stingworms, but mostly love their spiders.
Even though they are creatures of darkness, these trolls go too far. Due to Cragspider's proximity
they count all arachnids to be sacred, and so refrain from harming any of them. This is well in
some respects, for the fly population is amazingly low for a filthy troll city. A larger spider
variety, finding insects too small, takes birds on the wing by spitting a glue at them. Everything
smaller than a housecat seems, even to me, acceptable and tame. For one thing, their ramshackle
huts are often all covered with a clean whitish sheen of webbing,
It is the great spiders which are so abominable. I saw one whose body was larger than a horse and
whose legs measured over ten meters across. He was covered by glistening hair and was an attractive
bronze color.
Another was covered with warty gray skin and was the size of a woolly mammoth, as sometimes come to
our land from Aggar. It dripped pools of acid which the trolls gathered after it had left. When it
retired, it took three trollkin, kicking and screaming, with it.
When such a monster appeared, each separately, mind you, all the natives fled in terror. The spider
then stalked calmly down the alleys, crushing huts as he walked over them. It paused occasionally
to tear apart a hovel, peeling its layers of trash like a wife peeling a head of lettuce. Its
familiarity with this hunt was plain to see, and such monsters may arrive here regularly.
Another common curse is when the young of the warty gray ones hatch. They are dangerous biters, and
can gang up on larger creatures. The trolls then simply desert the whole region until the spiders
clean out their town and eat each other. It is also possible for a priestess to somehow enchant
them all into a small magic bottle which she then casts into Skyfall Lake. Also. a type of floor
shrew sometimes appears in large numbers and devours the spiderlings.
Carathos suggested that they could set up a nice altar outside of town and leave trollkin as a
sacrifice, but Garkagi said the priestesses would have none of that and that we should watch our
tongues while we still had them.
- From the diary of Hafsar Blueyes, priest of Issaries, Fire Season 1610
The Nets of Skyfall
A particular type of magical substance, especially useful in making nets, comes only from the
Skyfall Lake area. It is probably some type of exotic spider silk, perhaps from gods or spirits,
but it is impossible to tell for sure. Even the priests and their Rune spells cannot tell.
The local trolls use it to fish in Skyfall Lake. That is a feat in itself, for this lake is violent
and troubled, and has creatures in it which have fallen out of the sky, or are left over from the
Gods War. Still, the trolls sometimes make nets and skein the bottom, or make fishing lines with
it and use hooks carved from dragon bones.
They are said to harvest odd animals, of no practical use to anyone but hungry trolls, and
sometimes a magical item of worth, but more commonly a load of junk.
These things can only be gotten with those magical nets, and the nets can only be made with
special knowledge which is unknown outside of that troll region.
- common knowledge among fishermen of the region
Ancient Ditty
On the Shores of Skyfall Lake
Live the trolls who daily take
The treasures from that sea.
Their nets are gifts from the Spider
And the casters do not hide Her
Glory in loot and in misery.
They ride their boats through chaos ruins,
And slay evil foes with iron harpoons
And share in the Spider's treasury.
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