New Domain: Saurhaaven

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Saurhaaven (Sourhafn) is a secret harbour, its location known only to pirate captains and smugglers. Enough rumours about the domain have spread beyond that bloodthirsty community to indicate that Saurhaaven can be reached by sailing west past Blaustein until one enters the Mists.

The Land: Saurhaaven is an island of sharp divides. A narrow stretch of beach known as the Low Land runs all around the Domain, but beyond that rise unforgiving cliffs of black rock that stretch as high as the Balinoks. Attempts to climb these natural fortifications always end in tragedy. If not because the stone is sharp-edged and slick with the dropping of birds and rats, then because of what stands atop the cliffs, where the High Land begins.
The City can be seen from a great distance as ships sail up to Saurhaaven. It appears to cover the whole High Land. Crafted from a luminous stone by hands that possessed the skill born of thousands of years of stonecraft, the City is a work of art that would inspire avarice in the hearts of even the most well-intended people. The kind of people who frequent Saurhaaven's beaches are rarely so benevolent...
While conditions on the High Land are assumed to be idyllic for such a vast city to be able to exist, the Low Land is wretched and barren. It does not support any plant life other than lichen and fungus, which are the food of aggressive rat packs and sea birds, who also prey on one another. The waters around Saurhaaven are more lively, grudgingly yielding various strains of edible kelp, fish and crustaceans to those patient and skilled enough to comb them.

Settlements: While ships are allowed to dock anywhere on the Low Land where their captains wish to drop anchor, there is only one real settlement on Saurhaaven. Betide is a city built from the wood of wrecked ships and plunder. Its docks are famous -- or possibly infamous -- among freebooters, smugglers and various mercenaries who make their living on the sea.
While the city was originally nothing but a shanty-town where pirates came to drink, boast and barter with one another, it has over time attracted experts in ship repair and ship-building. It is said that there is no damage so great that the master carpenters of Betide can not fix it -- provided the damaged ship manages to make it to Saurhaaven before it sinks.
In addition, the city serves as a home port for people who have lost their right to a home on the mainland, as well as 'safe ground' for all kinds of piratical trade and barter. The city is gradually growing as old captains and sailors decide to retire on their 'nest eggs'. Inns, brothels and other forms of entertainment are available for reasonable prices. And of course Betide is the only place where trade with the City is possible.
Betide is a chaotic sprawl of buildings, set up by their owners on the whim of the moment as space allowed, but oriented on two fixed points: the docks, where the master carpenters ply their trade, and the Breach, a narrow cleft in the cliffs which appears to form the only entrance and exit to the High Land. While the cleft is far too narrow for anything larger than a ten year old child to ascend, it is the channel through which trade with the High Land is facilitated.
Every day at dusk, a small group of children descends the cleft with shopping lists and promissory notes. They spend the day in Betide's inns, doing business with the pirate captains and smugglers, then ascend the Breach again, dragging their purchases of food, drink and raw materials behind them through the narrow cleft. At dawn, baskets of payment are lowered in payment: precious stones, gold coins of unknown heritage, incredibly fine weapons, treasure of all kinds to feed the greed of man and woman.

The Law: Technically, there is no law on the Low Land, but there are rules of common conduct.
The master carpenters of Betide are not to be subjected to any kind of abuse; transgressors soon find themselves keelhauled, then dumped into the ocean for the pleasure of sharks and giant squid.
No one tries to go up the Breach. The threat that this channel would be closed up by the mysterious inhabitants of the City, and its treasures becoming completely lost to the avaricious souls who gather in Betide, is deterrent enough. Some of the more permanent inhabitants of Betide have taken to patrolling the Breach to make sure no one tries anything. Transgressors are punished with a quick and public beheading.
The old salts who retire to Betide are not attacked in their homes. Once they step outside and join the chaotic sprawl of ne'er-do-wells in the city's entertainment, they become targets like anyone else.
Apart from these rules, Saurhaaven's Low Land is an anarchy, with the right of the strongest, sly diplomacy and alliances determining whether one lives to see another day. Slavery and crimping are but two of the evils that threaten the citizens of Betide, murder and theft being more common. There are brawls in the inns every night and day, as the rum flows and the egos of sea-going killers take over.

If there are laws on the High Land, no one on the coast has ever heard of them. The City's inhabitants kill anyone who tries to scale the cliffs, exchange small amounts of treasure for the simple necessities of life, and scorn the luxuries of foreign coasts.

Trade and Diplomacy: Saurhaaven's existence and location are closely-guarded secrets held by pirate kings and smuggler lords. As such, the Domain has no formal connection to any nation in the Demiplane. Its trade is built on theft, murder and contrabandage. Coins from a dozen lands change hands on weighted scales and tides of warm blood when people can not agree on an exchange course. The island exports nothing, but takes everything in.

Characters: Fighters and Rogues make up most of the Low Land's inhabitants. The master carpenters are mainly Experts. A smattering of other character classes is available, but they are a distinct minority. Note that relatively few people make Saurhaaven their permanent residence. The master carpenters, owners of particularly successful entertainments and retired sailors are most of these. All others can leave for years at the drop of a hat -- typically because they hear the call of the sea and its siren song of booty and blood.

Darklord: Elyas Kavoe is a Sithican Elf, once member of the family of Hroth's Speaker. Unusually ambitious and driven for a member of his people, Elyas lamented the decline of Elven society in Sithicus, the corruption of its beautiful cities and the fact that they must bow to non-Elven interlopers.

Growing up, Elyas decided that money was the means by which he could stem the tide of decay in Sithicus. Enough money could buy the services of artisans to restore the beautiful cities to their glory. Money could also hire assassins to wipe away the Black Rose and all his servants. And after that, money could buy poison to eradicate all humans and other 'filth' from the renewed Sithicus.

To gather the funds he desired -- the money he felt he deserved -- Elyas travelled the world, ranging from Sithicus to Rokushima, from Barovia to Vorostokov. He became a master trickster, an embezzler, a confidence scam artist, a back alley killer. He gathered a fortune by appealing to the foolishness and the dark side of all creatures, except his fellow Elves. In time, he gathered around himself a party of mercenaries, all ruthless in their own way. As leader of this band, the Blazing Blades, he doubled his fortunes, then tripled them.

At last, he felt ready to return to Sithicus and restore that beleaguered land, to raise the Elven people to their proper seat of glory. He had all the money he felt he would need -- and so he decided to add one last score, just to prove his superiority. He proposed to his band of comrades -- his dupes, as he thought of them -- that they perform one last robbery together, then part ways and retire on their profits. His loyal followers agreed, only to walk into an ambush; Elyas had sold them out to the authorities for the various bounties placed upon them.

At this point, things went wrong for the haughty Elf. He had underestimated the power of the Blazing Blades; seven of them managed to escape the deadly trap he had lead them into, and they pursued him relentlessly. No matter where Elyas fled, no matter how cunningly he disguised himself or what obstacles he conned into his former comrades' way, they would not be shaken from his trail and he knew he would not be able to kill them. In the end, he tried to escape them by going to sea on a pirate ship out of Blaustein. A great storm seized the vessel, threatening to drag it down to the bottom. While he clung to the rigging of the ship, Elyas could think of only one thing: he must survive to restore the Elven people to their proper place, with himself as their ruler. He must! Let all else die, but he had to return home and put his wealth to use!

Elyas still saw the vision of a gorgeous Elven city before him when he went down with the ship... And when he awoke, he was in the very city he had dreamed of, all its rooms packed with treasures beyond avarice! Elyas' elation soon turned to dread when he realized that he was alone in the city, but for a small population of vampiric Kender, who fed on rats and birds and avoided him.

Elyas would gladly have sailed away from the beautiful city and the barren island on which it sat, if not for the fact that he could not descend the saw-edged cliffs. Every time he tried, the rock grew upward, forming an egg of stone that covered the City.
Worse than this imprisonment was the fact that the City was wholly devoid of plant life. There was no fertile earth for things to grow, only lichen and fungus thrived in hidden corners. The only meat he could find belonged to birds and rodents. Surrounded by a glorious City, the Elf who would have been King lived like a savage, forced to eat raw meat and drink brackish water where it pooled on the beautiful floors.
The final blo to Elyas' ego came when the first ship put in on the Low Land. Its crew consisted of pirates, lowly humans who revelled in violence and brutality. Like Elyas, they were thieves, but thieves devoid of wit and subtlety. Moreover, they were human thieves, chattel that should be crawling at his feet. Instead, they became the only source of proper food and warm cloth that the Elf could access.
Nowadays, Elyas looks down on the Low Land with a mixture of loathing and envy twisting in his gut. He abors humans coming so close to his ideal of an Elven city, yet envies them their freedom to come and go and mix with their own kind so freely. His only companions are the skittish Kender vampires and the simple animals on which they feed. He is forced to barter away his treasures a piece at a time for things like bread, beer and wool. For now, his resources seem endless, but the Lord of Saurhaaven knows there is a limit to them and he dreads the day when he will run out of treasure to trade.
Elyas also fears discovery. If the humans ever discover that there is no great civilization in the City, he knows they will overwhelm him. He constantly exhorts his Kender slaves to eradicate all who approach the City walls from below, and spends every waking moment not engaged in trade with the lowly 'merchants' of Betide patrolling his City's borders. He has not lost any of the combat skills he has picked up over a long career, and his skills at stalking and hiding are peerless.
If Elyas could be said to have any goal beyond survival, it would be to contact other Elves. Whenever he sees an Elf, or the presence of an Elf is reported to him by his vampires, he rejoices and does his best to have the wondrous treasure brought to him. So far, he has not been successful. But he retains a tiny spark of hope that he might yet fill the City with a true civilization, united under his rule.

Closing the Borders: Elyas has no power to close the borders of his Domain. Ships and the creatures of the sea go in and out as they please. He can close off the City by approaching its borders, which causes an egg-shaped dome of gorgeous stonework to form over it. This dome is completely indestructible and provides the wily Elf with a last defense, should he ever feel pressured by invaders.

Religion: There are two temples on Saurhaaven, one located in Betide and one in the City. Both are dedicated to the Many-Headed Devourer, and were built by Elyas' vampiric Kender minions at his command.
The Elven Lord of the Land frequently prays to the goddess of his homeland to grant him freedom or at least bring him other Elves to share his life with. He has seen enough Clerics work wonders to have developed the seed of faith in the terrible goddess. While Elyas does not possess access to divine magic himself, some of his Kender slaves have developed low-level powers. The City temple has been Desecrated and is a rank 2 Sinkhole of Evil with the Greed taint.
The temple in Betide is a simple structure of salvaged wood, as are most of the city's buildings. In Betide, the Many-Headed Devourer is seen as the goddess of the land. She is given a minute amount of worship by ship captains setting out to sea, in hopes that she will bless the voyage. A Falkovnian expatriate named Makov Hagen has taken up the position of Betide's chaplain and high priest of the Many-Headed Devourer. He has received a reasonable amount of power for devoting his life to her service; he uses his clerical powers to cure people overcome by disease and life-threatening injuries... for a price.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Sooooo.... I've had one favourable response to the concept for this Domain, but I wondered what the rest of you guys think of it. ^^; Don't be shy, speak up.

[Sathien]

Honestly, I like it. Very cool area to run.