Draugr
"Burn, bright accursed light, upon tales of ill deeds, long past."
"Ye come seekin' adventure and salty ol' pirates, aye? Sure ye come to the proper place. But keep a weather eye open, mates, for unmoored souls may drift on stranger tides than those men know of, and be overthrown by winds that would not even stir a hair.
Perhaps ye heard of these cursed shores?... Ye've heard of this place, hidden beyond the veil of reality? Ye see we’re not really in the Material Plane now. Not any more than we’re in every other place. The Material Plane is just beyond the horizon of this seemingly endless foggy. We're off the edge of the map, and here there be monsters.
They say only those chosen by the god of undeath can become "immortal" by means of these dark waters. If he takes care to shed blood within it's depths, should he die in battle and be given a burial at sea, he'll come back as something else…
No fear of evil curses, says you? Properly warned, says I. For it be too late to alter course, and there be lost plunderous souls lurking upon these misty waters, waiting' to board. And the faint whispers of long forgotten crewmen can be heard but never truly seen out of the corner of your vision.
These will be the last 'friendly' words ye'll hear. Ye may not survive to pass this way again… For even the light of the stars do not reach their waters. For the Sea of the Damned - or Te'Bhogg'O'Dthoum as the Hobben call it - is a space between spaces, a dark reflection of the seas you know.
Ye see for every action there's an equal but opposite reaction, and a uniformly moving object will continue to move uniformly unless acted upon by some force - but if ye get very particular about very small-scale events... ye'll find that mechanical description of reality is only mostly correct. In tiny extents of space or time there's an element of indecisiveness, postponement of definition, and you can catch truth as loose as an underdone egg. In the Material Plane this isn't a big factor because the odds are pretty consistent from place to place. But here they're not consistent. They're polarized here.
They say a group of Water Goblins, Syrens, Deep Ones, Bullywog and Kappa were said to be the first ones to discover these waters. They say when they left Port the first time they were nothing but a peaceful group of traveling monks, sages, scholars, and explorers seeking to unify the aquatic direction of magicks in the Material Plane.
But then... they came here.
The only true spot of land they discovered was an island where it's said a drop of blood would grow trees throughout the viney maze-like jungle covered in face-like fungal growths. Often whispering in different languages. one even supposedly expressing opinion on "the recent regicide". However at that point, unless someone had killed one of the Monarchs while they were away… it would had to have been talking about the murder of one of the viking monarchs from centuries ago.
At some point while exploring this island they came across some kind of ancient Hobben tome that told them where they were and how to get home. But by the time they had figured it all out- they'd found that their magicks were much stronger out here. And even though Necromyc magicks had seemingly begun dryin' up in the Material Plane for thousands of years, they'd tracked down it's old footprints in each of their cultures, found their bones ... and studied 'em. Eventually this resulted in what we know today as the Necromyc direction of Bhogg'Murr.
The Draugr are the long-term effects of these explorations into the Te'Bhogg'O'Dthoum. Those of us who aren't above listening to those teachings - especially those of us who live on the sea - know some it's secrets. I know more, maybe, than anyone … The truth lies before you. For in this place, dead men will always have tales to tell."
-Spoken by Mad Jak on a quest to find Maug'Aarr'Uend's lost knowledge of phylactery just before start of The Age of Strident Shifts
Known Draugr:
- Known as:
- Creator of:
- Original Race: Tiefling
- Risen by: Possibly the spirit of Dakar'keth'ull'kymn'hep'dthom'nyn'keth'kor speaking through the Deathrisen Tomes
- Status: Active
- Unit: The Grey Ghost
- Lore:
- Known as:
- Creator of:
- Original Race unknown
- Risen by: unknown
- Status: Active
- Unit: The Grey Ghost
- Lore:
- Known as:
- Creator of:
- Original Race Dwarf
- Risen by:
- Status: Unknown
- Unit: Orion's Belt
- Lore: