It's been a couple years since I worked on
Azag Mozu, but with hectic summer schedules it can be tough to get a whole group together consistently, and it's good to have a side-campaign in your back pocket for those game days when not everyone can make it but you still want to roll some dice. So here's the introduction to the Megadungeon (it fits on two side of a single sheet of paper) to hopefully give a lot of info in a short period of time. In contrast to the somewhat baroque dark fantasy of my Forgotten Halls mega, Azag Mozu is more a mix of Mesopotamian / Assyrian / Hyperborean / Cthulu influences.
Introduction
A thousand years ago,
the gods of Atheon began dying, one by one. Once twenty-one in number, only
eight remained by the time the rest figured out what was happening. One of
their number, Mozu, the Lord of Shadows, had been murdering the rest and
assuming their power.
The remaining Seven gods
moved swiftly against Mozu, but the renegade god had already consolidated his
power. From his great city of Abydo, he ruled supreme over the teeming masses
of those who worshipped him. Mozu offered his followers something none of the
other gods would: Immortality. The war
between Mozu and the remaining Seven would not be easily won.
The war raged for a
century and more. During this period of savagery, two great heroes arose:
Skallos, a warrior with unmatched swordsmanship, and Rehgedis, a wizard of
incredible power and subtlety. Rehgedis drew upon the power of the Seven,
freely given, to craft the Sword of Heaven. With it, Skallos challenged Ghorzirex
the Iron Drake, chief of Mozu’s servants, at the gates of the Palace of
Shadows. The defeat of Ghorzirex galvanized the forces of the Seven, and they
sacked Abydo, razing the city to the ground, and pursuing the forces of Mozu
deep into his subterranean palace.
Somewhere in the depths
of the earth, the Seven at last faced Mozu, and vanquished him, chaining him
for all time within a sorcerous Obsidian Prison. The left him behind, sealing
the Palace behind them, and bade their followers dispel all memory of the
location of Abydo and its dark palace.
Time passed…
The Tale of Sulla
In the massive trade
city of Xathay, no Merchant Prince was so wealthy or powerful as Sulla Haithet.
Sulla had built a massive network of shipping and caravans that trailed from
the barbarian stronghold of Tresteign in the impenetrable forests of the north,
to the mysterious city of Lashtuun-Ix in the steaming jungles of the unknowable
south. Sulla easily secured a seat upon Xathay’s ruling Council of Thirteen,
and there he sat.
For eighty years.
His rivals were growing
impatient. Not only did Sulla refuse to wither and die as all men must, he
looked and acted as hale and energetic as he was, at age fifty, when he first
took his seat. Many whispered of witchcrafts, of bargains made with demons, and
of dark rituals performed in the blood of innocents. Before long, the
Inquisitors of Sinma, Lord of the Sun, slapped Sulla in chains and dragged him
off to the holy city of Uthar to confess his crimes.
But no matter how painful
his trials beneath the ministrations of the Inquisitors, Sulla never wavered
that he had not consorted with witches or devils or any such thing. But he did
have a secret. Sulla soon spilled out a tale of how he had acquired, early in
his career, a map purporting to lead to long-forgotten Abydo. He gathered an
expedition consisting of the most renowned mercenaries and sorcerers he could
find, and plumbed the depths of the Azag Mozu, the Palace of Shadows.
According to Sulla, they
fought great horrors in the depths of that dark place, but also found great
treasures that he would use to found his trading empire. And he also spoke of
the Black Gates: to pass beyond them was to receive the Gift of Mozu,
Immortality. Of course, the Inquistors scoffed at his tale, and Sulla was
dragged from his prison at sunrise one morning, and burned to death upon a
pyre.
A Legend Persists
Sulla’s wild claims soon
made their way, as all rumors of treasure must, into the whispers of taverns,
and thieves’ guilds, and treasure hunters of all stripe. And what aging man,
wealthy and covetous of extending the short life given him by the gods, did not
dream of attaining immortality?
Expeditions to the Azar
Mountains in search of the ruins of Abydo began apace, and soon tales of ruin
and success alike began to work their way back to the cities of Atheon.
An Invitation
Now you, yourself, have
been extended an invitation to set out with a number of your peers on an
expedition financed by Naracen Gyle, a famed merchant of rare antiquities. Your
compatriots assure you Gyle’s sources are good, that he does in fact know the way
to lost Abydo. He even purports to have firsthand reports of what lies within
Azag Mozu, the great iron skeleton of Ghorzirex, the Weeping Shrine of the
Goddess Yllala, and the vast Lake Below. It is said that the Palace is not
entirely of this world, but a place where the Underworld overlaps and bleed
into our own world, and to sleep within the Halls of Azag Mozu is to invite
Madness. But treasure is still plentiful and ripe for the taking for any
adventurer clever enough and strong enough to defeat the guardians that still
lurk within the maze of chambers and caverns.
Atheon
Atheon
is a land of deserts interspersed with fertile river valleys. Many great cities
dot the flood plains, and feature massive step pyramids, gleaming palaces, and
mazelike bazaars. It is a Theocracy, ruled by the seven high priests of the
Seven Gods of Atheon. Atheon follows a rigid caste system where nobles and
priests are at the top, craftsmen, merchants, landowners, scholars, and
soldiers are in the middle, and slaves, foreigners, mercenaries, sorcerers, and
menials make up the bottommost tier.
To
the north is Sea of Megea and further still a land of dark forests, black
mountains, and barbarians. To the south is an unbroken chain of active
volcanoes, and beyond that a land of savage jungles and exotic cities.
There
are no true seasons in Atheon. It is hot during the day and freezing cold at
night. Calendars in Atheon are based on their lifeblood: the flood and fall of
the rivers.
