back to the origins of this . It predates my FOREWORD work on the Lost Lands, it predates my time with Frog God Games, and in many ways it predates my time as a Welcome to the Aegis of Empires designer notes. This professional writer. It goes all the way back to 1988 when ungodly huge document was what I sent to the poor writers TSR released a hardback game book that blew my young that I hired to author the six adventures of the adventure mind: Adventures by . The book came out path… er, five adventures actually, but more on that later. during that weird quasi-transition from 1st Edition to 2nd Yes, it’s almost 30,000 words and 48 manuscript pages as I Edition and was rather scattered in its contents: some class type it here on a Word document, though I’m sure that will stuff, the concept of deities’ avatars, some new monsters, change in the layout process. But here it is in all its glory key NPCs of the Greyhawk setting, a bunch of new spells, for you to peruse at your leisure. And it leaves me with one but most importantly—for me at least—were descriptions burning question: Why? of legendary locations in the Greyhawk setting. I became hooked on those few paragraphs provided for each, reading and rereading them again and again. One place that I My poor authors certainly weren’t thrilled to receive a couldn’t get out of my head were the Pits of Azak-Zil… 40+ page outline to review before they could get started a haunted meteor crater, filled with the ghosts of dwarf on writing their adventures. Why would I do that to miners, and lost treasures, and a failed quest to find it them? And why would you, gentle reader, want to see that left behind a cryptic journal that could guide others. it? To address the second question first: I guess it really Almost immediately I set out to create the lost journal of doesn’t matter why you want it; we offered it as bonus Pont Sandmorg of Narwell—handwritten on plain copy content in the Kickstarter, and some of you brave souls paper. That sheaf of pages written in my teenage scrawl has jumped on board and demanded it. Maybe you are absolute been stuffed between the last page and back cover in my completionists and simply must have the entirety of any copy of that book for more than 30 years now. I imagine it’ll project you support. Maybe you just like seeing how the be there another 30 at least. sausage is made. Maybe you hope for a glimpse into my sick, depraved, sadistic, Type A soul. Maybe you’ve got a little of that sickness yourself… Regardless of the reason, Also around this time is when I began submitting you have spoken, and so it shall be! adventure proposals to Dungeon Magazine. I assumed if I could get a few published, then it was only a matter of time before I could write my own adventure about the Pits of As to the former question: Why would I do that to them? Azak-Zil. A mere 15 years later, my first adventure proposal Well, there’s a story to that. was accepted (“Tammeraut’s Fate” #104) and was followed quickly by the acceptance of a proposal for a trilogy (the But before we go any further, it is imperative that you Istivin trilogy in issues #117, 118, and 119). And they were all aware there will be… Greyhawk adventures! I had other submissions accepted, including one that was inspired directly from the material in Greyhawk Adventures when I visited the deadly valley of the Csipros Erd in issue #131’s “The Hateful Legacy”. As the submissions continued, I blew the dust off my Pont SPOILERS!!! Sandmorg journal as I began to plan how to do justice with These is a document about the design that went into the my ideas for Azak-Zil. creation of the Aegis of Empires adventure path, and it must therefore, necessarily, contain spoilers regarding said path. Then Dungeon Magazine came up with the idea for me. So I hope it goes without saying, but if you intend to be a They had begun doing adventure paths with Shackled City, player of the adventure path rather than the GM, you should , and Savage Tides... all set in Greyhawk even! I stop reading now. These notes will quite literally give away began to work up my idea for an AP with Azak-Zil and the everything about the adventures to follow… oftentimes in fallout of the Greyhawk Wars as its centerpiece. Eventually excruciatingly specific detail. You have been warned. I submitted the proposal for a 4-adventure Greyhawk adventure path called Ruins of Aerdy. I never really got an So first, as to my earlier comment of mentioning five answer on it; it was never accepted, but it was never really authors being sent the outline rather than six, well that’s rejected either. It just languished in the submission pile partSample of the story. And to understand it all we must go with no end in sight. Then Paizofile announced that Wizards

2 of the Coast was pulling the license for Dungeon Magazine, already had the concept of radioactive exposures in the D&D, Greyhawk, etc. The submission was dead, so I turned world from Tom Knauss’s metallurgic amber in Fields of my adventure writing to all things Golarion over the next Blood and Bill Webb’s mutant-infested wasteland in Sword of few years. Air. There was nothing in my Ruins of Aerdy AP that couldn’t be approached from a different angle specific to the Lost Lands, and so I set out to rework that outline into what was However, when Bill Webb approached me about at first known as the Ashes of Empire AP to complement the starting up Frog God Games, and incorporating all of the release of the forthcoming Lost Lands world book. Necromancer Games catalog of adventures, and ultimately into creating a cohesive campaign setting that could encompass it all, I set out to put together the Lost Lands. My first problem was that by this time, the 6-adventure Doing so allowed me revisit a great many ideas from my AP had more or less become the standard format. I realized home brew games and how I would develop a game world that with the greater scope and scale of the Lost Lands if it were up to me, along with the near-endless wealth of compared to the relatively small land mass covered in the already existing material through Necromancer Games and Greyhawk sub-continent, I could greatly expand on my the fledgling publications of Frog God. In doing so, I was meteor crater adventure and split it into two adventures: able to put together something of vast size and scope that one for the investigation and journey and one for the could accommodate almost any style of play or campaign exploration of the site itself. That brought me to five preference. The Lost Lands developed with iconic locations adventures, but I was at a loss for what to do for a sixth. like Bard’s Gate, and Rappan Athuk: The Dungeon of I had a hole available for a low/mid-level adventure but I Graves, the Stoneheart Mountains, the Wizard’s Wall, didn’t have any ideas of how to fill it. I needed something the temple-city of Tsar, the development of the Gulf of urban really, so fit the themes and different aspects of the Akados and Sinar Coast regions with their rich historical, central Lost Lands that I wanted to explore but didn’t have geographical, and cultural interplay. I had empires striving anything that was a good match. Then Jeff Swank sent me and falling and the successor states and the hidden drivers the unsolicited manuscript for his delightful The Ebon Soul, behind the scenes for more than 5,000 years of events. and I knew I had my sixth.

We added exotic locales like Razor Coast, the Northlands, As a result of the reworking of the outlines for the the blighted city of Castorhage, and name-dropped different adventures I had previously intended to write, references of historical connections to places like Tircople, along with the inclusion of Jeff ’s adventure, I realized there and the Kingdoms of Foere, and the Haunted Steppe. And was no way I would have time to knock out the writing on finally as it all came together I remembered the Ruins of this six-adventure monstrosity. So almost 10 years of design Aerdy and realized I had the means to rebuild it from the notes coalesced into a single master document and I began ground up and make it serve as a perfect showcase for recruiting authors to join me on this project. The lucky many of the mentioned-but-never-seen locations of the few turned out to be Alistair Rigg, Jeffrey Swank, Matthew Lost Lands we had been teasing for nearly a decade. Goodall, Steven T. Helt, Tom Knauss, and Anthony Pryor. The shifts in the industry and at Frog God Games resulted in me bringing this to Legendary Games in mid-stream to The Greyhawk elements had to be removed, of course, allow it to reach fruition, but at long last here it is in all its but the universal themes and adventure concepts were glory. still good and held a flavor that I wanted for the Lost Lands. A lost meteor crater promising danger and wealth, a treacherous journey through hostile lands following As I said to quote Jerry Garcia and company in my foreword a mysterious journal to reach said treasure. All of these to The Slumbering Tsar Saga in 2012, “What a long, strange were still viable options to make a great adventure path, trip it’s been.” and some of the organic developments of the Lost Lands by myself and other authors over the years lent themselves Amen to that, brother. very nicely to fit the bill. I didn’t need the rugged Abbor- Alz hills, I had a Haunted Steppe wracked by millennia of warfare and slaughter. I had lost colonies and lost Greg A. Vaughan expeditions seeking to find those colonies. I had a history October 31, 2020 of monstrous meteorite impacts upon the planet going back to Samplethe earliest years of Necromancer Games. I even file

3 1 series (both of which were later published in compilation ASHES OF EMPIRE form), the formalized construction of the “adventure path” can arguably be traced to the Shackled City adventure path in Dungeon Magazine. However, the concept of the sort ADVENTURE PATH of underlying campaign arc style being used for Ashes of Empires is also not new, having likewise existed in the This Document Contains Sensitive Internal Information hallowed pages of Dungeon both during Publishing’s Not for Distribution Outside Frog God Games Staff or tenure at the helm of that periodical as well as before. Individuals Under a Non-Disclosure Agreement

Past examples of this type of campaign arc in Dungeon A Frog God Games2 adventure path for the Lost Lands that, while not necessarily setting out to attain this specific campaign setting goal, nonetheless achieved it to some extent would be the adventures about the infamous red dragon Flame (“Into The Ashes of Empires adventure path is a Lost Lands the Fire” in Issue #1, “From the Ashes” in Issue #17, and adventure path that is designed for a party of four to six “Old Embers Never Die” in Issue #100) or the various Dark PCs. It is written in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules Continent adventures written by David Howery (“The system and will be converted to both Swords & Wizardy Elephants’ Graveyard” in Issue #15, “The Leopard Men” in and 5e game systems.3 Ashes of Empires is not a traditional Issue #22, and “The Land of Men with Tails” in Issue #56). So adventure path in that its constituent adventures do not while we’re not exactly breaking new ground with the Ashes run continuously from the first to the last. It is expected of Empire adventure path, we’re certainly clearing the brush that the PCs will have other adventures in between the from an old trail that hasn’t been used in a number of years. adventure path episodes and perhaps even concurrently for a truly ambitious GM. As such, the adventure path is not The Ashes of Empires adventure path is primarily set on designed to take a party of 1st-level characters and advance the Lost Lands continent of Akados. The westernmost them through their careers exclusively through its own known continent and the region principally detailed in events. So while the adventure path begins for low-level the upcoming The Lost Lands Campaign Setting boxed PCs, it does to require that they begin their adventuring set4 forthcoming from Frog God Games for which this careers with its initial adventure, nor will it provide the adventure path will serve as a complimentary product. requisite XP and treasure to successfully propel them through its entire course without the use of supplementary materials. In a sense it is therefore a campaign arc rather The history of the Lost Lands is both marked and marred than an adventure path. by the rise and fall of great empires. Two great empires in particular: the Hyperborean Empire (1 I.R.–2509 I.R. [or 2584 I.R. depending on how it is calculated])5 and what is chiefly The campaign arc provides a common theme around considered its successor state in the Hyperborean Monarchy which a campaign can be built without forcing the PCs of the Foeredewaith, aka the Kingdoms of Foere (2744 I.R.– down a particular path or exclusively through a particular 3213ish I.R.) are those that are most universally recognized set of adventures. In fact, a GM could use the arc as merely as the empires of Akados. These particular empires one of multiple themes running through his campaign, treated with, warred against, and otherwise interacted with as it inherently allows flexibility in character choice and other empires over the years including the Khemitian plot direction. Of course, each adventure can be used as Triple Kingdom, the Ammuyad Caliphate, and the Huun a stand-alone episode without using the arc at all, any Imperium of the eastern continent of Libynos, as well as, of the adventures of the arc can be skipped at the GM’s the foundational Borean Empire of the polar continent of discretion. At the same time the campaign arc allows GMs Boros, and some of these interactions play a role in this to use published materials to unobtrusively tie elements of adventure path. However, the true focus of the path is upon his campaign together and provide his players with “Aha!” the empires specifically of Akados, i.e. The Hyperborean and moments as the plot themes develop without having to the Foerdewaith. However, not overtly included in this tally develop them all themselves or rely on the more structured but nonetheless integral to this adventure path is the often- format of a traditional adventure path. forgotten third empire of Akados, an empire that warred with Hyperborea for 676 years and represented the single- While the concept of an adventure path of sorts dates greatest known threat to that empire for much of that time. backSample to the early days of 1st Edition D&D with serial That this empire ultimately disintegratedfile allegedly under its adventure modules such as the A series and the GDQ own internal pressures leads to much of the nonchalance

4 regarding its passing and its place in history. But in truth of the planet hosting Carcosa10 (in Hastur literature it is this empire, the Invincible Horde of the Hundaei (7 I.R.– also described as having two suns11), in our summer 2015 683 I.R.), forms perhaps the most significant backbone and release of Cults of the Sundered Kindgoms there is included contribution to all humanity on Akados and indeed the an adventure that I had penned the previous year called entire world of Lloegyr6. Shades of Yellow and ran sessions of at both Paizo Con and North Texas RPG Con, which is directly tied to the cult of Hastur, and going even farther back, in my summer ADVENTURE PATH BACKGROUND 2012 sneak preview of my Lost Lands world map that was Remember, this AP is more of an underlying campaign distributed to the other members of Frog God Games and theme than a specific adventure path, so its deep background some select few notables at North Texas RPG Con there is doesn’t necessarily tie in directly with its constituent included an interesting geographic feature in one corner… adventures. Rather they are more of a commonality of consequence through the auspices of similar history and fate. So if it seems like they don’t connect extremely closely to this history, that’s okay. The history is much bigger than the adventure path, and the adventure path will not fully explore the history. Know also, that there is more to the history than is summarized here that will be explored through future Lost Lands releases.

First let’s get the 800 lb. gorilla out of the way. This stuff is super deep/dark campaign setting background that will not be overtly revealed in this adventure path. Hi there

The world that is variously known as the Lost Lands, Yep, that’s Lake Hali up by the Nam-i-Budhani (aka Lost Lloegyr, Boros, etc. orbits a star that is known to we Mountains).12 Not shown, a ruined city (or three) on its inhabitants of Earth as Aldebaran. It likewise holds the northern shore (because I’m not going to include that on ruins of a mysterious ancient city called Carcosa. That’s the public release map. But it’s there, never fear, it’s there). right, the Lost Lands is the home of Hastur.7 Also the 2004 Necromancer Games adventure Trouble in Now before you cry foul and start accusing Frog God Durbenford features a little known religious group called Games of jumping on bandwagon of the Strange Aeons the Cult of the Unspeakable. So Hastur has been here for adventure path that Paizo is currently releasing8, let me some time; it’s just that we haven’t talked about him much just tell you that it is a case of concurrent-yet-entirely- before now. independent parallel design. I had no idea that Paizo’s Lovecraft-themed adventure path called Strange Aeons You may also note on that map the location of Crane’s was going to be centered on Hastur. In fact, when I chose Tower from the old Necromancer Games adventure book L1: Hastur as the principal evil of our world (Admit it, you Demons and Devils. Sure enough, that’s where it’s located. 9 thought it was Orcus and Tsathogga, didn’t you?) , I did But if you are a quasi-well-informed fan of FGG you might so because Hastur was such a little-used/largely-ignored cry foul over the fact that the adventure Sword of Air places entity that I thought it would be safe to do so without Crane’s Tower in the Hazed Canyon of the Gulf of Akados worrying about others doing the same thing. And it also fit region. Well, you have discovered a case where Bill clearly very well with a lot of thematic elements already inherent did not review the world map preview he had received before to old Necromancer Games releases that I was folding in to writing the final draft of Sword of Air. However, if you’ll refer the Lost Lands mythology. Of course, one season of HBO’s to page 47, Area 4 of your copy of Sword of Air (PF version), True Detective and now the Strange Aeons adventure path you’ll find my retcon of Bill’s material prior to the book’s later, my calculation appears to have some flaws. publication to take care of that little error. It’s a fake! Just one more false trail left by the sorcerer Crane. Furthermore, However, as evidence of our original intent I present the if you refer to the version of Sorcerer’s Citadel reproduced by well-documentedSample presence of two moons over the Lost FGG in Quests of Doom, on the firstfile page of the adventure Lands in various FGG publications — a known feature you’ll find a paragraph that states:

5 “…In the Lost Lands campaign setting by Frog God is certain what that phrase might mean exactly since the Games, Crane’s Tower is located among the mysterious Hyperboreans are well known from history to have descended Lost Mountains, far across the Haunted Steppe and from the northern continent of Boros more than three-and- standing above thrice-cursed Lake Hali.” a-half-thousand years ago. Whatever the truth, none has ever find the final resting place of the legendary man.

Among Gravenfar’s famed exploits, the one possibly most noted among true scholars was his alleged discovery of the legendary Book of Aeons in the long-considered-mythical ruins of ancient Ibnath in far Libynos. What became of the coveted book before his disappearance, none can say, and most assume that he took the ancient manuscript with him to wherever he disappeared. However, it has long been searched for by those hungry for ancient knowledge or the cosmic powers it is said to control, or both. Despite the loss of this ancient text, the original is not the only version said to exist. According to old stories, at some point in the past the legendary bibliophile/thief Takh-Nir-E of Zabba (he who is most famous for stealing the equally legendary Book of the Star-Seed) is said to have likewise discovered Ibnath and spirited the Book of Aeons out from under the watchful eyes of its guardians.15 The story goes on to say that Takh-Nir-E elected to eventually sneak back in and return the book for unspecified reasons, but not before having made at least one translation of it into Semuric called the Kitaab al-Zabba. This translation was then later copied by the Khemitite artist and scholar Kulophon into both Khemitian and High Boros before he was burned alive for heresy by the Church Militans of Alcaldar. It was thought that all copies of these translations were destroyed, Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film but rumor spoke of at least one copy of the High Boros translation, called the Codex Ibnathi, surviving when one of Kulophon’s apprentices took it and fled the Khemitian city of Menefet where Kulophon had lived. So, suffice it to say, Hastur lives somewhere within the world of the Lost Lands. The hows and other particulars are not that germane to this adventure path; I just wanted ADVENTURE SUMMARIES to make you aware from the outset. Each adventure should be approximately 30,000 words16, roughly the length of a Pathfinder AP adventure. Some of So back to the adventure background. them have already been written or assigned for writing as indicated below. The famed adventurer/explorer Aroldus Gravenfar — sometimes called Seeker Gravenfar for his reputation as an 1. The Book in the Old 13 explorer and most often simply Gravenfar because of the House extent to which his reputation preceded him — disappeared By Alistair Rigg 80 years ago. According to who is telling the story, he either 2nd level disappeared somewhere in the trackless wastes of the Haunted Steppe supposedly retracing the steps of the ill- fated Caleen colonization of almost six centuries earlier or The Book in the Old House takes somewhere high in the Stoneheart Mountains in search of place in the city of Eber (EE-bur), whatSample he called the “crèche of Hyperborea”14, a phrase found oncefile a part of the Kingdoms of in one of his many published journals — though no one Foere (fo-AIR) before serving as a

6 time as the capital of Kear (KEER), the Infernal Realm of the The PCs, with their new vampiric abilities and vampire-lord known as the Singed Man, Eber was liberated weaknesses, must simultaneously search the manor for by the paladin-hero Sir Varral the Blessed and ultimately some clue to saving themselves from undead damnation became the capital of the independent Kingdom of the Vast while fighting off the vampire hunters who are wholly nearly three centuries ago. The adventure tells the stories uninterested in hearing of their plight. In the course of of an ancient alienist named Ellerby “Eb” Wallix driven their search, the PCs discover correspondence between from Courghais (coor-ASE) by the Knights of Macobert in the margravine and one of the oldest temples of Tourse. 3367 I.R. for his aberrant practices. He was never hunted The information indicates that an ancient holy relic called down due to the increasing persecution of the knighthood the Crimson Shroud is held within this temple of Archeillus and the chaos that ensued following the Foerdewaith Wars (ar-KAY-less), God of Nobility and Rulers, and is capable of Succession and the dozens of revolts and civil wars they of curing any affliction — even that of vampirism. It spawned. When the knighthood was largely destroyed seems that the margravine sought this artifact for her own and forced into hiding thirteen years later, the matter unknowable ends. was forgotten except in the memory of a knight named Barivoren Wallix, nephew of the exiled Ellerby. Seeking out the temple before more vampire hunters can pick up their trail, the PCs are shocked to discover that it A century and a half later, a young night named Urvitus actually serves as a front for an underground cult of Grox Voren has come upon the papers of his ancestor Barivoren, (GROHKS), a god of civil corruption and blackmail, who founder of his family’s line, and his uncompleted life’s used the shroud as a means of extorting those in need of task of destroying all that once remained of the villainous its healing powers. Unfortunately, the PCs are too late as wizard Eb Wallix. Having learned that Wallix had relocated the shroud has just been stolen by vampiric agents of the to a house in Eber, Urvitus sets out to destroy it only to find Underguild, and the surviving Groxites assume that the the legacy of the wizard very much alive and that he himself vampiric PCs are more the Underguild’s servitors sent to is a descendent of the crazed spellcaster. Only with the finish the job. intervention of a party of adventurers is Ellerby’s haunted house destroyed and Urvitus Voren redeemed from the Surviving the fury of the Groxites and questioning possessing influence of a page from the foul Codex Ibnathi survivors, the PCs are able to track the Underguild vampires hidden in the house’s basement 150 years before. to their hideout in the sewers beneath a local tavern and gambling hall. Making their way to this establishment, A fairly extensive outline for this adventure exists below. the PCs can pit their own prowess coupled with their new vampiric powers against the power and experience of the Underguild’s vampires and their mortal agents. However, 2. The Ebon Soul as the PCs battle their way through the minions, the By Jeffrey Swank margravine makes a reappearance as she sneaks into the 5th level fray and absconds with the Crimson Shroud herself. The PCs must pursue her back to her manor through the waning night before dawn catches them and destroys. Only there In The Ebon Soul, the PCs are the do they have the opportunity to try and overcome their invited guests of the widow of mistress and gain the healing powers of the shroud for the Margrave of Tourse (tur-SAY) themselves. in the Duchy of Ysser (EE-sur). Margravine Cassandra proves to be something less than the perfect 3. When Comes the Moon hostess she seems when the PCs’ nightmares are visited by By Matthew Goodall a demonic beast which, upon their waking they discover to have been the psychic attacks of the Margravine, a powerful 8th level psychic vampire, who has just completed the process of infecting all of the PCs themselves with vampirism with her When Comes the Moon takes as their mistress. She quickly flees, though, as the manor place on the far eastern fringes comes under attack by a company of foreign vampire of the Kingdoms of Foere. More hunters hired by persons unknown intent on purging the than a thousand years ago when foul presenceSample from the city. the churchfile of Thyr was still at its height holding the positions over

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