Secrets of the Alubelok Coast

Sample file SECRETS OF THE ALUBELOK COAST Credits Author: David Reeder Editors: Brian Jelke, David Kenzer, Don Morgan and Mark Plemmons Art Director: Bob Burke Art Coordinator: Mark Plemmons Cover Illustration: Drew Willis Interior Illustrations: Keith DeCesare, Jeremy Mohler, Eric Olsen, Philip Renne Cartography: Rob Lee, Craig Zipse Project Manager: Brian Jelke Production Manager: Steve Johansson Playtesters: Anne Canavan, Joe Charles, Doug Click, Gigi Epps, Charles Finnell, Donovan Grimwood, Robert Landry, Mark Lane, John Massare, Mike Patterson, Mark Prater, David Sink Jr., Brad Todd, Joe Wallace, Luke Wetterlind, John Williams and John Wright. Table of Contents Chapter 1: The Alubelok Coast . .3 Chapter 2: Islands of the Alubelok Coast . .15 Chapter 3: Sobeteta, The City on the Rock . .27 Chapter 4: Orders and Organizations . .46 Chapter 5: Equipment . .53 Chapter 6: Familiars and SpellsSample . .file . .62 Appendix A: Monsters of the Alubelok Archipelago . .68 Appendix B: Treasures of the Alubelok Coast . .83 Appendix C: Adventure Hooks . .87 Appendix D: NPCs and Notables of Sobeteta . .88 Index . .95 © Copyright 2003, 2007 Kenzer and Company. All Rights Reserved. Questions, Comments, Product Orders? Phone: (847) 662-6600 Fax: (847) 680-8950 Kenzer & Company email: [email protected] 511 W. Greenwood Ave. Visit our website: Waukegan, IL 60087 www.kenzerco.com This book is protected under international treaties and copyright laws of the PUBLISHER’S NOTE: United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced, without the This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the express written consent of Kenzer and Company. Permission is granted to the product of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously, and any resem- purchaser of this product to reproduce sections of this book for personal use blance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. only. Sale or trade of such reproductions is strictly prohibited. With respect to trademarks: Kingdoms of Kalamar and the Kingdoms of Kalamar logo are registered trademarks of Kenzer and Company. Secrets of the Alubelok Coast, ImageQuest, 1 the ImageQuest logo and the Kenzer and Company logo are trademarks of Kenzer and Company. © 2003, 2007 Kenzer & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Dungeons & Dragons is a trademark owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. ©2007 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Chapter 1: The Alubelok Coast Introduction from the fens in small boats, while lizardfolk congregate here in great numbers. Though ships continue to disappear or lose their crews On the coast of the Kalamaran Sea, midway between to the area’s predatory occupants, travel and trade Bet Urala and Bet Kalamar, lie the mires of the Alubelok continues. Basiran frigates and Kalamaran galleys do Swamp and the islands of the Alubelok Archipelago. That their best to tame the area, but their efforts do little more the islands of the latter bear the name of the former is no than reduce the risk to a generally acceptable level. coincidence - scholarly debate continues even to this day Without their efforts, and the ever-present sojourns of as to which islets and atolls belong to the island chain and adventurers and daring explorers, travel here would be which to the mire. This region is collectively known as suicidal at best. the Alubelok Coast, a region of great opportunity and greater peril. Trade here can make a pauper wealthy or WHAT YOU NEED TO PLAY beggar into the mightiest merchant house in mere days, This campaign resource assumes that you own the though this is not the greatest concern for most travelers three core rulebooks of the Dungeons & Dragons® game: here. By and large, they rightfully reserve their attentions The Player’s Handbook (PHB), the DUNGEON MASTER’S GUIDE for the physical dangers, pirates, brigands and unwhole- (DMG) and the Monster Manual (MM). This product uses some creatures that plague this region, as they do updated material from the v.3.5 revision of the D&D® nowhere else on Tellene. Travel through the straits, rules. As this book is compatible with the KINGDOMS OF passages, bogs, mires and channels of the Alubelok Coast KALAMAR® fantasy campaign setting, it is also useful to is not for the poorly armed or faint of heart. have the KINGDOMS OF KALAMAR campaign setting source- There are no completely accurate maps of the coast, book and the KINGDOMS OF KALAMAR Player’s Guide (KPG). though cartographers know the islands slightly better Some magic items included herein also make reference to than the fens. This is partly due to the inherent difficulty powers or spells described in the KINGDOMS OF KALAMAR of accurately charting such a region, and also to do with Villain Design Handbook (VDH). Feel free to substitute the fact that the terrain often changes. Rivers alter their other powers for those items if you do not own that book. courses, paths shift, mud flats are pushed sometimes leagues in one direction or the other, while sandbars and banks are raised or drowned by the vagaries of storms both inland and at sea. In the Alubelok Archipelago, the three largest islands (Bosinela, Remeter and Rokalel) and their Samplekindred islets file have been correctly mapped for navigation. Travelers should be warned, however, that scores of smaller islands, some no more than singular rock formations less than a few paces across, remain uncharted. To the best of any scholarly knowledge, no map accurately details these. As has been noted, there is little clear distinction between the swamp’s coast and the archipelago’s boundary. Wise folk typically regard the two as one and the same. Silt-laden river water mixes with the salty stuff of the Kalamaran Sea, and the boggy effluvia of the swamp muddies and fouls all of it. Creatures rightfully belonging to the swamps have been seen farther south than the southernmost island of Rokalel, while sea creatures have been discovered many miles into the swamp itself. Because of this intermingling, travelers must be wary of perils normally expected in swamps, as well as hazards usually found at sea. Water beetles (large enough to prey upon galleys) skim across the water, while crocodiles large enough to be mistaken for great wyrms have eaten more than one hapless mariner. Harpies inhabit cliff- 2 sides, and both sea trolls (see Dangerous Denizens: Monsters of Tellene) and scrags abound. Bullywugs and grippli (see Appendix A: Monsters) often range south Chapter 1: The Alubelok Coast Chapter 1: THE ALUBELOK COAST What many do not know is that a very few unthinkably ancient ruins have been discovered deep in the heart of A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE REGION the Alubelok Swamp (one of the most singularly inhos- The Svimohzish Isle, scholars say, was the cradle of pitable places in all of the Sovereign Lands). The history, human civilization. Arguments abound over the veracity origins and purpose of these ruins remain unknown. of this, or at least over the extent of its accuracy, but one One legend attests that an entire city lies buried below thing is not argued. Tribes of early humans crossed from leagues of vile, suffocating mud somewhere in the the island to the main continent at some point, and swamps. The truth of this cannot be told with any whether they were newcomers or latecomers, they came accuracy, but enough mysteries and strangeness exists in through the area known as the Alubelok Coast to get the region – such as the ancient Colossus of Moaning there. The bounty of the Alubelok Swamp, its wild rice and plentiful foods, its wild honey and waterfowl and game THE COLOSSUS OF MOANING creatures, supported the clansmen when they arrivedSample and file ROCK allowed them to thrive. A variety of perils faced them, but Solitary, forbidding and somehow lonesome, the Colossus has one thing they never needed to fear was hunger. stood atop the low, rugged island of Moaning Rock since time Kalamarans were the first racial group to settle the immemorial. No one knows who built it or why—it has always Alubelok Swamp in any numbers. Doubtless there were just been. This grim sentinel has been a familiar site and landmark Dejy tribes there ahead of them, but not in sufficient for navigators since before the human clans ever crossed to the strength to prevent the warlike, red-haired people from continent and the only mariners were elves. At that time it stood on the shore staring out at the storm-tossed sea. taking control of the region. It was from a strong, untrou- The island of Moaning Rock is a mile due south of the south- bled foundation in the region that King Inakas founded ernmost point of Rokalel Island. It is little more than 1,500 feet the kingdom that would eventually become the greatest across, a mostly bare expanse of rock inhabited only by seabirds single monarchy on Tellene. and jutting just twenty feet up out of the sea. The Colossus Kalamarans claim they brought civilization to the stands 60 feet tall, a golem-like figure of massive proportions. No one has ever seen it move, though one or two scholars have continent, though the elves and dwarves (and even the shown ancient (and a few not so ancient) drawings that indicate Brandobians) had long-standing kingdoms that were it has not maintained its exact posture over the years.What has centuries old before the Kingdom of Kalamar was even caused it to adjust its stance or alter the direction of its gaze is established. Brandobians - Eldorans specifically - claim to unknown. Not in living history,however,has it stirred significantly, be the oldest monarchy in the Sovereign Lands.

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