The Golden Khan of Ethengar

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A CLAN CAMP DUNQCON Masten's Quibe An Official DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® Game Supplement Tbe Golden Kbao of by Jim Bambra

Table of Contents Players' Guide What Everyone Knows 1 Lifestyle of the Ethengars 5 Creating Ethengar Characters 10 Shamans 14 Tribes and Clan Standing 20 Character Skills 25 Training Background Table 30 Ethengar Names 31 Adapting Gazetteers to the 2nd Edition AD&D® Game 32

Dungeon Master's Guide Introduction 2 History of the Steppes 3 Geography of the Ethengar Khanates 6 Politics and Rivalries 9 The Life of the Ethengars 13 The Golden Court 15 The Ethengar Calendar 21 Khans and Characters 24 Pull-Out Section The Hordes of the Steppes Sample file 31 Humanoids of the Steppes 35 The Spirit World 37 Ethengar Animals 43 Campaigning in the Ethengar Khanates 44 Adventures 51 In the Service of the Golden Khan 58 Adventure Ideas 64

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In AC 926, the hordes of Toktai Khan mercenary has a healthy respect for their them threatening the Ethengars, they prepared to conquer the world. The military prowess, and Cratu the Sage has a find themselves to be victims here. death of Toktai Khan at the town of Hay - deep fascination for their way of life. This "The Spirit World" describes a strange avik saw the hordes turn back to the section should be read by players running parallel world in which the spirits dwell. steppes to choose a new leader. As they Outsider characters and Ethengar charac- This is an important part of the Ethengars' retreated, the rest of the world sighed ters. Players of Outsider characters should beliefs—a world that has a dramatic influ- with relief and gave thanks that the read no farther. The rest of the informa- ence on their lives. In this section you'll Ethengars could not agree on Toktai tion in the Players' Guide is for characters find descriptions of the spirits, guidelines Khan's successor. But now a new Great from the Khanates. for basing adventures within the Spirit Khan has come to power on the steppes The next section deals with life as seen World, and tips on how to portray the spir- and the world will again come to fear the by Cratu the Sage and by the Ethengars its summoned by shamans. hordes of the Ethengars. themselves. It provides more insight into The next section, "Campaigning in the culture and beliefs of the Ethengars. the Ethengar Khanates," describes how The third section describes how to cre- you can develop your own Ethengar cam- Jllje Qazetteeu ate Ethengar characters and the ways in paign, and the different types of cam- This Gazetteer describes the Ethengar which these exotic people differ from paigns available. Khanates of the D&D® game's Known standard D&D game characters. The final section provides two adven- World: its geography, tribes, and the life- Information on the shaman character tures and a mini-campaign outline. The style of its peoples. In this package you'll class and the new spells available are first adventure is suitable for introducing find the following: described, as are the eight Ethengar Outsider characters to the campaign, * a 64-page DM's Guide to the lands of tribes. while the other takes the adventurers into the Ethengars, including two introducto- The DM's Guide: This book contains the blasted wasteland of the Land of ry adventures, a mini-campaign outline, all the DM needs to know to use the Black Sand as they perform a mission for plus numerous other campaign ideas to Ethengar Khanates as an adventure set- the Golden Khan. act as backdrops to adventures based in ting. It starts by describing the history of "In the Service of the Golden Khan" is and around the Ethengar Khanates. the Ethengars, the geography of the a mini-campaign outline that deals with * a 32-page Players' Guide to the steppes, and the political rivalries that the schemes and eventual fall of the Khan Ethengar peoples, including new rules, a smolder between the tribes. of the Taijit tribe. system for generating Ethengar charac- The lifestyle of the Ethengars is cov- * The Covers and Map Sheet: The map ters, and the shaman, a new character ered next, including typical events as a of the Court of the Golden Khan on the class. clan follows its herds across the steppes. large fold-up sheet is for the players. (The * a full-color, fold-out map sheet The CourSamplet of the Golde filen Khan is pre- DM's version of this map is included in showing the Ethengar Khanates, the sented as a unique urban setting com- this booklet along with a description of Court of the Golden Khan, and the yurts prised almost entirely of tents. The court the Court.) of the Ethengars. migrates across the steppes four times a The maps and diagrams on the cover * a six-panel folder depicting the rela- year. can be freely shown to the players, as these tionships of the eight Ethengar Tribes The major characters of the Khanates contain commonly known information. and a typical Ethengar camp. are described in "Khans and Characters." These are the characters who hold power USINQ or influence the wielding of power. "The Hordes of the Steppes" is a Qazetteeu four-page pull-out section that The Players' Guide: This sets the scene describes the armies of the Golden and provides an introduction to life in the Khan. If your campaign features mass Khanates. Read this first to get the flavor battles, you'll find that the optional of the setting and to see how the new rules for the War Machine from the rules affect standard D&D game play. D&D Companion game rules, and for 7 "What Everyone Knows" introduces the BATTLESYSTEM " Fantasy Combat the geography of the Ethengar Khanates, Supplement will give your games a def- the horse warriors of the steppes, and the inite Ethengar flavor. Golden Khan. It presents views of the And let's not forget the humanoids of Khanates seen through the eyes of three the steppes. These monsters, covered in Outsiders: Ahiktos the merchant fears and "Humanoids of the Steppes," find life loathes the Ethengars, Roki Erikson the harder than most of their kind. Instead of Histouy of tl7€ Steppes the Ethengars' close involvement with and-run tactics, using the mobility pro- WI70 ARG the Spirit World began. vided by his horses to fire hails of arrows The ice that for so long had covered the at the humanoids and then flee across the The Ethengars are based on the historical steppes and its surrounding lands began steppes. As time went by, more and more culture of the Mongols. These hardy to recede. A warm sun now shone down Ethengars fled from the humanoids to horse warriors struck fear into the civi- upon the former pole, giving life to the join Baka. Copying many of the human- lized world. Their armies conquered Chi- land and making it habitable. Among oids' ways, Baka forged his forces into an na and invaded Persia, India, Korea, those who survived the destruction of army and prepared to free the steppes. Burma, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Viet- Blackmoor were the Ethengars. Spared Before Baka could strike to drive the nam, and Japan. Across the Euro-Asian the worst effects of the Great Rain of Fire, hated monsters from the steppes, the landmass, the Mongol hordes swept their the Ethengars retreated before the form- skies over the mountains to the west (the enemies before them. Their use of horse ing ice caps and made their way south. lands that were later to be the Principali- archers made them almost invincible. For a thousand years the Ethengars wan- ties of Glantri) were engulfed in flame Often it was the death of a Great Khan, dered the northern wastes until they reached and gray dust fell from the sky. The grass not defeat at the hands of an enemy host, a sheltered land where the grass grew tall and of the steppes withered and died, in some that caused their armies to retreat. all manner of animals roamed. The places never to recover, and many While the Ethengars are based on the Ethengars domesticated them, particularly Ethengars and humanoids fell sick. This Mongols, they've been adapted to the the hardy horses of the steppes. disaster served to further strengthen the fantasy setting of the the D&D® game's The Humanoid Invasions: For almost bonds between the Ethengars and the Known World. Now the fantasy cousins three hundred years the Ethengars lived a Spirit World. The desolate Land of the of the renowned horse warriors can live semi-settled life upon the steppes. Black Sand was formed. In this strange again in your D&D game campaign! They sowed grain here and there to sup- place, permanent gates opened between plement their meat-based diet. Then the the Spirit World, the Known World, and humanoids swept down from the north to the Sphere of Entropy. Spirits from the Hi stony of burn and loot the Ethengars' homes. Sphere of Entropy entered the Land of Steppes Greatly outnumbered and outclassed, Black Sand and moved out to prey upon the Ethengars were forced into slavery by the Ethengars. It was only the teachings Our story starts back in the days of the the humanoid King Loark. But King of more benign spirits, passed on to the Blackmoor civilization. In those ancient Loark was not the only humanoid warlord shamans, that enabled the Ethengars to times, the steppes lay at the north pole of to reach the steppes. In his wake came rise to meet this threat (aided by the fact the Known World and the land of Black- Akkila-Khan. At first the two humanoids that it was now easier for shamans to enter moor enjoyed a pleasant climate. worked together, but like all of their kind, the Spirit World by using the gate that The people of Blackmoor possessed they begaSamplen to squabble ove filer the spoils. had opened in the Land of Black Sand). many powerful magical and technologi- Akkila-Khan was no fool. Outnum- Akkila-Khan's forces were no longer cal devices. Unfortunately, they grew lax bered by King Loark's hordes, he offered able to effectively hold the steppes and in the care of the mighty powers under the Ethengars freedom in exchange for the Ethengars fled from their tyranny. their control. The Great Rain of Fire, a their aid against King Loark. The slaves Over the next years, small groups of catastrophe of enormous proportions, rose up and Akkila-Khan struck with his Ethengars wandered the steppes, keeping obliterated Blackmoor and rocked the horde at the battle of Chongor. Defeat- an uneasy truce with the humanoids. planet itself. The planet shifted on its axis ed, King Loark retreated into the Broken Slowly Baka consolidated his power and and a polar ice cap began to form where Lands, and Akkila-Khan began to re- united scattered groups of Ethengars Blackmoor once stood. This great calami- enslave the Ethengars. under his banner. The changes wrought ty had repercussions that affected not The Rise of Baka: Under a young by the catastrophe in Glantri had trans- only the world, but the planar regions Ethengar known as Baka, some of the formed the steppes into a landscape of around it. Strange etheric entities, now Ethengars took their horses and yaks and parched grasses and barren lands—a land known as spirits, were drawn into the fab- fled from the humanoids. They roamed unable to support the numbers of ric of the world. Some of these entities across the steppes and slipped away from Ethengars and humanoids living upon it. merged with the new landscape. Others the humanoids wherever they encoun- It was time to drive the monsters from the roamed around, seeking a people to tered them. Learning quickly from the steppes. In the humanoid manner, Baka interact with. The people they found humanoids, Baka led his horsemen on declared himself to be Khan and called were the Ethengars, a race of yellow- raids against any humanoids foolish the Ethengars to follow him. His banner skinned, hunter-gatherer humans that enough to venture away from the main was raised and the Ethengars united had existed on the fringes of the Black- group. At first they tried head-on attacks behind him. Even so, they were too few moor civilization; it is from this time that to little effect. Baka then switched to hit- to take on the humanoids directly.