Skrellingshald

Rumors & Legends

General Rumors

The city’s origins are not definitely known; many think that it might be a prehistoric Flan city-state named Tostenhca. The Coltens tell of a ancient Flan land that rose up to dominate the surrounding lands claiming tithe and tribute from its less advanced subjects. Their wealth was such that the buildings themselves were roofed in gold. The city rests somewhere in the Griff and Corusk mountains sitting on a level plateau that rises up in height to match some of the greatest local peaks. This should make it easier to see, but much for much of the year Skrellingshald sits wreathed in snow and hidden in a great fog that stretches across many of the local peaks.

The Suel barbarians that live around the mountains gave it the popular name the lost city now holds. They have even started to tell stories to their young that it was the home of the gods when the world was still but a virgin, this is obviously a lie though; how else could you explain that the suel gods looked like the flan ancestors.

Great statuary line the city’s open avenues, carved from the same greenish-black rock the mountain and buildings are made of. Large pyramids, shrines to forgotten gods, and what must have been noble houses are found all throughout the city. Murals and paintings depicting special events and everyday living are found throughout. According to legend and second hand accounts the colors are still vivid and fresh, as if painted only yesterday. Jewels and jade are thought to fill forgotten vaults and a fortune is buried in the great market that once was the heart of a capital city.

From a Journal Written by Oril of Moonshire

We found the city’s gates on midsummer’s eve, even on the warmest night of the year the air held a strong chill to it and increased in strength the higher we ascended the mountainside. Territorial dwarves were rumored to be using the lower tunnels and streets carved in the mountainside so we decided to ascend the south face of the mountain. Even as our endurance was sapped by the local environment, aerial guardians flew out to challenge our advancement. This consisted mostly of griffins and eagles, both greater and lesser. A great roc did make a brief appearance causing us to lose two of our number and doing much to steal away our resolve. As we reached the third level of what surely must have been a terraced farmstead at one time a small winged demon flew out of the robes of a short fiend fully shrouded in earthen brown robes. When this small beast tore into Willrick, the third of our number to die; myself, and the druid Ganderby Raxia, abandoned the goal and flew off to safety.

Mishra the Storm-Maiden refused to admit defeat and pressed on, I know not her eventual fate, but since I have never set an eye on her in the hundred years since, I hold out little hope for her survival.

From “Lost Musings” a Collection of Writings by the Tenh Sage Habryan Nox

Much has been said of our fabled city Tostenhca, lost and found many times throughout history. Few know anything for certain on it, but here are the facts as has been established. The legendary city was lost to human memory for two thousand years, placing its abandonment sometime before the golden age of the Baklunish and Suel empires, this shows that the eastern men may have had more culture and power than thought possible by the refugee invaders that would claim much of land in this region. The dwarves of this particular mountain are tight-lipped about its history, not because of their natural reticence to reveal things humans ought not to have forgotten, but because they know not either the origins of the mountain. The fact that the workmanship of the most monuments found in the city are beyond the skill of even the greatest dwarven craftsmen, it is little wonder why they stout folk put on such airs. The city is not empty of life though. Kobolds, grown clever and resourceful on the wreckage and tossed aside library of human knowledge that is encased here are now masters of this harsh domain. It would take a great Storm of humanity to survive in such an environment, but the rewards might be well worth it if the soul so determined were to accumulate all the wealth they wished to take together in a central repository and remove it in a magical device all at once. Smallish demons are known to help on occasion, and one of the kobolds seems to have a small amount of influence over a few of the griffins that patrol the skies. Attached is what is left of two maps drawn up from a common set of legends as to the final path leading to the mountain peak. Each map shows a different final destination, its up to the way the language could be interpreted as to which map is accurate. I apologize for the water damage one the maps received but a great storm cloud sprang upon me while finishing it leaving that particular map with an ungainly mark for all time.

The Story of Hradji Beartooth

Hradji, a chieftain among the Ice Barbarians is thought to be one of the most recent visitors to the lost city. He returned with his numbers greatly diminished, but a stack of wealth at his disposal in the form of golden spheres each the size of a human’s double fist. Hradji refused to share knowledge of where the city was located for he planned to return the following summer with a greater force and take even more booty for himself.

Unfortunately he and all the men who accompanied him fell victim to a powerful malady and died less than four months after their return. The sicknesses spread with the spheres and only when Hradji’s heir proclaimed the spheres to be cursed and sold them to a merchant from the Great Kingdom did the sickness leave the tribes. To confirm that it was Skrellingshald Hradji also brought back with him two fledgling griffons and a shield crafted from a fire resistant hide of a diabolical.