Hex Crawl 23: Eryptos 3, Alchemy and Sorcery

 
Eryptos is also a hub of many different approaches to science and the supernatural. The sorcerous scene is dominated by two rival wizards. Both of them were apprentices of Kul-Gattur the Mahal, and feel very keenly that they have not yet reached the cosmic heights of their master's understanding.

Syrioth, level 9 - A gaunt woman about 40, dark skin and dyed golden hair, antique garments that almost form a costume, eyes hollow and staring from madness, nonetheless attentive and prone to insightful if paranoiac observations. She has few if any boundaries, and casts spells with a vulture-headed golden crook.

Abru the Obscurer, level 10 - A tall, muscular man about 45, light olive skin, bald with henna-dyed braids on the side. He wears heavy dark robes cut from foreign cloth, and has a hairless pet cat (a familiar, perhaps?) who is always under his feet. Abru's reputation is aloof and secretive with sparks of curiosity. He projects a forceful gaze, and a no-nonsense manner. His spellcasting uses a ponderous ring of lead and silver that spans the first three knuckles of his left hand.

The influence of these two is such that other would-be wizards, warlocks, and dabblers have either left town or keep their profile very low. Each of them has selected favorites in the court intrigue but sees no profit in pursuing it.

It is also worth mentioning the clandestine shop of magical artifacts that can be found behind a door round the back of a shop that sells discs of dried meat. Knock five times rapidly; a door opens, a wary eye looks out. The shop itself is lined with dusty shelves in a richly appointed miniature salon whose air is gummy with perfume. It's run by an effusive Dwarf of Yagan known as Vinnit. The shop will have 2d4 minor magic items and d4-1 major magic items for sale at standard prices plus a 20% markup. Vinnit will also buy wondrous objects, to the limits of his treasury, which is about 5000 gold. 

Finally, there is a Street of Alchemists filled with various quacksalvers and only two or three of the real deal. One of these is Zagum, who is secretly connected to the Scarab Society, and is constantly on the lookout for new substances and recipes. He certainly found these in abundance when the Band of Bronze opened up the dank halls of the Sinister Shroom, and even voyaged to those caverns to pick up samples of biomass and tantalizing glimpses of the Shroom's own records on the matter of the creation of semi-vegetative life through various serums and oozes.

Hex Crawl 23 #270: Proving Grounds of the Mad Wizard Lord

Eight hexes northwest, five north of Alakran.

 

Just a stretch of desert within sight of the crystal dragon effigy. Roll a 1 ("lair") on d20 when passing through it, and you stumble across an area half a mile square, where strange things lie on the ground. 

• Many areas where the sand has turned to glass in great plates and streaks 
• An area where noxious poisons have settled into the sand under a covering of dead insects and small rodents, dyeing it a chlorotic green
• A pile of unusually dense stones of pure elemental earth, that tumbled out from a planar summoning
• Likewise, a spray of red sands from the deserts of Hell, which shriek if stepped on
• Prankish magic auras cast on various useless rocks and twigs
• A magic mouth, mumbling and choking on sand, unable to fulfill its mission
• A continual light (or flame), half buried under sand, visible only at night from 100 yards away as an eerie orange glow

This is place where Kul-Gattur, inhabitant of the dragon effigy, practiced at his spells, in a time when the earth and its floor still held interest to him as a dwelling place.

Hex Crawl 23 #211: The Rows of Muttra

Eight hexes northwest, one north of Alakran.

 

An unusually rich irrigated district has sprung up in the desert, its parallel canals or "rows" watering fields of millet, alfalfa, barley, and emmer. These grains and feeds are part of the reason the desert city of Gesshed can sustain its population. The Rows are run by a mysterious person or people known only as the "Controlling Interest" who are based in a tall, elaborate wellhouse at the center of the grid of canals.

The well supplying the Rows is so rich and constant because it provides elemental-plane water summoned by a marid who was bound centuries ago for a term of service of 777 years. Over the years the marid has mingled with the Controlling Family (the Tutukka clan) and of the board of three Controllers who dwell in the wellhouse, two have genasi traits of resistance to acid and water breathing, as well as the bluish skin and greenish hair of that lineage.

There are jealous farmers further up the road toward central Wahattu who would have a much more lucrative market for their wares in Gesshed were it not for the Rows of Muttra. They might pay handsomely to discover the secret of this farming district and to send its driving force back to the plane of water from whence it came. However, the starving and depopulation of Gesshed would henceforth be on the successful adventurers' heads!