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December 31, 1993

Stone Soules Summary: An introduction to Tan-El, or the Greate Olde City

The Greate Olde City

There are tales of a vast civilization on a plateau in the Hadarna
mountains. From the descriptions it was a vast and wealthy place, perhaps as
large as one of the New World countries. Various tortuous and guarded routes
allowed entrance to the city. It was in search of one of these entrances that
the high wizard of Teft disappeared and has been assumed dead.

The city they describe is old enough to meet the rumors of these
ancient lands. If so then the city was inhabited by humans with a great and
complicated land. What happened to them? No one knows. The disappearance
of a civilization of such size seems to pose a problem.

There are hints that the King of Cromwell and Dunstill and Illic have
traveled through the mountains from the Indicara and found an entrance to the
land. Both returned with some small wealth from the jungles. Dunstill and
Illic failed in their quest, but with their information the King appears to
have succeeded. Neither seems to know much about the history, only that the
land in the mountains they record is a wasteland of crazed nomads.

Consulting the legends of the locals of the End area, there are stories
of a City of the Gods, a strange and magical place nestled high in the
mountains. The rumors seem to come from a relatively strong source. At one
point a cloud giant adventurer reports using his cloud to travel there. The
winds threatened to dash his castle against the peaks, and he was scared to
stay but he describes vast treasures in ancient coins, strange buildings, and
magical portals. A storm blew up shortly after his landing and he was forced
to negotiate his cloud castle out of the mountains quickly. He tried to return
but the winds never made it possible.

The rumor has been tentatively confirmed by a druid in SMART who was
owed a favor by a great eagle. The flight was VERY difficult but the eagle did
report a city of vast size, a city fit for the gods themselves. SMART was
eventually driven from the area by more and more coordinated attacks by a
group of demon worshipers (presumably the Lesser Ones and Great Ones).

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Edwin says that End is "unquestionably" the largest city in the New World we have ever seen (Dunthrane was bigger before the War, though).

We are in a ruined city [the Great Old City] near End. We are the first PCs to ever visit End, apparently, and this city is oodles of fun. Beithir, sphinx, desert monster (in the Great Olde Woode), etc.

There are other ruins, but the Great Old City is the only one we have visited namely because to the west there is a zephyr roc before you arrive at the ruins which picks off adventurers rather easily. To the north there are supposed to be more, but some are really picked over quite a bit.