The Island ----------- Our campaign is concerned with an island, about two weeks' travel from one side to the other. The island was founded about six hundred years ago by a group of pilgrims, fleeing politics, persecution, poverty, population pressure, and probably a lot of other things starting with "p" as well. Since they hadn't quite left "propaganda" behind, they named the island "New Hope". It was about ten years before the original colonists finished with the basic necessities of life (food, shelter, stuff like that) and started exploring. They quickly discovered the mountains of the island, which were extremely rich in precious gems. Diamonds, as the prime component in the "Raise Dead" spell, were in high demand even then; almost overnight the island shifted from an agrarian economy to a mining and export one. The name "New Hope", which had never entirely caught on, was replaced with "Diamond Isle". The mountains were primarily on the east side of the island. The east shore, though, was rocky and mostly cliff, with nowhere to start a port city. Thus the policy became to transport the gems from the mountains, across the island, to the original port (still called New Hope) on the west coastline. This was facilitated by the Diamond River, which ran west out of the mountain range, and at the mouth of which New Hope had originally been founded ten years ago. Of course, diamonds were not the only export of the area. Emeralds, rubies, sapphires - all of these were also to be found, though they were neither as common nor as valuable as the diamonds. More interesting were the opals and onyxes, found on the Onyx River, which flowed into the Diamond River shortly after leaving the mountains. A small but vocal minority protested the mining of such gems, as their only known use was in evil clerical spells such as Animate Dead. Sadly, most of the island was too busy getting rich to worry about such things, and their voices went unheard. The War -------- Some seventy years after the first discovery of gems, a famous magic user paid a visit to the isle. He began the construction of a fortress on Onyx River and hired many miners and laborers. Some were suspicious, but the mage - was he wizard or cleric? none were sure - claimed to want only to pursue his studies in peace. Over the next five years the number of undead encountered on the island grew alarmingly. Again, many suspected the mage was at fault, but nobody could demonstrate a link between him and the reanimated corpses, which seemed to be returning to life entirely on their own, all over the island. At the end of the fifth year, a band of heroes travelled down the Onyx with dire news: huge armies of the living dead were amassing at the mage's fortress, apparently arming for war. Proof had arrived, but sadly, too late for many. For three years after that, war raged over the island - the only war the island had seen, before or since. The people of the island know it only as The War (though historians elsewhere describe it as The Undead War, and the events following it as the Rising of the Dead). It was during this time that many of the gods of Diamond Island (now known to foreigners as Undead Island, or simply Bone Isle) came to prominence. Everyone who could learn to channel a god's power flocked to do so; clerics formed the backbone of every army that was fielded. Pelor, the Sun God and the best of them all at turning undead, became the chief god during this time, and his popularity has not diminished. Darknight ---------- When the dust of that war finally settled, only five human cities remained. The survivors begain the process of rebuilding, but quickly learned to their dismay that the war's curse still lingered. Undead were as common on the island as during the height of the War. They were worst on the last night of every month, when negative energies waxed so strongly that corpses would spontaneously reanimate and seek the blood of the living. The last day of every month became known as Darknight, when the living must hide in fortified buildings from the coming of the dead. The worst Darknight of the year was the last day of Cropgathering, the anniversary of the war's end. This was known as Darkestnight, or, on occasion, as "Allhallows Eve", because of the powers the clerics harnessed to keep the population safe. Any night spent outside on the island is dangerous to civilians; zombies walk the countryside and sometimes even the towns, seeking the blood of the living. Darknight is far worse. During Darknight, shadows, wraiths, and even worse things are afoot, and citizens retreat with their possessions to special fortresses in the middle of each town and village. Only the six cities (the five that survived the War, plus one new one) have true defenses against the hordes of undead. For those travellers who find themselves on the road at nightfall, special precautions must be taken. Along every passable road are small, crude, but very defensible stone bunkers. Most of the bunkers were created by Walter the Wayfairer in the ten years following the War, so they are all quite similar in design. Each bunker is a square, thirty feet by thirty feet, and is made of smooth, uniform stone, six inches in thickness, created by the Wall of Stone spell. At the center of each bunker is a Keystone, a fresh-hewn five-foot block of granite from which the entire bunker was grown. The ceiling and floor of the bunkers are as tough as the walls, to protect from flying or burrowing undead. This suffices to keep out most skeletons, zombies, and other mindless undead. To deal with the more powerful undead, such as shadows and vampires, special precautions are needed. Each Keystone is Hallowed (the spell) and engraved with special runes into which a good-aligned cleric can turn undead. Turning undead into a Keystone creates a barrier field around the entire bunker. Only a very strong undead can pass such a barrier, and even for them it is a painful process. A powerful cleric can defend a bunker even on Darknight. Story ------ This campaign will concern itself with a merchant's caravan that found itself on the road on Darkestnight. The merchant, and the guards, knew of the dangers, but wanted to get their cargo of diamonds to Blueport before the last trade ship left for the winter. The guards were many, and experienced warriors, and the merchant was confident his caravan could survive Darkestnight unscathed. If he had been right, of course, there would be no story...