TSR 9489 Elminster's Ecologies I Battle of Bones.pdf

The Battle of Bones

Table of Contents

Credits

Author: Donald J. Bingle

Original Realms Design: Ed Greenwood

Development: Karen S. Boomgarden

and Elizabeth T. Danforth

Editing: Elizabeth T. Danforth

Creative Director: David Wise

Project Coordinator: Thomas M. Reid

Cover Art: Fred Fields

Interior Art: Matthew Cavotta

Cartography: Diesel

Typography: Nancy J. Kerkstra

Production: Paul Hanchette

Listen... Listen Well .................... 1

Lay of the Land .......................4

What You Will Find at the Site ........... 5

The Battle Itself ...................... 7

Life After Death After Life. ............. 15

The Rose Garden .................... 15

The Bone Miners ..................... 21

The Gathering Undead ................ 23

Turn, Turn, Turn .....................29

Necromantically Inclined ............... 29

Unified Defiled Theory................31

Rumors and Legends .................. 32

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Listen ... Listen Well

olanda Invenweigh is a stern, gaunt

site of the infamous Battle of Bones to be her land. The

human of forty years, with stringy, gray-

hideous inhabitants of that desolate region became her pro-

streaked hair, pallid skin, and skeletally

tected subjects of study. Her fascination with undeath has led

thin, long hands; she appears to be in her

her to forsake her druidical powers and true neutral stance to

mid-fifties. Cast out of a druidical con-

become a full-fledged necromancer. Her cold, clinical attitude

clave more than 25 years ago for dabbling in the arcane

reveals little of her inner nature, but knowledge she has and

arts of necromancy, Rolanda disappeared into the wilder-

knowledge youll get if you listen with an open mind.

ness in search of a land to call her own, and creatures to

As Rolanda had no desire or inclination herself to write a

study, nourish, and protect. Little is known of her wan-

treatise, I sent an able scribe, Balip, with the group of

derings, except that she was sometimes seen at the edge of

adventurers I last sent to hear her tales of the Battle of

a graveyard or on the outskirts of a recent battlefield in the

Bones. Balip dutifully recorded her every word. I present his

fading light of days end.

account of her oral presentation largely in its unabridged

Eventually she settled along the southwestern edge of the

form, with an added comment or two (or three) of my own.

Great Desert Anauroch in the Western Realms, taking the

Elminster

First of all, lets lay some ground rules. This is a seri-

ous, objective exposition concerning a piece of geog-

raphy, its characteristics, and its inhabitants. Were

talking years of careful, painstaking research, thou-

sands of hours of analysis and field study, lonely

months of compilation, mapping, and theorizing,

dozens of risky magical experiments, and ostracism by

a large number of my allegedly esteemed (but woefully

uninformed and bigoted) colleagues. I will not toler-

ate being judged by them, or by the likes of you, even

if that old goody-goody fuddy-duddy, Elminster, has

vouched for your behavior. One gasp, one raised eye-

brow, one self-righteous diatribe about goodness and

life, and this little interview is over.

I am not unmindful of the ignorant prejudices that

you harbor, of course. They were instilled in you

when you were young children, afraid of the dark. It

was then you were misled into believing that good-

ness could exist without evil, that light was superior

to dark, and that things undead should be banished

from the face of Faerûn and abhorred above all things.

These fright-filled tales were told to scare and control

you, not to inform. I alone have proven to be truly

neutral and objective concerning the undead and the

places where they gather. My tales will informnot

frighten. No one should fear natures way, even though

it may seem grisly and primitive to the dandies who

live a citified existence.

Is it unnatural for the undead to seek sustenance?

To want leadership and direction? Is it unnatural that

the undead gather together, to protect themselves and

their land from encroachment by folk who would do

them harm? Would you not do so? Will you now for-

swear these acts, should you ever share their fate?

even one of you looked the undead in the face longer

than the moment it takes to swing a weapon? Yet you

condemn their existence and would destroy them.

You desire a familiarity with the region of the Battle

of Bones. That knowledge must begin with a recogni-

tion and respectyes, respect!for the undead,

whether humanoid, animal, monster, or even veg-

etable. All abound at the battlesite. Take, for exam-

ple, Fez, here. He is a creature of my own creation,

and a constant companion I carry in the deep pockets

of my robe.

Here, Balip notes that Rolanda reached into the folds of

her clothing and in a single, sweeping movement, pro-

duced a zombie ferret to the surprise and considerable dis-

pleasure of her audience.

I too have had the disquieting experience of a sudden

introduction to Fez, and just cannot believe that Rolanda

continues to keep close companionship with this undead

ferret. Yes, she is lonely, and I have tried from time to

time to suggest amiable companions who would under-

stand her methodical ways and her beliefs in neutrality.

There is just something indescribably off-putting about a

woman who carries an undead rodent in her tunic that has

foiled my humble matchmaking attempts.

Elminster

As you can see, the necromancy of his creation has

dulled his eyesight; the fluid movements of a living

ferret are now jerky and spasmodic. Still, his overall

sense of balance and sure-footedness on uneven, pre-

carious terrain seems unaffected. His sense of smell is

measurably keener than before, although I have been

unable to determine if this is because the creature

constantly salivates. This copious drooling con-

tributes to the generally unkempt condition of his fur.

He no longer spends time on grooming or other

instinctive habits of cleanliness; time once spent on

such activities is almost entirely given over to a con-

stant sharpening of teeth and claws.

I have tried the same experiment with other small

animals and the effects have been remarkably consis-

tent. Small mammalsmice, voles, rats, rabbits, and

foxesare readily made zomboid. Small birds can no

Unfamiliar Familiar

Already, your eyes begin to betray your emotions. Dis-

trust, disgust, bemusement, and misplaced pity flicker

across your wide, uncomprehending eyes. They

expose the naiveté of your beliefs, and the narrow-

mindedness of your thoughts about the undead. You

have never had a conversation with one of the

undead, never considered its predicament, or the

needs and desires created by its fatehave you? Has

longer fly; their movement is too spasmodic. They

swiftly fall prey to their natural enemies and succumb

to a second, more permanent death.

Reptiles and amphibians tend to be much more active

as zombies than they had been in their living forms.

In an undead state, some innocuous small lizards

develop very potent poisons in their saliva. A zombie

lizards bite has much the same effects as the enven-

omed bite of a poisonous snake.

When placed together in an environment with

living creatures, the usual food chain develops.

Instinctive hunting patterns from life are still fol-

lowed in undeath. However, undead creatures will

not hunt or eat one another as long as they can find

living prey.

I do not dabble in the necromancy of zombie cre-

ation lightly, nor is this an irrelevant sidelight of my

work. It closely relates to your inquiries into the

nature of the area. Many of the so-called innocent

creatures of field and forest have been caught up in

the necromantic transformations occurring there.

Although their innocence remains, the zombie ani-

mals become loathsome in the eyes of manhated,

reviled, and hunted down for the undeath that has

been visited upon them by the powers of this spe-

cialsome say terribleplace.

But I get ahead of myself. You cannot understand

the nature of the undead that dwell here until you

understand the place itself. Barren and severe, it is a

place that would bear no special remarking, nor draw

the likes of you or me were it not scarred by war. As

much as any city, any castle, or any field plowed

straight and true, this place is a product of man. Un-

planned and unwanted though it be, this place exists

thus only because of mens whims.

Zombie Ferret: Int Semi; AL CN; AC 7; MV 9;

HD 1+2; THAC0 20; #AT 3 (claw, claw, bite);

Dmg 13, 13, 24; SA None; SD Zombie im-

munity to certain spells; SZ S; M Special zombie

morale; XP 20

Lay of the Land

ond fissure (a crooked offshoot of the first) runs

northeast from the western limit of the south rim

wall. Thirty miles later, rough hills demark the fissure

angling southeast until it once again approaches the

southern wall.

The triangular plain between the fissures was forced

up in the same time of upheaval. More time passed,

and weathering detritus fell from the surrounding

spires. The high plain is littered with boulders, rocks,

gravel, and sand.

Although the jagged spires around the plain fea-

tured many gaps, high passes, and underground pas-

sages, the area remained far off the beaten track.

Occasionally a nomadic tribe would pass through

from the Great Desert Anauroch. On other occasions,

the encircled plain was used for spell practice, as is

true for many isolated places. Aspiring wizards could

test their powers in seclusion, and avoid embarrass-

ment over their lack of mastery.

he region of the Battle of Bones has little to rec-

ommend it, to the living or to the undead.

Located just to the southwest of the Great Desert

Anauroch, the area of the Battle of Bones lies 50

miles north of the western exit of the Yellow Snake

Pass (in the Sunset Mountains, crossing to Skull

Gorge). The nearest village, Hills Edge, lies almost

100 miles away. Travelers to the area must leave well-

traveled roads behind, should they venture beyond.

Looking west, Soubar is the closest regular habita-

tion. Folk coming from that area would do best to take

the road southeast from Soubar to Triel, then head

along the road as it curves east to Hills Edge. Thus,

travelers can avoid a ten-day trek across desolate and

dangerous plains south of the Hill of Lost Souls.

The Marsh of Chelimber lies 250 miles north-

northwest, with Evereska tucked in rough terrain

approximately 180 miles due north of the battle-

ground. Four hundred deadly miles east across the

Great Desert Anauroch are the Desertsmouth

Mountains. Travelers are advised to take a better

path, skirting the southern edge of Anauroch

through the Goblin Marches, then north of the

Farsea Marshes.

The land immediately surrounding the Battle of

Bones is rocky, with thrusts of granite jutting

through basalt and limestone. Freezing by night,

heated by day, the exposed granite has shattered into

shards of rock and angular, rough boulders. The

sharp edges have seldom seen the smoothing influ-

ence of precipitation.

In the eastern regions, the rocky ground gives way

to sandy soil, with an occasional sandpit or small

dune. Here the rocks are not so rough, being sub-

jected to the tempering caresses of the Great Deserts

blowing sands.

The battlesite of the Battle of Bones is a high,

rocky plain in the heart of a rounded triangle of

mountainous spires. Eons past, the ground heaved,

breaking along two fissures. The first fissure raised the

southern rim wall, a broken land of granite spires

extending east and west for almost 50 miles. The sec-

The Seasons

Let me see, what next? Oh, I suppose you care about

the weather. I dont really see why. It is what it is

mostly outside our control. Even Elminster, the old

fop, keeps telling me Ill enjoy social gatherings more

if I join in talk about the weather or other such non-

sense. I just dont see the point.

A few social graces could be of great value to a plain,

compulsively driven woman who spends most of her time

with the undead. As if keeping an undead ferret in her

tunic werent enough to drive civilized company away, she

spent her last social gathering explaining the disparate rela-

tive effects of falling damage on living and undead rat

squirrels to two decidedly uncomfortable apprentice mages

with good prospects.

Elminster

Oh well, let me see. Winters colder and summers

warmer, with a two-week rainy season late in the month

of Tarsakh. With no sizable bodies of water nearby, little

relative humidity, and almost no cloud cover (except in

Ches and Tarsakh), there is little to ameliorate the

temperature extremes between one season and the next.

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