NPC/Deity - Sutek the Destroyer
Sutek was an ancient Bakluni deity of death, oblivion and destruction. He was trapped in limbo by his brother and sister deities managing to wreck havok on the Baklunish pantheon before he was trapped in a limbo-prison between the prime and negative material planes.
After the Invoked Devastation some of the wards to his prison were damaged and his malign influence began to seep out. The Bakluni have always had a strong connection with death and this helped to lead to a rediscovery of Sutek and the rise of necromacers and his cult. It is rumored that an ancient Necropolus has been discovered in the Dry Steppes and is the heart of a growing necromantic controlled army. What connection this actually has with the Prison of Sutek is unknown.
Recently the release of Zuggtmoy from the Temple of Elemental Evil triggered a sympathetic fracture in the prison wards of Sutek and the power of his clerics has never been greater. They are a rising threat among the Baklunish states and a contingent of priests, cultists and necromancers are headed toward Verbobonc to investigate the Temple and any links to Sutek's wards.
The priests of Sutek are unable to heal, but have many necromantic powers. Their bodies will continue to function past their physical death and do not suffer natural rot or corruption but they do dry out and become stiff and brittle or if submerged become bloated with liquid. Once slain the priests will continue to function for weeks before finally releasing their spirits to the Prison of Sutek where they will serve him for eternity.
Listener to the Sphynx
In the Dry Steppes the old wastelands hold many mysteries. Its borders are not a place for men or even those who walk as men, but amid its wind-swept desolation can be found the ruins of man. Old tales tell of the lost towns and cities in that terrible place, but only the statues and obelisks of that ancient land can be found jutting from the surface of the cold and barren tundra.
A cult of wild-monks, driven mad by the dark and malevolent desolation all around them speak with the statues of man, God and monster and they listen for a reply which is more than the moaning of the wind. These mad men speak of a vast necropolis, of a terrible otherworldly music that floats on the wind, of the things whose shape twists the mind and the bodies which must be gathered and burned by touch since none can see such things and live.
It is said that the heart of the Dry Steppes was saved by the power of the last Bakluni God-King and that the hordes of nomad barbarians dwell in this place. If any of the wild-mad monks can be talked to it will be found in what high regard they have for these suppossed nomadic tribesmen and a hint at a greater organization and purpose behind them.
What relics of the ancient Baklunish past might be found in this vestige of the green and pleasant land which existed before the culmination of the war with the Suel? What power the God-King and his Magi possessed to protect their own land and yet destroy, utterly, the home of the Suel Imperium? And so twin expedition are said to be prepossed to seek the heart of both the Dry Steppes and the Sea of Dust. What answers can be found except perhaps those whispered from dead statues which have already driven mad the wild-monks of the Dry Steppes.
