Nation - Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches - Part 5

Nation - Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches - Part 5

Czylle commands the elements. Lightning dances at her willl. She would be a leader in any other land but the Nyma Urd have no leader. She goes gloved and cloaked in grey and her eyes burn with an inner fire. She looks far beyond this plane into worlds beyond and one day she will step beyond this Oerth and perhaps not return.

Next among the Nyma Urd is the Red Witch. She travels the borders of Blackmoor alone though she is protected by golems of her own creation and terrible para-elementals. She practices a form of magic unknown in the Flanaess but it is said to have links to the ancient Olman rites of their priest/magicians and some Hepmonaland shamans are said to have similar powers and rituals. The Red Witch practices Blood Magic, summons para-elementals of blood, constructs golems of blood. She can cause blood to boil or to become Blood Worms that eat their way out of the skin. Her magic is terrible and powerful. Her interests are in Blackmoor though she is said to welcome young women from anywhere who wish to learn her brand of witchcraft and become apprentices.

Last among the three of the Nyma Urd who are known is Tyyne, Daughter of the Moon. It is said that she has been to the City of the Gods and has brought the magic of Celene with her and her power is great. Something of the God Waymoinen is about her for she can craft marvelous things. She can surround herself with a cloud of butterflys formed of steel whose wings are razors. Woe betide any who would seek to harm her.

These are the three that are known of the Nyma Urd.

Among the rest of the Sisterhood all are equal in their ranks once they have begun the first mastery of their art till they take their last breath on this Oerth.

Land of Black Ice - The Frozen Monolith - Gateway to the Plane of the Gray

Land of Black Ice - The Frozen Monolith - Gateway to the Plane of the Gray

Far, far to the north beyond the border of Blackmoor is a broken and pitted column atop a small mountain. From here can be seen the howling waste that is the Land of Black Ice. But it is here that the skin between the worlds is thin and this column is like a monstrous fang piericing the flesh of the Oerth and allowing the poison that is the Gray to seep in.

The strongest of the Sisterhood, the alliance between the witches of Blackmoor and their varied allies, has made their way to the Monolith and beyond. The witches have fought and defeated the forces of the Gray upon its own plane, and have sealed many portals within and without Blackmoor. This most distant and forbidding gateway is perhaps the oldest of any they have encountered. It is certainly powerful and dangerous leading directly to the great fortress at the heart of the Gray's domain.

A great battle was fought and won on that plane. The gates of the Gray's fortress were thrown down, its towers felled and walls broken in many places. But the Gray was not defeated and the Frozen Monolith remains open.

The sisters mount a strong guard on the Oerthly side of the gateway but still servants of the Gray slip from their plane to ours. Evil stirs within the ruined fortress and always there is need for the strong and brave and adventurous to cross through the gateway and strike down the evil of the Gray as it rises from ashes of its stronghold.

Project - Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches - NPC Maarika the Fallen Sister

Project - Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches - NPC Maarika the Fallen Sister

Once one of the most powerful witches in Blackmoor and a leader among the Sisterhood Maarika crossed the passage torn through the barrier between the world of the Grey and our own. In the battle against the terror that afflicts Blackmoor she fell and was thought slain, but her body was never found.

Now she was somehow returned to Oerth, but her mind is twisted, her form ravaged by some disease that exudes darkness, and her power turned to evil. Whether she is a servant of the Grey or just driven mad by her wounds and time in the Grey's foul realm is unknown. 

Some of the Sisterhood have confronted her only to be injured or slain. A force was sent against her and she had fled to the Land of Black Ice. Will she return? The Sisterhood would have her hunted down and have turned to adventurers who would do the task for coin as their own strength is stretched thin defending the land of Blackmoor.

Project - Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches - NPC Brenna

Project - Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches - NPC Brenna

Brenna is originally from the Timberway among the Fruztii or Frost tribes, but she followed a spirit quest and found herself in Blackmoor near the Land of Black Ice and a welcome addition to the Sisterhood. Her way of magic is different from the witches of Blackmoor and is strongly linked to totems, rituals and amulets. The way of the Sedr magic practiced by the Fruz, has strong tinges of necromancy among its traditions and she wears the bones of dead heroes with which she summon them to fight for her if need be.

Her powers are also those of seeress and she can set her spirit to walk among the lands of the dead to ask questions of the past or project her sight to catch visions of the future. Finally he greatest strengths and protections come from the cold and she is granted both ice magic and power of elementals from the land of eternal cold.

She is familiar with the Grey and knows portals to its realm where the intersect with that of the frozen planes of Ice.

Project - Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches - NPC Hilja

Project - Blackmoor Land of a Thousand Witches - NPC Hilja

Hilja is druidess dwelling in the Burneal Forest. She is not often encountered in human form and when she is has the tendency to disdain clothing. She rarely speaks, at least in human tongue, but communicates with many animals usually while taking their shapes. She bears sevceral amulet and totems that allow her to instantly change to one animal form or another.

While allied with the Sisterhood and a powerful enemy of the Grey she is not herself a member of the Sisterhood. Her concerns are less about Blackmoor or even humanity and more about the animals inhabiting the land.

NPC - Jedzec Centaur Lord

NPC - Jedzec Centaur Lord

Between the Burneal Forest and the Cold Marshes is roadway one heavily travelled by the centaur herds. Now that the land is under perpetual assault by the entity known as The Grey and its minions the herds have moved further west and only the warriors patrol the old pathways are enter the forbidding marshes.

Jedzec is a lord among his people and can be often found among the edge of the marshes though even he does not ride to deeply within the forbidding boundries of the frozen bog. He is an archer beyond compare and normallyc arries no other weapon. A skilled ranger he has an affinity with the Oerth and nature beyond most of his kind. Jedzec is an ally of the Sisterhood in Blackmoor and can call on their aid. In return he and his clan will aid any of the Sisterhood who call upon him.