building my own damn 3Dplaneboxmegacrawlathonsandhexamagig (tm)

Blame noisms for the idea which didn't go away.

Phase 1: Conceptual Spitballing.
First, one hex map.  This one will do (with thanks to Hexamon.net's wilderness hexmap generator).  Then replicate it into three dimensions, each distinct from the other.  Populate accordingly, devise ways of travelling between and what has crossed over.  I want to start out traditional with hints of grim and weird.  I also want to separate the worlds to make takeover bids difficult.  The presence of other settings are unusual events.  A traveller from one world cannot integrate easily. Locals will believe them insane, possessed or worse initially.

Otherworld travel is not easy or everyone does it.  Methods of transit are varied, having one of the following traits.

• Fixed location.
• Reliable.
• Safe transit.

Smart play will increase that to two, nothing makes all three happen!
Examples of methods of transit will include:

• Eerie ships - Some ships visit stranger ports than expected. Odd passengers and trading exotica keeps them sailing until Fate decrees otherwise!  Neither still or safe, they are mostly (80%) reliable. 
• Gates - A fixed (but often unknown) location.  Reliability isn't a given, some gates malfunction, have defenses or limited access. Gates are usually warded or emit deadly energies.    
• Multidimensional tunnels - Some intersect with other worlds, monsters walk or crawl among them, some even wear human faces.
• Shantak - For the desperate or insane, a shantak ride can visit other worlds or leave you choking silently in the void.  Shantak require negotiation and don't speak Common.  
• Zikkuracts - Extradimensional ziggurats that permit dimensional transit via tesseracts.  These require blood sacrifice to activate.  A fixed location that requires bloodshed to provide risky transit. 

Altorr

Tropes: Grimweird fantasy medieval Europe with faeries, giants and undead.  Battles between human and demi-human armies.  Kingdoms rise and fall while heroes fight monsters.
Sense Memories:  Green forests, hills and dales with distant castles.  Vaulted tombs as the sun throws your shadow forth.  Wind rushing through trees on horseback.  Chainmail on your shoulders with castle walls solid underfoot.  The roar of a thousand warriors in battle.  Dark ale, roasted meat and warm lips by the hearth.
Inspirations: Black Death, Dolmenwood, Excalibur, Game of Thrones, Princess Mononoke.

Bellotra

Tropes: A decadent, decaying world with strange magic, stranger beasts and sinister automata. This world is unstable, bolstered by extraplanar transfusions. Ancient planar feuds simmer under the surface.
Sense Memories: Crumbling gabled tenements and canals under aurora borealis.  Grand temples redolent of incense, clockwork and rot.  The roar of a distant coliseum.  Embossed velvet, bizarre feathers and strange leather.  Chicken and rosewater biriyani with citrus liqueur amid perfumed slaves on musky cushions.
Inspirations: The Dying Earth, Wermspittle, Zothique.

Carcetus

Tropes: A world-sized megadungeon where light and water are survival.  Battles with subterrene horrors in confined spaces.  Nobody looking for the surface ever returns…
Sense Memories: Cave walls in torchlight, drips of cold water.  Oppression of dim-lit, echoing tunnels. Spiders scuttling and weaving in shadowy, firelit rooms.  Dark, musty unopened cellars. Tension of leaning over intricate mechanisms.  Mushrooms and smoked sausage, flat water, huddling for warmth.
Inspirations: Undungeon, all this megadungeon talk, False Machine's light economy, WW1 sapper battles.

As there's three distinct settings here, all linked by interdimensional gubbins hopefully the next month won't be boring.  If I don't do it here, it won't get done so... Brace yourselves, #3DPBMCSHMtm is coming!

ebon zikkuract reloaded

Over at the prolific netherwerks, the latest implementation of Planet Algol's commandment to seed our worlds with black ziggurats has provoked nostalgia for the ebon zikkuract of Algolia and it's hyper-geometric shadow-worlds.  I'm pondering a revamp but wonder which system(s) to flesh them out with?  Not as if I don't have enough choice so I'm going to throw this out to the readers.  I could FLAILSNAILS it, leaving it to the individual GM/DM/Keeper/Game Leader to fight it out of course.  If you've any thoughts or preferences, leave a comment or use the poll below.

Which system should I use for revamping the Ebon Zikkuract?

4th Edition D&D
Pathfinder
d20
Labyrinth Lord
AGE
Basic Role Playing
Other (post in comments)

seriale online gratis

ebon zikkuract - the stair above

Your divine majesty, I beg forgiveness for my messenger's interruption.  I chastised him by your just decree.  After the attack from the western stair, the guards were replaced with warriors loyal to yourself and Ankil.  The hierophants expressed displeasure, claiming their guards were sufficient.  I begin my report of exploration of the stair above with an observation of the zikkuract itself.  I know little of other expeditions but ordered the execution of the guard who sold jewel-beetles to the traitor Nintag. When the hierophant of Algolia first ascended to the stair above, he walked along the walls and ceiling.  Many thought it some virtue of his status.  Our amazement to learn this miraculous place permitted anyone to do this was great.  Truly the gods show their favour!  Our scholar, Erkat the Scarred dropped plumb lines onto the other stairs to show this to us before we continued into the great city under the smoking sun spoken of by the hierophant.  His skill let us return safely.

The city is great, stretching to the horizon that reaches to the sky in all directions.  The air was hot and dusty, tinted with sunset.  As we walked down the zikkuract, a shepherdess hailed us and kept pointing west.  We did not understand each other, finally she left.  The buildings around the zikkuract were a mixture of hewn stone, clay bricks and cement, the ground was paved in places.  Their dwellers were strange people, weak and poor. Many wore concealing robes and shawls, a scant few who did not had grey skins with red stains about eyes and mouth.  Their movements were halting, their faces reminded me of lotus-addicts.  They spoke the same alien tongue yet looked on us with fearful avarice. The guards formed up, used spear hafts to push incautious beggars and grasping children from our group.  We made our way towards the edge of this desperate slum when a great gong sounded and the dwellers scattered like children, running into buildings.  We sought the shelter of an alleyway and watched in awe.  A brazen head flew without wings along the street, from it came an unnatural howl then a voice like that of the gods in holy Lur.  The same alien tongue but it spoke as a conqueror to a slave.  Then it rose into the air, raising clouds of dust as it ascended, circling like a vulture until we no longer saw it against the sun.

We sought an exit from the slum while the locals cowered within and found it after a time.  A market where the ashen-skinned slumdwellers came to beg or trade.  Here were many familiar and strange things for sale and their vendors called to us in the alien tongue and then in a sea of languages.  Then a spry old man with ebony skin, his head wrapped like the Amejai called out to Erkat in our language from amid a sea of reclining children who scattered as we approached.  After giving him a gold ring and sharing his salt and water, we spoke at length.  From this Akume we learned of the great city called Dhanaya. He thought us mercenaries from the black ziggurat hired to fight for the local lord (he used the word satrap) against the rebels.  I asked him how many ziggurats were here and he responded that he knew of six though these would take years to find.  "How big is Dhanaya?" asked Erkat.  "Bigger than you think.  No man has ever found it's end and it's cellars are endless.  It is too great for one ruler though many try."  Erkat was dissatisfied with this answer.  Akume responded "I have a hundred and one years.  I am the oldest in this ward.  In my youth I travelled far and wide, my last journey took a year to return from and in this time, I have never seen an end to the city.  I have maps that show strange things - all of them Dhanaya."  Erkat asked him of the bronze head and he grew quiet.  "A watcher.  Be wary and do not draw their attention for their games will kill anyone who does not know their part."

He reached into his robe and pulled out a folded animal skin - a map of the ward.  He taught Erkat and I some simple words in the alien tongue so we could ask for food and shelter then bade us leave for we would draw attention to ourselves if we stayed with him too long.  I asked why and he laughed.  "The local lord will think I am trying to distract you.  I am already a rogue and charlatan in his eyes."  I knew better than disagree, Akume had a wily look about him.  We thanked him for his hospitality and left his stall, Erkat hid the map and then we prepared to return.  Erkat said we had travelled almost a day through the great slum and if what Akume had said was true, we could spend our lives exploring this place without reporting back to your divine majesty.  He revealed the black rock and watched it point north then scowled and looked about him.  "The guidestone is deceived and the sun is constant.  We dare not return to the slum but we can follow it like a river course and the ziggurat is a memorable landmark."  On our journey through the winding streets and open courtyards we saw many strange things.

Eerie caravans of pampered, pallid men and women in fine linens borne on sedan chairs by red-skinned giants escorted by hooded warriors with tattooed gray skins wielding curved blades of dark metal.  White-haired men with masks of children harangued passers-by.  Cowled and robed figures smelling of rose attar and striking small gongs parted crowds by their presence as blue-robed men and women were surrounded by gaggles of children and beggars, eager to touch their robes.  Men with the heads of desert hounds and clad in breastplates of bronze crooned to each other where slaves were sold.  Among them city folk, beggars, fruit sellers and labourers of a dozen races.  Grim-faced soldiers with bronze spears, axes and boiled leather breastplates and wearing red cloaks broke up squabbles and disputes, moved prostitutes on and hailed us but Erkat said we were returning to the ziggurat, there wasn't enough money.  This drew grim laughter from them and they let us by with some unfamiliar words that sounded like swearing.  Another time we will defend our honour but their words were unknown and our mission more important.

When we came to the zikkuract, one of the brazen heads hovered before it.  It addressed both Erkat and I, asking if we would return.  Erkat said he hoped to.  I said that I did not know yet for my orders did not say.  The head seemed content with this answer and ascended into the sky.  We ascended the stair and heard the great gong sound twice.  Erkat has said to me that he believes Dhanaya is made by the gods, for only one thing would cause the horizon to curve like the inside of a gourd and that was if the city were built inside a great ball.  From the top of the ziggurat we could see the horizon curve upwards and away with buildings and courtyards stretching as far as the eye could see.  Though it seems impossible, Erkat's explanation makes sense.  I do not know the power of the brazen heads but I believe a hierophant may know such things if they are asked.  It is clear Dhanaya has known our people before for how else would Akume know our language?  If it please your divine majesty, I recommend we commence further exploration.

ebon zikkuract - the western stair

As your divine majesty commanded, your warriors accompanied the twin scholars Dinad and Oscad of Lur to the western stair of the zikkuract.  At first I suspected that I was there to mediate between them when they would fall to arguing.   We descended the stair into night, the ziggurat reflecting the light of a pink moon under strange stars.  The causeway upon which it rests is a dark honeycomb of basalt, leading towards a shore without lights.  The sea was restless and a warm wind blew on our faces.  The lodestone that Dinad brought pointed towards the ziggurat on which we stood.  We found evidence of a tribute left at the foot of the ziggurat, a crudely fashioned idol of green-grey stone.  Oscur noted that it was best left there when one of the soldiers moved to take it.  We measured the ziggurat, identical in size to yours at Algolia.  You have already heard why Dinad believes this to be so.  Uninterrupted by monsters we continued to a shore of basalt, pumice and black sand.  The land smelled fertile, the air was warm and akin to western Algolia after storm season.

We moved away from the cliffs further inland.  The land is strange, we have not seen evidence of Ankil or his solar disk in our expedition.  Yet blue-leaved plants with fleshy leaves and blue-white fruit grow in the black soil.  Oscur left fruit and seeds with the hierophants.  A soldier dared one and found it sweet, the hierophants decreed he must fast under their watchful eyes until he is cleansed of this world.  Later we found a larger version of the idol we found at the ziggurat - then life!  A herdsman, a giant with one eye in the centre of his forehead, armed with a spear of sharp black stone herding goats.  Dinad noticed the goats - they had two dull eyes and a third one, blazing red in the centre of their brow.  We know the laws about such yet Oscur argued the goats were unlikely agents of the Hateful.  Just then the goatherd saw us and spoke - in halting Inburan!  Then I realised why your divine majesty commanded me to join this expedition.

The goatherd's name was Agak and he knew not of the Hateful.  Dinad and Oscur knew some Inburan and they questioned him at length yet Agak would only respond to me.  He feared they would un-name him - a superstition among some Inburan tribes.  Yet the cyclopean giant before me was no Inburan. I pointed at the spear and asked who had made it.  To my amazement, he repled "I did."  Yet there was no guile.  I asked if we could return to where he lived and he nodded, turning the goats about and leading us to a crude hut and fence.  We rested and ate sparingly of goat's cheese and he worked on a piece of the black stone, chipping sharp-edged fragments that he used as blades when he found a suitable one.  Agak revealed there were others of his race but he lived far from them to 'walk in smoke'.  Agak also feared the sea, saying it had 'demons' who took his people away, never to be seen again.  Oscur said to us that he was a holy man and that as twins, he and Dinad were perhaps an omen.  Knowing the Inburan tribes, Oscur was probably right.

I asked about the idol and Agak called it 'The Destroyer'.  Agak offered to show us where it slept but Oscur asked about walking in smoke.  Agak grew evasive with me until I offered him a bronze knife.  Then he grew excited and agreed.  By inhaling the fumes from a certain plant, he could show us places.  Dinad immediately grew angry, fearing the lotus-doom yet I agreed to it as did Sargad, the warrior who ate the fruit.  Agak filled a clay pot with burning herbs and we inhaled.  Then we saw our bodies beneath us and Agak appeared very different - a warrior painted in shadows.   He pointed west and we flew over the causeway, then down into the sea. We saw strange sites, a drowned city and great fish-beasts.  Were these the demons Agak spoke of?  Eventually we came to a massive cave, blocked by a boulder as tall as the great stele of Lur.  Then I saw the demons and I knew fear -  the sea kings of ancient Dagak swam these waters.  Squat and pot-bellied, cold-eyed with their gills flapping at their throats, they had enchanted one of Agak's people and led him to the cave as a sacrifice.  With a sharp bone blade they offered his blood and it billowed like smoke in the deeps.  Then I saw the boulder move - a little but what flowed from the gap was unholy.  One of the Dagaki swam up to it and it turned his scales black as night.  Agak told us we had to go.  When we returned both Dinad and Oscad agreed we had to return now - the omens were too important not to tell you.


The hierophant's discovery offers the potential of colonisation.   Agak and his people would come to serve you well and your ancestors drove off the ancient sea kings.  The presence of the 'Destroyer' is something for a great hero or the hierophants to seal.  I have heard certain stories and know that I do not have either the magic or the courage for that task.  Our journey through the sea revealed much life and even if the goats are tainted by the Hateful, your subjects will tame this world to your greater glory.  Both Dinad and Oscad have petitioned your divine majesty to return and I would do the same by your will.

ebon zikkuract - the southern stair

Divine majesty, I must report the loss of the party who explored the southern stair of the miraculous zikkuract of Algolia.  Strange omens and incursions following Maldut of Uthuta's expedition made it necessary for guards to be posted at the keystone.  The hierophants are interpreting the omens yet I bring them to you as Nirhad of Salkuta bade me before the jungle claimed him.  The southern stair is strange to behold, you will know that the hierophants descend and return as normal.  Yet when the expedition left, they were seen walking as slowly as mourners of fallen Ningesh, their speech slurred as if drunk yet none of that expedition would dare. The jungle of the green sun has inspired curiosity among the guards, the jewel-bright insects that enter the zikkuract command a heavy price despite hierophant decree to kill and bring their bodies for study.  I know one guard who has sought to capture rather than destroy and I suspect sorcery behind his treachery.

Before he was claimed by the jungle, Nirhad gave me this tile, saying the wisdom hidden under the green sun  tempts even hierophants to treason. I do not understand the glyphs but they change when my eyes look away then return.  There are mysteries I do not understand. The two guards reported to me before the howling fever sent them to the Underworld.  Both loyal Sarti, may her courage be rewarded and strong Naku spoke of a portal to Khadu in the jungle whose vines lashed and tried to draw blood. They said the ziggurat was covered in vines whose blooms turned in their direction.  Nirhad's incantation to Ankil parted the vines on the stairs and they followed a path revealed by moving creepers. The over-grown ruins were made of bones and a peculiar pale stone with grey and red veins.  Sarti told me of the beast cults beyond Ekkad and the howling fever.  Nirhad was greatly troubled by this, the former inhabitants may have sacrificed to the beast cults and Khadu.  To serve both would be like being torn apart by horses.

Yet the jungle was jealous.  Naku said how he slew a vicious scalebeast that spat at Nirhad and it's venom began to grow on his flesh, turning him feverish and green.  The expedition sought shelter in the ruins and here Nirhad found a library kept dry by crystals in a pot that made the air bitter.  Stacked on shelves about the room were a number of tiles carved with glyphs.  Their sole guardian was the dusty husk of a man with the skull of a beast sat as if studying the tile you have before you.  When Sarti touched the tile, the beast-corpse rose up and breathed dust upon her and Naku.  Both of them slew the monster and on Nirhad's orders fled the ruin as Naku began to howl.  They returned, the creepers moving to trip and lash at them.  The guards saw them rising up the steps, seeming to take forever.  I went with them to the healers and gathered what I could before the howling fever choked them.

After sometime, Nirhad came to the ziggurat, his body beginning to wither like rotten fruit and green like the creepers around him.  Ankil's invocation kept him safe but the creepers began to move like waves and I saw them twist into a likeness of a Zari giant, a great bloom where the head would be and sinewy limbs of vines.  Nirhad told me the others were dead from the jungle and that the library had lore from the beast cults and Khadu.  He spoke of nature corrupted and as his eyes mouldered, told me to present the tile to your divine majesty saying no hierophant should see it.  His last act was to bind my oath to that and though the hierophant tortured me, I have fulfilled my oath.  The giant came up the steps and as Nirhad gave me the tile, it reached out and grasped him, unaffected by the strange langour that had affected Nirhad's expedition.  Though I chopped at the sinews with my axe, the giant plant rent Nirhad in two then moved like a wave back down the steps, into the jungle, ignoring my efforts.  Though the insects from this world are highly sought after by healers and sorcerors, this world is a great peril.  The plants and venomous beasts attack explorers over blasphemous secrets tainted by howling fever.  I am yours to command or to punish divine majesty, for the world of the green sun un-makes me.  I would prefer to die cleanly in your regard than feed Khadu's spawn!

ebon zikkuract - the eastern stair

By your divine majesty's pleasure, my soldiers accompanied Maldut of Uthuta to the eastern stair of the black zikkuract.  The scholars note this desert land lies under two suns and their heat rivals the furnaces of eastern Kamsad and Ankil's fury made us remove our armoured vests or risk his fever-curse.  The zikkuract of the eastern stair towers over an abandoned city the size of holy Lur.  No fires were lit, the only beasts we found in the overgrown gardens were scorpions as long as my forearm and black, leathery slugs.  Maldut noted the zikkuract crowned by the block and believed the miracle of Algolia would be found on each stair to be explored.  He also said these places were not lands but worlds, for the skies were different.  I believe him now, for we learned why Ankil watches this world with both eyes. 

The city is sandstone, shaded mazes of houses divided by broad avenues with great unlit brass braziers and statues of scorpions pointing their tails north and at the zikkuract.  In temples to beast-headed false gods we found decorated red clay pots, basalt, obsidian tools and opal jewellry.  Many of the outside walls had decorated walls of plaster showing people accepting gifts from the beast-headed false gods and each other.  We found flint arrows and axes as well as bronze-headed spears in an empty garrison.  Our scouts reported some buildings were damaged and that scattered bones were found near them.  Every well we found here was choked with debris and a wiry thornbush, which worried Maldut, the tamer of demons.  This city hangs ripe for conquest yet a hidden danger awaits to be slain for your greater glory and it is for this reason Ankil keeps vigil.

As the stars came, so did they.  From the temple cellars we heard the rushing of wings and we saw demonic shadows take to the sky.  Though their bodies were dark, small and lithe like nomad children their limbs were twice as long as they ought to be, their faceless heads crowned with curved horns.  Batlike wings lifted them and a host worthy of Utukk churned the sky as we doused our torches and made for a nearby storehouse.  Then they saw us and gave chase like hawks.  Though our spears were true, it was like stabbing sand, their bodies flowed around the points.  Their fingers were pinching fire, their grasp iron.  Two men were pulled apart like cooked fowl in a storm of wings and hands.  We closed the storehouse door, trapped like granary rats. We heard rustling wings, padding feet and bones cracking.

Maldut ransacked the storehouse, muttering about the thorn bushes in the well.  I calmed the soldiers in your divine name and sent two of them to help while we barricaded the doors.  The torches were re-lit.  There was a storm of activity outside and we could hear them no longer.  Then Maldut identified the demons and their banes.  The thorn bush or light would drive them away.  Coils of dried thorn vines and oil lamps were plentiful, they had been fought before.  We would form a tight group with three warriors using thorn branches and carrying lamps, the remainder twined the thorn vines around their spearheads.  We formed around Maldut who began his chanting, we left laden with lamp oil and thorny vines.  Outside scores of demons circled over and around us, keeping to shadows and daring our spears.

We marched to the zikkuract, the demons repelled, smouldering like coals as they dared the light.  The demons wheeled overhead then a block of rubble the size of a shield fell on Maldut's skull.  Our formation held as we twined his body with thorn vines, slower now for it.  We dare not lose his wisdom!  The demon tamer slain, the demons grew bolder, wrestled with our spears, bodies charring in lamplight.   We lost three more warriors to demon hands before reaching the zikkuract.  We climbed it, lamps guttering.  I called for the guard as stones were hurled.  The sky was lightening!  The demons grew desperate, diving at us.  One impaled itself on a spear and the thorn vine shrivelled it.  As another lashed at me with it's wing I saw the wing char and crumble in the lamplight.  Shrieking like fearful children they sought shelter. 

As we ascended the stair I saw some demons had hidden in the shadow of the block.  We were trapped, the sun would not reach them.  We lit the thorn vines and I led the charge.  Guards from below shouted and began to enter the stair as the demons wheeled overhead.  Praise to your favour and to the gods for a hierophant was with them!  He called forth fire from a flask to burn the demon and the light burned them all.  We lit fires to trap the demons and in the light, they charred and crumbled.  May you grant mercy to Maldut and recall him from the underworld.

ebon zikkuract - the northern stair

By your divine majesty's favour, we have commenced exploration of lands revealed by the northern stair of the miraculous ebon zikkuract of Algolia.  The land is blighted by cold and lit by three pale moons, lost kin to beloved Sahiri.  The eastern wind scour our skins and the air is thin, this place reminds me of the Athur-Dar wastes.  As the hierophant revealed, the miracle of the zikkuract was repeated here yet the basalt is icy cold. By your command, weresolved to explore the lands around the city to ensure the safety of future exploration of the stairs found in this zikkuract.  The ziggurat stands in the ruins of a city, there are broken foundations and cellars in the bronze-hard ground yet there were no living inhabitants only patches of ice mixed with bone fragments around the cellars.  One of the warriors found a footprint twice as large as a man's with claws on it's foot. We lit torches and measured the ruin as being the size of fair Uthuta of the Three Hills.  The land did not yield until one soldier heated the ground with his torch.  There is little water here that is not frozen - to colonise this city will need soldiers and supplies.

The beast came upon us suddenly.  We were exploring a cellar when a guard heard the keening shriek and we left the cellar to find him trapped under it's clawed foot, it's muzzle worrying his mouth.  It's eyes glowed white, it stood upright yet half as tall again as our tallest warrior.  It's legs were clawed, powerful as an ostryx, it kicked so hard the captain's shield buckled.  It's hide was hard yet our spears proved their worth.  It bled a chill mist with droplets of acrid water, it's blood burned with cold to the touch.  Yet the beast endured five warriors stabbing at it.  It savaged one guard so he was helpless and kicked out at the captain once again.  Then the guard rejoined the fight on the side of the beast.  To our horror, the beast breathed it's evil into him. He leapt like a madman, his wounds blue with cold.  I feared for my life yet my manservant stabbed his heart with his dagger.  The guard coughed red ice and then died, shattering as his body hit the ground.  The beast turned it's ire upon my manservant, ripping open his belly with a kick as it snapped at the guards.  Finally your guards prevailed against the beast yet all were marked by the beast or it's chill blood.  The captain took the beast's head and presented it to the hierophants of the ebon zikkuract for study according to your decree. 

The beast had a bony head, it's muzzle like that of a skinned hyena.  It's hide was warty and thick.  It's forelegs were shrivelled and weak yet it's legs were powerful and it's thick tail suggest prodigious strength.  It's corpse burned with unknowable cold, it's bite venomous with it.  It's organs drew heat from the bronze knife I examined it's corpse, acrid smelling and cold. I have never seen it's like, it's body steamed as heat was drawn from the air.  The bones were dense and pale, the bronze knife could not mark them yet their cold discouraged further investigation.  To capture another beast would be a heroic deed.  We hid the shriveling corpse in an abandoned cellar lest another of it's kind sought carrion and moved on.  The builders knew of construction but there was no basalt.  It would seem the architect of the ziggurat brought the materials from another location and knew more of construction than these people.

The hierophants of the ebon zikkuract have fragments of pottery that show people hunting four-legged beasts and fighting what appears to be a winged horror from Khadu!  I have found no evidence of coin or currency and believe these people were primitive traders akin to the Inburan.  Though we returned on the sunset of the same day, my record of the hourglass shows we explored for two days.  During this time, the sun-disk of Ankil was never revealed.  His displeasure with this place is evident for the beast was the only living thing we found here.  To conquer this land will need brave soldiers and workers who will need food stores.  The first priority is to purge the ice beasts from the area, there will be no peace until they are driven out.  May I commend your loyal soldiers who fought valiantly against the ice beast and may the gods find my service to your divine majesty favourable.

the ebon zikkuract

Ancient when the world was still young, the zikkuract was a weathered step pyramid made of black basalt blocks hewn by hands far greater than those of mere humans.  A simple ziggurat of it's dimensions would take a priest-king's slave army generations to finish.  Yet the fact of it's existence is a shadow of the great wonder that exists today.  After a dream sent to them by the gods, the hierophants placed at the capstone a starstone block enchanted by ritual and invoked ancient, incomprehensible powers causing mirrors to smoulder and shadows to run like ink.  When libation was made, dark shapes loomed amid the congregation for an instant, plucking the faithless out in an eye-blink leaving only a few drops of blood on their neighbour. The ziggurat trembled and for a moment, all was as blood.  Then everything was back, and everything had changed..

The apex of the ziggurat was plunged into shadow yet shafts of light came from each side and from above.  These illuminated dark basalt walls and a ceiling yet each wall and the ceiling had a stair sunken into it, leading away.  The stair in the ceiling was almost a mirror of the apex of the ziggurat.  A hierophant realised that the walls and ceiling were in fact the apex of another ziggurat. Curious he touched one of the walls and found himself lying on it, when he stood up, he was perpendicular to the wall and parallel to the apex where his fellow worshippers watched in awe.  He moved from one wall to the next, as he touched them his body fell to the new floor.  Finally he walked up to the edge of the ceiling and touched it, then he stood up on it and hailed his peers from above them, his hair and robes unperturbed though he was seemingly upside down.  The hierophants named the phenomenon zikkuract, blending the ancient name for ziggurat with an arcane term for a shape that exists in many places.

On his return, warrior-slaves were dispatched to investigate each of the walls and the ceiling.  When the priest-king and the hierophants left they saw the basalt block atop the ziggurat and marvelled.  Scholars were sent with them and reported that the hierophant was correct - each wall was the apex of another ziggurat and that the stairs led to different places.  The northern wall revealed an icy ruined city amid tundra where the air was thin and three moons hung in the sky.  The eastern wall revealed an abandoned city in a bright desert lit by two suns that punished any warrior clad in metal.  The southern wall revealed a creeper-choked ruin in a lush jungle under a green-tinged sun.  The western wall revealed a lone black ziggurat on a basalt causeway over wine-dark seas.  The ceiling led to a great city with a smoking sun overhead and the horizon curving upward in every direction.  Each of the ziggurats now appeared to have a great basalt block atop it forcing anyone seeking entrance to use the stairway.

The priest-king ordered further exploration.  He realised these places could make his kingdom wealthy and make him great.  The hierophants warned of dangers from the other places yet the priest-king knew that if he did not explore, when word of this wonder spread then his enemies would seek to conquer him.  He would call for heroes to explore these places, sending soldiers and scholars to claim these lands and envoys to treat with any ruler who they found.  The priest-king and hierophants decreed only the worthy would be chosen and this led to much intrigue.  Spies for other priest-kings reported great activity at the site of an ancient ruin where a black basalt block had impossibly appeared atop an ancient ziggurat.  Soldiers and scholars were travelling in and out of the ziggurat.  This was a matter of great import for the other priest-kings who sought to know why the gods had chosen this priest-king for favour?

(inspired by this post by Planet Algol who is hitting them out the park at the moment).