Kilmarn¶
Kilmarn is a ruin in the forest off the road from Nalren in Brusau, and beneath it "a vast underground labyrinth of the Kilmarn temple complex" (S163), a Kalari holy place from before the Age of the Dark Sun. The ruins lie inside the Brimstone Hollow of the Hollowlord Urk'maggo, "a giant sluglike demon", a demesne of Sulfuron (S162); the Brotherhood of the Sun "controls part of it. Hollowlord Urk'maggo controls access to another and there are 2 additional underground Hollows that are hostile to Urk'maggo. No one has been able to penetrate the Vault of the High Sun or even enter the inner sanctum of the temple of falling stones, which is beyond some 'ancient creatures' which took refuge here during the age of the dark sun" (S163). The Hollow itself and the Abyssal demesne of Sulfuron belong to Hollows and the Abyss.
Entry¶
The party reached the ruins by hiding their cart in the forest and walking; they dug through the night to remove stones and "entered under obelisk", crossing a bridge three feet wide and fifty long through the chamber called the Breath of the Gods (S162). The Hollowlock Argut met them there and "hadnt decided whether he would inform the hollowlord" (S162).
The temple complex¶
The halls as the session notes map them (S163, S164):
- The Courtyard of the Sun connects the Halls of Kalar, the City Road and the Temple of Holy Fire. The Bone Devil Ir'Gonuz keeps minions on watch here.
- The Temple of Holy Fire, or Spheres of Fire, is "a large circular temple hall with 3 dimly glowing spheres (suns) hanging from the ceiling"; three circular mirrors on tracks focus their light on three holes in the door of the inner sanctum, and only the sun from the Halls of Kalar or a daylight spell makes them bright enough.
- The Reliquary of Vash'Makor is "a once impressive 3 story hollow tower of displayed relics. The place has been looted and most relics moved or taken." A summoned celestial, an Avoral, guards what remains: Saint Gydlor's Quill, the Cincture of the High Sun, the Figurine of Barantus, "a legendary demon-hunting Kalari paladin", and among the debris "a flat warm black metallic triangle", an Eldritch soulcrux.
- The Halls of Kalar are a battleground, "bones litter the area as well as the stench of death." The room is lit from an illusory open roof by "a great radiant ball of fire (sun) coming directly down (regardless of time of day). There are no shadows, even under cover." The sun moves along a track between the halls and the temples when the three altars of Chaos, Transformation and Order are worked in turn; demons fight at a disadvantage in its radiance. Scavenger demons nest in its nooks. The Khardas side is open and watched; the Orandos side is followed; the Arya side is walled with a crude pile of stone and a platform of archers.
- The City Road and the Ziggurat of Ashgor. A wide road with a rest stop of pool and well at the half-way mark, partly collapsed, leading to a ziggurat "overrun with abyssal dead which have been animated by the Bone Devil Ir'Gonuz. He is still in the process of corrupting the necropolis."
- The Halls of Khardas, "frontline for Urk'Maggo", a hexagon whose sides are given to magma (a hidden, sealed passage to the underdark), rock and caves (the Cave Road, sealed and marked "DANGER! DO NOT OPEN"), tilled earth, crafts (a forge), the dwarves (three dwarven ascendants and priests' quarters) and the mountains (Erolan). An empty pool with a hexagonal altar holds the centre; an earthen sacrifice and the chant written on the altar light the forge, fill the pool with magma and wake three statue guardians against anyone not of Kalar's dominion. Urk'maggo keeps brimstone hounds, Sulfuron manes, Eigora and Sulfuron scourges here.
- The Cave Road "wanders through a collection of natural limestone caverns with stalactites/mites, lakes and rivers." An Ekimarra, a lesser vampire bat, "took refuge here during the age of the dark sun and has been hibernating for centuries", commanding two nightwing bats; "the Aryan survivors marked the door with warnings after several expeditions did not return. The brotherhood also sent a team in to explore which did not come back."
- The Temple of Falling Stones, "a natural phenomena where 3ft hexagonal basalt rods rise and fall in random patterns and speeds once disturbed"; priests of Khardas "knew an earth chant to freeze them in place temporarily." Its inner sanctum holds "a large statue of Khardas ... resting on a great hammer" before an altar; prayer at the altar drops the floor beneath the hammer and reveals the vault door. Five runes set in frescoes must be touched in order by a dwarf or a priest of Khardas: the dominion of the earth, the creation of the dwarven race by Khardas and Dwarrow, the ascension of Khardas kneeling before Kalar, the creation of rune magic, and the founding of Kahun'Darahl. "If the vault door is touched by an infidel, it is an immediate failure", and the hammer falls.
- The Vault of the Ancients. The Godfire Lantern of Helis Sunblighter, "3 soulcruxes of the most powerful Eldritch"; two bars of pure Cuprium; rune manuals of oaths, healing, and earth and stone; a Khardic priest's mantle; an ornate Cuprium-bronze runed throwing axe; a golden thurible and a granite brazier, both soulcruxes; the illuminated histories The Evolution of Earth Magic, A Catalog of Earth Primordials, The Eternal War of the Deep, The Great Fissure Wars and The Biography of Hurin Deepstrider, son of Thoruk of Clan Argentwall, now an ascendant of Khardas; a dwarvish map of an underdark route bundled with journal pages; and three sealed Eldritch Keeper Scrolls bearing the names Phaendar Nar'Vizerai, Allannia Vaj'Zaelin and Luiranar Xal'Vanala, each listing objects beginning with the Godfire Lantern (S164). The earlier week's notes gave the vault no name and two bars of Adamantium in place of the Cuprium (S163).
- The Khardas Inner Sanctum "encompasses a Astral Vertex which is a large black-red stone floating in the center of the sanctum", the Stone of Ekrumas (S164). "The sanctum has been violated by several tunnels" leading down to "parts of a ruined Namakan temple that the Khardic temple was built over": a passage to the deeper underdark, a side chamber with a temporary laboratory, a Namakan priest's corpse and a Book of Dread Runes, and a chamber with a repaired deep-form statue of Namaka, consecrated. The Five Sisters, "formed from the souls of deceased priestesses merged with eldritch spirits", five-headed and octopus-bodied, were left to guard the vertex; they warned the party's priestess, "Sister, turn back, the goddess is here and you are not welcome" (S164).
- The Halls of Arya and the Halls of Erolan, to which Urk'maggo's forces fell back (S164).
- The Vault of the High Sun, never penetrated (S163).
Beyond the Cave Road the limestone caverns run for miles, "mostly going up", to a hollowed cavern 300 feet across lit by "pale green glowing light" and great glowing mushrooms, and beyond that to the ruin of a dark elven outpost on a rock in a U-shaped lake, where Cuprium, Adamantine and Aurumite were found "NOT CORRUPTED" while the rest of the hoard was Hollowed (S165). See the Underdark.
In Play¶
The Sancturi Campaign came to Kilmarn in its second week for the holy lantern that Amer wanted, met the Brotherhood's party under Captain Bendrik, and lost two of its company here: the runeblade Kaito in the first day's fighting below the obelisk (S163) and the innkeeper Normand to a wight in the drow outpost (S165). The Brotherhood "will likely see the group as looters and profiteers", and would pay them off with "their fair share of anything that is not a 'holy relic'" (S163).
Gap
No source says who built Kilmarn or when, what city the City Road served, or which gods Vash'Makor and Ashgor were.