What follows was recorded in a Twin Journal by Theosian operatives, acting against the Tyresian empire.

“It tooks weeks of effort to discern the pattern to the supply ships.  Once we had it figured out, we stowed ourselves into the cargo and used magic to conceal our presence.  It is unfortunate that we could not conceal the smell, for the ship was loaded with offal, and what appears to have been executed prisoners.  To what end this hideous cargo would be used, we did not know.”

“Over the next few days we carefully observed the tree farming aspect of their operation. I must use this word, no matter how odd to describe it, for never have I seen trees treated thus.  What is also apparent is the trees grow at the most extraordinary rate ! We measured several near our camp and found that growth in the order of an inch a day was typical. This incredible rate indicates that this island could produce excellent masts in a few years as opposed to the generations it normally takes.  It is little wonder that our enemy can always field more ships then us - we must find some way to either replicate their success or destroy this island!”

In an age of sail, one of the most important of resources is a source of tall, straight and strong trees for use as masts.  Mastwood island is one such location.

As an important strategic resource, this large island is well away from any commonly travelled seaways, and is best located in areas which are fraught with natural hazards.

The first line of defence is secrecy - it is a closely guarded secret whose location is known by only a few trusted captains and is not written on any map outside of the Emperors personal vaults. (This is kept as an emergency should all of the captains perish in some calamity).

The second line of defence is it’s remoteness and location.  It is located in a Naval Reserve Area where no civilian ships are allowed - violaters are liable to received the harshest punishment that the empire condones and ships are always seized.  Naval ships are almost always nearby ‘on exercises’ though they are carefully controlled by the naval brass to avoid getting to close to the island.

The third line of defence is that the shoreline of the island has been carefully modified to deny easy landing for most of it’s circumference - rocks below the water line have been shaped and sharpened, beaches removed so that sheer rock faces meet the waves, etc.  The only good landing point is covered by several powerful fortifications carved out of the natural rock and concealed both by plants and magic.

And of course, once ashore, one needs to deal with the Garrison, and the forces of the Necromancer of the Island.

Basically it is a well hidden and defended tree farm.

Plot Ideas

Bodysnatchers

While scraping up corpses to send to the island, Emperial operatives happened to send the corpse of someone Important by accident. Although the person in question was a member of the government, inquiries by the family as to the location of the body (for burial, resurrection, whatever) are unanswered, or worse, met with “You don’t want to go there.”)  Friends and co-workers of the victim try to help, but are stonewalled by a vail of secrecy.  The PCs are contacted to find out what happened to him, and their investigation may lead them to the island.  What happens next, well..

The Secret Facility

A secret within a secret.  The isolated, hidden nature of the island suites it well for a site of banned, or illegal experiments in areas some branches of the government would not like discovered.  A separate branch of the government somehow found out about the facility and wants it shut down before it gets discovered by someone else and causes a scandal.  The PC’s are contacted as independent operations to allow for their actions to be disavowed.

Full Description

The Nurglur stand taller than a man, though they are stooped and hunched so their faces lie at a height similar to ours. Their bodies are slim with a muscled, wiry strenght and their feet are turned with three bird like talons. Their legs, empowered by almost unnatural muscle can leap taller than a man in their race to hunt down their prey.
A Nurglur’s face is overlarge with the skin pulled taut, twisting their face oddly in an almost skull like grin.
The head is framed by shaggy black manes that runs down their backs. The eyes are deeply set, milk-white and without pupil. They have sharp, fanged teeth, behind which lies a long, black tounge that slides and caresses their razor toothed mouths.

Common view

The Nurgwhat? Listen, I’ve got crops to harvest, go bother someone else with yer ghost stories.

                              Orvast Helm- Farmer

Owt in shaden wodespan, dwelt the murdrus beaste. Stalkin `tween the leafen glade, preyin `pon the weake. Be fangs and claws for you, my ked, if sunfall shrouds you here.

                              Rudi- Asylum inmate

There are stories, but of course, there are always stories. Tales of whole villages that go missing, their folk never seen again. These missing towns are invariably located near cave systems, mines or holes leading underground. Never mind that crops fail, wars rage and sometimes people are forced to move on. No, it always has to be the Nurglur, carrying off whole villages underground. I say it’s all nonsense to frighten children into behaving. "Be still or I’ll give you to the Dark Ones," has hushed more than few unruly brats I’ll warrant.

                                Joseph- Town Elder

The Nurglur are simply a blasphemous cross-breeding between Men and Ape. They are a living proof that men should not manipulate nature by the means of science or magic.

                           Jonathan Nirvell- Witch Hunter

At first I thought it was a wolf, come to feed on the dead, but it was no child of winter. It hissed at me as I came near, but instead of running like any natural creature might, it gathered itself on it’s two feet and charged me. Yellowed incisors the size of daggers and dead eyes gleamed in my torch’s light as it rushed towards me. I barely had time to ready my sword before it was upon me. I fought heedless of my own life and even though I managed to cut it deeply several times it didn’t drop. Only when the cries of my friends rushing up the slope to help me were heard did it retreat into a hole in the ground. It left me a nasty wound in my left arm. The wound went bad so swiftly that I lost my arm.

                             Kastor Meyhg- Mercenary

Additional Information

The Nurglur are horrible creatures indeed, abominations of nature. Dwelling underground in deep caves, only at night do they creep out of their mouldering halls. They are scavengers by nature but hunt when nothing dead is to be found.
They are usually fairly cunning and malicious, but they’re prone to cowardice. They are confident only in large numbers, when they greatly outnumber their opponents. they’re obsequious to those they consider stronger than themselves. They have keen senses that are best suited to a nocturnal habitat. They can walk on two, but mostly scuttle along on four in underground tunnels.

History

A lifespan ago a forbidden school was created by a scientist and magician named Nur-Uglur. Nur was truly obsessed with the idea of creating a servitor race to mankind. Creatures that could be helpful in both labour and war. A being that could be commanded to do things that could lead to his own death, no questions asked. Only obedience.
The school was constructed underground, hidden from the authorities. Nur gathered many bright and mad minds, all bent on a common goal. Creating something that would help mankind into a new era.

They used magic, alchemy, surgery and cross-breeding.
History has it that Nur-Uglur used humans, apes and even eagles in his sinister experiments.
Exactly what, and how it happened no one knows. The authorities finally discovered the underground laboratory and compound only to discover the halls littered with broken bones.

Years later stories began to drift of a new menace. A creature ghastly and animalistic. Infesting the sewers and underground tunnels. Dragging children into the dark cellars of the earth. Raping and killing women, killing livestock and scavenging battlefields. But always escaping those seeking to prove it’s existence. The church quickly connected this new threat to Nur-Uglur and his blasphemous rituals and named the menace Nurglur.
Commonfolk and peasants did not distinguish between the Nurglur and other creatures of the night, earth and dark.
They received many names across the lands; The deep ones, Beastmen, Undermen and so on. To people it was all the same, underground terrors.

Behavior

The Nurglur beasts can get confused when they meet humans, somewhere in their brain is a spark of recognition.
Many different reactions are possible-

*They might get up on their hind legs trying to communicate, but they only drool when they try to speak, their tounge hanging out. When people respond with fear it angers them and provokes an attack.

*If hungry or desperate they attack humans on sight.

*They are known to kidnap men, women and children. Take the unfortunates to their lair where they will ultimately die of abuse, mistreatment and violence.

*If confronted with a larger number of humans they will flee or hide no matter what.

The conspiracy theory

Scholars that are aware of the connection between the Nurglur and the underground experiments so many decades ago are worry that the Nurglur might be a part of some mad masterplan for domination over the kingdom of men. Some go as far as claiming that there are Nurglur tunnels stretching over the entire continent, lairs under every city.

The Core

Nurglur are beings of experiments gone wrong, they have mixed instincts and are ultimately very confused beasts.
Violence and abductions are usually a result of mis-communication. Instincts switch on and of like burning matches, terror or sadness might transform into black rage only with a wrong gesture or look.

Plot Hooks

The Classic
The PC’s hear that coffins have been torn open and the contents eaten for some time now at the cemetery. No one has managed to catch the heretics. Guardsmen patrolling at night have gone missing. Even the mourge was attacked last night, leaving the place a mess. Only a gravedigger survived maddened by what he has witnessed.

The world saving
The PC’s chance upon the lost diary of Nur-Uglur. It tells the whole tragic story of a misfortunate race in detail. It even reveals means to end their existence.

Eons past, the progenitors of the Rephatians were driven from their homelands by the Giants of Stoneholt. Taking to the sea in a fleet of primitive, barely sea-worthy ships, they followed the islands of the Mhudarkin archipelago until they found the continent of Rephatia.  Their flight had been largely unplanned, and though some food supplies and livestock were brought, they were all consumed prior to landing on Rephatia.  As a result, they had little to restart their farming with and had to make do with the local flora and fauna.

The creatures native to Rephatia had never seen humans, and the other humanoid races of Rephatia were not major hunters. As a result, the local animals were easy prey to the invaders.  The existing humanoid populations were forced into marginal territories or exterminated.

By the time the supply of easy food had been exhausted, the humans managed some agriculture with the native plants. This still left a great shortage of protein and so fishing and later cannibalism became commonplace.

As time passed, they developed a hierarchial caste system.  Those of lower castes were subjugated and preyed upon by those of the higher castes.  In an effort to address some of the problems the absence of suitable domesticatable animals caused, the mages among the Rephatians (obviously among the highest caste) began experiments with the lowest caste, breeding them and twisting them with magic.

Over the generations, the different castes have evolved in greatly different directions.  Only the higher castes are still clearly human with little changes, but the lower castes of labourers, and food no longer appear normal.
Some, with the effects of magical intervention, are grotesque mockeries of the human form.  They have been shaped into ‘Humanamorphs’ to fill all sorts of ecological niches on the island.

So now the land of the Rephatians is a nightmare kingdom.

The Rephatians were faced with many of the same issues as the tribes of the pacific islands, with some major differences.  They are the instigator of the largest world-level plot in the campaign world of Neyathis.  The cannibalistic, gene-modifying society is intended to provide a major enemy that is not supernatural in origin - no demons, undead or golems.  Their weapons are the product of inhumanity to humanity.

Many ideas from this society and associated subs were inspired by:

Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future,Dougal Dixon
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies is a 1997 book by Jared Diamond

I intend to add a lot more submissions linked to this society as time allows. Their great ships of Giant Bamboo. Their Beasts of War. The invasion of Nyathis, The Great Game and others.

Stay tuned….

This location is intended as an alternative lair for nature-oriented entities rather then a castle of stone.

The actual details of the Defending Force and what lies in the center compound I am opening up for submissions!  In the Main Complex section I outline a couple of ideas, but I would like to see what others could see placed here!

Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Outer Band
.... 2.1
3. Middle Band
.... 3.1 Outer Shallows
.... 3.2 Deep Waters
.... 3.3 Inner Shallows
4. Inner Band
.... 4.1 White Ring
.... 4.2 Yellow Ring
.... 4.3 Red Ring

5. Main Complex
.... The Forest Mage
.... The Druids
.... The Apple Tree of Selilion
.... The Monks of Mahrua

Appendix A - Special Trees
Appendix B - Forest Encounters
Appendix C - Shallows Encounters
Appendix D - Deep Water Encounters
Appendix E - Garden Encounters

Overview

The Fortress is a region encompassing a large, dangerous forest, a wide lake and a subtly fortified island.

Most of the defenses are designed to passively slow or stop the progress of an invading army.  A party of PC’s, resourceful and lightly encumbered, are much more likely to penetrate the defences then large masses of soldiers.

All of the defences are selected with an eye towards avoiding use of either undead or demonic powers, neither of which are suitable for a nature-oriented location.  Similarly, few powerful magics are actively employed. Though some features may have required significant effort and magic to put in place, most features are ‘natural’ and nearly maintenance free.

The defence of the Unseen Fortress is organized into three major bands - Outer (The aforementioned forest), Middle (the lake waters and shores) and Inner band (the defences on the island itself).  The Inner band is further divided into 3 rings (White,Yellow and Red), and 8 sectors (North,North-East,East,South-East,South,Southwest,West and North-West).

Finally, in the center of the island is the Main Complex, which varies depending upon whome this fortress belongs to.

Physically, the island has groves of trees, meadows, garden areas, farmers fields and rocky debris fields.  The Northwestern end of the island is much higher then the rest of the island and sheer cliffs extend up from the waterline with no beaches.

Weak Spots

As may be obvious, there are a few avenues of attack that the fortress is quite vulnerable to : Teleporting or Flying attackers.  Fortifying against such opponents generally requires greater magical ‘special effect’ then I wanted to place in the fortress.  If the world in question includes squadrons of magical flying troops, teleport squads, then the GM will also need to add appropriate countermeasures to this fortress. However, this is beyond the scope of this particular sub.

An enemy (with appropriate resources - magic or otherwise) could also attempt to assail the fortress from ‘below’ as well, but the lake does provide a serious obstacle - requiring that any tunnel be dug very deep to avoid the water.