Many are those who have worn this beautiful golden choker and paid for it with their lives. On the surface it appears to be no more then a very well crafted piece of jewelry.However, once put on it locks around the wearer's neck and can only be undone with a certain key. When it is put on, a soundless clockwork timer starts.Three hours after it has been put on, a sharp blade comes out of it and slits the wearer's throat.Attempts to pull or cut it off will also trigger the blade and besides, under a thin golden coating it is made of iron, and so hard to break.

There is a spell which can hold the blade in check for a far longer time, up to a maximum of a week.Another spell can set the blade off early.

Ever since the two major religions of Acqua, that of Jove and Ulmania, were created, their clergy have hated each other with a passion that at times has led to violence. Mostly it just means that they do everyrhing differently out of spite.They have different liturgical uses, different hymms and prayers, different baptism,wedding and funeral services. The priests of Jove favour cremation for the dead in nearly all cases, so the priests and priestesses of Ulmania favour burial.

Where there is enough space this is not a problem, but in crowded Banhoesea it became a major issue.The bodies of Ulamanian worshippers were being buried secretly in the floors and foundations of houses or in soon to be dug up land or in crop fields.After a major outbreak of disease the De Madden Company Central Council, of which all but one worshipped Jove, threatened to outlaw the Ulmanian religion, persecute it's beleavers and confiscate it's assets.

The great majority of Sea Witches and a few Sea Wizards were Ulmanian beleavers and called a nationwide strike, trapping half the De Madden Company fleet in harbour.Without magic most could not leave harbour safely and even the ten masters would take a long time to get anywhere.

The Central Council got really angry and arrested the strike leaders, threatening to hang them. The strikers threatened to use their magic to cause huge waves within the harbours and wreck the ships within.A compromise was reached.The strike leaders were set free and Ulmania's Church purchased a large,partly rocky, mile-long island, with a quarter of the Church's wealth. This was to be their Isle of the Dead.

All burials outside it were banned with the threat of very severe punishment for those who disobeyed.

That was over seven hundered years ago...

Everybody who visited his island knew not to get on the wrong side of Big Red. From a distance you might mistake him for a reddish sandbank for a few seconds, until you saw him raise one or more of his tentacles and glare at you with one of his cartwheel sized eyes...

Martin Eltsin hated alcohol, and felt he had a very good reason to do so.He had seen it cause a lot of harm on the Pier Point streets...

A thousand years ago,the Red and the White mages almost exterminated each other in a magical war so great, that the very mountians were turned into quartz.Centuries passed and the magic died away enougth for humans to visit the area and remain in human form. And a city of quartz was built upon the site, which is the most magical city in the whole world...

The Pier Point Crown was more then just a piece of royal headgear.This crown wanted to rule in
it's own right,and would stop at nothing to do so...

Queen Yocasta was until recently, the very capable if autocratic ruler of Valermoore, but recently, she has changed. She is allways seen with a young woman, always wearing a heavy veil and gloves, who never speaks or moves. She claims that she is her daughter,Princess Chrysta, but a faint noxious smell comes from the veiled woman...

It looks very much like a normal short stabbing spear, wih a bulbous metalic haft and a slight greenish sheen on it's razor-sharp blade. But those who have encountered it and lived to tell the tale, or used it themselves, know differently...

It was rumoured that John Chard had made a deal with a demon, but perhaps it was mere idle rumour and speculation.Or maybe not...

Rurik was a powerful Necromancer, but he didn't want to be evil. Just because he knew the Dark Arts, he did not think that he should be harming others all the time. Mostly, he wished only to be left alone...

Far to the west of the mountian town of Walkabout Creek lies the Bushlands, a place of rich game, and beyond, the Dragon's Hills where all manner of rich treasures are said to lie unlooted...

After the death of Princess Dora Rurik of the powerful city-state of Pier Point, rumors began to leak out about the wonderful treasures buried with her body...

The PC's are walking along a forest path when they hear the sobbing of a young woman, but when they investigate further...

Day in and day out the library and labs Robert was always about. When questioned of his motions, he explained he was fetching his master's potions, but secretly crafting a wand is what he pained. In the end an ebony wand was made, it would be known later as Trotters Unfair Trade.

A forest full of danger where the danger is not at all where the PCs expect it to be.

Once Vandersil was a rich city. Too rich for it's own good. It was born when gold was struck in the Northern Polar Mountians. The gold ran out within a few years but veins of other minerals both common and rare were discovered. Coal, silver, star stones. The city grew rich through trade and the streets were paved with bronze, at least, in the richer areas of the city. And then it fell into captivity because it neglected it's defences...

Dracia Eldren was a sharp featured woman. Her long greying hair was pulled back into a severe coif. Narrowed black eyes studied the potential Princess stand-ins. Darcia was well schooled in the ways of ettiquette. She was a seasoned Mistress. Her name was well known about the different Kingdoms and Queendoms.

She was the woman you contacted when you wanted your daughter to become the well cultured and well taught pillar of nobility. She was the woman who schooled young princesses on the fine art of being noble. Dracia was as strict as they come. Years of practice allowed her to use a switch upon her subject without leaving any marks. Only a sharp stinging pain as a reminder of their failures. She lives for her work.

If you wanted to infiltrate a kingdom with a doppleganger...you needed the help of a professional. One who knew all the ends and outs of Princess behavior.

Her dark grey coat hardly never touched the ground as she walked. Her back arched and her head held up proudly. Darcia fingered the switch at her side as she studied these potentials. These potentials were of poor condition. Some of them were farmer's daughters. Pathetic. She had her work cut out for her. At all times there would need to be at least three princess replacements in training. They would have to learn together. Eat together and train together. Every movement would have to be perfect. And she only tolerated perfection.

King Coloman had a problem.King Charles (known as the Fat King behind his back) was coming to take over his kingdom.It was not that Coloman had started any trouble, it was just that the Fat King was as greedy for new lands to add to his over growing empire as he was at the dinner table.Whilst the Fat King was not a good general himself,he had several talented subordinates who were, as well as an army three times the size of Coloman's.

King Coloman called his Royal Council together to decide what to do.Simply using assassins would not work.There were six decent generals, and at most an assassin might be able to kill two,and that would mean he or she would die in the attempt. Reingold was put to work to create a magical weapon that could kill all six generals,without being so dangerous that it endangered all those who were making it.

He considered golems (too many guards) and various other ideas, and came up with a cloak that had hidden powers.A supposed traitor was the man who gave the Fat King the cloak. The cloak made the Fat King feel wonderful and healed a small wound and some boils that he had, but within an hour, all six generals dropped dead, their strength sucked into the Fat King. Without his generals, the Fat King lost the Battle of Silverock Pass and was killed in the rout that followed. The slightly damaged cloak was recovered and locked for safety in the King's Treasury, only to be stolen a decade later...

The staff is beautiful to look at, made of pure ebony wood with a large diamond set at the top and rusted iron buttons along it's side. It gives off an aura of very powerful magic.The ebony is scarred by a hit from a sword of some kind.

This weapon is a fine basket-hilted broadsword, with a long sharp iron blade and an aura of power about it that can be sensed faintly by everybody. Those who pick it up for the first time feel safer with the sword in their hand then without it.A large purple amythest jewel is set in the sword's basket hilt. The user senses that if they press the emerald, others will become scared of them...