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Postfest II: Grot-Ugrat: Legacy of Hate
Posted on Tue, April 06, 2004 by Farcluun
cwslyclgh writes "Horrible things happened durring the Hateful Wars, and the evil humaniods were not always to blame. Visit Grot-Ugrat, high in the lortmils, where the legacy of the hatred can still be felt.

Grot-Ugrat: Legacy of Hate
By: cwslyclgh
Used with Permission. Do not repost without obtaining prior permission from the author.

Grot-Ugrat: Legacy of Hate

By C. Wesley Clough

The enmity shown toward elves by the race of hobgoblins is common knowledge. Hobgoblins will often attack elves on sight, forsaking allies, ignoring other potential threats, and showing little of the iron hard discipline that the race is renowned for. This was not always the case, however, like all feuds this one had a beginning. In point of fact this racial hatred extends back little more then a century, back to the beginning of the Hateful Wars that cleansed the Lortmil’s of the evil humanoids that dwelled there.

Constructed entirely of massive stone blocks, some weighing in excess of twenty tons, Grot-Ugrat has stood in a high valley in the central Lortmils since before the suel began settling in the sheldomar valley. Although scholars debate exactly who built the vast stone city originally, it is a well documented fact that hobgoblins had dwelled and ruled there since well before the twin cataclysms claimed the suel and baklunish empires. To the hobgoblins Grot-Ugrat was a holy city, sacred to their god Nomog-Geaya. Grot-Ugrat was a place of pilgrimage for all hobgoblins that dwelled in eastern Oerik, and they tried to visit the holy city at least once in their lives. All tribes were considered equal there and it was decreed by the priests that ruled the city that peace should reign with in the boundaries of the sacred valley. This declaration of peace extended even to persons of other races, and at times human and even elven merchants could be seen mingling in the city’s shops and bazaars.

The rulers of nearby lands, however, tended to see Grot-Ugrat as a festering den of evil. Unable to see past the racial make up of the city’s inhabitants, the rulers of the Duchy of Ulek and Celene especially viewed the holy city as a serious threat to their respective nations security. Sitting, as it did, close to the Celene pass Grot-Ugrat’s fate was sealed when orcs murdered the queen of Celene’s consort not twenty miles from the sacred city.

When the hateful wars commenced both the Duchy of Ulek and Celene made Grot-Ugrat an early primary target. The priests of the city sent delegations to each nation, protesting their innocence, the pleas fell on deaf ears however, as the incensed elves saw nothing more then more evil humanoids to be driven from the mountains, and the priests received no response except the envoys severed heads in return. Even so, the hobgoblins made no preparations for war, and life went on as normal right up until doom befell them.

A group of the greatest mages from each nation assembled on a high summit over looking the stone city, there they each contributed to the casting of an awesome spell, combining their power to achieve an affect not seen since the days of the Suel Emperium. Their magic rolled down the mountain like a cloud of absolute darkness and settled in the holy valley, engulfing the stones of Grot-Ugrat like a wicked black fog. When the fog lifted nothing lived with in the valley, and such was the might of their magic that nothing new will grow there even to this day.

A few hundred of the over twenty thousand hobgoblins that had inhabited the city managed to flee before the deadly cloud claimed it. From these scattered survivors word spread to the hobgoblin tribes throughout the flanaess. From this time forward the hobgoblins would fight a war of attrition against the elves, and never again would they try the path of peace. Nomog-Geaya himself, took on a much more marital aspect then he had previously possessed, and began to extole his followers to take revenge on the elves and the other races (humans, gnomes, halflings, and dwarves) who had aided them.

Today Grot-Ugrat stands as an abandoned ruin, inhabited by no living plants or creatures. Popular legends in the Ulek states and the kingdom of Keoland speak of treasure lying around on the streets for the brave to claim, but few who have gone searching for it in the last century have ever returned.

For the DM

The treasures of the dead city do indeed still exist, but not unguarded as legends claim. Many of the slain hobgoblins do not rest easily, and undead shadows are especially common, lurking in the ruins in large numbers, which tend to grow larger every time adventurers show up looking for easy loot. The three great temples of Nomog-Geaya contain a king’s ransom in gold and jewels in the gilding and adornment of the sanctuaries alone, but even more powerful forms of undead lurk in the temples, always ready to offer sacrifices to the hobgoblin god.

The magic used to slay the inhabitants still has strong residual affects, normal plants cannot grow with in the valley, and any that are brought into the valley wither and die with in hours. Plant like monster such as treants take 1d4 points of damage per round that they are in the valley, and cannot be healed (either through rest, or through magic) while they are in the area affected by the spell. Living creatures are infertile while in the valley, although this seems to have no lasting affect, once the Grot-Ugrat is left behind the fertility returns.


"
 
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Re: Grot-Ugrat: Legacy of Hate (Score: 1)
by Abysslin (abyss@canonfire.com) on Wed, April 07, 2004
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Wow! Grot-Ugrat is certainly mysterious!

Not much has ever been written about the Hateful Wars so this submission has added intrigue for me )



Re: Grot-Ugrat: Legacy of Hate (Score: 1)
by cwslyclgh on Wed, April 07, 2004
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Grot-Ugrat is actually part of a longer piece that I was working on, that I plan to submit to CF when (nad if) it is ever finished... I thought that the city would make a good mysterious places postfest submission so I rewrote that section of my longer work as a mysterious place (ala GHA) and sent it in.

Initialy I had only planned on submitting The Vanishing Obelisk of Grendep Bay.... but thought what the heck, the more the merrier ;)



Re: Grot-Ugrat: Legacy of Hate (Score: 1)
by Osmund-Davizid on Sat, April 10, 2004
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Great idea!

I love the notion of hobgoblins being more noble and sophistcated creatures. Giving a different spin on the history of the Hateful Wars is a great added bonus. It gives the humanoids real motivation to follow Turrosh Mak in the Pomarj and attempt to reclaim their birthright.

Grot-Ugrat could be a rallying cry for all the humanoids of the Pomarj, and a secret the the elves of Celene would definitely want to keep hidden away (it could also help explain their reluctance to get involved in any other wars, remembering the wantonness of their own acts).

Great job!

O-D



Re: Grot-Ugrat: Legacy of Hate (Score: 1)
by donimator on Mon, April 19, 2004
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I always have played hobgoblins as more intelligent and civilized, a foe to be feared in great numbers. I like your take on the Hateful Wars, as I have always viewed it as being caused by intolerance on both sides.




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