Page 136 - Eberron -Rising from the Last War_Neat

According to some stories, the dragons seek to protect filled with oozes and slimes. After traveling what seems
the younger races from vile fiends. In other tales, the to be a few miles, you might emerge from a different tun­
dragons see the people of Khorvaire as fodder for nel in Xen'drik, half a world away from where you began.
arcane experiments. A dragon could be encountered The Mror Holds demonstrate this mystery. Over the
as an ally or as a cruel enemy who casually crushes past century, the dwarves discovered a vast subterra­
humanoids. nean kingdom within the Ironroot Mountains. Most
The magic of Argonnessen is far more powerful than of these halls rest in the natural layers of Khyber. The
the forces wielded by the wizards of Khorvaire. Many halls connect to one another in logical cartographic or­
of the greatest artifacts in history were made in Argon­ der. But as the ancient dwarves dug deeper, they opened
nessen. Dragons are infused with magic, and their cre­ passages into the unnatural realms and unleashed the
ations are made from the bones and scales of their kind. hordes of the daelkyr Dyrrn the Corruptor. Passages
to Dyrrn's realm also exist in the Shadow Marches, on
TRI N K E TS F R O M A R G O N N E S S E N the opposite side of Khorvaire. The Corruptor's domain
d l O Trinket doesn't necessarily stretch across the entire world; the
portals to the worlds within defy natural law.
A pierced dragon scale on a cord
These connections impact the world in a number of
2 A statuette of a dragon carved from black bone ways. Dark forces can rise anywhere in the world, burst­
3 A dragon's tooth, engraved with an unknown sigil ing out of a previously unknown portal to Khyber. This
4 A child's doll of a dragon, woven from leather cords fact dictates the primary mission of the Church of the
5 A dagger carved from a dragon's talon Silver Flame: to stand ready to defend the innocent from
6 A brass disk bearing the silhouette of a black dragon such unnatural threats. Because the demiplanes con­
7 A small egg-shaped piece of polished bone nect to the world at random, you never know what you
might find when you venture into the depths. A newly
8 A bone fragment with brass inlaid runes
opened chasm in the sewers could be an entirely mun­
9 A leather pouch filled with tiny draconic teeth
dane hole in the ground, or it could be a passage to the
10 A single large seed that's warm to the touch Abyssal Forests of Khar.
The many layers of Khyber share similarity only in
K H Y B E R their strangeness and deadliness. Eberron is the natural
world; Khyber is the source of fiends and monstrosities
I n Khyber, you could ...
and the domain of the alien daelkyr. Some cults of the
• Fight mind flayers and armies of hideous aberrations. Dragon Below believe that paradise awaits them in the
• Discover a wondrous realm lit by an inner sun. Vale of the Inner Sun, but such cultists also consider
• Prevent a fiendish overlord from escaping its an- gibbering mouthers and mind flayers to be creatures of
cient prison. beauty. Wondrous treasures might wait in the worlds
below amid hordes of demons and aberrations.
The common creation myth contends that when the Pro­
genitor Dragons fought, Eberron trapped Khyber in her KHYBER'S N F L U E N C E I N KHORVAIRE
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coils and became the world, imprisoning her evil sib­
ling in a living prison. Bound within the world, Khyber In Khorvaire, you might ...
spawns demons and monsters to plague the children of Find a way to close a passage to Khyber before a
Eberron. This might be myth and metaphor, but it's also horde of horrors emerges from it.
a description of fact: there are worlds within the world, • Battle a mind flayer that has established a cult in
realms inhabited by aberrations, fiends, and all manner the sewers.
of monsters. • Stop the spread of a deadly drug or strange disease
Any time someone descends below the surface of the flowing from a well tied to Khyber.
world, they enter Khyber. But the underworld takes two
very different forms. First is the natural realm, networks Khyber is an ever-present threat. Any deep passage
of tunnels and caverns formed from stone and soil. could connect to a realm of fiends or spew out an army
These passages are dark and dangerous, but they're ex­ of aberrations. Despite the magnitude of this threat,
actly what you expect to find in an underground realm. portals to Khyber are very rare, and they are stable
Such passages might be home to carrion crawlers, giant once found. If you dig a hole in the ground, the odds
beetles, or clans of kobolds. But ultimately these mun­ that you'll eventually reach the Vale of the Inner Sun
dane caverns follow the laws of nature. are infinitesimal. And if a portal to Khyber existed in
There's another aspect to Khyber: go deep enough and the sewers of Fairhaven, odds are good that it would al­
you find a seemingly endless array of demiplanes, each ready have been discovered. The risk arises when you're
stranger than the last. When descending into a chasm, exploring passages where no one has gone before.
you could find a labyrinth inhabited by demons or dis­ The sewers of Fairhaven might be safe today, but if an
cover a realm consisting of the guts of a colossal living earthquake opens a new shaft or a group of cultists digs
creature. Anything is possible in Khyber, and these deeper, a previously unknown passage to Khyber could
"worlds within" are home to all manner of terrors. be uncovered. Wherever a passage to Khyber appears,
The demiplanes of Khyber are not concretely tied to monsters and dark powers can rise up to threaten the
the world above. You could discover a passage in Bre­ world above.
land that leads into a disturbing subterranean swamp

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CHAPTER 2 I KHORVA R E GAZETTEER
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