World of Samardan: Lusagar, the Shining Mountain...

Good Afternoon, All:

It is the end of Week Two of this year's A to Z Challenge series, and today I present my twelfth post. This year, I am describing 26 different locations in the World of Samardan campaign setting, one for each letter of the alphabet. Today, we learn that L is for Lusagar, the Shining Mountain.

(Hex) Lusagar, the Shining Mountain

Ambiance: A mountain rich with yellow clay, Lusagar shines brightly under the dying sun, and can easily be seen from a great distance away. Several exposed veins of gold draw the attention of prospectors, despite numerous nests of lasirshuni (large three-headed winged reptile that breathes an acidic spray and is highly territorial) that infest this area.

History: For generations, Lusagar has been used as a navigation marker. Before the lasirshuni infested the mountain, prospectors had started a number of lucrative gold mines. Those have since been abandoned as the winged creatures took roost on the cliffs and crags of Lusagar.

Encounters: The lasirshuni frequently attack larger creatures entering into their territory, and prey on smaller ones. Few predators remain in the region, which has allowed common prey creatures to proliferate, as the only true hunters are the lasirshuni. Common hazards and encounters include landslides, sheer cliffs, packs of kandori (child-sized six-legged herbivores with powerful incisors and a pack mentality) and yurlathi (large saurian livestock animals with sharp, thick beaks and bony frill-plates to protect their necks).

Treasure: The most obvious treasure to be found at the Lusagar is raw gold ore. The mines would be a valuable resource to any individual, group or city that could control them. One of the older mines contains a burrowing device retrieved from ruins of a city of the Ancient Ones. It had been transferred to the mine shortly before the lasirshuni began to appear, and the area quickly became too dangerous to extract the device.

Adventure Hooks: Adventure hooks for this site could include the following:

• A young vagabond named Logano Morakan claims to have a map to a small gold mine within sight of Lusagar, whose owner presumably died in a cave-in. He doubts the lasirshuni will bother anyone working it, as it is not on the mountain itself, so he is seeking miners to locate and begin working the mine.
• Bana Hikonakan, a Rakran scholar, has found mentions of an old mining device of the Ancient Ones left stranded in an abandoned mine on Lusagar. She is willing to pay handsomely for its recovery.
• Koranu Viro Sanadasan of Pordel seeks mercenaries to retrieve the cargo from an airship that had been attacked by lasirshuni and subsequently crashed into Lusagar.
• Raganu Pekadevi Rekatur, the Lord-Emperor of Torkobalem, is soliciting wardens to retrieve living lasirshuni eggs that have not yet hatched from the Shining Mountain.
• Semahen Podraga wants to reclaim his father's abandoned mine near the base of Lusagar, and needs adventurers to clear it of lasirshuni.

Some resources do not inspire a variety of adventure ideas. While I really like this site from a flavor perspective, there was originally not a lot there in terms of adventuring potential. So I decided to add the ancient drilling device, and I can later devise its fate. Maybe it's buried in a cave-in. Perhaps the device emits vibrations on a frequency that attracts the lasirshuni. It could be a mining robot now on self-defense mode, or it could be a burrowing vehicle like the one described by Edgar Rice Burroughs in his novel, At The Earth's Core. I'm leaving it open for now, but I like that I suddenly have options.

Standard Disclaimer: As I have not yet decided where to set this particular location on the map as yet, I've left a placeholder to remind me to come back to this in the future. Later on, I'll replace (Hex) with the actual hex location, when I put all of this together into a single document.

Enjoy,
Flynn