Alternate Ierendi Gazeteer: The Pirate Kingdom ... - Vaults of Pandius

Roister Island -- 28Safari Island – 28Utter Island -- 29White Island -- 29Adventures -- 29Players' Guide to Ierendi – 37What Everyone Knows About the Pirate Kingdom of Ierendi – 37Tavern Talk From Other Lands -- 37From Conversations With a Veteran Adventurer -- 39A Karameikan Merchant in the Shires -- 40History as the Ierendi Know It -- 41Life in Ierendi -- 43On Being a Pirate -- 43The Peoples of Ierendi –44Naming -- 45Clothing and Food -- 45The Calendar and Holidays -- 46Government -- 47Private Investigators -- 47Mechanical and Fiddly Bits (for 3E) -- 48

Campaigning inIerendiIerendi can be used for any ofseveral campaign approaches.It is an excellent base for anysort of naval adventures andcould either figure into a navalcampaign based elsewhere orserve as the home base for apiracy and explorationcampaign. The IerendiPirates, in addition to raidingtheir neighbors, also enjoy agood hunt for buried treasurelike anyone else and will oftendo very crazy things forwealth. The Ierendi raid allthe way to the NorthernReaches, Norwold, Ochelea,the Pearl Islands, and Alphatiain their crazier moments, sosuch a campaign, possiblyeventually leading tobecoming King of the Pirates,can cover a very wide ambit.A more political campaign canbe constructed by focusingupon the growing conflictbetween the interest of theslaveowners, the towns, andthe pirates as the future of theIsles is decided. Such acampaign might also lead upto becoming King of thePirates, but then poses theKing with the problem of howto deal with these conflicts.At a philosophical level,Ierendi can also be used bythose so inclined to examinethe problem of freedom builton slavery—the freedom ofthe Ierendi towns,slaveowners, and pirates isbuilt on a backbone of slaverywhich makes the whole systemwork. Can a nation foundedby revolting slaves andprisoners continue to holddown slaves forever? Shouldit? Is it time for a new modelor are the old ways goodenough? How is freedom tobe defined—who deservesfreedom? Everyone? Or onlythose strong enough to seizeand to hold it?The answer to these questionswill define the future ofIerendi, whether it sinks intochaos, is destroyed byrevolting slaves, becomes afree republic or a slaveowner's oligarchy, or evensomething no one wouldcurrently imagine possible.History as the Immortals Know ItAfter the fall of Blackmoor, butbefore 1750 BC, the Ierendi Isleswere part of a larger landmasswhich stretched south into theSea of Dread. Far to thenorthwest, descendents of theAzcans dwelt in a giant plateauwhere the Atruaghin Clans nowlive, and far to the west,Tanagoro and Elves competed forcontrol of the Serpent Peninsula.Earthquakes and devastationstruck in 1750 BC, collapsingcaves within the Azcan cavenetwork and sending the SerpentPeninsula on its gradual declineinto the sea. The Azcans foughtover whose fault the earthquakeswere; the losers were driven outand ended up on the new coast,then forced to flee into the oceanin crude boats; most died, but thesurvivors ended up at Ierendi.Likewise, some Tanagoro tried toflee east across the ocean fromthe Serpent Peninsula. Mostperished, but some were blownfar east by storms, crashing in theIerendi Isles. And finally,unfortunate lizardmen from theMalpheggi swamp were sweptout to sea by the disaster; mostperished, but some survived andended up in Ierendi, floatingthere on giant mats of plants fromthe swamp.Over the next 750 years, smalltribes of Azcans and Tanagoroformed on the Ierendi Isles,living by a mix of slash and burnagriculture and fishing. They

encountered each other, tradedideas, and intermarried. Andfought. A lot. Eventually, theyintermarried to the point wherethey blended into a single,quarrelsome people, the Makai,cooperating to survive the oftenharsh hurricane season of theIsles and to fight the locallizardmen. The Lizardmenfought back as best they could;the warfare was inconclusive andmarked by periods of cooperationas well. They dominatedAloysius, Safari, and ElegyIslands, along with having somepresence in the rest of the chain.The Makai had only crudeweaponry; the more successfulcrafters of both origin cultureshad not been the ones who had toflee for their lives, ending uphere. The result was that whenthe Nithians surfaced in 1000 BC,the Nithians easily crushed andconquered the Makai, aided bythe fact that entire Makai villagessimply vanished once theNithians won their initialvictories (spirited away to theHollow World by perhapsslightly overeager Immortalsseeking to preserve Makaiculture...) The Malpheggi, whohad never quite flourished herealso fell to the Nithians.For five hundred years, theMakai and the Malpheggi wereenslaved by the Nithians, turnedinto producers of valuable cashcrops—coffee, rice, sugar, cotton,indigo, and tobacco—to beshipped back to the Nithianempire. It was from the Nithiansthat the arts of necromancypassed into the lore of theMalpheggi and the Makai.And it was the arts ofnecromancy they would turn ontheir putative masters. Guided bytheir patron immortals, the Makaiand Malpheggi rose up againsttheir Nithian overlords in 500BC, right as the Immortalsdescended on Nithia to destroy it.Nithian reprisals looked likely towipe out the Malpheggi, so theImmortals took the survivors tothe Hollow World. The Makaidestroyed the surviving Nithians,only to then forget the Nithianshad ever existed. This threw theMakai into chaos as they forgotmost of what they had learnedfrom the Nithians. Indeed, thesurvivors concluded the worldhad been destroyed and reborn asecond time. (The Makai dimlyremembered the 1750 BC quakesas the first breaking of the world,the Death of Earth. The Nithiannecromantic plague whichdestroyed the Malpheggi andkilled many Makai wasremembered as part of the Deathof Air. The Death of Fire isgenerally expected to be coming,and then the Death of Water,which will end the cycle and starta new Aeon... More on this later.)Aid from Ka enabled them torecover their ancestral ways, nowmodified by their newnecromantic and religiouspractices, and eventually recover.For centuries, they lived a quietlife of periodic natural disaster,hurricanes, warfare, peace, andfishing. At times, Hin navigatorsvisited from the Five Shires toexplore and trade with thenatives; the Traladarans, on theother hand, were too poor ofsailors to drop in. The Thyatiansvisited the isles for trade after therise of the Thyatian empire,though local diseases (descendedfrom the desperate magical andnecromantic plague revenge ofthe now long extinct Nithians ontheir revolting slaves) killedmany would be traders anddiscouraged Thyatiancolonization.Looking for new lands forfarming, some Hin arrived onFletcher and Ierendi Islands inththe 6 century, avoiding ElegyIsland at the urging of thenatives. They built Northkeepand Korsakov Tower andlighthouses to guide ships andbegan struggling to grow cropsunder hotter and wetterconditions than they were usedto, and trying to find ways tosurvive the hurricane season.For a long time, they struggled tomake a living, until the discoverythat tobacco and coffee could begrown here much more profitablythan in the Shires led to a boomin their cultivation and in Hinimmigration. (Many Hin alsodied of the local diseases.) Hinflocked to the islands andrelations with the natives turnedugly. Brutal Hin vs. Makai warensued; the Hin largely took overFletcher and Alcove Island and

held substantial portions of Safariand Ierendi Islands when theThyatians showed up. They tookcontrol of Utter and AloysiusIslands, setting up prison campsand using prisoners to growvaluable crops for them. Threeway warfare now ensued, withthe Hin forced into slavery andthe Makai driven back into deepforest and the less valuable foragriculture areas. More and moreprisoners were imported to theIsles to grow crops.In the late sixth century, Thyatisand the Hin went to war, and thisprovided the many prisoners ofthe prison colonies with anopening. They now revoltedunder the leadership of MadCreeg, a man who claimed he hadbeen sent to the Isles for thecrime of 'Killing an Immortal ofThyatis'. This seems ratherunlikely to be true, but whetherhe believed it or not, he was aman of great cunning andstrength (and quirky humor), whoswiftly led the Ierendians tovictory. Forming an alliancewith the mysterious HonorIslanders, he drove out theThyatians and declared himselfthe Pirate King of Ierendi,writing the Code of HonorablePiracy, by which the land wouldbe governed.This code forbade the growing ofcash crops for sale abroad andrequired all men who would befree to spend a period of theiryouth on a pirate ship. Thosewho grew too old for the sea orwho had crafts needed by piratesbut not easily practiced at seawould live in villages on the land,which would serve as the homebases of pirate ships and fleets.Every five years, there would bea grand contest of pirate skills,the Tournament of Piracy; thewinner would become PirateKing. Ships would governthemselves, electing a Captainwhose word was law, but whoany honest pirate could challengefor the leadership. Any Captaincould enter the Pirate Conclaveevery five years (or on the deathof a King) and make a bid for thekingship. And the Pirate Kingwould rule with the 'advice' of theCaptains. Ex-Thyatians, Hin,Makai, anyone who dwelt in theland and lived or had lived thelife of a Pirate could be a freeman in Ierendi, chosing whowould lead him and bringingdown the wrath of the formerprisoners and slaves on the'civilized' nations who had laidthem in chains.For several centuries, this schemaworked. Many Makai continuedto live in the traditional manner,but some assimilated into Piratesociety and even rose to be PirateKings and Queens. The Hin andthe other humans of the Islestended to dominate Pirate society,however. The towns flourished,growing crops and providingcrafts and fencing stolen pirateloot to covert merchants. Adangerous land it was, where aman might have his throat slit fora few copper, but a land where abrave and cunning man faced fewlimits on how high he could riseor the freedom he could know.In 700 AC for reasons knownonly to the Immortals, severalvillages of Human and/or HinPirates simply vanished without atrace. This disaster led to aperiod of religious frenzy andpanic which culminated in therise of the Pirate's Temple.(Uknown to the locals, Korotikutook several villages to plantthem among the Merry Pirates inthe Hollow World.) Thisvanishing, however, wasrelatively small in scale, and didlittle to slow the growth of thepopulation.A clock was ticking and thatclock was named 'populationgrowth'. As the Pirates and theirtowns flourished, the Makai andthe Pirate towns increasinglycompeted for the same land to getfood and the same waters for fish.The result, finally, was a brutalthwar in the 9 century AC. TheMakai were defeated, despitetheir necromantic skills, but thewar was long and harsh, andPirate King Konal imposed whathe felt was the worst possiblepunishment—slavery—on thesurviving Makai. They wereturned into a labor force for thetowns, freeing up the elderly toenjoy their old age and enablingmore free men to become piratesor craftsmen (or even traders).This strengthened the Ierendimilitary, which was essentiallythe collection of town militiasand pirate ships, by enablingmore free men to enter those

areas. This proved crucial in thelate 9th and early 10th century,the Minrothad Guilds and Thyatisturned up the heat on Ierendi.Desperation led Pirate QueenAntonia to approve the growingof cash crops by Makai slaves inorder to raise funds to bribeThyatian commanders and to hireassistance and purchase Glantrianmagical items in order to defeat astrong attempt by Thyatis toconquer Ierendi in Belisarius'War (905-918 AC).The precedent having been set,later Pirate Kings graduallyexpanded slavery, raiding theTurtle Clans of the Atruaghin,and many distant lands to captureslaves to grow crops whose salewould fund military effortscapable of fending off Ierendi'swealthier enemies and free up yetmore free men to become piratesand soldiers and traders.However, it also shovedincreasing money into the handsof those who ran the plantationsfrom the towns, creating a classof men not dependent on piracyor craftsmanship for their wealthand freedom, but on slavery.Conservative pirates opposedthis, but though some PirateKings and Queens tried to reducedependence on slavery, nonewere able to afford to abolish it.Today, matters are movingtowards a crisis. There's notmuch more room for theexpansion of slavery forproduction of cash crops, but thenumber of free men continues togrow and Ierendi's enemies stillseem to grow stronger faster thanit does. Conflict betweenconservative pirates who despiseslavery, wealthy townsmen, andthose pirate crews who revel inthe wealth slavery brings themcontinues to heat up and now thecurrent King, a Hin namedCaptain Mungo Shipshearer, isclose to death and competition tosee who will replace him isstarting to heat up. Further, theslaves grow increasingly restless,and they study the secret Makaiarts of necromancy and plot theirrevenge.Whoever becomes King of thePirates next will likely determinethe future of Ierendi for decadesor maybe even centuries to come.Things cannot go on likethis—there are many routes thenation could sail, but it must setits course now, or likely fall intodiscord and be destroyed by itsfoes.And that, of course, is where thePCs come in.Pre-1750 BC: The Ierendi Islesare part of a larger mass of landextending south and east into theSea of Dread. Azcans live in thelarge plateau where theAtruaghin Clans now live. Farwest, Tangoro and Elves competein the Serpent Peninsula. AndLizardmen live in the MalpheggiSwamp.1750 BC: Earthquakes destroythis land and send groups ofAzcans, Malpheggi, andTanagoro fleeing their homes, alleventually ending up in Ierendi.The Makai will remember this asthe Death of Earth, whichdestroyed the First World.1750-1000 BC: The Azcan andTanagoro survivors blend to formthe Makai, competing with theMalpheggi Lizardmen (whodominate Aloysius, Safari andElegy Islands).1000-500 BC: Nithians colonizethe islands, enslaving everyoneand growing semi-tropical cashcrops. The Makai and Malpheggilearn and adapt the necromanticarts.500 BC: The Immortals guide arevolt which wipes out theNithians but unleashes bitterplagues which wipe out theLizardmen and kill most of theMakai, who now suffer massiveamnesia due to the Immortaldestruction / retconning of Nithia.They come to see this as theDeath of the Second World, theDeath of Air. (Beliving foulwinds carried the Nithianplagues.) Aid from Ka enabledthem to recover their ancestralways, now modified by their newnecromantic and religiouspractices, and eventually recover.500 BC – 500 AC: A time ofquiet recovery and tribal life withsome trade contacts with theoutside, but the plagues whichriddle the isles drive off mostintruders.6 century AC: Some Hin beginthcolonizing Fletcher and Ierendi

Isles. Many get sick and die andthe colonies initially struggle.518 AC: Colonists figure outhow to grow tobacco and coffeeprofitably and now the coloniesbegin to flourish.541 AC: Pressed by populationgrowth, the Makai descend on theHin colonies and wreak havoc;believing the Hin will leave, theyfoolishly then withdraw homewithout killing everyone. Thatwinter, the Hin strike,slaughtering any Makai they canfind, now reduced to feral statusby hunger and desperation.Brutal war ensues on and off.571 AC: The Thyatians show up,taking control of Utter andAloysius Islands, setting upprison camps and using prisonersto grow valuable crops for them.War with the Makai and Hinensues.586 AC: The Thyatiansconsolidate their power in theIerendi Isles. Hin pirates heavilyraid all trade with themotherland.593-623 AC: Thirty Years' Warof the Hin vs. Thyatis. Thisprovides the context in whichIerendi revolts.600-618 AC: Ierendi prisonersrebel, ally with the HonorIslanders, defeat Thyatis, andestablish independence underPirate King Mad Creeg.600-625 AC: Reign of PirateKing Mad Creeg.618-20 AC: Pirate King MadCreeg writes the Code ofHonorable Piracy.625 AC: Pirate King Mad Creegsteps down and runs the firstTournament of Piracy to choosehis successor; he is succeeded byAarthas the Strong.700 AC: The Vanishing: EntireHin and Human Pirate villagesvanish from Ierendi; unknown tothose left behind, Korotiku hastaken them to the Hollow World.This provokes a wave of panicwhich leads to the creation of thePirate's Temple.812-18 AC: The War of theDead: The Pirates and Makaifinally fall out in a brutal war; theMakai use their necromancy touse dead pirates against the livingto make up for smaller numbersafter a vicious surprise attack.817 AC: The Makai sack NorthKeep and turn all the local Hininto an army of flesh-eatingzombies. This and otheratrocities work both sides up to afrenzy.818 AC: Pirate King Konalfinally defeats the Makai andenslaves them, turning them intoa labor force for the towns andfarms. This passes without muchprotest despite its bending of theCode of Honorable Piracy as thesurviving Pirates are extremelyangry with the Makai. TheMakai Pirate families arehenceforth in a difficult anduncomfortable position.9th – early 10th century AC: TheMinrothad Guilds and Thyatisincreasingly pressure Ierendi,pushing its defense to their limits.905-918 AC: Belisarius' War:Desperation forces Pirate QueenAntonia to approve the growingof cash crops by Makai slaves inorder to raise funds to bribeThyatian commanders and to hireassistance and purchase Glantrianmagical items in order to defeatThyatian forces sent byGabronius IV under AdmiralBelisarius to conquer Ierendi.Mid-late 10th century AC: LaterPirate Kings expand the scope ofIerendi slavery, acquiring slavesfrom many distant lands to workthe fields, enabling most freemen to take up the life of piracyif they choose, strengthening thelands' defenses. Conservativeand Makai-descended Piratesoppose this.982-1000 AC: Pirate KingCaptain Mungo Shipshearer, aHin from Fletcher Island, is Kingof Ierendi, winning 3Tournaments in a row.1000 AC: A life lived to thefullest burns out faster; KingMungo Shipshearer is dyingslowly of a previously unknowndisease and no one knows whowill follow him to the throne orwhere they will lead the nation.Cue the PCs.

Old Mother Kana's AlmanacClimateIerendi tends to be hot and wet,especially wet. Winter begins asthe previous year's hurricaneseason ends, wobbling betweenthe forties and sixties degreesFarenheit with very brief freezingspells or unusually warm spells.Cold rain and fog is verycommon, especially fog in themorning. Spring is short andrelatively dry, followed by a verylong hot and humid summerwhich often spikes up into the onehundreds and is commonly in thenineties. Starting in late summerthrough the fall, hurricanes beginto periodically slam into the isles,coming up from the southeast andrarely the east. Thyatis and theMinrothad Guilds end up withmost of the more easterlyhurricanes, however.AgricultureA huge variety of fruits,vegetables, melons, and the likeflourish in Ierendi. Pineapples,bannanas and the all-presentavocado are especially popular.Rice is the most common grain,and huge amounts of fish areconsumed as the primary form ofmeat. Beef, chicken, and pork areall relatively rare and expensive.A lot of food is imported,however, as the best agriculturalland goes to growing tobacco,coffee, indigo, sugar, and cotton.Both food and cash crops aregenerally grown by slavesoverseen by free men. Slaves areorganized into 'gangs' accordingto age and experience, with thehardest work done by those in the18-35 range. Plantations aretypically owned by a particularpirate ship or town, whichappoints an overseer to watchover it and collect the revenues.Ierendi is hitting its limits interms of useful agricultural landrelative to its population size.This is creating some amount ofsocial stress, though right now,agriculture remains highlyprofitable. At the cost of creatingan evergrowing number of angryslaves waiting for a chance tobreak free.GeographyAs per the canonical Gazeteer (p.6-8 cover the native wildlife andterrain well.)The Defense ofIerendiIerendi's only standing navy is theforces supplied by Honor Island,but in times of war, all activepirates must flock to the flag,giving Ierendi a fairly substantialand expert fleet. Where Thyatisand Minrothad's navies fight withprecision, the Ierendi are closer toa naval barbarian horde, relyingon speed and the individualexcellence of their crews,combined with the substantialmagical enchantments of theirships, to deal with betterdisciplined foes. Fancymanuevering would requiregiving up freedom, after all.Man for man, the Ierendi have thebest sailors in the world; under askillful Pirate King, this skill canbe used to best effect; under weakkings, enmities betweencommanders undercut theeffectiveness and cooperation ofthe military, leading to disaster.The continual piratical operationsof the Ierendi Pirates keep

everyone's skills up; most freemen spend at least a while as apirate, making it easy to replacelosses so long as they don't growtoo intense.There is a very small group ofprofessional soldiers who guardforts for defense. Organized intoone hundred man companies, theRoyal Pirate Army numbers only1000 men. They all train asarchers and spearmen in bothlight and medium armor.There is also a militia force,organized by the towns andvillages. Lightly armored, itfocuses on missile fire andoperating in dense forest andjungle. In addition to fighting inwartime, it helps to hunt runawayslaves. Up to 5000 militia can befielded in companies of irregularsize when needed. Another fivethousand low quality militia ofold men can be fielded in deepemergencies.SlaveryIerendi slavery is hereditary. Youcan become a slave in one of twoways—judgement passed on youby the Pirate Conclave (howsome of the Makai wereenslaved) and being captured byIerendi Pirates. Most IerendiPirates do not enslave everyonethey capture, as this wouldprovoke too harsh a counterresponseand encourage mostpeople to fight back harder.Rather, slaves are usually takenfrom enemy pirate ships and fromslave-raiding / trading. (Thyatianand Minrothad prisoners areusually enslaved regardless oforigin, though) A lot of slavestaken these days are eitherKarameikan or Sindhi becauseneither nation can fight back veryeffectively.The child of a slave is always aslave, but the owner of a slavemay emancipate a slave for anyreason. Some allow their slavesto save up wealth and buy theirfreedom. A fair number ofemancipated slaves are the sonsand daughters of their master.Freed slaves may become pirates,townsfolk, or just leave Ierendientirely if they have theresources.Masters may freely sell, beat,rape, kill, etc their slaves at will.In practice, most masters holdback from total tyranny from amixture of human feeling andself-preservation. (The People'sTemple tends to target the mostvicious masters, and even withoutthem, a reign of terror can lead tosome slave poisoning your foodor you being beaten to death.)Slaves cannot testify against nonslaves,but can against each other.They have no property rights intheory—in practice, mastersgenerally allow them toaccumulate wealth if they canfind some way to do so, so longas it isn't a threat to the masters.Most slaves work the fields, butsome work as domestic labor,craftsmen or even clerks inbusinesses. Field slaves arerarely emancipated, but thedomestic and business slaveshave a fair chance of it.Makai face a lot of problemsbecause many non-Makai Ierenditend to assume any Makai is aslave or else that their ancestorwas one. This leads to a lot ofconflict and duels.Slaves range greatly in theirresponse to slavery. Some ofthem are completely broken,obeying their masters out of fearand/or devotion. Most aresomewhat resistant, but unwillingto take major risks. They'll sneakoff a little tobacco, or every sooften let frogs cavort in themaster's ale when he's notlooking, or even beat up one ofthe master's relatives in a momentof passion, but they fearpunishment too much to do majorresistance.

Disease and theNithian CurseOne may measure the power ofthe Nithians by the fact that acurse unleashed by the Nithiansback in 500 BC still has powerover these isles. They are riddledwith diseases which cannot longsurvive leaving the isles as aresult. (They were intended tokill off the rebels, not to spreadback to the motherland.) Ierendidiseases can only infect thosewho have visited the Isles at leastonce. This means invading fleetsare often wiped out by disease,but can't carry it home to plaguebomb Thyatis.Over time, those most vulnerableto the diseases who live in theIslands have died off and only thedisease resistant remain. Visitorsand invaders are not so lucky.Once a week (or a month if youwant to play this down for foreignPCs visiting the isles), they mustmake a Fortitude save atdifficulty 15 (Save vs. Poison forother editions) or else becomesick; the DM should adjustdisease virulence to suit the needand tone of his campaign.Anyone who bears arms duringthe week finds the difficulty risesto 20 (as the disease-curseidentifies them as a REBEL.)Each year in which at least halfyour time is spent in the Islesreduces the save difficulty by 1;eventually, one becomes largelyimmune to it, if one is a longtermsettler. Ironically, the curseis less dangerous to slaves, whogain a +5 bonus to start with andacclimate at triple-speed; thecurse is out to kill rebels, notobedient slaves.It is to be noted that a similarLizard-man curse affects anyvisiting Nithians. It's just thatnone ever come here to notice, asthey're all in the Hollow Worldnow. Ylari are immune to theNithian curse, but are vulnerableto the Lizard-man curse.However, Ylari gain +5 to saveagainst the Lizardman curse, dueto being only somewhat related tothe Nithians. The humidity tendsto make most Ylari miserable, butit doesn't quite stop themissionaries.Relations withSpecific Nations andPeoplesKingdom of Alfheim: Bothcountries are only vaguely awareof each other since Alfheim islandlocked. There are no formalrelations, but some Elves admirethe independence and freedom ofthe Ierendi. Others see them aslittle better than orcs. The Ierendislightly admire the Elves, even ifthey are landlubbers.Empire of Alphatia: The enemyof my enemy is my friend. TheIerendi get much of their magicalgear from the Alphatians whennot imported from Glantri. Sure,wizards aren't as good as Pirates,but at least they appreciatefreedom. Alphatia maintains anembassay in Ierendi City.Atruaghin Clans: Pathetic landdwellersand their equallypathetic and vulnerable coastaldwelling cousins. The Turtle andTiger clansmen make good slavesand indeed the Tiger clans oftenseem eager to sell Turtle clanmembers to the Ierendi for a tidyprofit. The rest of the clans areirrelevant. No embassy.Republic of Darokin: TheDarokinians endlessly complainabout Ierendi pirates but lack thestrength to defeat them and oftenwork with them against otherfoes. DDC members areconsidered in Ierendi to beprotected by the Honorable Code.They maintain an embassy, evenif the ambassador often isn't veryhappy.Ethengar Khanates: The what?Who? Sea of Grass? How doyou sail in grass?The Five Shires: Sometimesgood friends, sometimes enemies,often friendly rivals. Currentlyallies as the result of strongefforts by Pirate King Mungo, butthis may change once he dies.They have an embassy.The Republic of Glantri: A finecustomer for the cash crops and asupplier of desperately neededmagical gizmos. You have tohide them from the Shire-folk,though. Some Ierendi of thetowns want to copy aspects ofGlantrian government. MostPirates prefer their own ways,though. They have an embassy.

Heldaanic Knights: ManyIerendi see the Heldaanic Knightsas a twisted fun-house reflectionof themselves and it makes themuncomfortable. Most Ierendidon't like them and there are littleformal relations. Or reasons tointeract at all.Grand Duchy of Karameikos:Sheep to be shorn, especially theBlack Eagle Baron. Stefan ispathetic and the Traladarans havealways been helpless. Perhapsafter the fiftieth time their homesburn, they'll learn to be real men.But probably not. Possibly usefulagainst Thyatis, though. Butlikely more useful as slaves.There is no embassy, as Stefanwithdrew his after an initialattempt at relations.Minrothad Guilds: They're likeyour evil little brother who youcaught dismembering yourfriends. Thugs and murderers andcorrupted by their own wealth.They make the Ierendiuncomfortable as it's not alwayseasy to tell the difference betweenthe two nations' pirates.Relations are usually hostile,though uncomfortable embassiesexist in each nation for the other.Kingdom of Ostland: Kindredspirits, but also far away andpotential rivals. No embassy;relations are sometimes friendly,sometimes hostile but alwaysinteresting.Kingdom of Rockhome: Hardto get in contact with due togeography, but Dwarves areuseful for their rock workingskills. A fair number of dwarveswork as engineering mercenariesin Ierendi and some past PirateKings have offered to let thedwarves colonize the IerendiUplands. Recent talks havediscussed this again; after acentury or so of negotiations, theDwarves are starting to warm tothe idea. There is a Dwarvenembassy.Kingdom of Sindh: If the Sindhinavy wasn't weak, they'd havekilled everyone in Ierendi bynow. There is no embassy andlittle prospect of one.Soderfjiord Jarldoms: Contactbetween the two nations tends tolead to violence when someIerendi begins preaching the Codeof Honorable Piracy at them. Noreal reason to trade, hardly evenworth the effort to reach to raid.No embassy.Empire of Thyatis: In Thyatis,this job is viewed as a deathsentence; fools are sent here toeither get wise and healthy or die.Relations are usually terrible andwhile there is an embassy,turnover is high.Kingdom of Vestland: Littlereal reason for contact here; it'sjust too hard to get back andforth.Emirates of Ylarum: Ierendi isso wet that it attracts endless tidesof Ylari seeking to study thesecrets of its wetness andgreeness. They then preach anddrive the locals crazy. There aresome converts in the town, peoplewho have grown used todisciplined, hard-working lives ofcraftsmanship and business whichno longer really fit the chaoticmores of the Pirate's Temple.Many of the slaves, however,have been listening to themissionaries and add ideas from itinto their own syncretic faith, thePeople's Temple, from it. Thismakes the missionaries a littlecrazy.Hangoon (Druidicand NecromanticReligion in IerendiMakai Practice)The oldest religion of the Isles isthe Druidic faith of the Makai. Itdivides time into Aeons, Worlds,

Years, Months, and Days. EachAeon is a great phase ofexistence divided into fiveWorlds, each of which ends in anapocalypse. At the beginning ofan Aeon, the world is fresh andnew. Gradually, however, theworld decays over four worlds.Each ends with a disaster—TheDeath of Stone, The Death ofAir, the Death of Fire and finallythe Death of Water. The worldthen crumbles away, only to bereborn after the Death of Death,which ends the Fifth Age of eachAeon, when Death finally turnsin and devours itself in itshunger.The Current World is the ThirdWorld of the Twenty-First Aeon;the Death of Stone eded the FirstWorld in 1750 BC when thelands of the Sea of Dread sankbeneath the waves, showingStone would now crumble overtime, until all the lands are gone.The Second World ended in 500BC with the Plague-Winds ofAmnesia which wiped out almostall knowledge of the past of theMakai (see history for the fullstory). We now live in the ThirdWorld and most Makai figure itsend comes soon, though the Sundoes seem quite healthy forsomething doomed to die to endthe World soon.Still, Death grows stronger, butthe wise men are ready for him.The Kahuna of Death havestudied Death's lore and when theFifth World comes, the World ofDeath, they will be ready to staveoff Grandfather Death as long aspossible, even as the Kahuna ofLife use their nature lore to propup Grandmother Life as long aspossible.Together, the two groups ofKahuna (clerics) conduct ritesintended to stave off the death ofthe Sun (Grandfather Sun) and toprop up Grandmother Life tosurvive another day and toappease Grandfather Death.Grandmother Ocean also has tobe appeased to keep her fromdevouring the land too fast withher mighty storms. Already sheclaims half the year for herwatery children and the stormseason will only grow longer inthe next World.These rites have, over time,become much softer, abandoninghuman sacrifice for the sacrificeof food and valuables. A fewangry Kahunas would be ratherhappy to sacrifice some of the'free men' if they could get awaywith it, though. Their ritesrevolve around the opening andclosing of storm season and thefour equinoxes and solstices.Kahunas of Life are normaldruids. The Kahunas of Deathare necromancers who use theirpowers to assist their fellowMakai. A fair number go crazyand end up turning very evil orvery insane or both, but most,though sinister, act to help thenow mostly enslaved Makai andturn their malice lose on the 'freemen' of Ierendi. They areespecially fond of killing anenemy's relatives and sendingthem as zombies to kill saidenemy. A few Kahunas of Deathhave sold out to the Pirates andprovide undead labor for thenastiest plantations.Elegy Island remains under thecontrol of the Hangoon andseems likely to stay so.Druidic faith is declining, havingbeen replaced for many Makai bythe People's Temple.This church serves fiveImmortals, though it only namesfour; Ka is the silent benefactorof the Church, whileGrandmother Life (Terra),Grandfather Sun (Ixion),Grandfather Death (Thanatos),and Grandmother Sea (Protius)are openly named. (Thanatos isnot so much worshipped asappeased. In theory, anyway...)

The People's TempleThe People's Temple is theresponse of the increasinglydiverse slaves of the Ierendi Islesto the mostly unsuccessfulattempts of Ylari preachers toconvert them (and of preachingfrom the Pirate's Temple),combined with some aspects ofthe old Druidic faith of the Isles.The People's Temple operates attwo levels—an exoteric level ofwhat is believed by the averagemember and an esoteric level ofhidden lore which guides theinner leadership of the faith. Theexoteric level is a higgledypiggledyjumble of holidays,worship rites, and other religioustrappings taken from all thecultures which touch the Sea ofDread, from Hin harvest festivalsto Sindhi caste garb to mockingrecreations of the rites of thePirate's Temple. Indeed,mocking other religions is animportant part of the faith,though a dangerous one; thosebrave enough to mock theirmasters publically are regardedmost highly. All the nations whohave abandoned them to theirfate, the old religions whichcould not save them, the heroeswho did not liberate them—allmust be mocked and shamed fortheir failure.The People's Temple looksinstead to a new age to come, ofnew Immortals who will notabandon the helpless—by theirprivate ceremonies, they seek tohasten that day when the corruptold order is torn down and a newone born. The founder of thePeople's Temple was a man bornin Minrothrad by the name ofTomia, but he was taken as aslave to Ierendi, where heescaped and began circulatingbetween plantations, aidingothers and teaching the slaves tostand together. He came to beknown as 'The Hope' andeventually, he is said to haveescaped this world and headedinto the planes to find a source ofImmortality to create newImmortals not beholden to thecurrent order, who would createa better world. Those who arekindest to each other andhumiliate the masters the mostwill join him in his quest whenhe dies, until finally, the Hope isfulfilled. (This dream of newImmortals is also known as theHope.)The People's Temple thusteaches a dual ethic—anythingdone to non-slaves is justified ifthey refuse to aid the slaves,while towards your fellow slaves,you must be kind and generousand forgiving, for if you do notstand together, freedom willnever come. Those who bestembody this may one daybecome the Immortals to Come,following the Hope to destroy thecorrupt Immortals of this presentday.The Holy Writings of thePeople's Temple are a mish-mashof the writings of the Hope, theholy writings of variousimmortals and the additions ofevery communit's priests. Theresult of this is that while sometexts are very common in manycommunities, each communityhas its own version of the holywritings, hidden away by thepriests to avoid being found bythe masters. And to avoid thembeing contradicted.The People's Temple has severalesoteric sub-sects which competeto control the direction of thechurch, groups who have takensymbolic readings of some of theholy writings and who often havespecial writings only revealed tothe initiated. Each of thesegroups sees itself as the true,rightful leadership of the churchand the true heirs of the Hope.Many priests belong to none ofthese groups, but each has a fairamount of influence among thosenot initiated into them.The Daughters of Night believe itis necessary to snuff out the Sunin order to bring about the FourthWorld. They are unaware theyare under Nyx's influence andnow get their spells from her, anddon't usually share her focus onundead, though those highest inthe sect are more aware of whatis going on, but believe Nyx oneof the new Immortals to Come,who they must bring intoexistence by snuffing the Sun,who imprisons her.The Liberators are busy plottinga giant slave uprising againsttheir masters; unfortunately, thedecentralized nature of thechurch has made this ratherdifficult. This sect has been born

several times, as it tends to getjust far enough to get caught.They appeal to those tooimpatient to wait for the comingof the New Immortals.The Dream of an Ocean Desert(sarcastically named, yes) are thegroup most influenced by theYlari preachers; they hope toredirect the yearly monsoons toYlarum in hope of getting Ylarihelp in overthrowing theirmasters. (Also, they hope thatwith less water here, the cashcrops they're forced to grow willbecome unviable, reducing theirmasters to poverty.) They arestricter about morality and lessmocking of other faiths thanmost People's Temple groups.The Inner Light believes itself tohave preserved the secretteachings of Tomia on how tojoin him on his quest withouthaving to wait for death. Theypractice secret rites, ascetictechniques, and holy exercises,combined with studying andmastering levels of exoteric lorein order to become a being oflight fit to join Tomia.A variety of more obscure groupsexist as well, at the DM'sdiscretion.The deepest secret of thePeople's Temple is that Tomia isactually imprisoned in the outerplanes (The DM should choosewhere as appropriate for hisgame.) He began the church as agiant con game for his ownbenefit, using his skills as amagic user to fake divinepowers. To his shock, some ofhis followers actually developedthe ability to cast spells, leadinghim to suspect he himself was apawn. He finally left toinvestigate this, only to end up aprisoner of (Immortal of theDM's choice). The actual powerof most believers comes fromKorotiku and Diulanna, who bothdisapprove of slavery andsupport self-improvement andchange. (Though the Daughtersof Night are empowered byNyx.)In a 3/3.5E game, clerics of thePeople's Temple choose from thedomains Community, Protection,Trickery, and an alignmentdomain of their choice (differentcongregations range greatly inalignment). Their holy weapon:the dagger (because slaves cancarry a dagger without gettingcaught and punished...)The Pirate's Temple/ The Church ofIerendiThe official name of the Pirate'sTemple is the Church of Ierendi,but in practice, it is usuallyreferred to as the Pirate's Temple.It worships a collection ofImmortals related to war andadventure on the high seas. Itgives its highest reverence toSinbad and to Protius (The OldMan of the Sea), the formerruling over ships and sailing, thelater over the ocean upon whichyou sail. Valerias, Asterius, andCalitha also are patrons of thechurch. While not an officialpart of church theology, Brissardalso draws power from thechurch due to its endorsement ofslavery and empowers those whomost strongly defend theinstitution. Ahmanni, Crakkak,Diulanna, Korotiku, Minroth,Djaea and Halav are all enemiesof the Pirate's Temple for variousreasons. And the People'sTemple really hates it.The worship ceremonies of thePirate's Temple are intended tobring fortune in exploration,trading, and war and to appeasethe wrath of the elements.Ironically, the Temple does havea year end ceremony where itmakes sacrifices to thoseImmortals most opposed to it, inan effort to buy off their wrath.But each of the twelve monthlyceremonies (first day of themonth) are intended to please thepatrons of the Church.

The Pirate's Temple teaches itsfollowers that fortune favors thebold and that it is better to actthan to lose an opportunity bytoo much caution or debate. Italso strongly emphasizesfreedom. The free man submitsto no hereditary authority, butonly to those he chooses, whomust prove their worthiness.Cooperation is important, butonly if you have a voice indetermining what the group does.Those of higher skill have morevoice, so you may need to workyour way up. But you can; anygroup that doesn't allow a man torise in rank isn't worth belongingto. Be bold, smart, and strong,and you will prosper. Be kind toyour friends and relatives; thosefrom outside Ierendi, on the otherhand, don't necessarily deserveconsideration, ESPECIALLY notThyatians.The introduction of slaverycreated a theological crisis forthe Pirate's Temple. Some of itsmembers continue to oppose anyform of slavery as immoral, butmost have been too tempted byeasy wealth to fight it. Thosewho preach against slavery are arepressed minority; the bulk ofPirate's Temple theologians havecome to argue that the leastuseful must be slaves so thatthose of higher skill and talentcan be truly free, that slavescannot take care of themselves,and so the men of skill and talentmust take care of them and makethem work for their own good.Many are still somewhatsqueamish about slavery, and ingeneral, they only discourse onthis topic if they have to, thoughrepeated confrontation withPeople's Temple preachers havecaused a large number of prieststo further harden their hearts.This is a major place of conflictin Ierendi society; positions onthis are likely to change,depending on the future roadwhich Ierendi ultimately follows.The Pirate's Temple has noparticular eschatology; theyworry more about the here andnow and what cool things youmay get to do soon. There maybe cosmic cycles or whatever,but it's unlikely the world willend in this lifetime. Those whobest exercise their freedom maybe chosen by the Immortals tojoin them, and those who at leasttried will go to dwell with them.Those who allowed theirfreedom to be taken away willfall into the hands of the Fiends.But they had it coming, so don'tcry for them.In 3.0/3.5 terms, the Pirate'sTemple has these domains:Chaos, Travel, Water, War.Their holy weapon is the cutlass(use Scimitar stats.) (The hardcoredefenders of Slavery arenow empowered by Brissard.Their domains are Evil, Travel,Trickery, Water)The Eternal Truthof al-KalimMany Ylari come to Ierendi tostudy this land to try tounderstand why it is so bountifuland how to change Ylarum tomake it more like Ierendi. Minusthe diseases, mind you. IerendiCity has a major temple andKodos on Safari Island has a fairsizedtemple. Some other townshave small temples as well. Thediscipline of the Ylari faithappeals to some city-dwellingIerendi who are increasinglyskeptical of the value of thechaotic pirate life. This iscausing conflict within thetemples however; the EternalTruth condemns slavery, whereasmany of the local converts havecome to accept it as natural oreven necessary. This may welllead to a schism.The last head of the Ierendisanctuary was a man namedYavi, a very ambitious clericwho hoped to eventually emulateAl-Kalim and gain immortality.He also acted as an agent for theKin faction of the Ylari church.His outspoken preaching againstthe Church of Ierendi and thePeople's Temple went on formany months before he tried tosail to Kodos, only to vanish enroute.Most people assume somegroup of pirates killed him,though a few believers think theImmortals took him up to theheavens.The new head of the Church is

determined to avoid ending updead, but isn't willing to simplyroll over in the face of violence.Halla is quietly seekingadventurers to conclusivelyprove what happened to Yavi,and plans to make sure thosewho did this vanish as well,while keeping his public rhetorictoned down. He's a member ofthe Preceptor faction, so hewould rather avoid violence, buthe knows that in Ierendi, that'snot always an option.As the urban areas of Ierendigradually drift more towardslegitimate trade and away fromreliance on piracy, this faith isslowly growing more popular,though the Pirates tend to mockit (in part because many piratescan't even read the Nahmeh).Banned FaithsThe Ierendi are tolerant of mostreligions, even some entropicones, so long as they don't causetrouble. However, all religionsassociated primarily with Thyatis(in the eyes of the Ierendi) arebanned. This includes, to itsdispleasure, the Church ofKarameikos (but not the Churchof Traladara or the Cult ofHalav.) Religions connected toMinrothad are also banned.The Heldannic Knights are notactually banned, but Vanyaworshippers in general make theIerendi nervous. However, theHeldannic knights rarely showup here and generally do notcause trouble, so it has yet to be asignificant issue. Hattian StormSoldiers, on the other hand, areasking for trouble. Any groupwhich is too much of a formalmilitaristic / religious groupgenerally makes the Ierendiunhappy at best.Pirates, Plunderers and Poltroons

The King and his AdvisorsMungo Ship-Shearer (HalflingFighter 17), Pirate King ofIerendi, is an old man, gettingsick and worn out. He may notlast to the next Tournament ofPiracy and intends to step down ifhe does. He's had enough oftrying to herd cats to last him alifetime. And he's uncertain ofwhat to do about the buildingproblems and has decided to justpass the buck. Almost everythinghe does now is intended to deferthe nation's problems to beresolved by his successor. Theone exception is his project tobuild underwater ships for piracyand exploration of the sea floor;this project occupies a fairamount of his energies now and ishis favorite thing to work on.Hannah Ship-Shearer (HalflingWizard 13), Pirate Queen(Honorary) of Ierendi, has beenmarried to Mungo for sixty yearsand has borne him many children,of whom about half are alive.She has thus not had as muchtime to build up her skills as him,though she is one of the strongerwizards of Ierendi. Sheeffectively acts as court mage andspends much of her time nowworking on the underwater shipsproject. In times past, Hannahwas usually the voice of reason toher husband's over-optimism.Now she's trying to shake him outof his general exhaustion, butwithout much luck.Peleke Ship-Shearer (HalflingRogue 5/Expert 7, Int 16),Ship's Treasurer to the PirateKing of Ierendi, is a verynervous, jumpy halfling. This isbecause he knows that his greatstrength is accounting, whichtends to get short shrift in piratesociety, and once Mungo retiresor dies, he will be a lot morevulnerable to revenge by Captainshe's had problems with in thepast. He's been building upsupport among the townsfolk ofthe isles in anticipation of this,hoping to find a merchant houseto take refuge with once Mungo isout of power. He and Antonia getalong poorly as he tends todeliver reality checks to her wilddreams.Antonia Wave-Chaser (HalflingRogue 7/Fighter 8, Str 16),Vice-Admiral to the Pirate Kingof Ierendi, is Mungo's second incommand, in charge of his fleetof personal followers. She hasgrandiose dreams of conqueringMinrothad and making them workfor the pirates of Ierendi, enablingIerendi to field the mightiestpirate fleet ever, one that couldwipe Thyatis' fleets off the map,finally completing Ierendi'srevenge. Her grandiose dreamsusually get shot down by Peleke'sreminders of fiscal reality and thetwo of them get along poorly.She reminds Mungo of his youth,however, so he indulges her whenhe can. She is a very skillfulnaval commander.Ambassadors of NotePostalcan Pur (Wizard 18),ambassador from Alphatia, isquite aware he's the mostpowerful wizard in Ierendi andwill never let you forget it.(Other than perhaps some of theHonor Islanders, but he and theypretend each other don't exist.)He views this posting as a chanceto make a big pile of cash andspends most of his time sellinghis services to those who canafford it. The rest is largely spenthooking up pirates with too muchmoney with Alphatian wizardswho will enchant things for themor sell them things. What littletime he has left is used findingways to embarrass the Thyatianambassador.Gerard Mauntea (Expert6/Merchant-Prince 6, Int 15),ambassador from Darokin,spends most of his time in a stateof perpetual frustration. WhileDarokin makes good moneyimporting and reselling the cashcrops produced by Ierendi,Ierendi pirates continue to preyon Darokinian shipping andtrying to protest this is largelyfutile. So he spends a lot of timebeing aggravated and the rest ofthe time trying to hire people tosteal back pirated goods. He is adistant relative of the currentChancellor of Darokin and is notaware he was given this postingbecause he wasn't consideredgood enough at diplomacy for apost where diplomatic skillswould actually do much good.

Ira Knackwell (Bard 10, Cha16), ambassador from The FiveShires, is from the biggest shipbuildingfamily in the Five Shires,from the town of Tothmeer. Herather enjoys being in Ierendi, andspends a lot of time at Ierendishipyards, studying theirmethods. He is enjoying thecurrent good relations andworking to foster trade. He is ongood terms with both pirates andcity folk, in part due to his greatskill at handling people. He is onextremely good terms with thecurrent Pirate King. He and theGlantri Ambassador get alongvery poorly, as one might expect.Jacob Stuart (Wizard 14, Dex16), ambassador from Glantri, isof Klantyre stock, chosen to beambassador because he is one ofvery few expert boatmen inGlantri. In a country whichoffered other roads to power, hewould have more likely ended upa rogue or a bard, but he took upwizardry because otherwise hewould be a pawn and patsy all hislife. He can be very hard workingif he has to and studies magicevery day, but would rather relax.He does a pretty good job ofdrumming up business for Glantribecause of his obvious love of thesea. However, the Alphatians getmore work and he rather resentsthe Alphatian Ambassador, whoalways treats him like an idiotyounger brother. He and theShire Ambassador get along verypoorly, as one might expect.Ann Boleyn (Bard 12, Cha 17),ambassador from Minrothad, isquite aware everyone hates her.But she knows how to use that tomanipulate people. Let it slip thatMinrothad wants X and everyonerushes to do the opposite...whichis what she really wanted. Sheconducts elaborate espionage andspends a certain amount of timetrying to turn up the heat of thefeuds between some ambassadorsjust as a hobby. Ann has a greatinterest in Nithia and buysNithian artifacts at good prices.Stahlsmag of Clan Syrklist(Bard 12, Cha 17), ambassadorfrom Rockhome, is quiet andhard to get to know, which bydwarven standards, is outgoing.She only fully comes to life whendiscussing trade. She largelyignores the other ambassadors,except for the Darokinian one,who she feels sorry for, andperiodically invites over fordiscussions which go clumsily asshe's not good at social small-talkand he doesn't know dwarvenentertainments well. (She'sdetermined to find some game hewon't lose 8 times out of 10,though.) She is enthusiastic (byDwarf standards) about setting upcolonies here, though aware that afair number of dwarves may bereluctant to go places with somuch ocean in it.Antonia Magrinnus (Noble 12,Str 17), ambassador fromThyatis, is quite aware she wassent to Ierendi in the hopes shewould either grow up or die. Herplan is to do neither and to simplydo whatever the hell she wants,from getting in drunken brawlstwo to three nights a week tothrowing huge open parties.Ironically, this has made her themost popular if most uselessThyatian ambassador in ages.She goes adventuring every fewmonths to bring in enough moneyto continue her wild ways.Maelobus Negrus (Cleric 11,Wis 15), ambassador fromYlarum, is actually of Thyatiandescent, but his ancestorsconverted to Al-Kalim's churchduring the Ylari uprising. He gotthis job because of his piety andhis desire to help advance thedream of the Desert Garden bythe study of Ierendi. He is veryfriendly and kind, but prone topreach at the drop of a hat. Hehires lots of adventurers to gostudy aspects of the climate forhim, often camping in dangerousplaces for weeks with specialinstrumentation which recordsnatural and magical fluxes. He ison good terms with the currenthead of the church in the Isles,but goes his own way.

Pirates and Raiders ofRenownBlack Adder (Ierendi HumanFighter 10/Rogue 5, Str 17, Int15), captain of the Serpent'sFang, has chocolate colored skinand blond hair; his ancestors are amix of Makai and Anatalians. Heis covered with tattoos of variouskinds of serpents, though youcan't see most of them as heusually wears armor or at least adignified captain's outfit. He is adeeply nasty pirate, regarding allnon-Ierendi (and some non-PirateIerendi) as basically fodder forhis ballistas. He holdsscrupulously to the HonorableCode with other Ierendi pirates,and will come to the rescue ofother pirates in trouble, askingnothing but future favors of them.He grumbles about the truce withthe Shires, but holds to it.Everyone else can be enslaved,robbed, tortured, killed, raped,etc, as he desires. And he usuallydesires. Any boat which falls intohis hands is doomed. He does alot of slave raiding, especiallyagainst the Atruaghin Clans, asthe Turtle and Tiger clans usuallyfind it hard to fight back againsthis raids. He has ambitions tobecome King of the Pirates.Drunk Old Captain Marlboro(Ierendi Halfling Fighter 17,Con: 20), captain of the HappyPirate, is the bitter old enemy ofKing Mungo, with whom he hasbeen rivals since childhood. Heis determined to win the nextTournament of Piracy at any cost,even if it means assassinatingother pirate captains. He spends afair amount of his time stirring uptrouble for the king, whether bymaking his attacks on othercountries' shipping look likeMungo's command or by causingriots between Pirates andtownsfolk. He is getting old andno longer worries about the futureof Ierendi; he just wants to getone-up on Mungo before he dies.Ironically, if he became King,he'd actually largely continueMungo's policies. Marlboro nolonger drinks much, ironically,but he can hold his liquor betterthan even dwarves, having oncedrunk the previous Rockhomeambassador under the table.Marlboro has only one eye, onehand, and one foot, thanks to pastincidents, but has replaced allthree with magical items.Big Fat Keoni (Makai Fighter9/Rogue 5, Con: 18), captain ofthe Harbinger, is the most notedpirate captain of Roister Island,weighing as much as two, maybethree average pirates, but easilyable to outfight several times hisweight worth of pirates. He has asoft spot for any Makai and attimes has helped rescue Makaislaves when he thought he couldget away with it. However, hehas a grudge against Hin piratesever since one mocked him asbeing fatter than an ogre. Despitethe official friendship with theShires, he will happily attack Hinpirates if he thinks he can getaway with it.Lali Surf-Rider (Ierendi ElfFighter 3/Wizard 13, Str 14, Int16), captain of the Revenge, isone of the rare Elven Pirates ofIerendi. Her ancestors came fromMinrothad and were enslaved bythe Thyatians and brought toIerendi. Her family is still gettingeven. She focuses her effort andthose of her crew on attackingThyatian shipping wheneverpossible, and tries to avoidfighting any elves fromMinrothad. Her left eye was lostyears ago and it's been replacedwith a magical gem which allowsher to Detect Magic, SeeInvisible, and Know Alignment atwill. She can Dispel Magic withit 3 times a day, using her levelsas a wizard for effectiveness. Sheis a stern Captain, and doesn'tmind losing a few people to killmore Thyatians. She has areputation for victory whichalways attracts more crew.Nakana Attleby (IerendiHuman Rogue 13, Cha 16),captain of the Bright Runner, isunusually young for a Captain,only 25. She was part of anadventuring party and returnedafter many successful adventuresto Ierendi, where she bought aship and formed her own piratecrew. She's still actuallydeveloping her skills as a sailor,but has pretty much charmed hercrew into overlooking theocassional bad decision. Sheviews herself as a defender ofIerendi more than a bandit, andsticks to attacking militaryvessels. Except for Thyatianswho are clearly all totally evil andthus deserve being robbed.Unlike most crews, she has no

plantation because slaverydisturbs her, and her crew islikewise made up of Pirates whodon't approve of slavery. Thishas already led her into one pastclash with Black Adder, and islikely to lead to other trouble forher as well. She very, verycovertly provides some support tothe People's Temple, which willlikely be her doom if it evercomes out.Redbeard (Minrothad HumanFighter 10/Barbarian 6, Int:17), captain of the Fire Opal, isnot an Ierendi Pirate; rather, he isthe bane of many Ierendi Pirates,conducting brilliant raids againstIerendi towns and ships,especially Pirate ships. He is ahuge man with copious red hairon his head, face, chest, etc. Healso wears all red, except for asilken white undershirt; if it getsstained, he tends to go crazy. (Hehas the Barbarian levels to reflecthis tendency to go totally berserkwhen angry and his wild fightingstyle.) Redbeard treats his owncrew very well and is quitegenerous to his friends. Hegenerally avoids killing civilians,but makes Ierendi pirates walkthe plank in shark-infestedwaters. King Mungo has put avery substantial price onRedbeard's head.Zachariah the Far Wanderer(Ierendi Human Cleric 13, Dex:16), captain of the HorizonSeeker, is more an explorer andadventurer than a pirate,travelling about with his friendsin an enchanted ship and seekingdistant lands and adventure. Heis a priest of the Pirate's Temple.Zachariah often vanishes fromIerendi for months at a time, thenshows up from nowhere to savepirates in trouble. Despitecompletely differenttemperments, he and Black Adderhave a strange friendship based inthe time he came to BlackAdder's aid against a trap bySindhi ships. Zachariah hasstudied some of the writings ofthe People's Temple and is ratherinterested in learning whatexactly did happen to Tomia, butisn't sure of the best way toapproach this.An Ierendi MiscellanyAraheru Shadowglint (IerendiElf Diviner 11, Int: 17), PrivateInvestigator, is also known as the'Parlor Detective', because heprefers to sit in his parlor and usedivination magic to get to the coreof your problem, avoiding anyfield action if he can help it. Heenjoys detection as an intellectualpuzzle. If he has to go into thefield, he's usually joined by hisclosest friend, Jade (see below).Unlike most Ierendi, he usuallywears fancy wizard robes, notbecause of prudery but becausehe wants to show off and toradiate 'I am Wizard, fear me'everywhere he goes. He prefersto take the cases of the wealthywho can enable him to live highon the hog, but periodically letsJade chivvy him into takingcharity cases. He tends to spendlavishly in order to impresspeople.The Captain of the BlackCurrent (? Cleric 15, Wis: 18),Leader of the Black Current, is atremendous mystery. He or sheseems able to appear as anyone oranything, and seems to be theleader of a group of slavesaffiliated with the People'sTemple, the Black Current, whosmuggle slaves out of Ierendi tofreedom. Doing this covertly isextremely difficult, and so thegroup can only smuggle a fairlysmall number of slaves per year.Those chosen for help are usuallythose who can do the mostdamage to Ierendi once they areturned loose or who mostdesperately need freedom tosurvive.The Gaius Gang (IerendiHuman Fighter 3/Rogue 3, Strand Dex 14—3 leaders, Fighter3 or Rogue 3—averagemember), Ierendi CriminalGang, are a collection of formerpirates led by the Gaiustriplets—Antonius, Brutus, andCletus. Their ship was sunk byMinrothad pirates and nowthey're trying to raise funds byrobbing the non-pirate residentsof Ierendi City. Unfortunately,it's harder to vanish into a cityonly as large as Ierendi City thanit is to vanish into the entire Seaof Dread, and they've beenidentified. Sooner or later, there'sgoing to be a reckoning. KingMungo himself has heard of themand wishes them dealt with, as hedoesn't want more ratcheting upof tensions between pirate andtownsman.

Jade (Dwarven Monk 8/Bard 3,Cha: 16), Private Investigatorand Entertainer, is AraheruShadowglint's investigationpartner (and some people whisperthey're lovers, though this is agood way to get them both to beatyou up). She's originally fromRockhome, but went native andeventually took up being anentertainer as a hobby. She'sactually got a talent for it. Shetends to be the muscle toAraheru's brains. She also is theconscience of the group, alwaystrying to help people out.Kukana (Makai Cleric 6, Wis:15), Priestess of the People'sTemple, lives a double life as acraft-slave and cleric of thePeople's Temple. She is verytrusted by her owner, who largelyleaves her to work on her own.She avoids causing trouble for herown master so as to keep up thistrust that enables her to make lifehell for as many slave-owners aspossible. She prefers to workbehind the scenes rather thanwave the People's Temple flag inthe air. Rather, everyone otherthan her master's family hasterrible luck—animals constantlyescape, crops go bad, the finechina breaks itself, etc. In public,she seems like an extremelyservile slave but in secret, she isvery cunning and very determinedto undermine the system ofslavery.Little Tom (Halfling Rogue 5,Dex: 15, Cha: 15), piraterecruiter, is an experiencedhalfing pirate whose captain (leftto the DM to decide) uses him torecruit fresh meat to replacecausalties. Little Tom is good atentertaining people with stories ofpirate life (Perform 10) and willgenerally go to local bars andstart regaling everyone with theadventures of his crew, thencasually mention they'rerecruiting. Little Tom is astaunch Ierendi patriot and holdsfirmly to the Honorable Code andhas a good reputation for such inthe larger Ierendi towns.Matthias Vorloi (IerendiHuman Expert 9, Int: 15, Cha:16), Head of the Ierendi FruitExport Guild, is a short, skinnyman who is looking for bigchanges. He is hoping to find aPirate captain amenable for hisideas for the reform of Ierendi inmore lawful directions. Or onehe can control somehow. He istired of all the violence and chaosthat disrupts his operations andhe'll do almost anything to try andmake the nation friendly tomerchants like him.Salana the Siren (Siren Bard15, Cha: 20), Siren Supreme, isthe most powerful known siren inthe waters of Ierendi. She isrumored to be working towardseventually becoming Immortal,though no one is sure howcollecting a giant harem of sailorswill advance this. Salana is darkhaired and virtually supernaturalin terms of pure charm, beforemagic even comes into it. Somewhisper Salana plans to seduceenough men to fill her own fleetand conquer the Isles; others sayshe is laying plans to trap thePirate King himself.Stefan Machetos (IerendiHuman Cleric 8, Wis: 16),Priest of the Pirate's Temple,claims to be distantly related toGrand Duke Stefan Karameikos.There is a certain physicalresemblance, but since his familyhas been in Ierendi for centuries,it's a distant conection at best.Having done a stint as Ship'spriest, Stefan wants to get marriedand have some kids before he'stoo old, so he's now a priest at atown temple (of the DM'schoice). His romantic skills,however, aren't so hot (too muchtime spent in brothels), so hecould use some help finding awife.Tobacco Tom Saw (IerendiHalfling Rogue 8, Int: 16),Private Investigator, is a cigarchompingprivate investigator,adept at finding and recoveringstolen goods (by stealing themback), finding out if your wife ischeating on you (possibly byseducing her), and finding outwho attacked or killed you or afriend (by listening toconversations not meant for him).He always does the job he's hiredto do, but sometimes the falloutcan be large, especially as he is anotorious woman-chaser. Size isnot an obstacle—that's why theHigh Heroes gave us magicalpotions.Yumana (Atruaghin HumanExpert 5, Wis: 15, Int: 14),pirate ship's doctor and exile,

was taken as a slave from thelands of the Turtle Clans, but astorm sank the pirate ship andonly she survived. Cast adrift onthe shores of Elegy Island, shehad the good fortune to be rescuedby a group of pirates who weretrying to go tomb raiding. Hermedical skills saved several ofthem from diseases picked upfrom the tombs and they adoptedher into their crew. She findsherself torn, wanting to go homebut fearing that if her clan knewof her healing pirates, they wouldprobably kill her, or at best, exileher again. She is adept at healing(Heal 10), fishing (Profession:Fisherman 10), and boat repair(Craft: Boatmaking 10).An Ierendi Atlas

Alcove IslandPopulation: 12,410 people(8,410 Hin, 3,000 Humans, 500Elves, 500 Dwarves)Capital: Kurutiba (1,200)Area: 1,241 square milesAlcove Island was settled by theHin during the colonizationperiod and despite constantchanges in Pirate Kings, itremains dominated by the Hin.It is now the personal desmeneof the Pirate Kings of Ierendiand is the place where any sortof secret projects or researchtakes place, as well as beinghome to bustling Hin farms,plantations, and mines.Angel Cove is very shallow andfull of sandbars; without localhelp, any would-be invaders willget stuck and be robbed; on thenorthern coast there are manyjagged rocks which protect theisland. Mount Aneeroa is proneto eruptions, but the locals don'tmind, as the magma cools tovolcanic rock which they thenmine and break up into afertilizer, allowing better cropproduction.Many bands of pirates havehidden coves and caverns aroundthe coast; those who operatefrom this island all form thePirate King's fleet. They'reassigned plantations from themain body of the island to helpsupport them.The current Pirate King haspeople working in a hidden basenear the mouth of the NorthAlcove River developing shipsable to operate underwater; hehas always had a fascinationwith the underwater civilizationsand the ruins to be found on thebottom of the Northern Sea ofDread (in those areas once on thesurface until 1750 BC).Kurutiba is a ship-buildingcenter and a center for the resaleof the pirated goods brought inby the Pirate King's fleet. It'salso the Pirate King's vacationhome. Only very trustedforeigners are allowed to comehere, and there's not a lot offacilities for guests.Aloysius IslandPopulation: 40,000 people(1,000 Hin, 31,000 Humans,6000 Elves, 2,000 Dwarves)Capital: Jortan (5,000)Area: 2,100 square milesThis was once home to Thyatianplantations and prison camps.Now the plantations are Ierendicontrolled and full of enslavedThyatians. The inhabitants areextremely bitter against Thyatis.Livingsworth Tower is kept inpristine condition as it was in thedays of slavery and used to holdThyatian prisoners before they'resold to a plantation or craftshop.Thyatian slaves are treatedespecially brutally and many diefairly quickly; but it's alwayseasy to get more. It is also to benoted that some plantations heregrow zzonga fruit and makehuge amounts of moneysmuggling it into Alphatia.Jortan, the capital, is a fairlytraditional Ierendi community,other than increased brutality toThyatians. It does not havemuch of a cultural life, thoughAloysius Island is home toseveral high quality brewerieswho produce very high qualityalcohol and Ierendians canalways find an excuse to party.There are ongoing rumors theThyatians buried something ofgreat value here during theuprising which overthrew them.Maps and rumors are alwaysfloating about, but if anyone'sfound the giant haul, they haveyet to say where it is. There isalso an ancient complex ofunknown origin, guarded bypowerful fire and earthelementals built into MountUmbaroa. Many have tried toexplore it and died; the HonorIslanders are known to havemounted an expedition whichcared off some ancient artifactsof unknown origin from it, butinsistent rumor asserts they wereunable to bypass the morepowerful inner guardians. [Thesite is either Blackmoorian orNithian in origin as the DMdesires. Whatever it hides is leftto his discretion.]About once every thirty years,the two volcanos erupt in unison.Mixed in with normal volcanicrock are deposits of a blue-blackrock, known to the locals asAloysian Obsidian. It containsvery potent magical energies; anounce of it can take the place of1,000 GP worth of components

for making magical items.Every time the volcanos erupt,there is an economic boom aspeople scramble madly to claimas much of it as they can and sellit. The next eruption is comingsoon, and a large number ofdwarves have flocked here at thebehest of various landownerswho hope for deposits on theirlands. [Scholars of Blackmoormay recognize this substance asUtherite, used as a magical fuelin the times of Blackmoor. Mostof the easily reached surfacedeposits converted themselvesinto explosive force during theRain of Colorless Fire,contributing to the destruction.Blackmoorian devices can run along time on even a smallamount of Utherite.] Therelatively normal volcanic rockis slightly infused with magicand is used to make fertilizerswhich can double an area's yield.The whole area is also full ofprecious metals and gemsunderground; it's likely thedwarves coming for the ObsidianRush will stay to set up miningcolonies.Strange lizardmen artifacts aresometimes found in the swampsof this island; there's an entirelizardman city buried under theswamp, though it would be hardfor anyone to find this out.Elegy IslandPopulation: 800 Humans(mostly Makai), 200 Hin,Countless UndeadCapital: Nula (1,000)Area: 924 square milesIn theory, Ierendi rules ElegyIsland. In practice, the undeadrule by night and the humanssort of rule by day, which is tosay only crazy people andadventurers leave Nula and enterthe interior if they can help it.The island is home to Nithianand lizardman ruins and isoverrun with crazed andconfused undead at night. (Inthe day, the dead skulk in theirtombs.)The Lizardmen and the Nithiansand the Makai all once used thisplace to bury the dead; duringthe revolt against the Nithians,all the buried dead were turnedinto undead and most of theisland cursed (or blessed witheasy Necromancy, depending onyour point of view). Anyonewho dies more than a mile fromNula (or any corpse brought ontothe island more than a mile fromNula) becomes an undead ofsome kind, regardless of thecause of death. Most of theseundead sleep most of the timedue to rites performed by theDeath Kahuna and theNecromancers. But there'salways a fair amount roamingabout. So long as the ritescontinue, the dead are content toprowl the island. But in sometimes past, they have formedgiant death fleets to ravage theland when the rites were notperformed for some reason.Nula is a fortified fishing townand haven for necromancers andDeath Kahuna which sits at thetag end of a short peninsulajutting out into the ocean. Mostof the natives are Makai whowork as pirates or fishermen tosupport the Death Kahuna andnecromancers whose job it is toappease the dead. This, alongwith Roister Island, is one of themajor havens for those Makaiwho are not slaves. The Ierendigovernment helps to fund thetown so as to allow the Kahunaand necromancers to focus onthe rites and raids which keepthe dead in check.Mahipa Tower was built by theLizardmen long ago and it stillstands, home to hordes of nowdead lizardmen; very powerfulones sleep in the catacombsbeneath it. Should theysomehow be awakened, theyhave the necromantic talents totake control of the other undeadand begin building an undeadempire.Nyx's Post is rather unusual;long ago lava flows combinedwith the erosive effects of watercreated dozens of huge stonepillars here, which the Nithianshollowed out and connected withbridges to form one of theircities. It is now home toThanatos cultists, who are tryingto unravel its mysteries withoutmuch success. (They have tomake a DC 25 will save everymonth or forget everything theyhave learned about Nithia fromthis location, an effect producedby a minor artifact deep in thecatacombs under it.) The Ierendigovernment knows that crazydeath cults like this place and

periodically send adventurers towipe out such groups. Nyx andThanatos cultists have beenknown to kill each other first dueto rivalries before any outsiderscan finish the job, though.The Island is dotted with tombsof a wide variety of styles.Some contain ancient treasures.Others contain lots of undeadwho are VERY happy to seeyou. Dinner time.Fletcher IslandPopulation: 24,000 people(12,000 Hin, 11,000 Humans(Mostly Slaves), 1000 Elves)Capital: Vlaad (2500)Area: 802 square milesIntensely cultivated, this washome to the first Hin coloniesand they still dominate theisland. There are no Hin slaveson Fletcher, only human ones, amix of Sindhi, Atruaghin,Thyatians, and Makai.Architecture is in Hin styles,scaled according to who lives init. The island is also noted forits colorful birds, many of whosefeathers are used to make'traditional Makai art' to be soldto those with too much moneyon their hands in other lands. Orvisitors.The Hin pirates of FletcherIsland operate from many littlecoastal bases and communitiesand have a special rivalry withthe pirates of the Shires. Theyalso raid the Atruaghin clansfrequently. They continue topractice many traditional Hincustoms, though they have nocrucibles of blackflame. (Whenbrought to the isles, the brazierssimply went out; the Hin neverquite figured out why. This ledto the collapse of clan structuresin the colonies.)Vlaad is the place to go if youwant 'traditional Makai art' orother kinds of art; the local Hinand their slaves pump outpaintings, sculpture, clothing,headdresses, etc., using localmaterials for sale to tourists(rare) and merchants who willsell it in other nations (muchmore common). It is thusriddled with workshops. Theyare also noted for making supersoftmattresses stuffed with thefeathers of local birds; thesefetch a very high price.Mount Yuria is currentlyquiescent; it only goes off aboutonce a century and usuallydumps its lava westwards,slowly growing the island.When the lava goes east orsouth, mass panic andcatastrophe tends to ensue.Honor IslandAs the canonical gazeteer (pp.60-4.)Ierendi IslandPopulation: 150,000 people(40,000 Hin (Mostly free but afew are slaves), 99,000 Humans(Pirates, Townsmen, Makai andSlaves), 10,000 Elves, 1000Dwarves)Capital: Ierendi City (18,000)Area: 7,438 square milesThis is the heart of Ierendicivilization. More Ierendi livehere than anywhere else; moreslaves suffer here as well. It wasfrom the slopes of MountKikapua that the Hope vanishedinto the planes. It was here thatthe uprising against the Nithiansbegan. It was here that the firstPirate King was proclaimed andhere that Pirate Kings rule from.And it may well be here that itsfate is decided. The island isincreasingly torn between thepirates who operate from itsports and own many of itsplanations and the towns andvillages who owne the rest of theplantations. The former wish tomaintain traditional ways; thelatter increasingly want tobecome a respectable nation,free of the violence andproblems brought about by thepirates. And Ierendi City sits atthe heart of the conflict.Ierendi City is the wildest,most lawless port south ofLandfall, though it's growingcalmer as time passes. It is herewhere pirate and city ethics andbehaviors are coming mostfiercely into conflict. Thecoastal regions of the city belong

to the pirates; except for thePirate King's palace, this is awild and dangerous place wherewise men travel armed withfriends, just in case. Piratesflock to the coastal sections tofence their goods, then tocarouse wildly with their loot. Itis a maze of twisty bendy streetsall alike, since they are all linedwith fences, shops, theatres,bars, restaurants, and brothels, aswell as many businessescombining two or more of theabove. A few places of note willbe described below (The threeMarinas, Marny's Eats, SeaweedSupreme, and Nero's Fish can beused as per the canon, p. 20-1 ofthe Gazeteer):The Friendly Burrow isprobably the largest Hin brotheloutside of Alphatia and the FiveShires. It is mostlyunderground, done in Hinarchitectural style, but bigenough for any human to visit aswell. Publically, it is a 'teahouse', run by demurely clad hinwomen. But the ladies are forsale for reasonable rates. Thehouse maintains a stock ofpotions for wealthy visitors, inorder to allow for growth andshrinking as desired. There arerumors that the Thyatianambassador to the Shires, LordCaine, has been known todisguise himself and somehowcome here to patronize the place,but most people consider thisludicrous. Several pirate crewskeep a running tab here for theirmembership. Most, but not allof those crews are hindominated.Ganti's Flying Carpets isofficially a flying carpet businessrun by a group of Glantrians, thefamily of Ganti himself, agraduate of the Great School ofMagic in Glantri City. He alsosells a small selection of spellsas an official sideline, mostlyrelated to flight, levitation, andmoving freight. (Ganti'sFreight Hauler, his signaturespell, creates a floating disk upto ten feet across which cancarry up to 500 pounds/level ofthe caster for one hour/level. Itcan move up to 100' per round.It is a third level spell.)Unofficially, Ganti fencesmagical items and goods usefulfor magic users and sells avariety of magical items andother items of use for research,casting spells, spell research, etc.He also quietly purchases Hinslaves and smuggles them backto Glantri to sell to wizards forexperiments. If word of thisever gets out, he is a walkingdead man.The Ierendi NorthshoreTheatre stands on a height onthe north side of the city, lookingdown at the coast. It controls asmall amount of beach, whichhas been walled off, not so muchfor security as to simply blockanyone seeing it. It includes arestaurant, but its two mainpurposes are to serve as both abrothel and a theatre. Its publicperformances tend to behistorical and romantic playswith lots of illusions to augmentthe reality of it all. Once a year,on Stormreach / IerendiIndependence Day, the theatresponsors a rooftop festivalwhose guests can watch arecreation of one of the famousnaval battles from the war forIndependence, followed by aplay about the beginning of therevolt in the main theatre.Behind the scenes, its ladies andgentlemen of the eveningspecialize in playing out people'sromantic fantasies; it doesn'tcome cheap, but if you haveenough money, you could have athreesome with Empress Eriadnaand Emperor Thincol atop theGlantrian Parliament buildingand most people would swear ithad to be real. It's unclear whothe real boss of the placeis—'Lady Drama' seems to haverun the place for over a hundredyears. She always wears an oldMillenian drama mask whichchanges to reflect her emotions.Rumor claims it can force thoseemotions on others if she desires.She has appeared as everythingfrom a well-dressed femalekobold to a lady ogre.The Southside PlantationOutlet Store is, in theory, aplace where the goods producedby the Southside Plantation,south of the city, are sold. Thisincludes a restaurant which islargely vegetarian and focusesespecially on fruit. In actualfact, however, it also serves as aplace for buying various plantbaseddrugs and plants of manykinds from many places (all

generally stolen by pirates) andfor fencing any sort of piratedgoods which are plant based.This is a Makai-operatedbusiness and it is covertlycontrolled by a group of druidswho have fallen under the swayof a giant plant located in thetunnels hidden under the store.It demands periodic humansacrifices, which they obtain bybuying slaves. It is unclear whatthe plant's goals are, though itsometimes claims to be a Titanimprisoned under the currentlocation of the city, seeking tobuild its power so it can bereleased. By who or whenremains a mystery and it maysimply be lying. (Depending onthe DM's desires.) It resembles agiant tobacco plant.The Teamster's Union controlsthe loading and unloading ofgoods and their bulk transportinside the city. Those who failto employ the union had bettereither be powerful enough tomow angry mobs of teamsterslike wheat or else be ready toflee the city. This union has alsoacted in the past to wipe outbandits in the city who got tooout of control. There is nothieves' guild because the lastone was wiped out by theTeamsters on the excuse it failedto pay them to haul its stolengoods.The inland region of the city,however, is much more cleanand coherently organized, full ofcraft guilds and the homes ofplantation owners, merchants,and artisans. It is patrolled bymercenary guards and militiaand divided into districts withfences and gates. It is in aperpetual state of feud andskirmishing with the pirate zone,but since the pirates rule thedocks, it has to come to termswith them. Increasingly, though,its inhabitants are growing inwealth and challenging thefreedom of the pirate district.The Pirate King's Palace is aramshackle accumulation ofbuildings and extensions aroundan old Thyatian fort which wasitself built around a Hinstronghold. It stands above theharbor on a height, its weaponryposed to attack anyonethreatening it. Some parts of itare dangerous to enter, and thereis a maze of tunnels and minicomplexesunder it, built forreasons now forgotten by pastPirate Kings. Some have beensealed off and may containdangerous traps, monsters, andtreasures. One set of tunnelsruns a very long way to a covertcave harbor down the coastwhere emergency escape vesselsare kept. The current King keepsparts of the old Hin stronghold,where he dwells with his familyand friends and closest servants,in good repair along with someother parts of it for hisgovernment officials, such asthey are. There is a system forrelaying hanging coaches whichcan hold up to 20 people downor up a system of ropes andpullies to and from the harbor,used for the King, his retainers,and guests; it used to requireslave labor but now it isenchanted, an innovation of thecurrent king, who felt it a wasteof slave labor.The arable regions of the Islandare heavily exploited to growfood and especially cash crops,divided into many plantationsand craft communities.However, the mineral wealth hasonly lightly been tapped andnegotiations are continuing withdwarves to form colonies tobetter exploit it. Many of thecommunities are too similar toeach other to be worthdescribing, but a few places havefeatures of note. (Manycommunities are a mix of Hinand Humans living together,ruling over slaves.)Maona Kea is home to one ofthe proudest of Pirate Temples;this largely non-Makai humanand Hin community possesses asword in its temple said to haveonce belonged to Sinbad. Manyfailed attempts to steal theSword of Sinbad have takenplace over the years, but italways ends up here. It is notclear if this is a true relic ofSinbad, but the blade is known togrow stronger when used on aboat or at sea and can radiatecold and acid at its user'scommand. The priests areVERY paranoid about theft.Especially since the time fiftyyears ago when the People'sTemple replaced it with awooden replica and somehow no

one noticed until it broke duringa worship ceremony. (Leadingto many People's Temple priestsbeing killed by thugs hired bythe temple.)Mount Kikapua is the tallestvolcano in Ierendi. The Hope issaid to have passed into theplanes from here, and thetravelling priests of the People'sTemple make pilgrimages hereto worship once a year whenpossible. It is especially favoredfor staging ceremonies to mockthe Pirate's Temple's officialholy days. A few People'sTemple priests have found thegates to the Elemental Planes ofEarth, Air, and Fire to be foundhere. Many theorize there mustbe a gate to Water also, but if itexists, it has eluded detection.Mount Makai is home to amajor Makai druidic community;this group was instrumental inthe eventual amalgamation of theAzcan and Tanagoro inhabitantsof the islands fusing into onepeople. Their current focus,however, is rites to keep the sunfrom going out; many of themfear the Honor Islanders aresomehow draining the sun'spower, but they are too weak tochallenge them directly. Instead,they spend a lot of timerecruiting their own fireelemental allies and trying tostrengthen the element'sinfluence on the isles.Port Siers (6,000) sits on top ofa Nithian ruin, buried under dirtand volcanic rock. PersistentMakai legend claims there wasonce a volcano near it in themountains. If this is the case, noone knows what happened to it,though SOMETHING producedthe layer of volcanic rockbetween the ruins and the cityatop it. The Pirate's Temple herehas a small collection of Nithianboats on display, all taken fromthe ruins. Fire creatures andundead seem to be fighting it outfutilely for control of the ruins,in the accessible areas.Tooraka is another communityof Makai pirates. They follow amix of Druidic and Pirate faith,with temples to each. RunawayMakai slaves head for here inhopes of joining a Makai piratecrew. If more slaves escaped,this would likely overstretchresources, but as it stands, ithelps the town have morepirates.Roister IslandPopulation: 5,000 people (300Hin, 4,300 Humans (Makai andSlaves), 400 Dwarves)Capital: Ronowac (1000)Area: 322 square milesRoister Island is home to Makaiwho have adapted to PirateCulture and to their slaves and asmall dwarven colony. Theslaves dredge their swamps andbuild islands on which cashcrops are grown to buy food(The dwarves dig up gold andgems to buy food.). Insects areespecially bad here and manynatives and slaves wear outfitssimilar to beekeeper uniforms ifthey have to go far from thecoast. Some also raise bees forthe honey.Ronowac and other smallcoastal towns are home to piratebands and trader ships which aresupported by the slave labor andby selling needed goods to thedwarves. Prone to flooding,homes here are built on stiltswith netting covering thewindows to keep out annoyinginsects. Indeed, a visitor, havingclimbed a ladder or gone up aramp can use the aerial streets(wooden mostly) to go aroundthe town without ever touchingthe ground.Roister Islanders tend to worshipin both the Pirate's Temple andin the old Makai druidic faith.They do their best to try and helpout other Makai, so far as theycan without risking enslavementthemselves. They only take non-Makai as slaves.The great trench north of RoisterIsland has made this an area ofmajor fish habitation; the localsfavor a mixture of drugs andboat-mounted crossbows whichfire harpoons for fishing thelarger fish and nets for thesmaller. Visitors are sometimesinvited to try their luck atshooting drugged fish.Safari IslandPopulation: 40,000 people(3,000 Hin, 22,000 Humans,5,000 Elves)Capital: Sindaba Tower (4000)Area: 3,360 square miles

Safari Island is so-namedbecause of the periodic safarissponsored by the localgovernment (a council oftownsmen and pirate captainswho choose the Castellan ofSindaba Tower to direct themonster hunts and run defensesfor the communities) to sweepthe forests and hills of theislands to kill the unusually largenumber of monsters which roamthis island. Most baffling is theappearance of creatures(dinosaurs) normally only foundin the Isles of Dread, over 500miles to the south. Only thebrave or hapless slaves dwellhere, though the local elves aremostly safe due to living in treecommunities,dozens orhundreds of feet off the ground.The elves indeed hunt themonsters and sell the useful bitsto merchants and adventurers.Unlike most of the islands, notmany pirates operate from here;too much risk of getting eaten.Unknown to the locals, anancient and powerful magicalitem, created by the Lizardmenwith the use of powerful divine,necromantic, and arcane magics,is now periodically summoningmonsters to the island andturning them loose. It cannot befound by magical means and isitself trapped in the lizardmenruins under the island's swamp.Anyone who is killed by themloses some of his life force to themachine, which stores it to betapped later, not that anyonealive now has any clue how touse the stored energies. Some ofthis life force leaks out slowly,making the island's undergrowthand brush especially dense.Dississlith's Engine is itselfguarded by a Black Dragon(named Deepdelver) distorted byits energies; the Black can movethrough the muck of the swampas fluidly as it flies or swimsthrough the waters, and buries itshoard around the muck-buriedEngine, where it is sure no onecan find it; anything in the horderesists magical detection also.Sindaba Tower is the center ofgovernment on the Island, astrong fortified town with aconnected keep (which was oncejust a tower to hide frommonsters in, long ago.) Thetown makes a steady trade inmonster parts to visitingmerchants. Adventurers bringlots of wealth here. Thetownsfolk are pretty tough fromhaving to periodicaly fend offmonster assaults; everyone isrequired to serve in the militiafrom 18 to 22.Utter IslandPopulation: 32,000 (5,000Albino Humans, 15,000 Humanand Hin slaves, 8,000 FreeHumans, 1,000 Hin, 3,000Elves)Capital: Gaamo (4,000)Area: 1,642 square milesIn many ways, Utter Island isjust like the more occupied partsof the Isles, divided betweenland-dwelling townsfolk,plantation slaves and freebootingpirates. However, asubstantial chunk of the Island'spopulation are KagyarworshippingAlbinos brought bythe Thyatians to the Isles toexploit the building skills oftheir priests. A few Albinos areto be found all over Ierendi,engaged in construction work,but the majority live on UtterIsland, and refer to themselves aseither Utter Islanders or Kagyar'schildren. (This often irritatesdwarves.)It is unclear where the Albinoscame from, as they refer to theirold homeland as Gashtunk,which simply means 'Pale Home'in their old language, thoughthey seem to be originallyNeather in stock. Their faithcommands them to buildincessantly; they will possess indeath the places they built in life.They also believe that theirImmortal will come to them ifthey can only build him asufficiently grand home. Notthat anyone agrees on his tastes.Given they prefer to work withsand and coral and other thingsfound on beaches, these worksonly survive because the priestsof Kagyar the Builder learnspells from their patron whichcan make them permanent (theSand-Builder domain, describedlater in this supplement). Thosewho leave the island are usuallyalso versed in other constructionarts, or else are clerics ofsufficient power. Some becomepirates for a time to raise fundsin order to pull off a reallyimpressive building project.

The island is littered with oldbuildings, some of which arenow home to slaves, otherIerendi, or in a few cases,animals or monsters. UtterIsland slaves are usually farbetter, though often oddlyhoused than those on otherislands. The Pirate's Templehere and the Temple of Kagyarare both masterpieces of the art,though they would look strangeto outsiders.White IslandPopulation: 108 (Humans / ApeDruids)Capital: Whitenight AbbeyArea: 196 square milesAs the canon (Ierendi Gazeteer, p. 50-1)Bar BrawlAdventure Level: 1+Topic: Drunken Bar Riots,Honorable CodeInteresting Features: Whodoesn't love a good riot?Campaign Hook: A good placeto make friends and enemies andfor people to accidentally dropadventure hooksThe Adventure: It's fairlytraditional to end most eveningsin Pirate bars by having a giantdrunken brawl. Such brawls arehandled under the HonorableCode, which requires one to stickto non-lethal and improvisedweaponry with no magic. Anyviolation of this may causeeveryone to turn on you inunison. This is intended as a funway to blow off steam, notsomething leading to death.Looting unconscious bodies isfrowned on, though anythingdropped on the floor is FAIRGAME. Such items may welllead to other adventures—maps,magical items, pouches of goldwhich the owner will hunt you toAdventuresNorwold to recover, etc, etc.Helping out a pirate in a brawllike this will generally get you anew friend.Ierendi City Bandit GangAdventure Level: 1-4Topic: Lawlessness of IerendiCities, Anti-Makai prejudices,Low-Life DivesInteresting Features: How doyou enforce the law in a city withno police force?Campaign Hook: You maygain a patron and possibly futureenemies. Bandit treasures maylead to other adventures.The Adventure: Koma, son ofAnalu, was recently muggedwhile trying to bring somedocuments home from thewarehouse where his family'sgoods are usually stored forexport. His father Analu is aMakai merchant who lives in theFourth Ward, one of the fortifiedpeaceful inland districts of thecity; Koma had gone alonebecause he'd forgotten to bringthe documents earlier, so hesnuck out to get them before hecould get in trouble. He lost allhis money and the documents.He hires the PCs to track downthe bandit gang who robbed him;he can give physical descriptionsof them, but has no names. ThePCs will have to delve throughthe bars and brothels of thecoastal districts to find the group.The 'bandits' are in fact a groupof people from the pirate ship'Spirit of Ierendi'. They muggedKoma because he looked richand weak and was a Makai andthus probably only fit for slaveryin their minds. However hemanaged to escape them, sansgoods, which they kept. They'veblown his money on hookers andbeer, but they still have thedocuments, which areincomprehensible to them.They've convinced themselvesthe documents must be magicscrolls. They should be set innumbers to pose a stiff but notinsurmountable fight. However,if the PCs kill them, the rest ofthe crew of the Spirit of Ierendi

will put the PCs on theirvengeance list. If the PCs justbeat them up and reclaim thestolen goods and whateverwealth they can scrounge off thepirates, the rest of the crew willsimply mock them for beingidiots and hold no particular illwill;Captain Corwin prefers hismen not cause trouble in IerendiCity. Should the PCs choose toread the documents, they willfind out it is a collection ofaccounting records, bills of sale,etc. Valuable to this merchantfamily, but otherwise of littleinterest to them. Unless youwant to make it more interesting,anyway...The Pirate Life for MeAdventure Level: 1-8, possiblyhigherTopic: Life as a PirateInteresting Features: PCs getto live the pirate lifeCampaign Hook: Thisfunctions as a campaignframework.The Adventure: The PCs signon to a pirate ship. Level 1-4PCs will be hired on as commoncrewmen if they have at leastsome sailing skills or as cabinboys if they need to learn some.Level 5-8 are likely to takeofficer positions. Level 9 orhigher, they're probably ready toactually buy their own ship andform their own crew, unless theydon't actually know anythingabout sailing. Low level PCs getto spend a lot of time on pettychores with bursts of excitementas they raid other ships, explorelost islands, seek buried treasure,etc. Higher level PCs will get totake on higher responsiblities andhelp direct ship policy. At level9 or higher, they're probablyready to start their own ship anddirect things completely. Thisbasically functions as aframework to add otheradventures to.Polly Wants a RescueAdventure Level: 1-4Topic: 'Authentic Makai Art',Fletcher IslandInteresting Features: The Pcshave to find ONE parrot on anisland FULL of them.Campaign Hook: Who elsewants that chest?The Adventure: The PCs areapproached by Crewman Jones,one of only two survivors of thenow wrecked ship The Bastion.He possesses a magical chestwhich belonged to the captain; heoffers to split it with the PCs ifthey will help him find the parrotwhich belonged to the Captain ofthe Bastion. He believes theparrot knows the password andwill eventually say it, given someencouragement. The PCs musttrack down the parrot (whichwears a magically locatablecollar with silver trimming),which was released by Jonesbefore he realized he needed it.However, the parrot is in dangerof being taken by hunters and itsfeathers taken to make 'authenticMakai art'. If the PCs save theparrot, it will eventually babblethe password. The chest has afair amount of treasure; it alsohas letters of credit from a majorDarokinian merchant house.Which is likely to want its stolentreasure back and come lookingfor those who have it... (If theparrot dies, don't forget Speakwith Dead...the idea of trying toget a parrot to yield up thepassword from beyond the gravemakes me laugh and laugh.)Rare Plant HuntAdventure Level: 1-4Topic: Low Key WildernessAdventure, Escort DutyInteresting Features: PCs havethe chance to befriend a sage andcollect rare plantsCampaign Hook: The Sage mayhire the PCs in the future for thistrip he's been planning to theIsles of Dread.The Adventure: HoratioMuncumbe, a scholar of botany,is looking for some bodyguardson a trip into the interior ofIerendi Island to collect rareplants. The PCs must escort himup into the mountains and back,keeping the wildlife from eatinghim (conversely, he knowsenough of the plant life to steerthe PCs away from anydangerous plants.) Most of thewildlife is pretty lowkey—scorpions, spiders, snakes,etc. When the PCs reach thevicinity of Mount Makai,however, they'll have to dealwith some minor earthelementals who have a liking forthe last plant they wish to collect.PCs may do some harvesting ofadditional plants themselves ifthey think to do so, to increasetheir profits. If Horatio isimpressed, he will later (whenthe PCs hit the 5-8 range) wish to

hire them to help him go to theIsles of Dread. (Horatio can alsobe used as a hook to get PCs ontoSafari Island).Safari Island Monster HuntAdventure Level: 1+Topic: Safari IslandInteresting Features: Time tobust out all those home-brewedmonsters and vicious flumphs.PCs must face question of whatfrost or desert monsters are doingin a jungle.Campaign Hook: Successeshere can lead to patrons offeringjobs; high enough level PCs maybe able to permanently solve theproblem, likely leading to thePirate King wanting to retainthem, artifact in question may beuseful for Quests for ImmortalityThe Adventure: Periodically,the Castellan of Sindaba Towerdeclares a monster hunt,sweeping up the militia and anynearby adventurers to go out andslaughter as many monsters aspossible. The PCs mayencounter anything the DMwants, as the artifact summoningthese creatures has little regardfor things like 'terrain type'.Rewards are given for everysevered monster head broughtback to base. Sometimes bandsambush each other to steal theheads so as to claim a biggerreward. Sufficiently high levelPCs may well be able to find andconfront the source of thetrouble. (See the Safari Islandentry.) This can also be used tospice up adventures taking placeon Safari Island for otherreasons, as a hunt is called in themiddle of the adventure and nowthe PCs must fend off thewildlife and other groups whichthink the PCs are there to collectmonster heads.Street Heretical TheatreAdventure Level: 1-4Topic: The People's TempleInteresting Features: PCs mustdecide whether to help severalold men who are deliberatelychallenging Ierendi societyCampaign Hook: PCs maybefriend or alienate the People'sTemple by their actions.The Adventure: The PCs,passing the local Pirate's Temple,find a group of old men in theprocess of conducting a parodyof the Pirate's Temple worshipceremonies. This results in acrowd gathering, followed by thelocal clerics administering abeating to the old men, whichleaves them unconscious andhelpless, not a good state foranyone in public in Ierendi. ThePCs may intervene on either sideor possibly just move on. If theydo get involved, they will makeallies with whichever group theyassisted. The old men areactually low level clerics of thePeople's Temple. With imminentdeath by old age staring them inthe face, they decided to take therisk of another public act ofdefiance, hoping to inspire otherslaves to resist. If the PCs donothing, the old men will berobbed (not that they have muchto rob) and tossed in the ocean todrown (assuming there is anocean or river or somethingnearby.)Bring Them Back AliveAdventure Level: 5-8Topic: Non-Deadly MonsterHunting, Safari IslandInteresting Features: The PCshave to try and capturesomething nasty and dangerouswithout killing itCampaign Hook: CompetentPCs may get hired repeatedly bythis patron and he will spreadword of their skills to others,who will want to hire them. Mayalso lead to PCs being tapped bythe Castellan of Sindaba Towerfor special missions on SafariIslandThe Adventure: Mandalos, aGlantrian Wizard, has come toIerendi in search of a specificmonster. He hires the PCs tocapture it for him on SafariIsland, where there have beensightings of it. The monstershould be selected to bedangerous but notapocalyptically so for the PCs.He will supply them with thingsto help them take italive—knockout poisons,magically reinforced netting, etc.Should they succeed, he willlikely have future similar workfor them.Advanced Pirates and ProphetsAdventure Level: 5-8Topic: Escort Duty, YlariReligion and other IerendiReligionsInteresting Features: The PCsmust try to both escort andrestrain a Ylari cleric.Campaign Hook: Manychances to make friends or

enemiesThe Adventure: Inspired by avision, the Ylari religious scholarRashid has come to Ierendi tostudy its other religions and themissionary work here. However,he knows little of Ierendi troubleand has a bit of a reputation forletting his mouth fly off thehandle, so the PCs are hired byHalla to 'show him around' andprivately, to keep him fromcausing too much damage.Rashid is too used to booksinstead of people and makesinflammatory comments in aneffort to understand thingswithout thinking about howpeople might take offense.Along the way, he will try todebate Druids, Pirate Templepriests and People's Templepriests alike (the last after theytry and mock him). He has firmcontrol of his temper and willnever resort to violence, but hemay provoke it in others if notkept in check. Should the PCsmanage to prevent all riots andkeep him in check, he will begrateful and will eventually sendthem some luxuries from hishomeland as a thank you present,in addition to the PCs gettingpaid.The Great Black WhaleAdventure Level: 5-8 (orhigher)Topic: An Entropic Whale,Obsessive Sea Captains, SeaHuntInteresting Features: This isyour chance to re-enact MobyDick, as written by Steven KingCampaign Hook: The GreatBlack Whale may containadventure hooks; if CaptainAnalu survives, he will be astrong if crazy ally to the PCs.The Adventure: Captain Analu(Fighter 4/Rogue 5, Armed witha Returning Keen Harpoon +3) isa pirate of great fame. He wasonce much higher level and closeto becoming King of the Pirates20 years ago, when he and hiscrew were defeated by the GreatBlack Whale. Only he survived,drained down to first level. Hehas clawed his way back up fromthe bottom three times, each timeending up beaten by the Whaleagain and knocked down to lowlevel. This time, he's decided heneeds a better crew. This iswhere the PCs come in. He willpromise anything whatsoever toget them out there to help fightthe Great Black Whale. All hewants out of this venture is itsdeath. He'll even give them hisnew ship afterwards if they ask.Assuming they sign on, they'llhead south into the sea of Dread,into a giant maze of seaweedwhich must be navigated to itscenter, a graveyard of ships. It ishere that the Whale will show up.The Whale is basically a wraithwhich has the size, hit points,and attack damage of a whale. Ifthe PCs are of sufficient level,give it the power to animate thedead and have it supported byundead ship crews, some ofwhom once followed Analu.Analu doesn't know the fullextent of the Whale's abilities buthe does know only magicweapons will hurt it, andsometimes even those seem tofail. Once the whale dies andany minions are slain, the PCscan explore the area andscavenge a lot of treasure.Among other things, they find anold Nithian ship with a cache ofbottles. There is one brokenbottle and six intact, each ofwhich contains a wraith with theform of some sort of smallanimal or vermin (created by awraith energy draining theoriginal creature to death). ThePCs can kill these, or sell them ifthey are sufficientlyunscrupulous.The Holy Ship of AlenaAdventure Level: 5-8Topic: International Intrigue,Naval CombatInteresting Features: The PCsget to chase and recover a stolenship and get into someinternational intrigueCampaign Hook: This can leadto further conflicts withMinrothad and other missions forthe Pirate's TempleThe Adventure: Agents of thePeople's Temple have stolen theholy boat of the local Pirate'sTemple, who hires the PCs toassist one of their priests inrecovering it. However, it'sactually been stolen byMinrothad Privateers (posing asPeople's Temple members) whoare taking it back home. ThePCs must catch up before thestolen ship falls into the hands ofa much harder to deal withPrivateer Fleet.Love and HarpoonsAdventure Level: 5-8

Topic: Ballista Hunting of SeaCreatures, Cross-Species Love,Rescue MissionInteresting Features: The PCsget to go fishing with Ballistas,have some undersea adventures,and try to disentangle an aquaticlove triangle or three.Campaign Hook: The PCs mayeither make some serious aquaticenemies or allies and befriend awealthy family.The Adventure: JoannaKanloon is the head of a wealthymerchant family in Ierendi City.Her son Maleko joined a piratecrew about a year ago, and she'sbeen fretful ever since. Now hisship, the Ivory Queen, hasreturned to town without him,and the Pirates won't tell her whyhe's not with them. The PCsmust investigate; the trail leadsthem to Roister Island, wherethey can learn the crew rented aboat to go harpoon fishing andreturned without Maleko. Theboat's owner will tell them heoverheard the pirates talkingabout Maleko jumping overboardand swimming off with amermaid.If the PCs go out and search thearea, they'll meet a mer-mannamed Ishiki who can tell themthat one of their mermaids,Yuiki, had a messy breakup withher old boyfriend Hasshiki andnow has taken up with somesurfaceworlder. He will happilytake the PCs to the community,though they'll need their ownsource of waterbreathing. Thiscommunity lives in cliffdwellingsat the edge of theRoyster Trench and herd variouskinds of fish for a living. Furtherinvestigation will show thatYuiki has Charmed Maleko andis basically using him to makeher old boyfriend jealous. (She'salso supplied him with a ring ofwaterbreathing) It's up to thePCs to decide how to handle this.Handled well, the PCs may makesome allies.March of the TurtlesAdventure Level: 5-8Topic: Angry Druids andShamans, The Turtle ClanInteresting Features: PCs getto have an unusual sea battle,may gain unusual items if theysurvive.Campaign Hook: May lead toadventures or revenge on theAtruaghin clans.The Adventure: This should beused when the PCs are in thenorthwestern waters of Ierendi.They become mired in greatsheets of seaweed after a stormblows them further northwest,then swarms of Turtle Clanmembers in shallow-draft boatscross the seaweed and attack theship. It should be a difficultfight; some of the clansmenshould be druids and shamans. Ifthe PCs win, they can loot theTurtle Clan members, who don'thave much wealth, but should begiven some items of interest,such as magical seeds to generatehuge mats of seaweed. If theylose, the Turtle Clansmen haulthem back and dump them nakedand tied up where the Tiger Clanwill find them and then you cando an 'escape from slavery'adventure.Raise the BismarAdventure Level: 5-8Topic: Pirate Rivalry, Raising aSunken Ship, UnderwaterAdventureInteresting Features: A race toa sunken ship full of treasure andfighting off rivals, while merfolkalso go for itCampaign Hook: Could createrivalries with other pirates ormer-folk; could contain plothooksThe Adventure: The oncemighty Bismar, a legendarypirate ship, has sunk in a stormand the Pcs happen to be in a barwhen the last survivor comes into wail over its sinking and theloss of his friends in the crew,etc, etc and how the hugetreasures they had simply madethe ship sink better. This leadsthe PCs and several other groupsof pirates who overheard this tostart a 'gold rush' to find and lootthe wreck. Local mer-folk havefound the treasure, though, andwon't easily give it up. For afurther complication, the wholething is a setup by pirate-hunters(Thyatian, Minrothadi, orwhatever) who swoop in onceeveryone finishes killing eachother and discovers it's all copperpainted gold...The Talking SerpentAdventure Level: 5-8Topic: The People's Temple vsthe Pirate's TempleInteresting Features: The PCsget to pull a massive practicaljoke.

Campaign Hook: If the PCs pullthis off without being caught, thePeople's Temple will view themvery benevolently, but thePirate's Temple won't be happyat all.The Adventure: Depending onthe PCs general reputation,agents of the People's Templewill attempt to either recruit,hire, or trick the PCs intosneaking into the local Pirate'sTemple and replacing aprominently displayed SeaSerpent trophy with a similarlooking one which has beenrigged with clerical magics tobegin speaking blasphemy duringthe next worship ceremony there.(Hiring is the last resort, as thePeople's Temple cannot offermuch in the way of payment.)The PCs must bypass thedefenses and make the swap.Unknown to the PCs or thePeople's Temple, the trophy willcome to life and attack when it isdelivered to the People's Temple,having been trapped by itsowners. The PCs may, of course,choose to sell out their erstwhileemployers; the Pirate's Templewill reward them for that.Tiger, Tiger Burning BrightAdventure Level: 5-8Topic: Buried Treasure,Dragons, Foreign Raids, People'sTempleInteresting Features: The PCsface hordes of screaming TigerClan members, DarokinianSoldiers, Lizardmen, andpossibly rival Pirates in theMalpheggi Swamp.Campaign Hook: Lots ofchances to make enemies;possible plot hooks in loot.The Adventure: The PCs areapproached by an escaped slave,Three Axe (Warrior 6), who is aformer Tiger Clan member. Ifthey are friendly to the People'sTemple, he introduces himself asa member. If hostile to it, heapproaches without mentioninghis connections to it. Heexplains how he once came fromthe Tiger Clan lands and was partof a war party which had toabandon a large pile of loot byburying it because they had tosplit up to avoid being caught bythe lizardmen. Things went badlyfor him and he ended up in thehands of a pirate crew, who soldhim into slavery here. But hefinally escaped and he wants torecover the treasure, offering tosplit it with the PCs. (If they arefriends of the People's Temple,he will try to convince them totake a reduced share that the bulkof it might go to help the slaves).The PCs must reach the swamp,evading Darokinian militarypatrols, lizardmen and Tiger clanraiders to find the treasure.Which is now the hoard of ayoung black dragon. If the Pcsare friendly to the People'sTemple, Three Axe does his bestto help them. Otherwise, he willsell them out to one of the manygroups roaming the areas andabscond with the loot if possible.If not, he sets them up for aPeople's Temple ambush onreturning to Ierendi.International SkirmishAdventure Level: 9-12Topic: Chance to TakeCommand, InternationalConflict, SahuaginInteresting Features: The Pcsget a chance to get their ownpirate ship and to intervene ininternational politics.Campaign Hook: The PCs maynow become the leaders of aship, opening a political future inIerendi to them, if they want it.The Adventure: The PCs areeither passengers or crew on anIerendi pirate ship. The shipcomes under attack by Sahuagin,only to have a trusted crewmember assassinate the captain,then fly off east. The PCs musttake command as the officerssuspiciously fall out with eachother. Then the Minrothadi showup to finish off the survivors andthe PCs must lead the crew todefeat them. Should they win,they may find out from prisonersthat this Minrothad ship wasactually a Minrothad naval vesselposing as a pirate; CaptainThoma was trying to redeemhimself for poor pastperformance by destroying thefamous ship the PCs rode on.They can take this info to thePirate King and greatlyembarrass Minrothad with it.The Hunt for Red SviftmontAdventure Level: 9-12Topic: Black Eagle Baron,International Politics, Recoveringa lost Honor Island CraftInteresting Features: The PCsmust recover a lost Honor Islandship before it falls into the handsof the Black Eagle Baron or

Stefan Karameikos or evenworse—the Minrothaddi or theThyatians!Campaign Hook: Earn creditwith Honor Island and KingMungoThe Adventure: After beingambushed by Minrothadi ships,an Honor Island ship driftednorth in a storm and crashed onthe coast of Karameikos. Noweveryone's out to get it, and thePCs have to get there first andeither enable it to get back toHonor Island or blow it up. Orboth (as PCs are prone to do).Everyone else in the universe,however, is out to get it too, andmust be fended off.Pirate Team-Up BluesAdventure Level: 9-12Topic: International Politics,Pirate Politics and InterpersonalConflict, Fleet level piracyoperationsInteresting Features: The Pcshave to try to build and holdtogether a pirate fleet for a hugeraid.Campaign Hook: The PCs maymake some big allies and foesThe Adventure: This adventurepresumes the PCs control a shipor are at least the trusted allies ofa captain. Their ship isapproached by several othercaptains hoping to attack amassive shipment of goods fromMinrothad to Sind (by way ofKarameikan, Shires, andAtruaghin clan waters).However, all the captains havevarious past feuds/loveaffairs/messy old adventureshanging over them and the PCsmust mediate to hold thingstogether. Then the PCs musthelp stage the attack on the wellguardedtreasure fleet. Then theyhave to survive the Thyatianpirates who are waiting to pickoff the survivors. If the PCstriumph over all this, thesurviving crews and captains willbecome strong allies, especiallyuseful if you have politicalambitions.The Utter Island CrisisAdventure Level: 9-12Topic: Relations with Thyatis,Utter Island AlbinosInteresting Features: The PCsmust defuse an internationalincidentCampaign Hook: A chance forthe Pcs to make names forthemselves at an internationallevelThe Adventure: This adventurepresumes the PCs are on goodterms with the Pirate King,though they may just choose tomeddle. A group of Thyatianagents tried to kidnap several ofthe priests of Kagyar the Builderfrom Utter Island and are now injail. The leading captains of theIsland are fighting over how topunish them and the local Albinocommunity demands DEATH.Thyatis is insisting the men areinnocent and demanding a propertrial. Some of the townsfolk ofGaamo are also asking for a trial,hoping to set precedents for aless violent and arbitrary lawsystem. The PCs must wade intothis and find a solution whicheveryone can accept.High HopesAdventure Level: 13-16 (orpossibly a lot higher)Topic: People's Temple,Tomia's Quest for ImmortalityInteresting Features: PlanarAdventure, Religious ConflictCampaign Hook: Could providea huge boost for a faith; couldmake the PCs subject of a mortalor Immortal manhunt.The Adventure: The PCs arehired to retrace Tomia'sfootsteps. Depending on who thePCs are allied to, it could bePeople's Temple members of oneof the esoteric sects looking forclues as to what exactlyhappened or how soon he iscoming back, or Pirate's Templeor Eternal Way priests looking todiscredit Tomia to a curiousscholar. The PCs must explorethe mountain, find the gates, dealwith the elemental beings beyondthem, and discover none of thegates seem to have been used byTomia. However, Tomia's finalwritings, passed to a disciple andhistorical records of the timeindicate there were howlingmonsoon storms when Tomiapassed into the heavens;investigation finds a place on themountain where water gatherswhen it rains heavily enough,and for a time, a water gate willopen there. From there, the PCscan follow Tomia's trail acrossthe planes to where he isimprisoned (DM's choice ofwhere) and then decide what, ifanything, to do about that. Thiscould easily lead to huge changesin Ierendi, depending on what thePCs decide, especially once they

ealize that though long-liveddue to various magics, Tomia isno true Immortal yet...The Reef-KeeperAdventure Level: 13-16 (ormaybe even higher)Topic: Questing forImmortality Candidates, SunkenDungeon Complex, UnderwaterAdventureInteresting Features: The PCsmust enter a reef which has beenturned into an underwaterdungeon.Campaign Hook: Defeating theReef-Keeper may help PCs withfuture plans for immortality andmay saddle them with Entropicitems needing destructionThe Adventure: There arerumors of sunken pirate treasuresgathered into a the depths ofBuccaneer reef in chamberscarved out by underwaterdenizens (aquatic elves, merfolk,sahuagin, or whatever elseworks for your campaign). Sure,you'd need a lot of waterbreathing magic, but there'streasure and adventure to be haddown below.What's actually going on is thatthe underwater complex in thereef is a death trap set up by awould-be future immortal who iscurrently a cleric of (choosewhatever underwater intelligentrace you like best). He is tryingto follow the path of theDungeon-Keeper and hasselected the PCs as the nextgroup of adventurers to kill,setting whatever kind of bait infront of them which will getthem to come down and die. Orso he hopes.Unfortunately for him, he's ratheroverestimated himself andunderestimated them. Fill theplace with lots of traps and nastyaquatic creatures before the finalconfrontation with the priest.Having slain him, the PCs willnow face the problem of how todeal with his collection ofEntropic magical items. Thismay well lead to new adventures.Revolution Number ThreeAdventure Level: 13-16(possibly higher)Topic: People's Temple vs.Pirate's Temple, Slave RebellionInteresting Features: The PCsmust decide which side to helpand how to do so.Campaign Hook: This is likelyto be a major campaign segmentin and of itself, leading to majorchanges.The Adventure: The time hascome. The slaves aren't going totake it any more. When aneclipse of the Sun drags out foran unusually long period of time(due to the machinations of Nyxcultists, though it ultimatelyfails), many begin to panic thatthe end of the Third Age hascome and now the Death of Fireis upon us. The People's Templenow leads the slaves to rise upand all out war begins. Evenwhen the eclipse ends finally, it'stoo late for the slaves to backdown and the PCs must choosesides in this battle. Futher,foreign intervention is quitelikely, and whoever the PCs aid,they will have to deal withThyatians, Minrothadi and otherstrying to meddle.The Tournament of PiracyAdventure Level: 13-16 (ormaybe even higher)Topic: Becoming KING OFTHE PIRATESInteresting Features: IT IS ATOURNAMENT OF PIRATES._PIRATES_.Campaign Hook: BecomingKing of the Pirates opens up newposibilities for being a player ininternational politics, a grandadventurer, or even reformingIerendi. Trying and failingmeans the winner will watch yoususpiciously as a threat to him infive years when it comes aroundagain...The Adventure: The King of thePirates is dead! Or else five years areup. And now the Conclave of Piratesmust meet and a new King be chosen inthe TOURNAMENT OF PIRACY.The Tournament involves severalcontests: Finding a buried treasurefrom an enigmatic map before the othercrews can, defeating rival ships incombat, staging a raid onMinrothad or Thyatis, settling anold feud between pirate crews(sometimes real, sometimes staged) anda raid to Davania (or Norwold or theSavage Coast) and back. Other eventsmay be added by the DM as desired.Thewinner of a majority of events becomesPirate King. The Conclave will addmore events if needed to breakdeadlocks.

Player's Guide to IerendiWhat Everyone Knows About the Pirate Kingdom of Ierendi

Tavern Talk From OtherLandsIerendi: Hardly a real country atall; it's tyranically ruled bymarauding pirate bands who justkill anyone who looks at themfunny. It's a collection of verywet and hot volcanic islands. Theislands are full of slaves, insects,diseases, and lots of valuablecrops and dangerous monsters.Everyone runs around half naked,plundering and robbing anyonefoolish enough to visit. On theother hand, you can make a hugepile of wealth pretty quickly beinga pirate. And buried treasure doessound exciting. But I'd probablyjust get bitten by an insect anddrop dead.Pirates: I've heard they havespecial Pirate Law, but it doesn'tsound to me like it really hasmuch effect—they're still robbingpeople and sometimes killingthem. If you want to visit, thebest way to do it is to hire a pirateship to escort yours; you'll getthrough safe then, as they don'tfight each other. Hmm, maybethat's what Pirate Lawregulates—Pirate vs Pirateconflict. That makes sense. TheIerendi will pretty much robanyone who isn't Ierendi (andsome who are, I expect.) ThePirates generally don't look halfnakedlike I've heard everyone isin Ierendi, but I suppose it wouldbe dangerous to fight half-naked.Government: As I understand it,the Pirates took over after a slaverevolt against Thyatis a fewcenturies ago, and now thetoughest Pirate beats up the othersand rules as King. They prettymuch live by the rule offorce—the strong rule and theweak serve. I wouldn't want tolive like that; I dunno how theycan call it 'freedom'.Slaves: I suppose it's notsurprising that former Thyatianslaves would turn around andenslave other people, but I thinkslavery's a terrible thing and it'srather hypocritical of them.Anyway, they work them to death,then go kidnap more.Abominable. It could be that it'sjust the slaves who are half-naked.Mark of slavery. That wouldmake sense.Ierendi Produce: Just becauseI'm drinking fruit juice andsmoking a pipe and wearingcotton clothing doesn't mean Iendorse the slavery that made allthis! A man needs his luxuries atthe end of a hard day's work.You'd think they'd wear moreclothing wiht all that cotton.The People's Temple: Aren'tthey some kind of crazy athiestswho are stupid enough to thinkthe Immortals don't exist, so theymake fun of the rest of us forbelieving in our ImmortalGuardians? Are they blind?Haven't they ever seen a clericperform a miracle? What iswrong with these people?The Pirate's Temple: I thinkthey made up some pirateimmortal to worship. Who is thisSinbad character, anyway?Sounds fake to me. Hmm, maybethat's why the People's Temple aresuch skeptics and mockers if theother major religion just makesstuff up...Ierendi Towns: More likevillages, I hear, except for IerendiCity, the towns are all prettysmall. Then again, a lot of oursaren't very large either. Peopledon't run around without anyclothing in OUR cities, though.Some of the cities are up on stiltsso they don't wash awaywhenever it floods from all thatrain.Ierendi City: If you want theaction, this is it. Tons ofentertainment, shops, warehouses,and every kind of good availableif you know where to look. Mostof the city sits up on heightsoverlooking the harbor, so itdoesn't flood all the time. Exceptdown at the harbor, but that's whatstilts are for. The eastern city is agiant pit of vice and sin andpeople without shirts, but I hearthe west side is a lot more normalwith craftsmen and honestmerchants and so on. And slaves.So I guess it's not as good as ourcities.Safari Island: As I hear it, thewhole thing is totally riddled withmonsters, so people insaneenough to want a basilisk or adragon or a cockatrice can just gohunt themselves one. Or diehorribly. And the monsters arenaked too.Honor Island: I hear some cultworship the local volcanoImmortal or something. Or dothey make magic ships out ofiron? Wouldn't it all rust?Doesn't sound sensible to me.Elegy Island: Ruled by undeadpirates, right? Man, I wouldn'twant to face that.How to Get Rich and Famous:Become a pirate, work your way

up to command a ship, then startraiding your neighbors andstealing their hard-earnedpossessions, then retire, buy aplantation and live off the hardwork of your slaves. Sure, theFiends will devour your soulwhen you die, but you didn't askabout 'not burning in the Hells foreternity.' I expect sufficientlycrazy adventurers could makegood money looting the tombs onElegy Island or maybe raidingSafari Island to sell live monstersor dead monster bits to wizards.If you can find a map to buriedtreasure, you could be set for life.Hot Tips: Don't go to Ierendiunless you look good withoutmuch clothing on and can fightoff pirate hordes. Unless youARE a pirate, anyway. Don'tshortchange a halfling prostitute.(Ha ha ha! I'm so funny.) Ifyou're a cleric and encounter amember of the People's Temple,expect to be mocked. So showhim a miracle and watch hisfoolish brain explode. And neverlet them know you're Thyatian ifyou are Thyatian. Or Minrothadi.Of course, no one admits to beingThyatian anywhere if they canhelp it. Not even in Thyatis.From Conversations Witha Veteran AdventurerIerendi: The peoples of Ierendiare pretty diverse; it's a seriousmelting pot of people from allover the Known World, even afew Norwolders, Alphatians, andSindhi. Humans dominate, butthere are elves, halflings, anddwarves too. Especially halflings.A lot of the original inhabitants,the Makai, are slaves now, butsome are free men. There are afew Ylari missionaries here; Iexpect they all go mad after awhile, given most Ierendi doeverything the Nahmeh says youshouldn't do. It's a collection ofvolcanic islands, very hot and wetwith a yearly monsoon seasonwhich keeps the place very wethalf the year. And pretty wet therest. But there's a ton ofopportunities in Ierendi for a manwith a good sword hand or lots ofcunning. You'd better be used topeople who don't wear much,though. It's so bloody hot, I canappreciate why they don't, though.Oh yes, outsiders get sick easy, soBRING A CLERIC.Pirates: Pirates form the rulingclass of Ierendi, but it's a prettyporous ruling class. Any freemancan try to join a pirate crew if hewants to experience the privileges(and dangers) of being a pirate. Aspecial code, the Honorable Codeof Piracy, binds the Pirates to treateach other honorably, so they turntheir wrath on the enemies ofIerendi. Which seems to includemost countries, but especiallyThyatis and Minrothad, who theyreally hate. I've heard they have atruce with the Shires' pirates, but Iwouldn't swear to that.Government: Pirate crewsgovern themselves like an electedmonarchy, setting their own lawsand electing a captain; thecaptains form the Conclave whichrules the nation under the PirateKing, who is chosen by atournament every five years fromthe ranks of the Captains. Andany man could one day rise to beKing of the Pirates. Towns alsochoose their own leaders by a voteof the freemen. Though really,they tend to have minimal laws;you protect yourselves by allyingto others so no one can threatenyou. Rather like how adventuringparties protect each other.Slaves: I wouldn't want to be anIerendi slave. The climate kills alot of them, and I expect there'sgoing to be a reckoning; you'dthink former slaves who revoltedwould know better than to keepslaves.Ierendi Produce: Ierendi tradershave lots of goods that few otherplaces around here canoffer—tobacco, citrus fruits,cotton, various dyes, etc. You canmake a lot of money that way, notthat I know much about trade. Ofcourse, it's all made by slaves, soyou might want to consider if youreally need it that much.The People's Temple: This isthe slave cult; it's supposed to beillegal, but when you're already aslave, it's kind of hard to punishyou more than you've alreadybeen punished. They mock allother religions and given thecircumstances, I can't blame them.It's usually pretty funny, except

for the crazier ones who do thingslike poison all the pies at thebakery made from slave-grownproduce.The Pirate's Temple: Theyworship Sinbad and some otherimmortals. Good source ofemployment if you seem at leastvaguely piratical. They urgeeveryone to, well, be pirates.Ierendi Towns: Mostly tiny, butgood enough to get fresh supplies.Some of them are up on stilts toavoid flooding. And if you needto fence goods, there's a plethoraof shops which will buy them,more than you'd expect. PortSiers is the second largest city inthe country, I think; it's built overan old ruins. Good exploringthere.Ierendi City: A city clearly ruledby pirates; if you're an adventurer,you'll love it, as it has the gearyou need and tons of ways to havefun—shops, restaurants, brothels,theaters, etc. The west side of thecity is full of craftsmen andmerchants; the east side by theharbor is pirate land. Also, theKing of the Pirates, currently ahalfling, lives here in his castle,which I think seriously needs tobe levelled and rebuilt to look lessramshackle.Safari Island: A great place foradventurers; it's overrun withmonsters, though no one is surewhere they all come from.Unfortunately, they tend to be lowon treasure, which isunderstandable. Still, there'salways work here.Honor Island: Stay away; firemages live here and they will killyou deader than Gabronius IV.Elegy Island: Endless hordes ofundead. Endless tombs, most ofwhich are long ago looted, but ifyou can find the right one...How to Get Rich and Famous:Become a pirate and rob theThyatians. Enter the Tournamentof Piracy; even the losers becomefamous. Collect rare monsters onSafari Island for those crazyenough to buy them. Find theunlooted tombs on Elegy Islandand loot them. Search for ancientruins like the one under Port Siersand loot them. Organize anexploration expedition to distantlands. Go pearl diving andfishing off Roister Island.Explore the Royster Trench. Ifyou feel crazy, Thyatis andMinrothad are always looking tohire spies to operate in Ierendi.Pay's good, but the Ierendi willmake you regret you were born ifyou get caught.Hot Tips: Ierendi has the bestprostitutes and it's always veryeasy to unload your gear inIerendi City. If you're going tocollect monsters on Safari Island,wait for an official hunt, so theywill pay you to do what you weregoing to do anyway. Stay out ofthe People's Temple / PirateTemple conflict unless you reallyare sure you want to pick a side.Don't mess with the Teamsters'Union unless you're sure you'retough enough to take 20 or so ofthem at once. Ganti's FlyingCarpet Store is a good place to getuseful magics. The transportspells are really handy onceyou've looted a dungeon.A Karameikan Merchantin the ShiresIerendi: Dealing with foreignersand their strange customs issomething to get used toeverywhere you go. It's harder inIerendi because they are such amelting pot that they have lots ofcustoms from many differentlands. Fortunately, they'regenerally pretty accepting ofoutsider customs too, so long asthey aren't things viewed asinsults. The Ierendi tend to bepretty touchy and rely much moreon personal relationships andgroup solidarity than on contractsor law. You can rely on a man'spromise—so long as youunderstand what he thinks he'spromising. And vice versa. Ifyou do end up in a dispute, it'sprobably either going to end inviolence or remain unresolved,which is the hardest part, asviolence tends to waste money.Which is part of where that groupsolidarity comes in; in mostdisputes, the side with less alliesor weaker ones backs down toavoid putting things to the test.So it is crucial to build upalliances so you can point to howCaptain Jungo won't be happy tohear about how you've just beenshortchanged.Pirates: If you are going to dealwith Ierendi, you have twochoices—hire a pirate escort orthrow a lot of money intomercenaries to defend yourselves.The Ierendi pirates only attack ifthey're pretty sure they'll win. It'sjust that they are usually prettysure, unless you have some

defenders. I still don't quiteunderstand how their shipswork—who exactly owns theship? The whole crew? So whathappens when people leave ships?Some fascinating property issues,I think. Just remember, when thecaptaincy changes hands, it's timeto renegotiate deals.Government: Not much of agovernment. The Pirate Kingdeals with other countries andrestrains the worst excesses of thepirates and each ship governsitself. Personal relations andpromises grounded in the piratehonor code largely take the placeof law. Which makes Ierendi arather dangerous place. If Icouldn't make so much money, Iwouldn't go there, for all that itcan be rather fun.Slaves: A repugnant practice ingeneral. Some Ierendi arerelatively kind, others are harshand cruel. However, as abusinessman, I can't afford to turnmy nose up at such things.Ierendi Produce: Ierendiproduces many things myhomeland cannot but which myhomeland desires to possess--avariety of fruits and vegetables,cotton, indigo, sugar, coffee, etc.If you can ally yourself to enoughpirates to travel unmolested, thenyou can make huge profits buyingand shipping these goods. Anddon't forget to stock up on lemonsto avoid scurvy.The People's Temple: More aform of slave street theatre than achurch, I think. I can't blamethem for protesting, but was itreally necessary to depict theImmortals...actually, best I nottalk about it.The Pirate's Temple: Honorabletheives. More or less a religioustheives' guild. But one that staysbought, which is what merchantsneed. Paying bribes is part ofbusiness, so long as the recipientstays bought.Ierendi Towns: Not very manytowns of note, though Vlaad is avery good source for Makai-styleart, Port Siers has cheaper fruitthan Ierendi City, and thearchitecture on Utter Island isincredible.Ierendi City: This city has a splitpersonality. For merchants, thereal action is in the western partof the city where merchants andartisans live and where you canfind high-class entertainment. Bycontrast, the harbor side of thecity in the east is a giant dive ofcrime and depravity to entertainthe pirates. You will need tomake a few strategic visits thereto build alliances, but you're bestotherwise avoiding it, unless youlike random brawls and prostituteswith interesting diseases.Safari Island: You can makehuge amounts of moneytransporting dangerous creatures,but sooner or later, they WILLbreak free and kill you. So beaware of the risk.Honor Island: I expect anyonewho could get them to sell theirsecrets would be set for life, butI'm taking no chances.Elegy Island: You can makereally good money supplyingNula with goods; I can't imaginewhy these people are crazyenough to live there. They makegood jumbo, though.How to Get Rich and Famous:Cut a deal with some pirates andmake regular runs from themainland to Ierendi, buying upIerendi produce and selling it onthe mainland. Just make sure youpick the RIGHT pirates. Oneswho stay bought. If you areparticularly tough, the exoticanimal and monster trade canmake you a huge pile fast, butalso risks horrible, horrible death.King Mungo is buying upanything for operating underwaterhe can find, so there's an openingfor someone with access to magic.Hot Tips: Visitors to Ierendispend a lot of time being sick. Sobring a cleric or at least a skilledhealer and don't drinkunboiled water. The fruit juice istastier, anyway. If you can gotopless without blinding others orlooking embarrassed, it's a goodway to show yourself a man of theworld and they will treat youbetter. Wearing a hat untypical ofyourhomeland also helps. Stock up onjewelry for gifts; they love that. Ifyou can show some proficiencywith a boat, that'll also ease yournegotiations and raise your stockwith them. In other words, gonative as much as possible. Justremember to go un-native beforeyou go home, unless you want toend up like my nephew. Trustme,you don't.

History as the Ierendi Know itOnly the Makai know the originsof the Ierendi Isles. Theirlegends assert that we live in theThird World of the Twenty-FirstAeon. In the First World of theTwenty-First Aeon, the Makailived in peace in lands far away,but the time came for the wheelto turn, and the First Worldunderwent the Death of Stone,destroying their homelands; theyfled across the rising waters andlanded in the Ierendi Isles whichthey made their own, though theyhad to fight local lizardfolksometimes. Life was hardernow, and sometimes tribesfought. And yet, things were stilllargely good in this bountifulland. The rains did not drownthe land so often then. But lifewas too good, and so the Makaifell into sin and the SecondWorld fell to a poison wind thatstole men's memories, the Deathof Air. Worse yet, it slew all thepoor lizardmen, and while theMakai buried them, they sleepunquietly. We live now in theThird World, the Age of Fire. Itwill end when the sun goes out,and then the Fourth World, thelast of this Aeon, will begin.And many fear it comes soon.Very little is known by historiansof the period before the Halflingscolonized some of the Islands,starting in the sixth century AC.The Death of Stone appears tohave been the massiveearthquakes which destroyed thesoutheastern corner of Brun,leaving behind Ierendi andMinrothad. The Death of Airmay be somehow connected tothe mystery-shrouded apocalypsethat engulfed now forgottencivilizations around 500 BC. Asfor the Death of Fire...let us hopethe Makai are just seeing patternswhere none exist.Looking for new lands forfarming, some Hin arrived onFletcher and Ierendi Islands inththe 6 century, avoiding ElegyIsland at the urging of thenatives. They built Northkeepand Korsakov Tower andlighthouses to guide ships andbegan struggling to grow cropsunder hotter and wetterconditions than they were usedto, and trying to find ways tosurvive the hurricane season.For a long time, they struggled tomake a living, until the discoverythat tobacco and coffee could begrown here much moreprofitably than in the Shires ledto a boom in their cultivation andin Hin immigration. (Many Hinalso died of the local diseases.)Hin flocked to the islands andrelations with the natives turnedugly. Brutal Hin vs. Makai warensued; the Hin largely took overFletcher and Alcove Island andheld substantial portions ofSafari and Ierendi Islands whenthe Thyatians showed up. Theytook control of Utter andAloysius Islands, setting upprison camps and using prisonersto grow valuable crops for them.Three way warfare now ensued,with the Hin forced into slaveryand the Makai driven back intodeep forest and the less valuablefor agriculture areas. More andmore prisoners were imported tothe Isles to grow crops.In the late sixth century, Thyatisand the Hin went to war, and thisprovided the many prisoners ofthe prison colonies with anopening. They now revoltedunder the leadership of MadCreeg, a man who claimed hehad been sent to the Isles for thecrime of 'Killing an Immortal ofThyatis'. This seems ratherunlikely to be true, but whetherhe believed it or not, he was aman of great cunning andstrength (and quirky humor),who swiftly led the Ierendians tovictory. Forming an alliancewith the mysterious HonorIslanders, he drove out theThyatians and declared himselfthe Pirate King of Ierendi,writing the Code of HonorablePiracy, by which the land wouldbe governed.For several centuries, this

schema worked. Many Makaicontinued to live in thetraditional manner, but someassimilated into Pirate societyand even rose to be Pirate Kingsand Queens. The Hin and theother humans of the Isles tendedto dominate Pirate society,however. The towns flourished,growing crops and providingcrafts and fencing stolen pirateloot to covert merchants. Adangerous land it was, where aman might have his throat slit fora few copper, but a land where abrave and cunning man facedfew limits on how high he couldrise or the freedom he couldknow.In 700 AC for reasons knownonly to the Immortals, severalvillages of Human and/or HinPirates simply vanished withouta trace. This disaster led to aperiod of religious frenzy andpanic which culminated in therise of the Pirate's Temple. Thisvanishing, however, wasrelatively small in scale, and didlittle to slow the growth of thepopulation.As the Pirates and their townsflourished, the Makai and thePirate towns increasinglycompeted for the same land toget food and the same waters forfish. The result, finally, was athbrutal war in the 9 century AC.The Makai were defeated,despite their necromantic skills,but the war was long and harsh,and Pirate King Konal imposedwhat he felt was the worstpossiblepunishment—slavery—on thesurviving Makai. They wereturned into a labor force for thetowns, freeing up the elderly toenjoy their old age and enablingmore free men to become piratesor craftsmen (or even traders).This strengthened the Ierendimilitary, which was essentiallythe collection of town militiasand pirate ships, by enablingmore free men to enter thoseareas. This proved crucial in thelate 9th and early 10th century,the Minrothad Guilds andThyatis turned up the heat onIerendi. Desperation led PirateQueen Antonia to approve thegrowing of cash crops by Makaislaves in order to raise funds tobribe Thyatian commanders andto hire assistance and purchaseGlantrian magical items in orderto defeat a strong attempt byThyatis to conquer Ierendi inBelisarius' War in the early 10 thcentury.The precedent having been set,later Pirate Kings graduallyexpanded slavery, raiding theTurtle Clans of the Atruaghin,and many distant lands to captureslaves to grow crops whose salewould fund military effortscapable of fending off Ierendi'swealthier enemies and free up yetmore free men to become piratesand soldiers and traders.However, it also shovedincreasing money into the handsof those who ran the plantationsfrom the towns, creating a classof men not dependent on piracyor craftsmanship for their wealthand freedom, but on slavery.Conservative pirates opposedthis, but though some PirateKings and Queens tried to reducedependence on slavery, nonewere able to afford to abolish it.Today, matters are movingtowards a crisis. There's notmuch more room for theexpansion of slavery forproduction of cash crops, but thenumber of free men continues togrow and Ierendi's enemies stillseem to grow stronger faster thanit does. Conflict betweenconservative pirates who despiseslavery, wealthy townsmen, andthose pirate crews who revel inthe wealth slavery brings themcontinues to heat up and now thecurrent King, a Hin namedCaptain Mungo Shipshearer, isclose to death and competition tosee who will replace him isstarting to heat up. Further, theslaves grow increasingly restless,and they study the secret Makaiarts of necromancy and plot theirrevenge.Whoever becomes King of thePirates next will likely determinethe future of Ierendi for decadesor maybe even centuries to come.Things cannot go on likethis—there are many routes thenation could sail, but it must setits course now, or likely fall intodiscord and be destroyed by itsfoes.And that, of course, is where youcome in.

On Being a PirateTo the Ierendi, the Pirate life isthe ideal life. Bands of free menjoin together, picking a leaderwho can be removed if the crewturns against his decisions,sharing danger and reward alike,proving their strength by theirstrong right arms and cunningminds. Crews collectively owntheir ships and the captaindivides all loot from venturesamong the men. Most crews alsoown some land on which slavesgrow crops which providesrevenue to the ship for magicalimprovements, entertainment,and other uses. Some even ownbusinesses of various kinds, orother ships. Each crew sets itsown rules and laws within thebounds of the Code of HonorablePiracy. (Or sometimes outside it.For Pirates, rules are often moreguideline than law...) And apirate crew answers only to itsCaptain and to the King of thePirates.New recruits start according totheir level of skill; the averageyoung man who joins the piratesat age 12 to 14 ends up as a cabinboy, then works his way up untilhe becomes a full pirate, or evenan officer. A full pirate can onlybe kicked out of the crew by thecaptain or by a difficult processLife in Ierendiof ostracism. Or by informalsocial pressures or occasionallyby falling overboard onnightwatch due to infamousdolphin slavers. Really.In 3E, pirates usually have a mixof Rogue and Fighter levels (OrSwashbuckler if you have theComplete Warrior), andgenerally have high ratings inProfession (Pirate). Set levels asappropriate to make themtougher than the average navyman of other countries, but nothugely so, as suitable to yourcampaign.Wizards and Priests can be foundat sea as well, but tend to be rarespecialists, with only one or twoof each per ship. A handful ofpirate crews have converted tothe Ylari faith...sort of...and tendto have more prayer leaders thanother crews, who have beenknown to treat religion as acomedy routine. Member priestsare seen as equals; wizards aretreated like your nerdy youngerbrother; he's not as good as youand you may bully him a bit, buthe's better than any outsider.Piracy is not simply banditry atsea for the Ierendi. It includesraiding enemy shipping, but alsoincludes sea exploration, trading,espionage missions for the PirateKing, and general adventure onthe High Seas. The Code ofHonorable Piracy sets limits andrules for the conduct of high searaiding and banditry, rules whichIerendi pirates consider setthemselves off from themurderous rabble of Minrothadand Thyatian pirates. (ShirePirates are treated honorablythese days, and competitionbetween them is often more likebrothers roughhousing than warand banditry. At leastsometimes. It's not like theShires has much shipping of itsown to raid, anyway.)Honorable Pirates accept flags oftruce, don't kill prisoners, andkeep their promises (to anyoneelse bound by the code or whothe Captain believes ishonorable.) They never sneakattack other Honorable Piratesand are expected to avoid Ierendishipping and that of friendlynations. They obey theircaptains, but get to choose himand challenge him if necessary.(They also must obey therightfully chosen King of thePirates.) Some crews add furtherrestrictions to the code to showtheir own worth off. Theybelieve they are the equal orsuperior in worth of any man,from a King to a peasant. Anychallenge to their honor will bemet with violence.

Honorable Pirates generally keepthe code well with each other,with some exceptions.Foreigners are dependant on thepersonality of the Captain as towhether they have any rights atall beyond the most basic.The Honorable Code is the mainlaw code of the Isles; ie, Ierendidoesn't have a lot of laws, thoughindividual towns can make theirown regulations. Most townshave local tribunals to settledisputes related to business andproperty. But it's perfectly legalto kill people as long as you do ithonorably. Or to loot theircorpse. Smart people formgroups for mutual selfprotection—guilds, pirate crews,unions, etc. Thus, most peoplearen't messed with too muchbecause their allies will bringretribution.This is increasingly unacceptableto Ierendi merchants andcityfolk, who want a better lawcode and more protection, but sofar, they haven't been able to getit. Depending on how the nextTournament of Pirates goes,things may be about to change.The Peoples ofIerendiTotal Population: 294, 5183900 Dwarves25500 Elves65,910 Hin199,208 Humans (5,000are Albinos, 108 are Human /Ape Druids)Ierendi ElfThe Elves of Ierendi are mostlyKarameikan or Minrothad indescent; their ancestors wereenslaved by the Thyatians andshipped to Ierendi. They are notorganized into clans and have noTrees of Life, not even psuedosubstituteartifacts. Indeed,they've come to mock the wholeidea and have largely rejectedIlsundal and Mealidan andusually worship at the Pirate'sTemple or else follow one of theImmortals more commonlyworshipped by humans (Valerias,Diulanna, Asterius, Talitha, Loki,and the Karameikan Triad arefavorites), though some followCalitha Starbrow or Ordana.Ierendi HalflingIerendi Halflings look physicallylike normal halflings, but areusually somewhat less chubby.Ierendi Halflings are always alittle hungry, unless they are rich.However, their clan structurescollapsed during the colonialperiod and they tend to be closerto humans in behavior than mosthalflings—more inquisitive, lessclannish, less conservative, andsadly, less trustworthy. This isnot to say they are sharks in thesocial sea, but Ierendi Halflingstend to have a rather moredevious streak.Ierendi HumanIerendi humans come fromanywhere that touches the Sea ofDawn or the Sea of Dread. Oranywhere else Thyatians foundslaves. Thus, they may look likeNorwolders, Thyatians,Karameikans, etc. The mostcommon type, however, is acombination of pale hair (white,silver, blonde, or red) with amediterranean complexion.Makai HumanThe Makai have reddish-browncomplexions and dark hair anddark eyes. Traditionally, theylived through a mix of huntingand fishing with somehorticulture. However, thetraditional Makai way of life haslargely ceased to exist. Today,the Makai are either slaves orelse have assimilated to theIerendi way of life...keeping inmind that a fair amount of theIerendi way of life is derivedfrom Makai customs.

NamingDue to the diversity of origin ofboth free men and slaves, thereare many kinds of names here.Thyatian and Darokinian namesare most common for non-MakaiFree Men, but a fair number ofnon-Makai have Makai stylenames (Similar to Hawaii'annames). Most Hin have eitherThyatian or Hin style names; fewuse Makai names. The Makaiuse mostly Makai names, butFree Makai often have Thyatianor Darokinian names. Otherslaves use whatever theirhomeland uses, though someadopt Makai names if they jointhe People's Temple.Children are not given a nameuntil they are two years old, atwhich time one can be sure theywill survive to adulthood, barringaccident. This is a fancy, formalaffair, so much as families canafford.Clothing and FoodThe Ierendi tend to wear muchless clothing than people of othernations; they picked this up fromthe Makai, who practiced it forsimple utilitarian reasons—it'svery hot and humid and if youwear much clothing, it gets veryuncomfortable. Ierendi Piratestend to wear little to no armor,and most folk wear as little aspossible. The Ierendi have notaboos about showing off awoman's bare breasts, so mostIerendi go naked to the waistexcept for jewelry (which theylove to wear in great quantities),then wear some sort of pantsmade of sturdy material. Skirtsare very rare in Ierendi; men andwomen alike generally just wearpants. Formal occassions simplymean you wear FANCY pants.If they have to operate in denseforest or if they head to colderclimates, they put on a short orlong-sleeved tunic to cover theirarms and torso. In Ierendi, theyusually don't bother toaccomodate other people'sclothing taboos, but those whotravel to foreign lands willusually conform to local moresso as to avoid endless trouble.(Those who have converted tothe Eternal Truth generally weara tunic all the time; this has ledto a lot of conflict between Ylarimissionaries and the natives. It'sto be noted that somemissionaries eventually go nativeand play down the issue ofmodesty in terms of shirtwearing. This gets them introuble with the next wave ofmissionaries...) They also like towear hats; pirate crews arenoteworthy for wearing hats ofmany lands, taken from pastships plundered. Craftsfolk andmerchants are noted for wearingbelts and/or pants with manypouches on them for carryingtools, money, etc. Many Ierendicarry umbrellas and the Ierendihave turned this into an art form,creating highly decoratedumbrellas (enchanted umbrellasare a status symbol). ManyIerendi umbrellas containconcealed weapons—dart guns,sword blades, etc. Those wholive on islands most afflictedwith flying, biting/stinginginsects wear nets or bee-keeperoutfits over their body whenheading into infested areas.Regardless of wealth levels, theheart of the Ierendi diet isseafood, though the wealthieryou are, the more often you eatmutton, beef, or pork. Pork isthe second most common form ofmeat. A lot of pork is turned intosalt pork as a ration for theslaves. Slaves largely live on adiet of salt pork or fish, citrusfruit (to prevent scurvy),combined with greens they grewthemselves, and hard tack (a kindof grain cracker). Citrus fruit isgrown in large quantities andeaten by everyone (includingslaves) as the Ierendi areintimately aware of the menaceof scurvy. The Ierendi are veryfond of noodles and rice, moresothan bread (which tends to endup soaking up too much humidityand getting nasty), though they

make grains into crackers forfeeding the slaves. The Ierendidrink a lot of fruit juices, thoughthey enjoy alcohol from beer towine as much as any nation inthe Known World.Tobacco is grown here in largequantities; many pirates smokelike chimneys until their supplyruns out. Slaves are not allowedto smoke, which is to say, theyhide the tobacco they sneak outof the fields, then smoke it atnight, out in the woods, wheretheir masters can't see them.The Calendar andHolidaysThe Ierendi use the ThyatianCalendar, but each King renamesthe months to suit his own whimsand to poke the Thyatians in theeye. Most Ierendi give up onkeeping up and simply refer toFirstmonth, Secondmonth, etc.Ierendi love a good excuse toparty; many of their holidays aresignificant events celebrated inthe same basicmanner—barbeque some beef,chicken, ham, or mutton, eat anddrink until you can hardly move,then either find someone to sleepwith or just pass out.A few events have specialcustoms:Thirdmonth the Fifteenth:Regatta Day. Doesn't every childdream of being a pirate?Preparing for this day, everychild who hopes to become apirate carves a miniature woodenboat and on this day goes to thecoast and releases it with otherchildren in a fleet while priestsfrom the Pirate's Templepontificate and no one paysattention to them. Finding achild's wooden boat in deepwaters is considered good luck.Finding one on the shore of aforeign land is considered anomen that the Pirate Immortalsdefinitely want you to take aGOOD luck around where youfound it.Sixmonth the Eighth:Stormbirth/IerendiIndependence Day. The start ofHurricane Season and IerendiIndependence are celebrated onthe same day because the IerendiPrison Colony revolt began onthe first day of Storm Season, inorder to exploit the disruptions itwould have on the Thyatiannavy. Sacrifices are made toappease the immortals and todirect the hurricanes at theenemies of Ierendi.Ninthmonth the Eighth: TheDragging. Stolen from theShires, this involves dragging a'Thyatian' (usually an effigystuffed with plunder oragricultural wealth) around theedge of the town / ship /planation, then burning him as asacrifice to Ixion as a scapegoatfor any offense the communitymay have committed. Inwartime, particularly viciouscrews do it with live Thyatians asthe earliest, most bittergeneration of Ierendi did. MostIerendi would be horrified by alive sacrifice these days, though.The Winter Solstice: Sun'sRebirth. This holiday wasadopted from the Makai, whohad come to conclude by thetime of Ierendi Independencethat the world had entered itsthird age, the Third World, whichwould end with the Death ofFire, in which the sun would goout, leaving only the sea as anunbroken element. Theyconsidered it important to stavethis off as long as possiblethrough traditional rites. ThePeople's Temple celebrates thisday as a time of fasting andsacrifice, giving your strength tothe sun that it might be reborn.But all are aware this is the daythe Sun will one day die, endingthe Third World and ushering inthe night-shrouded FourthWorld, where the dead and theocean will rule under the silverymoon. For regular Ierendians,this is a time to solemnlycontemplate what was, what is,and what will be if one does notovercome one's flaws, a time forresolutions for change andapologies for past offenses. Andfor getting drunk until you passout, just in case the Makai areright...

GovernmentThe national government ofIerendi lays claim to all of theIsles in the name of the Ierendipirates and thus expects everyoneto obey the King of the Pirates,chosen from among the Captainsof Ierendi (themselves chosen bythe crews of their ships). TheKing commands foreign relationsand arbitrates between ships. Hecan command any pirate to doanything in theory; in practice,he is limited by custom and hislack of a real police force. Healso commands in war.Each ship controls tracts of landfrom which they draw revenue,in addition to their piraticalearnings; some land belongspersonally to the King of thePirates, and other land to hisoffice (Such as his palace andAlcove Island). Those who liveon the land (slaves, craftsmen,merchants, etc) either pay rent or,in the case of slaves, workdirectly for the crew which ownsthe land. Each ship sets its ownrules on who joins the crew andthe property rights they gain.The Honorable Code of Piracygoverns relations betweenpirates.In practice, Ierendi is mostlygoverned by personal agreementsand rental arrangements. Thewise seek out strong patrons orally themselves to strong groupswhich band together for mutualsupport (pirate crews, guilds,unions, etc.) so that others won'tfeel free to use violence againstthem and will feel compelled toobey their promises. But there'sa lot of petty and sometimes evengroup violence. It's seen by thepirates as the price of freedom,but the non-pirate landdwellersincreasingly want a system withmore protection for them, moreorder and predictability, and lesskilling.This seems likely to become amajor issue soon.Private InvestigatorsBecause Ierendi law offers littleprotection except the fear ofretaliation by those youvictimize, private investigatorsflourish—everyone needssomeone to find out who theyneed to take vengeance on.Rogues can make very goodmoney recovering stolen goodsor at least finding them andidentifying who is to blame.There is little in the way of lawsprotecting people from beingspied on...or to save the spy ifcaught. You have to be prettycunning to survive in thisbusiness, but a good PI can makemoney hand over fist.Mechanical and Fiddly Bits (For 3E)FeatsExpert Sailor: You are experienced at sailing. You never get sea sick and suffer no penalties to activities atsea caused by bad weather, the movement of the waves, and other environmental conditions. (This does notremove underwater combat penalties, though.)Ierendi Native: 1 level only. You were born in Ierendi, and survived many childhood diseases and learnedstto swim as a survival skill. +2 to Fortitude saves vs. Disease and +2 to Swim skill. Also, you need notmake the saves against disease which visitors must make.

Improved Nimble Dodge: Prereq: Nimble Dodge. BAB 4+. If you are wearing light armor or less, yougain the benefit of Nimble Dodge against a number of foes equal to your Dex bonus.Nimble Dodge: Prereq: Dodge. You may designate one foe per round against whom you gain a dodgebonus to your AC equal to your total character levels / 4 or +2, whichever is higher.Shipboard Acrobat: You know how ships move; on a ship, you gain +2 to Balance, Climb, and Tumbleskills.Talk Like a Pirate: You carry off the pirate attitude and image very well. You get +2 to all use of socialskills against pirates and to pass as a pirate.