Karameikos - Vaults of Pandius

Mirror of the Eternal Nightby Francesco Defferrari (Sturm)Kosketep… the mountain of bones inTraladaran, is a strange shaped hill on theupper course of Achelos river, filled withhigh stones that look like bones in the lightof the moon. The name changed its meaningover time but the original Azcan one wasvery similar, Koskatepetl, the gem of themountains, a bustling mining city before theGreat Rain of Fire. In the depths under thecity there was a shrine sacred to Ixion,protected by priests who, according to locallore, were not human and guarded anancient, dangerous secret. When, at theheight of Blackmoor times, technology andrationalism started to prevail all over theworld, the ruling council of Koskatepetltried to force the priests of Ixion to revealtheir secret, and the priests sealed theentrance of the shrine with a terribleearthquake.After the disaster the city was abandonedand became infested with many kinds ofmonsters, but rumors that the ruinscontained treasures and secrets, and theImmortals schemes, made it a contestedground for several regional powers. Forsome times after the Great Rain of Fire,Koskatep was occupied by a band ofbeastmen, primitive bugbears that weresoon displaced by lizardmen and troglodytessent by the realm of Mogreth. The rule of thelizardfolk was short lived too, as an Intiexpedition conquered Koskatep, led bypriests of the Sun lords. After some time,they too were supplanted by fairies andgiants that controlled the place for a longtime under the rule of the troll queen ofGrondheim.144THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1