Karameikos - Vaults of Pandius

Mirror of the Eternal Nightthirteenth level. Once Ixion’s followers havedestroyed The Last One and his minions, theywill destroy Nyx’s followers as well. After that,Ixion’s plan is to bring Koskatep into theworld as his most important temple, makingit a centre of learning for his clerics, fullyintegrated in the young nation of Karameikos.He now believes it is worthless to try to keepit a secret any longer.Level ELEVEN, THE BLACKHEARTHBeastmen followers of Hel, primitivebugbears, occupied this level for many yearsafter the Great Rain of Fire. Massacred by theInti, they have left no apparent tracewhatsoever, as the new masters of Koskatepconsidered them unclean, so they cleared thelevel of any trace of their presence to use it asstorerooms. As the fairies of Grondheimnever bothered to clear it up, old Inti cratesand goods, most all completely decayed, stilllitter these rooms. Searching for many hours,it is still possible to find several ancient Intimagical weapons, as well as precious andsemi-precious stones.The secrets: Hel wanted to know what Ixionhid here and even though the Sun lord’sfollowers reconquered the place somecenturies after, before her followers wereable to break into the inner temple, she hadforeseen that and made preparations. Sheinspired some beastmen to secretly create avery big parallel level next to this one, wherewhole families moved before the Inti attack.They have lived in this system of great cavernsever since, with radiance items, adequatewater and food (mostly mushrooms andinsects), and magical light, growing andpreparing their invasion. They have dug moretunnels toward level Thirteen and now theyare almost ready to strike. Out of nowherethousands of ancient Beastmen will attackthe Inner Temple and conquer The Dreamof Fire, and Hel, Lady of Death, will foreverrule over the infinite worlds.After the Darkers take control, The Last One- now hiding in the level above - hasanimated some ancient beastmen as ghosts,who now roam this level. Questioning oneof them, he, and consequently Thanatos, haslearned of Hel’s plan. He just loves it: he willtake control of the beastmen with hisundead minions, make them undead, andthen will use all to storm the Inner temple ofIxion. He just has to decide if it’s better tomassacre Nyx’s puny followers before orafter that...Level TWELVE, GEM OF THEMOUNTAINSKoskatepetl, the original Azcan city beforethe Great Rain of Fire, was once here. As itwas purposely destroyed by the priests ofIxion from the level below, just a mass ofdebris and corpses - long ago turned to dust,is all of what’s left of the once proud andgreat city. Yet, as the beastmen did notexplore it much, and the Inti found itimpractical to try to clear, almost all thecontent of the city at the time is still here,buried in the ruins. That means here is oneof the greatest treasure troves of the worldand one of the most intact archeologicalsites of Blackmoorian times. At first look thecity is just a maze of fallen tunnels full ofrubble, difficult to cross, with some partiallycrumbled skeleton or skull around, but it issufficient to have the patience to dig a littleto find metals, gems, gold, clothes,furniture, blades, treasures, ancient codes154THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1