The Wonderful World of
Mystara
A Manuscript about the
Natural Magical World of Mystara
Chapter 8
Through the Hills of
Maghyar-Orzag
As penned down by Salechaam Deraan
Darokin Maghyar-Orzag Region 1014
AC, 5th Yarthmont
Now it is my turn to write down all that happens. First repair the flaws of our female elf….; the region we travel in, is not Inlashar, maybe it had been so in the past, yet we Dwarves (and the locals of the hamlet of Estobrun) know it is actually named Maghyar-Orzag. This was a group of humans as far as we know, (at least they are now, which lived in these mountains before the Great Rain of Fire. They had contact with old dwarven tribes in the mountains of Rockhome, and several Dwarves must have lived amongst them; sharing their knowledge. This we know as the Maghyar learned a dwarven based rune script named; székely–maghyar rovásírás which up to today is used on maps and road signs. So is
the local scripture for the hamlet Estobrun.
Although clearly Dwarvish in origin, they totally mixed up the signs, and
created several new ones. For example the rune they use for ‘r’ is actually the
dwarven rune for ‘h’. Yet we must keep in mind, these are mere humans, not
knowing the importance of the power of the runes. As such it is only writing,
and none of these bear any magical powers. The name Orzag means ores; which
implies the people here derived (and some still do) delve for ores in the
broken lands or hills of the region. Though not gold, or platinum, electrum is
found here in justifiable amounts to set up a trade.
After leaving Estobrun we followed the existing
trail towards the east. The Calor’s Spur of the Dwarfgate mountains most
western edge peaked over and through the gates. At least now we were heading to
normal mountains. I don’t like all this greenery; it feels as if something—a
vile Orc, stinkin’ kobold or some’tin worse—looks from the various creepy
corners. The scents are overwhelming, not to speak of the many animal sounds.
Separim holds the reigns, while Gaston studies. I don’t know where Straddle is,
he regularly leaves the wagon to forage in the neighbourhood. T’is good he has
Row with him. I don’t like the region…hmm…I tend to repeat myself. The heavy
pine forest became hilly forest. A forest used by the locals to regularly cut
trees; many stumps can be seen, where trees have stood. I already noticed a
small herd of deer. The leading bull has a nice rack of antlers to put on the
wall…pity we’re not huntin’. We passed an abandoned settlement a few hundred yards of the road south. There
was no sign, yet many tracks of humanoids; these must have been the reason the
humans grouped together or fled. I grab Mahawudi and polish his cutting edge to
a sheen.
Gaston somewhat later steared away from the
track going north; “look thewe are wuins
of a lawge village. That must be Maghyaw, the main settlement of the wegion.
Lets take a look, we awe explowews aftew all”.
Here we could see again one of the strongholds
of Inlashar, as it was called the Land of Fortresses. It was old, and damaged.
Nature has made it into a ruin, and the visiting humanoids and travellers
passing by helped a hand. All we could was map the ruin and but it into
storage. No valuables could be found here without going deeper. All we could
discover were washin’ basins to clean the electrum. Yet none of the metal was
found…probably taken by others. The ruin was located at 1578’ above sea-level
as the magical altimeter revealed.
After a two
hours of foraging, and exploration (and grazing for the animals), we continued,
yet not back to the trail, instead we went north. Moving slower, and more
careful, we traversed the hills. In a patch of dead trees we saw the evening
shade of the Gnollistan plateaux darkening the region. We had to find a safe
spot to go through the night. The landscape suddenly changed. Though eroded
into hills, this was a region which had been a mountain long ago. Yes, here a
mountain “died” in the east the steep sharp edge of Calors Spur revealed, it
had been part of the Dwarfgate Mountain chain long ago. Large pieces still
revealed how the mountain must have been disintegrated. This shrapnel has
become the broken lands of the area. The line between hills and former mountain
was thus clear we could even place it on the map as a brown line; to the south
the normal hills, to the north the broken lands, eroded into hills with clear
sharp stones and rocks revealing it had been once a mountain. The altimeter
revealed we were at 2035’ altitude. The area was very hard to traverse with the
wagon. And already two miles into the ruged terrain we had to stop. One of the
spoke of a wheel broke. Not a great problem, yet we needed to make a new one
and replace it, this would cost us time. Time we did not had, as the nearby
humanoids often went through here traces revealed. We decided to set up camp. Gaston levitated up to map the region, yet
returned invisible; he must have seen something. “Fwiends we must be vewy caweful. Thewe is a Gnoll Camp on the othew
sude of the stweam two miles away”. “Gnolls!! Damn” I cursed. We now had to set up Nightwatch to prevent surprise
attacks. These dangerous humanoids are intelligent, and evil to the bone. Gaston
helped with the use of a powerful Mass Invisibility, and Detect Invisible
spells (also cast by Separim) enabled us to see. That means no fire tonight, no
warm meal, and trying to keep silent. The creek revealed traces of Gnoll filth
floating by. We had luck on our side. The night was warm, warmer than expected.
No encounters, except a very annoying night owl.
Following Chapters;
Interlude;
Geomorphological History of the Broken Lands 1
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