The World of Kiegarth is a role-playing game sourcebook. I've been working on it for a while. A sourcebook gives the players information about the world in which they adventure. It's world building with an eye toward leaving many questions to be answered and many mysteries to be solved.
The Black Road
As far as current history is concerned, the Black Road has always existed. A road of some unknown and unbreakable material, it spans across the Known Lands. The southern end of the Road comes out of the Torran Ocean -- that is well known -- and the Road is said to end at the far northern infamous Ebongarth (The Black Fortress or the Fortress of Despair). Nothing grows on the Road or over it. Most choose to travel alongside the Road rather than on it, but faster transportation is possible by using wagons. The horses must be shod or they die after three days exposure to the material of the Road. Traders usually also wrap the hooves in leather boots.
Iron Horses, however, are not affected by the Road, and thus the Black Road has become a major throughway for large caravans and wealthy merchants who need to transport large amounts of goods quickly. Many perishable fruits and vegetables reach the cities by this route.
A few transportation companies offer passage on the Black Road by Iron Horse drawn coach. However, recently two companies commissioned engineers to create coaches that are self-contained. These operate by using steam power to move the coach’s wheels. They are called, appropriately enough, Steam Coaches. Many alchemists, however, dislike the Steam Coaches because they do not use alchemy. The fledgling Engineer’s Guild, of course, are working on many other steam projects. Whether or not, they can create such machines inexpensively enough to compete with the Alchemist League remains to be seen.
The Alchemist League advocates laws that restrict the engineers, but have been unable to pass such laws because the Great Houses support the engineers. Many engineers even believe the Black Road was created by engineering and not magic or alchemy.
Whatever the truth of the Road’s creation, it must have been a mighty creation to survive at least 6,000 years. A few historians believe it predates the Doom, but the evidence for this is lacking. Most believe it was created at the same time as Ebongarth, which would date it to approximately 4,000 PDW at the time of the Illithid Invasion. Portions of the Road do carry Illithid markings, but it also carries signs of other ancient languages, including elvish and dwarven.
Reports of strange happenings on the Road are common. These include: traveling back and forward in time, traveling to different worlds and dimensions, seeing long dead friends and enemies, healing of ancient scars and wounds, suffering madness and blindness or other aliments, etc. The most disturbing account involves a weeping woman who approaches travelers asking for their aid in finding her lost head. Invariably the travelers suffer a loss soon after.
Copyright 2011 by Stephen B. Bagley. All rights reserved. No copying without express written permission from the author and publisher.
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