Ysawis is the Unplace to be

Two items of note which I failed to note; Teesan is the name of The Geomancer, and Tadabur is the name of the place where she was imprisoned.

Ysawis is FULL of undead with only two living. Tevish is pissed and I'm intrigued (good thing the Gatekeeper's idea of 'unnatural' is only really concerned with what plane a creature comes from, and if the creature is intent on dominating/destroying Eberron). They even have skeletons doing the farming, cooking, cleaning, and everything else.

The first person we meet is Shalmanzer, who seems to be some kind of steward for the king. Seems like it runs things (Shalmanazer is some kind of undead creature). Then we meet the King and queen. King Sumulael and queen Kazerebet of Ysawis are human and alive. He is enormously fat and she is inceadibly beautiful. He isn't intersted in us, but she is quite the smart on - turns out she's some kind of history researcher and is in the area to do her work in the wild. She's also a cleric of The Host and is kind enough to cure us of our lycanthropy. VERY kind of her, though I was looking forward to a bit of experience as a werehyena. She tells us that the ancient river god, Shajar (a giant hippo), and also the god of life and death (as a river at the time controlled life and death), was the god of Ysawis. I suppose back then Xen'drik was much dryer. Now there is no lack of water.

As we leave the king and queen we see three people approach, the one woman with them has 'off' colored skin and pointy teeth (I think she's a vampire, given the abundance of undead) - the two men seem to be body guards, and move in some kind of feral-like way. I'm not to excited about the undead, but she happens to be good looking. Can't blame a man for thinking about trying.

That night we had dinner with the queen, the king, Rabat/Barak (the caravaner) and Edda, the vampire woman. The vamp wouldn't give any of us the time of day, and the king was horribly disgusting in his eating practices (in the raw amount of food he consumed). No wonder he's a fat man of enourmous girth. Kezerebet seems more than willing to talk with us. And we have many questions.

According to Kez., Adar, son of Ad, was also called the "Master of the Four Winds". He went insane before dying and was undenigably evil. That's the reason he was undead instead of undying (aparenly evil keeps you from becoming undying). She reacts in some way to the name of Tadabur, but I'm not sure how. But she does tell us it was a a retreat for the geomancers (when they needed to get away from the stresses of leading). She also tells us the geomancer magic was a cross between divine and arcane power. Some geomancers were very evil, some not so evil. The vast majority of the later geomancers were evil. But even she is not to sure about the racial stock of the geomancers or the people of their empire in southeast Xen'drik.

Now, if I had to guess, and I do, I'd say they were not giants or any kind of elf of human. But aside from that I have no idea. For all I know they were a bunch of dwarves, with their penchant for earth/rock based stuff.

Kez. tells us the geomancers is a reference to the ruling 9 of this ancient empire. Others have said they were a group of 10. Kez. says the geomancer magic was bound up in their writing, and that writing was not allowed much in their empire because of this. Kez. also says the Geo-Elf war has unknown origins but that it was a territory or a vindictive conflict, and was only undertaken by ONE house of elves? Which? Of course it's the only elf who travels with us: the Norrfolg house of elves (I bet Tevis was told this by his gramps). Now, if it was a territory war, why do the Norrfolgs not now live in SE Xen'drik? I think it's more likely a blood-fued (revenge) kind of thing, which makes me wonder if they were other elves after all. Probably only Tevis knows and he's not telling us.

Edda eats these little furry, rabbit-like creatures for dinner. Not to much unlike watching a big cat eat it's prey.

After dinner we asked for maps of Xen'drik. I tried to get one of the skeletons to talk to me but it refused. It then brought us three maps (1)from the Giants, (2)from the Elves, (3)one by Ysawis people (written in draconic). We compare the three and think Tadabur is somewhere near Lake 'Bob', which is only about 500 by 250 miles across. I was tired, and conscerned about Sereen so I went to bed. I think I may have to replace her soon.

...

That night I received a note from the queen asking to see me: She is afraid, her husband has become very crazy since moving here (3 years ago) - he used to be a regular size. He has been experimenting with 'the living' in some way - he has surrounded himself with undead as protection, she is okay with undead, but not to this extent. She thinks he has moved his soul to a phalactory in the bone pavilion in the southern end of the garden as protection against her (he's becoming VERY paranoid). No matter what her motivation is I think we should help her, because I think she knows more about Tadabur than she has said so far.

Just becasue he's paranoid doesn't mean she isn't out to get him - but that's not really our concern, now is it.

Daleen d'Vadalis Aspirant Gatekeeper.