620_88566_Ghostwalk3.qxd
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The extraplanar yuan-ti homeland of Coil is an awful and dangerous place. Only two expeditions from the Material Plane have been known to reach Coil and return, both from Manifest and sponsored by the Piran Sedestadel. What is known about Coil is based on reports from the survivors of these trips. Coil is an irregular-shaped finite demiplane with a tangible border. Approximately 50 miles long in one direction and 30 in the other, the place is surrounded by a huge dark wall that in some places resembles writhing snakes. The wall is solid rock and is at least 30 feet thick. The walls are at least a mile high and shift slightly over time, encroaching upon or expanding the territory of the yuan-ti. The sky is a dull gray-blue, with a sun burning directly overhead at all times. Greasy gray clouds wander about the demiplane, sometimes blotting out the sun entirely for days. The air is warm. The daily rains are warm, as well, and strong enough to flood low places. Lightning and thunder are fairly common during these storms. The heat and humidity are equal to a tropical environment, and when combined with the rainfall, they make the place ideal for jungle growth, which covers almost all of the land. Interspersed among the regular vegetation are snakes that grow from the cursed soil like plants, attacking creatures that come near them. Some of these snakes are no more than 1 foot long, but others reach over 30 feet. Three groups of low mountains break up the nearly flat terrain, and it is there that the yuan-ti mine iron, copper and tin (to make bronze), gold, silver, and gems to use in their magic and weapons. A river flows from one group of mountains and after a few miles forms a lake. The lake itself is inhabited by aquatic serpentine creatures that tear apart any creature that enters the water. The lake’s runoff forms a small river and swamp. Another set of mountains is the origin of a bizarre river of snakes that writhe and flow like water. Some of the snakes escape and become free-roaming, but most are content to remain with their fellows and devour anything that mistakes the river for water (and in firelight, when the sun is covered, the stream of shiny-scaled ophidians does resemble the dancing surface of water).
COUNTRIES
THE DEMIPLANE KNOWN AS COIL
CHAPTER 4:
travel to Manifest to speak to the spirit trees and carry Monk: Elf monks are almost unheard of, and those word to that city’s elves and elf ghosts. As followers of who study unarmed combat usually are specialized nature gods, these clerics despise undead almost as fighters rather than practitioners of mental and physimuch as those of Aluvan and Chaniud do. cal disciplines. Sura-Khiri has no monasteries for this Druid: Elf druids have a deeper connection to the sort of training. land, focusing their worship on more primal aspects of Paladin: Elf paladins are as rare as monks in the Eanius and Galaedros, almost as if these deities were forest. A rare follower of Eanius has the potential to be metaphysical incarnations of the earth and sky rather a paladin, and these are often female elves who eventhan separate entities with dominion over these tually establish a bond with an aerial creature such as things. They are the guardians of the sacred groves that a pegasus, griffin, or hippogriff. mark the founding points of elven civilization. Ranger: Elf rangers are the scouts, couriers, and Fighter: Elf fighters are the vanguard of the elven trackers of the elven armies. Many legends of elf military. They guard elven communities and lead the heroes are about rangers who became isolated from charge against yuan-ti invaders. Most have seen some their companions and managed to fight their way sort of combat against yuan-ti in their lifetime. home through hostile territory and dozens of hated pqqqqrs A miles-long chasm dominates part of the demiplane, its unknown depths unexplored by even the yuan-ti. The area around the chasm is blasted and barren for miles, and the chasm and its wasteland may be the result of a failed powerful spell by the yuan-ti. Both of the demiplane’s rivers empty into the chasm. The extreme end of the demiplane beyond the chasm is separated from the main part by a 40-foot-high cliff wall, beyond which is more jungle. Coil is inhabited by many strange creatures, most of which are scaly reptilian versions of conventional animals and other monsters. For example, a deer from Coil might have brown scales instead of fur, and a griffon might have a pterosaurlike head and leathery draconic wings. These creatures still have the same abilities as normal creatures of their type (they do not gain or lose anything from these cosmetic changes). Despite the presence of these altered beings, the snakes of Coil are the primary “natural” creatures. The yuan-ti are the undisputed masters of Coil, and they are the only intelligent beings that live here (save the unfortunate slaves they corrupt into tainted ones and broodguards). More than ten thousand yuan-ti of various kinds live here, with most living in or near the six large ziggurats they built. A large number also live in the great palace-fortress of Traagash Daur, a collection of stone towers that writhe like snakes. Beneath the palace are great dungeons and catacombs that extend for miles, and living at the center of them is Traagash Daur herself, a human-headed yuan-ti abomination cleric/sorcerer of Orcus. From the heart of Coil she leads her people to pillage and destroy key locations on the Material Plane. Coil is coterminous with the Material Plane but not coexistent. When traveling from Coil to the Material Plane, the forest of Sura-Khiri is the most accessible point (the shortest routes lead there, but it is possible to travel elsewhere if the traveler is willing to spend more time doing so) and creating portals to anywhere else on the Material Plane requires more time and resources. One can travel from the Material Plane to anywhere on Coil without difficulty, although the travel time increases with distance from Sura-Khiri. Because locations in Coil are not coexistent with those in Sura-Khiri, two portals in the demiplane that are near to each other might lead to two very distant locations.
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