Barbarians of Lemuria: The Doom of Tyrus

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Tyrus spreads grey and harsh along the west bank of the mighty river Tyr, battlements glowering down from high walls bristling with the bronze-breastplated Tyrusian archers, their skill with bow and arrow unmatched in all the world. Ships ply the river, bringing crystal and silk and wine and books from refined Satarla downriver and furs and mahogany and ivory and spices from savage Shamballah upriver, and the dock-side bazaars overflow with the bounty of each. Silver changes hands, and with the coin he collects in tolls and taxes King Juvor forges swords and mail, raises fortresses and breeds kroarks, and above all employs an army of grim-faced soldiers eager to go forth and claim the glory that Tyrus considers its due.

But glory does not come easily or cheaply, and when walking the streets and plazas of the city that becomes apparent. In every street corner there are beggars, cripples lingering from Tyrus' last disastrous war with Satarla, and even many a prosperous townsman limps on crutches on his way to his market stall or scribal shop, or hides hideous facial scars beneath his elaborate headwear. Thieves ply the bazaars, looking to steal what none in the stern city will give them for free, and though those caught are brutally punished by the King's guards, for each one to lose his hands or his head ten more escape to count their stolen bounty.

On the heights furthest north, the palace district thrones, where the rich and the mighty of Tyrus - the most powerful of nobles and the wealthiest of merchants - maintain their lavish townhouses and towering palaces, all of them closed to the outside by forbidding walls and guarded by mercenaries and cruel traps. At the outskirts of this area is the gladiatorial arena, where every week the brave and the desperate - and, often, the unwilling and enslaved - battle each other or are sent against and usually devoured by fierce beasts from the jungles of Qo and Qush. Close enough to it that those going to wage their lives in the arena can stop here for a final sacrifice for fortune in battle lies the tall-pillared, blood-red temple of the War God Charkond, whose priests wear ornamental armour instead of robes and practice vicious fighting styles in honour of their brutal deity. Here, too, can be found the Royal Fastness - the great granite fortress of the King of Tyrus - and the smaller but more feared basalt tower of the Wizard-Watch, the ruthless sentinels tasked by the King to root out and destroy the practice of sorcery in Tyrus.

Beyond the city gates, the jungles of Qo spread out, an endless expanse of tall, lush trees and tangled undergrowth, home to beasts both mighty and strange. Close to the city, patches of jungle have been cleared along the Tyr, making room for rich estates that grow radishes and lotus, mandarins and grapes, but further inland lies nothing but untamed wilderness. Most every day, groups of hunters leave the city to seek to hunt deodarg and chark, triotaur and sarkolith, returning with priceless skins and teeth, or with live beasts roaring and struggling in sturdy iron cages pulled by lumbering banths, or sometimes not returning at all - swallowed by the endless moist green.

The trade district is bustling, not just with merchants selling the wares from Satarla and Shamballah and the spoils of the Qo jungles, but also with taverns and eateries and all sorts of dancers and entertainers, providing all manner of diversions for sailors after their long journey up or down the river. Along with the swarthy Tyrusians, you can here always find dark-skinned, purple-eyed Shamballahns and the myriad colourings and visages of much-diverse Satarla, whose people share no trait but their boundless pride.

It is a city ruled by strength, where audacity, cunning and competence can earn you a mountain of gold - and a single careless mistake can cost you your life. It is a city that has much but wants yet more, and whose leaders are forever plotting ways to gain the place as Lemuria's greatest city that they consider themselves to have been unjustly robbed of. And, for all that its high walls and grim soldiers would seem to make it invincible, it is a city in danger - for a doom is coming to Tyrus, and when it falls, all hope may yet rest in the hands of a small band of unlikely heroes...


The Doom of Tyrus is a campaign for Barbarians of Lemuria: Mythic Edition, Game Mastered by Baeraad.


Links


House Rules


Player Characters


NPCs

Prince Dimas' family and household

  • Prince Dimas, an elderly nobleman
  • Judita, his eldest daughter and heir, a calm aristocrat
  • Uxia, his middle daughter, a hot-blooded warrior
  • Lia, his youngest daughter, sensitive and soft-hearted
  • Dimah, a Beshaari servant who may be more than she seems
  • Captain Tacito, previous captain of the household guard, killed by Qido after betraying Dimas


Other nobles and dignitaries of Tyrus

  • Prince Gastor, conservative-minded rival of Dimas, killed by sorcery
  • Prince Kluson, his son, now head of the family
  • Inquisitor Salem, head of the Wizard-Watch
  • Esort Sharpeye, a witchfinder of the Wizard-Watch
  • Prince Ovanto, a friend of Gastor, known for his hatred of crime and treachery
  • Prince Rebeqa, known for her ambition and her contributions to the Tyrusian military
  • Trego, a merchant who has dealings with Prince Dimas
  • Lady Jaqis, a noble who has dealings with Prince Dimas. Involved in the plot against Qido's parents


Residents of the Wastewater Slums

  • Mad Nona, a criminal overlord in the Wastewater Slums, suspected of sorcery
  • Wobbleshanks Andro, a beggar of the Wastewater Slums who spied on Mad Nona on behalf of Esort the witchfinder
  • Ericos, a beggar of the Wastewater Slums
  • Riverrat Rui, leader of the Mad Apes gang in Wastewater Slums, one of Mad Nona's lieutenants. Killed by a Larzook demon
  • Jagos, a member of the Mad Apes gang
  • Xenia the Eater, leader of the Yellowfang gang in Wastewater Slums, one of Mad Nona's lieutenants
  • Pluco One-Eye, leader of the Steelheart gang in Wastewater Slums, one of Mad Nona's lieutenants
  • Enos, called "the Guildmaster," a mysterious figure who claims to be the leader of Tyrus' currently-defunct thieves' guild
  • Ana, Enos' enforcer, killed by Qido
  • "Lug," one of Xenia's enforcers


Other commoners of Tyrus

  • Branca the artificier, a crafter of technological marvels
  • Ugos, owner of a riverboat on the Tyr