A year ago, Histovix kidnapped the king's only child, a daughter of marriageable age. The dragon Histovix demanded that the king forswear the Inquisition, allow the dragon to take who and what he wanted, and begin tithing to the dragon. Histovix allowed the king to remain in control, and visited the capital of Poolthis every month -- always with promises that the king's daughter was alive, and would remain so only if the king gave in to the red dragon's demands.

The King of Kall has had enough. With the kingdom is disarray and disrepair, no church aid coming because of the king's insults to the Inquisition, and the pirates of the Alekdan Principalities moving in... After the last visit of Histovix, the king called a formal tournament -- with the three top winners going off to battle Histovix, and hopefully return the king's daughter.

He has promised the hand of his daughter in marriage to anyone who can defeat the dragon. The king holds little hope, though, that his daughter is even alive.

King Aldevrous: Aldevrous is a 47 year old Slate male with gray eyes and gray hair, and a once-powerful physique slowly wasting away. He has aged significantly in the year since Histovix took his daughter, and has a short temper because of it. On the whole, he is a beaten man, bereft of hope and keeping his kingdom going only through tradition and by a stubborn temper, leaving much of the workings of the kingdom to his trusted friend Addomo.

Princess Alicarnya: Alicarnya, a 16 year old Slate female with her father's gray eyes and blonde hair She was a tall, buxom, attractive lass until the kidnapping by Histovix. Full of fire and spirit, Alicarnya literally inspired the kingdom -- and her loss hit the kingdom hard. Some say that she is the incarnation of the kingdom itself, the land made manifest in a woman.

The time of the next visit of Histovix is coming. The court is nervous about the coming of the dragon -- for no word has reached the court about the last three tournament victors who went to dispatch the dragon. One of the victors was not even a belted knight.

The king cares little for much of anything anymore. His wife, the queen, died in childbirth to his only daughter. The stage is set for the court to enter into civil war -- some factions loyal to the Royal Nation of Kall, other's loyal to their own greed and ambitions, and still others loyal to the pirate princes of Alekdan.

d20: A one-time Knowledge (geology) 15 coupled with a Knowledge (geography) 21 check would lead a researcher in the royal library of Poolthis to the most probable magma source, where the dragon might be found. Missing both checks by less than 5 each would reveal a pool of 3d4 possibilities, each of which would have to be checked out.

The royal sage, Agrivon, knows the location of Histovix's lair, and imparted it to each of the three would-be rescuers during Histovix's last visit. Agrivon is unlikely to impart the information to anyone without the king's direct permission, for fear of angering Histovix and losing the princess.

Unknown to the court, Histovix was awoken by the sage before Agrivon, known as Telemith. Telemith's son Gravis was a belted knight and a champion of the king for some years -- and managed to seduce princess Alicarnya. Figuring that Gravis had gotten the princess with child, he woke the dragon and told it his plan: hold the nation hostage, keep the girl alive, and thumb the Inquisition. Histovix was all for the plan, and had plans of his own, as well -- he killed Telemith, and conspires with Gravis, whispering in his ear that he could rule as regent to Alicarnya's child. Gravis has hidden Alicarnya's child, delivered four months passed -- and no one else in the kingdom knows of the child. Even the woman nursing the babe knows only that Gravis is paying her well to look after 'his kin', whom she only suspects might be his child.

The court of Kall stands ready to react -- waiting only for a sign.

The kingdom has been drained dry by tithes. There is almost no money left to pay the Guardians -- the royal guard and the military. Debts are owed to almost every merchant in Kall. Real money of any kind -- gold, silver, copper -- is worth twice its normal value; all items for sale will sell at half their normal price, but there is little available for sale. Almost everything that can be hocked or sold is gone already.

Three different Pirate Princes have sent representatives to Kall, trying to bid in on the kingdom. Their monies and loans have kept the kingdom afloat this long, but even they fear the dragon and its wrath, half-fearing that once the dragon is done with Kall, it will move on to the Alekdan Principalities.

Kesler: One of the princely representatives is a representative of Over'raj Sam, the Demonslayer. Kesler is a tall man with skin as black as night, an aquiline nose, and dreadlocks down to his shoulders. He has an easy smile -- save where the dragon or politics is concerned -- and has a household that adores him. When pressed or in danger, Kesler is a powerful and charismatic leader with a lethal ability to defend himself and others. He has a secret: he is a raj himself, cousin to the Over'raj Demonslayer. Kesler fought in the gladiatorial pits as a slave, just as his cousin did, and was freed from his imprisonment by some of Sam's representatives. Like his over'raj, Kesler is a good man doing his best to survive in an evil world.

The other two princely representatives are disdainful, full of themselves, and all-too-eager to leave Kall to return to the Principalities and get away from the dragon.

The royal sage, Agrivon, has kept his distance from the other members of the court and from the principalities.

Addomo: Sympathizing with him are several of the barons of the lands, including the baron of the city, Addomo. With no true dukes in all of Kall, Baron Addomo of Poolthis is perhaps one of the most powerful of men, after the king. He controls most of the Guardians and a sizeable personal guard. While sympathetic with Agrivon, Addomo is a hard-nosed, hard-lined, ruthless loyalist who will not abandon his king or his kingdom. In all the land, Addomo alone has probably kept it from falling into civil war and further infighting. The baron can be reasoned with, but getting an audience with him is nearly impossible, and only the greatest of personal sacrifices would garner his attention.

* * *

Histovix is a red dragon, and like many of his kin, he likes magma-hot heat. The dragon dug down along a recent dike until he found a chamber of cooling magma -- not in the Eldrich Mountains, but out in Overim Plains within sight of the mountains, and nearly a thousand feet down. The only hint to the location of the dragon's weyr is a small hillock, generated by the dike during the Shaping Wars.

The tunnel entrance to Histovix's lair is about twenty feet wide, and nearly half a mile deep (A). The entrance is warm, even in the coldest weather. A charismatic check with the locals would reveal the location of the cave, if not for their fear of the dragon's wrath. The tunnel's length is carved from sandstones and lies along the dike's granite intrusion -- but iron ore litters the bottom of the tunnel.

The deeper anyone goes into the tunnel, the more sulphur they find -- and the more difficult it becomes to breathe. The nasty gases of the deep prevent humanoids that breath from performing at their best: at the source of the magma, any characters down there would suffer a cumulative penalty. Just getting to the source of the magma engenders ever-increasing penalties, as well. d20: Cumulative -4 penalty to their Constitution, for every hour spent in the caverns. Within the tunnel itself, the penalty is -1 to Constitution after 1000 feet, and climbs every 500 feet thereafter (tunnel length is roughly 2,500 feet).

The dragon carved out the tunnel with its claws and horns, and its marks are all through the tunnel entrance and the caverns. The first pool of magma (B) gives off a warm red glow and is burning hot at 700F. A small island (C) near the entrance has an iron rod driven into it. The island has what appears to be the princess, bonded by an iron collar and a thick leather strap to the steel pole.

The women the dragon takes are chosen obstensibly for their virginity -- but actually for their appearance. All of the women taken resemble the princess, but no one has cued in on this. A skill check might reveal this, if anyone's interested in what the women looked like. The women rarely last more than a week in the intense heat -- and wouldn't last more than a few days without water.

A large, lidded rock cistern serves as a source of water for the maiden chained the iron spike, with the golems delivering water now and again within their huge, cupped hands. The source of the water is unknown, but large dragon-marks on the sides indicate that the dragon might replenish the cistern now and again by carrying it to the surface.

The iron collar around the maiden protects the wearer from the sulfurous gases given off by the magma, and acts as a protection from poisonous gases item. If the collars are forced off or broken, they ignite in a combustion that literally takes the head off of whomever wears them.

The maiden chained to the iron pole is likely unconscious, but if revived and taken care of, may release her name, after careful coaxing, as Jessica. She was taken from the nearby village of Therthorpe, and is not the princess Alicarnya. The dragon often knocks her unconscious, somehow, whenever she sees him, so she knows little of what he does.

The magma chamber has two large areas the dragon carved out with steps and ledges (D). The northern area drips with golden coins, jewels, silver, and more -- but the treasure is only coin-deep.

D Treasure: 2,315gp, 4,709sp, 12,678cp, 520 gems of random type and none worth more than 10gp.

The southern ledges have an iron golem that deals with the usual trespassers, and also keeps the maidens alive as long as possible. After they die, the dragon would bring another maiden for the golem to tend. There is no iron ore in the cavern -- the golem picks it up and moves it.

Histovix keeps one wall of the cavern illusory, and mounted on an eight-foot ledge (E), out of reach of most humans. The illusion helps hide any scarring of the walls Histovix' passings would leave. Difficult search-by-feel checks reveals the presence of an illusion, though not where. The tunnel (E) leads to another cavern with another eight-foot ledge. Inside that cavern is another pit of magma (F) wherein the dragon usually resides, rests, and works.

The real princess is kept bolted to the wall with an iron ring inset and a strip of leather. Next to the princess are the rotting remains of all the other maidens the dragon kidnapped over time. The princess has plenty of water -- another lidded rock cistern with scum-covered slime in it. Her only food was the corpses of the other maidens. The princess Alicarnya is half mad from starvation, torture, heat, dehydration, and dealings with the mad ramblings of the dragon. The princess bears one of the iron collars that protects her. The bodies of each maiden bears the collar, as well.

Worse, the princess has been fooled by illusions into thinking that she has eaten her own child in her desperate hunger. Much mental healing will need to be done to heal her, and only someone who notices her stretch marks on her starving, skeletal form, will realize she has had a child.

Tonnes of raw iron ore are scattered about the cavern, and some of the walls bear signs of intense heating and even glassification.

Histovix is a dragon that has figured out how to make his own golems. The heat of the magma is only enough to keep him warm and kill would-be intruders, but his breath weapon is hot enough to smelt iron. Two more iron golems remain in the back cavern, with four more in the midst of construction on the southern shelf.

Histovix :An enormous, ancient red dragon with a chip on his shoulder. He hates the Inquisition, he hates humans, he hates elves, he hates dwarves -- he hates everyone and everything. Unlike most historical dragons, he has no love of gold or silvers or treasures, and he has a formidable intelligence. A practitioner of the darker arts, he has studied and continues to study the arcane with a feverish intensity -- and it is his one weakness. None may establish a dialog with the spiteful, hateful dragon until they can match his ferocious knowledge of magic.

The dragon's escape route (H) is a set of dragon-sized stairs that go deeper into the magma.