Creche Skeud
Nestled in an oblong valley (roughly 1 mile by 2 miles) in the Giant Spine Mountains of central Noefra, Creche Skeud was the youngest cysgoroesi creche. Founded only right before the beginning of the decline (caused by the breaking of the Pact with Death) of the cysgoroesi people at the start of the Third Age, it was inhabited and operational until the Cataclysm. At that point, machinations by the leadership (see "Descent into Madness") caused it to be abandoned by most of the people. For the next 210 years, the former leaders ran abhorrent experiments aimed at gaining bodily immortality. In 211 AC, the Wild Cards arrived seeking treasure (see "Demon's Fall"). About 20 years later, Abbot Kaga's paranoia caused him to imprison his remaining competitor, Researcher Teneg, and tear down most of the city. In mid-250 AC, Enigma arrived and completed the destruction by assisting Teneg in putting an end to the mad abbot's failsafe spells, triggered by his death at the hands of gleaner Ios al'Tor earlier that year.
Founding
- Founded in roughly 2600 BC.
- Dominated by Raven and Magpie septs.
- Transitioned to being primarily a research and scientific creche rather than a normal breeding/training ground. Especially interested in the design and strengthening of the soul magic involved in the production of shadesteel golems.
- Average population: ~10k
Descent into Madness
Cysgoroesi history records that the magical and planar disruptions of the Cataclysm caused volcanoes to erupt nearby, and the creche was abandoned. Since Shadow, too, was unstable, the men, women and children had to flee overland through the only entrance. As far as anyone knows, the creche was lost under lava. But that was not, in fact, true.
That story was promulgated by three individuals in order to clear the way for them to continue highly unethical experiments. Those three were
- Abbot Kaga
- At the time of the exodus, he was ancient already. Fearing death and having uncovered the secret shame of his people, he became paranoid and insane and was desperately searching for a way to avoid death.
- Head Researcher Teneg
- Naive and focused on her research, Teneg was a young woman of exceptional intellect and mastery of soul magic. She had developed a method for transferring souls (stored in soul gems) into living bodies, and Kaga believed that, with further efforts, they could become immortal.
- Mairon the Fair
- Ostensibly a soul harvested by the Ravens a century before, he was really Grand Sapientum Iorda, now a demon in service to Oro-laen. He was the high mage of the Western Empire who developed the process to fuse draconic souls into unborn children, producing the dragonborn. He did not die in the War of Souls that resulted—his thoroughly corrupt soul was rescued by the White Skull and he apotheosized as a demon of significant power. Because of his dual nature, he is not truly trapped by the soul gems, nor is he subject to their constraints. He has spent the last few hundred years subtly sabotaging the research into creating proper vessels for Kaga and Teneg—instead, he wishes to create corruption-proof vessels that would allow demon souls to live on the Mortal plane and able to bring their full powers to bear without rejection by the plane (as is the normal case for demons). Super-human arrogance, genius-level intelligence, unparalleled knowledge of soul mechanics and a way with words mark this abyss-spawn.
Demon's Fall
The Wild Cards arrived on scene in 211 AC as part of Finding a Home (Campaign). After fighting their way through the facility and befriending the discarded clones (as well as some of the rebellious shadesteel golems) outside, they discovered the demonic machinery that powered the Korvan-effect generator powering the experiments. They confronted Mairon and the other two with knowledge of his demonic nature.
To maintain the charade of being human, he has only been able to feed off the edges of the pain and soul-death powering the Shadow-shield around the complex (to prevent anyone from looking for them. Unknown to him, the golem that is his transport had been subverted by Kaga; when his identity was revealed by the Wild Cards, Kaga triggered the golem to crush his soul-gem housing. As a result, he was thrust howling back to the Abyss, where he was consumed by the Oblivion Gate.
Stunned by this, Kaga and Teneg agreed to find a different way of accomplishing their goal and allowed the discarded clones and those of the shadesteel who wished to leave. Kaga and Teneg cooperated...for a time. After about 20 years, Kaga overthrew Teneg and locked her in her private mindscape, a virtual world. According to Teneg, this was because she refused to restart the experiments (having been made aware of the cost). He then, in his madness, commanded the golems to tear down most of the city to make it "defensible" (in reality doing just the opposite).
The End of Skeud
On 3 Spring Dawning, 250 AC, Gleaner Ios al'Tor discovered that the facility was unguarded. He entered via Shadow portal and destroyed the soul gem housing Abbot Kaga's soul, and departed. Unknown to him, the abbot had left a failsafe dead-man switch spell (because he feared the golems turning on him). This locked them down, making them passive spectators and fuel sources for their own bodies and driving them completely mad. In this state, they roamed about destroying anything that reminded them of living beings.
In High Summer of that year, Enigma, looking for information about the nature of Rune or his history, made their way to the Creche. They discovered Teneg and assisted her in shutting down the failsafe (and releasing the souls of all of the shadesteel golems to seek their final rest). This effort cost Teneg her own life due to the abbot's poisoned spell-work.
