Tebon 2215
Demigus, Splinters & Yar agree to help Hiro retrieve a strange iron ship from the world's edge.
Keraptis, a mad wizard, plagued the seas with a fleet of strange iron ships hundreds of years ago. Hiro has discovered Keraptis lair, a volcanic island of the eastern coast of the Isle of Bones, and employs Wulgar captain of the Winter dragon to provide transport. The voyage to the Isle of Bones takes a week on the Winter Dragon. During the journey, the crew rescue a strange castaway sacrificed to Tiamat and cast adrift on the ocean at the edge of the world.
The Island of the mad mage is an almost perfectly conical volcano formed from slow lava leakage it rises about 800ft above the sea. From the summit, continuous geyser trails in the wind like a tremendous white feather. The spray collects into depressions downslope and merges into a sizable stream. On the eastern face of the Island is the Wizards Mouth. A vast sea cave large enough to for two longships to sail into side by side. It seems to breathe as it exhales a large cloud of steam, and the slowly inhales it like a person breathing on a cold day. Each cycle takes about 30 seconds—massive Iron Gates bar the wizards' mouth. The adventurers climb several hundred feet up the cliffs to the service tunnels where they will be able to open the wizard mouth. But the door to the tunnels is wizard locked. One of Keraptis's pets, Erasmus, offers to help if the adventurers will help set him free and challenge them with three riddles. The party answers Erasmus riddles swiftly to his delight, giving them the key to the door. From there, adventurers fight there way through ghoul infested tunnels to the control room, using hydraulic contraptions to open the Seagate and allow the Winter Dragon into the inner harbour.
The inner sea cave is vast, and warm air circulates in a steady breeze through the sea gate and the geyser vents. To the west of the cave lies a broad sandy beach. The remains of two ship hulls jut from the sand like the rib cage of a rotting corpse. In the harbor, a strange vessel that looks more like a small castle a keep than a ship bobs against a floating pontoon. East of the beach, a town is carved into the rock wall. Buildings joined by a bewildering array of staircases and slopes. Erasmus was not what he seemed; he is a manticore, a terrible monster with a taste for flesh who wants to eat the entire crew of the Dragon. Too large to fit in the service tunnels, Erasmus had tricked the adventurers into opening the Seagates. A deadly battle in the ruins of an amphitheater ensues. Hiro, Wulgar, Demigus, Splinters, Yar, and berserkers from the Winter Dragon slay Erasmus. Hiro and his clan claim the last of the strange iron ships as home, and the Winter Dragon sails back to Three Towers.
But the story doesn't necessarily end at the top of the town carved in the rock face is another wizard mouth, leading deeper into the mountain.
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