Kiston (Island)

X Worldbuilders:

GM James R

Kiston's geography is a vast field of mountains too steep to climb.

The Kiston mainland is an impenetrable fortress of peaks and valleys harsher than any other landscape found in Quelmar. Cartographers of the island have mapped it three primary domains, known as Lamort, Xitial, and the most dangerous mass known as the Mountiferous Peaks.

Kiston is orbited by the Kiston Isles, which continously float and spin around the mainland. Together the main land and isles make up the Kiston Continent.

Special Properties

Teleportation magic has been known to malfunction in Kiston, thwarted most (but not all) attempts to teleport into the Crystal City, as well as any attempts to teleport to or from the mainland from the rest of Quelmar. This included even smaller teleportation like Misty Steps, which could send casters in random directions.

During the years that Kiston was "locked away" from the realm, teleportation to/from the island was always guaranteed to fail.

Geography

Its high, cold mountains and sharp cliffsides make for terrible societal conditions for any race that can not fly, although there have been many notable attempts to colonize Kiston over the years. However, these attempts almost always failed with colonists being lost at sea, or having returned psychologically damaged beyond belief.

The mountains themselves were far from empty, ancient caves, runes, and dungeons plagued the mountains, many of them created by Tiamat and her dragon followers, while other crafted delicately by the other dangerous and insidious creatures lurking on the island. Most notably, the The Crystal City.

Besides being remarkably high, the mountains and their caverns extended deep below the surface, most notably into the territory of svirfneblin, a race of creatures living in the Underdark below Kiston.

Kiston had a number of major rivers and smaller bodies of water littered among its mountains. Its uncountable waterfalls provided sanctuary for equally innumerous blue dragons (joined by their Bronze brethren after The Holy War).

Mistletoe is a common weed found on Kiston. Other common items found in the wilds included Hazelnuts and Salt rocks.

Kiston is one of the few locations in the realm home to Deadfog, a mist that functionally stops the material plane from interacting with the weave, dispelling or stopping any magic from being used within the fog. The fogs come and go through the mountainous valleys, and are unpredictable where they will show up next.

Fauna

Besides Dragons, Kiston was also home to giant creatures of all kinds, including giant beasts and giant bugs.

Kiston was also home to the bakukin, also known as sea-serpentfolk, who often served the great Dragon killer known as the Bakunawa.

At least one boar and one cockatrice have been seen on the island in adventures.

History

It was here that the dragons of the realm were first born, and from these mountainous peaks they flooded the rest of the realm.

Tiamat was lucky that her dragons had Kiston all to themselves. Before The Holy War, the dragons could spend time in Kiston safely, protected from being hunted down. Many of them grew to great sizes and age. These Wyrms would later appear fully grown in the second draconic war against the realm.

In late 691 PR, a group known as The Best Around attempted a voyage to Kiston to investigate the legends of the crystal caverns, only to be diverted and crash land on Cof.

Notable Locations

Mountiferous Peaks

• The Crystal City

Lamort

• The Vecnan Campsite

Trivia

• Blue Orchids are not native to Kiston.

Behind the Screen

• In the Legacy Universe, the mainland of Kiston was where the Tovag Baragu sat. After Vecna and his editionals rebooted the realm into 5e, the Tovag Baragu was instead moved to one of Kiston's orbital islands.