Dragon Head Point

The Last Standing Garrison Of The Infinite Armies

Fort— Perched atop the golden cliffs at the southern reaches, what was once the greatest and most unassailable fortress in all of Ald-Amura is now a quiet and solemn place of contemplation, dedicated to the permanent eradication of war.

The People

The base remained uninhabited for several decades after the last war—the people of nearby villages even considered the place cursed. For a very long time, only scavengers and scrap runners would dare approach the base. It took almost a full century before people began making use of the place again, and many more decades until it could be considered inhabited in any meaningful sense.

To live in Dragon Head is to be closer to the crime of war than almost anyone else in Ald-Amura. Even a millennium on, the great stone walls bear the evidence of that most cruel human failure, and the people who live in this once mighty fortress consider it a solemn duty to ensure such tragedy never occurs again. They maintain Dragon Head first and foremost as an educational experience, teaching the horrors of war and warning future generations away from its seductive allure. On any given day, the people of Dragon Head will run dozens of tours, hold workshops, host discussions, make archeological expeditions into the still-unexplored tunnels under the base, and more, all toward the same goal—the permanent rejection of war as a means of resolution.

This preoccupation with warfare leads to the fortress’s inhabitants being somewhat more dour and serious than most would feel comfortable with for more than a visit. While the people here are as happy as any other place in Ald-Amura, there is the respectful aura of a library, the silence of an art gallery, and quiet reverence of a graveyard about the place.

Notable Sublocations

  • The Tunnels—Built for unknown purposes, there exists a dizzyingly complex network of tunnels under the base. These are, to put it lightly, a deathtrap. After a thousand years, the tunnels designed for human navigation are difficult to discern from the ones designed to be flooded with magma to heat the base. Explorations into the tunnels have gone on for the last hundred years or so, and shockingly little progress has been made. Theories abound, ranging from the mundane (stockrooms, shelters, escape tunnels) to the apocalyptic (a world-shattering doomsday weapon hidden deep underground).
  • The King’s Grave—At some point in the past, every member of royalty across all of Ald-Amura would be interred here when they die, Even royalty from warring states would find themselves side by side in this hall. A thousand urns still hold the dust of a thousand kings who once held the world in their palms. Most of the nameplates have been worn away by time, and few are still legible.
  • The Lava Tubes—Parallel to the cave networks, these broad tunnels are designed to funnel huge amounts of magma from Ald-Amura’s core. This heats the base and once powered the Star-Blight weapon, as well as many other devices throughout the facility. It is not recommended you spend much time in the tubes—the lava flow is not very well understood and any tube could become flooded with lava at any moment.
  • Star-Blight—During Dragon Head’s peak, this machine was the pride of place, a jewel in the crown of the nation that bankrupted itself to construct it. Originally, it consisted of an enormous emerald, suspended high above a large dish, with around one hundred faceted mirrors. The exact details of how the machine functioned are a closely guarded secret, but its destructive capabilities are easy to see—the barren salt flats and broken mountain range to the north still carries the gruesome scars of its first testfire, almost a thousand years later.

What Happens When You Arrive

  1. A great chill has taken over the base, the lava tubes are empty, and winter is coming.
  2. The most important festival of the year is well underway—guides coat their faces in bonedust, and every building in the fort is repainted while every warhorn is blown around the clock.
  3. Spectral lights and ghost ships can be seen out at sea, slowly drifting their way to the harbor.
  4. The fort’s security systems have been activated. Nobody can get into the inner districts, nor can anyone get out.
  5. Every urn in The King’s Grave has been stolen.
  6. A new discovery in the tunnels has revealed a secret Monster in a deep hibernation under the fortress.