Realm Balance

A sweltering heat rises from the white sands of the

desert, as the occasional ship passes overhead, riding on
the tide of thermal current that ascends from below. In the
distance, a vast spire of stone and metal twists up from the
earthSpire Prison, the tomb of a thousand souls unable
to die and too dangerous to live. Overhead float the glassplated cities of the Ascendant, wonders of architectural
design. Beneath the desert, the many tunnels of the Sand
Wraiths connect the far corners of the realm to Gitrach,
the city they have hewn from the heart of the earth to
make their home.

Fire *****
Light ***
Electricity **
Water *
Stone ****
Darkness ****
Air **

Sadresh

As the sun sets, the ancient evil of Sadresh, the AdatNol, rise from the sandsa black, greasy oil that moves
within sinister malevolence, snatching away travelers and
drowning them in the sands below the desert. Against this
tide of darkness, a single light shines from the ancient
lighthouse formed of glass that stands upon the realms
southern border, guiding those wayward travelers to
safety.

Terrain: Desert. The vast majority of the realm

is comprised of a shifting desert that makes
navigation and travel difficult.
Primitive.
Aside
from
Technology:
metalworking, glassblowing, sailing, and ritual
medicine, there is little in the way of technology
within Sadresh. Most of their sciences are capable of
producing materials with unique properties and then
applying those properties, rather than creating
precisely-tuned machines or scientific wonders.

Sadresh is a realm of harsh conflict and rugged

danger. Though the cities of Shaleb and Gitrach are
relatively peaceful, the wastelands are wild and
untamed, and also filled with treasuresboth in the
form of wrecked ships and hidden ruins. Sadresh is a
realm haunted by the Adat-Nol, a sinister black ooze
that rises from the desert sands at night and whisks
away unwary travelers into a sandy tomb beneath
the surface of the desert. Until this menace is put to
rest, Sadresh will remain a dangerous and harsh
wasteland.

Government: Monarchy. Both the Wraiths and

the Ascendant are ruled by perennial leaders who
defer a good deal of their power. Unlike the
Ascendant kings, you retire or die eventually, the
Witch Queen Gahlla of the Wraiths has ruled for
countless centuries.

Sadresh is an excellent realm for combatoriented games. The constantly warring factions, as
well as the aggressive nature of monsters and
dungeons, provide a continuous sequence of
confrontational encounters.

Wildlife: Aberrant. The mysterious Adat-Nol

patrol the deserts at night and abduct wanderers who
stray from the light of their camps.
Culture: Trading / Honorable. The Ascendant
have a culture primarily built around exchange of
goods and ideas with neighboring races and cities.
The Wraiths have a culture based around rigid
morality and service to their warlords.
Society: Exploitative. Settlements spring up
overnight around the hotly contested red dunes, and
disappear overnight when those dunes are
exhausted.
Creed: Shamanic. Sadresh is filled with spirits
and mystical power, but only the Sand Wraith
shamans are able to transcend into this alternate
world and tap into its powers.

Nascent Tribes

Sand Wraiths
The Wraiths are tough Nascent that are closely
tied to the sand. They can be found all across the
desert, but primarily in their capital of Gitrach,
which is hidden deep within the Cactus forest in
Northern Sadresh.

Two tribes of Nascent, the Ascendant and the

Sand Wraiths, inhabit the desert of Sadresh. These
two races have been divided for countless centuries,
and have a tense rivalry with one another that is just
short of all-out war. Remon, the heavy gas that rises
from the desert and redglass, a kind of plate glass
that floats atop Remon, are the tools that power the
ships and lifestyles of the majority of the deserts
inhabitants.

Ascendant
These Nascent are closely tied to the element of
air, and are fragile and lightweight. They primarily
follow intellectual and trade pursuits, using
domesticated beasts to mine their raw materials and
provide food. The Ascendant first built the Remon
Ships, pioneered glassmaking, and created an
impressive government and culture.

Wraiths have a rite of elderhood that they aspire

to at a certain age. After reaching elderhood, the
Wraith abandons hunting and turns to more
meditative pursuits, such as philosophy, magic, and
religion.
The Wraiths have a strong mystical tradition,
closely tied to their worship of Brigantin, that gives
them the power to manipulate sand in many ways.
Records attribute to them the power to rearrange the
dunes, to create soldiers and monsters from
animated sand, and even control the flow of time to
some degree.

The Ascendant city of Shaleb is the center of

commerce in Sadresh, and is built upon a large disc
of Redglass.
The Ascendant are able to fly by growing
feathery wings from their backs. The colors of their
feathers are a sign of caste, with the red-feathered
tribes being warriors; black feathers being
tradesman; and white feathers being priests,
teachers, and philosophers. All ascendants must
master some form of art or another as part of their
schooling. There is no caste for arts in their society,
and culture is something that all castes share
responsibility for.

While tough and resilient to the harsh desert

conditions, the Wraiths see no need to suffer those
conditions unduly when hunting and adventuring.
Over the centuries, they have developed a network
of great stone platforms that are sprinkled across the
desert. The Wraiths know secret rituals which allow
them to move between these panels in seconds, just
like the sand upon the desert wind.

Ascendant festivals feature a dazzling display of

arts. Enormous glasswares are paraded through the
air on highly concentrated redglass discs that will
float above the city. These are lit like lamps, and
give off dazzling light in the night. Dances which
arrange the ascendant by their feather colors are
common, and many ascendants will paint their
wings and bodies with exotic designs that bear
religious and spiritual meaning.

Within the culture of the wraiths, all art must be

religiously inspired or reveal some truth about the
nature of their world. Their society only allows art
for the purpose of instruction.

Librarium Omnibus
The Librarium is primarily concerned with the
mysteries of Sadresh's sands, and how they can be
used to further understanding of the world.
Blueglass temperings have shown some promising
properties that may make them useful against the
tide of Aether, and the Librarium is heavily funding
this research, as well as sponsoring the intellectual
Ascendant as a whole.

The ascendant have little technology, with their

primary science being chemistry, specifically in the
realm of glassblowing. They create most structures
out of glass or cactuswood, a chemically treated
organic stone that they create from cacti harvested
from the forest in northern Sadresh.

Order of the Seven Heroes

The Order is interested in Sadresh's security,
especially the management of Spire Prison. Remarl,
warden of the prison, is a personal favorite of the
order for his sterling record and devotion to duty.

Sadresh

The wraiths have thick skin and are strong for

their size. They have a spiritual warrior culture
which highly values honor, pride, and wisdom.
Young Wraiths are trained as warriors and hunters,
and they scour the deserts in search of food, treasure,
and adventure.

Utopian Society

inheritors of the desert from ancient times, and that

its resources belong exclusively to them. They do
not hesitate to attack Ascendant settlements in order
to pillage the red sand they require for their
shamanic rituals.

The Utopian Society is extremely interested in

researching the medicinal and spiritual techniques of
the Sand Wraiths, but have yet to gain their trust
via envoys and gifts. The society controls an outpost
at the edge of the Cactus Forest, and has a secondary
objective of healing the rifts that exist between the
Wraiths and Ascendants.

Shadow Courts
Due to their wandering nature and typical lack
of citizenship in any one realm, it is difficult to pin
an Eidolon down and try him for specific crimes.
The shadow courts are a band of Eidolons with ties
to Spire Prison. They travel the lands undercover,
searching for the most dangerous of their kind,
which they arrest and carry off to secret tribunals.
Those found guilty are typically placed into Spire
Prison for an eternal sentence.

Brilliant Dawn

Sadresh

The mission of exploration that Brilliant Dawn

pursues is very much in line with both the trading
society of the Ascendant and the adventurous nature
of the Wraiths. They see no need to choose between
these two, sending merchants to ingratiate
themselves with the cloud-dwellers and their finest
warriors to impress the Wraiths. Their efforts are
just beginning in Sadresh, so time will tell how
successful they are at exploring all the mysteries the
desert holds.

Cult of Adat-Nol
Many Wraiths become lost in the tunnels
beneath the desert, and they return as changed
individuals. Fused with the darkness of the AdatNol, they are weakened in the light, but they prowl
the darkness, searching for more victims for their
masters.

Servants of Balance
The servants of Balance have set up a
terraforming project called 'Oasis Green' in the
center of the desert. While they claim that the effort
is to create more sources of water throughout the
desert, making a more stable environment, their true
goals may be to explore Mekat-nol and eliminate the
Aether-like Adat-nol for good. Because of the still
little-understood relationship between the Adat-nol
and the red dunes, it is speculated that destroying
them for good could have disastrous consequences
on the way of life in Sadresh.

Places
Gitrach
Beneath the Cactus Forest in the northern part
of Sadresh is a vast network of caverns. These all
lead to the great city of Gitrach, carved from the
stone heart of the realm. Gitrachs tunnels connect it
to Mekrat-Nol, the Shadow Aquifer, and so
sentinels constantly guard the tunnels against
invasion from the deadly black ooze that seeps up
from that accursed place.

The Ascendant Kingdom

The Ascendant kingdom is interested in peace
and prosperous trade with neighboring countries.
They mine great amounts of red sand from the
shifting desert dunes in order to produce redglass for
ships and cities, and this competition for resources is
the main source of their conflict with the Wraiths.
King Dontremarl is interested in diplomatic
relations with their neighbors, but the majority of
the Ascendant harbor a bitterness against the
Wraiths born from lost profits, abducted family
members, and a pervasive fear.

The Wraiths make their home in the carved city

of Gitrach, and it is here that the Witch Queen
Gahlla carries out her strange experiments in search
of enlightenment and ascendance for her people.

Spire Prison
Erected in time immemorial by the spirit
Brigantin himself, Spire Prison is built into the heart
of a great stone mountain that towers above the
desert. The spire is a great column of natural stone,
and is the size of a city. With no way into or out of
the prison except by the Remon ships that dock at
the tip of the spire, escape from this complex is a
dire proposition indeed.

The Wraith Kingdom

The Sand Wraiths are an introverted race
primarily concerned with spiritual affairs and
religious transcendence. Their beliefs keep them
from interacting with the Ascendant and their rigid
code of honor makes them more prone to war than
diplomacy. The Wraiths maintain that they are the

As Eidolons are immortal, Spire Prison serves as

a holding area for those who are too dangerous to
ever be released again into the world outside. This

prison, which is specifically designed to hold them,

is built with Aetherlite cells and shackles, ensuring
that Eidolons will neither develop nor use any traits
which might grant them freedom.

Strange creatures inhabit the cactus forest. Mice

and insects are the most common sight, but larger
predators, and even carnivorous plants are not
unknown to exist within this area.

An execution chamber is nestled within the

heart of the prison complex, and functions by
injecting Eidolons with a lethal dose of gaseous
Aether. Since prisoners are more valuable as live
miners than dead, this chamber is used very little.

Glass Lighthouse

Shaleb

The lighthouse is, as its name implies,

completely built from glass cast from the desert
sands. When it is lit at night, the light refracts
within the glass and gives off a prismatic glow that
can be seen from anywhere in the realm. Neither the
ascendant nor the sand wraiths claim this landmark
as territory, and it is regarded as neutral ground and
a safe haven for all who visit.

The desert of Sadresh lets off a heavy gas called

Remon that floats above a certain density of air. The
gas pools into a thin, oily layer just above the cloudline, and is heavy enough that ships with hulls
forged of a certain type of red glass are able to sail on
top of it.
Because of the harsh ground conditions in
Sadresh, the Ascendant natives have built their
largest city, Shaleb, and several small satellite towns
and outposts upon great discs of this red glass.

The glass lighthouse is tended by Alveric, a

Sage.

Blue Dunes
The red dunes are a rare sight, but blue dunes are
even rarer. The Ascendant have developed a
technology that allows them to forge blueglassan
interesting but largely useless self-regenerating
glass, while the Wraiths use it to concoct Vision
Dusta powerful tincture of sand and cactus venom
that allows a shaman to leave his body for a time.

Ships sail between the cities, settling down to

the desert below to pick up supplies and trade goods,
then rising again on Remon updrafts that carry
them back to the cloud layer.

Mekrat-nol
Mekrat-nol, the shadow aquifer, is a vast,
underground reservoir that appears to be full of the
same substance that makes up the bodies of the
Adat-nol, but in a dormant state. Could this is be
source of the Adat-nol infestation?

The relationship between red and blue dunes is

not currently understood. However, red dunes are
usually found near blue dunes, shortly after the blue
dunes vanish in the desert wind.

Red Dunes

During the night, the shadows in this place

recedepresumably to hunt on the surface
allowing adventurers to journey within its winding,
cavernous depths. None who have braved this
adventure have yet returned to tell the tales of what
lies within, and Mekrat-nol is regarded as a haunted
and forbidden place.

Across the desert of Sadresh, red dunes are built

up and destroyed by the desert winds. The red dunes
are built up of a curious red sand mixed with the
yellow. This red sand is used by the Ascendant to
fashion Redglass, the most important component of
their floating ships and cities. The Sand Wraiths use
it to fashion ritual implements, most notably those
that allow them to move quickly across the desert by
mysterious means.

Cactus Forest
In northern Sadresh, there is an underground
reservoir that saturates the sand with water. A rare
kind of subterranean cactus grows from beneath the
earth here, eventually breaking the surface. The
proliferation of these cacti has caused the northern
area to become much like a forest.

The red dunes are usually claimed by one race or

the other as soon as they are discovered. The
ascendant harvest heavily from the dunes, and while
the wraiths take only a little of this natural resource
for themselves, they believe that the dunes are
sacred, and attempt to drive out the ascendant
whenever possible.

The various kinds of cacti in this forest have

many strange poisons and properties. Many of the
cactus blossoms and needles in the area can be
collected and sold at a hefty sum, by those
knowledgable enough to find them and hardy
enough to survive within the forest.

Their fears may be justified. The number of red

dunes in Sadresh has been sharply decreasing in
recent years.

Sadresh

The monolithic lighthouse in Eastern Sadresh is

a guiding light for Remon ships that sail in the night
over the desert.

Remarl, Warden of Spire Prison

Adat-nol, or living shadows, are often found

around the red dunes, making them dangerous places
during daylight hours. For this reason, most mining
of these dunes takes place at night, when the Adatnol are not active.

He was more monster than mana towering wall of

metal and flesh twisted together and bound with weapons
and death.
The cruel Remarl does not harbor any delusions
about the redeemability of his prisoners. He takes
his role in the rebirth of the world seriouslyto keep
Eidolons too dangerous to live in the world from
ever reemerging into it. Remarl answers only to
Alveric when it comes to releasing prisoners, but he
will accept new inmates from Gahlla, Dontremarl,
or the leaders of the various factions in Empyrean.

Important People
Dontremarl, King of the Ascendant
The young king looked out optimistically over his
city, the sunlight glistening off of his white-feathered
wings. His robes were adorned with all manner of medals
and merits, collected from across the world.

Sadresh

Dontremarl, the King of the Ascendant, has

traveled far across Empyrean and seen its many
cultures and peoples. His goal is to bring that world
culture to the people of his realm, as well as to
improve their lifestyles through inter-realm trade.

Traits:

He would like nothing more than to make peace

with the Sand Wraiths, and has sent several
ambassadors to Gahlla with this mission in mind.
Unfortunately, she seems less interested in the
prospect, refusing to even allow outsiders into her
subterranean city of Gitrach.

Creed:

Touch of Dust (Cruelty)

Living Weapon (Bloodthirsty)
Clockwork (Meticulous)
1. Any means necessary will be used to carry out
my ends.
2. There are no inherent rights or privileges.
3. Once a criminal, always a criminal.

Traits:
Windborne (Capricious)
Banneret (Brave)
Unihorned (Pure)
Creed:
1. Other Eidolons views are no less valid than
my own.
2. Peace the best means to an end.
3. Cultural exchange is the key to prosperity.

Gahlla, Witch Queen of the

Wraiths

Alveric, Keeper of the Lights

The ancient sage had stood in the glow of that
beacon so long that he had become a brighter light than
any mortal flame could attain. There was only the light,
given form by his empty robes.

There was something both terrifying and mystifying

in her solid grey eyes and the bulbs of flickering light that
followed her.

Traits:

A guide and guardian by nature, Alveric's light

searches the desert for lost and imperiled travelers,
and brings them to the safety of his lighthouse.
From there, they are usually given to the care of the
Wraiths or the Ascendant, whoever is willing to
take them in. More recently, travelers have been
directed to the Utopian Society's outpost hospital.

Artificially Sustained (Obsessive)

Radiant (Vain)
Frozen Heart (Solitary)
Creed:
1. Transcendence is the ultimate goal of existence.

Alveric himself is a man of average height, who

glows with brilliant light. He himself is the source
of power that illuminates the lighthouse at night.
Alveric is able to create phantom servants to do his
bidding in Sadresh, and can see as far as the edge of
the realm from atop his tower. He has a sharp
memory and eye for detail, and understands many
mysteries of the desert.

2. Others are to be accommodated, so long as

they prove useful.
3. My people are more important than others.

Traits:
Lantern (Demagogue)
Simulacrum (Reputed)
Third Eye (Curious)
Creed:
1. Peace between the people of Sadresh
supersedes any other goal.
2. The Adat-Nol must be destroyed.
3. The lighthouse must not fall at any cost.

Sadresh

Alveric, Sadresh's resident sage, has tended the

glass lighthouse since time immemorial. The
lighthouse existed even before the Ascendant
migrated to the skies, or the Sand Wraiths
descended below the earth. It contains timeless
mysteries of Old Empyrean, and Alveric acts as
their keeper.

Gahlla, the Witch Queen of the Wraiths, is

perhaps the oldest creature in Sadresh. She studies
alchemy and mysticism constantly, and leaves the
governing of her people to the tribal warlords, while
she focuses exclusively on achieving spiritual
transcendence for herself and the members of her tribe.

Sadresh

Technology

Eidolon's heart using the venom of a rare cactus

flower and its tiny needles.

The two cultures of Sadresh have developed

vastly different technologies, but both are based
around artisan crafts rather than scientific
breakthroughs. The Ascendant have mastered
glassblowing, and use the unique properties of the
desert sands to create glass devices with diverse
propertiessuch as floating upon the buoyant gas
that rises from the desert, emitting natural light, or
providing energy for daily life. The wraiths have
built their advances around chemistry, particularly
in the field of tranquilizers, opiates, and stimulants.
They use these in their shamanic rituals as well as to
heighten their combat prowess to fight off the
Ascendant and the constant threat of the Adat-Nol.

Wildlife & Monsters

Adat-nol
Adat-nol, or the living shadows, are the greatest
enemy of the Sand Wraiths. This creature appears
as a living black oil that skitters across the surface of
the desert and devours anything it encounters. Adatnol are not uncommon sights in Sadresh, though
large ones are rare.
It is not known if Adat-nol are sentientthey
do not speak, but hunt creatures with a relentless
intelligence. It could be that they are part of a larger
hive-mind, and not individual entities at all.

Some Technologies that are used daily in

Sadresh:

The Adat-nol appear to lose their power in the

presence of light. In the light of the sun or of
Alverics Glass Lighthouse, they dissolve beneath
the surface of the sands. Because of this, they are
only active at night.

Sailing - Ships made from redglass traverse the

air above Sadresh, steered by skilled Ascendant
navigators.
Medicine - The wraiths are able to treat a
diverse range of wounds, poisons, and even curses
with their mystical and chemical creations.

Adatrach
Adatrach is the hive mind of the Adat-Nol, who
perhaps was once a being himself. No one knows the
shape, motives, or powers of this creature, but due to
the collective intelligence that the Adat-Nol display,
it is clear that they are being directed by someone or
something.

Trade Goods
Sadresh trades extensively in glassware.
Sadreshans are able to forge all kinds of amazing
glassware and glass goods using their unique natural
resources and hundreds of years of cultural research
and trade secrets. Many Sadreshan landmarks and
wonders feature glass as a prominent material.

Alurane
Deep within the cactus forest, a legendary
creature is said to live. The alurane emits an
intoxicating pheromone which confuses and dizzies
its victims, leading them to its lair. There, this
monstrous plant devours them for sustenance. The
Alurane is thought to be some kind of mutant cacti
with extremely potent poisons, though there are no
confirmed reports of encounters with it.

Redglass Redglass is made from the especially

lightweight sands of the red dunes, which can be
found commonly around Sadresh. Redglass floats on
top of Remon Gas, enabling Sadreshan sand ships
and cities to float in the air. The more pure redglass
is forged, the higher it is able to float on the desert
gas.

Corpseweed

Blueglass Blueglass is forged from the heavy

blue sands, which can be harvested from the rare,
moving blue dunes in Sadresh. Blue glass shatters
easily, but regenerates. This property has little
practical use at present, but research is ongoing.

This cactus takes root in the rotting corpses of

the dead, and rapidly grows inside of them. A
creature infected by corpseweed will return to life as
a half-living abomination. The corpseweed's only
instinct is to proliferate by creating more corpses to
infect. Corpseweed-zombies have all the abilities of
their natural selves, and additionally feel no pain,
can grow poisonous spines, and can only be
destroyed by totally destroying their bodies (usually
with fire).

Cactuswood Fossilized cactus is used as a

substitute for stone or wood in Sadresh. This offgreen substance has the weight of wood and the
strength of granite, though it is somewhat brittle.
Acupuncture The sand wraiths who live deep
within the cactus forest are said to possess a secret
technique whereby they can heal wounds to an

Sand Devils

Element

Place or
Dungeon

Group or Person

Monster or
Creature

Item or
Technology

Culture or Event

Spire Prison

Remarl, Warden of
Spire Prison

Pirates

Stimulant

Border Skirmish

Glass
Lighthouse

Alveric, Keeper of the

Light

Corpseweed

Acupuncture
Needles

Ascendant Chemistry
Fair

Red Dunes

Gahlla, Witch Queen

of the Wraiths

Sand Devils

Redglass

Sandstorms

Cactus Forest

Dontremarl, King of
the Ascendant

Alurane

Cactuswood

Wraith Cactus
Festival

Gitrach

The Wraith Kingdom

The Sand
Wraiths

Blueglass

Wraith Coming-ofAge Day

Mekrat-Nol

Adatrach

Adat-Nol

Shamans
Tincture

Shadow Courts

Shaleb

The Ascendant
Kingdom

The
Ascendant

Airship

Ascendant
Storytelling Festival

Sadresh

The Sand Wraiths measure very carefully the

concoctions they produce. Overdosing on these
substances can cause permanent psychological
damage, at the same time as granting terrible psionic
powers. Nevertheless accidents happen, and those
unfortunate enough to lose all humanity become the
Sand Devils, pure incarnations of psychic power
that discard their bodies and terrorize the desert as
elemental simulacra of sand and light.

Desert Dungeon Challenges

Sadresh, these encounters can add some danger and

excitement to the journey. The shifting sands reveal
many wonders and horrors that have been hidden
since ancient times.

Wandering the vast desert of Sadresh is a

dangerous proposition for any travelers, even a band
of Eidolons. If you have to get somewhere on foot in

The sand beneath your feet begins to give way rapidly, sliding you down into a pit. A large, insectlike creature bursts forth from the sand and claws at you furiously, as you slide ever closer to its
maw.
An iron golem of some type, perhaps a remnant left from a civilization long past, lies half buried
and deactivated in the desert sand, probably revealed by the shifting tides of the dunes.
The sky overhead darkens, and airships begin to circle around you, each bearing a pirate crest.

Sadresh

A group of ghostly beings, the Sand Devils you have heard tales of, seem to rise from the earth
around you, their bodies formed of the desert itself, lit only by glowing red motes in their eyes.
As night falls, you see the black shadows of the Adat-Nol well up from the sand, taking form and
advancing upon you.
You discover a series of what appear to be marker stones in the midst of the desert. Nearby, you
hear a group of Wraith priests approaching the area, with a captured Ascendant victim in their
hands.
Dust rises in the distance, and as the cloud approaches you can see a group of heavily armed
Wraiths fast-approaching you on ships that said along the desert sand.
You see a huge skull peeking up from the sands, disturbed by a recent storm. The skull has strange
markings on it, as though it was used in some ritual or ceremony.
Caught in a minor sandstorm, after a few minutes of blackened sky and battering wind, the
landscape around you is totally changed. You have no idea where you are going or where you have
come from.
While walking through the desert, a heavy wind picks up, and begins blowing away the very sand
beneath your feet. As the sand disappears, you realize that the earth beneath is covered with spiny,
poisonous cacti, which could potentially paralyze you if you fall into them.
You find evidence of a recently buried shipwreck that is rapidly sinking below the sands of the
desert.
You come upon a blue dune as dusk approaches, and the dune glows eerily in the evening light.
There seems to be some strange activity taking place beneath the surface of the dune.
Your foot smashes into something as you cross a dune, and you quickly discover a sealed chest that
was buried long ago by the sandstorms.
You find the salvageable remains of an airship lying ruined in the desert. If you fixed it, it might
make your journey much easier.
In the distance, at the top of a far off dune, you catch a glimpse of a rare, red-skinned cactus whose
bloom is said to have wondrous properties.

10

Traveling across the desert, you come to a large valley with a curious dark spot in the center. Upon
closer inspection, it appears to be a hole in the middle of the sanda deep, cylindrical chute that is
slowly draining the grains from the desert with no sign of filling.
Beneath your feet, the sand begins to give, sucking you rapidly down beneath the desert.
A little ways in the distance, you see a ship go down into the desert at a dangerous speed.
Overnight, a towering cactus seems to have risen recently from the desert, and it blooms with dark
flowers and has a sickly color to it.

The sand has shifted in the desert to reveal the remains of an ancient, blasted tree. Despite its
withered appearance and burial, it still seems alive, and radiates a sinister aura.
You spot an oasis in the distance, but no matter how quickly you approach, it always seems to be
just a bit further away.
A sandstorm has created a deep valley within the desert, and in this valley you see what appears to
be the entrance to an ancient tomb of some kind.
As dusk falls, a stone obelisk you have discovered in the desert begins to glow. Skeletons formed of
sand and stone rise up from the land, advancing on you with menace.
Traveling across the desert, you come across a caravan of merchants. Their ship has broken down,
forcing them to make the rest of the journey on foot, but they have become lost, and are fearful for
their safety.
A sandstorm rises up around you and spins the dust around into a solid wall of scything death.
Though you wait, the storm seems to show no sign of stopping or moving. Perhaps something else
is powering it.
The parting sands reveal the opening to a tunnelpart of the Sand Wraiths travel network
beneath the desert. All but the Wraiths are forbidden to use these tunnels, but it might take you
more quickly and safely to your destination if you do follow it.
You come across a group of wanderers with broken shackles, wearing prison garb. They seem to be
prisoners who escaped in transit to Spire Prison.

11

Sadresh

A sandstorm whips up out of nowhere, and you have little time to find shelter before it reaches
you.

Spire Prison Dungeon Challenges

a friend or to try and escape themselves. Spire

Prison is filled with devious traps, highly trained
and resilient guards, and the most dangerous
Eidolons Empyrean has to offer, driven mad by
centuries of confinement and despair.

Spire Prison is a legendary dungeon built to hold

Eidolons too dangerous to wander the world. The
dungeon encounters here are built for Eidolons
wandering the halls of Spire Prisonperhaps to free

A mad Eidolon inmate, wandering free from his cell, attacks you without warning.
As you walk into this room, the doors seal shut, and a particularly deadly looking apparatus in the
rooms center begins counting down from fifteen seconds.

Sadresh

As you walk down a long, narrow hallway, a ballista boltnearly a meter long and large enough to
pin a grown man against a wallflies down the hall, narrowly missing your head. Apparently an
automatic ballista of some sort is firing through the mist further down the hall.
You hear growling and snarling from behind you, as a pack of slavering, feral hounds round the
cornereach dog is the size of a small pony, bound with spiked harnesses and stained with blood.
You enter a room with a grated floor and solid steel walls, piled high with refuse and rubbish of all
sorts. As you enter, the doors close shut on either end, and beneath, a massive fire roars to life. You
only have a few moments before the incinerator cooks you to a crisp.
As you head down an increasingly narrow hallway, you hear a crash behind you. Looking back, you
see that the heavy stone blocks in the ceiling are slamming down, mounted on mechanical pistons.
The wave of crushing stones is rapidly reaching you, and the hallway is becoming rather cramped.
Stepping into a cavernous room like a courtyard, you find a group of inmates engaged in an
ongoing fight with the wardens.
You enter way must be some kind of chute or elevator shaft, completely empty and with smoothed
walls. At the top of the shaft, which is more more than a meter wide at any point, you see a light.
You enter a hallway with a bright light overhead. The floor is pockmarked with holes, and small
mechanical spears are set into those holes, just below the solid metal. Whenever a shadow from the
light overhead falls upon the grated floor, these mechanical spears shoot up to the ceiling with
incredible speed beneath the shadow.
A black bird begins following you through the halls, crowing loudly and alerting nearby guards to
your presence. It perches along the walls and ceiling, staying well outside of your reach at all times.
You come to another room, with a large door at the far end. This room is filled with statues of solid
stone, all frozen in fear and surprise. Above the door, a single red eye is set into the stone. As you
enter the room, it blinks to life and attempts to fix on you.
The hallway up ahead is crowded with guards, each armed to the teeth with tranquilizers and
heavy, armor-piercing mechanical weaponry. A head on fight would be suicidal, but they dont
appear to be actively looking for you.
As you enter the room, a horrible siren begins to blare. The sound seems to trigger something in
your mind, causing your movements to become rigid and clumsy. Its difficult to stand, much less
to escape.
The hallway ahead seems ordinary enough for a moment, but a second later, hundreds of vicious
looking blades slice through it at different angles and speeds, blacking out the end of the hall with
the reflections of steel and dried blood.

12

You find yourselves standing at the top of a downward-sloped room. Slick oil runs from a duct at
the top of the room, sliding over the sloped floor, which is covered with jagged scrap metal and
what appear to be shards of broken glass.
The ground below you gives way just in time for you to jump back. The walls, ceiling, and floor of
the hallway crumble away and down to reveal four massive cylinders of spiked metal, screeching
hideously together as they grind the loose stone to dust. The only hallway remaining ahead of you
is a spinning, grinding deathtrap of spikes and oiled steel.
Up ahead in the narrow hallway, you smell a toxic stench. Corrosive acid pours down from an
overhead grate, burning away flesh and eating through bone of anything is comes into contact
with, before draining down a grating in the floor.

The ground beneath you gives way, dropping you into a pit filled with angry scorpions.
As soon as you step into the center of this room, the doors seal themselves shut, and a toxic green
gas begins being pumped into the room with you. As the gas seeps through your skin, you find
yourselves becoming more and more drowsy.
A trapdoor collapses beneath you, sending you and your allies tumbling down into a pit of thick,
choking tar. The slick walls of the pit provide no purchase, and you find yourselves rapidly sinking
beneath the ooze.
You enter what appears to be some kind of conservatory, blocked with thick foliage. The plants in
the room are a sickly purple, and give off a smell similar to the tranquilizers used by the guards.
Though they have negligible effects on the Nascent, these plants seem to cause severe reactions in
Eidolons, and it may be unwise to push through them without aid.
The path ahead is blocked by an impressively massive door of wrought steel and mechanical
engineering. No amount of force seems to move it, but perhaps it is operated by some kind of
machine.
You find yourselves standing before a weapons locker that has been left unattended. The locker is
filled with potent tranquilizers, weapons, armor, and even guard uniforms. However, some of the
less-savory inmates could utilize this gear just as easily as you could, if it is left open.
You creak open the door to enter a room which must be the bunk room for the guards. The lights
are low, and the sounds of snoring fill the air.
You enter a room that is apparently some kind of cold storage. The air is freezing. Walking
through, you see stalagmites of ice that have Eidolons frozen inside of them. Water is flowing into
the room at random intervals from vents above into pits below. If you are caught in the freezing
downpour, you could end up with the same fate.
You stumble into what might be the guards breakroomapparently some sort of party is
happening today, and no one has noticed you yet. That said, it will be difficult to make it to the
other side of the room and exit without raising an alarm.
The hall ahead ends in a heavily defended checkpoint, not unlike a fortress. Guards look through
glass panes several feet thick, while mechanical sentries stand guard below and each prisoner to
pass through is carefully scrutinized and screened.

13

Sadresh

The hallway up ahead is filled with slits in the upper walls, behind which you can catch a glimpse
of ready archers, waiting to pelt you with poison-coated arrows as soon as you step into the hall.

Mekrat-Nol Dungeon Challenges

tomb. The Adat-Nol are capable of corrupting

lifeforms, controlling their minds, and turning them
against themselves. Within the Shadow Reservoir,
Eidolons may need to turn upon their own allies to
save them.

Mekrat-Nol is an extensive network of

underground caverns and lakes, interspersed with
ruins of Wraith architecture and underground
outposts. Whole ships that have sunken beneath the
sands have found their final rest in this darkened

As you walk down the dark corridors of Mekrat-Nol, you realize that the ground beneath your feet
has become slimy, and that the walls are undulating slowly. The path behind you is closedyou
realize that you have inadvertently walked straight into the belly of some gigantic creature.
An indecipherable script on the walls glows red with warning. As you approach, the writing leaps
off of the walls and takes the form of a corporeal sentry, blocking your path forwards.

Sadresh

A group of corpses in the tunnels appear to be past victims of the caverns. However, as you begin
to walk through, shadows of the Adat-Nol squirm and slide along the cavern walls, filling the
armor and rags, and reanimating the remains to fight against you.
You come across a figure that appears human, but is utterly saturated with darknessperhaps a
cultist so ancient that his whole body has rotted away.
Before your eyes, the ground collapses beneath one of your allies, plunging him into a pit of
swirling, thick shadows. A few moments later, he climbs up from the pit, shadows writing around
his body and a malevolent aura emanating from his presence.
You enter a chamber that appears to be a massive atrium of some kind. In the center of the place, a
lake of oily black slime sits, and from this rises a colossal creature of monstrous size and intent,
formed entirely of pulsing shadow creatures.
You come across a group of Wraiths in the tunnels, their eyes blackened over with oily slime.
Without warning, they step forward and attempt to subdue you, fighting with weapons
empowered by darkness.
You mind a chamber with what appears to be several marker stones. All are thrown over or broken,
possibly in order to nullify some barrier that was once in place.
Deep beneath the surface, you come upon a chamber filled with twisted, blackened metal. Upon
closer inspection, you believe that the wreckage is some kind of ancient war machine from a time
predating both the Wraiths and Ascendant. It might still have some functional weapons or parts, if
you can salvage them.
The tunnel ahead opens into a sheet drop down a cylindrical shaft. You hear a mechanical noise,
and notice that a number of chains are slowly grinding up and down through the shaft at different
anglespossibly part of some ancient well system that miraculously still functions.
In the rocks around you, there seems to be an inscription of some type. Whether it is scrawled as a
protection or a warningor perhaps even as a trapis impossible to say without further scrutiny.
You stumble upon a glowing, hive-like structure that pulses with strange energy. The purpose and
function of the hive, as well as what built it, is not certain without further observation.
You come upon a group of lost explorers who claim that they have recently escaped from a
sinkhole and are trying to get back to the surface. They seem weak, hungry, and deliriousbut
could they also be in the first stages of transformation into Cultists of the Adat-Nol?

14

A chamber with a high roof houses a cloud of spinning sand. The sand is moving so quickly that it
generates thunderbolts and flays your skin as you try to walk through.
The way forward is up a rocky, cylindrical tunnel. However, as you begin to climb, a pool of black
ooze rises from the sand beneath and begins slithering up towards you. You will need more than
simple quick climbing to escape from it.
The rocks at the top of the runnel begin to crack. You must brace the roof quickly, or be ground to
dust under tons of solid stone.

A series of cave-ins force you to evacuate the mines in a rush. The miners are also trying to escape,
creating a bustling crowd that is difficult to move through.
Breaking through a cavern wall, you discover an underground lake filled with eerie bleach-white
plants and fish unlike anything youve seen before. An ancient thaumic device rests at the center of
the lake, apparently the source of this fantastic menagerie.
A boulder weighing several thousand tons has collapsed over a mine shaft, trapping a group of
miners below. It must be moved in order to get them free.
You enter a sealed off cavern to find a vast underground lake, with a sleeping leviathan visible
beneath the waters clear surface. As you enter, it opens a great eye to stare at you.
A cave in has sealed a group of miners in a cavern deep in the mines. There is only a limited time
to reach them before they suffocate.
In a sudden rumbling, the tunnel overhead collapses, trapping the party in a tomb of stone and
rubble.
A vent in the mines spews forth molten lava, and has flooded the lower mines with fiery rock. The
miners ask you to seal off the area before the entire mine is lost.
The miners have spoken to you of a treasure that was recently found in the mines, but lost beneath
a cave in before it could be extracted.
The mines begin to twist and wrap in labyrinthine shapes, getting you hopelessly lost. You fear
that some force is clouding your senses and attempting to trap you here forever.
A ghostly miner asks you to recover his bones, which were buried in a cave in, and return them to
his family.
The mines have dug into a Downcaste village, and the villagers are violently resisting the
expansion of the mines further.

15

Sadresh

A glowing orange stone the size of a boulder melts the flesh of any who come close to it. You are
asked by the miners to remove this obstacle.

Treasures

The two major civilizations of Sadresh produce

vastly different goods. Many of the relics from
precursor civilizations can also be found in and
under the desert, or within the halls of the ancient
Spire Prison.

Shaleb Treasures

Sadresh

Treasure

Power

A hand cannon

Unleashes a destructive barrage of glass shards.

A glass pendant

Casts a sphere of protective light.

A bottle of sand

Turns objects bright red.

A silk shirt

Repels fire and heat.

A glass orb

Can selectively attract or repel metal.

A feathered shirt

Glides on the wind.

A skyship

Enables the owner to fly.

A book of stories

Returns you to an important location instantly.

A scrap of parchment

Can never be discarded.

Gitrach Treasures
Treasure

Power

A glass sword

Significantly weakens enemies.

A shuttered lantern

Reveals the intentions of another.

A green potion

Transcends the user to another plane.

A dried flower

Regenerates the owner's flesh.

A cactuswood shield

Returns on command.

A shroud

Creates illusory clones of the owner.

A vial of tincture

Allows the user to control sand with his mind.

A black crystal

Unseals mystical locks.

A silver emblem

Influences the actions of another.

16

Treasure

Power

A rusted sword

Can create a phantom servant.

A rune-etched stone

Leads the way to safety.

A jeweled pendant

Terrifies monsters.

A bundle of rags

Causes others to ignore you.

A blackened stone

Repels liquids.

A jar of oily liquid

Grants sinister strength.

A ring

Allows communication over a distance.

A vial of tincture

Slays an enemy on contact.

A bleached skull

Attracts monsters.

Spire Prison Treasures

Treasure

Power

A quarterstaff

Grants incredible strength.

A lantern

Stops time for a few moments.

A rope

Binds an enemy with chains of light.

A mushroom

Grants incredible speed

A control panel

Manipulates traps.

A dart

Paralyzes an enemy.

A megaphone

Stun enemies.

A key

Grants invisibility

A set of manacles

Sounds an alarm

17

Sadresh

Mekrat-Nol Treasures

Sadresh Adventure Hooks

A Red Dune is contested by the Sand Wraiths and Ascendant, and their conflict has broken out
into an all-out battle.
While traveling to Shaleb, the partys airship is boarded by pirates.
Bandits have stolen away the Ascendant Royal Crest and hidden it away in a secret desert hideout.
A great scorpionperhaps driven mad by some unknown force, attacks the party without warning.

Sadresh

A Sand Wraith warlord wishes to claim the Glass Lighthouse as his own, in order to solidify his
power over the other Wraiths.
A convicted criminal has escaped custody. Its up to you to apprehend him and deliver him to Spire
Prison.
An ascendant foreman is extracting sand from a dune and has been attacked by Wraith Brigands
repeatedly. He asks you to put an end to the problem.
The philosophers guild of Shaleb asks you to transport an important letter to Alveric, crossing the
harsh desert in a single day.
A remon airship crashes in the desert just off in the distance. If there are any survivors, they will
be dead by nightfall.
You discover an old, crashed cargo ship which is loaded with red sand. The sand would trade for a
fortune to either the Wraiths or Ascendant, if you can transport it to either one.
A party member resembles closely a local criminal, and is spirited away in the night to Spire Prison
by the authorities.
You have heard legends of a lost treasure in the desert. Unfortunately, the only person who knows
the truth of its location is locked away in the maximum security wing of Spire Prison.
Alveric asks you to investigate the blue dunes in the desert and their connection to the Adat-Nol,
as well as to bring him back some sand from the dune for study.
The party has come across a raceway in the desert where an Ascendant inventor is trying to
popularize his new racing sport. He asks the party to help, and offers them a race car to easily cross
the desert with if they succeed.
A crack has been discovered in the principal plate of Shaleb, and unless it is repaired quickly, the
whole city may fall.
While wandering the desert, a sinkhole plunges the party into Mekrat-Nol, from which they must
escape before nightfall.
A researcher is studying the Adat-Nol, and asks you to trap one and bring it to him.

18

The party comes upon a group of lost explorers who are near to dying in the desert. They have
apparently returned from pillaging a lost desert city, and are loaded with treasures.
It is said that a mystical flower blooms in a hidden grove within the Cactus Forest each night, and
that finding it confers many secrets and powers to the one who does.
Rumors abound of a secret oasis city that is cut off from the rest of the realm by mystical power.

The party has stumbled upon an oasis in the desert. As you approach, you overhear a group of
Wraith Brigands discussing a rare and mystical treasures, and where it might be found.
A sandstorm reveals a ruined and ancient city built before the Ascendant and Wraiths came to
Sadresh.
Falsely accused of a crime, the party has been imprisoned for eternity within the Spire Prison.
The party has stumbled upon a contested dune, and have a chance to mediate before the conflict
erupts into all-out war.
Citizens have been found dead recently outside of Spire Prison. The warden asks you to investigate
the mystery.
The city of Shaleb is on high alert because a Wraith assassin has supposedly infiltrated the city and
is attempting to kill the king.
King Dontremarl invites the party members to participate in the citys storytelling festival, with a
grand prize going to the one who tells the most interesting story.

19

Sadresh

As night falls in the desert, the party are surrounded by the Adat-Nol. They must find a way to
outlast the onslaught and survive the night.

Adventure Tracks

In addition to general adventures, the players

may choose one of these adventure tracks that they
wish to follow. These tracks give the Scenario
Owner a set of fixed encounter contexts which they
can use to create a running narrative in the city.

Tending the Lighthouse

This adventure path puts the party under the

supervision of Alveric, who requires their help to
battle the Adat-Nol and keep peace between the
tribes in Sadresh. This adventure focuses on
diplomacy and exploration more than combat.

Sadresh

1. Alveric enlists the party to help him rescue an

Ascendant ship that is downed and stranded in the
desert.
2. Alveric asks the party to travel to Sadresh and
acquire new mirrors. Alverics mirror designs are
complicated and expensiveonly with a royal
decree will they be able to gather enough workers to
complete the task.
3. Alveric asks the party to travel to Gitrach and
acquire kindling blessed by Gahlla the Witch
Queen. Only this kindling will enable the light from
the lighthouse to push back the Adat-Nol.
4. Alveric asks the party to tend the lighthouse
for him while he travels for a night. While he is
away, the Adat-Nol lay siege to the lighthouse, and
the party must keep the beacon lit at all costs as they
fight off the menace.
5. Alveric has, with the help of Gahlla and
Dontremarl, forged a lantern which he believes will
be able to purify the desert once and for all. He asks
the party to travel into Mekrat-Nol and shatter the
lantern in the heart of the Shadow Aquifer.

In the Service of Gitrach

Witch Queen Gahlla maintains that her people

are the true inheritors of the desert, and that the
usurpers are interfering with the quest of her
people to attain transcendence. She desires aid in her
quest to obtain spiritual enlightenment for herself
and her people, and to drive the Ascendant away
from Sadresh.
1. Gahlla sends the players to reclaim a red dune
that was wrested from her by Ascendant warriors.
2. Gahlla asks the party to deliver a package to
Shaleb. Upon arrival, it becomes apparent that the
artifact is a device intended to destroy the floating
city. (The party can switch tracks to In the Service of
Shaleb at this point if they decide they do not want to be

a part of Gahllas plans).

3. With the city of Shaleb grounded in ruins,
Gahlla asks the party to enter the heart of MekratNol and bring her the Nol Stonethe heart of the
Adat-Nol and their sustaining force.
4. After great preparation, Gahlla takes the Nol
Stone into her own heart and becomes the
embodiment of all darkness within the realm of
Sadresh. She instructs the party to kill her in a final,
climactic battle, sealing away the darkness that
plagues the realm forever.
Possible Ending: As Gahlla dies, a wave of
destruction sweeps through the city of Gitrach,
killing all of the Wraiths. With everyone in the
realm dead, it seems that the Adat-Nol were
destroyed at too great a cost. However, when the
party finally returns to the surface, they discover
that a new race of Nascent has appeared, living in
the now grounded city of Shaleb. These individuals
claim to be a fusion of the souls of the Ascendant
and Wraiths, healed of the division that separated
them long ago and gave form to the darkness in their
hearts. Grass carpets what was once desert, and the
once-dead realm of Sadresh is transformed into a
paradise.

In the Service of Shaleb

Dontremarl, King of the Ascendant, is searching

for emissaries and diplomats who can aid him in
bringing peace and unity to Sadresh, as well as
driving out the sinister Mekrat-Nol.
1. Dontremarl has sent a group of emissaries to
Gitrach, but has not heard any news from them for
quite some time. He asks the party to visit the city
and find out what fate has befallen them.
2. The city of Shaleb has been sabotaged by
Wraith agents, and will collapse into the desert
unless its plates can be repaired in short order. To
accomplish this, the players must find a red dune,
reclaim it from the Wraiths, and ship several loads
of red sand up to the city for immediate processing.
3. Dontremarl decides that Gahlla is too
dangerous to lead the Wraiths, and that if she is
removed from power, they will decentralize and
eventually be peacefully absorbed into the
Ascendant civilization. He asks you to subdue
Gahlla, and deliver her to Spire Prison.
4. With Gahlla removed and no barrier
remaining underground to halt their expansion, the
Adat-Nol grow rapidly to saturate the desert. That
night, they rise in the form of a colossal titan too
powerful for even Alverics light to ward off.

20

Sadresh

Possible
Ending:
With
the
Adat-Nol
vanquished, their corpses wither and fuse to the
desert, coating the whole of the realm in the red and
blue sands which were once warred over. The
Wraiths are able to reclaim the underground of
Sadresh and set up a Kritarchy (a government run
by legal courts). The task still remains of creating
lasting peace between the two races, but the barriers
which stood between them are much lower than
before.

21