Io'lokar

For the people of the City of Knowledge, wealth lies in the life of learning and wonder that each new day brings. Goods and services are traded on the basis of effort alone—a day’s labor from a city street sweeper is considered equal to a day’s labor from the highest-level spellcaster, warrior, or sage.

Many high-level adventurers from Khorvaire have trouble adjusting to the idea that wealth built up over a lifetime is all but worthless in Io’lokar. In the taverns of the city, the Io’lokari drink for free, trading their day’s work for the labor of brewer and barkeep. Visitors to the city have no such capital, though PCs can typically trade a first night on the town for tales or songs of the outside world. Characters staying longer in the city need to establish what goods or services they can offer that are worthy of barter.

The Io’lokari want for very little, but fine jewelry, magic weapons, magic armor, and wondrous items usually retain their value in the city. This value is relative, however, and does not scale in the same way as gold piece pricing. A tavernkeeper willing to barter a month’s lodging for a magic weapon makes no distinction between a +1 dagger and a +5 holy vorpal short sword of wounding. Either option satisfies his desire for a magic blade, and is thus fair trade for the PCs’ need for a comfortable room and good food.

From the moment it appears on the horizon, the city is a beacon against the darkening sky. Walls of white rise and twist against the highest reaches of the black peak, gleaming in the day’s dying light. From one of the great towers that ring those walls, dark shapes shoot up—wyvern riders, from the look of them, winging into flanking position to shadow your approach. Atop the closest tower, dragons are perched, watching you idly. Beside them stand giants armed with mighty greatswords, the nighttime city beyond them blazing with spell-light as you begin your descent.

Throughout their long history, the dragons of Argonnessen have built no cities for their own kind. However, some thirty centuries ago, a great nondragon city called Io’vakas was founded by the Warders—a group of a dozen dragons dedicated to improving the lot of Argonnessen’s lesser races. With dragon magic and the labor of nondragon subjects collected from across Eberron, the Warders built a walled enclave deep in the south of the Vast. Under the tutelage of their draconic lieges, the citizens of Io’vakas—the Gate of Knowledge—became enlightened dragon worshipers with an advanced understanding of nature, science, and magic.

Today, Io’vakas is a mass of shattered stone jutting up from ground made barren by dragon fire. But each morning as the sun rises above those ruins, it reflects off distant towers against the slopes of a bare peak to the west. This place is very much alive; it is Io’lokar, the City of Knowledge—risen from the ashes of Io’vakas a thousand years ago.

Even among the nondragons of Argonnessen, Io’lokar is often thought of as myth. Beyond the dragon continent, many experienced adventurers have never heard of it. Argonnessen is a land of high-level and epic campaigns, and nowhere is this fact reflected more than in the City of Knowledge. From the highest to the lowest, the Io’lokari are unequaled warriors, brilliant sages, powerful spellcasters, and masters of the arts of a dozen races.

Most NPCs in the city have levels in three or more classes—a primary vocation (often handed down from parent to child), secondary vocations taken from interest, and a spellcasting class (typically adept or sorcerer). Children here take their first class levels by early adolescence. The Io’lokari are the masters of vocations both great and mundane, and all reap the benefit of their advanced society. A lowly clerk living in the Freeward might well be a 7th-level expert/8th-level adept whose accumulated knowledge would make a Morgrave professor weep.

The people of Io’lokar do not have access to the full power of dragon magic. The fate of the giants of Xen’drik has ensured that no nondraconic culture will ever be granted such a boon again. Nonetheless, magic permeates every corner of the city and every one of its people, and a first visit to Io’lokar can induce awe in even jaded explorers.

Within the city, spell-light is infused into the air itself, rising and falling according to the time of day and the presence of passersby. Residents and visitors alike within Io’lokar’s walls can access the powers of flight (as a fly spell) and short-distance teleportation (as dimension door), though teleporting into or out of public spaces is considered somewhat rude. Magic tempers the climate and the seasons, feeds the city’s people, and hones the skills of its scholars, artisans, and workers to unnatural levels.

The Io’lokari are not given to ostentation or casual displays of power, however. The city has no floating towers or wanton exhibitions of sorcerous might. Though its walls and buildings are reinforced by arcane power, they were raised one stone at a time. However, within these nondescript apartments of multicolored marble can be found collected lore rivaling that of Morgrave, Wynarn, and Korranberg combined— all the product of a humble working-class people whose lives more closely resemble those of lords and kings.

The creation of Io’vakas thirty centuries ago was preceded by centuries of debate and anger among the dragons of Argonnessen. With the Chamber still in its infancy, most dragons opposed the Warders’ plans for empowering the lesser races. The idea of sharing even a small amount of draconic knowledge was anathema to many dragons, the fate of Xen’drik still sharp in their memories. In the end, though, the Warders prevailed. Io’vakas was built in the Vast with the tacit blessing of the Conclave and the Eyes of Chronepsis, and for two thousand years, the city thrived. Then the yuan-ti came from Sarlona, and the doomsayers proved correct.

When the serpent folk arrived in exile, the best among them were invited to Io’vakas. There, they joined the other nondragons of the city in a bountiful life that included worship of the fifteen ascended spirits of the Sovereigns—a gift of faith to the nondragons from their dragon masters. However, at least one sect of the Io’vakas yuan-ti sought more power than the Sovereigns could grant. In secret, this group claimed the direct worship of the Dragon Gods—and the deepest mysteries of dragon magic—for themselves.

When this blasphemy was eventually discovered, the dragons who opposed the Io’vakas experiment demanded a swift and final response. Refusing to distinguish between those who transgressed and the bulk of the loyal yuan-ti, or even the Io’vakas citizenry as a whole, draconic might was unleashed. Under a storm of lightning, frost, and fire, Io’vakas was leveled. A dozen or so yuan-ti escaped to the catacombs beneath the city; the rest of the serpent race, including all the priests, was destroyed. From ruined Io’vakas, a pathetic few nondragon survivors fled to the plains beneath a sky darkened by gathering rogues, anxious to add these so-called scions of knowledge to their own herds.

Then Arnaarlasha, a noble gold dragon great wyrm of the Warders, descended to the wasted plain. She and a dozen elder dragons loyal to her formed a protective cordon around a thousand desperate survivors of the city. On foot, they shepherded their charges across hostile territory to the slopes of Mount Erishnak, a granite peak in the center of Arnaarlasha’s own adjacent territory. To the assembled rogues and the Soldiers of the Light who had pounded Io’vakas and her inhabitants to rubble, Arnaarlasha declared the surviving nondragons free subjects of her dominion. Over the year that followed, high on the mountainside, Io’lokar was raised.

Arnaarlasha never spoke of what drove her actions that day on the plains, nor will she ever do so. Four hundred years ago, the great wyrm’s death marked the city’s darkest hour, and a turning point. Within a day, Io’lokar was besieged by a coordinated attack of rogue dragons intent on claiming Arnaarlasha’s territory and razing the city. Beneath arcane defenses honed over six centuries, the city’s mages stood fast. Alongside the Keepers, flights of wyvern riders launched themselves from the Moontowers, harrying rogues in the air as they rained arcane fury against their reinforcements on the ground. After four days, the rogues retreated. Io’lokar stood fast, and its victory in the Battle of Arnaarlasha’s Fall is celebrated to this day.

Throughout the great battle, the Eyes of Chronepsis and the Light of Siberys were conspicuous by their absence, a display of indifference they maintain to this day. As long as the Io’lokari are careful to stay within the boundaries of behavior proscribed for them when Io’vakas was new, the Conclave seems content to leave the city be. However, both the Io’lokari and the Keepers accept that the city exists at the Conclave’s whim. If any nondragons seek the forbidden lore of dragonkind once again, or should any yuan-ti presence be again tolerated, no force of will or lesser magic will be enough to save them

In the twelve hundred years since, the City of Knowledge has grown from a mountainside fort (part of what is now the Freeward) to its present form. Within its walls, scholars, crafters, and artisans from a dozen non dragon races live side by side in common cause and culture. Though the Warders long ago stepped back to let the Io’lokari run their own affairs, the city remains dedicated to allowing nondragon culture to flourish on its own terms.

Even after three thousand years, however, many of the city’s sages believe that the Warders had a deeper purpose in their creation of a nondragon city within the dragon continent. In the same way that the dragons are said to shun Sarlona because they have seen that land’s destruction in the unfurling of the draconic Prophecy, some suggest that the Prophecy predicts the eventual destruction of all nondragon life on Eberron. Whether this destruction will come at the hands of the quori, some unknown magical or natural disaster, or through the actions of the lesser races themselves remains unknown. Either way, Io’lokar (and Io’vakas before it) might have been created as a safe haven for humanity—a place in which the scions of Sarlona, Xen’drik, and Khorvaire might live on.

Today, the city is home to the some of the finest crafters, artisans, and spellcasters in the world. However, mercantilism does not drive the art, craft, and magic of Io’lokar as it does in Khorvaire. Though the city has no effective gold piece limit, coin has no value here. Gems have use as currency only if they appeal to an individual Io’lokari’s eye. All Io’lokari work toward the continued survival of the city and the betterment of their own lives.

With the exception of the kalashtar, all the advanced nondragon races of Eberron were present at the creation of Io’lokar, and they remain a part of the city to this day. The descendants of lesser races gathered by the dragons of old from across Eberron, the Io’lokari have long since developed a culture all their own. Given names are a unique blend of Draconic and a dozen other languages, while surnames are unknown here. The folk of the city have an in-depth knowledge of their own genealogy (a necessity in such a closed population); an Io’lokari knows which of his fellow citizens he is closely related to. Even so, he and his relatives are considered full family to the elves, orcs, changelings, and all the other races they work alongside. Likewise, the goblins and dwarves working side by side in the Freeward would be culturally unrecognizable to their distant kin in Darguun or the Ironroot Mountains.

Like their dragon patrons, the Io’lokari are an insular society—many live their whole lives without ever setting foot outside the city walls. Those who travel typically do so for scholarly pursuits, journeying across Argonnessen and beyond. Io’lokar is hardly a prison, however, and high-level citizens often leave the city to take up positions as advisors or scholars with benevolent dragon lords or agents of the Chamber.

Although the high-level characters of Io’lokar would no doubt have little trouble establishing themselves as powerful lords in Khorvaire or Xen’drik, those lands have little to offer. A high-level Khorvairian might dream of wealth or power. A high-level Sarlonan might dream of ending injustice. Io’lokari dream of peace, friendship, and the pursuit of ever greater knowledge. Their city is the best place to achieve that.

Io’lokar’s population has been effectively stable for nearly four hundred years, even with a steady number of immigrants. The city has high standards, and those unable to meet them usually have little interest in embracing its philosophies in the first place. High-level NPCs sometimes flee here from the holds of other dominion lords, typically infuriating their former masters. Often, refugees from the Vast come to Io’lokar in greater numbers than the city can handle. Once such folk are returned to health, it is thought that the Io’lokari quietly teleport them to the holds of more benevolent lords, but this has never been confirmed.

Of all those who seek the City of Knowledge, only yuan-ti and half-dragons are denied entry. Although the Io’lokari know that examples of nobility exist even among the serpent folk and the dragon scions, the dragons’ dedication to destroying these creatures makes their presence in the city too great a risk. It is rumored that persecuted half-dragons often pass through Io’lokar on their way to better lives in exile in Khorvaire or Xen’drik, but the Io’lokari shun the half-dragon cultists and dragon hunters common in Argonnessen.

No matter what their moral bent, the Io’lokari take a decidedly neutral approach to the affairs of Eberron. Like the Warders who first brought their ancestors here, the folk of Io’lokar are emphatically devoted to the Prophecy. However, unlike the dragons of the Chamber, the Io’lokari are content to watch history unfold on its own terms. A party seeking aid in Io’lokar to prevent some Khorvairewide catastrophe and another group hunting the epic magic with which to cause that catastrophe would likely both be met with indifference.

This is not to say that Io’lokar is inhabited solely by distant aesthetes or self-obsessed scholars. The folk of the city are a rich and varied lot, and Chamber sympathizers, sages skimming secrets from their colleges, and adventurers who have developed a taste for profit can all be found here. The appearance of a band of Khorvairian adventurers causing trouble might be all it takes to bring such characters out of the shadows.

As with any location in Argonnessen, getting to Io’lokar by ground can be a daunting task. Travel by air is easier, whether on flying mounts or by magic. However, such flights are almost guaranteed to attract the attention of rogue dragons and other predators.

Once characters have been to Io’lokar, greater teleport becomes the easiest way to and from the city. This method is typically used by Io’lokari abroad, and such travelers often teleport parties of strangers back with them. However, it is not financial gain that drives Io’lokari altruism, but knowledge and the prosperity of the city as a whole. PCs must convince an Io’lokari that their need to visit the city warrants such a trip—a DC 40 Diplomacy check.

Though the city controls no territory, the area around the mountain is patrolled by dragons loyal to the Warders. For the most part, Io’lokar’s immediate neighbors are at least indifferent to the city’s existence, but holds in the Vast can change hands with little warning.

Io’lokar consists of five walled wards rising up the slope of the mountain. Like the draconic culture on which it was modeled, rank and respect for power are the heart and soul of the city. Wards are defined by the work that goes on there and the relative power of their residents. In general terms, the higher the ward, the higher the level of the characters to be found there.

The descriptions below outline the typical adult inhabitants of each city ward, and provide lower cutoff points for primary class and level. Use the Player’s Handbook classes mentioned below as guidelines for other classes.

The Freeward

Io’lokar’s lowest ward seems misnamed to many firsttime visitors, since the people here are no freer than anywhere else in the city. However, the original translation from Draconic involves the concept of “freedom” from authority and power. The people of this ward are thus the lower castes—the mundane servants, laborers, smiths, crafters, and clerks who keep the city going. Most visitors need this fact explained to them, however, because the Freeward bears more resemblance to a noble’s enclave than any Khorvairian working-class borough. Buildings here are a riot of color and architectural styles, and the nighttime streets are alive with music and light.

Visitors to the city are initially welcome in the Freeward and nowhere else, but because the city sees few travelers, inns are nonexistent here. Most taverns feature private dining rooms easily converted to short-term residences for the right barter price. Alternatively, PCs can seek lodging in private homes.

The wall gates that lead to the upper wards are unguarded, and citizens of Io’lokar move through the city at will. However, strangers are easily recognized, and will be stopped and questioned as to their business. Those not in the upper wards at the invitation of a resident are politely directed back to the Freeward. A second warning often finds characters deposited by force outside the city gate.

Typical Residents: Characters of 11th level or lower; barbarians, fighters, rangers, and rogues of 8th level or lower; characters with NPC class levels only; visitors to the city of any level.

The Terrace

Io’lokar’s second tier is home to the city’s professional warriors and scouts, and to lower-rank spellcasters. Most of the guides and explorers that a PC party might seek in the city can be found here. The spellcasters of the Terrace are those whose talents keep the magic items and imbued spells of the city functioning. Magic crafters of all stripes can be found here, and the ward is alive with artful illusions and magical entertainments day and night.

Typical Residents: Characters of 12th to 15th level; sorcerers and wizards of 8th level or lower; clerics and druids of 10th level or lower; bards, monks, and paladins of 8th level or lower.

The Sunward

The first of two tiers that wrap the mountain slope on all sides, the Sunward is home to higher-rank spellcasters, lower-grade academics, and the city’s most respected entertainers. Its cobbled streets are quieter than those of the lower tiers, but the ward’s theaters draw audiences from across the city.

Typical Residents: Characters of 16th or 17th level.

The Height

This stately ward is a hub of academic and scholarly tradition, and is thus the virtual heart of Io’lokar. The city’s four great colleges are here, as are the apartments of their wizards, sages, and loremasters. More so than in the lower wards, the architecture here reflects the soaring stone and crystalline style seen in the draconic observatories of Argonnessen (Explorer’s Handbook 115).

Typical Residents: Characters of 18th or 19th level.

The Bastion

At the apex of the mountain, the walls of the Bastion protect the chambers and residences of Io’lokar’s powerful residents. These are the sages and scholars who direct the work of the colleges, plan the city’s sanctioned expeditions to sites across Argonnessen, and magically monitor the actions and intrigues of the dragons of the Vast. Unlike in the lower wards, the Bastion’s wall gate is guarded by four of the Arnaaracaex and powerful magic wards.

Typical Residents: Characters of 20th level or higher

Presented below are just a few of the sites of possible interest to PCs looking to use Io’lokar as a base of operations for an Argonnessen campaign. Io’lokar is unlike any Khorvairian city, however, and traditional shops and places of business are all but unknown here. The difference between a tavern and a house with a large living room and a jovial host is often irrelevant to the Io’lokari.

1. The Moontowers: Jutting from the city walls like upswept spears, the thirteen Moontowers serve as watch points and guard posts for the Arnaaracaex. Connected to the city by great arched stairways, each tower is ringed with dragon skulls magically embedded into the stone, a dark reminder of how seriously the Arnaaracaex take their duties. The great towers also provide landing sites for dragons and other flying visitors, and are where any visiting dragons lodge while in the city. Beneath the top-level living quarters of the stone giants lie a series of spacious draconic guest chambers accessed from the outside tower walls.
   
   The Arnaaracaex keep a constant watch for agents of the dominion lords who openly challenge the city, but for the most part, the dragons stopping in Io’lokar are long-range travelers seeking a safe layover in the Vast. Such dragons are an excellent source of intelligence and campaign hooks from elsewhere in Argonnessen.
   
   Dragons also sometimes come to the city seeking nondragon agents for missions of the Chamber or individual dragon lords. The rare Io’lokari adventurers are particular about the types of assignments they accept, so foreign parties are coveted as heroes for hire—especially those willing to be paid in treasure the Io’lokari disdain.

1. Public Markets: Expert crafters display wares of incomparable beauty and quality in the city’s many markets, and virtually any magic item of the DM’s choosing can be found at a crafter’s stall. However, the markets of Io’lokar operate exclusively on the city’s system of commonwealth and barter. For the most part, city folk simply take what they need of their fellow citizens’ wares, knowing that the work they do is fair trade for these goods. New visitors to the city can attempt to barter their own services or goods, but are often limited to looking on enviously as the Io’lokari shop.
2. The Steelbenders: This loose affiliation of weaponsmiths and armorsmiths (typical expert 15/warrior 5/magewright 3) resembles many of the crafter and artisan enclaves of the Freeward. Its residents live in palatial second- and third-floor apartments above wellappointed workshops whose anvils ring from morning to night.
   
   Many of the city’s crafter enclaves open their homes to visitors with demonstrable skill in the same areas. In addition, the smiths here trade their services for foreign arms and armor they have not seen before (including weapons of Xen’drik and Sarlona). Like most smiths in the city, members of this enclave work only on magic armor and weapons.

1. House of Life: This enclave of adepts and clerics is one of many spread throughout the city, its members studying together and spreading well-being among their fellow citizens. Healing is just another part of the overall system of barter in place within the city. However, members of this house freely cast healing, restoration, raise dead, or even resurrect for strangers if convinced that a party can ultimately offer something to Io’lokar in return (Diplomacy DC 40).
2. Union of the Spear: This citadel of brass-edged stone is the home of Io’lokar’s far-ranging wyvern riders. Spear squadrons spend their time performing aerial reconnaissance in territories that magical observation cannot reach. Members of the order also hunt monsters that threaten nondragon settlements, though they are forced to grudgingly ignore the rogue dragons who too often do the same. Tensions between the dominion lords and Io’lokar run high at all times, and the Io’lokari tread carefully in the Vast.
   
   Service in the Spear is a worthwhile option for combat-oriented characters seeking a place in Io’lokar. PCs who have the Mounted Combat feat and 15 or more ranks in Ride can ask to join a Spear hunting flight as auxiliary troops. Those taking a lead role in slaying a creature of the same Challenge Rating as their level will be invited to join the order. Once within the Spear, characters are trained in the dragonrider prestige class (Dr 124).
   
   PCs adventuring in Argonnessen might find themselves befriended (or even saved) by a flight of wyvern riders from the city. Such an encounter is one way to bring a PC party into Io’lokar for the first time.

1. Necropolis Gate: For thirty generations, the people of Io’lokar have lived and died within their city walls. At the end of a nondescript lane, an unlocked black onyx gate opens to a well-worn spiral staircase leading down into the mountain.
   
   Along miles of magically carved corridors stand the burial chambers of the Io’lokari. Their placement follows no pattern; old and new tombs can be found side by side throughout the complex. No map or plan of these caverns exists—the Io’lokari who come here to meditate know where their loved ones lie.
   
   Though few contemporary city folk have ever explored the full extents of the necropolis, it is rumored that its thousand-year-old caverns connect to an even older series of caves where the remains of great dragons are entombed. If this draconic ossuary has any connection to the Warders’ placing Io’lokar here, it remains unknown.

1. The enormous park known as the Dragon Green contains shrines to all fifteen Sovereigns, and is specifi- cally designed to allow dragons to join the city folk in celebrations, lectures, and other public events. Additionally, the Union of the Shield uses the Dragon Green as its primary training grounds, and tournaments of skill are scheduled here weekly. Such fairs are a combination of a typical combat or spellcasting competition (see Complete Warrior 130 for suggestions) and a tournament arcane (Complete Arcane 178). Lethal force is not only tolerated but actively encouraged in such events, with defeated combatants raised in short order.

   Characters new to Io’lokar should expect an invitation to a tournament as a means of demonstrating their worth and skill. Refusal is a grave insult, and carries a –10 penalty on Diplomacy checks made within the city. Victory in a tournament is a good way to gain status, however, granting a +5 circumstance bonus on Diplomacy checks within the city for one week.The Dragon Green: Public parks and green spaces are spread throughout the city. In addition to providing space for quiet reflection and meditation, each park features a shrine to one of the Sovereigns. Folk of the city often choose a number of shrines for meditation, many making a regular progress through the city to pay fealty to each in turn.
   
   The enormous park known as the Dragon Green contains shrines to all fifteen Sovereigns, and is specifi- cally designed to allow dragons to join the city folk in celebrations, lectures, and other public events. Additionally, the Union of the Shield uses the Dragon Green as its primary training grounds, and tournaments of skill are scheduled here weekly. Such fairs are a combination of a typical combat or spellcasting competition (see Complete Warrior 130 for suggestions) and a tournament arcane (Complete Arcane 178). Lethal force is not only tolerated but actively encouraged in such events, with defeated combatants raised in short order.
   
   Characters new to Io’lokar should expect an invitation to a tournament as a means of demonstrating their worth and skill. Refusal is a grave insult, and carries a –10 penalty on Diplomacy checks made within the city. Victory in a tournament is a good way to gain status, however, granting a +5 circumstance bonus on Diplomacy checks within the city for one week.

1. Union of the Shield: This three-story fortress of polished marble marks the headquarters of the military order charged with the defense of the city. Unlike its counterpart Union of the Spear, the Shield is not an order of full-time troops but a citizen militia under the command of some two hundred career officers. In the absence of a soldier class or a standing army, the people of Io’lokar are an army unto themselves.
   
   The Vast is full of dragons who would be pleased to see Io’lokar join Io’vakas in ruin. As a result, the Io’lokari begin military training at a young age, making good use of the base attack bonus granted by their multiclass levels. Io’lokari who do not have martial weapon or armor proficiency from another class often take levels in warrior.
   
   Though crime within Io’lokar is all but unheard of, officers of the Shield keep the peace alongside the Arnaaracaex. Mostly this means monitoring unauthorized use of the high-level magic that suffuses the city, from adolescent casters summoning epic monsters to accidental arcane conflagrations tearing through upscale neighborhoods. In emergencies, citizens and visitors to the city alike are called to service.
2. Lightstorm: This actors’ enclave is typical of many in the Sunward—a communal place of study and residence for the bards and illusionists whose work is central to Io’lokar’s theatrical traditions (typical bard or illusionist 15/warrior 3). The Lightstorm and other bardic enclaves have a great interest in the lore of the outside world, and a party led by a bard (or PCs willing to pretend that the bard is their leader) can often seek lodging in such enclaves while in the city.
3. The Black Stage: The largest of Io’lokar’s amphitheaters is known as the Black Stage for its shadowmagic augmented performances. Music, drama, and oratory are the cornerstones of Io’lokar cultural life, and performances in the Terrace’s many theaters are attended by all the folk of the city. Epic dramatic works incorporate illusion and planar magic in their production, while incomparable musical and oratory performances make use of illusion and mild enchantment effects to heighten the audience’s perceptions. Lost works of pre-Inspired Sarlona, ancient Xen’drik, and the Dhakaani Empire are often heard here, possibly revealing ancient lore or adventure hooks.
   
   PCs can also seek to perform on the city’s stages—the Io’lokari are always hungry for new tales and ballads from distant lands. In addition to performers bartering their efforts for lodging and other favors, a DC 40 Perform check grants a +5 circumstance bonus on Diplomacy checks made within the city for one week.

1. The Gardens: The homes of Io’lokar are universally stocked with wondrous items that produce hearty food and drink, and the chefs and tavernkeepers of the city take such magic beyond the sublime. Nonetheless, the Io’lokari are as passionate about gastronomy as they are all other arts, and city folk supplement their magical fare with the bounty of the gardens. High-level druids use their spellpower to augment permanent magical effects that produce a full harvest each and every day. Produce is available at the public markets from dawn to dusk.
   
   Druids are rarer within the city than other spellcasters, and druid characters can easily find a place in the ranks of the city’s gardeners. However, the magic that forces an entire season’s growing into a single day involves not only a powerful plant growth effect but planar magic tapping into the power of Lamannia, the Twilight Forest. Planar disturbances that open up rifts to Lamannia are a constant risk, and many fiends and elemental lords have attempted to use Io’lokar to establish a foothold in Argonnessen.
   
   
2. 12–15. The Colleges: The four great colleges of Io’lokar represent a storehouse of theoretical and historical knowledge greater than any in Khorvaire. The colleges are divided into disciplines defined by the dragons when Io’vakas was first built: the arcane sciences (area 12, including arcane magic, alchemy, and astronomy), the natural sciences (area 13, including divine magic and biology), the conscious sciences (area 14, including psionics and psychology), and the unconscious sciences (area 15, including history, sociology, and dream study). Study of the Prophecy is spread out among the four colleges, since the Prophecy touches all aspects of the world.
   
   Spaced around the Height, the four colleges are multistoried affairs of granite and marble. Each features a huge open courtyard at which morning and afternoon lectures are given by resident sages or dragon scholars visiting the city. All citizens of Io’lokar are welcome to these events.
   
   The City of Knowledge gets few visitors, and its scholars take no chances on useful lore being overlooked. In particular, recent events and developments in Khorvaire, Xen’drik, or Sarlona are of great interest to the Colleges, and PCs who have information to share might find themselves invited to lodge at the Height for an extended time.
   
   PCs might also find themselves in possession of information whose value they do not fully understand. Like the draconic scholars they model, the sages of Io’lokar often draw lines of meaning between apparently unrelated events. The PCs’ previous adventures might carry dark portents, and could lead to the Io’lokari requesting the party’s aid on an upcoming academic mission.

16. Masters’ Hall: These are the council chambers of the Masters—those Io’lokari of highest level who choose to dedicate themselves to the administration of the city. The council is an unelected body whose membership changes month to month—any Io’lokari of 20th character level or higher is free to join.

Dragana: This well-regarded goblin sage is a legendary scholar, a powerful arcanist, a respected city Master—and a foul impostor. The original Dragana was slain on a scholarly expedition two years before, with the evil gold dragon who killed her taking her place to pass Io’lokari intelligence to her masters in the Vast. Powerful magic in an amulet the dragon wears prevents true seeing from noting her real form. She plans to continue her ruse for as long as possible, trusting that the shock of her eventual discovery will give her the chance she needs to change shape and flee.

Elabenna: Elabenna (elf diviner 19/dragon prophet 5/warrior 1) is an aging soothsayer who served many years as a Master of the city. Since then, she has built up an unofficial network of younger diviners dedicated to reinterpreting the draconic Prophecy as it relates to Io’lokar—or at least as Elabenna believes it does. This cabal has sponsored a number of scholarly expeditions into deepest Argonnessen as a result of Elabenna’s visions; three of them never returned. Now, Elabenna seeks foreign adventurers for her schemes. Such PCs can effectively set their own price in divination spells cast by Elabenna as payment for such a mission.

Honar: This captain in the Spear (fighter 12/ranger 5/dragonriderDr 5) is one of the best wyvern riders in the city. He is commonly sought out as a guide by foreign adventurers—he has a reputation in the Freeward taverns for being more easily convinced than most that a party’s mission might have some benefit for the city. In truth, Honar simply loves the thrill of adventuring for its own sake, and his recklessness has gotten him (and the parties who hire him) into trouble on more than one occasion.

Izzardo: A goblin war mage who stayed loyal to House Deneith after the Darguun uprising of 969 YK, Izzardo (goblin wizard 12/warrior 5) was in the Cyran village transported to Argonnessen before the Day of Mourning. Found wandering the Vast by a Spear flight, he was brought to Io’lokar and has lived here since. Though he has fully embraced the philosophy of Io’lokar, Izzardo covets portable wealth (usually gems and jewelry) that he greater teleports back home to his extended family in Darguun. Unlike most of the city’s working spellcasters, he is happy to create items or cast spells for hire. He spends much time in the Freeward taverns seeking foreign parties with which to do circumspect business.

K’Naatha: This dour stone giant (elder stone giant sorcerer 8/paladin 10) is the captain of the Arnaaracaex. K’Naatha is an imposing figure, striding through the city in mithral chainmail, his greatsword slung across his shoulders. More than six hundred years old, K’Naatha was a young sergeant of the Arnaaracaex during the bloody Battle of Arnaarlasha’s Fall. In the aftermath, he and his comrades claimed the skulls of the rogues that had fallen to their blades. Today, those Moontower skulls remain a grim warning to any who would threaten this place and its people.

As the oldest resident of the city, K’Naatha is an exceptional source of lore from Io’lokar’s middle period. He is also the only nondragon who knows Arnaarlasha’s and the Warders’ true motives for creating Io’vakas and Io’lokar after it, a secret passed down by his father. What those motives might be rests with the DM.

Nalyna: The aged Nalyna (half-elf paladin 12/ fighter 14/wizard 3) led the Union of the Shield for half his life before retiring to write a definitive encyclopedia of combat styles. He is greatly interested in meeting characters who have exotic combat-oriented prestige classes, and such PCs can usually lodge in his palatial Terrace apartments for as long as they are in the city. To those he judges trustworthy, Nalyna confides a deep secret—his plan to create a covert army of dragonslayers within the city. He has seen too many near attacks from the Vast over the years, and believes that the Io’lokari must take the fight to the rogues before it is too late.

Sura: Like many of her fellow Io’lokari, Sura (expert 8/sorcerer 4) sought a new life after fleeing a tyrant dominion lord in the Vast. She is a low-level researcher at the College of Arcane Sciences, but her work there is more than it appears. Sura is a yuan-ti pureblood, kin to the serpent folk that have secretly laired in the ruins of Io’vakas since that city’s fall. For years, she has relayed powerful arcane lore to her sinister serpent cult. What those leaders do with Sura’s secrets is as yet unknown.

Thinrukidis: The master of the Black Stage (area 10) is Thinrukidis (gnome bard 12/wizard 5/seeker of the songCAr 5). Though he is one of the highest-level arcanists in the city, Thinrukidis’s prowess with illusion conceals a newfound fascination for the forbidden arts of necromancy. As elsewhere in Argonnessen, active practice of the dark art is prohibited in Io’lokar, and the city Masters have no desire to antagonize the Conclave on this matter. Thinrukidis has ties to the necromantic cabal of the Shadow masters, and much of their lore is hidden in the private libraries of the gnome’s Sunward apartments, out of sight of draconic agents.

Veoddyn: This retired human expert arrived in the city only four years ago, and he now spends his days walking the streets and engaging city folk and strangers alike in polite conversation. Though Veoddyn never speaks of his past life, the aged Khorvairian is actually an exile who has a dark secret. The DM should choose a significant campaign-hook back story to play off Veoddyn’s true identity—a notorious war criminal long thought dead, a Cannith artificer who knows what happened on the Day of Mourning, or perhaps even the real Kaius III.