Both sides suffered innumerable casualties in the ancient war against the rakshasa overlords. In one epic battle, a colossal two-headed tiger-fiend named YadRaghesh was laid low south of the Dragon Spine. The rajah assaulted Argonnessen on a seemingly pointless rampage, leaving a swath of destruction in his wake. It took an entire battalion of the Light to fell him. YadRaghesh was the first rajah slain in the great war, and his destruction was hailed as a grand victory. But elder Eyes of Chronepsis pondered the rajah’s suicidal attack uneasily, and their momentary surprise at his death was followed with wary concern. Their fears came home to roost centuries later when the land where Yad-Raghesh fell rotted away and a host of fiends spawned from the desolate stretch of corrupted earth. Since then, the Vale of the Fallen Rajah has been a thorn in the dragons’ side, where malignancy grows from foul roots and taints the earth and sky with evil.
At present, the Vale is lair to the Talons of Tiamat and the countless fiends huddling in their fallen rajah’s dark shadow. The Light of Siberys patrols the perimeter incessantly doing their best to curb the spread of the Vale’s seeping rot. Still the darkness encroaches, gaining inches every year. Unless powerful magic is developed to contain it, it will eventually cover the face of Argonnessen.
Approach
Desolate but natural desert suddenly gives way to a bloodsoaked landscape of dark, corrupted earth. The first obstacle to braving the Vale is the Light of Siberys. The Light allows no entry, because most who venture within return twisted and possessed by fiends. The soldiers patrolling the no-man’s-land around the Vale are under orders to annihilate any living being that crosses their path, fiend or otherwise.
The rajah’s fall shook the earth, and now a bleak wasteland riddled with dark canyons and sulfur-spewing caves lies where his blood desecrated the soil. The scarred ribs of Yad-Raghesh, twisted spires of pure evil, reach high into the black-clouded sky above.
Features
The land here seeps hate. Those who trespass within the Vale find themselves filled with rage over the slightest affront and must make a DC 25 Will save to resist the urge to attack anyone who baits, insults, or otherwise offends them, even if the offense was offered in jest. In addition, the corrupting power of Yad-Raghesh erodes the morals of any who stay among his remains. Every day spent in the Vale adjusts a creature’s alignment one step toward chaotic evil (Will DC 30 negates). Also, the canyons betray travelers, shifting to befuddle attempts to navigate them. All Survival checks attempted in the Vale take a –10 penalty.
By far the most insidious threat of the Vale, and the primary concern of the Light of Siberys, is the place’s strange power over memory. Every day, a creature that has seen the Vale must make a DC 30 Will save or forget everything it knows of the place, even the location’s very existence. This curse allows bands of fiends to wander out of the Vale uncontested as patrols of the Light simply forget their mission and find themselves faced with a sprawling, unfamiliar wasteland. Patrols are constantly rotated to avoid lapses in containment, but fiends invariably escape, and the Vale continues to encroach upon the surrounding countryside.