1. Locations

The House of Hazal

Temple
Graywall in Middle Tavick's Landing

The largest estate in the district belongs to the Hazal family. The Hazals made their fortune investing in the smelting industry, and Hazal caravans still bring in ore from the family’s northern holdings on a regular basis. But while the Hazals have always been community leaders, they have also been religious leaders. Beyond a façade large enough to entertain guests and outsiders, the house of Hazal conceals Sharn’s only temple to the Blood of Vol. There are a number of secret passages throughout the district that lead to the temple, and every Zol the faithful come in shifts to give blood and hear the word of Vol. During the holiest days—such as the Tanarath, when the moon Aryth is eclipsed by Sypheros—almost all of the faithful gather at once.

The current master of the house and priest of the Blood is Lan Hazal (LN male human adept 18). Lan’s wife died recently, and there is a great deal of interest in the community as to who might become the next Lady Hazal. Lan is a charismatic and wealthy man, and he is very careful to conceal his impressive mystical powers from the world at large. Unless there is no other alternative, he only performs magic in the depths of the temple. He takes the use of magic very seriously, and rarely uses spells even to help his parishioners. He believes that people should be able to solve their own problems, and while he offers spiritual advice and even financial assistance to other members of the community, he only uses magic for the most serious situations.

Lan is not an evil man, and he does not always approve of the actions of the Order of the Emerald Claw. However, he feels that it is not his place to question the undead champions of Vol. He has an astonishing gift for enchantment, and he spends much of his time producing magic items and weapons for Lady Tarra’az (see page 90). His other primary interest is extending his family library. Lan has invested a fortune to recover scrolls and texts from Xen’drik, seeking more information about the origin of the first vampires. He might hire a party to locate a tome on his behalf, or cross paths with a character who has accidentally acquired a book he needs; alternately, the party might need a rare book that can only be found in the Hazal library.

The house of Hazal also contains the stores of blood donated by the members of the church, which are used to sustain Lady Tarra’az and visiting vampires.

The Blood of Vol in Sharn

The Blood of Vol is a religion that reveres the undead. In Breland—and even in much of Karrn— people associate the Blood of Vol with mad necromancers and armies of the dead. But as with the Church of the Silver Flame or the Sovereign Host, the majority of the people who worship the Blood of Vol are commoners—hardworking peasants and crafters who simply wish to be left alone to practice the faith of their fathers. The vampire lords and wizards of the Blood of Vol may seek to spread chaos across the world or to restore the Lost Mark, but the typical parishioner simply wants to do his duty, give blood on the holy days, and pray for the spirits of his ancestors who have been taken from this world.

The followers of Vol in Sharn know little about the true nature of the religion. They also believe in the existence of the gods of the Sovereign Host—and despise them. The core belief of the Sharn sect is that death is the greatest evil of all. There is no glorious afterlife, no rebirth; death is oblivion at best, and eternal torment for a soul taken by the Keeper. The gods cursed the world with mortality, but Vol has found a way to escape this curse. Fearing the power of Vol, the gods fled to the heavens, and today they do not walk the world. To the followers of Vol, the sentient undead are champions in the battle against death. The faithful believe that in time, the vampire lords will take the battle to the heavens and destroy the gods, and that when this is done there will be no more death. The regular giving of blood is a form of reverse communion—a spiritual sacrifice, showing the willingness of the community to support their champions and to give their lives to overcome death. As for mindless undead, the soul is all that matters to the followers of Vol and there is no taboo against raising the dead as zombies or skeletons; on the contrary, it allows those unjustly taken from the community to still serve it in some way.

While they believe in the righteousness of their cause, followers of Vol know better than to discuss their faith with outsiders, even with fellow Karrns. The vile gods have enslaved the world, and the followers of Vol know that most people will not listen to them. Some of the followers of Vol are actually of good alignment; these people are deeply opposed to violence, and refuse to participate in the killing of an innocent. Others believe that there are no innocents, and that those who choose to serve and believe in the gods of death deserve nothing better. It is these people who are usually secretly recruited to serve in the Order of the Emerald Claw.

The congregation of the hidden temple in the Graywall district are primarily peaceful followers of Vol. They provide shelter and passive assistance to undead or members of the Emerald Claw, but they themselves are not killers or necessarily evil—no more or less so than the inhabitants of any other district of Sharn.

January 20th, 2022 January 20th, 2022