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Vulture Peninsula

by Marco Dalmonte English translation by Gary Davies

This peninsula is faces onto the Green Gulf and is bathed by the Sea of Steam. As told in the fifth instalment of the Voyages of the Princess Ark (article in Dragon Magazine 157), in the past was the heart of the Varellyan Empire, but was devastated following the civil war unleashed by Prince Abatu in 565 AC after the assassination of the father, and later transformed into a barren desert by the intervention of a demon summoned by the same Abatu in his palace conspiracy and rebelled at his control. The survivors of the devastation brought by the demons were transformed into nagpa (vulture beaked humanoids with strange magic powers) and condemned to wander in the world in search of the key in order to break their curse. The peninsula is inhabited by the nagpa survivors, which wander among the rest of the magnificent Varellyan cities in search of ancient treasures and magic items that were deposited later at the centre of the ruins of the capital, where with an annual ceremony tried for over four centuries to break their curse and finally have peace. No nagpa has ever undertaken the priestly career and few of them have confidence or faith in the Immortals after how much has happened, save the desperate that worship the darkest Immortals (like Masauwu and Demogorgon) or wisest (like Noumena and Pharamond) hope of receiving in exchange aid and power, forgetting the teaching of the history that is at the base of their curse.