Another Mysterious place from our friends at Living Greyhawk.
Several days travel northwest of Badwall, they happened upon a number of tumbled stone buildings on a wooded ridge set amid a swamp bordering the Jewel River.
would appear to be hex K4-102. This would place the Lost City within the Orcish Wild Coast, and that's a little farther north than I'd expected. I figured it was south of the confluence of the Handmaiden and the Jewel, somewhere between Nol-Daer and Fenrill and much closer to the Pomarj. But then, a location on the Wild Coast might explain why the Lost City has remained undiscovered by Turrosh Mak's expeditions until now...
would appear to be hex K4-102.
More like K4-92, I think, by the Darlene map.
Much of the detail about the city was gleaned from the AoE description of the site - which (AFAIK) is the only real Canon account beyond vague references here and there.
The relevant quote about the location of the city is:
Artifact of Evil, p78: "Going through the forest on a northwesterly axis, the party managed to reach the banks of the Jewel eight days after entering the gloom of the Suss" [west of Badwall]…the drawing showed that there was a city just a few miles…north of their present position."
By my best reckoning and assuming that the Suss is really hard terrain to traverse, this comes out at about K4-102 or K4-101 (Darlene), as Extempus said.
By my best reckoning and assuming that the Suss is really hard terrain to traverse, this comes out at about K4-102 or K4-101 (Darlene), as Extempus said.
I figured going had to be slow through the Suss, and that everyone was lugging lots of equipment, food etc as well, therefore "several days travel" can't really cover that much ground.
I just doublechecked and it's K4-102 on both of my maps, but one hex off ain't bad though, lol... regardless, it has to be adjacent to the Jewel, so the Lost City is in a hex it flows through (unless it's in a really, really extensive swamp, like the Mistmarsh)...
A lost, ruined city of the Old Suloise is said to be hidden somewhere in the Suss forest, but few dare to venture on such a quest, particularly today.
By "today," they mean 576 CY. Regardless, it looks like the Lost City's been written about since at least 1983...
Carl Sargent rejigged the Suss entry in FtA, but didn't add much more than what you have there. Ditto the Suss entry in the LGG.
Mak has sent expeditions into the Suss Forest to investigate reports of a lost city of the Suel, where he hopes great magic remains for his use.
every other reference I've seen is pretty vague too, oh well, lol. But we have this interesting paragraph from the article:
Setting up a fortified camp on the wooded ridge, the explorers set about attempting to discover what they could about the Lost City and its fate. Though examples of Suloise artifice were found within the ruins, most of the buildings, including a massive three-tiered ziggurat, seemed to be much older. These elder ruins did not match any known architectural style of the Suel. Similarly, inscriptions in convoluted script of unknown provenance, but ancient date, were inscribed upon the walls of the ziggurat. The scroll’s author apparently viewed it as almost blasphemous that the city might not in fact have been founded by the Suloise, as the legends had related.
So, the question is: is the Lost City truly Suloise, did they conquer a preexisting city, or is it from another completely unknown civilization?
p83 has the relevant clues. Gord and co. find a partially collapsed structure that’s bears bas relief and convoluted text that is not of Suloise origin:
"'This is not Suel workmanship," Gellor [a high level bard] remarked as he studied the bas relief carvings on the walls revealed by the ruddy firelight. "Come here, Curley, and take a look...this convoluted script is like none I've ever seen!"
“Legend said a city of the Suloise had been here, but the place was certainly of origination predating the migration of the Invoked Devastation by centuries.”
“It bore no resemblance to any Flan work he [Incosee, a Tenha] had ever seen, and he said he had seen some of the sacred writings and idols in Tenh.”
Now - the Tenha in question wasn't a sage and there may be more diversity in ancient Flan iconography that we might think. However, given that neither Gellor, nor Curley Greenleaf, nor Oscar Longland (who together must have over 60 levels combined) have no idea of the script's provenance, I think that EGG is getting at the idea that the city (or at least the ziggurat) was founded by a non-human race. I'd (idly) speculate that this race may have had some sort of connection to one or other of the Cairn Builder civilisations of the Cairn Hills (either the same as, or, perhaps, foes of).
I'd guess the Suel migrants discovered the ziggurat and other ruins and built a new city on the site. That would seem to make the most sense.
That's not implausible. I'd add though, that the Suel might not have happened upon the ruins by accident...
A ruined city of the Suloise is said to lie under the roots and boughs of the Suss; it is thought to have been a river port along the Jewel, southwest of Elredd, and was a center of wickedness for centuries before it fell. Descendants of its folk are said to have founded the city of Badwall.
This would place the Lost City much farther south than the current article states, and also suggests that it thrived for quite some time ("centuries") before the Earth Dragon destroyed it, possibly to as recently as 500-600 years ago (ca. 1-100 CY).
In rereading Slavers (pp. 35-36), I came across a reference to a Scarlet Brotherhood agent named Diran Conoriel, aka "Ratter," presumably the same person the author of the scroll was seeking in Hardby... curiouser and curiouser...
Mike
Aren't they found only in the Sea of Dust?
They waited around there for a while, but when it became clear that the empire wasn't going to grow itself back and that the conversation of other Suel liches wasn't very entertaining, they traveled east to see the sights.