May 2014 Entry - The Lost Coast (in Real3D!)
Edit: If you want to skip this narrative, it's not essential. I explain the map more clearly in posts #2 and #4.
Definitely a late entry, but I'll get it done. I've been doing some work already, but it's not really the kind of map that lends itself to work-in-progress posts. In the meantime, here's a bit of the story.
"It was on this day fifty years ago that we drove the green skins into the sea and crushed their barbaric tribes. The few that fled in their primitive boats were lost in a storm over the Inner Sea or wrecked on the Lost Coast. Our expeditions there have found no sign that any great numbers survived. If there are any orcs left on the Lost Coast they are scattered, weak, and without resources in that wilderness of rock cliffs and barren peaks. Fifty years ago we fought our last battle against the green horde and we may now safely conclude that the threat is ended for all time. Long may reign the Empire of Man!"
-Princeps Bellum Stultus, addressing the Commanders of the Imperial Army and Navy
The cave mouth was hidden behind a curtain of roots hanging from the cliff above, impossible to see through the mists until they were only a few paces away. Yatar snarled and bared his fangs as he sensed a presence within the hollow, putting a cautionary hand out to the shoulder of the elder who guided him.
“Jhadra, wait,” he growled.
A growling chuckle rose from the old one’s throat. “That is Yod’he, the guardian of this place. If you were not expected you would already be dead, young one.”
Jhadra reached out a gnarled paw, so dark the green of his skin was almost black in the gloom, and parted the hanging roots, gesturing for the youth to enter. Yatar’s eyes narrowed as a heavy-jowled face thrust in front of him from the shadows, but Yod’he, the biggest warrior Yatar had ever seen, merely snorted, and retreated back into the shadows. Two dozen strides along a slightly rising narrow passage brought Yatar and Jhadra to a small chamber. The elder warrior pointed to the walls where numerous holes had been bored into the stone and intoned in a voice heavy with ritual.
“These, young warrior, are now yours. You have been chosen to receive these gifts, along with the rights and responsibilities they bear. Forget the name of the tribe to which you were born, for you are now a Messenger.”
Yatar allowed himself a broad grin of pride and thumped his chest with a clawed fist. “I will serve the Hundred Tribes without fail!” he responded.
Jhadra nodded. “You will learn the secrets of the maps stored here and use them to find the hiding places of the Hundred Tribes. You will travel always, bringing news from tribe to tribe. And when the time is right it will be you who will tell the Hundred Tribes to prepare themselves for war, and our return to the lands of the east.” He gestured to the row of small holes on the south wall. “Now take these maps, guard them always, and use them to keep the Hundred Tribes together.”
Yatar nodded, still grinning, looking eagerly at the hiding places and their contents, but then frowned. “What about those?” he asked, gesturing to the opposite wall where other holes held more of the maps.
Jhadra’s lips curled back in a mirthless smile. “Those are copies of the ones you will take. We will need them when you get yourself killed.” He gave Yatar a solid slap on the back, and stalked out of the cave, chuckling slowly.
