Connects to: 18.02, 29.14.11, 29.14.13, 29.14.14, 29.14.20, 30.03, 38.28, 39.31, 40.06 and the City of the Shuttered Windows.
In the most commonly told version of the story is this: as Alberon, God of the City of Many Windows (29.14.13), fought the dragon-queen Tiamat in the celestial sky, he tore off each of her five heads before finally felling her central mass with his spear (40.06).
The red dragon head fell to the ground to the south of Keening Sea, belching divine fire that scorched the once verdant realm (39.31) of Bergolast. And though the dragon head is now but a skull, its open jaws still spews waves of heat, continuing to bake the entirety of the Burning Lands.
There are many who do not believe this story. The gnolls prefer a stories of their own matrons burning the away the land’s weakness via copulating with efreets and certainly there are quite a few fire genasi in the gnolls’ ranks.
Regardless of whether it is actually Tiamat’s skull – there is a very large dragon red skull at the center of Blackhorn’s Maze, and merely approaching the obsidian Maze itself, unprotected men will soon find the heat unbearable. Within the Maze, only those with protective magics can expect to survive for long. It is an inferno as hot as any hell. The ground is semi-molten, and the caretakers – blackened skeletal minotaurs with gemmed eyes of flame and fear – slaughter any intruder.
During the Chimeric Siege, after the windows were shuttered, the chimerics were forced to find a route through the world to reach the City. During that time of war, Blackhorn’s Maze was constructed as an outpost along the route. And – if the minotaur version of the story is believed – to house one of the five skulls of Tiamat.
Hooks:
- Is there any connection between Blackhorn’s Maze and Blackhorn Keep (30.03)?
