The Twins
Lying off the western coast of Shardar, The Twins are a pair of small islands
that have little to offer anyone. They
have never been inhabited for any period of time longer than a couple of weeks,
there is no animal life on them other than a few colonies of sea birds and the
occasional rodent and the plant life is scarce, to say the least.
Most of the land of the islands is very low lying and in storms, the
waters of the endless Ocean will swamp over them, sweeping them clear of
anything that is on their surface.
The Twins
are actually the double peaks of a single, dormant volcano that died out
centuries ago. The water around
them is very, very deep and is home to a mixture of unusual fish and ocean life
that is found at no other point around the coast of the land.
This is not enough to make any great interest in the islands and they
are, for the most part, completely ignored by the vast majority of the people of
Shardar.
Only a
handful of years ago it was found that The Twins are made up of a honeycomb of
tunnels, caves and catacombs that lead down to the seabed itself.
The majority of these tunnels are filled with the salt water of the
Endless Ocean, but there are a few of them that have trapped air and are
reasonably safe for travellers to use. The
lichens and fungus that grow in these tunnels provide barely enough air to keep
the atmosphere breathable for short periods of time and it is possible for a
brave or foolish person to enter through a tunnel at the top of The Twins and
venture downwards for hundreds of yards. Nothing
of value has ever been found in these tunnels, but there are regular rumours of
creatures that live in them.
These
creatures are reported to be vaguely human-like but to have a very pale skin and
to be thin and hunched. They are
said to be scared of the light of the torches that travellers use and to be very
timid and fearful creatures in general. There
has been no positive proof or any firm evidence about the existence of these
creatures, but the travellers who claim to have seen them have no real reason to
lie about this. If such creatures
did exist, they would be a hitherto unknown race that inhabits Shardar and would
be of great interest to Mages and others alike.
If these beings had intelligence, they could cause major changes in the
way that the people of Shardar think of themselves and view the world around
them.
Until the
existence of these tunnel dwellers can either be proved or disproved, there will
be a constant, if slow, stream of Mages and explorers who travel to The Twins to
try to find the truth for themselves. The
tunnels are dangerous in that they are unstable, prone to collapsing and can
lead to mazes that can trap and slowly suffocate the unwary traveller, but apart
from that they are no real danger to anyone!
There is nothing in the tunnels that has been found to be any threat to
life and so, if the explorer is careful and knows what they are doing, they
should have no real difficulties in The Twins.