Snail People of Uod

Fifteen days south along the trade route from Sofegai, you'll see signs for the Oasis of Kovwos.  Once a small town known for it easier source of water, resilient pottery, and hospitality to travelers, Kovwos is now a ghost town of ruins and burnt out buildings.  Around 100 years ago, a child was born in Kovwos and prophets claimed him to be the earthly for of Shobok, a Heteri god.  Pilgrams, scholars, and profiteers flocked to Kovwos in the following months.  As the attraction of the child increased, the hospitality and economic appeal of Kovwos stopover for travelers waned.   After winter passed and the spring trading season began, word filtered through the region that the town had been burnt to the ground and abandonded by its residents.  A few brave souls have scoured to ruins for artifacts, treasure, or word of the fate of the prophesied child, but little was found beyond the debris and a spoiled water spring.

The Pen of the Art is fine tool used by magician to inscribe their secrets upon parchment or hide, or in the aether itself in more esoteric circumstances. It is not used to write love notes to succubi or scribe monographs, even to the most esteemed circles of sorcerous academia.  The shaft of the pen should be made of ash or hazel, cut while both moons are visible in the sky.  Some say the feather should be plucked from a pregnant crow, but true sorcerers know this is a blind.  The feather is purely ornamental, but the nib must be of bronze.  The whole item, once complete, should be consecrated in rat's blood with an invocation of Hielil, Chlendi Spirit of the Word.

The Salt Mines of Jakinta were initially discovered by the Warlord Ivogd.  A dabbler in Chlendi spirit summoning, he roamed the hills west of the new port town, looking for possible sources of amberite.  After a week of fruitless searching, Ivogd and his band had stopped to rest and discuss giving up the pursuit, when they noticed their horses licking stones at the entrance to a crevice.  Slaves were immediatelty brought in, and the enterprise marked the beginning of the regional slave trade from nearby Sofegai (just across the mountains).  A year later, Ivogd's brother Foglais took control of mining operations after Ivogd died in a tunnel collapse.  Many speculated foul play, and the shaft was closed after workers refused to mine in a haunted region. To this day, Ivogd's Clan of the Studded Reign controls the vast salt mines, now the leading export of Jakinta (just ahead of white steel). 

"We had been waiting. The same day we toppled the Mindat control of our cities, he arrived" The day the Heteri people claimed their independence, The Magosh entered the ruling keep of Sofegai. He has held that seat as vuhwul of Sofegai for 200 years. There were concerns at first. Despite being a man of the north, he studied under the Mindat scholars, enemies of the Heteri. Servants claimed he did not sleep and was a hermaphrodite. Stubs of horns were apparent beneath his hair, and his massive jaws and teeth matched the frame that towered over the largest of Heteri men. Despite the questions and rumours, no one challenged him. During his reign he has rebuilt the city walls to greater heights, erected new temples to the gods and while ruling the region with an iron fist is beloved by his citizens. The Magosh claims to have the blood of Utan the Destroyer flowing in his veins, and every night lights braziers in the keep to honour the Coal God. The people are content.