Finder’s Archives – Akoum Refuge —

The Akoum Refuge is located at the bottom of a canyon, formed after some upheaval in the past. There seems to be SOMETHING in the area, as floating rocks are abundant in the area, each of them lighter than air, but still as solid as the normal ground. Local scholars postulate that some minerals and metals in the canyon combine in mysterious ways to cause the rocks to float, while others simply go “It’s magic” and get on with their lives.

The Akoum Refuge is a large group of tents, home to a few hundred people who fled in the face of war in a nearby country. They’ve been settled here for about a year, and have managed to survive here in spite of the lack of arable land. Ironically, water is abundant in the area though, as it often rains, and the chunks of floating rocks form mini “waterfalls” in mid-air, that break up the rain in some areas, and make it constant in others. The waters get quite fierce and wash away the topsoil, leaving metals underneath exposed, which are then mined by the locals and sold to traveling merchants for food.

Akoum Refuge itself is relatively peaceful, though the 300 or so inhabitants are of all kinds of humanoid races, which leads to some friction on occasion. The current leader and local law enforcer is a half-orc called Groth Axthews, who keeps the peace by breaking heads. He’s quite smart, but he knows that he is not a long term leader for Akoum Refuge. As such his only goal is simply to keep the community together. Treat Groth as a Neutral Good 4th level barbarian and 4th level half-orc fighter.

While he is the leader of the camp, there are several patrols of refugees, all 1st level warriors of any of the standard races. These are all led by a woman called Mirrorshine, a Lawful Evil elf ranger (favored enemy: humans). She sees herself as the natural leader once Groth dies or leaves, and has been secretly working up support among the patrols to support her eventual take-over. At this point, some 80% of the patrols support her, though she is exceedingly unpopular among the rest of the fugitives at Akoum Refuge. She is also much too smart to try to take on Groth head-on, and she’s been looking for a band of intrepid ne’er-do-wells to do the deed for her. She’s got money stashed aside for it too, but of course, if they take him out and are too weak afterward, she might just take them out herself, and save the money.

The area has one other constant danger. It is absolutely infected with ankhegs. Several (20 or more) nests infect the area, and they are unusually intelligent (Intelligence 5 instead of the normal Intelligence 1). These ankhegs stay away from Akoum itself only because of the waters that tend to surround it. All other areas, if they are dry are part of their hunting grounds. The locals know this, and have dug a moat around Akoum, but they also know that the dry season is coming, and if the moat dries out, the ankhegs will attack in force.