Makhet Station/Old Perdition and Trevania

Two adventure locations in the Vespermark. I love the idea of a "ghost train," hence Makhet Station and Old Perdition. Trevania, on the other hand, is very obviously a dark play on Arthurian myth. In various ways, both locations can probably be traced back to my appreciation for Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. Makhet Station and Old Perdition also has at least a little inspiration from the Ghost Train set from LEGO's Monster Fighters; that thing ruled. Additionally, the cursed sword Drachenmort is a sentient black runesword as a tip of the hat to Michael Moorcock. 

Makhet Station and Old Perdition

Makhet Station is a remnant of the Vlaak Empire’s outposts on the western edge of Krevborna. In its heyday, Makhet Station was a railway hub for trains entering and leaving vlaak territory. 

    • Now abandoned and left to decay, Makhet Station is the terminus for a single train: Old Perdition, a beast of iron that belches steam and flame.

    • Old Perdition possesses a life of its own; it is unclear whether it is haunted by the specter of a vlaak engineer, inhabited by a demon, or something even stranger.

    • Those who wish to board Old Perdition must bargain with the conductor for safe passage—to do otherwise is to risk evisceration at the hands of the undead crew and passengers doomed to ride Old Perdition for eternity. 

    • Those who do come to an accord with the engineer invariably find that the train is headed to the destination they desire to travel to; it arrives by night amid mist and fog, lets its living passengers disembark, and then lurches away into the darkness.

Trevania

When an adolescent knight named Nadezhda Olashenko drew the black runesword Drachenmort from the rock in which it was embedded, the people of Trevania rejoiced to see the fulfillment of a foretold prophecy. To the folk of the town, this feat was a sign that Nadezhda was the promised templar who would lead an army to liberate Sibersk from the grip of its vampire overlords. 

    • Nadezhda has ignited a zealous and oppressive fervor in the town of Trevania. 

    • Acting under the fell influence of Drachenmort, a sentient blade that seeks to cause discord and bloodshed, Nadezhda’s paranoid dictates incite violence against supposed traitors, spies, and unbelievers. 

    • She is treated as a living saint, but her increasingly manic decrees have led to instances of false imprisonment and wrongful public executions in Trevania. 

    • Nadezhda’s proclamations are law in Trevania—very few realize that she is a fallen paladin and a puppet of the insidious magical sword that is always at her side.