A Lonely King sits upon a throne in the middle of a field.
Tall grass blows around him, but the grass cares not. Not of the kings old castle, and his tales of bravery, not of his curse. The spirits know what keeps this king here, and they have no sympathy.
And there are many like him. It's just thrones dotting hilltops, and ruins, and fields, and catacombs. Each with an ancient king to sit upon it. Eyes plucked out. Trapped for eternity in the land of thrones. You give up a part of your soul on the climb to be a Dread Lord. You give it up and you marry your throne.
Every king has a different story to tell, but they all share similar qualities.
Their eyes are stolen from their head. They cannot see but they feel your presence.
You are cursed when you gaze upon a king or his throne. This is not something you can avoid in this region. Just something you live with.
They make children with their thrones. Throne Dryads of stone and moss and jewelry dented crown-gold.
They were all previous Dread Lords.
When you lay eyes on one of these lost kings you are cursed. You must listen to their tale which takes d12 months to complete. You can surpass this and negate the curse by stating their name and the way in which they died. Be as detailed as possible. If you hear the entire story, you must then tell it to someone else. You cannot speak until you do.
Born of the Kings and the throne, these beautiful creatures are wilting legacies. Continuous fragments of dead people who hold no more power. They socialize with other families of Throne Drayds because they have nothing else and desperately need the company.
HP 24 AC 18 (stone skin, fast)
Throne - they can promise you a throne and will give you one if you remove them from their prison and take them far away. To do this, part of what binds them must be taken.
Wrench - After a successful melee/touch attack, if a Throne Dryad lands a second successful attack your heart stops.
Entomb - If your heart was stopped by a Dryad, she can phase your body into the throne, growing it and creating more sisters for her.
Ahab, rests on a throne of blubber, covered in his own blood, the king of the uncatchable, salivator of the big whale.
Solomon, rigid on a throne of iron, stark steel bars hold up his body and grow on him like ivy, king of allseeing.
Nimrod, small king on a small throne, egg bearer and hatcher of apocalypse, bearer of small cries
Absalom, blackened king of the wind-blown, sits on his throne of ash, made from his queen of blades
Sodom, empty king of husks and crawling peasants, bug eater of the great worms, sits on his throne of shells and flakes of giants' skin
Alexander, sits on a stone throne, a rapidly aging and deaging boy, largest area and shortest lived reign of any Dread Lord
Hannibal - ivory throne built of melted whistles, howling in the wind, king of the serpents, slain by his own son
Ephraim - king of the graves, serpent eater and lord of the shed weight. Sits on his throne of shadows and epitaphs.
Eaters of sunlight. These tiny maggots absorb sunlight and superheat to temperatures that melt through stone. They feed on thrones and their dryads. They can be held in glass without melting it, but they still get hot.
Damage: when searing hot, they deal 6d6 damage, ignoring armor.
Regent Borers (Giant Weevils)
Giant weevils that dig up from the earth at night to tear dryads apart and feast on their insides. They have rotating mouth parts, like living drills, lubricated in acid so they can drill into stone and suck out the juices.
Use the giant scorpion statblock, but acid damage instead of poison. In the mm.
Large vulture-birds that land on kings and sleeping adventurers. They make you heavier and heavier until you cannot pick yourself up. Then they eat you very slowly. A few pecks a day.
Use the peryton statblock in the mm.
The purple pride roam the court in search of someone to crown as their queen. They don't see gender in humans and don't know how we can bicker over such things. They carry broadswords in their mouths and force people to fight for them. Winner becomes queen. There are 13 members of the pride, no females, one king and all his sons.
Use the dire lion statblock, it's free to view on dnd beyond.
The vines that grow on the kings and their thrones are not apart of our time and they fluctuate frequently. They are sought after as spell components and potion ingredients. They also are used by dragon slayers, as dragons love the taste.
Berries from the same vines. They are eyes that follow any movement. Spell components and used in homunculi. It is said that they are the basis of artificial life research in Aberdeen.
Food of the Nymphs. They grow cocoons in their mouths and as the butterfly hatch the dryads eat them. Eating them is rumored to keep you young and beautiful, but most believe they are a curse, so be careful they don't land on you.
Resting in the middle of the Court is Damocles (dah-mock-lees). Floating above it, tip down, are the Million Swords of Court. Longswords, bastard swords, greatswords, katanas. Being raised here you know that one day you might be impaled by one of the blades and become a One of Swords, joining the Court. It's not something that can be predicted, and it's not certain to happen if you volunteer, praying to the Court every day.
The sword grants you power and status, part fae, part spirit, you must uphold the laws of the Court and fight as their vassal. If you come across a fellow Sword of the Court, it is your duty to kill them, stealing their original sword and impaling it with you, making you a Two of Swords. This continues on and on, gaining power and rising through the Court, and just like a deck of cards, your eleventh blade makes you a Jack, a Face of the Court.
The Faces are very secretive, because to die as a Face means to take your seat in a Throne out in the fields. But if you collect enough blades to be King, you will become a Dread Lord, gaining dominion of the Court, wielder of all Swords, protected by all Faces, and controller of your army of failed kings.
Eacn sword grants you a +1 to attacks, along with a special ability that you can use 1/day, unless specified otherwise
One of Swords - you know the location of the nearest king
Two of Swords - you gain a third eye which must dominate something each day
Three of Swords - you gain advantage on your next attack to hit anything that has hit you
Four of Swords - your eyes become glass and never tire
Five of Swords - you may become shadow
Six of Swords - you can teleport to Damocles, you will arrive in the center of Gatetown
Seven of Swords - you can change your appearance to that of any of the kings who rest on the thrones, you look as they did in their prime, hiding your swords
Eight of Swords - chains rise up from the ground and bind one target in place, you can use this every day to keep them there
Nine of Swords - your chest opens up and nine hands reach out to grab a target and pull them in
Ten of Swords - you can fly, as the spell
The downfall of having any amount of swords is that others will try to kill you. The more you have the more likely it is for people to know where you are.
Under Damocles is the tomb of a giant. Her name is lost and all that remains is her blade, but that will come later. Hers was the first and this was her court. And this is where she was killed. Now. Her bones and brains and organs have created catacombs and in it crawls many rats and bugs and shit. But also there lives a Queen. The Queen of Swords.
Twelve blades stab through her guts. Her body has grown large from sitting in these tunnels and hollows, but she always wears her large smile on her face. Madness courses through her limbs. Insomnia plagues her mind. Her eyes tear up from the agony inside her. But she is so close to becoming a Dread Lord. Just. One. More. Sword.
Use the Lich statblock in the mm.
The giant who held court here long before history had a beautiful bastard blade. It hangs over the center of town where a cathedral stands. Seven other giant’s blades accompany it, with cathedrals of their own beneath. They were all built in worship of the spirit of their respective blade. Warriors and dreamers gather in these cathedrals each day to pray that the spirits choose them to join the Court.
School of strange magics. Chimeric magic. When three become one. They run and look after the seven cathedrals, practicing during the day and working new creations beneath them at night. The Dolems that lead each cathedral have three heads and constantly shifting flesh. Their penultimate creations, the seven Chimera, rest on the rooftops and protect the Dolems at all cost. At night they can be seen flying around, breathing fire, and hunting those foolish enough to wander in the moonlight.
A note on chimeric magic: the school is ancient and yet still so new. Their knowledge is limited as many experiments have failed. Reading the ancient language inscribed in the tombs is their only way of discovering this magic. A magic that speaks of mythic beasts of seven heads, savage third eyes, and the blending of souls into one body.
Dolem - use the cleric stat blocks in the mm, plus they always have 2d6 acolytes around
Chimera - use the stat block in the mm, but max health, max damage
Assassin’s guild. They live in the attics of the seven cathedrals and are hired by the Dolem to carry out executions, gather treasure, and secure special chimera ingredients all across the region. They carry shields of stained glass and swords made of mirrors.
Assassin stat block but +2ac from the shield and
SWORD - additional 2d6 in the sunlight as it is heated and blinding
SHIELD - when the light is shined through it onto you, your soul is prismed into various mulit-colored shadows, leaving you immobilized.
A district of town named after the Giant Gate that rings it. Giant Gates are oval shapes of steel, glass, and stone which are rumored to be how Giants traveled beyond the stars. The Academy of Doors in Entrance seek them out and try to activate them. They don’t care if it’s a horrible idea (which it is), they just want to see where they all go. There are pilgrims from Entrance here studying at all hours of the year. Homunculi and ghosts live here.
INKWELL’S SCHOOL OF JOKERS
Anarchists. This is a school of chosen Court members who refused to hunt each other and have pulled the swords from their bodies. They must grasp them to stay alive and they gather in the hopes of slaying the Queen, taking the catacombs, and ending the city with its own magic. The answer is down there somewhere...
Previously active Giant Gate. Still powering down. The first settlers didn’t realize it because the effects are so slow. But now that the years have passed, everyone knows that things in Old Gatetown spiral. The ground vortexes around the center point of the gate, warping the earth and the buildings clockwise. The entire area looks like a melted painting of a crumbling village. The people that still live here only do so because they too are warped and are forced to stay there by the Dolem.
Adventures in the Court of Thrones
If you're using the map of the Cage, this is located near the Ender Mountain, on the east side, kind of cut off from the rest of the land by the mountains themselves.
This place is a great resource for players. The knowledge of each king is indisputable. Plus, any spellcaster worth their salt will want some King Berries and Time Vines. So there are college that will send you their just to gather things, which can get the party embroiled in so much more.
The city itself has a mage school located in it that is doubling as a religion. Plus the ties to another mage college far away that wants to restart the Giant Gates. So there's a lot of knowledge here for players to come and steal. Knowledge that can lead them to power. Knowledge that they'll have to pay a price for. Either hunting the Purple Lions, slaying Chimera, cleaning the ghost out of Gatetown, or hunting the Queen of Swords beneath the city.