Last Basalt

Last Basalt is a tower of rock jutting from the jungles in the mountains southwest of the Lap. It is the remnants of a pair of such formations known during the First Age as "the twins". It's companion was destroyed some centuries ago.

A number of rumors surround Last Basalt:

• An old temple exists there.
• It is the source of strange magic.
• It is haunted.
• No one who goes there ever returns.

Most of these rumors are actually true, to a point. A number of statues (of the celestial incarna) and worked stone buildings and monoliths grace the top of the formation, pristine as when they were first carved. At one point, the temple surrounded a solar manse, but time (or something else) has degraded the rooms forming the manse, letting the energy wander (the site is now a level 2 solar demesne).

While no ghosts reside there, most who visit are dealt with in one way or another by the current lord, the lunar Kardak. He uses the place to breed hawkmen and tends to kill male visitors and charm and impregnate females. A fairly stable village now lives in and around the remnants of the temple, with around 30 mortal females and 40 or so hawkmen of various ages. Because they live in a demesne, some have mutations of one kind or another.

The statues and monoliths of the site are arranged to act as an astronomical observatory. Though primative, it works well enough to assist in sidereal astrology.