DREAD

Dread is one of the largest and most exposed islands within the archipelago known as the Crater. Gateway to Kuvera, this island has has become a common smuggler's trading point, where ships of one registry can exchange cargo with those of another without the watchful eye of one or another harbormaster.

Dread lies along the northern edge of the Windrace, across from Jakaa. Dread is a medium-sized island, about twenty square miles in area. However, unlike most of the islands in this region, it has very little lowlands. Its shoreline is comprised of a great cliff which surrounds the island. The cliff is actually the outside edge of a sealed circular valley. A few sailors have been forced by shipwreck or have intentionally managed to penetrate this valley wall, to find a tropical paradise populated by happy, friendly elvish primitives.

Although the valley's inhabitants are friendly, the region is not without risk. Not only are the humans in the valley from an earlier time, but the creatures in the valley are dinosaurs. The villagers live in cave cliffs above the jungle floor within the valley; below, gargantuan lizards battle for dominance of a small and fragile land.

Adventurers entering the valley can discover the physical circumstances, but the reason behind the existence of this valley is even more mysterious. The valley is not merely out of its own time; travel through the labrynthine caves which riddle the cliffs transports the traveler back in time to the days before men. Adventurers who try to leave the valley by any way other ride on a pterosaurus) will discover that they have left their own world completely behind.

The primitive world they are now in is ruled not by men or elves, but by dragons. Escapees from the island of Dread may quickly find themselves facing Rezmar, the venerable copper dragon of the mountain range which is (in the characters' time) the Crater Isles. Rezmar is aware of the time-piercing portals in the Dread valley, but has no way to close them and they are too narrow for him to penetrate. Should characters encounter Rezmar, they may be able to pilfer some potent draconic magic from his hoard - if they survive.