Necropolis of Teboba
At the eastern end of a region within Teboba known to adventurers and explorers as Tomb Valley lies the ruins of a truly ancient city. No one knows by what name this ancient ruin was called by its founders and residents, but those that have visited it in the last 200 years have all called it the Necropolis. Covering an area best estimated to be more than seven square miles of rough, broken ground and thick ancient hardwood forest, the Necropolis has haunted the dreams and nightmares of adventurers for generations. Hundreds of ruined buildings, miles upon miles of broken and half buried roads, countless mounds and barrows and megaliths and more dangerous and deadly creatures than can reasonably be counted cover this ancient site from end to end.
The few Gnomish historiographers that have explored the Necropolis of Teboba agree that the entire area is literally layered with as many as a dozen different construction strata. It is generally agreed that the oldest strutures still to be seen within and around the Necropolis are the work and design of the forgotten people that built the Teeth of the North and the many extant ruins still to be seen around the City of Ben Doa. Many similarities have been noted between visible road surfaces at the Necropolis and the road tied to the Teeth of the North, and some have suggested that these similarities also tie in with the many miles of ancient roads still in use in the Principality of Fangort, as well.
The trouble lies with the simple fact that so many buildings, tombs and mausoleums of later (sometimes much later) construction dates were built directly on top of these "original" constructions, making any study of those oldest structures all but impossible. Most historiographers consider the original city to have been built nearly entirely of a non-local rose granite, and most agree that any structure not built of recycled granite blocks is probably of this construction era. This "granite" culture was followed by what are popularly called the first of the "tomb builders". These tombs, mausoleums and burial sights are all made of local basaltic rocks that have a distinct dark-gray color that ages to nearly flat black with the passing of time. Tomb Builder structures are uniformly built in a very decorative and stylistic manner, many with spires, towers and turrets. After many centuries of Tomb Builder construction, the region sees the construction of hundreds of huge and complex burial sights called "barrows". Barrows were built of rough or uncut stone slabs of immense weight, and once the inner structure was completed and the dead interred, the entire site was buried under huge mounds of earth and loose stone, often to depths measured in many dozens of feet. This burial practice dominated the area for several thousand years, and the number of known barrows is greater than 400. Some experts guess that the actual number of mounds might exceed 3,000.
Of unknown date are a number of isolated structures that do not fit into the catagories listed above. Some are asymmetrical towers or oddly shaped cut-stone mounds resembling pyramids, but they are far more uncommon than the previously described sites, but have historically proven to be far more interesting in their contents. These anomalous burial sites have proven to be filled with valuable treasure as well as the residence of terrifyingly dangerous creatures.
Demographics
No civilized humanoids are known to live within the bounds of the Necropolis. What is known to live there are (probably) thousands of Goblinoids of various species, hundreds of Trolls, dozens of Hill Giants, at least four active flocks of Harpys of varying sizes, random outbreaks of undead creatures, an Ebony Drake of indeterminate age and a Forest Dragon that is known to be more than 112 years old (and thus immensely huge and insanely dangerous). This ignores the countless possible encounters that could be had with Smilodon, Short Faced Bear, Dire Wolves, Cave Lions, and Wyvern by the dozens.
Districts
The site of the Necropolis can be divided into two distinct areas: what is within the forest and what is not. Portions within the Tomb Wood are densely covered with thick, almost impenetrable growths of shrubs, thorns and vines. The trees within this region of the forest are densely packed with low canopies that hold humidity and moisture and block out a large amount of direct sunlight.
Portions outside the forest exist on a slope facing away from the Tomb Wood looking further east. The ground is dry, rocky and very uneven. Ground cover is tall, thick grasses, thorny vines and scrub pines that hide any ground that isn't already covered in loose rocks, debris or fallen structures.
History
The oldest dated structures within the Necropolis are the roads. Most of these ancient highways have been confidently dated to at least 5,600 years before the present. Some ruins can also be given a similar dating, especially the structures and buildings built with the same granite material as the roads. At the other end of the spectrum are the most recent ruins, some of which are known to have been built and inhabited as recently as 200 years ago.
Architecture
The most intact buildings that still remain standing in the Necropolis are found outside the forest edges. It is these buildings that also offer the greatest variety of construction designs and materials, as it is here that the most obvious layers of use and occupation of the site are most easily viewed. Original columned granite structures are still visible above ground (some still have upper stories to them) amidst barrows and mausoleums of several later periods.
Geography
The Necropolis is located on the physical edge of a large tract of ancient forest known as the Tomb Wood Forest. Sighted at the extreme eastern edge of the forest, roughly half the ancient Necropolis is located within the forest and the rest is clearly visible in the dry and very rocky area outside the wood's canopy. Where the city does exist within the forest, much vegetation has overgorwn the ruins of all the preceding ages. Trees, shrubs, vines and weeds have covered many of the ruins to a point where they are almost invisible to the untrained eye. These ruins within the forest have also suffered the most to time and weathering, with the roots of the truly ancient trees moving and breaking the stones over the many centuries.
The portions of the city that lies outside of the forest has more multi-storied structures still standing, but the ground is no less difficult to traverse due to the many fallen walls, buildings and collapsed understories that have filled the area with debris and rubble that has not been buried by the leaves and soil one finds in the forested regions.
Climate
The Necropolis is located on an east-facing hill that suffers terribly hot summers and cold, wet winters. The eastern end of the site is particularly prone to flash floods during heavy summer rainfalls that typically hit with no warning. The forest on the north and west portions of the site is very thick and overgrown with brambles, vines and thorns, making travel through that portion a real challenge in any weather or season.
RUINED SETTLEMENT
Unknown
Founding Date
More than 5,600 years ago
Type
City
Location under
Included Locations
Owning Organization
