Traveling the Dark Road

As noted Auftrag is no simple dungeon or tower complex, occupied by some evil creatures who sought a place to hide their treasures. It was, for a thousand years, the domicile of the Horned God Unklar, one of the eleven named Val Eahrakun. Steeped in spite, his every thought and deed emanated from a malicious design to remake all that was or would be in his own image. His thoughts were black, his voice one of terror, his actions, in all that he did, evil. Unklar spent of himself to make Aufstrag, so that he was a part of it. And it continued to capture the echos of him, so long as he dwelt there. These echos lingered long after his passing, and they remain today.

The darkness in Aufstrag is not as normal darkness one might find under the ground. It is almost palatable. One can feel it as an oppressive weight that bares down upon you. It comes in the form of a mindless fear that creeps around the shadows of one's thought, a tiny voice in the mind, causing alarm. The longer one is in Aufstrag, the heavier the weight of it becomes, and the more raw the fear, the voice of which becomes louder.

Traveling in Aufstrag is difficult. For each day that someone lingers there they must make a successful primary attribute check (CL 10) or suffer from the weight of it. If they succeed there are no ill affects and they gain a bonus 1 to their next day's check, up to a maximum of +5. Paladins gain a +5 on their attribute check and give anyone in the party a +1. If one fails their check, then the fear of Aufstrag has settled into their mind and nothing removes it short of a remove fear or restoration spell, potion, ring, etc. It lingers even after one leaves Aufstrag. This is called the “clinging darkness.”

Aufstrag