“In daylight dozing, in starlight susurrant.
The whispering city softly sings,
a rustling choir of scarab wings:
’Murmuron, Murmuron’ – in voices aberrant.”
Clinging to the leeside of mount Akhet is the whispering city of Murmuron, its terracing architecture reaching almost the citrine-studded summit of the mountain. Old and strange as the desert wind, ancient Murmuron’s wonders tug gently at adventurers and explorers from lands far beyond the shimmering horizon.
It is a hushed city. Under the fiery heat of the sun it lies dormant and desolate in daytime, its inhabitants seeking refuge in clay and sandstone buildings and catacombs carved into the mountain side. As the sun sets the streets awake with a yawn of incense and the mellow murmur of a hundred languages. The ruby-coloured lights of the city come to glowing life in the stillness of the warm desert night as its nocturnal population and many visitors go about their everynight lives.
It is a city of life and unlife both. In Murmuron’s ancient tombs and mausoleal libraries the mummified corpses of long dead priests and adepts endlessly mutter curses and blessings, or share long forgotten knowledge with those deemed worthy of carrying such secrets. Yet there is life here as water pulses up from deep underground through the labyrinthine veins of the great mountain. This Murmuron’s most prized treasure sustains a population much larger than would normally be possible in such an arid landscape.
It is a city of spirits and spirituality. Old and minor gods, djinni and daemons of the desert are worshipped here, and there are many small temples and shrines – each dedicated to different entities of the sprawling desert pantheon. Murmuron is the last lifeline for many gods that would otherwise risk deicide through dwindling worship. These spirits, however obscure, calm the tempestuous wind of Furfur, stay the blight of Nergal and keep Pazuzu from ascending the mountain.
Ancient Murmuron,
mirage-like and wondrous,
a slumbering chimera.
City of singing scarabs,
and two-tailed scorpions,
and three-headed serpents.
Expedition Log – a journey through strange lands of myth and legend
Expedition Log is a fictional travel journal based on the works of an adventuring cartographer and explorer. It recounts the fortunes and misfortunes of a mysterious voyage in search of the legendary lost library.
The book is designed to function as an in-game artefact: a dusty old tome that the characters themselves might unearth hidden in an obscure library or remote dungeon. It can also be used as a GM tool to spark the imagination with tons of intriguing locations and adventure hooks. Or it can simply be read as a novel.
A5 dressed hardback encased in an embroidered cloth binding, 86 pages, high-quality print and paper, black & silver.
American customers can get Expedition Log at Exalted Funeral.
European customers can get Expedition Log at Games Omnivorous.
