Anarea > World > Overworld > Mount Anar > Ogral's Bay
Ogral's Bay is a narrow inlet in a bay ringed by reefs and skerries on the West-North Western shore of Mount Anar which is one of the few places where ships can anchor around the treacherous cliffs of the great mountain. It is not an easy place to bring a ship in safely to the moorings, especially as the rocks in the Bay appear continuously to shift position. This is variously said to be due to a Pact with KHIL, Demon of Earth, a Pact with SEGAL, Demon of Illusion, the presence of a Rogue Earth or Illusionist Elemental, the influence of Chaos or the rocks being the teeth of a sleeping Sea Monster. Different explanations may have been true at different times. A skilled Pilot with an Exception from the Pact and/or Elementalist or ChaosMastery skills is required to navigate the shifting rocks.
The Bay is a Pirate stronghold but, unlike the other main entry points to the Dungeons of Mount Anar, it is not continuously occupied. Pirate ships dock there occasionally and it is periodically raided by the Dwarves (usually from the Dungeons) or even by Orcs or Goblins. Adventurers and Thieves from the Jungle or the Goblin Lands may also land there, buying passage on a Pirate ship or hiring a Pilot. The longest period of Dwarvish occupation was during the War in the Dungeons from 2503 to 2504, when it was taken from the Orcs and used as an additional supply route to Dwarf Hold, but when the War ended it was abandoned by the Dwarves and reclaimed by Pirates.
There is a reliable water supply at the Bay, but otherwise no facilities beyond some caves and dungeons. When Pirates are in residence the Dirty Dog Tavern is established in the largest cave (usually indicated by a crudely-drawn sign depicting the Dwarf King pleasuring himself with a dog). When occupied by the Dwarves, this became the Dead Pirate Inn. A large pit in the nearby Dungeons is used to hold Undead, Monsters or Creeping Death, and sometimes for pit-fighting contests.
Adventurers are drawn to Ogral's Bay and the surrounding Dungeons by Rumours that Pirates go there to hide their hoards of Treasure, often setting Monsters to guard it. There are few reports of such expeditions being successful, but those who believe the Rumours say that is because nobody wishes to advertise they have taken a Pirate's hoard.
Who Ogral was is lost in legend, if he (or she) ever existed. Tall tales told and sea shanties sung in the Dirty Dog variously tell of Ogral as an Evil Chaotic Hill Dwarf Pirate who made the original Pact with KHIL (and/or SEGAL), as a Snake Cultist ChaosMaster from the Jungle who moved the rocks to enter the Bay but forgot to tell them to stop moving, or as an acronym of the first letters of the names of the original Pirate Captains who freed the Elemental from a Magic Item or Charmed the Sea Monster and established the Bay, but then all killed each other by increasingly elaborate means when fighting over the Treasure they hid in the Dungeons.
Back to Mount Anar / Overworld Index