Aufstrag (Festung Aufstrag, the Citadel of Command)

In ages past, Unklar, the Horned God, brooding in fear, roused himself and fortified his Keep. Rending the earth with his great axe he cleaved huge rifts about the Imperial castle of old Aenoch, and with sorceries created great pools of water and pestilence to cover the rent lands. And all of Aenoch between the great rivers he made a swamp. Lifting the ground on high, a mountain of slag was built amidst the marshes and his high citadel set atop, surrounded by mighty buttresses and fell towers. And his new abode was named Festung Aufstrag, the citadel of Command.

Few tread near Aufstrag for evil still lurks there. Foul ghosts and devils, and other evils, crawl its vast empty halls, living in a nightmare of the past. Rumor hold that several of the Mogrl still dwell in the deeps of the fortress, awaiting the return of their dark master.

The fortress is in fact a city with tunnels, halls, winding staircases, and ramps all serving as roads. Rooms serve as houses, mansions for the lordly, garrisons, depots, stables, taverns, and inns. It is powered by heat from the Klarglich pits, and watered by a network of cisterns and waterways, all built by the hands of Dwarven slaves. The towering complex is girded in parapets, walls, and battlements. Long causeways wind around its girth, allowing defenders to rush to any beleaguered section of the tower. Near the apex lies the great Throne of the Horned God. It is surrounded by walls of stone, with columns resembling shackled gods holding up a vaulted ceiling. From this high backed chair Unklar sat, ruling the world for a thousand years.

Venturing into Aufstrag is a terrifying prospect for even the most bold. Its intricate ways and multitude of corridors are bewildering and fraught with all manner of danger. Loosely the great tower is divided up into four sections: the Trenches, Klarglich, The Halls and the Citadel. Each contains its own adventures and dangers, its own treasures and hidden magics, sharing only an evil that has lingered there so long that the very stones are filled with it.

And over all this squalor sits Coburg the Undying, a Prince of Unklar’s fallen realm. This foul creature dreams of a day that he can bring his master back to Aihrde and destroy those who oppose him utterly.