A map of the Border Princes in 2276 IC during the Age of Three Emperors with the names of the various reigning Border Princes of the time. Kasos is located in the north of the Black Peninsula.
Kasos, also known as Kásos, is a settlement located in the Border Princes on the Lagoon of Tears. In 2276 IC it was ruled by Baron Oswain Lothar of House Aquilena.[1a]
History[]
A map that shows the different steps that led to the Battle of Matorea.
In 2276 IC, the vanguard of the Tomb King Settra's Undead invasion force landed at the northern end of the Black Peninsula, where it wasted little time in laying siege to the settlements of Kasos and Thessos. The objective was to raze the settlements to the ground and drive scores of refugees ahead of the Undead host, sowing fear into the population of the Border Princes as it advanced towards the Citadelle Bouelia and then onwards to the large coastal town of Matorea.[2a]
However, the Tomb Prince Ptolethor the Radiant, one of Settra's naval commanders and the leader of the Tomb Kings' vanguard forces, did not account for the fearsome resistance he would face. Riding to the defence of the two settlements came several infamous warriors, outcasts from their homelands who had fled to the Border Princes years before and had grown powerful in this lawless and warlike land.[2a]
Through long and bitter experience of past battles against the Undead legions of lost Nehekhara, these fallen princes and the veteran mercenary regiments they commanded knew that the key to victory against the armies of the Undead was to bring down the foul wizards and cadaverous Liche Priest that animated the skeletal forces.[2a]
Armed with such knowledge and incentivised by promises of fortune and fame, these veteran armies were able to inflict significant damage on Ptolethor's forces in their defence of both Kasos and Thessos, but not enough to stop the Tomb Prince's vast host from grinding the defences to dust and putting the Human garrisons to the sword. With the first part of his grim task complete, Prince Ptolethor continued his march towards Citadelle Bouelia.[2a]
Notable Locations[]
Kasos Rock[]
"Kasos Rock might look thrown together, but to reach that height, those walls will be at least ten yards wide at their base, and looking at the slope of the batter where they meet the ground, I’ll wager they have deep foundations cut into the heart of the bedrock."
- —Corentin Varo to Lady Severine of Parravon[1a]
Kasos Rock is a bastion that watches over the Black Gulf through its crumbling, salt-encrusted ramparts. Kasos Rock stood high on the cliffs overlooking the narrowing channel of the Lagoon of Tears before it opened up into the Black Gulf farther south. Kasos Rock is an ugly fastness, an agglomeration of mismatched blockhouses, towers and walls squatting atop the crag, while at the base of the cliffs, a tall split in the rock gave access to the cave-wharfs housing Baron Oswain Lothar's ragtag fleet of war galleons and lancer ships.[1a] Any ships seeking to pass farther north would have to take Kasos Rock first, a siege that would exact a fearsome butcher's bill of blood.[1b]
Dragon Hall[]
Dragon Hall is a tavern where proud knights used to tell tales of glorious battles and sang rowdy tavern songs as they drained firkin after firkin of their host's ale.[1b]
By leaving the Dragon Hall, it was possible to cross a timber bridge from the ramparts of the central keep to the curtain wall, where men-at-arms kept watch over the secretive waters of the Lagoon of Tears. Most were a mix of Borderlands types with the heft of bonny fighters: some with the look of Tilean sellswords, others like Estalian rowdies, and a few who wore the conical helms and flowing robes of warriors from beyond the Worlds Edge Mountains.[1b]
As disparate a force as they were, each was well provided for with a shirt of mail worn beneath a padded jerkin of blue and white and an iron-brimmed kettle helmet over a hooded coif. Their weapons were a mix of spears, bows, and axes, with the sergeants and yeomen equipped with wide-bladed backswords.[1b]