The Mind-Palace of Kurnacht-Te - A Location for Volmusia

Tags: Perilous, Lawful, Barren (Outside), Bountiful (Inside), Enchanted (Otherspace, Idestructable), Ruins, Personage (Kurnacht-Te), Monsters (Psionic Ghosts)

          On a secluded, snow-swept plateau high in Maaglurtet's Range is a strange sight indeed: The decaying skeleton of a stag-horned Storm Giant, fastened to a massive ornate stone throne by chains of tarnished adamantine. Surrounding the site are the tumbled, weathered stones which once made up a manse which seems to have once taken up the majority of the elevated plain. Even though it is utterly deserted of both plants and animals, visitors inevitably begin to experience the sense of being watched by dozens of eyes, and of being surrounded even though there is no one in sight. This feeling is compounded the longer one stays, and by the closer one nears to the skeleton - most find the sensation to be overwhelming and leave in short order. Owing to it's obviously eldritch nature, braving the area has become something of a dare among the local furred folk, but beyond that fame as an oddity no one has plumbed it's secrets. This is due to the fact that no suitably powerful practitioners of the Way have been in the area for centuries, the portal into the mental-manse takes an immense amount of will to drag open. 

Inside the Mind-Palace

          If someone were somehow to do so, they would find themselves in a place even more fantastic than the one outside - a finely appointed palatial estate, sized for giants. The grounds are fairly limited (by Giant standards at least) and only stretch for about five miles in each direction, but are of a gorgeous southern climate perpetually locked to noon on a sunny day; everything is there, the birds, the trees, the flowers in spring, the whole nine yards. Aside from the "wilds", there's a hedge garden, a giant-sized rock-garden, and an ornate fountain - all well maintained and finely crafted. The main attraction however is the mansion itself, it is huge, and is of a gothic and almost overwrought architectural style. Inside it is appointed with fine furniture, abstract art, a smorgasbord laid out upon a table, and a throne sculpted from Mithril, all sized for the massive inhabitants. There are perhaps three dozen Giants in residence in this place, mostly Storm, though there are a few Cloud and Stone Giants mixed in, all of whom are disciples to the Kahraman Kurnacht-Te, Master of Immortals. The inhabitants have been driven mad by their captivity and their memories have decayed over the long centuries of their confinement. The only thing that ties them to the Mind-Palace are their own wills, and the prodigious mental powers of the Kahraman. Kurnacht-Te is in effect a Psionic Lich, though he long ago pulled his phylactery into the Mind-Palace, and destroying the Mithril throne of which it takes the form of would be quite difficult.

Kurnacht-Te, Master of Immortals

• The inhabitants aren't violent per se, but their understanding of the permanence of harm has been warped by their long isolation within their otherspace. Kurnacht-Te himself is made of sterner stuff, and has kept a much firmer handle upon his worst impulses.
• Dourage-Te was Kurnacht-Te's instructor, and the pyschic lich knows of his former master's actions against the Slaad & It's army, and their imprisonment in Joramir's Concert Hall. He might even be willing to part with the information if he were to be suitably convinced that it would be vital.
• The Otherspace, as well as Kurnacht-Te are both well known by Giant sources, Nugash, Memnor's Steps & The Index of the First Scholar all have records or memories which contain references to the Mind-Palace, though they all neglect to mention what is required to enter.

          Treasure & More: Lucre is seemingly easy to come by, but any of it that is taken back through the portal simply disappears. The true riches of the Mind-Palace are in the elucidation of The Way, the beings living inside of it have had centuries to develop their mental powers to an edge nearly unmatched by the outside world. The problem of course is convincing the mad psychic ghost to teach you, and surviving the strange 'lessons' that they will occasionally try to impart upon their students. Training with Kurnacht-Te and his disciples (provided one survives) would grant a non-mystic character a basic psionic ability, usable once per day. Mystics however gain an extra psionic point per day, and access to an Immortal power of the player's choice, barring prerequisites.