Reports on Chalyte in Alta Tonaro

This is a collection of notes and information gathered for you by the Magistros, concerning chalyte in the Chataan Mountains, on the southern border of the Chardonian Empire

A Short History of Alta Tonaro

An unsigned note

Alta Tonaro occupies the northern foothills of the Chataan Mountains, centered around the mining town of Argento and the riparian valleys of the Silverflood. Until the recent conquests in Illoria, this was the southernmost province of the Empire.

It is a land of rolling arid hills, dissected plateaus, and wind scoured box canyons, with hardy juniper and cedar clinging to the slopes and brittle grasses that spring to life after the winter rains or the rare summer thunderstorm. Few people would bother to live here if it were not for the mineral wealth of the Chataans.

In DR 1689, reports reached Chardon that traces of chalyte had been found in dry creekbeds along the Silverflood. People soon rushed to make their fortune, and the Imperial legions followed, to enforce claims and guard the rights of the citizens of Chardon settling in the area. By DR 1695, the provinces of Alta Tonaro and Bassa Tonaro were proclaimed, the roads improved and fortified, and legionary forts established to control and protect the booming chalyte trade. By DR 1702, Alta Tonaro was producing more chalyte per year than Greater Voltara, and the city of Argento grew rapidly on Cedar Brook, a tributary of the Silverflood.

But it was not to last. By DR 1704 chalyte production had peaked, and in DR 1706 it was obvious that the boom was not to last. The last surface mine ceased production in DR 1712, and by DR 1720, as Magistros Seva Auratan came to power, the Chataan Mountains were fortified and declared unsafe for travel.

Since then, silver production has continued around Argento, but, though valuable, silver has only a tiny fraction of the value of chalyte, and Alta Tonaro is now considered a poor backwater by most.

This, however, is not the full story. As the collected notes below indicate, there is massive amounts of chalyte to be mined on the southern fringes of Alta Tonaro, if only one small problem could be dealt with.

Geological Surveys of the Chataan Mountains

An excerpt from a series of reports produced for the University of Chardon by the Stoneborn geologer Gatura, recorded by Fabricia Stoneshaper, a noted expert in earth magic

…I, Fabricia Stoneshaper, did ascend the third escarpment of the Chataan range, armed with augur-gauges, lodestone forks, and such thaumaturgic calipers as my companion, the stoneborn geologer Gatura, deemed needed for the task. Upon perforating the schistic mantle above the western cirque, we perceived a most uncommon tremor in the aetheric flux: the needles of our lodestone forks swung thrice against their ordinary course, and the calipers emitted a subdued aureate glow. This disturbance, repeating at intervals of precisely seven beats of the water-clock, bespoke a buried lode of singular potency. Comparison with earlier readings taken in the foothills of Alta Tonaro confirms that no known vein of iron, silver, nor cinnabar may account for such resonant brilliance.

Proceeding thence to the argillaceous galleries beneath the large outcropping the locals call Thundercrown, we engaged a sequence of divinatory fractures—small and carefully counter-sealed—to sample the sub-strata at spans of ten cubits. In each sample-core, one finds microscopic inclusions of a black-purple vitreous mineral possessing a refractive index greater than that of the finest ruby, and capable—when subjected to the least spark of cantrip-fire—of emitting a filamentary arc no less than thrice its own length. The locals speak ignorantly of “star-stone,” created by the stonebinders of the mountains, who they will not describe. Yet their nomenclature lacks precision; by all tested qualities this substance conforms to the canons of chalytes profundis described in the Codex Arcanorum (fol. 47r). Notably, the density of these inclusions increases with proximity to the axial ridge, suggesting a principal lode of extraordinary magnitude buried beneath the central tors, perhaps directly under Thundercrown.

I therefore commend to the University and to the Imperial Cartographic Office a full expeditionary quarry, equipped with containment sigils and flux-retort apparatus, that the true extent of this chalyte repository may be ascertained. If properly husbanded, the yield could far surpass the meager offerings of the shallow surface mines of Argento, and might even surpass the renowned Voltara lode, in quality if not in quantity…

Report of the Riftstone Gorge Disaster

This letter, from the commander of the southern legions, describes the Riftstone Disaster, a stunning and utter defeat (in DR 1715) of the Chardonian legions at the hands of some fiendish chalyte powered weapon of destruction. While the events of the Riftstone Disaster have been suppressed in official histories, it was only a few years later that the Chataan Mountains were interdicted from further exploration.

I place before you a plain account of the reverse suffered yesterday at Riftstone Gorge, that Your Excellency may judge what remedy is yet possible.

At dawn the host advanced in three columns: Legio XIII “Iron-Ward” on the right, Legio XVII “Storm-Ward” on the left, Legio VI “Dawn-Guard” following. Two earth-shaker batteries and two dozen sworn war mages marched with us. The ridge above the gorge was already held by a company of mountain giants. Between their twin needle-peaks hung a thing most dreadful: a turret wrought of stone and dark-violet crystal, kept aloft by two roaring chains of lightning. Thunder rolled from those chains even in calm air.

Our engines opened first, three good volleys. The stones reached the giant line, yet the turret merely turned upon its hanging axis, an aperture of crystal now facing our left. A beam of violet fire, ten paces broad and bright as noon, flashed forth. Six full cohorts of Storm-Ward were struck; men, armor, and engines fell to grey ash in a single breath. The ray swept on, melted both earth-shakers, and kindled every shield trimmed with chalyte. A second stroke followed before we could reform, shearing the cliff above Dawn-Guard and burying all but a tithe of that legion beneath molten rock.

I marked that each discharge left the giant tenders staggering and pale, as though the engine drank their very strength; yet the interval was short enough, a pair of penitence hymns to the Mother at most, that we were left staggered at the raw power on display. With the left shattered and the reserve entombed, I gave the signal to withdraw. Storm-Ward is lost but for a handful; Dawn-Guard can muster little more than a tenth its number; Iron-Ward brought off seven centuries in order, though sorely bruised.

The so-called Violet Lance renders our present arts and armor worthless. No further march should be attempted until some means is found either to break the lightning chains, blind the crystal’s sight, or sap the giants who feed it. I further urge that all chalyte trinkets be struck from the kit of every forward troop, for the ray seeks that metal as a hawk seeks a hare.

I remain, in duty and in sorrow,

Lucius Valerian Marcellus
Legate commanding Legio XIII “Iron-Ward”

The Tale of the Amethyst Tyrant

This is a story collected by the bard Sabastian of Nevium, who traveled much in Illoria and the Chataan Mountains seeking old tales from the Blood Years. It is recorded as the hill-shepherds tell it when night winds hiss across the stones and the distant sounds of thunder echo even though no storm blows.

In the elder days, when the peaks of Ulgrathar still sang with quiet thunder and the giants strode as wardens of the world, there dwelt among them one named Dhrukmir, a stone-singer of rare gift. He delved deeper than any kin, seeking the purple star-stone the mountain keeps closest to its heart. When at last he touched that hidden fire, the gem answered his greed: it gave him a tongue of living lightning and taught him the craft of sky-breaking, to unbind the firmament and bend its bolt to his will.

So Dhrukmir carved a great lance of chalyte and set it in a fortress of crystal and rock that hangs, even now, between two spears of living stone. With that violet beam he shattered the First Council of Elders, and the peaks themselves rang like cracked bells. Those giants who would not kneel were turned to ash; those who bowed were chained in service, their strength drawn off to feed the hungering stone. Thus did the mount become a prison, where kin labour night and day, bleeding power into a weapon that ever thirsts.

And the shepherds say: the thunder you hear on the night, when no storm blows, that echoes strangely in the mountains – that is the cries of the lost weeping for the lives that Sky-Breaker claimed.

Sabastian recorded that there have always been stories of giants living in the Chataan Mountains, and indeed in several other places, including near Darba, he heard tell of Ulgrathar, which he believed was either the giant name for the Chataans, or the name the giants who live their call themselves. Dhrukmir Sky-Breaker does not appear in many stories, other records suggest a tyrant rose to power among the giants in the years after the Great War, and perhaps Dhrukmir Sky-Breaker the legend is connected to this tyrant. Sabastian, however, doubts the tales of a chalyte death lance, as that seems rather more fantasy than fact, and there are surely other explanations for strange thunder in the mountains.