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Draconian Armada
Like a mirage rising from the ash plains, the massive walls of the sprawling city slowly take shape on the horizon. Rust-red, copper-green, and ash-gray sand coils about the massive battlements and columns, slowly moving like great serpents in the howling desert wind. Majestic towers rise above the city, reaching for the heavens and beckoning the dragons home to roost in their spires. Intricately carved, stone gates are flanked by colossal statues of dragons, the icons of Baal faith. Inside, every surface of stone is sculpted lovingly in bas relief by Dwur hands, and a multitude of colored stones and obsidian tiles are inlaid in the stark black basalt.
Rhi'Uruloki is the last, great city of the Baal. This is the home that the Baal returned to after the time of their glorious Draconian Empire had passed. It is here that the deepest mysteries of the Dragon Gods are kept by the Baal'Shem priesthood. Some say that the Pendragon herself sleeps in the mighty volcanoes that rise behind the city. Most foreigners hope that She will never awaken, or that in awakening the volcanoes would swallow the city and all the Baal within beneath their fiery blood. Nontheless, the capital city of the Baal is a bustling port city filled with life, foreign merchants their ships. While the Baal will never be loved, they amassed a vast and ancient wealth during their conquest of the world, and treasures from the corners of Ambar bejewel their greatest city.
This jewel is a tempting prize to the Kith, but the city is protected by the amassed armies and fleets of the ancient Draconian Empire. The only land approach is the long and narrow Dragonwing Peninsula, which leaves any approaching army without supply lines and vulnerable to attack from the rear or by sea. Like dark and angry ghosts, black-clad warships of the Draconian Armada form an impenetrable line along the Baal coastline. All ships approaching this last, greatest holy city are thoroughly searched by Wardum marines.
The Baal armada was built by the Dwur in ancient times, but remain the most formidable and advanced ships in the Dragon Isles. Constructed almost entirely of Adamant, the sleek black ships are impervious to mortal weaponry, as well as dragonflame and Baalfire. The ships range in size from small and quick marine scout corvettes like the Wrath of the Pendragon, to the mid-sized troop-carrying dromons, and the massive Wyrm-killing dreadnoughts hundreds of feet long. Baal warships have banks of both oars and sails, but have the unique ability to pull energy from Dragon Lines in the earth for long-distance travel. The ships also feature alchemical weaponry such as flamethrowers and light cannon, but the dreadnoughts house massive Dragonline-powered cannon for slaying Wyrms.
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