Tarakan Mountains

The Tarakans stretch across almost all of Lemuria from east to west. Few have explored them and many believe them impossible to cross; at best the trip would be slow and dangerous. Those who claim to have gone in tell of yawning chasms, sheer cliffs and crumbling ledges at every turn, swirling winds and sudden downdrafts that threaten even skilled climbers, and ice on the highest summits.

Predators make it worse. Rocs, griffons and other savage beasts live on the northern face, and several kinds of winged reptiles haunt the southern cliffs. Hardly anyone would think of going there but for the account of Kalik of Turan, whose old, yellowed but mostly legible scroll was deciphered by the Atlantean scholar Brunus.

Kalik wrote that after eleven days' travel his party, led by the wizard Solan, reached the foot of the range. Two griffons killed three of them on the first approach; on the next climb, at about 700 feet, dire wolves killed the bearer Hasim. Kalik urged turning back, Solan refused, and the other bearers deserted. After two more days of narrowly escaping rockslides, an overconfident Solan tried to leap a deep crevice and fell to his death. Climbing down to bury him, Kalik found a fine diamond almost the size of a small plum, then several more and a handful of lesser gems nearby: Solan had found the riches he craved, at the price of his life.