Lamia's Lair

The desert region of Callona, known as the Symballan Empire, is vast.  To compare to your ancient, long destroyed Earth, it spans a region larger than the continental United States.  You could pour the sands of your Sahara, Gobi, Desert Southwest, and the Arabian Peninsula into it and have room left for the Mediterranean Sea to bisect it.  In such a massive wasteland, populated by man for over ten thousand years, many things are known, but many more are not.  Lost cities, long forgotten temples, towns and villages consumed by the desert ages past, and off shoots of some of the Arrallonian races that have never been recorded; this and much more is out there,… waiting to be discovered.

-- Professor Persia Montgomery Fawcett, Raidon Royal Museum, 18562 GC

Ophillisea, the Lamia Noble

In that vast uncharted desert,… well perhaps the word "uncharted" isn't entirely correct,… "unexplored",… its dimensions and features are well known,… but what lies beneath the sands,… that's another matter.

As the world approached the turn of the 187^th century, paratechnology had reached new heights.  The almost medieval world of only three hundred years ago was fading into the foggy memories of a few immortals, the elves, and the ancient dragons.  Starships regularly visited the high peaks of Syvagaard.  Air travel was becoming commonplace.  Paratechnical marvels were turning the sewage and filth of the great cities into wonders of comfort and cleanliness.  The planet had been scanned from orbit and from distant planets, its every quality and measurement recorded in great detail.  Maps were flawless and navigation was highly accurate.  But that still didn't mean that everything and every being was known.

In one of those long forgotten holes under the Symballan Desert, an ancient evil languished.  She was neither ignorant of the modern world nor afraid of the new magics and machines that wandered about above her head.  She was perfectly content to remain hidden with her lair, controlling her machinations from afar, unknown and unnamed.  The Queen of the Second Symballan Empire, even with her DemiGoddess powers, had no idea of the creature's existence.  The Mighty Church of Isis, the most powerful Mystics on Arrallon, could only catch glimpses of something scaly slithering beneath their feet.  And lo be it to any band of adventurers that might stumble upon one of Ophillisea's assorted plots, for the Queen of the Lamia had little use for any who interfered with her schemes, and less use for any creature that could not entertain her immeasurable lusts.