Professional Blades III - City of Kulhur

Province of Dragonscape - The beginning of the third era 

 While all the Demiurges opposed the Nokhian empire, some of them recognized the humans to be very special beings, creatures capable of a deep devotion and faith most dragons never had, some Demiurges actually put the Humans above the Dragons in their follower's hierarchy, and demanded that the Dragons obeyed the humans, and one of the Demiurges who did this was Kulhur, of course, nobody ever saw Kulhur true form or true voice, but they were reached by his influence and voice through animals, omens and dreams.

 But as the humans built a larger city in his name and became a more strong religion, Kulhur gifted then with a more concrete physical manifestation of his powers, the Egg of Paradise, a five meters tall very dark green egg, it's surface full of small cracks and ambiguous forms, but when you look long enough, these forms start to look like human faces.

 The egg had to be contained in one large room of the City's temple, and the egg emanated a powerful aura that made anyone around it dizzy or sick, but, in contrast, it made the soil, trees, plants much healthier, crops grew three times as fast with three time as more bounty, trees grew larger and gave stronger wood, and minerals naturally formed in the nearby rocky formations.

 Soon, the city grew much bigger, walls now protected the city, which as full of plants and trees being part of not only the decoration, but some even had their houses inside of those trees that grew so large that they even made "leave roofs" on parts of the city.

 And Dragons were part of their population, but now the Dragons were slaves to the humans, that used them to carry cargo mostly.

 The city of Kulhur was located in the Province of Dragonscape, and they fought the Nokhian empire since the middle part of the Second Era, although the Nokhian warriors were formidable, there was twenty followers of Kulhur for each one the Nokhians killed. But Kulhur, being one of the Demiurges "more close to the human heart", as his followers would say, took mercy upon the Nokhians, confident they'd eventually see his glory and abandon their empire, or even their empire come around to his service. So he guided the city Ruler to make peace with the Nokhian empire and allow them to expand their empire into Dragonscape as long as they left Kulhur' s people alone The deal was reluctantly accepted by the Empire, at first things were going nicely, but as the Provinces got their own kings, masters and commanders, they saw a huge shift towards Kulhur's cause, quickly starting to become part of Kulhur's people. And by start of the Third era, the Temple's Tribunal decided they had enough of Kulhur deceiving the imperial people. But instead of launching a attack they were smarter, they kept their plans a secret, but recruited the Ahuja clan to investigate the source of their unnatural prosperous kingdom, and, if possible, destroy it.

 Zamirr was the one who were going to lead this mission, together with his personal apprentice, Sinjid and other five Ahuja clan warriors.

 The province of Dragonscape was known for it's vast landscapes of plains full of hills and cliffs of all different sizes, some people described the province to have a particular mysterious aura about it, as you could easily see far into the landscapes, but still having large cliffs or weird farther formations that possibly hides something. For some reason the entire place had this eerie feeling that a giant creature could be lurking closer nearby. 

 Zamirr, Sinjid and their five warriors were very sharp investigators, they stopped by some Nokhian villages, and instantly noticed how much they were... not under the Empire's control, they all seem to know much more about the local folklore and Kulhur' s blessings than any of the Nokhian ancestrality or traditions. But the Ahujas, already being a clan that's not exactly very loyal to Nokhian traditions, actually were able to completely disguise their true intentions when they asked about how to reach Kulhur' s citadel. 

 Meanwhile, they heard all kind of troubling rumors and stories about Kulhur's blessings, how he could influence the skies and the earth, how he showed up at their dreams and cured illness. But as the Ahujas went a bit deeper, they also heard about how some people go insane, disappear, or talk about the 'abyss' under the earth.

 The citadel were located in a valley, inside of it was a very vast swamp, the ground level inside of the valley was considerably lower than the rest of the provinces, almost like the entire valley were actually a absurdly huge crater. In the middle of the Swamp, they see those huge cobblestone mossy walls with wooden spikes on top of it, the gate were actually opened as some caravans entered and leaved the city, and inside it's walls, they see this huge city where tree and houses sometimes merged together, and the people usually wearing long robes, or shirtless but with long skirts, they had several types of tattoos and piercings, which were already relatively common in the empire, but not as much.

 But there was a common theme with their style, especially to the armors of the guards or warriors, the use of scale-like patterns, some helmets even had dragon wings, and the bracers sometimes having 'fins' as part of their decorations.

 Either way, the Ahujas weren't there to fool around, they had a specific mission, and they'd gather as much as information as possible, so as soon as nightfall, they already start their operation.