The Valley: Part 4 - After the Veil
We’ve been playing D&D for the past month and a half, and I haven’t blogged about it.
I would be blogging about the last session since Dale’s back to running again, but he decided to finish out a plot line he started while I was out on vacation. So I felt it wasn’t best to start off in the middle of the story.
So I’ve got another post about the Valley and it won’t be the last.
I need to have the Valley ready to go soon enough as Dale will be gaming less than a quarter of time beginning sometime in August. I also expect him to be ready for a DM’ing break at a point in the not-too-distant future (currently sometime in July).
I want the Valley to have a decent amount of role-playing in it, but not too much. A lot of role-playing has the side effect of too many people sitting back and watching or not even paying attention. Giving everyone a chance to role-play is a huge time killer if you try to get everyone involved.
To solve that I’m going to attempt to go the Star Trek: The Next Generation route; each adventure will try to focus on one or two PC’s. Heaven help the person that skips out on a night for his PC at the last minute.
This will hopefully create a self-reinforcing situation where the player gives more role-playing and gets more story development.
Of course if a player is not a big fan of role-playing, then oh well, he’s not going to be happy at all. Too bad for them as I’m not going to continue with the path we’ve been on recently – 2-4 fights a night with bare minimum role-playing.
Now if you’re thinking this is going to be some major role-playing campaign where I’ll be creating some elaborate story that forces players to make heart-wrenching decisions, then you’ll be disappointed.
Also, don’t expect anything that qualifies as romantic. Half a dozen guys sitting at a table playing make believe about adult situations with each other is not a fun Friday night for me. Justin sure, but not me (he doesn’t read the blog).
Recently I laid out a loose timeline of what has happened in the Valley. I’m not going to publish the timeline, as it could lock me in to exact sequence.
I also think I’ll only give information that someone not involved would know. The reader knows that Lord Velserrad was an evil vampire-wizard, but people of the Valley do not. They believe the aged wizard died one night when his tower collapsed.
So I’m going to give some general information of what happened in the Valley to give the reader and the players an idea of what happened after the Silver Veil was lifted.
Magus Sanctus
An organization of wizards (only) that push to keep magic viewed in a positive way.
Within a week of the lifting of the Silver Veil they began construction of a teleportation circle that connects to the fishing town of Theven’s Wharf. This project was initiated by Nafterran before his departure to the Valley. There was much questioning why a small, southern town was chosen rather than a metropolis like Endor, for a time.
The fee to travel to or from the Valley is 100gp.
Ivellios Galanodil
Ivellios is the wise leader of the elves of the Valley. He was possibly the key person in creating and keeping the Valley together time and time again. When the Silver Veil lifted he became intensely focused on his magical research. He discovered (possibly rediscovered) the fey and shadow realms, and determined that the elves and eladrin came from the fey realm millennia prior. Within years every eladrin had learned to harness their connection to this realm (fey step racial power).
He continued his research for years, learning much about both realms.
He recently disappeared, leaving no clues as to where he went or why.
The Rise of the Valley
It is quickly discovered that there is something special about the Valley. The place soon becomes a focal point for people who research the arcane arts.
Wizards’ towers soon dotted the countryside and items of magical power are almost used as currency. This in turn attracts the rich and powerful to treat the Valley as the place to vacation.
For a time the economy of the Valley is destabilized, but when it recovers the lives the general populace is better off as the taxes from the influx of money is put to good use.
Eventually there came talk of the nation of Endaria annexing the Valley.
The last PC’s to play in the Valley (names lost to my history)
After a handful of adventures in the Valley, the PC group followed Lord Velserrad into a mirror world and ended up saving King Mehrik of Endaria from being killed and replaced (a modified module X12: Skarda’s Mirror).
Afterwards the PC’s traveled on many adventures and eventually used the treasure they gained to pay for the creation of a keep for them to use as their base of operations.
The keep, named Heroes’ Rest, was completed in less than three years. As part of an agreement with the city of the Valley, a city barracks was kept at Heroes’ Rest.
The heroes have never been seen in the Valley since they left the first time. They are presumed to be lost.
Dryveg Gorn
Dryveg Gorn has been the leader of the dwarves in the Valley for the past century.
To say that he is greedy is an understatement.
He is smart, cunning, and vicious. All dwarves but one who have stood against him paid a price for it.
He was the dwarven representative to the city council until he resigned for undisclosed reasons. It did not matter as his protégé was “elected” by the dwarves to replace him.
As for why the non-dwarves never deposed him – the dwarves control the iron mining and production in the Valley and thanks to Dryveg’s manipulations the “Ironmonger Dwarves” make ridiculous amounts of money off the sale of worked and raw iron.
Silverhome
Rushgar Hammersmith is the one dwarf that stood against Dryveg Gorn and survived unscathed.
Not every dwarf in the Valley puts earning money above morality.
While on a personal expedition to find his ancestral birthright, he came upon the PC’s holding said birthright, the Hammer of Silverhome.
Once the teleporter was working, many dwarves poured in from the outside. The greed of the ironmonger dwarves left the outsiders saddened, but Rushgar was a shining beacon among them, and he had a promise of glory.
In time the dwarves reclaimed the mines they lost long ago, effectively destroying the Dead Dwarf goblin clan.
On the 300th anniversary of the creation of the Valley, Silverhome is dedicated as a fully functional silver and gem mine.
Sordimar
Sordimar lies to the north of Endaria, and is considered part of the continent. It is a harsh land and its inhabitants are viewed as uncivilized barbarians.
Human, orc, and of course half-orcs, comprise of countless warrior tribes that sell their sword-arms to the highest bidder among Endaria’s warring island nations.
When the supply of warriors slowed, it was assumed that their “source” of throw away soldiers was running dry.
They were wrong.
Sordimar/Endaria War
Sordimar’s constantly warring tribes became united under one banner.
Using the massive fleet of transports they’ve accumulated over the years, tens of thousands of experienced warriors poured into the unprepared northern nations of Endaria.
The assault started strong, but the whole of the civilized Endarian nations were united brought the attack to a stand still.
An orc contingent even attempted to assault the Valley by going over the Ellicross Mountain range. Years of experience against goblins, better magic, and better defenses won out versus being outnumbered ten to one. But the price in life was steep. After the day was won, every single orc in the Valley was hunted and killed with a near insane ferocity. To this day the life of no orc is suffered in the Valley, no matter how civilized they may claim to be.
The Fall of Endor
Endor, the capital of the Kingdom of Endaria (not to be confused with the continent of the same name), was a near impenetrable city that was expected to stand for a thousand years. But the city was doomed to fall.
The arrogance of the military left it vulnerable in some key areas and, as always, the greed of some of the nobility gave the Sordimar forces what they needed to win.
King Mehrik and his entire family line is assassinated moments before the city’s defensive measures begin failing and its doors open allowing the Sordimarians in.
As the attackers were repelled, the dead on the street rose.
The battle lasted one day. No side living side won.
In time Endor became a necropolis and the rumor is that King Mehrik’s ghost is cursed to look down on his city for eternity.
The Decline of the Valley
With a single exception, the Valley is untouched by the war, though it economy lost much of the money of its rich patrons that it had come to depend on.
With the Valley’s key ally nations deep in a war, the Dryveg Gorn sees a chance to grab more money. The ironmonger dwarves double the price of iron overnight and the city government is in no condition to do anything about it unless they wanted another civil war.
The Arcane Insurrection
The School of Innates (wild magic sorcerers) rebelled. Over the years the innates had created an internal program of spying, gathering power, and eliminating any innates who might become a problem with the goal of quietly taking over the School of Wizardry as a stepping stone to gathering even more arcane power that they had been long denied.
The conspirators had hoped for a quiet and quick attack, but it turned into a protracted battle that left them outnumbered and outsmarted.
The city council, in a measure to cut costs, temporarily disbands the School of the Innates and offers very little in aid to repair the damages done to either of the Schools.
Over two decades later and the School of the Innates has never been reopened. Those who have the talent for sorcery now tend to be taught by another with the talent.
In time too few talented wizards are available to teach at the School of Wizardry and the headmasters become too concerned with political power over arcane power. To this day those that are trained at the School of Wizardry are those who have no better options.
Heroes’ Rest Sacked
The keep of Heroes’ Rest is attacked and taken over by ogres. Ogres had never been seen in the Valley, so scouts are sent to investigate. They find never-before-seen pass leading east out of the Valley into a region called Wild Lands.
The Wild Lands is a peninsula on the eastern tip of the Endarian continent, cut off from the rest of the continent by the Ellicross Mountains.
This event plus increased undead and goblin activity force the city to abandon Heroes’ Rest.
The city now controls the same areas of the Valley prior to the lifting of the Silver Veil.
The Holy Church of Brekaneth
As the warfront solidifies, it has become apparent that the Church of Brekaneth has come out ahead. Its aggressive faction trains people in combat, gathering converts along the way while its protective faction wins the heart of people in need as a result of the war. Their numbers swell on both sides of the border.
Its members become a key force in slowing the advance of the Sordimarians.
With the swell in members and money, the church begins funneling money to build a new and grand temple in the most defensible place on the continent, the Valley.
Over a decade later the Grand Temple of Brekaneth is completed. It is easily the largest man-made object in the Valley.
Present
The smartest eladrin in the Valley has disappeared.
Magic power emanates from the land surrounding the Valley.
The land outside the Valley is embroiled in a war that could end soon, or erupt to new bloodshed.
The outsider heroes have not returned, but their keep still stands.
Political power sways from moment to moment.
The two factions of dwarves are ever at odds.
Goblins, once on the verge of extinction have returned.
Divine power and arcane power to join with or oppose.
A pass to lands unknown.
Yeah, I think there might be some adventure to find in all of that.
I would be blogging about the last session since Dale’s back to running again, but he decided to finish out a plot line he started while I was out on vacation. So I felt it wasn’t best to start off in the middle of the story.
So I’ve got another post about the Valley and it won’t be the last.
I need to have the Valley ready to go soon enough as Dale will be gaming less than a quarter of time beginning sometime in August. I also expect him to be ready for a DM’ing break at a point in the not-too-distant future (currently sometime in July).
I want the Valley to have a decent amount of role-playing in it, but not too much. A lot of role-playing has the side effect of too many people sitting back and watching or not even paying attention. Giving everyone a chance to role-play is a huge time killer if you try to get everyone involved.
To solve that I’m going to attempt to go the Star Trek: The Next Generation route; each adventure will try to focus on one or two PC’s. Heaven help the person that skips out on a night for his PC at the last minute.
This will hopefully create a self-reinforcing situation where the player gives more role-playing and gets more story development.
Of course if a player is not a big fan of role-playing, then oh well, he’s not going to be happy at all. Too bad for them as I’m not going to continue with the path we’ve been on recently – 2-4 fights a night with bare minimum role-playing.
Now if you’re thinking this is going to be some major role-playing campaign where I’ll be creating some elaborate story that forces players to make heart-wrenching decisions, then you’ll be disappointed.
Also, don’t expect anything that qualifies as romantic. Half a dozen guys sitting at a table playing make believe about adult situations with each other is not a fun Friday night for me. Justin sure, but not me (he doesn’t read the blog).
Recently I laid out a loose timeline of what has happened in the Valley. I’m not going to publish the timeline, as it could lock me in to exact sequence.
I also think I’ll only give information that someone not involved would know. The reader knows that Lord Velserrad was an evil vampire-wizard, but people of the Valley do not. They believe the aged wizard died one night when his tower collapsed.
So I’m going to give some general information of what happened in the Valley to give the reader and the players an idea of what happened after the Silver Veil was lifted.
Magus Sanctus
An organization of wizards (only) that push to keep magic viewed in a positive way.
Within a week of the lifting of the Silver Veil they began construction of a teleportation circle that connects to the fishing town of Theven’s Wharf. This project was initiated by Nafterran before his departure to the Valley. There was much questioning why a small, southern town was chosen rather than a metropolis like Endor, for a time.
The fee to travel to or from the Valley is 100gp.
Ivellios Galanodil
Ivellios is the wise leader of the elves of the Valley. He was possibly the key person in creating and keeping the Valley together time and time again. When the Silver Veil lifted he became intensely focused on his magical research. He discovered (possibly rediscovered) the fey and shadow realms, and determined that the elves and eladrin came from the fey realm millennia prior. Within years every eladrin had learned to harness their connection to this realm (fey step racial power).
He continued his research for years, learning much about both realms.
He recently disappeared, leaving no clues as to where he went or why.
The Rise of the Valley
It is quickly discovered that there is something special about the Valley. The place soon becomes a focal point for people who research the arcane arts.
Wizards’ towers soon dotted the countryside and items of magical power are almost used as currency. This in turn attracts the rich and powerful to treat the Valley as the place to vacation.
For a time the economy of the Valley is destabilized, but when it recovers the lives the general populace is better off as the taxes from the influx of money is put to good use.
Eventually there came talk of the nation of Endaria annexing the Valley.
The last PC’s to play in the Valley (names lost to my history)
After a handful of adventures in the Valley, the PC group followed Lord Velserrad into a mirror world and ended up saving King Mehrik of Endaria from being killed and replaced (a modified module X12: Skarda’s Mirror).
Afterwards the PC’s traveled on many adventures and eventually used the treasure they gained to pay for the creation of a keep for them to use as their base of operations.
The keep, named Heroes’ Rest, was completed in less than three years. As part of an agreement with the city of the Valley, a city barracks was kept at Heroes’ Rest.
The heroes have never been seen in the Valley since they left the first time. They are presumed to be lost.
Dryveg Gorn
Dryveg Gorn has been the leader of the dwarves in the Valley for the past century.
To say that he is greedy is an understatement.
He is smart, cunning, and vicious. All dwarves but one who have stood against him paid a price for it.
He was the dwarven representative to the city council until he resigned for undisclosed reasons. It did not matter as his protégé was “elected” by the dwarves to replace him.
As for why the non-dwarves never deposed him – the dwarves control the iron mining and production in the Valley and thanks to Dryveg’s manipulations the “Ironmonger Dwarves” make ridiculous amounts of money off the sale of worked and raw iron.
Silverhome
Rushgar Hammersmith is the one dwarf that stood against Dryveg Gorn and survived unscathed.
Not every dwarf in the Valley puts earning money above morality.
While on a personal expedition to find his ancestral birthright, he came upon the PC’s holding said birthright, the Hammer of Silverhome.
Once the teleporter was working, many dwarves poured in from the outside. The greed of the ironmonger dwarves left the outsiders saddened, but Rushgar was a shining beacon among them, and he had a promise of glory.
In time the dwarves reclaimed the mines they lost long ago, effectively destroying the Dead Dwarf goblin clan.
On the 300th anniversary of the creation of the Valley, Silverhome is dedicated as a fully functional silver and gem mine.
Sordimar
Sordimar lies to the north of Endaria, and is considered part of the continent. It is a harsh land and its inhabitants are viewed as uncivilized barbarians.
Human, orc, and of course half-orcs, comprise of countless warrior tribes that sell their sword-arms to the highest bidder among Endaria’s warring island nations.
When the supply of warriors slowed, it was assumed that their “source” of throw away soldiers was running dry.
They were wrong.
Sordimar/Endaria War
Sordimar’s constantly warring tribes became united under one banner.
Using the massive fleet of transports they’ve accumulated over the years, tens of thousands of experienced warriors poured into the unprepared northern nations of Endaria.
The assault started strong, but the whole of the civilized Endarian nations were united brought the attack to a stand still.
An orc contingent even attempted to assault the Valley by going over the Ellicross Mountain range. Years of experience against goblins, better magic, and better defenses won out versus being outnumbered ten to one. But the price in life was steep. After the day was won, every single orc in the Valley was hunted and killed with a near insane ferocity. To this day the life of no orc is suffered in the Valley, no matter how civilized they may claim to be.
The Fall of Endor
Endor, the capital of the Kingdom of Endaria (not to be confused with the continent of the same name), was a near impenetrable city that was expected to stand for a thousand years. But the city was doomed to fall.
The arrogance of the military left it vulnerable in some key areas and, as always, the greed of some of the nobility gave the Sordimar forces what they needed to win.
King Mehrik and his entire family line is assassinated moments before the city’s defensive measures begin failing and its doors open allowing the Sordimarians in.
As the attackers were repelled, the dead on the street rose.
The battle lasted one day. No side living side won.
In time Endor became a necropolis and the rumor is that King Mehrik’s ghost is cursed to look down on his city for eternity.
The Decline of the Valley
With a single exception, the Valley is untouched by the war, though it economy lost much of the money of its rich patrons that it had come to depend on.
With the Valley’s key ally nations deep in a war, the Dryveg Gorn sees a chance to grab more money. The ironmonger dwarves double the price of iron overnight and the city government is in no condition to do anything about it unless they wanted another civil war.
The Arcane Insurrection
The School of Innates (wild magic sorcerers) rebelled. Over the years the innates had created an internal program of spying, gathering power, and eliminating any innates who might become a problem with the goal of quietly taking over the School of Wizardry as a stepping stone to gathering even more arcane power that they had been long denied.
The conspirators had hoped for a quiet and quick attack, but it turned into a protracted battle that left them outnumbered and outsmarted.
The city council, in a measure to cut costs, temporarily disbands the School of the Innates and offers very little in aid to repair the damages done to either of the Schools.
Over two decades later and the School of the Innates has never been reopened. Those who have the talent for sorcery now tend to be taught by another with the talent.
In time too few talented wizards are available to teach at the School of Wizardry and the headmasters become too concerned with political power over arcane power. To this day those that are trained at the School of Wizardry are those who have no better options.
Heroes’ Rest Sacked
The keep of Heroes’ Rest is attacked and taken over by ogres. Ogres had never been seen in the Valley, so scouts are sent to investigate. They find never-before-seen pass leading east out of the Valley into a region called Wild Lands.
The Wild Lands is a peninsula on the eastern tip of the Endarian continent, cut off from the rest of the continent by the Ellicross Mountains.
This event plus increased undead and goblin activity force the city to abandon Heroes’ Rest.
The city now controls the same areas of the Valley prior to the lifting of the Silver Veil.
The Holy Church of Brekaneth
As the warfront solidifies, it has become apparent that the Church of Brekaneth has come out ahead. Its aggressive faction trains people in combat, gathering converts along the way while its protective faction wins the heart of people in need as a result of the war. Their numbers swell on both sides of the border.
Its members become a key force in slowing the advance of the Sordimarians.
With the swell in members and money, the church begins funneling money to build a new and grand temple in the most defensible place on the continent, the Valley.
Over a decade later the Grand Temple of Brekaneth is completed. It is easily the largest man-made object in the Valley.
Present
The smartest eladrin in the Valley has disappeared.
Magic power emanates from the land surrounding the Valley.
The land outside the Valley is embroiled in a war that could end soon, or erupt to new bloodshed.
The outsider heroes have not returned, but their keep still stands.
Political power sways from moment to moment.
The two factions of dwarves are ever at odds.
Goblins, once on the verge of extinction have returned.
Divine power and arcane power to join with or oppose.
A pass to lands unknown.
Yeah, I think there might be some adventure to find in all of that.
posted by BlueBlackRed at 12:41 PM
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