Order of the Mithril Dolphin #11

Well we finally got back to a point in Dale’s campaign where it’s actually his campaign and not just a few fights thrown together for the sake of doing something.

That means I can write about it once again.

The previous session Mike added some Arcane Power options to his bard Renald. The result was a PC that helped other PC’s at the cost of his own actions. The results were less satisfying than he had hoped.

So Mike dumped Renald in favor of Gorak, a human barbarian. Gorak literally jumps into battle, bypassing blocking soldier types to get straight at the softer back line.

So far it appears our combats have Gorak and Wildeyes going after the controllers and artillery while Kal, Shamash, and Sephira battle it out with the front line and Ergot going for targets of opportunity or nuisance control. The description is a generalization, but an accurate one.

Valley-wise, for similar reasons that Mike dumped Renald, I’ve removed bards from the list of allowable PC’s. Their abilities disrupt combat flow way too much for my liking.

Back in 1E AD&D, combats took 15 minutes and you could fit a dozen in a night. With 4E, and 3E, they traded the quantity of fights for more dynamic fights that gives each class something more than just to roll dice, but at the cost of much longer fights.

So unless I want to dust off my 1E books or play Hackmaster, I have to adapt and accept these changes as best I can.

First off, and I accepted this back in 3.5E, the days of a dozen combats a session are gone. So I’m only going to plan for 2 to 4 combats and/or challenges a session. That means “yard trash” fights have to go or be incorporated into other fights.

Something we’ve been doing is to call a fight over when it’s obvious the rest of the fight is just a waste of time. Usually this is when only a couple uninteresting targets or situations remain. The DM estimates how many more rounds the combat is going to go and gives the monsters that many attacks, if just to soak up healing surges. So far no one at the table has complained about making rounds 7 to 10 go away.

I’ve also decided to add a time goal to certain fights. For non-crucial (non-boss) fights I may add a time goal and reward. If we make the goal, the party gets the reward. In most cases the reward will be bonus XP, but I’m sure I could occasionally make it something the party wants.

The goals could have a possible side effect of everyone making a quick combat, nova-type character. To that I respond, be careful. While I wholeheartedly agree that every PC in the group must pull their weight in a fight, having everyone do the same thing guarantees a bad end.

To me every group should be set up in this manner:
Someone to tank (high defenses, high hp, marking ability)
Someone to heal and remove afflictions (a second healer couldn’t hurt, but a third is a waste)
Someone to control the battlefield (sliding friend and foe to better positions)
Everyone else does as much damage as they can, usually as fast as they can.

While that doesn’t account for every situational possibility, it covers enough.

Now I’m sure someone is saying “What if I want to take a less effective power in favor of more flair or role-playing reasons?”

My response is – it depends on your campaign, but for me role-playing is usually not done during a combat on a level where powers are used.

A less nice way to say it is “You are stealing the XP your teammates earned because you wanted to try something ‘cool’”.

Alright, enough of my soapbox again.

This session (levels 5-7 I think).
Shamash (Aaron), dragonborn fighter/cleric, defender
Sephira (Scott), dragonborn cleric, leader/striker
Wildeyes (Me), halfling ranger/rogue, striker
Gorak (Mike), human barbarian, striker
Kal (Brian), human swordmage, defender
Ergot (Justin), dwarf druid, controller

Our previous session left us back in Hillside after a variety of undocumented sessions that had us fighting satyrs, grey dragons, shadow beasts, demons, and undead.

We started off with another audience with Korg Ironfist, mayor of Hillside.

The last time we talked to him the prevention of fishing mithril river dolphins was left somewhat unresolved as the Fishermen’s’ Guild were claiming our goals would hurt them too much.

This time I believe we resolved the issue once and for all.

It just required a simple application of Occam’s Razor, a mentioning of new licensing money for fishing, fees for illegal fishing, and proving that Kal did indeed carry the sword of the Sea King.

And to knock the Fishermen’s Guild for a loop, we convinced Korg to pit the fishermen against each other by offering a portion of the fines as a reward to any fisherman that rats out another fisherman. We thought that bit was particularly humorous.

With that resolved we went about using our long gathered monetary treasure and converted it to magic items via item creation rituals.

Wildeyes got himself a set of Quickhit Bracers, so when he hits the same target with both melee weapons he adds another 1d6 points of damage, and a daily power that gives him a free swing too.

For an example of Wildeyes “going nova” (and I doubt this is as powerful as he could be); assuming the target is already affect with Hunter’s Quarry, the target is flanked, all daily powers and action points are available, and I rolled enough to get all hits but not crits, Wildeyes would use Sneak Attack, Ruffling Sting, Jaws of the Wolf, Two-Wolf Pounce, and his Quickhit Bracers for 1d8 + 13d6 + 26 and 2d6 + 4 to an alternate target (an average of 76 and 11 damage).

The above will most likely not happen, but it’s nice to think about. My current damage record to a single target is 49 and my current attack bonus with my short swords is +15/+14 (MH/OH, with flanking).

After our shopping was done we chatted with Burgoyne, our “adventure finder”. He had heard of someone who might know where to find a special sapphire that can be added to the Sea King’s sword to increase its power. All we had to do was find someone named Sammath Narr in the Underdark and he might know where this sapphire is.

The trail we took led us down a “mushroom forest” path and of course there were combats.

Our first one was against a gibbering mouther, a grell, and a pair of gricks.

This fight sucked thanks to the dazing power of the mouther and the grell’s stronger abilities (grells are elite).

Shamash and Wildeyes took forever with the grell. Gorak and Ergot took out the mouther first, and Kal and Sephira held out as best they could until the rest of us joined them to take out the gricks at which point Dale declared the combat over.

The next combat was yet another “give us money or die” toll road, this time with troglodytes.

We owned the trogs. Gorak and Wildeyes bypassed the soldiers and started bashing their soft backside early. Once the soldiers were locked down Shamash and Sephira put their damaging zone powers to use. After that it was just a matter of time and one dropping per round, even with fairly decent defenses and hit points.

Now it was getting a bit late, and Dale expected the next combat to take more time than we had, so I mentioned the time vs. goal system and Dale decided to try it out.

If we were done by 11:30 he’d give bonus XP.

The combat itself was not that hard, but it was irritating as Shadar-kai have some complicated attack abilities and some good evading abilities.

After the first few rounds, when we’d exhausted all our big powers, we started going on rapid auto-pilot, including Dale.

To note, we finished by 11:29 and the bonus XP just barely put me up a level.

The next session I have to miss for personal reasons and the one after that is canceled since it’s the holidays.

The Valley Part 5 - PC Backgrounds

From every campaign I’ve ever run, there’s been at least one thing I’ve wanted to keep for future campaigns.

For a (relatively) recent campaign I liked two things about the campaign - The Roaring Bull Inn and good character backgrounds.

The Roaring Bull Inn just worked much better than my expectations, so I’m going to “port” it from the previous campaign. The proprietor, William “Bull” McAllister, was a fun and genuine good guy that everyone in the game liked on some level.

The character histories required the players to make a moderately in-depth PC background, and then the DM edited them to match the world. These backgrounds gave just as much development to the direction of the campaign as the overarching story. I want to bring that back.

Part of me wonders how much farther that campaign could have gone had 3.5E combats not taken so disgustingly long that I got irritated one night and killed the campaign after a 1 hour combat took 2 hours to finish.

The remainder of this entry will be the histories of PC’s from that campaign. This will actually be the first time anyone other than me will have seen all of the histories.

-----

Aaron’s PC – Ian Cabatuan

Ian Cabatuan was born to an unwed mother (and unknown father), and grew up unsupervised on the streets of the city-state of Felmora. He grew up hanging out backstage and in back alleys behind pubs and taverns catering to the adventuring types. He survived stealing what he needed and could carry.

He was still a kid around 8 when he was finally caught stealing from a merchant.

While serving his time, the guards would question his lineage calling him a half-orc because of his lack of wit and looks. One day he showed up one of the guards, a soldier in training, when his instructor was around. He was granted the 'honor' of training with them. These were tough times usually consisting of getting knocked around by someone tougher than him, especially on the rare occasions he was able to put a new recruit in his place.

In spite of his lack of charisma, Ian was actually quite likeable and grew on the guards, eventually becoming a barracks mascot of sorts; training with the new recruits when there was an odd number. It was here that he met the young Prince Nicholas Felmora, who was learning to carry a dress sword for some official event. They hit it off and became great friends, though not in public as he was technically still a prisoner (something the prince could identify with). As he became older Nicholas would help Ian escape, and Ian would help Nicholas escape in disguise to go out to some of the pubs. Ian would also perform 'missions' for the prince to acquire any contraband he wasn't allowed to have in the castle.

When we were nearly 20, the king was killed while enjoying a ride on his horse, and the prince assumed the throne as the only heir. One of Nicholas’s first acts was to pardon Ian, and then sent Ian on some small missions to investigate the circumstances of Nicholas’s father's death. Although Ian didn't uncover anything suspicious in the investigation, the investigation was cut short. Before the official crowning ceremony was carried out, the young king-to-be was killed. The assassin was quickly caught and executed by the agents of a nobleman named Kraal “the Lion” Derekon.

Kraal would have been seen as a hero, had he not also quickly make a legal claim on the throne of Felmora. Those who made similar claims, or contested Kraal’s own claim, would have a very unfortunate accident before the next morning came.

Ian, like most others, saw through the thin veil of deceit, but had no power to do anything about it. The noble houses became very quiet after three of their numbers died of falling from their balconies, and city and royal guards were being interfered with by Kraal’s own guards.

Ian thought about doing some investigation to find some proof of Kraal’s actions, but before he could even make a plan Kraal’s personal guard showed up at Ian’s small house. They had been sent to arrest him under suspicion of aiding Nicholas’s assassin.

Ian knew where this was going and fled from the city. He was able to elude the guards thanks to his knowledge of the back alleys of the city and with a little help from one his friends in the guard (“he went that way”).

He fled to the port city of Loville and sought the first route of escape. Although unable to blend into a crowd well, there were throngs of people leaving the country by boat after Kraal had announced an alliance with the orcs from the south. Even Ian can disappear into a crowd that size.

So he snuck onto a boat and it took him to the city-state of Endrin.

Endrin was a nation on the rise, while Felmora (now renamed Derekon, you’ve heard) is now a nation in decline.

Some things never change though. Ian’s looks caused people to judge him harshly before in Felmora. And in Endrin, that hasn’t changed much. Though people treat him better in some ways because he has an unusual appearance (no one around with orc lineage), many people talk to him like they think he’s stupid, especially those people who think they’re better than everyone else.

His appearance also prevented him from finding a decent job. His hasty exit from Felmora left what coin and equipment he had at his home. For the first time in over a decade, Ian was about to resort to stealing food again.

But one man, a large man (in muscle and girth), could almost see the story of Ian’s life in his eyes.

Without a word from Ian he said, “Are you hungry son? I’ve got some things that need done around my inn, but I’ve not got the time or the back I used to. I’ll get you a good hearty meal and you do some good odds and ends for me. Is that a deal?”

With a nod, Ian’s life started looking up again thanks to William “Bull” McAllister, the owner of the Roaring Bull Inn.

That was just a little over a month ago. Since helping Bull with some repairs, he bragged about Ian to a few others who hired him for other such work. Luckily Ian’s muscle and stamina can keep him going longer than most others.

And tonight he is resting and having a drink at Bull’s place.

-----

Allen’s PC - Caspar

Your small city of Lataan was attacked recently by the dark knight warlord Takral. During the fighting your duty was to protect the Mayor's wife from kidnapping, as this had been one of Takral’s tactics in the past.

But you failed in your task when you were ambushed by a troupe of rogues and wizards. She was taken from the city while you lay bleeding outside the gate of the Mayor’s mansion.

After the fighting was over and the day was won, they found you, healed you, and questioned you about what happened. Your order exonerated you from any wrongdoing of any kind, but the Mayor blamed you for everything.

The next day the Mayor’s wife’s head was delivered to him with the note “This is the price of your failure to come to reason.”

Many say that the Mayor went mad, but all say that he took it out on you.

Your honor and loyalty were brought into question, and the Mayor brought the full force of his political power to hurt you in any way he could as he blames you for the loss of his wife just as much as he does Takral.

Eventually you were labeled a coward and traitor to the city, even though your order stood by you, and exiled out.

You were escorted out of the city with only what you had on you at the time; your father’s armor and weapons. A friend of yours, Mattilias, quickly gave you his horse and spare money to help get you where you needed to go. You promised to repay him when you return with stories and proof of heroic deeds.

You were also forced to leave your mother behind. Although not old and feeble, you worry that the mayor may do something to her if you return without him being reduced in power first. But more likely he is just using her as an insurance policy against you.

For the past three months you traveled the lands. First was the city-state of Ponalim; but they were too warlike and lacked any real honor, so you left there and found the city-state of Endrin. (And you knew better than to try to find work with the elves.)

Endrin, although not home, is a comfortable place to live so far. You’ve managed to join the city guard and have been staying at the Roaring Bull Inn. The owner of the place, “Bull” McAllister, actually put a good word in with the guard master to get you the job, because he “can see that you’re the kind of man to stand up for what’s right”.

He’s even reduced his rates for you because you’ve helped him more than once to “help” on occasional overly rowdy dockworker find his way back home (or at least outside) without having to resort to any real violence.

For the moment you have an acceptable life here in Endrin, but you have a home, family and friends back in Lataan.

All you’re waiting for now is to find an opportunity to unquestionably prove that you are no coward.

-----

Brian’s PC - Zelast

Born to an elf family of high, but not noble, birth this young elf exhibited much of the abilities that exemplified the race of elves; talent with magic, and skill with the sword and bow.

These talents, and the aide your family name, allowed you to join the elite academy of warrior mages known as duskblades. And although you excelled at your studies, you had to bite your tongue at the haughty and arrogant attitudes of many of your fellow students.

Upon graduation from the school, he expected the actual whole of the duskblades to have less of an elitist attitude and more of a dutiful one, but he was wrong, especially when it came to his commanding officer, Jothillian.

Jothillian was an icon of elf nobility gone bad. He had been born into a powerful and rich family and believed that if wanted it, it belonged to him.

You kept your opinions in check for as long as possible, but one day you could do so no more.

A young elf cleric, Ysilia, had become the target of Jothillian’s infatuation. But she spurned his advances, which did nothing but to anger him.

On this day particular day, Jothillian called his men for official duty, but really it was only an excuse to get what he wanted from Aarasilia.

“She is but a creature of low birth, and are we not this land’s protectors? She’s owes us more than this just for the air she breathes! I say she belongs to us!”

At that point you could no longer be silent at such a high crime being committed upon anyone, elf or otherwise.

You managed to distract your comrades in arms with a simple spell and allow the girl a chance to escape, a spell which scarred Jothillian’s left cheek.

Had the scuffle not made some noise and brought the attention of others, you might be dead right now. But it did, so Jothillian could not run you through. He instead told you that you were to leave your homeland by morning and never return, lest he bring the power of his family down on yours, leaving all of them outcasts and not just yourself.

Your first destination was not your home, but the temple the girl resided. She was in more danger than you, and you had to warn her. Luckily her superiors had not been poisoned by Jothillian’s family’s money, and they understood the danger she was in.

They agreed to protect yours and her family as well as they could, so long as you and she disappeared for a short while (at least a year) until this blew over.

You returned home and told your father what happened, and left it up to him what he would tell your mother.

He told you that your uncle Hithelas had been friends with a human man called William McAllister, who owned the Roaring Bull Inn in Endrin.

So Ysilia and you made the month long journey to Endrin in relative safety, even when traveling through the lands of the city-state of Ponalim (a human kingdom that had always been at odds with your people).

Just yesterday you arrived in Endrin and were greeted warmly by your uncle’s friend “Bull” McAllister. His place is pleasant, but it is not home.

Even if a year passes, Jothillian may still hold a grudge, and who knows what lies he has spread about you and Ysilia.

You’ve heard of elven kingdoms far to the west, and Endrin has many ships capable of such travel.

But your mind is tired, you have a nice bit of wine in front of you, and this human singer is really quite good. Perhaps tomorrow you’ll think of a solution, but right now you need to relax.

-----

Dale’s PC – Artemis

You always wanted to be a bladesinger, but sadly you were a half-elf that could not live up to the elven ideal of a bladesinger. But you had some inborn skill with magic, and the elven flair for sword and bow, so you pledged your years to the elven military, and was placed in their warmage academy.

Your magnetic personality made you quite popular among everyone you knew, but not all. Elves are not above petty jealousy and racial mistrust. One particular elf, Jothillian, saw this “half-human’s” popularity as a threat to his ambitions. Jothillian convinced your commanders to send you to the human city-state of Endrin as an envoy to a human weapons trader, Talinaar’s Arms Trading Company.

You knew that this task would not be easy for you, as it was well known that this trading company was a bit cold to trading with non-humans, but your commanders trusted that your winning personality could sway them.

You were quite aware that Jothillian did not care for you, and you had heard through word of mouth that it was Jothillian who had arranged this quest as a way to get rid of you for the time being. But you could not argue with your commanders’ decision without causing damage to your career, so you’re making the best of a bad situation and will do the best you can.

That was nearly two months ago. It took over a month of travel by horse just to reach Endrin and the past two weeks you have been trying, with some minor headway, to get in contact with a representative of Talinaar’s Arms Trading Company.

With a little charm, and a little “grease” you have an appointment to see the head of the company in 4 days.

You’ve been staying at one particular inn, The Rocking Galley Inn, but its night life is too extreme and dangerous. You’ve heard many good things about this place called The Roaring Bull Inn, so, even though it’s the evening, you’re moving to this new inn.

-----

Joy’s PC - Arianna

As a child you have enjoyed the most privileged life of all, the daughter of a ruling king. Your home is a castle in the city-state of Siglund.

Or at least it used to be.

You entire life you’ve been under the ever watchful eye of your father. Since the death of your mother, he has been over-protective, to the point where you feel like you’re a prisoner in his castle.

But you have a mind and will of your own. One night, at the age of twelve (you’re now 16), you managed to sneak out of the house and get your first taste of freedom.

For a little over an hour you had the time of your life, followed by the worst time of your life.

Your father had made many powerful enemies in his time as king. Chief among them was a cabal of dark wizards who had been driven underground for practicing their dark magic. They had been patiently waiting for an opportunity to hurt your father, and now they had kidnapped you.

Your father had also made any powerful allies in his time. And among these a group of wizards and warriors led by the archmage Vernal who found you less than 3 days later.

The dark cabal of wizards was eradicated in an intense fight that somehow did not harm you.

From that point on you became fascinated in both the power of steel, and the power of magic. You began to pester your father incessantly about learning both, and eventually he relented under some conditions.

The first condition was that you were still to act like a proper princess, so all of this learning was in addition to your courtly duties.

The second was that you were to only learn with the proper weapons befitting the honorable daughter of an honorable king.

The third was that you were to be restricted from learning any magic that was even remotely considered dark magic.

You enthusiastically agreed and for years you learned everything you could about fighting, magic, and the ways of the king’s court.

Just a couple of months ago, you started getting that feeling again and began to desperately look for a way out of the claustrophobic castle. After you stole an Amulet of Non-Detection from Vernal, you donned the clothes of a cleaning girl you cast Sleep upon, and then you snuck out of the castle with what equipment you could hide.

For the time being you’re free, and no one has captured you for ransom or to bring you back home.

You’ve seen much of your father’s kingdom, a little of the kingdom of Endrin, and soon you hope to see more of the world.

That might be coming to an end now. Last night someone stole your amulet, or you lost it. Either way, it means your father will find you soon.

For the moment, you’re alright. You still hide your face in case someone recognizes you. But this inn you’re in seems nice, even if the bald barkeep is looking at you with suspicion right now.

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.