The Long Road North

Our heroes left the mine shaft in hurry, desperate to get back to Lower Bennth with news of their discovery. On the road back the party took great care to evade detection, as monsters roamed the countryside in unprecedented numbers. Eventually the heroes made their was back to the town, only to discover a patchwork of barricades and ragtag militia desperate to fend off monster attacks.

Welcomed back as heroes, the party was rushed tot he mayor who explained that the village had been attacked numerous times while the party was away. Without their best defenders the city was desperate to repel even the most cursory attacks and had lost many lives. With great urgency the mayor pled with the party to ride with all haste to seek aid from the Duke himself, who was known far and wide to care greatly for the well-being if his subjects. With fresh horses in had, the party set out from Lower Benneth on the next dawn, following the great road north to the edge of the mountains where the Blackrock citadel.

Hidden Depths Revealed

The heroes woke up after a long night barricaded in the mine office to an eerie chill. After regrouping, they venture forth to discover that an unexplained frost has overcome everything in mine,  freezing all the goblins and glazing every surface. The party follows the cold wind blowing from deep into the mine, leading them to great depths. After venturing far down in the earth, they party discovers that the mine eventually broke into long buried ruins form the past.

Exploring the oddities of this ancient edifice, the heroes finally come upon a goblin shaman communing with a demon. The party battles the goblins and demons, and learns that the demon is a servant of the demon prince Kal'uul who is hatching a fiendish plot into the material realm using these goblins as pawns to achieve his own nefarious ends.

Down the Mineshaft

After defeating the guards at the surface, the party begins to descend into the mine. After some exploration, the party determines that this mine was long ago abandoned and the goblins must have taken it up as a lair. The party happens across a locked office, which they soon break into. In the office the party discovers a bunch of old records about the mine as well an odd looking mirror. After examining the mirror, it reveals to the party that it is sentient and possessed of strange magical powers. Among its magic is the ability to reveal illusions, which leads the party to discover a secret passage in the office. While investigating the secret passage, a trap is triggered and Tormund is injured and dumped into a pit of ghouls. Just then, a pair of mimics disguised as furniture attack the party. The party fights bravely on two fronts and eventually rescues Tormund and secures the office.

After a short rest the party continued its descent into the depths of the mine. Weaving through small passageways, the forward party observed that the mine was host to a massive goblin tribe and all the workaday trappings. While trying to cross a narrow bridge over a chasm the group's presence was detected by the goblins and the heroes were forced to retreat back up mineshaft. The heroes fought a valiant rear guard in a tight shaft where the numerous enemies were unable to bring their force to bear. After fighting off the monsters the group was in rough shape and headed back to the office to treat their wounds and try to get some rest. Barricading themselves in the office, the party slept uneasily in the cold earth.

Into the Woods

The morning after the attack the adventurers were summoned by mayor Klienfeldt, who then sent the group after the goblins to investigate the unusual attack and evaluate the ongoing threat. With their trusty guide Jarred One-Tooth at the lead, the party set out into the woods south-west of the town, following the tracks left by the retreating goblins. In an effort to catch up with the goblins, the party ranged over some mountains and spotted a mysterious lighthouse standing on top of a mountain. After being waylaid by some manticores, the group descended back under the forest cover in search of the goblins.

Eventually the party tracked the goblins back to a disused mine. Upon approach, it seemed that some human captives were being held in a slapdash prison in the midst of a few crude shanties that had cropped up around the mine entrance. That is where the party bumped in into Trestin, a ranger who was stalking the goblins and trying to rescue his captured comrades. The group launched an attack on the goblin crew around the mine entrance, putting them down before they could call out for help. After combing through the shanties, the bodies of Trestin's allies were discovered, causing him to swear vengeance. 

It all started in the village of...

It all started in the quiet village of Lower Benneth, nestled in the heartland of Dutchy of Wieden. In stark contrast to life in the surrounding Kalatian empire, life in the Duke's lands is good. The earth gives in plenty, the rule of law prevails, and the citizenry are happy and proud of their kingdom. The ruling nobility are said to be very reserved and mysterious, hardly ever noticed except through their acts of generosity and compassion.

As the warm winds of summer start to wane, the city of Lower Benneth is buzzing in preparation for the annual fall festival. In this sleepy town, a number of ragtag adventurers that have taken up in the city resting between journeys has been employed by the mayor as watchmen and town guard. Tormund and Sora from the bordering mystical elven Kingdom are hiding out in Lower Benneth after fleeing from the sacking of Oyem-Edhil. Meanwhile, the high elf wizard Galandan and the bard Humber Humber had stopped to put up their feet for a season before setting out to continue their adventure in search of wisdom and glory. Finally, the mysterious sorcerer Dae was passing through the area and took up in Lower Benneth when he hear rumours of a mystical phenomenon occurring nearby.

Our protagonists are put to work organizing and preparing various aspects of the festival, getting to know each other better thought the process. On the night of the festival a raiding party of goblins attack the town, sowing chaos and destruction i their wake. The hero's quickly organize to repel the goblins and save the town, running the green skins back into the night.

The Setting

Our story begins on the war-torn continent of Kahelee in the year 7910 of the imperial calendar. For thousands of years, petty kings and lords have ruled the fractious lands from sea to sea. The borders have shifted like the desert sands with constant small-scale war and political maneuvering, where no one faction could maintain the upper hand. Dynasties and fortunes rose and fell while common folk prosperd and traded. Thirty years ago an unknown conqueror from the southwest of the continent emerged from total obscurity, naming himself as the gods' chosen Emperor of the land and demanded fealty or abdication from all the kings of the realm. What seemed at first the ramblings of a charlatan were soon found to have teeth when the Emperor arrived at the gates of many castles at the head of an army so massive and terrible that that none of the small kingdoms could withstand it. One by one the western lords fell, adding to the expanding Kalatian Empire. By the time the Emperor had conquered more than half the continent the eastern lords had banded together into an alliance led by the great kingdom of Ghelnah. Over the ensuing years war raged across the continent and the alliance was steadily pushed back, unable to match the seemingly endless strength of the Empire forces. Whole generations of people perished in war, famine, disease, and some fates darker still.

The war came to a head five years ago when some of the eastern lords were subverted and switched sides hoping to save their dynasties and curry favour with the Emperor. The alliance crumbled and massive battles were given at the borders of the resisting states. Tales of raving madmen claim to have witnessed the walking dead, man eating devils, dragons, angels, and even Gods clashing in these cataclysmic events. At great cost the armies of the Kalatian Empire were repelled from the lands of the most powerful independent kingdoms, and an uneasy peace came over the land. Life under the rule of the Empire is brutal for average person, with severe cruelty, harsh taxes, and crushing hopelessness pervasive throughout the land. Some few sovereign kingdoms continue to exist as free enclaves on the continent. While some rejoiced the end of hostilities, whispers pass in taverns across the continent that Kalatian armies are once again mobilizing, the spark of rebellion is alight in the downtrodden masses, and the flame of war threatens to consume Kahelee once again.