Qarton

Origins of Qarton

Despite existing as a settlement since c.84VD, Qarton didn't really come to prominence until the Northern wars of 164VD, when its reputation as an incomparable collection of stud farms allowed it to supply war destriers to many of the Lords and warriors of Viseria.
A small village, lying between Thrantium and the elvish lands to the West, Qarton subsists on agriculture and in particular horse breeding. Lying on the edge of the county of Thrantium, Qarton remains fairly peaceful and isolated from the rest of Viseria.
Qarton has several farmsteads, an inn, a Manor-house, a farriers, a carpenter and general goods store and is situated near a seemingly incongruous Mage's castle, which lies to the north. Qarton does have some problems with a group of Goblins, who live in the forest to the north, but the sheriff generally manages to keep them in check.

Buildings of Note

The Ogre's toenail is the local watering hole and often provides board for those travelling to Thrantium, Sylvanthair or Illuven. It boasts a surprisingly excellent kitchen and comfortable rooms.
The Mayor's house is the largest building in Qarton and is grandest by some way. A two floor mansion, it's also one of the newest houses in Qarton.
Vincerus' Castle lies to the north of the village. Originally, this was an ancient castle, which possibly even predates the dragon wars and could have been an early elvish structure. In 663VD, Vincerus, an eccentric member of the Mage's guild of Viseria, who dedicated his life to the study of the fey, moved in and gradually magically repaired and altered the structure. A recluse, Vincerus had little contact with the townsfolk and spent most of his time steeping himself in fey lore and magic, which resulted in some slightly delirious personality quirks.

Current Holding

Mayor Helen Highwater

In Our Story

This is where our tale began long, long ago...
Jackob Aar, along with his companion Sareth, guided by the lotus compass that they had found in the fey-touched goblins' cave, headed to Qarton to find more purple rifts and a cure for Ip. Searching around the village Jackob had found many odd plants, seemingly touched by some sort of alien magic. However, all was not well, as villagers were getting up and disappearing in the night for some reason. The mayor had hired a group of mercenaries to deal with the issue but they had decided instead to extort the townsfolk. Moreover, Jackob's companion Sareth had disappeared while following the lotus compass to try and find another portal or clue to what had happened to Ip.
With growing suspicion surrounding this mysterious dragonborn druid and whether he had something to do with the villagers' disappearances or whether it was the local goblins, or even the mercenaries, our next hero arrived. Knor Ti Knockarz entered the Ogre's Toenail, looking for her mother, who had been suddenly kidnapped by a group of masked figures. The only clue that Knor Ti had was a ring, with an unfamiliar crest on it and so she set about asking people in the inn whether they had seen her mother or recognised the crest.
Next the twin troublemakers Terry and Larry Tinkle arrived. The pair were making their way to Qarton in order to fulfil their unintentional pact with Driscoll, the fey that they had accidentally unleashed from his prison, so that they would be free from his control. The pair were working on one instruction "find the druid in Qarton and help him find what he's looking for". So they set about seeking the druid.
Lastly, Vyth Aar, the dragonborn Paladin, entered the inn. Having come over from Draconia, where the war was raging on, he was looking for his brother, Jackob, so as to see which one of them was the next rightful leader of the clan Aar. Needing the leadership so that he could return home and save his clan and country, Vyth confronted Jackob, who very quickly conceded the leadership to Vyth as he did not want it.
At this point, two of the mercenaries entered the bar and caused some trouble, harassing the locals and the barkeeps. The bonk squad intervened, unleashing some vigilante justice on the unscrupulous mercenaries, who promised some serious retribution. In the bar, the bar keeps thanked them. Two people sitting at the bar, Old Mae, a wise old lady of the town, and Willow, her half-elf granddaughter congratulated the group of heroes and explained how the mercenaries had been hired to stop the people from mysteriously disappearing, but had instead decided to opportunistically blackmail the weak-willed mayor. They said that the Mayor would offer a handsome reward if they could get rid of the mercenaries. Another patron of the bar, a merchant named Vikrum Ilyan, who had been travelling through town also sought the groups' help. His daughter had gone missing, along with the townsfolk that had disappeared and he promised to reward them happily if they'd bring her back to him.
With Jackob wanting to find Sareth, Terry and Larry needing to help him and Vyth and Knor Ti driven by their sense of justice, the group decided to help. The newly formed bonk squad headed to deal with the mercenaries first, by going to their camp. They found that half the mercenaries had gone to get supplies from a nearby town with their leader, Brutus, and the camp was half empty. However, it was still guarded by the mercenaries' mage, Verres, and several thugs. By setting fire to the Mercenary camp and defeating the mercenaries present, the group were able to enter the camp. There they found the sheriff, Helen Highwater, and her deputy, who had been some of the missing people. They revealed that the mercenaries decided to imprison them and make it look like they had wandered off in the night like the rest of the villagers, in case they decided to try and oust them. Helen warned that the mercenary leader, Brutus, would return, enraged by the death of his men. Moreover, she informed them that she suspected the goblins to be responsible for kidnapping the "disappearing" villagers. The group helped the villagers prepare defences against the returning mercenaries, while also asking around about the disappearances.
The bonk squad turned in for the night after commiserating a distraught Vikrum, who asked intently whether they'd found Lobelia, his missing daughter. In the night, the group all had dreams and Knor Ti and Terry heard a voice calling to them to help. The rest of the squad woke up to find Knor Ti and Terry gone.
Knor Ti and Terry woke up to find themselves captured by a pair of goblins, whom they easily managed to overpower, killing one and tying up the other. They then rushed back to Qarton, where the others, unsure of Knor Ti and Terry's whereabouts, decided that it was best to continue on with their defence preparations. Knor Ti and Terry returned just in time to assist Vyth, Jackob and Larry in fighting off Brutus and the rest of his vengeful mercenaries. The villagers rejoiced that they would no longer be abused by the people that had been hired to save them. Now all that was left was to find out who was making the villagers disappear and to whom the mysterious voice from their dreams belonged.
Despite not believing the goblins to be responsible, the group went and interrogated the captured goblin. The goblin, when charmed by Terry revealed that they simply captured some of the sleepwalking villagers as they headed north through the forest but that they weren't responsible for making them sleepwalk. Also, he mentioned something about "shroom gobbos" causing trouble. Therefore the bonk squad decided to head to the Goblin Caves to free any villagers that they had captured while they were sleepwalking.
As they journeyed through the forest, they encountered lots of strange occurrences, including a talking tree and a multitude of infected plant life. The strange glowing mushrooms had been seen by Jackob once before, in the cave where the purple portal had been and where he'd found the lotus compass. There was a magical aura in the forest of something alien and wild. However, the squad continued on to theGoblin Caves.
Fighting their way through the caves, the group found a few of the villagers imprisoned there, as well as Sareth, Jackob's companion (*cough* girlfriend *cough*). Sareth revealed that the goblins had captured her while she was following the compass, which had been pointing her north, the same direction that Knor Ti and Terry had been walking when enchanted. The source of the voice and the cause of the disappearances, as well as the mysterious magic, clearly lay northward. Continuing on to defeat the goblin pot-king, who claimed that they weren't to blame but the "shroom gobbos" were, the group cleared out the caves, despite deadly dabbing incidents.
Old Mae confirmed that there was an old castle to the north, inhabited by an eccentric mage and that he might be responsible if it wasn't the goblins. Suspecting fey involvement at this point, the bonk squad headed to Vincerus' Castle after a long night of dreams, calling to them for help.
The bonk squad made their way into the grounds of the castle, which seemed overgrown with more fey wildlife, accompanied by Sareth. Making their way past enchanted flowers and puzzle doors, the group found a tower, where two satyrs, Verion and Fallas, had imprisoned Lobelia, Vikrum's daughter. They challenged the adventurers to play a game of questions for her life, impaling her if they lost. Despite losing the game, the group managed to catch Lobelia before she was killed, but Verion and Fallas escaped. The squad sent Lobelia back to the village with Sareth and continued on.
They discovered that Vincerus was dead, hung to death by a vine in his room, but that he had been studying what he dubbed a "feystone", which seemed to have become more active recently. He had also scribbled a name in his notebook: Driscoll.
Negotiating their way past a dryad and killing a group of fey goblins, the squad were rejoined by Sareth. Entering the main hall of the castle structure, they found a cyclops in front of a purple portal, mutated by fey enchantments and giggling, saying he was waiting for them to come. In his words, the "Stag-man" had been calling people here for days but his master had asked him to stay and guard the portal for him. Launching into battle, the group were able to defeat the cyclops.
Fresh from their victory, the group turned to see a silver-haired fey, with blood red eyes clapping and smiling at their achievement. Sitting in a foliage covered dining hall that hadn't been there before, the fey, who revealed himself to be Driscoll, invited them to sit. He displayed extensive magical abilities, speaking to the adventurers in turn and taunting them with images of their fears: Vyth's homeland burning, Jackob's Windyvale full of people turned to stone; the masked kidnappers of Knor Ti's mother. As payment for the deed he had done for them, he permitted each of them one question to be answered truthfully. The bonk squad discovered that the portals were cracks opening into the feywild. The lotus compass, they found out, seemed to be a guide towards fey magic and feystones or portals. Knor Ti also discovered that her mother had been captured by the Aldradians, a mysterious group of people that little was known about.
To fulfil the final favour of their bargain with the fey, Driscoll charmed Larry into collecting a purple feystone that lay in the room next door, which he did. Driscoll then revealed that he required someone to carry the feystone through the portal with him, so as to return to the feywild. Promising that they wouldn't be hurt, Sareth volunteered to sacrifice herself, hoping to find a cure for Ip on the other side. Bidding the others farewell and releasing the Tinkle twins from their deal, Driscoll passed through the portal, into the feywild. They would see him again.
Riling from their domination by Driscoll and the threat he posed to the world at large, the bonk squad did some final exploring of the castle. They found the source of the dream and cause of the sleepwalking villagers. A fey of the hunt, half stag, half man, lay wounded in the next room. Healed, he demanded to know where Driscoll was, whom he had been hunting down. The party explained that he had escaped into the feywild. Enraged, the fey of the hunt ran off, asking that the mortals stay out of fey affairs, not understanding what his release and entry into the feywild meant for both planes.
After some fiery exchanges with a dryad, the bonk squad headed back to Qarton. Sareth lost, Driscoll, an evil fey lord released back into the feywild and a growing threat of random cracks appearing between their world and this one, things looked bleak. Taking stock of their next move, the bonk squad decided that they needed to let the world know about the fey threat. Upon both the guidance of Old Mae and the lotus compass, they decided to head to Thrantium, the nearest large city and home to the Mage's guild of Viseria.
Before leaving they went and tried to cure a pack of direwolves, who had been infected with fey magic. Healing most up, they took under the care a small direwolf pup, whom Knor Ti named Tittle. Speaking to Old Mae, she revealed that she had been an adventurer like the bonk squad once and she warned them that Driscoll posed a grave threat to the world and needed to be stopped. Having discovered some mysterious noted hidden under her floorboard, it appeared that Old Mae was more than she seemed. She gifted Terry a silver medallion, inscribed with a spear and chain, promising that it would help him find friends wherever he went.
Accompanied by their new fast friends, Vikrum and Lobelia Ilyan, the merchant and his daughter whom they had saved, the bonk squad headed east to Thrantium after a large celebratory party with the grateful townsfolk. Along the way, the bonk squad encountered several fey caused problems, becoming increasingly aware of the extent to which the fey was spreading. They made their way to Ferrytown, hoping to get passage across and seek advice from the Mage's guild of Viseria on the fey threat and to make those in charge aware of the impending doom.
Finding Thrantium in lockdown, the bonk squad were eventually able to charter passage across after helping out several inhabitants of Ferrytown and Baron Skepton. They headed over to Thrantium, where our tale continues...