Introduction
Hero City Origins
Narrator: Everybody loves a little exposition, right? Here we go!
The world is surprisingly small, once you've managed to escape the cage you were raised in - whether it be literal or metaphorical. Calculi is a massive continent that has barely been explored, and tamed even less so. Once you're unshackled by society, all at once you're faced with the harsh brilliance of opportunity, options, and ways of living that make your previous lifestyle seem quaint at best.
Endor lies on the Western shore of Calculi, the second known continent of our realm, Terra. Calculi has only recently been colonized, forty years ago, with no previously acknowledged inhabitants. The capital city, and only official city, Novis Terram was the first landing site of colonists and has grown greatly since those first days. Due to the magical and supernatural nature of the creatures in these lands, expansion has been slow and very few smaller towns have sprung up in the past years. Since the wilds of Calculi are dangerous and unruly, adventuring is a common lifestyle and so it has become hard for new adventurers to successfully get into the business.
Our party is a small band of start-up adventurers in Novis Terram. After trying for months to find employment as freelance adventurers we keep finding that everybody and their bloody dog wants in on the action these days. On top of that, the people in this city are generally snobbish and brash. At the end of a particularly trying day we all gathered at a local dive to wind down with some cheap ale.
As it would happen, a nearby elf overheard them complaining about their stalled plans to become heroes and leaned in nearer than was necessary. He was slender and pale, wearing well-worn nobles' clothes adorned with cheap lace and an ageing peacock feather sagging low from the brim of his cap.
“You want to hear about heroes? I’ll tell you about heroes. If you’ll listen...”
Something about his steady gaze and his soothing voice compelled everyone to nod.
“Twenty years past there lived a farming family East of here, too far by most peoples minds. It ain't safe out there, y'know? Tale says they were simple folk whose ancestors had homesteaded there generations before. The young couple, Samuel and Loretta Whitney, bore a son one day and swore he would not have to live the harsh life they had. As soon as he was old enough, they planned to do something about it."
"The boy was named Eli and he had come back to Novis Terram for school at the behest of his parents. By now the family had been selling their produce to the city for ages, earning a steady and substantial income. As a wealthy young noble with no title and more ego than vision, Eli planned to start his own city one day."
Novis Terram
"Giver and Shine Hearthstone were the first to join. A hardy, newlywed dwarven couple from the Forgestone Mountains. Hoping to earn enough wealth to start their own smithy, they were looking forward to Eli’s large payout."
"Next to join were Graham, Gabriel, and Gretta McGowan. Ambitious human triplets, just turned seventeen and eager to become famous as adventurers. It wasn't like it is now. There weren't so many young people sitting around back then." He gestured vaguely around the table, pausing momentarily on our heavily cloaked friend, Rissa, to indicate that he actually had no clue how old, or even what she might be.
"The last addition to sign on was a peppy young gnome fresh out of the Novis Arcanum Institute and looking to test her wizardry. Everybody at the time knew who Sapphire was, by reputation, and was thrilled to have her onboard."
"The Whitney farm was remote and the travel was long and treacherous. At the time there was barely even a trail leading there. The wilds were filled with all sorts of terrible beasties back then. When they first faced the troll, Shine fell to its awful maw before it fled into the wilderness. Unsatisfied, Eli urged the group to hunt down Gorefang but the party was split."
"The foul beast had already slain one of their allies and Shine had been greatly liked by everyone. Morale was low but in the end, it was the sweet and naive Graham who helped break the stalemate by convincing Giver to take vengeance for his murdered wife. They set out and their mission was a grim success, met by not one, but two more trolls. Both of Grahams siblings were killed in an ambush before the last of the trolls fell, with Giver taking his vengeance on Gorefang for the death of his wife."
"Upon returning home, Eli had no interest in farming and realized he could use his inheritance to purchase a land licence. He started selling off his parent’s land to investors in hopes of starting the town he'd been imagining since childhood. Since the rest of his party had their fill of adventuring and loss, he gave them all deals on land and promised that they would one day be at the center of a thriving metropolis. In honour of their journey together, he named the town Hero City!"
"As time passed, Giver and Graham found comfort in each others' company after the loss of their loved ones and started a tavern and inn named The Last Stand in memory of those they'd lost. Sapphire opened what she fancied be the finest jewelry store in the entire eastern continent."
"Fate, however, was not kind," he continued, "The eastern expansion of the greater realm never came. The town never grew beyond a few founding members and neighbouring farmers. The Last Stand was never finished, its grand upper housing left skeletal and barren. Sapphire sadly discovered that farmers and landowners did not have much need for fine jewelry and her shop has become nothing more than an under-used general store."
"Eli Whitney still sits as the mayor of the town where his dreams are as dead as his family."
"So it was, and still is. The grand idea of Hero City slumbers in the remains of a handful of houses…""...or so the story goes…”
