Prologue
The start of our Campaign will pick up shortly after events on the Rathlin Islands where we started playing.
You managed to discover the secret of mysterious ghostly castle and its hidden dwarven forge. You saved a fey glade from the foul pestilence of a demonic being, and prevented the Kou-toa from conducting a strange ritual in an Ancient Temple of
Ulmo. In the final chapter, the party tracked down a evil Hag within a misty collection of islands which had been tormenting the local population. During your trek through the misty swampland, you encountered a strange small obelisk hidden in barrow which seemed to corrupting the land around it. One of your team recognized the look of the taint as something he had seen over the mountains to the far east in the
Blighted Lands. You were able to destroy the obelisk, and burn the tainted area before moving on. After combating the Hag, you discovered a myriad of trinkets, but most curiously a purple orb the size of an ostrich egg of a deep purple hue. When picked up, and blue fiery etheric eye peered back at you and the team with an audible chuckle from seemingly no where as the orb began to crack. It was dropped, and then exploded in to shard of purple glass.
Having helped the people of the Island, the village of Rutheran Cove paid for your passage on board a mighty sea vessel destined for the
Ondari city of Elessar. The Innkeeper Garrick Silverholm suggested you should visit the Brazen Galleon on docks of Elessar, and to speak with Zilargo if they may need somewhere to stay and work to fill their pockets.
Current Situation
It is in the city of Elessar where we will pick up our story. Starting at the moment you disembark from ship into the port of Elessar.
The year is 1746 5e, and much of the land is in near chaos. For hundreds of years the creeping darkness of the
Blighted Lands was relegated to the world over the mountains. But starting around a hundred years ago, Druids, wizards, and other magi began to notice a change, and shift in the winds of magic; and for reasons still unknown, the darkness began to creep west. Now some scholars would say that this has happened before, in the lead up to previous invasions which have sallied forth from those evil lands; the Scourges. But never has the taint lasted so long, or spread so far.
Other scholars fear though that some ancient, and unknown wards that may have held some Elder horror may be weakening, or worse; allowing the Darkness to seep into the realm. Now, more than a century later since the the evils began creeping westward, we can truly say that the darkness is upon us. Vast stretches of the eastern
Ondari Dominion and
Kingdom of Tiriande are seen by many as lost. The dark night harbours monsters which make travel impossible by night, crops whither or grow tainted, the forests grow dark and are inhabited by vile mockeries of the former wildlife. Regular contact with many
Dwarven holds of the
Kybar's Teeth Mountains has been lost. The few remaining settlements living in the east are guarded by weary soldiers and townsfolk, steeled by years of darkness just beyond their walls.
Still, there is fortune and glory to be had across this doomed realm for adventurers dogged enough to venture beyond the crumbling walls of humanity. Frontier settlements cry for help as the Darkness encroaches, twisted horrors stalk the dense wilds, and forbidden knowledge and lost treasures wait in countless ruins. Our adventure begins in the City of Elessar, describing the tales of those brave enough to shape a fortune and fate of their own in a time, and land, of Rising Darkness.
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