What follows, dear reader, is a brief timeline of the early
adventures involving an ever-changing party of adventurers hailing from all over the
Flanaess that played a small role in the war between the Faerie Kingdom of Celene
and the Empire of the Pomarj. Although still of little repute at the end of the
war, some of the heroes within these tales went on to become legends, and their
tales are still told to children all these many years after their
deaths.
--Crispinus the Tale-Teller
It is said the heroes first gathered at the request of a bard known as Lia Spellsong in the spring of Common Year 591. According to my research, the party members were strangers when they first met, tied together through their mutual friendships with the bard. Called together to aid their friend in Brookhollow, who had disappeared while searching the abandoned Castle Overlook, Ander Spellweaver of Leukish (a human wizard), Aramil Xiloscient of Silverthistle (an elven rogue), Mathias of Hookhill (a human cleric in service to the god Kord) and Damoth Spiritlore of Dyvers (a human paladin serving Heironeous) converged on Brookhollow and soon uncovered the treachery of Kor Bloodaxe, a cleric of the evil god Hextor.
Fresh from their adventures in Brookhollow, Ander, Aramil, Mathias and Damoth, as well as Lia Spellsong and Tory the Songsmith, found they were not to get much rest. Only a matter of weeks after they had defeated Kor Bloodaxe and left his body for the vultures, the party found themselves in the Lippen Valley. It is believed by the tales told in Brookhollow that the party had discovered a blue key of sorts in the possession of Kor Bloodaxe and were led to believe he had become affiliated with some evil force in the Lippen Valley. Legends tell of the Fire Lord, who had been sealed away somewhere in the valley by a wizard named Rax, but from what I can gather, the party discovered evil still stirred in the Fire Lord's resting place and they soon put it to rest.
The City of Dyvers' records states Ander, Aramil, Mathias and Damoth arrived together during Growfest, the festival marking the end of spring and the beginning of summer. However, Lia Spellsong and Tory the Songsmith parted ways with the party, and their trail grows cold soon after. Guild records of the time show that it was during this trip to the City of Dyvers, some of the party members joined the local guilds. Aramil Xiloscient became a member of the Dyvers Thieves' Guild while Ander Spellweaver paid his first dues for the Dyvers Wizards' Guild. The Dyvers Adventurers' Guild lists both Mathias and Damoth as members during this time period. It is also apparent that the party came to the aid of a gnome spice merchant dwelling in the city named Pinker Gneerfibbel and soon became partners in The Muad'dib Spice Company. I cannot find any reference to the word "Muad'dib," and it is believed to be a planar word referring in some way to spices. Again, I can find no evidence to back this claim up.
Under the direction of the City of Dyvers, Ander, Aramil, Mathias and Damoth were asked to head south to investigate rumours about the Empire of the Pomarj amassing a grand army. As history tells us, the ruler of the Pomarj, Turrosh Mak, indeed was preparing his forces, and it was only a few months after the party began its journey south that the despot sent his armies north toward Celene.
Low summer was well underway when the party encountered their first goblin scouting party and the dwarf known as Vallan Durinheart. I was once told by a dwarf claiming to have once known Vallan that the dwarven barbarian had gone south after the god Moradin had come to him in a dream and told him he would be welcome at the god's table if he would seek a party of adventurers and join with them against Turrosh Mak and the Empire of the Pomarj. I can't say whether the tale is true, but Vallan Durinheart somehow found the party headed toward the Pomarj and joined with them. Together, they found the main encampment of the goblinoid army and hurried back to Dyvers to report.
This tale seems unlikely at best, but I will impart what I have learned. Take it as quite possibly a fiction. Sometime not long after returning from their adventures in the Empire of the Pomarj, Ander Spellweaver, Aramil Xiloscient and Vallan Durinheart sought out a cottage near the edge of the city and discovered within it a walking calzone that had gone on a rampage. According to the tale, the party entered the cottage, destroyed the beast and befriended the wizard that lived there. Stories like this always remind me of the old adage, "Never believe the tall tales you hear in taverns."
Attempting to enter and loot the Fire Opal Monastery in the Iron Woods not far from the City of Dvarnish is what led our heroes to their first defeat. Chased out of the dungeon by a young red dragon, Ander, Aramil, Mathias, Damoth and Vallan fled, but they swore to return one day and finish what they had begun.
Ander, Aramil and Vallan rode north out of Dvarnish seeking fame, fortune and glory, and only a few days ride out of the city, a chance encounter with a monster pushed them in the right direction to save a cursed village from itself. As the story goes, the village resident's were under the curse of Jerimond's Orb, where they would turn into monstrous creatures after nightfall and kill their loved ones until the stolen orb had been replaced. The evening after arriving in the village, the heroes learned its terrible secret. I don't know how they managed to solve the puzzle, as the villagers themselves didn't know the answer, but solve it they did. Once the stolen orb was retrieved from nearby bandits and replaced, the curse of Jerimond's Orb was lifted.
Continuing their adventures together, Ander, Aramil and Vallan soon found themselves in a plague-ridden mining town known as Duvik's Pass. The citizens were suffering from what was known as the Burning Plague, but as the three adventurers soon discovered, it was a cleric follower of the orc god Gruumsh One-Eye who had cursed the town with his tainted magics. When Aramil the elf became afflicted with the disease, the party hurried to find a cure and soon came face-to-face with Jakk Tornclaw. A fierce battle began, and although the orc was strong, the party defeated him. Upon his death, it is said the Burning Plague died.
Called to the aid of the Gran March, Mathias of Hookhill had left the party by the time they had returned to the City of Dyvers. The heroes settled down for a short time in Dyvers to attend to the business of their spice company, but several rumours made it to their ears that disturbed them. A highway robber known as Mathias the Vengeful had robbed and killed several diplomats between Dyvers and Celene, and the heroes worried that their cleric friend had chosen a new path. Also, many believed the army of the Pomarj would be making its way north by the time the first snow had fallen. Perhaps the most disturbing news was that some believed the destroyed Temple of Elemental Evil had once again become a haven for evil.
It was around the time of their return to Dyvers that a party of miscreants was rising within the city. Malhavoc Shadowlord, Yog Headbreaker, Bayne, Ryan Strom and Piebold the Fool were the founding members of a party of evil adventurers that would one day become a great threat to the the lands of Oerth. According to the Dyvers magistrate's records of the time, the villains began their career by stealing a valuable painting from the renowned orc artist Jarl Oakenaxe from an important businessman in the City of Dyvers. The painting was sold to an unknown dealer and vanished for several years.
Not content with what they had made on the fencing of the Jarl Oakenaxe painting, Ryan, Yog and Bayne ventured into the old catacombs under the City of Dyvers looking for a cult of Erythnul followers that Ryan had been sent to make contact with. However, the cult was not there and the villains made short work of a nest of ratlings that had taken up residence underneath the city.
Ander Spellweaver, Aramil Xiloscient, Vallan Durinheart, Damoth Spiritlore and Mathias of Hookhill were hardly made for the merchanting life. While the heroes helped their gnome ally get back on his feet and Mathias returned from his travels in the Gran March, the party soon became involved in the investigation of several random acts of chaos magic within the city. During their initial investigations, Mathias was called away once again and left the party for a second time. According to what I was able to dig up, the heroes started to fight amongst themselves and the paladin Damoth Spiritlore finally turned Aramil Xiloscient into the local constable, claiming the elf was a member of the Thieves' Guild. Aramil ended up in Dyvers' dungeon. After many bizarre magical occurrences throughout the city and the addition of a man named Tully to the group, the heroes put an end to the chaos by stopping a wizard named Paullus and his magical devices.
I found fragments of this tale within a journal stored inside the DeVillars' ancestral home in Dyvers, and from what I can piece together, Ander, Vallan, Damoth and Tully were hired by Lady Lauren DeVillars to look into a disappearance at the soon-to-be-opened The People's Gallery, an art gallery that I'm afraid did not last more than a few years. Although details are sketchy, I believe the party discovered a rather nasty ghost of a human murdered by the person put in charge of opening the gallery. The mystery was solved, the ghost put to rest and the murderer brought to justice. However, the DeVillars name was slightly tarnished for a short while.
Although difficult to put an exact timeframe on when the ranger Anastrianna Galanodel stumbled onto a goblinoid scouting party on the border of the Kingdom of Celene, I am pretty sure it was in the final weeks of high summer. As near as I can tell from what I could get out of the Celene librarians, Anastrianna found the scouting party by accident, wiped them out and then reported her findings to Celene. I believe this was also her first meeting with her faithful canine companion, Lily.
It was only about a day's march outside of Iredell where Damoth Spiritlore and Vallan Durinheart met Anastrianna and her traveling companions. As a quick aside, I have not been able to determine what became of Tully or Ander Spellweaver. It is possible further research will turn up some clues. Regarding Anastrianna and her two companions, they were on a scouting mission for Celene at the time of their encounter with the paladin and the dwarf barbarian. An unfortunate battle between Pomarj goblinoids put an end to Anastrianna's two elven companions, and without a group, she joined Damoth and Vallan, who were on their way toward Iredell. Once in Iredell, the heroes aided the town in defeating a pair of twins that had gathered a small goblinoid army of their own to attack the town.
As high summer turned to autumn, Damoth, Vallan and Anastrianna found themselves back in the City of Dyvers. It was at this time that they, as well as a half-orc cleric of Kord named Kuruk, became temporarily employed by a wizard known as Kavro Tharn, who needed them to journey to a village to the south called Thusul and find his missing pupil, Tavro. In Thusul, it became clear that Tavro had journeyed to an evil pit known as Bekus' Hole. It was there, mingled with undead creatures, that the heroes found the body of the lad. I'm pretty sure they returned to Dyvers with the boy's body in tow, but I also know they were very soon to return to the village of Thusul.
Returning to Thusul, the four heroes took up the challenge of preparing defences for the town. Shortly after returning, they discovered a troupe of goblin spies not far from the village and, I think, killed every last one of them.
As the adventurers worked with the village's conscripted militia to prepare Thusul's defence, somehow they learned of nearby Brekart's Tower and spent some time looting the ruins. What they didn't know at the time was that Turrosh Mak had sent a raiding party to occupy the tower. Unfortunately for the Pomarj emperor, the heroes defeated the goblinoids and put a wrench in the works of his plans.
As the rumours had said months earlier, the Empire of Pomarj sent its armies north around late autumn and battles were being waged before the first snows had come to the lands. Damoth, Anastrianna, Vallan and Kuruk soon learned of a fort not far to the south that had been captured by the goblinoid army. I don't know how they did it, just the four of them, but they did indeed attack and take Fort Ralsush from the orcs. And that is where they and Thusul's villagers spent the rest of the war.
It was almost over night that the populace of Flanaess went from a time of peace to a time of war, but the people of Celene and the surrounding kingdoms and independent cities found themselves on the front lines as the goblinoid armies of the Empire of the Pomarj marched north.
Over a period of weeks, the orcs, goblins, gnolls and other manner of hideous humanoids ransacked and burned towns and villages, pillaged cities and lit the very forests surrounding the Faerie Kingdom of Celene ablaze. The skirmishes between the two kingdoms had started almost immediately, and losses were suffered on both sides.
As the snow grew thick on the ground, the Pomarj's army reached the Kingdom of Celene itself, where Queen Yolande and her elven armies waited for the coming battles that would escalate the small skirmishes to all-out territorial battles. The elf queen knew many of her people would die over the coming months, and the forests around her kingdom would be years in recovery.
What was done was done, however, and the simple error that had started this war, when an elven diplomat of Celene had been locked in solitary battle with an orc diplomat representing the Pomarj, could not be undone. Although it had taken months in getting to her kingdom, the battle had been joined when that orc's lifeblood had spilled out onto the streets of the City of Dyvers.
The Despot Turrosh Mak didn't care who started the fight between his diplomat in Dyvers and the elf woman. All that mattered was his diplomat had died on foreign soil and the elf responsible had not been handed over for execution. It was, quite simply, an outrage, and if the elf queen wanted war, Turrosh Mak was going to give her a war that would be recorded in the annals of history. His people hated the elves as it was, and many of his warriors were dying for a chance to fight. In fact, far too many had not actually participated in a war, as the Greyhawk Wars had ended in Common Year 584.
* * *
The first skirmishes between the two armies broken out along the southeastern borders of Celene during the month of Ready'reat in Common Year 591. With heavy snows on the ground, the main goblinoid forces crossed the Celene borders during the Needfest festival at the beginning of Common Year 592 and sacked the first of many elven towns. Blood stained the snows a deep red and was truly a sign of things to come.
Through the month of Fireseek, with the snowfalls coming less and less frequently, the major battles were fought between the two grand armies, and thousands died on the field of battle, only to be picked apart by the crows when all was finished.
* * *
The final battle occurred late in the month of Readying as the spring thaw fought back against the winter frost. As the army of the Pomarj marched ever closer to Celene's palace, the elves of the Faerie Kingdom were starting to feel the results of Queen Yolande's decision to cut off all ties from the rest of the Flanaess -- a decision contested often by the Knights of Luna.
Not one kingdom had come to Celene's aid as the armies of Turrosh Mak destroyed much of the elven kingdom. Only Celene's armies, the ranger and druid protectors of the forests and the Knights of Luna were the only soldiers defending the elves' homelands. However, during the last weeks of the war, the Knights of the Hart entered Celene to join with their long-time allies, the Knights of Luna.
The forces dedicated to protecting Celene were the only line of defence, and it was they who rode out to meet the goblinoids during Readying for a last stand before the palace itself would be the battlefield.
Two days of marching from Celene, the elves and their few allies encountered the mighty army of Turrosh Mak that had plundered the countryside for months. With the two armies facing each other and only a few hundred yards of ground between them, the Despot Turrosh Mak gave his soldiers their last orders before the battle was to begin.
Orcs, ogres, goblins, trolls, gnolls and kobolds gnashed their teeth and brandished their weapons as they stared down their snouts at an army mostly made of elves. The elves stared back defiantly, their bows and swords at the ready. They knew that although the army of the Pomarj looked like little more than a bunch of snarling animals, Turrosh Mak and his generals were skilled in the art of war and more than shown their competence in battle over the last few months.
When Turrosh Mak gave the order to charge, a battlecry that would bring terror to the hearts of most went up from the assembled goblinoid army. There was no hesitation. The soldiers were more than willing to shed elven blood, and those elves that survived would make excellent slaves back in the Pomarj.
As the monsters charged, the elven archers fired volley after volley of arrows, cutting some of the numbers down before a single swordsman was needed. Then the elves charged, and the two armies came together in a flurry of steel and blood.
Wizards and clerics on both sides provided magic and healing support, but goblinoids and elves alike were being cut down on the battlefield. However, as the battle progressed, it was clear the elves were dying quicker than they could kill their enemies.
Just as the elven generals were just about to order a retreat and try to make their way back to the Celene palace to prepare for its defence, the field of battle was rocked by magic that seemed to come out of nowhere. Hundreds of goblinoids died in what seemed like a single blast of magical forces, and when the confusion cleared, eight figures stood in the centre of where the blast had been -- and they were standing in a circle.
Mordenkainen and his Circle of Eight had chosen sides in the war, and the elves had surprising new and powerful allies.
The tide of battle seemed to change instantly, and soon the goblinoids armies of the Pomarj were being beaten back by sword, bow and the combined magic of the Circle of Eight.
Realizing his victory had been taken from him at the moment of triumph, the angered Despot Turrosh Mak ordered the retreat, and while his soldiers still died on the field, he and his generals pulled back with as many orcs as they could muster.
* * *
In the aftermath of the war, the Faerie Kingdom of Celene began to rebuild its destroyed lands. However, its losses had been high, and the elves buried thousands of their brethren. If not for the Circle of Eight, the elven kingdom most surely would have perished.
Unfortunately for Celene, the Knights of Luna had suffered great losses during the final battle and were reduced from about two hundred knights to less than fifty. The Knights of the Hart suffered losses, as well, but they returned to their respective kingdoms to rebuild their numbers while the Knights of Luna vanished into the forests to their hidden base to determine what to do next.
Turrosh Mak safely returned to the Empire of the Pomarj with a fraction of his original army in tow. For now, he will have to be content with hating the elves of Celene from afar.