The Campaign Begins
Irda Ranger
Moors. To the north lie steep and densely wooded hills, never tamed by
Men. They are infested with goblins, and orcs live in the caves and
tunnels that run beneath. Further north, in the mountains, are
creatures even more powerful and evil still.
The road runs along a small watercourse, but a tributary that does not
join the Moonsea for a hundred leagues. The locals call it the River
Stirthe. At this point it is far wider than deep, and upon a breeze
from the east you can smell the fetid stink the fens and swamps from
whence it is comes.
You have been sent down this road to a lonely Keep. It guards one of
the few passes that run through these hills. Built atop ancient
foundations originally laid by giants during the Age of Titans, and
worked by elven hands during the height of Myth Dranor's power, the
duty of guarding this pass during this age has fallen on the shoulders
of Men. Farmsteads are few, far between, and heavily fortified out
here on the moors, and shepherds on longhaired ponies, with keen and
wary eyes, watch you as you walk past, their fingers never straying
far from the quiver of arrows at their hips.
Your mission is to travel to the Keep and meet a Dwarf named Senthunk,
who will have a valuable and holy artifact to give you. The artifact
is a holy relic of your clan, thought long lost to the world. Word
came at the onset of the winter snows that a Dwarven raiding party
found it while clearing out a nest of orcs. Now, in the first days of
Spring, you must bring the artifact back to your home city and deliver
to the Priests of the Temple.
Ahead you see the Keep, rising above the plain. From its towers the
white gryphon on blue field, the penant of Castellan Vincent le Fair,
snaps a merry sound in early spring breeze.