I'm making this as a placeholder in case mod perms are granted.
I'll add the story intro when we launch. I will likely flesh it out from the spoiler, tying in some aspects of the player bio's (no details!) just adjusting the world build slightly to the players themselves. It's meant to be a collaboration!
I'm moving the character bio watcher here as well since it relates directly to this campaign.
Character bios
NARRATION
The war ended several generations ago. As the original heroes spent more time in Valhalla they grew to love the world, and that wasn’t all they learned to love. Many fell in love with each other, or with the kyrie who occupied it. Others grew to miss their loved ones back home.
They realized they didn’t want to pass on a world like this to their children and redoubled their efforts to defeat Utgar, not just with sword, but with compassion for those in his ranks most capable of empathy.
The war ended at last when Utgar’s daughter, Runa, became pregnant by one of Ullar’s own kyrie. She gave up the fight, and took many of the Volcarren with her. Utgar fought on for some time, but without the support of his own people, he was eventually cut off from his wellspring.
Without the ability to summon more hellions from across the cosmos, and disheartened by his daughter’s betrayal, he retreated deep into the Volcarren wasteland. HIs forces scattered. Many were returned home along with those allied heroes who didn’t want to put down roots in Valhalla and the war officially came to a close.
After the war ended, and those who wanted to return home did so, the remaining generals swore to close and seal the remaining wellsprings. They would allow the effects of time to erase them and their power from the world.
Those Utgarians who remained behind were hunted nearly to extinction and then forgotten when no more could be found.
Legends, myths, and scary bedtime stories were carried down through the years of horrible monsters that came in the night, of remote regions of Valhalla which still housed burgeoning populations of the descendants of Utgar’s monsters.
They were not gone, the legends said. They were hidden.
You are descendants of the heroes of the original generals. Your great ancestor(s) are your great great great grandparents. You were raised on the legends and stories of the war of all time. When Calborn, a village deep in the Black Veil Mountains, disappears mysteriously, the aging Archkyrie Ullar offers a reward for any reliable information on what happened to the human and kyrie settlement.
The summons attract many young adventurers and a few old hands. Some band together on their way to the Black Veil. Others prefer to go it alone. You are among a group of five who decided to work together, eager to discover the truth of it and stamp you name on history, right up there with your great ancestor(s).
Ullar grants each adventurer and band a letter of mark, permitting them to travel in his lands freely and request reasonable aid from his subjects. It also shielded them from suspicion by Ullar’s soldiers who were moving into the region to secure other villages, towns, and important logistical bases.
To one particular band, among whom he recognized some faces, echoes from long ago, he gave an extra task. He offered it in the form of another letter, sealed with his sigil, and gave strict instructions not to open it until they reached Calborn.
You race ahead of the others and reach the ruins of Calborn long before the other adventurers, and about three weeks after the village's population disappeared. Tattered red and orange banners hang from empty buildings. The village shows signs of a great struggle, but no bodies litter the ground other than blood and the occasional finger or cold, flea-covered pile of entrails.
Brown wreaths and red berry bearing vines adorn the rooftops, as though the village were in the middle of harvest celebrations when its doom came upon it. Small scraps of lichen litter the ground, and some parts of the houses appear burnt and show scars from axes and swords.
Pausing for a break, you and your friends open the letter bearing Ullar’s other task.
There is another task I have for you of utmost importance. I am hesitant to trust it to anyone, but your faces seem familiar. Not only the faces, but also the two ivory handled six shooters on the scrappy one’s belt. They belonged to one of my more rambunctious lieutenants long ago. McCreech had a funny way of speaking and his behavior was rarely good, but when I needed something done he was the right man…ehem, for the right price.
There was a kyrie elder in the village…someone very important to me and a keeper of the history of the Ulvar people. If she is dead, I desire word. If she is alive, I desire her safely returned to me.
I am the last living Archkyrie. I should very much like to see my friend again before I go. Please hurry.
Ullar
A very tired old Archkyrie
You had the sense to acquire a map of the region with your other travelling gear. Looking closely you can see Calborn close to the center, in the foothills of the Black Veil Mountains (See map below). A few miles to the East you see the long snaking form of the Ironwood River and the green smudges marking the forest of a similar name following its banks.
The map shows two possible places nearby where survivors of the village might hide.
A hill rises slightly to the South where the river bends East toward the Western edge of the Volcarren Wasteland, and on the hill you can make out faded ink in the form of buttresses. An old style of marking fortresses, only used to indicate a ruined fort from the War.
The second place lies some twenty miles directly South of you, following the foothills of the Black Veil; A cavern that has an opening at the base of one of Black Veil’s smaller peaks. You could hit both, but it will cost you a few extra days on the road, a few days the survivors may not have if they are not discovered soon…assuming there were any survivors.
As you consider your options, you hear a noise behind you. You turn to find a girl of about 18 or 19 standing behind you. Her features have a slightly elven lean, a somewhat sharper chin than the average human or kyrie, thin eyebrows, purple tinted eyes (a hue only seen among a few races of fae, including the high elves), and slightly elongated ears. She also wears a beautiful silver necklace in the shape of a waning crescent moon.
“Please,” she says, holding a bleeding arm out to you, “Can you help me?”
You notice her leg is twisted at an odd angle as well.
Here is a map of the region we are playing in. Apologies for the quality. It seems to be the best the website can support.
I'll add the story intro when we launch. I will likely flesh it out from the spoiler, tying in some aspects of the player bio's (no details!) just adjusting the world build slightly to the players themselves. It's meant to be a collaboration!
I'm moving the character bio watcher here as well since it relates directly to this campaign.
Character bios
Spoiler Alert!
NARRATION
The war ended several generations ago. As the original heroes spent more time in Valhalla they grew to love the world, and that wasn’t all they learned to love. Many fell in love with each other, or with the kyrie who occupied it. Others grew to miss their loved ones back home.
They realized they didn’t want to pass on a world like this to their children and redoubled their efforts to defeat Utgar, not just with sword, but with compassion for those in his ranks most capable of empathy.
The war ended at last when Utgar’s daughter, Runa, became pregnant by one of Ullar’s own kyrie. She gave up the fight, and took many of the Volcarren with her. Utgar fought on for some time, but without the support of his own people, he was eventually cut off from his wellspring.
Without the ability to summon more hellions from across the cosmos, and disheartened by his daughter’s betrayal, he retreated deep into the Volcarren wasteland. HIs forces scattered. Many were returned home along with those allied heroes who didn’t want to put down roots in Valhalla and the war officially came to a close.
After the war ended, and those who wanted to return home did so, the remaining generals swore to close and seal the remaining wellsprings. They would allow the effects of time to erase them and their power from the world.
Those Utgarians who remained behind were hunted nearly to extinction and then forgotten when no more could be found.
Legends, myths, and scary bedtime stories were carried down through the years of horrible monsters that came in the night, of remote regions of Valhalla which still housed burgeoning populations of the descendants of Utgar’s monsters.
They were not gone, the legends said. They were hidden.
You are descendants of the heroes of the original generals. Your great ancestor(s) are your great great great grandparents. You were raised on the legends and stories of the war of all time. When Calborn, a village deep in the Black Veil Mountains, disappears mysteriously, the aging Archkyrie Ullar offers a reward for any reliable information on what happened to the human and kyrie settlement.
The summons attract many young adventurers and a few old hands. Some band together on their way to the Black Veil. Others prefer to go it alone. You are among a group of five who decided to work together, eager to discover the truth of it and stamp you name on history, right up there with your great ancestor(s).
Ullar grants each adventurer and band a letter of mark, permitting them to travel in his lands freely and request reasonable aid from his subjects. It also shielded them from suspicion by Ullar’s soldiers who were moving into the region to secure other villages, towns, and important logistical bases.
To one particular band, among whom he recognized some faces, echoes from long ago, he gave an extra task. He offered it in the form of another letter, sealed with his sigil, and gave strict instructions not to open it until they reached Calborn.
You race ahead of the others and reach the ruins of Calborn long before the other adventurers, and about three weeks after the village's population disappeared. Tattered red and orange banners hang from empty buildings. The village shows signs of a great struggle, but no bodies litter the ground other than blood and the occasional finger or cold, flea-covered pile of entrails.
Brown wreaths and red berry bearing vines adorn the rooftops, as though the village were in the middle of harvest celebrations when its doom came upon it. Small scraps of lichen litter the ground, and some parts of the houses appear burnt and show scars from axes and swords.
Pausing for a break, you and your friends open the letter bearing Ullar’s other task.
There is another task I have for you of utmost importance. I am hesitant to trust it to anyone, but your faces seem familiar. Not only the faces, but also the two ivory handled six shooters on the scrappy one’s belt. They belonged to one of my more rambunctious lieutenants long ago. McCreech had a funny way of speaking and his behavior was rarely good, but when I needed something done he was the right man…ehem, for the right price.
There was a kyrie elder in the village…someone very important to me and a keeper of the history of the Ulvar people. If she is dead, I desire word. If she is alive, I desire her safely returned to me.
I am the last living Archkyrie. I should very much like to see my friend again before I go. Please hurry.
Ullar
A very tired old Archkyrie
You had the sense to acquire a map of the region with your other travelling gear. Looking closely you can see Calborn close to the center, in the foothills of the Black Veil Mountains (See map below). A few miles to the East you see the long snaking form of the Ironwood River and the green smudges marking the forest of a similar name following its banks.
The map shows two possible places nearby where survivors of the village might hide.
A hill rises slightly to the South where the river bends East toward the Western edge of the Volcarren Wasteland, and on the hill you can make out faded ink in the form of buttresses. An old style of marking fortresses, only used to indicate a ruined fort from the War.
The second place lies some twenty miles directly South of you, following the foothills of the Black Veil; A cavern that has an opening at the base of one of Black Veil’s smaller peaks. You could hit both, but it will cost you a few extra days on the road, a few days the survivors may not have if they are not discovered soon…assuming there were any survivors.
As you consider your options, you hear a noise behind you. You turn to find a girl of about 18 or 19 standing behind you. Her features have a slightly elven lean, a somewhat sharper chin than the average human or kyrie, thin eyebrows, purple tinted eyes (a hue only seen among a few races of fae, including the high elves), and slightly elongated ears. She also wears a beautiful silver necklace in the shape of a waning crescent moon.
“Please,” she says, holding a bleeding arm out to you, “Can you help me?”
You notice her leg is twisted at an odd angle as well.
Spoiler Alert!
Here is a map of the region we are playing in. Apologies for the quality. It seems to be the best the website can support.
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