Callathiforay - introduction - D&D 5e RPG epic campaign story
The story begins on the Trove Islands, a sleepy place easily overlooked between the Blizzard Kingdoms to the north and the Kriegsring to the south. The island's main city, Port Sovereign, did well out of the coal and iron mining trades back in the day. It's been a few hundred years since those industries ran their course, though, so the city's looking a little threadbare in places. So what do we know about the wider world?
The drow, from their city, Oversable, have exiled the reviled drider caste across the sea to the north end of the Trove Islands.In a somewhat flagrant move, Queen Ariadne has used the presence of the exiled drider as proof that the north end of the Trove Islands is actually drow property. The drow queen's household, the Xiloscients, are the most powerful amongst the drow. In her tireless pursuit of power, the queen has taken the devil prince Dispater as a lover, and borne him three diabolical children.
The clannish, chaotic orcs and martial, disciplined hobgoblins are locked in endless war against one another for control of the Kriegsring. Raiding parties from both search for loot to fuel their war-efforts. On the south end of the Trove Islands, the town of Southward Head has already fallen to the hobgoblins under the command of Taichou Hiragana.
Giles Cartness has recently died, leaving the mayorship he left behind him in Port Sovereign open for election. Demon and devil worship are on the rise as the integrity of the church's inquisition is weakened. Is Port Sovereign's Arcane Academy involved? Claims have been made that adamantium is to be found in ready supply in the drider region on the north of the Trove Islands, sparking a second mining boom. The drow are leasing mining rights at great cost to prospectors. Rumours are coming back, though, that the promises of adamantium deposits are not leading to anything.
Into this world are thrown five characters of note, although we'll meet a great deal more. Auld Jenny
They say Auld Jenny always had a gift, though they couldn't honestly say she'd used it much. Never a woman of much ambition, Jenny eked out a living giving dubious relationship advice to naive newlyweds, and herbs of unknown provenance to much older husbands and lovers. She claims to have been married twice, and though there were no records of either union, there are certainly two children to prove at least one. Those children are grown now, and visit their mother exactly as often as can be expected.
They say Auld Jenny was wild in her youth. Tales abound of hair-brained schemes and wild adventures, of ill-advised liaisons and grand affairs. Jenny herself has been known to recant the tale of picking up a roguish man in a bar, who later disappeared into the night on scaly wings to return to his hoard, but Jenny, to quote her long-suffering elder son, is a mad old bat who's full of shit. However true that is, Jenny is a well-travelled woman who has seen many shores, eaten many strange dishes, and still would rather sit in her hovel in the woods and cook a pigeon over a campfire.
They say Auld Jenny can curse her enemies and that they should beware. Jenny wishes she could curse, but sadly this has always been beyond her. What she's discovered recently, to her surprise, is that she has a knack for making people like her for just as long as she needs to get her own way. Her sons are convinced that this is magic. Jenny thinks it's the twinkle in her eye and her personal charm. Now, putting people to sleep when they start to annoy her, she says, THAT'S magic. They say Auld Jenny had to leave her hovel in a hurry after one of her herbs went wrong for a rich man in the nearby village. Jenny, as she fled the area, was heard to mutter something about overuse and not being a real man, but beyond that, all that is known is that the man's wife is still getting her fill elsewhere, and there's a man out there who wants his gold back and revenge. Qadira Nix
Qadira hails from a country of vast, untamed, wild forests, where wolves roam freely and those that venture too deep might stumble across far worse. Long, dark autumns, harsh winters and short, weak springs and summers are the norm for the people who reside there. Perilous mountain passes surround her homeland and nestled high within them old ruins from long-forgotten dynasties overlook rustic villages and the occasional town. Rumours abound that not all of the ruins are uninhabited and on certain nights of the year the young and impressionable insist that they hear strange music and see flickering lights dancing in the night's air. Of course, any sensible person ignores these rumours, but they still lock their doors come nightfall, and they never talk about those that vanish in the night. At seven years of age, Qadira took her younger brother to play in the forest that overlooked her village.
As she played, Qadira realised she had lost her brother. Frantically, she tried to retrace her steps, which only served to disorientate her. Eventually, she stumbled across a wooded clearing, where a bestial, wolf-like form loomed over her brother's mutilated body. Screaming, she raced back to the village for help, but her brother's body was never found. Qadira's parents blamed her for her brother's death and she blamed herself. Throughout her childhood and into adulthood, Qadira became obsessed with bending time back to save her brother from his fate. In search of answers, she started to explore the ruins high in the mountain passes, eventually stumbling across an ancient tome of eldritch rites. Over time, she began to understand the arcane writings and started experimenting with her new-found powers. After being discovered and accused of witchcraft, she fled her village, disappearing into a raging storm. In desperation, she tried one of the rituals contained within her book and at its climax, lightning struck and the world exploded into incandescent, white light as her gemstone focus exploded.
When Qadira woke, she found herself in an unfamiliar land, with no idea how to return home. The mental and physical toil of performing the ritual has left Qadira somewhat unhinged and turned her hair a bright blue. Unbeknownst to her, Qadira has travelled back in time, but miscalculated and has end up adrift and out of sync with the natural world. As far as she's aware, she's still living in her present day, but every so often, she sees shadowy beings at the periphery of her vision, and strange, shimmering lights rippling across the sky. Qadira is still obsessed with trying to save her brother, but without the ritual's gemstone focus, she's stuck in her current predicament. Vaerlân Sirothian
In the great forest, it's not unusual to appreciate nature. Huge, ancient trees soar up to touch the sky, laden down with green leaves, birds, and dancing forest creatures. The sun streams down in bright rays, and when rain falls, it patters against the soft loam, raising a sweet petrichor. Vaerlân always had a special connection to the woods, even over that of other Wood Elves. When he sang, the trees seemed to lean closer to listen, and where he walked the wild beasts followed. When he came of age, he left the tree-houses of his kinsfolk, and went to study with the Druids of the Sacred Grove.
Eventually, to prove that he had a knowledge of the earth, sky, and sea, Vaerlân was sent off to travel the wide world, to gain some perspective away from the perfect splendour of the Elvenwood.
Ambrosé.
Not much is known about Ambrosé. He lost a business in a mysterious fire for which he blames a client. He also lost an arm during the same event. Ironic, because he was ambidextrous before that. Motivated by revenge, Ambrosé is nothing if not a wild card.
Elora
Me and my younger sister worked as hired killers, but we never killed innocent people. We'd scope out the people we were hired to kill, and if we found they were innocent we'd then investigate into the person who hired us. If they were shitty people we'd take them out instead. We tried to use this platform to do good, rather than shady work.
While we were stopping over in a smaller town outside of Port Sovereign, an older, noble gentleman by the name of Bryce Richter hired us to take out one of Slithey Tove's men who had beaten and murdered his youngest son. Once we'd caught up with Slithey and company in the city, my sister went to scope them out, but was noticed. She managed to lose them and when she got back to me, she tried to convince me that the gang was too dangerous and wasn't worth hunting. However, I pushed until she agreed, because it was for a pretty big reward.
We tried to ambush the gang, but they had been tipped off and had set their own trap. After torturing us for a few days, they brutally murdered my sister in front of me. A day later, I managed to escape. Since then, I've managed to track down one of the men involved and killed him, I've been hunting down the rest since. I heard rumour of a one-armed man laying low in a small town and went to find out if it was the same man who was involved with killing my sister. This way, I met the others.
