The Riders of Daggerdale

 

 

Game System: D&D v.3.5

DM: Lurch

Setting: The Forgotten Realms

Current Year: 1372

 

PC’s:

 

Baraka Tenenbone VI LG Male shield dwarf Fighter 2/Paladin 1   Baraka hails from the Galena Mountains of Damara.  Wielding dual picks as he rides his boar Sawgriss into battle, Baraka has recently been deemed worthy enough to serve his god Moradin as a noble paladin.  Though Baraka hopes to lead by example, his stern, no-compromise viewpoints have already placed him at odds with his fellow adventurers…

 

Darci Thromstead LG Female Human Martial Artist 3   Darci is a native of Rashemen, where her family has served the great gold dragon Zudinmulamshius in his tireless quest to better the lands of Faerûn.  From the mysterious Golden Scales Monastery hidden among the Sunset Mountains, Darci has come to the Dalelands at her master’s request to stave off the coming evils Zudin has forseen.  Despite her youth (she is but 13 years of age!), Darci has already proven herself a skilled combatant and versatile adventurer…

 

Deek Embania NG Male Human Sha’ir 3   Deek hails from far-distant Calimshan, where his family is a powerful and influential merchant house.  Deek, however, is a younger son and stands to gain little in the way of inheritance.  Nevertheless, his drive to excel has pushed him to try his hand at the family business, running overland caravans eastward.  His most recent trip has had mixed results, however – though he lost the caravan, he gained a genie-kin companion named Hafiz, who has promised to show him the path to true power…

 

Igan Marsk CN Male Human Rogue 2/Fighter 1   Sembian-born Igan is an agent of merchant-noble House Tellari of Arabel; the current head of the house, Lady Kirsta Tellari, has assigned Igan as house liason to the Dalelands, where he is to work towards furthering good trade relations between Cormyr and the Dales.  Mysterious, independent and often moody, Igan reveals little about his past or his employers, preferring to communicate through his favored weapons: diplomacy and the rapier…

 

Valentine Drake LG Male Human Cleric of Tyr 3   Valentine Drake (just “Drake” to his friends) is a zealous cleric of Tyr who originally hails from Waterdeep.  Sent abroad to the east by his friend, Sergeant Stephen Jorns of the Waterdhavian Guard, Drake has found himself in the employ of Stephen’s brother Jacen, a local lord of Daggerdale.  While his ready sword-arm and potent healing magics have already secured his value to his fellow adventurers, his views regarding moral and ethical concerns sometimes place him at odds with his companions…

 

 

MAJOR NPC’s:

 

Lord Jacen Jorns CG Male Human Sorcerer 1/Wizard 6/Silver Dragon Disciple 7   Jacen Jorns is the lord of much of the lands between the Dagger Hills and Shadowdale to the south.  A semi-retired adventurer himself, Jacen is one of the only surviving members of the original Riders of Daggerdale, who were instrumental in restoring Lord Randal Morn to power in Daggerdale.  Jacen, along with Randal and fellow Rider Amber Satheria, have sent out the call to their allies across the Realms for promising young adventurers to replenish the ranks of the Riders of Daggerdale.  Jacen and Amber know the great evil that decimated the Riders is still out there, and have vowed to defeat it at all costs…

 

Baron Irlstar NG Male Human Commoner 3/Fighter 4   A farmboy hired by Jacen Jorns as horsegroom for the Riders of Daggerdale, Irlstar’s outstanding horsemanship and desire to grow earned him the role of herald.  However, following the defeat of the Riders, Irlstar found himself inheriting the offer of lordship made by Regent Alusair in recognition of the Riders’ service to the Crown.  Now baron of the desolate but strategically vital Stonelands, an untried Irlstar has resolved to rebuild Cormyr’s mounted forces and tame his barony.  Fortunately he has some powerful friends to help, including Jacen Jorns and Amber Satheria of Daggerdale, as well as his own mount, the awakened dire horse Ironhoof…

 

Father Vargas the Unyielding LG Male Human Cleric of Torm 9   Father Vargas is a former adventuring companion of Jacen Jorns.  The no-compromise attitude of his youth earned him the nickname “Vargas the Intolerant,” but this changed after Vargas retired to the village of Sturnheim, which the Riders of Daggerdale helped save from destruction.  With the loss of Tilverton in the south, Vargas has been busy restoring Sturnheim’s place as a trade route stopover, a critical task to Baron Irlstar, since the village is considered the gateway to the Stonelands.  An ally of the Harpers, Vargas has also been amassing a semi-secret library in his church, knowing future generations of adventurers will benefit from it…

 

 

THE STORY SO FAR (updated 11/19/04):

 

The new Riders of Daggerdale have been assembled by Jacen Jorns and given their first assignment: travel west to Cormyr, into the desolate region known as the Stonelands, and assist newly-appointed Baron Irlstar in taming his barony.  This proves to be no easy task – the Stonelands are crawling with bandits, tribes of evil orcs and goblinoids, and ravenous dinosaurs, not to mention the mysterious “wizard weather” that plagues the region, the constant probings of the Zhentarim, and the multitude of mysterious portals dotting the countryside.  It quickly became clear the Riders had much work ahead of them, so they wasted no time taking on their first mission.

 

Irlstar had received word from one of the few human settlements of an ogre harassing their village; upon investigating, the Riders learned the ogre had been peaceful until only recently.  Following the settlers’ directions, the Riders went to the cave of the ogre Logbrag.  What they found was a creature that had clearly been warped and disfigured by some outside force; in obvious pain and madness, Logbrag told the Riders that kobolds were responsible for his condition before attacking them in a fit of insanity.  The Riders brought a merciful end to Logbrag’s suffering, but then quickly fell into disagreement regarding how best to proceed.  Half the group wanted to investigate Logbrag’s claims, while the others felt they had done their job in dealing with the ogre.

 

Eventually the group agreed to proceed, and quickly discovered the truth of Logbrag’s words.  The cave system had been overrun by mutated kobolds, who fought with a fanatic’s zeal and all wore golden pendants bearing the image of a three-fingered hand.  Though the group believed the pendants to be indicative of some sort of organization or even a deity’s holy symbol, they were unable to identify the image.

 

In one unfortunate encounter, the sha’ir Deek Embania was badly wounded by a kobold’s blade, losing two fingers from his left hand.  Dispirited by his disfigurement, Deek decided to return to Irlstar’s keep while the others pressed on.  Deek found himself reporting not to Irlstar but to his mount, the awakened dire horse Ironhoof.  Ironhoof took pity on Deek and, using the enchanted horseshoes he had recently been gifted with by Jacen Jorns, took Deek across the Stonelands to Sturnheim, where Father Vargas was able to restore Deek’s fingers.  Deek found his spirits and resolve restored as well, and has vowed to study the holy text of Vargas’ faith in honor of the deity who healed him.

 

Meanwhile, the rest of the Riders had been steadily advancing through the winding caverns, defeating many kobolds but learning little more of their motivation.  By the time Deek had rejoined them, they had cleared out the entire complex on the near side of an underground river.  On the far side, they discovered still more kobold fanatics along with other dangerous foes, including a nest of undead further downstream.  Eventually, they reached the far shore of a large underground lake, establishing a beachhead while under kobold crossbow fire.  The further the Riders penetrated the lair, the more mutated the kobolds appeared; clearly, they were nearing the source of the changes.  Capturing one of the kobolds they returned him to Baron Irlstar for questioning, but not before Deek, in a ghoul fever-induced frenzy, bit off one of the hapless kobold’s fingers during questioning.  Back at the keep, what they learned was that the kobolds worshipped beings they called the “Outer Gods,” entities from beyond normal space and time, supposedly even beyond the gods of Faerun!  Though the cleric Drake scoffed at the notion, Irlstar was less certain and bid the Riders to return to the caverns and uncover the heart of the matter.  The kobold captive was freed and told of the nearby community of neutral kobolds called Blackrat Town, where he might make a fresh start.

 

Returning to the cave entrance, the Riders were setting up camp when they discovered a stowaway in Deek’s wagon: a drunken human named Hundar who claimed to be a down-on-his-luck sage.  Not wishing to delay their mission, the Riders quickly sobered him up and put him to work tending the camp in their absence.  Inside the caverns, the Riders discovered the complex abruptly gave way to rooms and corridors of worked stone.  More disturbingly, once they set foot within the area, everyone except Darci began hearing strange whispering voices in their heads, voices which proved a constant distraction.  Upon further investigation of the area (and several harrowing battles with elite kobold warriors), it was determined that the new area was once a secret temple devoted to the powers of good, now overrun by evil fanatics.  After a difficult battle with the most monstrously altered kobold yet, the Riders decided to return to camp and regroup before breaching what they believed to be the leaders’ stronghold.  There, they discovered a much-changed Hundar presiding over an immaculately-maintained campsite; Hundar also provided them with more information regarding the Outer Gods, believed to be at least theoretically possible by certain wizards and sages.

 

Within the lower levels, the Riders discovered the kobolds’ plans to breed an army of super-kobolds to conquer the surrounding lands in the name of their masters.  Destroying both the greenhouse-like breeding chamber and the unholy sacrifice room made of the still-living remnants of the kobold’s victims has only strengthened the Riders’ resolve to see evil vanquished here.  Now, the heroes prepare to venture forth and confront the twisted minions of the Outer Gods themselves in a final, fateful battle…