Chronicles of the World of DaoTyr

In the morning, Tim, Kaiel and Tiki, now without Etienne, Judi, Eartha and still with out Ary journeyed down the Fay hole under the old oak to see what happened to their elf rogue friend Eartha.

before their descent they encountered a large statue, covered in moss and lichens, depicting the figurative and stylized form of a tiefling warrior. Was the a sentinel of the old road? Whatever it was, it had large stone beetles attached to it as if modeled and glued into place, an alien and strange addition to this ancient silent statue.

Down the hole, the three found a the remnants of a wild fay night of revelry: passed out goblins, empty kegs, overturned tables, broken musical instruments and a throne with a half-orc man, well dressed and articulate. A shaman and a goblin prince, the man, named Girto, explained that Ooamrissa was indeed evil and her power was growing. He said that he had another secret to tell but before he could do that, three Dark elf assassins appeared with sword and hand crossbows and slew Girto and then turned their sites to the three.

Tim was quick with bow, Tiki with her lighting and Kaiel with his hammer. The Dark elves were killed and it was learned that they carried badges indicating they were agents of a shadow comany called the Mice Eyes, a theives guild that Kaiel had heard about in Gavin Wel. Drug runners mostly. What do they have to do with Ooamrissa? Is there a tie between drugs and the blight?

As well, the group found a note from Eartha. The rogue had found some friends and decided to leave the Company of the Shadow Road for she found the peril too great and the job thankless.

Here is an image of Girto as he might have appeared in a Goblin City in full regalic garb.

In the middle of the night after Tim had seen Eartha go down a fay hole under an old oak and after the party had left the main road, they were surprised by an arcan onslaught of amazing power. The fiendish Ogre Mage, Tel Omad, and his tiefling consort, the daughter of Mirronus named Isabette, invoked a massive vortex of seemingly electric destruction that encircled the party. Etienne was caught in it, immediately the vampire was turned into stone.

A party of Orc captain serving Tel Omad was loosed on the party with murderous intention. Tim and Kaiel were left to fight a bloody mess. Tiki was able to pry open a subtle energy field to find and face Tel Omad and Tiki’s mad cousin Isabette. A fight ensued but having seemingly gotten what they came for (a secret of the Shadow road cart? the death of Etienne? the true nature of the elaborate encounter remains a myster) the two fiends darted off into the night.

The party of the Shadow Road encountered the woods around Old Fang Keep where beginning to whither, a sign that Ooamrissa’s studies of the Blight Power may be advancing.

Chaos gnomes riding grizzly bears, whose minds they controlled through crystal implants sprung upon the party, guarding the decrepit eladrin fortress. Tim, Kaiel, Tiki, Etienne, Eartha and Judi were able to best the lot of them.

The party failed to see night pollen fay sneak up and steal Judi’s consciousness as a thief might pickpocket loose change, falling her into a deep and unreachable sleep.

Kaiel deemed it best to send one of the magebred horses back to Starry Gardens to fetch his sister Ary to see if she may be able to scy the truth of Judi’s condition.

It was there that Tim found the aforementioned Goblin Trail that may take the party into the ravine and into the secret entrance of Ooamrissa’s tower.

The trail that was once a great Tielfing Highway is now a dark place wrought with shadow power of all malevolent kin. The heraldic cart lead by Kaiel and blessed in its undercarriage by golden ruins of high magic from the Cathedral at Gavin Wel opens the road as the Party of the Shadow Road makes there way through the tough Faywilds. The opening will only last for a moment of days unless they can unravel the secrets of the Sentinals: the ancient tielfing monuments that insured safe passage and kept the hungry wilderness at bay.

An image of Ooamrissa many hundreds of years ago. From the gallery at Starry Gardens.

Once, Ooamrissa was friends with Blendhavian of Starry Gardens, as were all Eladrin before the fall of the Shadow road. Now it is known that she indeed does exist and Blendhavian believes that she is her heart is black and twisted by the Blight stuff that travels on evil winds across the region. Taking this power, the eladrin of Starry Gardens believes his old friend is attempting to become a Blight Master. She would then be able to raise a force that may be able to take on Gavin Wel itself. Too removed from this world now in both mind and wealth, the old and poor Eladrin could only beseach the visiting Party of the Shadow Road to find the true nature of Ooamrissa, wherein the last obsticle to once again opening the Shadow Road may lift.

It was then that six left from Maiah: Kaiel, a priest of the Raven Queen, Tim, a ranger, Tiki, the feypact tiefling warlock, Ary, the elven wizard, Judi, a knight of Sahene, and Eartha, an elven Rogue took the heraldic cart, two magebred horses and two mules left to open the Shadow Road.

After many harrowing encounters with violent goblins protecting their wood and sabatoging fay who resist the idea of the opening of the Shadow Road, the party made it’s way to Staridel Holm, a Raelfaen enclave know as Starry Gardens; home to Blendhavian, the Eladrin elder and his family made of his wife and their three sons.

It was at Starry Gardens that Ary decided to stay and study Eladrin magic.

As well, there, the vampire Etienne was possessed by a fey love spirit who bound the undead warrior to Tiki Mumbai. A curse that could only be lifted in Death.

Eartha then found in the old fort an ancient room wherein the Eladrin daughter of Oamrissa’s body was discovered along with many clues about the nature of Oamrissa: a Raelfaen who still exists on the Shadow Road in an old keep called in common, Old Fang, for its jetting towers droop and form wicked crescents against the sky. In the Daughter’s Chamber, Eartha discovered a secret entrance to Old Fang by way of a Goblin Trail.

Starry Gardens, as it is called in the common tongue of men. click to enlarge.

Judicia, the Silver Paladin of Sehene. Kaiel and Judi spent time together in Gavin Wel before both pursuing the quest to once again open the Shadow Path between Maiah and Niskantel.

Generally defined as the region including the Four Wards of the City of Gavin Wel and across the fractured land west toward The West Rip River; from north to south, the River Wall south to the shores of the Undermere, The Gavin Wel valley encompasses an area of about 1700 square miles of wilderness and rural lands.

The current year is 1103 in the sixth epoch of the Raelfaen, the most ancient calendar of the world.

The climate in the Valley is largely a temperate rain forest, in places receiving more than 60 inches of rain a year. Also can be found large swaths of agricultural land and in the south, a semi-arid environment where olive trees and wine grapes flourish.

Demographics:

Approximate population of the City: 85,450 (56% human, 12% half elf, 10% elf (fay), 15% goblinkind, 2% halfing, 2% dwarf, 1% Tiefling, 1% dragonborn, 1% Raelfaen Eladrin)

Approximate population of the Vallery: 6,450 (23% human, 18% half elf, 20% elf (fay), 28% goblinkind, 5% halfling, 8% dragonborn, 3% tiefling, 3% Raelfaen, 2% other)

The Valley supplies most of the food for the City.

The Fey Wild theatre outside the Wild City of Heavy Wire (Heavawyr) at the confluence of the West fork of the River Wall and the River Thorn, ten miles north of the human town of Maiah.

Ary Besellyn, young elven half sister of Kaiel and Zarconus is the brilliant but affected dreaming wizard. She came with her brothers to Gavin Wel ten years ago and spent most of her time in the City’s libraries.

Click to enlarge. Kaiel Bessalyn found his old friends, Tiki and Tim and hired them to escort a cart of Orcish wine from Maiah to Niskantel. The trip was only supposed be four days through wild country…an old path called the Shadow Road. Little did Tiki and Tim know that Kaiel was hiding a dark secret and carrying it as a heavy burden.

Tim Tigeon always had an amazing ability with a bow, belying his modest upbringing on the farm. With almost a prenatural ability to read the land, it was always Tim who could find the lost goats and track the maurading wolves around the farm. Modest to a fault, Tim doesn’t consider himself very good at anything, except when he is in battle where he moves with ruthless fearlessness. Tim and Kaiel have been best friends since they were boys although he is concerned about the changes in his friend since returning from the clergy at Gavin Wel.

Tiki Mumbai was always the bad girl in school. The only Tiefling in the human town of Maiah, Tiki was always teased for her innate magic abilities. Her family who still live in the Fay wild of Gavin Wel valley have largely disowned her although not her strange Fey pact that remains a source of power and curse upon her dark soul which she is only starting to understand.

The history of Elves, Orcs and the Tiefling is long, convoluted and unique in the Valley of Gavin Wel. Besides humans, Elves and Orcs are presently the most populace peoples of the Valley and it could be argued that they have more in common with each other than with humans. In fact, in previous ages the Elves and Orcs have stood aligned against the new-come race.

Long ago Tiefling and Raelfaen (Eladrin) inhabited a great City called Khepathia, that no longer exists which spanned the width and depth of the Valley. Great roads cut through forests and monuments of basalt and steel were erected in even more ancient valley forests.

After Erythia was constructed and the Cathoid machine had been run dry, civil war erupted in the valley and the Orcs, who were used as slaves, rebelled against there masters. The elves, who kept their own language, money and culture joined the Orcs and topelled the powers of the Silver City. All this happened before humanity came to the Valley.

Orcs and Elves both believe in the preservation of the natural world against the unyielding forces of civilization, at any cost. Although, Elves have been known to be more reactionary than the Orc Druids that tend to these days hold more negotiation with the human world than the elves and the other fae do.

Religiously, the nature of Orcish culture is much different than elvish culture. The Orcs who are druids and are organized into a profoundly far reaching society called the Order of the Nine Stars, or more commonly, the Wreathers, perform blood rituals on their monoliths of stone under moonlight to gods of violence, earth and fertility.

The elves worship Corellon, or the Forest’s Father and do not take to blood ritual. Idealogically, the two shall never join but the days of these two races openly warring one another seem to have past.

If Gavin Wel is to stand a chance against the oncoming front of the Blight, it may be time to reerect the old Tielfing monuments and open the ancient roads through the feywilds. This would open necessary channels for the the aligned valley to gather resources. As it is now, the prinicpalities are largely isolated a united defense would be impossible to mount.

The Besellyn Farm outside of Maeah is a elvenhostel in a human township. Zarconus the Paladin and his older brother Kai were born here. Zarconus went to the City to become a knight and Kai to become a priest in their early adolecence.

The Poolis-Fyr Memorial, or, The Long Spike, is thecenter of Orkish Druidic ritual on the outskirts of Maiah.The Head of the Order is an Ork Shaman named Hearthis and together with the Order of Sherriffs deal with any civil and religious issues that require a governing hand in the community.

The town of Maiah is one day’s walk west of the Longwatch Gate of Gavin Wel. The tower of Reihm is a keep and a grain silo. The own itself is mostly human and is set in a fertile valley that farms olives, cotton, greens and livestock.