The campaign map is visible under "Game Maps" on the left hand side

Geography

Elsir Vale

Elsir Vale is a thinly populated human frontier. The vale stretches almost 250 miles east to west and averages about 70 miles north to south. Several small mountain ranges and dense forests form the vale's borders. Elsir Vale lies in the subtropical latitudes. Summers are hot and dry (although punctuated by the occasional intense thunderstorm), and winters are warm and rainy. Large stretches of the area are quite arid, and the vale is flanked by the vast savannahs stretching for mile after dusty mile. The forests that stretch across most of the vale's northern reaches are stifling and sweltering hot in the summertime, with not a breath of wind to relieve the oppressive heat It is currently mid-summer in the vale. Days are hot (85E to 110E F) and nights warm (60E to 85E F). This is the dry season, so rainfall is infrequent - but when it comes down, it really comes down. Thunderstorms and tornadoes are common. Though the borders of the vale are mostly hills, mountains and forests, the heart of the vale is grassy plains for the most part. Every town in the vale is surrounded by numerous farms. Beyond the civilized areas are vast rolling plains with infrequent hillocks and copses of trees.


Hammerfist Holds

The dwarves in the Wyvernwatch mountains southeast of Brindol have a number of mining communities. None have more than a few hundred people working and living there, but the various mines are quick to come to each other’s aid. In total there are probably 2500 people in these villages, almost entirely dwarves. This is the area’s only source of raw stone and metal ore.

Marth Forest
This dense wood is northeast of Brindol. The Tiri Kitor call this forest home. These Elves & Eladrin are known to number over 1000, but no one can say for sure how many of them there are. These elusive people are known for their giant owl mounts and superior archery skills. This is the last place you want to go for wood or furs. The Tiri Kitor trade with others in nearby towns, but few outsiders are welcomed into their forest.

Southwood

This light forest stretches from Dauth to Prosser, south of Brindol. It’s been heavily hunted and thinned out. The greatest danger here is usually bandits in hiding. Occasionally, rumors spread about ghosts in the woods, but it’s usually proven to be bandit tricks and traps to scare off good folk. There was actually a ghost in the woods some 40 years ago that killed a number of people. Bandits or ghosts, most people travel through the woods during the day and in large groups.

The Witchwood

This forest lies west of Brindol, bordered on three sides by mountains or swamp. It is the largest forest in the area. Most wood and hunting goods come from this area. The Tiri Kitor have a presence here, but don’t protect it nearly as well as the Marth Forest. Most of this woodland is still wild, and home to all manner of beasts. Roads and humanoid trails generally skirt the edges of the forest.

Drellin’s Ferry

This small town is THE river crossing for the Dawn Way (main east-west highway in the region). There was a stone, dwarven bridge here hundreds of years ago, but it was destroyed. The stone pillars are still visible in the river, but little remains of the bridge. A hundred feet downstream is the ferry crossing. A large barge floats here, attached to ropes and pulleys on both sides of the river. The river is 30 feet deep here, and the ferry is the only way to get wagons, livestock and such across.

Dennovar
The only other city of any significance in the region, Dennovar lies 100 miles east of Brindol on the Dawn Way. It too has an outer defensive wall of stone. Population 11,000. Dennovar has it’s share of farm land, but it also sits on a huge lake, Lake Ern. So, seafood and water related products are common trade goods from Dennovar. Dennovar hasn’t been attacked by anything significant in hundreds of years. In fact, several of the gates are in poor working order. They’re open 24-7. A merchant council is the governing body.

Rhest
Once a prosperous city and center of the kingdom of Rhestilor, Rhest is now a half-drowned ruin slowly sinking into the Blackfens (swamp). At it’s peak, the surrounding lands were well tended fields with levies, irrigation systems, and were clear for miles. Centuries of erosion and lack of attention have turned the farmlands into swamp. Rice and soybean fields are now overgrown with twisted trees, poisonous vines, and are crawling with snakes, crocodiles, and worse. Civilized people abandoned the place long ago. The only intelligent beings there now are lizard folk, if you consider them intelligent.

Jarmaan Keep (in Brindol)
 Jarmaan Keep predates the nation of Rhestilor. It was built on the remains of an ancient dwarven keep over 500 hundred years ago. During the reign of Rhestilor, the village around the keep grew into a town, then a city. When that great nation fell apart, the commanding officer, Kerden Jarmaan, claimed the keep as his own. It’s been in the Jarmaan family ever since.

Astrazalian

To the north, in the middle of Lake Rhestin(at least some of the time) lies the Eladrin city of Astrazalian, known to residents of the Vale as the City of Starlight. This magnificent city strides the border between the mortal realm and the Feywild, and exists in each for fully half of every year. During the spring and summer, it resides a few hundred miles to the east of the Vale and is the source (or destination) of a significant amount of the trade that flows through the Vale.


Civilizations of the Vale

Several civilizations have come and gone over the last 1000 years in the vale. The dwarves built most of the roadways, Overlook and the fortress in the pass. Rhest re-established trade and safe travel with neighboring regions about 500 years later. Both empires built to a peak; made advances in metalwork, stonework, agriculture and magic; then fell apart for some reason. Erathis and Pelor remain significant deities in the Vale, but the region is ruled by numerous city/states with no common leadership. Nobles and merchants (the wealthy) keep things like security, trade and farming at acceptable levels, for their own benefit. No doubt some of the advances those great empires made have been lost. There is an organization known as the Vanguard (of Erathis) spread throughout the vale. This group operates independently of the church, though often with common goals, and many members are members of both. They are not very large or influential as a whole. They exist much like the Masons; visible to all, but subtle in their actions. Most people consider them benevolent and harmless. The organization is composed of numerous independent cells throughout the region.

The scattered human towns and villages of the area grew up along the Dawn Way, an important east-west trade road linking the heavily settled lands that lie northwest across the Endless Plains with the exotic kingdoms and goods of the coastal lands lying to the southeast. Much of the Dawn Way was built by an ancient dwarven kingdom that spanned the Wyrmsmoke and Giantshield Mountains more than a thousand years ago. While the dwarven kingdom is long gone, their roads, bridges, and cisterns remain in use to this day. After the kingdom passed, the presence of various monsters and raiders kept traffic along the Dawn Way light for many years; few caravans dared the long and dangerous trek. Few humans lived in Elsir Vale during those years - only scattered settlements of druidic folk who left behind little more than grassy barrows and stone circles on the hilltops.

About five hundred years ago, the nearby city of Rhest came to control the vale and a large swath of land north of the Giantshields as well. Soldiers from Rhest secured the roads all the way to Dennovar and beyond, creating a safe passage for trade. More and more traders traveled the Dawn Way, and the kingdom of Rhestilor grew wealthy on the tariffs exacted from the passing merchants. Under the kingdom's shield, the towns along the Dawn Way - Brindol, Talar, Terrelton, and the rest - grew up from tiny hamlets or lonely soldiers' posts to flourishing human settlements. The kingdom of Rhestilor eventually collapsed under civil strife, monstrous incursions, and magical blights. Almost two hundred years ago, the city of Rhest was burned by savage horde out of the Wyrmsmoke Mountains. Although the warriors of Rhestilor killed many of the goblins and their kind, the city was abandoned and the already weakened kingdom broken. The locks and canals surrounding Rhest fell into disrepair, and the Blackfens (swamp) swallowed the ruined city. Today Rhest and the Blackfens lie in the hands of King Rissed of the Lizardfolk.

In the years after the kingdom's fall, the towns of Elsir Vale came to look after themselves. Most of the local lords still held titles derived from the old kingdom of Rhestilor. While everyone knew that the kings of Rhestilor were long dead, no new realm arose in the vale.
The Elsir ConsortiumEdit

The Consortium is the largest merchant group operating in the vale. It is led by a council residing in Overlook. Currently, Bram Ironfell, head of the dwarf Clan Ironfell, sits as council Chairman.

The Consortium has also created the Ponies; a network of messengers (Ponies) and deliverymen (Waynesmen) that runs throughout the Vale.