About forty years ago, a trio of halflings seeking to explore the area were met on the fringe of the hills by a band of armed men and informed that this particular area of the hills was now part of the domain of Alferith Langborne, and that the lands around Castle Langborne were off limits to travelers.
A diplomatic party from the combined communities of the region was dispatched to parley with this Alferith Langborne. The group made it as far as a secluded valley dotted with very old ruins and a castle on a cliff before being met by an armed party led by a scarlet and gold cloaked wizard claiming to be the man they were seeking. They were calmly but firmly turned away with the words "I mean you and your people no harm, but you must leave now, and if you return you will most likely die. These hills will no longer be safe for you."
The local consternation and outrage over the audacity of someone claiming ownership of potentially rich gem lands and threatening their envoys turned to fear when they learned more about Alferith Langborne.
From what information was able to be pieced together, Langborne was originally from distant Larenthy, where he was apprenticed to the legendary conjurer Sassilan of Idria. For reasons that are not entirely clear, Alferith left Sassilan's tutelage suddenly when still a teenager (c. NR 634), but it is said that Sassilan would not speak of his former apprentice, and would become angry at the mere mention of his name.
Alferith dropped out of sight for the better part of a decade before reappearing during the Second Kalem Border War (NR 642-643), fighting on the side of the Kalembar Federation against the Burgarans. At this point he had become a necromancer of considerable power, and it is said that he was equally feared by friend and foe alike. At the end of the brief war, he again vanished for several years.
He next appeared in Darlish (c. NR 648), where he was known as Alferith Nightshade, and was engaged in the internal politics of the Council of Seven for a few years. He was allied with the dark mages of House Farazin, and was believed to be responsible for the especially gruesome death of a member of the Council of Seven from a competing noble house.
It was around this time that Sassilan, on his deathbed, was reputed to have said "I should have killed that boy when I had the chance."
Word is that Alferith, having worn out his welcome in Darlish, left with a few of his most devoted apprentices and disappeared into the far northern wastes in about NR 652.
There is no other record of Alferith until NR 665, when the three halflings encountered a band of his retainers in the northeastern Silver Hills.
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| Castle Langborne's forbidden hills (Maps in Hexographer) |
Over the next 27 years, the distant ominous presence that was Castle Langborne posed no openly aggressive threat to the region despite the ongoing fears of the locals. Once or twice a year, servants of Langborne, wearing scarlet and gold livery, would appear in one of the region's villages looking to buy certain items, pay generously, and leave without causing any disturbance or harm. As the Shearingvale became more settled by humans moving into the area, these visits became less and less frequent. Langborne himself was never seen.
For their part, the people of the region avoided the lands for miles around Castle Langborne.
The last known appearance of Langborne's servants was in NR 692 (15 years ago), so the locals speculate that Langborne has either died or moved on. However, the area around his stronghold is still avoided, as the tales of nighttime howlings and monstrous creatures prowling the hills persist to this day.
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