Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Tales of a Bee Keeper

...or, What Ravar Kelt Knows.

The first time the party stayed in the village of Olmsby, they had the opportunity to chat with a local retired adventurer by the name of Ravar Kelt. It was Ravar who told them about their first dungeon, in the ruins of a long-abandoned Onorian town (the town of Kel-Vandiir).
Ravar's Map - Northern section...

After completing that dungeon, defeating the newly resident goblin tribe, and having other subsequent adventures, the party eventually found themselves in Olmsby again.

Ravar's Map - Southern section

Ravar had heard of the party's good deeds in healing local farmer Ned Greenbrier and his son Tad (who happened to be kin of Ravar's late wife), and because of this, was keen to share more of what he knows by way of a "thank you". Ravar spent much of the rest of a comfortable evening at a corner table in the Half Pint Table regaling the party with various tales. Here is some of what he told:
  • There is a trail that heads east/northeast from the site of Fulcher's Hold. It follows the course of a stream until it reaches a point where the trail splits. One trail heads due east and the other northeast. Both enter the Shadowveil Forest a short distance before petering out. A few miles from each of these trailheads is an old ruin. The northern site is a few miles further into the forest than the southern one, beyond the point where the woods become quite dense, and is by far the larger of the two sites.
  • The site on which Fulcher and his band are building their keep was a very old castle site. It is rumored that there were tunnels and chambers below the ruins, but he does not personally know whether that is true or not.
  • The Onorians liked to "dig like dwarves", and many of their sites have more below ground than above.
  • There is a ruined tower or castle near the headwaters of the stream that passes by the party's first dungeon.
  • In the gap between the Silver Hills and the Shadowveil Forest, a long day's walk north of Fulcher's Hold, is a small lake. The lake is surrounded by hills, woods and marshes. On the north side of the lake, hidden in the tangled marshes, are a series of flat-topped stone pyramid structures. Ten years ago there were signs that the area was inhabited by something.
  • Perhaps 25 miles or so north of Castle Langborne, on the plains, is one of the sites of the Ancients. There are the remnants of an old road that lead to it (and past it). The site isn't that far south of where the hills of the Shadow Wall begin.
  • The Shadow Wall is a series of cliff-like hills that stretch for almost 50 miles north along the edge of the plains. The cliffs face toward the Shadowveil Forest, and some say that they are not natural, but were raised out of the ground by potent magical forces to form a man-made barrier. It is said that the cliffs are very high, and it can be many miles between spots where they can be climbed.
  • The Red Barrows - In the plains, not far southeast of the Ancients site mentioned above, there is an area of several square miles covered with a large number of scattered barrow mounds. Grasses growing on and around the mounds have a reddish tinge. The barrows are said to date from after the times of Onoria, and are said to be haunted by large numbers of powerful and deadly ghosts, wights, wraiths and all sorts of other undead. Ravar stressed over and over that this area should be avoided at all costs by all but the most experienced of adventurers, and that the party should never enter the area or spend the night anywhere near it.
When pressed for more details, Ravar patted his belly, pushed aside his empty mug of ale, asked for a glass of water, and said "that is enough for now"...

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