Campaign Backgrounds and Introductions
The Caldonacia Campaign
This is a new player character challenge, set away from main society in a small, poor homestead.
Players Introduction
The people of Arthea call this land 'West Caldonacia'. It was the fighting ground for the War of Unification, which the forces of the Empire and Coldonacia won. For a brief few years. Until the Ticetians, true to form, found a different path to victory.
Alas, the fighting brought desolation to the region, Caldonacians who lived here packed up their belongings and moved east, leaving behind their destroyed homes. And so now this land is abandoned by the crown. It is overrun by fell beasts and littered with places that are burned by magic and scarred by death. Here is the real wilderness of the north. Here, seventy miles or more north of the trade caravan routes, and ignored by those 'civilised' folks in their stone towers, shining palaces and sprawling cities, is the real frontier. Life is harsh. Brutal. The danger is unrelenting.
Yet also here, the remnants of once large towns still exist. There are still farms, people, and trade. While the surrounding lands may be threatened by monsters, the people who remained in this land knew that in numbers there is safety. And amongst those people, rumours abound that treasure can still be found. While the old cities have been picked clean, not all their secrets have been exposed. There are far older constructions hidden here, too. If only someone was brave enough to find them. Such secrets are hidden from the sight of Imperial Society thieves - and nobody knows for sure what lies out in the wilderness.
There are homelands to defend, monstrous enemies to fight, secrets and treasure to uncover. And in the middle of this is a small band of friends, thrown together when defending their homesteads from those monsters. Their group was larger as they grew up, of course, but the fighting carries a cost. Now these who survive are stronger, ready to face tougher challenges.
Summary
Location: Set in the north, to the west of the nation of Caldonacia, among the plains and the ruins of once-inhabited cities.
When: It's 1412 by the Arthean calendar. Spring is just coming to bud.
Protagonists: A bunch of farm-boys, toughened by their experiences working to protect their community. With a sprinkling of 'outsiders'.
Participants
The local people who are player characters are the following individuals:
Helianthus
Helianthus Annuus is a wood-elf Ranger, who has recently joined the community, working as an odd-job man and helping out with local defences.
As a Wood Elf, Helianthus was raised within a group of elves living in the forests to the North West of the Gora Delve. Like many of their peers, the Elf group had become more insular and remote as time went on, shunning the outside world, only travelling from their forest realm and dealing with others when they had no other option. It was not that they disliked outsiders, but more that they found them crass, vulgar and overwhelming.
However, Helianthus did not understand this antipathy to the outside world and as he entered his “teenage” years he started to travel to the edges of the forest realm, observing and even meeting with outsiders. His parents thought his fascination with the outside world strange and constantly reminded Helianthus how their forest life was “better”. Upon reaching his majority, Helianthus decided he would go to see more of the world and find adventures, so he spoke with his parents who were unsurprised by his decision and gave their blessing, mainly because they thought he would “get it out of his system” and return.
Helianthus left the forest making a living as a ranger and guard for travellers and merchants as he found that the outside world was harsh, brutal and the danger unrelenting. He was resting in a small town after escorting a merchant and his wagon when he met a small band of friends in need of his services. They had no money, but promised treasure and adventure as they ventured into the wilderness to see what lies out there.
And so, joining those at Sixhomes, Helianthus found a community ready-made for someone with his talents, working here would allow him to hunt down enemies, and earn glory and riches. That was six months ago - just as Autumn set in. Now, with the arrival of spring, there may finally be the chance to fulfil a destiny.
Finch
Finch is a young man, with an affinity for the open air, and has taken naturally to the lifestyle of a scout and a hunter. He caught the eye of Gordon Hudder before he became a teenager, who earmarked his skills early on. Gordon has become something of a mentor to him.
Freda
Freda is a rather good-looking, if a bit overweight, young lady, who wears her blond hair in pigtails. She has just turned 17.
A part of the Tapley family, Freda is great-niece to the community elder, Brian Tapley. Despite her background, Freda has always struggled to join in with the life of a farmer. When she turned twelve, she became a milkmaid, helping out with other, older ladies around the farms. But it turns out that milking the cows and goats takes dedication to purpose and deep concentration (she says), and she wasn't really cut out for it. Deep down, she has a irrational fear of oxen.
In her adolescence certain changes started happening that were not expected, she started to display magic abilities, and this culminated in a rather unfortunate incident when the young Bob Connoughty got a bit too carried away in kisses and cuddles and the Connoughty’s barn nearly burnt down after and an impulsive burning hands, Bob got away with minor burns (and the thought of fire still brings a faraway look to his eye and a flush to his cheeks).
Freda has found it difficult to do any job around the farm, as her attention span is very limited. Most recently, she has been helping out serving at the barrels, but apart from that, she spends a lot of time around Helianthus the Ranger’s place who is attempting to help her train her dog “Smiley”. She has, after months of training, achieved 1 rank in animal handling.
Freda does find that it’s easier to make up things than actually learn them, so much so that she actually believes she is quite knowledgeable, but it's just a bluff really.
She is well known for her love of animals, especially her pets. Many of the locals still look with disgust on her pet rat.
Theodore Kirkmann
Father Theodore Kirkmann started life as the seventh child of a farming family.
Blessed with broad shoulders from a childhood working on the farm and modest good looks, alas it seems that when the gods were handing out brains to his family, they were scraping the barrel when it came to him.
Nevertheless, Theodore found quiet peace in his life of manual labour, always happy to help others, and discovering an unexpected source of wisdom in the lives of the animals to which he tended, particularly the hard-working farm dogs, with whom he felt a sort of kinship.
Unfortunately, the farm eventually fell on hard times and to balance the books, his parents - knowing he had no other prospects - sold the boy to the Church of Pendaroch. He took to his new calling with the same dogged determination as all his life, successfully completing the training and rigorous testing needed to graduate from the seminary (even if he needed to mouth the words as he read them). He showed surprising skill in summoning beasts from the celestial plane, particularly dogs.
With his superiors unwilling to inflict him on an unfortunate congregation, they sent this well-meaning dolt of a priest out into the world to bring the teachings of Pendaroch to the corners of the land and help those in need wherever he can, which he does so with the power of friendship, one way or another. It just so happens that "Friendship" is also what he named his mace.
Prefers to go by Ted.
Maeve
Born in Ellington Hold, Maeve is 5ft 6in and just over 10st, very compact, fit and active. Some may say she is a wee bit butch but they only say that the once (difficult to talk with no fukin’ teeth!). She feels she could have been more attractive, but her complexion has suffered due to the number of fights she got into as a child and again as a teenager defending her honour against a few of the local young men.
Fascinated with the ruined fort that Ellington was built round, she learned all the locals know about how it was built and became something of an expert on the way it was used during the war.
When still a girl, Maeve's mother died of illness and her father eventually took a step that is uncommon in this land - he remarried, and he took Maeve and her older brothers to live in Browns, and shortly afterwards to Sixhomes, where they joined the Wardle family farm. Unlike most of the girls in the homestead, Maeve joined in the building work as her new family pulled their home together.
While digging out a new well, down in the depths of a hole in the ground she fell into an unseen underground space. Squeezing further into the tiny gap, she found a battered and rusty big old sword hidden in the muck. After bricking up the hole, she dragged the sword to the surface, and cleaned it as much as she could. It wasn’t the best quality, and became a source of much amusement in the homestead as she pacticed swinging the mighty blade in the meadow, scaring the goats and cattle.
All this prancing around, while amusing to farmers, drew the attention of Toby Blarman, who invited her to join the local defence group to train with her sword properly. She slotted right into the team as though she'd been there for years, and immediately hit it off with Jennifer Langham, who seemed to be somewhat of a kindrith spirit.
Extra Background Details
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