The Vale

The traveller on the Great Trade Road west of Erenthean leaves Alladore the moment he steps off the bridge that spans the river.  The more stable Tollonian Principalities lay about twelve days ride along the Great Trade Road; in between is a lawless and shifting land, to which one or another Tollonian prince sometimes takes a fancy, breaking the fragile balance of power before inevitably attracting the attention of warlike neighbours.  The land is pockmarked by the violence of its history.

In the north-east lays the Vale of the Whispering Wind, in whose wintry grip any uninformed visitor to Tijdit (Village - Scattered Farming Community) shivers and dies.  Whilst the White Hills break the worst of the cold, they are not bold enough to stop the wind itself, so that the whole area down to the Road has slowly come, at least in Alladore, to share the name of the Vale.  As for the Tollonians, they call this part of the world "The Torment".

Great mountains overshadow the region, and it must be admitted that they lend an epic feeling to the whole.  The most awesome among them is Killingtara, 4.500m at its jagged summit.  According to Tollonian legends, a royal bloodline emerged hundreds of years ago from the ice, some say from deep caverns carved into the very heart of the mountain.  Noble, proud and brave, the last of them was Queen Tara, who met a bitter fate echoed still in a famous Tollonian song.  Only scattered ruins now attest to the suspected splendours of days past.

It is thought by many that the mound which the village of Mankhandun (Village - Monastery) tops, covers the ruins of a Taran city.  The bleak, windswept landscape and the prospect of a window into the past has drawn to Mankhandun a monastic community, which maintains active contact with Erenthean and, indeed, was the source of the warning to Alladore that evil events were unfolding in the Vale.

In a wide arc south of Mankhadun, eventually joining The Great Trade Road, are tall grasslands of which the north-western extremity bears the foreboding name of "The Wire".  When the wind is strong, the thick, serrated blades of head-high grass of which it is composed, are capable of slicing through cloth.

The wind, always the wind.  It has given its name to the Hissing Wood, although local legends say that the Tarans drove all the snakes out of their kingdom, and that they gathered here.  It is a foreboding place, the trees bent and tortured.

The town of Okerdik (Town - Trading Hub), on the other hand, is a merrier place.  Although fully Tollonian in outlook, the town has always managed to preserve its independance, thanks to a line of strong-willed mayors and the aura of neutrality that the Great Trade Road provides  Nestled atop a long, low ridge which the Sandger has carved out on one side into a steep escarpment, the town overlooks the Road and provides a haven of comfort, if not of complete security, for those who wander its length.  Sitting in the warmth of its comfortable inns, out of the wind at last, it is hard to believe that Tijdit is only twenty days journey distant by foot.

Alerted by a missive sent by the abbot of Mankhandun, the Rangers of Alladore have sent Godric Drake [Avatar] beyond the river, accompanied by an archer of the now lost Lorenthian army, Ash [Follower].  He has gathered volunteers from the western reaches of the Great Forest of Nar, which virtually border upon the Torment - Kehar [Hero], the shaman, and Krikgxlyhk [Hero] of the "Preying Mantis" folk.  For a handful of coin and a bottle of vintage Lorenthian wine, he brought Radovan [Follower] on board in an Erenthean tavern.

The encounter with Parthoghimeos [Mystic] in the first leagues of the Great Trade Road was one of fortunate chance, and the travelling thaumaturge offered his services to the Ranger. 

I am playing this campaign with two adjustments : Shorter Campaign (-1 difficulty) and Under Siege (+1 difficulty).

The starting map has the three camps as indicated; a Delve on the slopes of Killingtara; and rumours from an Unknown Location in the south-eastern tip of the White Hills.