Here I, Zemoc of the Society, will recount for you the story of our mighty countries re-founding of the year 582 AEN, and I must say it is quiet an astounding story. A story of a band of unlikely heros who answered the call of Country and Honour and strode forth against the darkness beseiging their lands. Their path wrought with peril they stride headlong into danger on behalf of the people of their noble country, for the betterment of all.
((((Attempting to have the history linked through these calendars to make it viewable by date))))
YearStart, 582 AEN[]
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Frosthold, 582 AEN[]
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Act 1: A Bad Star - In Which the Northern Knights Recondite are formed, and an evil from beyond the stars turns its' eyes upon the land.[]
Our story begins as most stories of the kind do, with tragedy. The noble country of Coraza had just ended their 5th recorded war with their neighbors to the south Fel'Mahar. Fel'Mahar is a brutal land of endless seas of sand where the storms can flay the flesh from your bones and the sun will bake the water out of a man in hours. Their society is caste based, and has been since before their history records, they live within great cities kept alive through great magics. They believe that the entire land of Coraza was once a great desert and shall be once again, so sayeth their God, Kelmir the Voice in the Sands. But their tale is for another time, and yet it serves to give reason for their wars, they loudly proclaim to any who shall listen that the entire continent will once again be theirs. So whenever their country appears strong enough they invade north to Coraza to retake what they believe is theirs. This last war lasted 25 long years, battles raged through the upper stretches of the desert up the Sparcity and surrounding The Sunkeep. In the end thousands lay dead and both countries were wracked by the stresses of war, although Coraza held their borders, calling it a victory, it was a hollow one, for thousands of lives were lost on both sides. The war officially was declared over on the 27th of Yearsend, and it was declared a day of Memorial.
King Yor Halfield was a man entering his later years, of about 44 Years he inherited the crown from his father, Bron Halfield. Yor Halfield honed his skills in combat through his younger years as an adventurer and sell sword with his allies, known as The Ruby Chalice. When Yor Halfield was crowned he knew little of ruling a kingdom, but he strove to learn, to do his fathers legacy proud. He sought out Tylos Gorm The Grand Meister of the realm, and his fathers close counselor. Tylos tought him and advised him throughout his rule with wisdom and honor. The new King Halfield was not without his mistakes, and he ruled as fairly as he could, but the High Council and the Noble families always strove to better themselves through the crown. He was truly a noble man, he strove to rule with justice, fairness and honor at all times. I tell you of his character that you may more understand the oddness of it when those he called closest friends, members of his old troupe The Ruby Chalice all of them, to meet with him in secret in the Kings own private meeting chambers on the 12th of Yearstart. None know what truly happened, but by the accounts of the guards who broke in too late The Kings friends and allies stood around his bloodied and ruined corpse soaked in his blood. They struck out briefly, killed a dozen men, before they each were magically removed from the Capital, and no diviniation or plea to the gods granted the slightest hint as to where they whent.
With the country still in upheaval from the prolonged war and internal dissatisfaction as well as infighting among the Nobles as caused the High Council to invoke the power of Steward. After strong win in favor of Tylos Gorm he was elected Steward of the Realm, and his seat of Grand Meister was granted to his 'apprentice' Borovis Caldwell who holds it with great respect and honor. His first major act as Steward was to discreetly call out for worthy adventurers and heroes to heed the call of their Kingdom to join as force meant to help restore peace to Coraza, he named this group The Knights Recondite. They had no official legal power by name as their group was secret (at the time of their forming), for Tylos had reason to believe the political rift in among the Nobles may be more than that, and he trusted very few. A sad few answered the call at first, they were further divided to smaller groups to each face their own challenge, he broke the Knights down into squads based upon their first mission.
Chapter 1[]
:::A Chaotic Prelude:::[]
The first to respond to The Stewards call for heroes were Panacles, a folk hero with a mean streak who was unable to remember his past before 577AEN. Sicarius, a special agent of the crowns special forces, an expert assassin who's loyalty to the kingdom is bar none. And Elrose, a dragonborn monk out to serve the greater good of the realm and to put an end to the recent societal unrest.
Frosthold; 582AEN
1st) Meeting of the Knights Recondite at the capital, Panacles, Sicarius and Elrose assemble. They are sent north to Ostland to meet William Pwent, a cleric of Unoth, to investigate a series of spontanous cases of insanity in the mining center of Peakspass.
2nd) The Knights Recondite head north on steeds loaned from The Capital, enchanted to move at much greater speeds. In the night they are almost thrown from the road as a great black chariot trailing smoke roared down the road at incredible speeds. They confront it at full gallop, barely keeping pace, before the Coachman knocked them away with a whip of dark oily leather, killing on of The Knights allies.
3rd) The Knights arrive in Lindalen, to rest and trade horses before continuing on. They meet a half-orc by the name of Cedric Silver, a vampire hunter of some small renown who is hunting the black chariot. They inform Cedirc of the chariots direction and part ways.
Maymelt; 582AEN
3rd) - The Knights Recondite arrive in Ostland, and after a small altercation with William Pwent, they gather everything they need and leave the horses behind. They rent a room in the inn and spend a night with good food and drink.
4th) - The Knights meet William Pwent, walking down into the basement of the church William Pwent employs the use of a teleportation circle to cover the bulk of the remaining distance to Peakspass. Arriving in a minor snowstorm along a rocky plateau at a resting area on the mountain path, the Knights hike through the deep snows down into town as the sun sets and the snows fall heavier, the town is buried in snow up to cover many of the doors of the town, and it appears empty of people. Except for single man found running into town from another nearby trail, in tattered mining clothes he's sprinting down through the snow being followed by the baying of unearthly hounds. Upon saving him from the odd hairless hounds chasing him the man passes out. They bundle the man up and hike through town to home of Panacles father, a small ways up and back from the town. Finding the house empty, but still fully stocked, even with a bowl of soup frozen on the table they light a fire in the wood stove and settle in for the night after putting up heavy curtains. There in the center of the house hanging as a chandelier was Panacles exquisitely crafted Ever-light Lantern, his father had told him he found it in the snow nearby to where he found Panacles, and kept it for him until he wanted it, well now he wanted it.
5th) - The man they saved introduces himself as "Omar", an old liquor soaked miner, he tells the Knights of how miners would seemingly go insane at random. It was rare at first but hapepned more and more, until they dug down into a hidden cavern in the Old Crone Cave, a fairly old mining shaft. A smooth bored circular room with seemingly no entrance, fully underground as if it appeared naturally in the rock of the mountain. In the room was a single statue of an old woman in robes praying with her arms raised to the ceiling, which was a glossy smooth obsidian embedded with gemstones as if to recreate the stars of the nightsky, but of an area wholly unknown to the people of Coraza. After that people began to go insane more frequently, until an entire shift of men went missing up there a day or two after they sealed off the weird room. That's when the snows began a week ago, the snows shoulda stopped for the season but no. Two days after that under the cover of night and snow the missing miners appeared and took the remaining men hostage en masse. Many of the miners in town, almost half of them, whent insane right in time with the attack. "Omar" escaped and ran for a full day before the Knights found him running into town.
6th) - The Knights Recondite leave "Omar" and William Pwent behind to tend to the house as they travel along the mountain roads north through the storm. Hiking up to the Old Crone Cave, they hike for hours through the snowstorm to get to the lower path heads south of the town, along the upper reaches of the main path they encountered a Frost Troll. Using their knowledge of trolls they blast it with all of their fire, almost destroying it before they ran out of flames. Panacles was elbow deep in the frost trolls chest cavity when its regeneration began to hold him stuck, right before the troll could begin to devour Panacles an explosion blew up its torso and head, also taking off Panacles two smallest fingers off his left hand. Through the smoke and wind they spot a man who introduced himself as Bishop the Cutlass, a bounty hunter of some renown. Searching for a man vaguely matching "Omar"s description, they point him on the way with directions to their house so Bishop could get out of the snow storm. He thanks the Knights by giving them his Flask of Mithos. The Knights continue hiking north, Bishop goes on his way into town.
7th) - Bishop arrives in town and quickly follows the tracks to Panacles house off the back of town, he approaches and sees the house dark so he tried the door. William Pwent believed Bishop to be cultists attempting to get in fires a bolt of fire through the window at him, and "Omar" shoots a crossbow, the quarrel narrowly missing Bishop. Now thoroughly annoyed Bishops kicks open the door with a slam and blasts William Pwent with both barrels of his shotgun, the Decksweeper, utterly annihilating him. "Omar" flees out the back of the house, but too slow, Bishop spots his target and reloads as he walks through the house, "Omar" tried to run out the back through the waist deep snow before he was nearly cut in half by Bishops Decksweeper. After saying his respects to his brother and saying a prayer to Makuth he used a nearby axe from the shed to remove his brothers head. Bishop put his brothers head into a bag of holding before eating the food left out in Panaclese house, when he was done he put the dishes in the sink and immediately began to travel back south out of the mountains.
8th) -
Coraza Redux Act 1: In which The Southern Knights Recondite are formed, and the NecroCouncil is resurgent.[]
As Panacles, Sicarius and Elrose travel north to the desolate peaks, another group of knights heads south to attempt to quell the unrest in the south. Daggle, a gnomish historian and monk with a knack for the esoteric, he adventures to uncover great mysteries, and great power; Tosemas, a half-elf guide forever looked down upon by both Humans and Elves, he travels to redeem his name and prove himself.