Introductions - Shandalar Campaign

Opening monologue:

It is the one-thousand eighty-second year of the Modern Era. Ten centuries after the cataclysmic Sundering scarred the world, day-to-day life of the average denizen of Divostra has returned to some semblance of normalcy. The terrible villains and world-scale conflicts of the Pre-Sundering era have been relegated to lines of text in dusty history books or cautionary tales parents tell their children. The mighty heroes and ascendant gods are now stories, passed down through religious worship or cultural traditions. A relative peace has settled between the many civilized societies that populate this ancient world, each learning to cooperate with (or at least tolerate) one another in the wake of a catastrophe that forever changed the plane.
Our story begins in the heart of the thriving kingdom of Quorel'hrim on the lush middle continent of Shandalar. The kingdom spans a temperate land carved through by rocky mountains that stretch down from Kordshamarr in the north, circle around the continent-spanning Shandalian Forest, and stretch out to the coastline in the East. Just south of the mountain range, where the Shandalian forest gives way to rolling hills, winding rivers, and grassy floodplains, we find the opulent city of New Goven nestled in the cradle of the Tal'rim River as it joins its sister river Verdun. A mid-size passenger ship pulls up to a dock in the city's Harbortown district.

Structure

Exposition

Character plots/motivations:

• Tenzen arrived in Quorel'hrim with pieces of information related to his exile: the face of the woman who accused him of murder, the spiral tattoo she had on the back of her hand, and the word/phrase/name Dar'Hyl'Zhun. He was informed there would be a library in New Goven with information that could be the key to clearing his name.
• Fion Swiftfist is travelling with Marvella's Menagerie of Might and Magic, looking to explore the world, make a name for himself, and perfect his unique magical talents away from his disapproving, traditionalist parents.
• Ogden Wildhealer has been an apprentice with a local stonemason in New Goven for a few months, trying to earn patronage to access the records held within the Shandalite Library and continue his studies into the nature of the wildfire magic that seems to have been gifted to him. Over a century prior, he had been imprisoned by Baron Agar'waen and forced to construct peculiar catacombs beneath the baron's castle.
• Tiefling Warlock has been tasked by the Night Courtier with acquiring pieces of the lost scepter Turvandil so she can return to the Feywild.
• Nymeria was advised by her grandmother to visit the abbey at Ankar'celeste, where the Archimandrite of Quorel'hrim may have the answers she seeks regarding her Celestial heritage and the strange dreams she's been having since childhood.
• Thorndale Moonbeam is on a quest to complete the Nouvil'eine Rites to ascend to Archdruid of the Mosswardens.

Tenzen

Tenzen; you sit on the wooden floor of your cabin in deep meditation. Your mind focuses on the gentle rock of the passenger ship around you, the smells of the unfamiliar wood used to construct this vessel and the scent of fish and fresh water beyond that, and the sounds of gently lapping waves against the hull. Deep in meditation, a montage of memories that led you to your current destination plays behind your lidded eyes. You're in the midst of remembering a strange phrase you had heard uttered by the person who forced you on this path, "Dar Hyl Zhun," before suddenly being startled from your meditative state by the familiar sound of a boat's hull hitting a drydock. A bell rings on deck and muddled voices overtake the relaxing sounds you had previously been focusing on. From above, you hear the first mate shouting,

"Now docking at New Goven. All passengers, please collect your belongings and head to the deck of the ship to present your papers and tariff to the guard."

Tenzen gets off a boat in Harbortown, a townsguard collecting a 10 silver entrance free from him. The guard will offer the following information:

• Fees are collected from everyone entering the city and help pay for the townsguard as well as maintenance of docks, roads, and other city infrastructure.
• The nearest inn is River's Bend, but there are inns in every one of the city's five districts if that one is full.
• The next boat north isn't leaving for a month.
• They can find on-land transport in the Golden Ward or West Goven at Moreo's Carts, as it's the closest stable in the city, or by attempting to purchase riding animals from the nobles on the outskirts of West Goven.
• There's no library in town but the Emerald Collegium keeps a registrar office in the Golden Ward.

Should Tenzen seek out the River's Bend, he will find it completely full. The owner will give him the name of another inn in West Goven, the Wet Whistle, informing him that it's a shabby inn but usually has rooms available.
If he visits Moreo's Carts, he will immediately notice a lack of horses or carts. Upon questioning Mario Moreo, the owner will provide the following information:

• All of his horses are on loan to local merchants who had left a little over a week ago.
• Considering how long it's been since he lent the horses out, it should only be a day or two before one of the caravans return and he can arrange for travel north.
• If Tenzen is looking for a place to stay, there's an inn nearby called the Wet Whistle that should be able to put him up.

If Tenzen inquires about the spiral symbol to anyone within Harbortown, the Golden Ward or Craftsman's Row, they will mention that it looks similar to the scar on the hand of Mattus Tallowbraid's apprentice and offer him directions to get to the stonemason's shop in Craftsman's Row.

Ogden Wildhealer

Fire. Sweat drips down your brow as you press your back up against the smooth stone of the castle wall. All around you, the air is filled with the shouts of soldiers calling for water to douse the flames that billow from the windows in the castle's high towers and spread across the roofs of the surrounding houses. To your left, you hear the clanging footfalls of several well-armored men fast approaching.

Ogden will navigate his way through the nightmare while the fire seems to draw progressively closer, until the heat becomes so unbearable that he wakes up to find his wildfire spirit sitting on his chest and Mattus Tallowbraid pounding on the door of his bedroom, shouting for him to get dressed and come downstairs.
Ogden currently lives in the spare bedroom above Tallowbraid Stoneworks, a masonry shop in Craftsman's Row. The upper floor of the building is Mattus' home while the first floor is the actual shop. The shop is a single room with a table for drawing up blueprints and another table for crafting smaller stonework, along with work benches and plenty of tools hanging from the walls of the shop. Outside, the shop stands out from the surrounding buildings. The front door features a high vaulted arch and a two-foot high granite wall that separates the front of the shop from the street. Several foot-high planters sit within the walled area, rimmed with ornate brickwork and filled with various colorful plants.
If Tenzen had been pointed in the direction of Mattus' shop, Mattus will have woken Ogden to let him know there was a stranger in the shop asking about him.
Otherwise, Ogden comes downstairs to Mattus pulling open the shutters out front of the shop. Mattus will ask Ogden if he's had any luck 

Fion Swiftfist

While the other two are in the tavern, Fion Swiftfist will enter, handing out flyers to a local carnival, Marvella's Menagerie of Might and Magic. The flyer will feature a drawing of a woman that Tenzen recognizes as the woman responsible for his exile from Kugane.

Subplots

• At the Carnival
• Nymeria's Dreams
• The Prized Hammer

Related Characters

• Chipped Tooth
• Ghey'raa Sa'hande
• Ianna
• Lovilas Andan'yarro
• Mae Shadowsprite
• Marvella DeLorde
• Mattus Tallowbraid
• Maureen Grundhause
• Mirian Genedia
• Orville Brownfeather
• Quevarde Enheir
• Reván Genedia
• Sawjaw
• Tabitha Stonecutter
• Taysir Levar
• Tina Karmukaga

Related Locations

• New Goven
• The Wet Whistle