March of the Dragon King

The March of the Dragon King was an abortive attempt by orc bandit leader Nalvar ‘the Dragon King’ to unite the disparate orc groups in the King’s Forest and Storm Horn Mountains under his rule and against the Kingdom of Cormyr. Nalvar was largely successful in rallying orcish bandit groups to his side, and by mid 1493 DR was poised to march on Cormyr’s lightly defended west. The planned orcish advance never came to fruition due to Nalvar’s untimely death at the hands of Cormyrean adventurer Emilia Leveva.

Background

The substantial orcish presence in regional western Cormyr can be dated back to the Goblin War of 1370-71 DR, in which a predominantly orcish army under the command of elf-turned-dragon Nalavarauthatoryl (usually referred to as Nalavara) invaded the Kingdom. Following Nalavara’s death in 1371 DR, her orcish armies scattered, taking refuge in the Storm Horn Mountains and the previously peaceful King’s Forest. Many of the resulting orc communities harboured a deep resentment towards Cormyr, and frequently engaged in raids against traders and travellers along Cormyrean roads.
Regional Cormyr also experienced a rise in bandit activity beginning in the mid-1480s due to a substantial reduction in military presence. Between 1484 and 1486 DR, Cormyr was embroiled in a two-front war against Netheril and Sembia and found itself needing to commit most of the Purple Dragons (the Kingdom’s elite military) to the front lines. Consequently, the number of troops patrolling the countryside was drastically reduced, giving bandits far more opportunities to raid caravans and even the occasional settlement largely unhindered. While the war with Netheril and Sembia lasted only two years, it heavily exhausted Cormyr’s military, with few troops available to replenish garrisons. Cormyr’s rural northwest, protected by the near-impregnable and strategically inconsequential Storm Horn Mountains, was not under direct threat of invasion and was therefore a low-priority area for reinforcement, allowing banditry in the region to continue to thrive in the post-war period.

Rise of the Dragon King

It was in this environment that the orc bandit leader now known as Nalvar first established himself. An intelligent, resourceful, and charismatic leader, he found great success raiding merchant vehicles attempting to save time by traversing the more lightly defended passes through the Storm Horns. At some point before 1490 DR, the bandit leader successfully raided a wagon containing red scale mail and a helmet stylised to resemble a red dragon’s head. It is said he disappeared for several days before re-emerging donned in the armour and declaring himself the reborn red dragon, taking the name Nalvar (a corruption of Nalavara). He promised his followers that they would take revenge on the whole of Cormyr and raze every human settlement in the region. Nalvar personally reached out to other orcish bandit groups over a number of years, and was often able to persuade or intimidate them into joining his cause. Many orcs who had never seen him personally – and a fair few who had – believed him to be a true dragon, an image he intentionally cultivated to improve his legitimacy and appeal as a unifying leader. By the beginning of 1493 DR, most of the orcish groups in the King’s Forest and Storm Horn Mountains had sworn fealty to the ‘Dragon King’.
Nalvar’s rise to prominence was accompanied by an intensification of bandit activity in the region. Travellers in the Storm Horn Mountains reported a marked increase in the frequency and boldness of orc raids as early as 1490 DR. Raids began to occur on lightly patrolled roads which were previously considered safe, and scattered reports were shared of attacks on small hamlets and mass gatherings of orcs in numbers unheard of over the previous century. Though these reports frequently either did not travel far or were dismissed as rumours, by the mid-1490s DR, most settlements in northwest Cormyr had at the very least an atmosphere of concern or suspicion over the observed increase in orc activity. However, Nalvar’s impending plans and ambitions – or, indeed, the existence of the ‘Dragon King’ at all – remained unknown to Cormyrean society.

Emilia Leveva’s Intervention

Nalvar’s ambitions were complicated slightly by the interference of Cormyrean adventurer Emilia Leveva. Emilia, having absconded from her family estate in the western Storm Horns approximately two years prior in order to seek adventure, had accrued significant experience in small-scale adventures throughout western Cormyr, including many encounters with orcish bandits. As a solo adventurer and recognised Cormyrean noble, Emilia was largely unaffected by the somewhat restrictive Cormyrean regulations affecting adventuring parties or non-noble handling of weaponry, leaving her much less inhibited in where she could travel and where she could carry weapons. Emilia was consequently in a unique position to investigate matters in the area, especially as few other adventurers bothered to travel to Cormyr’s largely poor and sparsely populated northwest.
Though Emilia had heard a few rumours of increased orcish activity in the area, this increase did not capture her attention until spring of 1493 DR. Emilia was staying in the village of Tyrluk when a raiding party of several orcs descended upon the settlement. Despite their boldness, the orcs were poorly equipped and certainly did not expect to fight a seasoned adventurer. With the help of the town’s small militia, Emilia was successful in fighting the orcs off.
Having grown up in the area, Emilia knew that such a brazen attack on a settlement was highly unusual. This suspicion was affirmed by the village’s residents, who in the wake of the raid shared the many, many rumours they had heard of increasing orcish activity throughout the King’s Forest and Storm Horn Mountains. Emilia, concerned something deeper was afoot, elected to investigate, first by inquiring at nearby settlements for more rumours and potentially the location of nearby orcish camps, and then by going deep into the wilderness to confront the orcs and unravel any potential plot.
Emilia would later reflect on how ignorant she was to the size of the undertaking she had assigned herself. Though she had two years of adventuring experience when she set off on the endeavour, those two years had largely been spent on smaller-scale adventures, such as slaying a beast with clear instructions to and from its lair. While these adventures had provided substantial practise in real combat, bolstering her years of training in swordplay as an adolescent, she had rarely spent more than a tenday from civilisation, and knew more about survival from books than from personal experience. Consequently, she was largely unprepared for the daunting task of locating these hostile camps often deep into the wilderness, nor did she have a clear idea of how doing so would explain the strange behaviour of the orcs.
With no better alternative, and with her stubborn tenacity and curiosity driving her on, Emilia continued pursuing this strategy for months on end, only rarely having the privilege of spending a night in civilisation. While she initially struggled to locate any orc camps, Emilia developed a strategy of investigating nearby rumours of raided caravans and following the typically very unsubtle trail left by the raiders back to their temporary camps. Emilia rarely found dispatching small numbers of orc raiders difficult, as despite their vastly superior strength they were invariably poorly equipped and never fought tactically. While she rarely if ever found any useful clues in these camps, Emilia slowly found a strange appreciation for them as a brief respite from the invariably unpleasant wilderness. More than one orc raider could recount returning to their camp only to find Emilia reluctantly eating whatever meal had been prepared, the camp’s occupants either dispersed or dead on the ground.
While Emilia’s travels largely went unnoticed among Cormyreans – though those who knew her may have noticed how haggard and unkempt the usually well-groomed noble looked – her exploits were soon spread among the increasingly intermingling orcs. Most of the dispersed survivors from Emilia’s many encounters with orc raiding parties later joined up with other raiders, spreading tales about this small, armoured human that had caused such chaos in their previous groups. Most of the orcs had heard increasingly distorted stories about the brutal strength of Cormyr’s Purple Dragon Knights during the Goblin War and drew parallels between them and their new unassuming opponent. News and conflicting descriptions of the ‘Little Knight,’ as Emilia was usually referred to, even reached Nalvar himself, although the ‘Dragon King’ was unconcerned, knowing that one single fighter who had only found success against small raiding camps could not possibly challenge the amassed strength of the army swearing fealty to him. Nevertheless, the formerly unshakeable morale of the orcs was challenged by these tales, and many raiding parties became more tentative of bold, open raids in fear of the ‘Little Knight’ seeking retribution. Across this period, Emilia seemed to have a much greater psychological impact on the orc raiders than a numerical one.

The ‘Feast of the Dragon King’

By Flamerule in 1493 DR, preparations for the March of the Dragon King were heavily underway. With half of the year already having passed, Nalvar had realised that the colder months would approach shortly, and feared he would lose his sway over some of the orcs should he remain inactive for much longer. On the other hand, Nalvar had surrounded himself with chiefs that revered him as the ‘Dragon King’, and had begun to succumb to the rumours of his own great power, leadership, and invulnerability. Consequently, he sent messengers out calling for the orcs to gather at his base in the Storm Horns. On the night of their arrival they would hold a great feast in his honour, and on the following day the March of the Dragon King would begin.
One of these messengers had the misfortune of crossing paths with Emilia Leveva, who had become increasingly convinced of an orcish conspiracy but had little leads or evidence to guide her forward. Though most of the orcs in Cormyr were illiterate, Nalvar had dictated his orders to the few literate orcs he had on hand and sent them out as his messengers, rather than relying on his subordinates’ memories. Consequently, Emilia’s run-in with a messenger resulted in her receiving physical evidence of the plot, albeit in Orcish. Emilia spent the next day travelling to the nearest village, where she luckily found someone able to translate the order.

MEET AT BLACK ROCK IN SEVEN MOONS. WE WILL FEAST, AND THEN WE WILL MARCH. CORMYR WILL BURN. THE DRAGON KING COMMANDS.

Emilia, having studied the geography of her native Storm Horn Mountains, knew vaguely of a Black Rock Pass was roughly five full days’ trek from her current location, and that the letter was at least two days old. Meanwhile, High Horn, the only major Cormyrean garrison in the area, was roughly a tenday’s travel in another direction. She begged her translator to take the note to High Horn, shoving several gold pieces into his hands, before immediately setting off for the pass.
By the time Emilia reached the pass, the so-called Feast of the Dragon King had already begun, though the arching rocks and thick forest around the path hid the lights and muffled the sounds. It was only as Emilia hurried through the pass’s bleak, concealing entrance that she discovered signs of the mass gathering of orcs in the pass, a mass gathering she was now face to face with. By the time she had realised her folly, she had already been noticed and surrounded. Many of the orcs seemed to recognise her. Emilia expected a quick death, but instead she heard a loud bellow in Orcish from above her, stopping the orcs around her in their tracks. Orcs all around her then grabbed and restrained her, carrying her deeper into the pass.
Unbeknownst to Emilia, who could not speak Orcish, Nalvar had bellowed out an order to capture the intruder and bring her to him. He had heard orcs around him recognise the human as the infamous ‘Little Knight’ and saw an easy opportunity to bolster his legitimacy. Nalvar was seated high above the rest of the feasting orcs, on a ridge above the pass. As a few orcs slowly climbed the unstable and slippery rocks up to him, a struggling Emilia in tow, he ordered them to rip her sword and armour off and toss them into the path below. With the ‘Little Knight’ flung at his feet, with no weapons or armour besides her tightly fitted breastplate, the ‘Dragon King’ ordered the orcs back into the pass, gripped Emilia by the collar, and dragged her into better view of his subjects below.
The confident Nalvar proceeded to make a speech, identifying the intruder as the ‘Little Knight’ that so many of his soldiers foolishly feared, and announcing that their king would show how easily he could defeat this pathetic human of Cormyr. As he reached the crescendo of his speech, the orcs beneath him cheering, Emilia shoved a dagger into the arm clutching her. She had pulled it out of her breastplate while the orc was in the raptures of his speech, having stashed it safely under her clothes as a precaution. Nalvar howled in pain, and slammed Emilia down in response, likely fracturing her leg on the stone as he let go of her.
Emilia, armed only with a dagger and missing most of her armour, now faced Nalvar, clad in his draconic armour and wielding a hefty greataxe. Despite the obvious imbalance, the situation was not as one-sided as either believed. Nalvar, essentially acting as a ‘chief of chiefs’ since at least 1490 DR, had not personally engaged in real battle in at least three years, while Emilia had now spent months successfully fighting off orcs. At the same time, Emilia was less proficient with a dagger than a sword, and had injured her leg when Nalvar slammed her into the stone. The resulting fight was a predominantly clumsy affair. Nalvar would typically make a heavy swing with his greataxe and Emilia would barely dodge it, wincing in pain as her weight shifted to her injured leg. Emilia would then retaliate with a few cautious stabs of her dagger, most of which would be deflected by Nalvar’s armour. Orcs in the pass below watched on, but dared not climb the treacherous rocks and interfere. The fight ultimately became a test of endurance, and Emilia’s injured leg began to turn the melee decidedly in her opponent’s favour, though Emilia was successful in drawing a substantial amount of blood. Eventually, one increasingly clumsy swing of Nalvar’s greataxe connected with Emilia’s uninjured leg as she dodged too slowly, causing her to collapse onto the ground. Nalvar loomed over her, ready to deliver a final blow, but as he did so Emilia spotted an opening his helmet and armour. She threw her dagger into the gap, piercing the orc’s windpipe and causing him to stumble back. Nalvar collapsed, clutching his throat, as the shock from Emilia’s injuries caught up to her and she fell unconscious.

Aftermath of the Feast

Nalvar’s death was witnessed by a vast majority of his ‘subjects’, and quickly tore apart the orcs’ unity and morale. Not only was the ‘Dragon King’ the sole unifying factor between the many orc groups present at the feast, his defeat at the hands of a small, barely armed human immediately caused many orcs to question his wisdom and their own likelihood of success. Infighting amongst the orcs began very quickly, as several of the more jingoistic chiefs declared themselves the Dragon King’s successor, while other orc groups simply left, demoralised. The planned March of the Dragon King consequently never manifested.
By the time Emilia regained her consciousness, nearly a full day later, Black Rock Pass was essentially abandoned. Nearly all food, shelter, and equipment had been looted or removed, including Emilia’s beloved rapier she had used from the age of fourteen. One of the few things that remained on the plateau was Nalvar’s dragon-shaped helmet, cracked into pieces after orcs presumably fought over it. With both her legs still severely injured, Emilia had to subsist off what little supplies remained on the plateau over the coming days, including her twentieth birthday.
Emilia was luckily rescued just as the last of her supplies were depleted. The translator she had entrusted Nalvar’s summons with had prudently hired a horse with the money she offered him, getting the letter to High Horn faster than anticipated. The garrison there had sent a scouting detachment to Black Rock Pass in response, who discovered the few remains of the feast and a dishevelled Emilia on the plateau. After hearing and not entirely believing Emilia’s characteristically modest description of the events in the pass, the scouts brought her to the nearest village with a cleric. As the village had begun celebrating Midsummer festivities, the scouts arrived to find the local cleric heavily inebriated and in no state to perform any healing, so Emilia was placed in the local inn for the night after it had been determined she was not actively dying.

Legacy

The failure of the March of the Dragon King caused the many orc groups around the King’s Forest and Storm Horn Mountains to disunite, and in the coming months the intensity of orcish raids quickly returned to pre-1490 DR levels. Nalvar was quickly forgotten, his unceremonious death leading most orcs and especially most chiefs to prefer to forget they ever swore fealty to him. The March’s swift failure ensured a vast majority of Cormyr would never know there was an orcish plot to begin with.
It is debatable what the effects of the March would have been if it had succeeded. A successful March would have released a vast orcish army onto the Cormyrean west, undoubtedly leading to the devastation or destruction of most settlements around the Storm Horn Mountains and King’s Forest. However, it is exceedingly unlikely that the undisciplined, undersupplied army would have posed a threat to any of Cormyr’s major cities, especially as the Purple Dragons could likely have responded quite quickly and effectively after the initial surprise. Nonetheless, its prevention likely saved the lives and livelihoods of thousands in Cormyr’s still-recovering west.
The most profound impact the March had was on its thwarter, Emilia Leveva. Her suffering in the wilderness for many months, followed by her near deaths first by Nalvar and then by overexposure at Black Rock Pass, disillusioned her a bit with the prospect of adventuring solo, though it helped develop many more practical adventuring skills for her. She also wished to distance herself from the Storm Horn Mountains, having had one too many unpleasant experiences there over the course of her adventure. After spending much of Eleasis recovering from her ordeal, Emilia left western Cormyr behind and headed south, spending a brief period in Suzail before electing to pay for passage to Waterdeep on the Sword Coast. There she would meet Sariel Liadon and later join the Arrowheads, beginning a new chapter in her adventuring career.

Related Characters

• Emilia Leveva