Freehold - formerly of the Bandit Kingdoms
Proper Name: The Mighty Protectorate of Freehold
Population: 1,000(80% various humanoids, 10% humans, 10% half-orcs.)
Ruler: None (various military commanders)
Government: None
Capital: Fleichriver
Other Settlements: None
Resources: None
Religions: Iuz, Gruumsh, Hextor, various humanoid Powers.
Law: CE
The realm in the inner crook of the Fellreev Forest, south of the Artonsamay, was named for its sole fortified site, a huge walled keep. The Freehold allied itself with Iuz when the latter invaded in 583, but its forces were treacherously destroyed at Steelbone Meadows the following year. The land is patrolled by rogue orcs now, and surviving Freeholders are very few. Few troops from Hallorn check on it.
Settlements and Locations in The Mighty Freehold:
Fleichshriver
North Keep
Wheatfield
The Freehold keep itself was altered in the early months of Iuz’s occupation, becoming the grisly castle known as Fleichshriver. Remolded by fiendish hands, the citadel is an imposing reminder of the evil, otherworldly forces that once infested the local countryside. Though passers-by no longer need fear the claw and tooth of marauding demons, strange, haunting screams can still be heard from the seemingly abandoned keep; locals give it a wide berth. Iuz’s Archmage Null, of the Greater Boneheart, was known to come here in the past and might do so still.
Little remains of the lands the people of the Combination once called Freehold. The once proud citadel, now known as the Fleichriver, has been twisted and defamed by the abyssal powers that came to control it following the Old One’s conquest of these lands. The landscape is desolate, scorched and ruined from the years of demonic occupation. About the only thing that continues to grow is the stiff, yellowed grass whose barbed tips are sharp enough to cut tender flesh. This bleak landscape is nearly entirely devoid of life, except for the roaming bands of soldiers and mercenaries flying the flag of the Old One. Some humans manage to subsist on the northern lands where the barren planes meet the Fellreev forest, but these brave individualists are rare.
Freehold was the name given to the mighty fortress that once offered protection to those fleeing from the chaos of the Warfields and Wormhall. Its tenants often raided their neighbors indiscriminately, even as far away as Tehn. During the Greyhawk Wars, when Iuz’s forces conquered the Horned Society and moved into the Combination of Free Lords, the men of Freehold quickly allied themselves with the Old One. Welcomed to a large encampment in the Steelbone Meadow, they were betrayed and slaughtered, nearly to a man. Those who survived fled either North to the Fellreev forest, where they met a cruel fate at the hands of the elves therein, long time enemies of Freehold, or East to the Rift Canyon. Freehold itself was claimed by Iuz and renamed Fleichriver. It became one of the pivotal military garrisons in the campaign to subdue the roguish people of the Bandit Kingdoms.
Through the influence of demonic denizens, the Fleichriver became a darker symbol of Iuz’s control. The walls and towers were reshaped and perverted, fashioned with obscene imagery that could drive a mortal man mad at a glance. The wall battlements were fitted with barbed railings, and the otherworldly stonework gave the place a nightmarish, otherworldly appearance. Even the Old One’s old troops came to fear and avoid the place, despite the large garrison housed there. Hundreds of orc and hobgoblin troops, bound together through fear and bloodlust where sheltered within while zombies and wights patrolled the grounds.
Members of Iuz’s Greater Boneheart began using the Fleichriver as a testing ground for sinister new magics. A side product of the demonic fashioning of the keep was a certain magical-dampening effect in the central chambers. This allowed Iuz’s more powerful mages to experiment with destructive dweomers with a relative degree of safety. The effect also made magical scrying impossible, and the fortress became a meeting place of the Old One’s network of spies. Foul enchantments and obscene cross-breeding experiments were only a few of the horrors performed in this fell place. To date, the lands surrounding the Fleichriver are plagued by creatures of living shadow, many of which possess vampiric abilities.
The activation of the Crook of Rao by the Canon of Veluna had bizarre effects on the abyssal qualities of the Fleichriver. Whole sections of the fortress were banished along with its fiendish inhabitants while other sections remained. The magical qualities became hopelessly unpredictable, and the keep was abandoned. Rumors abound that the Fleichriver is still a meeting place of Iuz’s spies, and some believe it contains one of the few remaining permanent portals to the Abyss. Yet few are willing to venture into the ruin to confirm any truth in these stories.
Bandit Kingdoms
--------------It is said that Eab Hulder, a powerful wielder of magic, summoned demons to help construct his great tower in the middle of the old fortress. Freehold, mighty Freehold, sitting against a lone southern arm of the Fellreev Forest is viewed with some respect by the other Bandit Kingdoms due entirely to the power of Eab Hulder and the forces he has gathered. He commands over a thousand warriors, one third of them horsemen including a small tribe of Rovers banished from their brethren. His guardsmen include a large contigent of foresters and rangers, half-elves of a disreputable sort and troop of halfling archers.
Eab has attracted a number of apprentices and has with him three journeymen wizards of moderate skill. His castle is a three tower affair, the central building the largest and his dwelling, place of instruction and great summoning chamber as Eab specializes in such dweomoncraft.
His foremost tower is his great hall where he dispenses justice and hears pleas from the farmers and villagers under his dominion to the south. Normally Eab lets his war chief Cynfor, a exiled Geoffite, sit in his place as the wizard has little time or interest in rulership; He just requires supplies and tribute arrive in a regular and uniterrupted fashion while he involves himself with more important affairs such as summoning demons, devils and whatnots.
The first tower also houses part of Freehold’s garrison and Cynfor’s chamber. His contingent of Geoff archers as well as the leaders of the various other small bands within Eab’s overall force dwell in this tower where Cybfor can keep an eye on them as trust and loyalty do not rank high among the wizard’s followers.
The third and smaller tower is a combination guest quarter and prison. Eab is something of a broker for those help for ransom among the Bandit kingdoms and he is often sent ‘guests’ who await the arrival of interested parties who have paid the ransom. This is a popular service among Bandits who do not want their identity revealed and find the cost of Eab’s services as a neutral party worth the anonimity.
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