The Legend of the Golden Boot

A charismatic leader, Wayne rose from his merchant upbringing to become a successful adventurer. After years in the wild, he returned to the Valley of Gems & built a keep overlooking the bustling lakeside town of Gemsong, built on the Long River.
Gemsong had been founded by Elves centuries before to facilitate trading with river traders from Dassal and beyond. Gradually, the town had grown, more men flooded the valley and continued upriver to found Hillsburg. The Elves began to fade back into the woods, leaving the valley to the humans swarming through it. Eventually, exploration led across the Great Lake to the river beyond, then up it. Gold was discovered and flowed down the Golden River into the Golden Lake, and Gemsong grew again.
But with the gold came dangers and monsters. They came from the mountains, they came down the rivers & across the lake. They came for gold and they came for blood. They swarmed over Gemsong and laid it in waste. Word went out in all directions, gathering men to avenge the attacks. An army was raised, and Wayne descended from his keep with his own force of men to lead them all against the invaders, driving them from the shores and retaking the town.
Gemsong was rebuilt, and renamed Waynesburg for the valor of its savior and favorite son. Wayne became the Lord of Waynesburg, expanded his keep, and had it incorporated within the city walls as its seat of power.
For decades, he fought to protect it from further assaults, with great success. Until the Winter of Despair. Cold winds blew across the lake, which froze over in early October, and remained impassable by boat through the winter months. Wolves and winter wolves came to threaten the town, bringing hordes of goblins and other terrors. The militia strained to hold off the constant onslaught, and fear began to grip the hearts of the inhabitants as the icy grip stretched down the river and the city was cut off. Soon a white dragon came to menace the town. Wayne was summoned from his keep’s safety, and gathering the best warriors to be found in the city, and summoning aid from his wizard allies in the hills east of town, they drove back the horde and spurned the dragon in its attempt at conquest. All seemed well until a terrible explosion of ice shattered the celebration on the battlefield.
The ice over Golden Lake cracked and erupted in a terrible shower of water and ice, as a formidable power rose from its depths to challenge Wayne on the ice. His force was caught unprepared, then exposed, then overrun. Driven back toward the shore ahead of the opening chasms in the ice, Wayne held the Elemental at bay to allow safe retreat. Unfortunately, he was grievously wounded in the process, and taken to a nearby merchant hall built near the lake’s shores. There, he was attended by the Priest of the hall, but the magic of the elemental was too strong for him to combat, and Wayne’s spirit was broken. Panic spread among the gathered townsfolk and merchants. “Who will lead?” and “How will we defeat this terror?” they cried.
Suddenly Wayne sat up on his deathbed with a tremendous effort, pulled off his left boot, and held it out to the Merchant Priest attending him. “This boot holds the power to command…” he uttered, then collapsed.
Wayne’s final effort played out his remaining strength, and fell back in a heap, expiring as the words left his mouth. The Merchant Priest stood in shock holding the boot. Everyone took it as a sign of succession, and knelt to the authority of the Merchant Priest, and the Order of the Merchant. With a rush of devotion to their fallen leader, the defense was redoubled, the elemental and his remaining minions driven off or defeated, and the city of Waynesburg saved.
From that day forward, the city of Waynesburg was ruled over by the Order of the Merchant, and operated as a free city under their guidance.
The Merchant Priest of the Order of the Merchant who attended to Wayne cast Speak with the Dead when he was alone, and found out Wayne was cut off in the middle of saying, “This boot holds the power to command water elementals. There is a ring inside the heel. Use it to save Waynseburg.” The priest was smart enough to do just that, and the rallied forces quickly overcame the force and drove it back into the depths of the lake.
He also realized the mistake everyone was making, assuming the holder of the boot was somehow made the ruler of the town. Heady with the urge to seize control of the town in the name of the Order, the priest returned the ring to the hidden compartment and sealed it inside so none would ever realize the truth. If needed again, he knew where to find the ring.
Along with the lust for power came the fear of losing it. The priest performed some serious dark magic, and bound the spirit of Wayne inside a bronze statue of the town hero set high in the facade of the Order of the Merchant temple built overlooking the central square of the city’s Merchant Quarter. He set the rune to appear on the inside of the compartment, with an Alarm set in it that would notify him of anyone opening the compartment.
Unfortunately, he needed the assistance of a powerful patron to add the glyph and bind Wayne’s soul. The demon he enlisted took his own malicious revenge, binding the priest’s soul to Wayne’s, and both to the Alarm in the glyph. The priest didn’t die. He realized the treachery enacted by the demon, and staged his death to bow out of power after 20 years, then retreated to a specially constructed castle built 5 miles outside the city in the hills to the east, and began work on breaking free of the binding, or discovering a way to use it to his advantage.
The undead priest grew ever more powerful, but has been unable to break the enchantments. Opening the compartment alerts the lich to the action, and releases the spirit of Wayne from the binding constraints imprisoning it. This makes it possible to communicate with his spirit again for the first time in hundreds of years. Both will attempt to recover the boot and the ring.

Historical Basis

The city of Waynesburg has long been a major port on the Northflood River and Golden Lake. Little is known of the actual founder and namesake, but the city has been regularly subjected to waves of assault and devastation. The Order of the Merchant maintains a strict control over much of the business conducted within the city limits. They have long been divorced from any actual political power, finding it more beneficial to concern themselves with the flow of gold instead of the headache of politics. To this day, they do retain a badly worn and bronzed boot under heavy security, revering it as an artifact of the legendary Wayne. They rarely allow access to it, and only bring it out once per year as part of the city's Founder's Day festivities. These festivities include certain water related ceremonies, but few, if any, know the true secret of the boot, even among the Order of the Merchant.