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There are many tales of heroes in the realm of Lomedor, some little more than fables, forgotten in a generation or two, some as old as dragons but still sung by bards the continent over. It is not known where this story will fall, as this is still a recent happening – the heroes, having lived, are likely to be around for a while – but it has been deemed wise to set these events down as part of the history of Kalmar.
Copies of this are to be in: The House Archives of Kalmar, The Temple of Nehima (Aederlat), the Ilfresnemin Archives, the Library of Lore (Illfresnemin), the Sashin Palace Library, and others by request.
This document details the liberation of the country of Kalmar, and in particular, its capital of Aederlat. For the edification of readers in a future time where what to us may seem common knowledge has been lost to the mists of time, the following background shall be provided.
- That the events here detailed took place between the years of 258 and 259 Standard, two years before the writing of this chronicle.
- That the capital of Aederlat had been attacked by legions of fiendish creatures emerging from a planar rift originating in the hills northwest of the city. The army reached the city on the 29th of Tienwill.
- That the capital had been ransacked, the royal family brutally executed and eaten by monsters, the realm in disarray, people fleeing in droves but hunted down and slaughtered as they ran etcetera.
- That the army valiantly attempted to hold the line, employing many mercenary bands, free fighters, and other sellswords in order to keep the ravening hordes at bay, but were no match for the multitudes of hellish creatures the commanders of the assault were able to call forth.
The heroes of this tale are a small mercenary band known first as the G.A.N.G, upon the humorous pretext that the surnames of the various members spelt out GANG, which was then later modified to Ilryn & GANG, with the addition of the druid Illryn Marenion to the group. The members of this group, now disbanded, are: Tern Garamar; a human from the village of Muich (on the Forest Road, at the borders of the Galadhriel Forest south of Lakeside), the Lady Grace Galahan of Ysnch (on the Forest Road, opposite side of the Elforn Pass as Drustanev), the dungeoneer Maris “Spider” Nord; a halfling from Malen, and the bard Samenel Ashryder whose origins are; to quote the man himself: “shrouded in mystery so mysterious not even I know” “lost to the depths of time” and “a mysterious land far to the north where the mountains are made of potatoes”. Research and the Bardic Collegium admission records indicate that he is from the small coastal village of Daerth, twenty miles west of Aederlat. The final permanent member of the group is perhaps the most enigmatic. Rising above their blood drenched cultural history, the dark elf, or drow, druid Ilryn Marenion. It is not known to the chronicler from whence they came, or how they managed to claw their way out of the nightmarish Underdark where the drow have their cities, and members of the party available for interviewing (which did not include Illryn themself) were not forthcoming about what they knew, but they are, to all accounts, a functioning member of non-murderous and/or evil spider worshipping societies. The same cannot be said of any other drow, and drow individuals are to reported to the local guard, and questioned under the Zone of Truth spell by clerics of Nehima, Erathis, Sehanis, Bahamat, Corellon Larethian, Pelor, or Dele.
At the time of the invasion, the group had been, for several years, making a steadily growing name for themselves as competent, reliable, and thorough mercenaries dedicated to doing jobs of legal and morally commendable nature.
Notable deeds of the party include:
- Killing the Hydra of Heart’s Ease; a monstrous creature that had been bottlenecking the water supply for months on end, greatly delaying trade along both the Sashin Road and the Bruingren Byway.
- Liberating Underbridge (a town half a day’s cart ride southeast of Malen) from a family of vampires that had murdered the aristocracy and charmed the town into not noticing.
- Slaying Earmverael, the Shadowed Deceit, a green dragon that had been terrorising a swathe of land from Eram to Esserin and Builma (small Aritat towns in between Lakeside and Sashin)
The heroes, when the fighting broke out, were taking out bands of sahaguin raiders in Suhail, far north in the Scattered Isles (or, Debris Field to use the common name). The news reached them as fast as news reaches anyone in the Scattered Isles, which is to say, three months. It was already Ente of the year 259 when word reached the ears of Maris Nord. The party were on a long journey, and would otherwise not have stopped at shore for another seven weeks, had they not stopped off at Mercartor at Maris’ insistence to get a souvenir. She returned to the ship, the Kraken’s Fury, and the group promptly cut their trip short and returned to the mainland to start the long trip south. They made it to Seefrei within six weeks, where they managed to find a wizard capable of teleporting them to the outskirts of Aederlat, from where they intended to find and take out the leader of the invading horde, and then proceed to hunt down all the other entities. The wizard enlisted, the mage Silvena Darren, agreed to aid the party in their assault, deeming them on the side of good. She then teleported them one mile outside of Aederlat, from where they snuck into the city under the cover of darkness. The group made it all the way to the headquarters of the commander of the host, who has been posthumously described as “big, red, poisonous, evil, and scary.” The party was sneaking across the roof, when they accidentally triggered a trap, and the paladin Grace Galahan fell off the roof, in the centre of a ring of sentries. From there on, it descended into a bloodbath as the six ran through into the main chamber, formerly the palace ballroom, where they confronted and fought the leaders of the army, smashing the roof and destroying about half the palace in the process, but the druid Illryn, with the aid of the Lady Grace, struck the final blow on the leader of the horde. The group then proceeded to enlist the aid of the clerics of Nehima that had been hiding in the Temple, which was protected by myriad ancient divine wardings. Liberated from the fiends at the gates, the staff present were able to use their scrying abilities to help the party find the front lines of the battle and heal them so that they were able to effectively hunt the entities back to the rift that they came out of and diminish the rift so that it was untraversable. Then, with the aid of researchers from the Isle of Elar, a guardian was constructed over the site of the breach to guard and warn of further attacks.
A notable and noticeable presence during the battle was that of Immare’eshalin the Wave Cleaver, a bronze dragon of great might and wisdom.
After the events detailed here, there was no surviving member of the previous monarchy left to rule, and the Lady Grace and Mr Ashryder had been organising the bulk of the rebuilding, and had shown capability and charisma in doing so, so by default the leadership of the country of Kalmar fell to them. Of the druid Illryn, the ranger Tern, and the rogue Maris, it is not known to where they disappeared after the rift was barred. The dragon Immare’eshalin presumably returned to her lair.
Thus, this document is concluded.
Narratives on the exact legal proceedings of the Lady Grace Galahan and Samenel Ashryder’s ascension as co-rulers, speculation on the thought process behind the intervention of the metallic dragons in the affairs of the world, the nature and history of the drow of the Underdark, the exact nature and origin of the fiendish planar invaders, and the positions and stratagems trialled by the army in defending the towns of Malen and Walding are available the in the House Archives of Kalmar and the Ilfresnemin Library of Lore.
Compiled through interviews with Samenel Ashryder and Silvena Darren.