Forum

Lore says that it was burned to the ground as part of Zygofer's purge in 869 and is a place Aspis wants to see rebuilt so he can install a temple to the serpent god Wyrm there. All well and good. Per GMG p. 22:

"Settlers made their way east to the plains of Moldena and Margelda, which are suitable for horses and livestock. There they founded the wooden city Falender, which now lies burnt in ruins."

Then we read in the Bestiary that Nightwargs are a possible creation of a mad hermit, "The Dreamer in Falender" who tried to create a countervailing force to deal with the demons pouring into the land ~300 years ago. Lines up, it's 1165 AS as we begin.

Now the rub: In The Vale of the Dead adventure site, we learn of Kalmax of Falender, a "once proud and renowned rider in his clan" who is seeking to restore his name after gambling away his family fortune. Wait, what?

Is Falender ruins or was it rebuilt when the historians weren't looking? The reason I ask is I have a Half-Elven rider in a party that we're creating a backstory for via the Legends & Adventurers quickstart tables which has them hailing from the Plains of Moldena. They spotted Falender on the map and thought it might play a part in their history.

My party just spent a few sessions exploring a few story hooks I created involving the ruined city. They explored some ruins, encounter the "hermit" and a couple of pets (this plot hook went nowhere), and wrapped up a story line involving one one our favorite demon's children that had started their whole campaign. So i went with placing a bandit village amongst the ruins.

A different hermit I take it, given it is 300y later and the original one was devoured by his own creation... ?

I'd like to know more about your plot hooks: What did you set up for the adventurers to lure them into the site?

Lot's of the history of FL is shrouded in mystery and the unknown. No saying what exacty happened to that hermit. I thought having him been an undead sorcerer now with a few pets that caused his orginal demise was a fun twist. Eitherway, they didn't take the hook and have moved on. I may have him cross their path again later.

As for my story line, one of the first encounters I rolled was the riderless horse. I had them find the body of a elvenspring lass, murdered is some ritual fashion. So she became the rider when they encountered the horse. On the horse was a note asking dwarven outpost located a few hexes away to recieve the girl and stated that her mother, an influential elfenspring land owner, would join her at the end of the month. The party then spent the next 10 sessions chasing down the killer with lots of side quests along the way. They caught up to the "bad guy" in the city ruins. Why there, because this where they decided to explore after seeing it on a map. I tied in a local bandit camp with some of the events that they experienced while at the Hollows. All of this I sort of just made up as we went along.

My plan now is for the lady to enlist the party to kick off Raven Purge by introducing them to some of the big forces at work. They have been getting lots of small bites of history, lore and legends. But this lady will help them build more of a framework so things aren't as random and disjointed. Basically I will feed them a bit more of the history of FL. She will present them a couple of options for them to help her with. One will be Weatherstone. The other one will depend on my read of what the players are interested in that moment in time. I already have lots of ideas abount encounters they can meet while traveling to Weatherstone (or other location if they chose differently).

We've been playing 2-3 sessions per week since March and as for the published adventure location, they have only visited the Hollows so far. They have legends for other locations, but they haven't been motivated to explore them yet since they were busy with the sidequest hooks. Hoping lady story line this will now hook them and give them the motivation to visit other RP storyline locations. All of the other explored locations were one's I just made up on the fly based on cool battlemaps I found and could build a story around. Eitherway, we are having fun.

Wow - that is a really cool game you have going. Love the idea of having the lady open up the FL to the players through options to give the locations some structure. I've been playing with something similar - trying to give gentle nudges and not railroad them into sites.

Thanks for sharing that.

Now the rub: In The Vale of the Dead adventure site, we learn of Kalmax of Falender, a "once proud and renowned rider in his clan" who is seeking to restore his name after gambling away his family fortune. Wait, what?

.
Surely Falender doesn't need to exist for Kalmax to call himself Kalmax of Falender? His name only says that he or his family claims ancestry in the place, perhaps claiming to be of the original families that founded the city. There might also be a modest ”New Falender” built in the Vicinity suitable in name for Kalmax to add some mojo to his tarnished reputation. Many options.

Perhaps, however we're ~300y removed from the city being burned to ashes and Nightwargs being released into the environs. I would imagine the surviving peoples scattered to other places where they would then be from. It just seems jarringly inconsistent to have a present NPC from a place that's very old ruins today. This said, I like what you suggest: His ancestry could indeed be traced there and he may hold secrets about its eventual rebuilding - perhaps even becoming an instrumental figure leading the effort.