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Campaigns

Adventuring in Night so far is centered on the village of Tellen Rapids. Ruled by a cambion baron named Kozmit, Tellen Rapids also seems to be a gathering point for brave souls who have been Gifted by the mysterious black unicorn. The information below is keyed to the map above.

Additional entries cover Alyssia, the Doss Association, the Flickering Flame, Gholendri, the Knights of the Shadow, and New Monsters.

Alyssia is an aasimar, a near descendant of the ghaele eladrin who bestowed Flamrin on Donnal Chalicebearer. She lives with a band of grig on the cliffs near Sandstone, hiding from the fiends who would kill her and biding her time until she can strike a blow for good in the world. (Alyssia's statistics—in Second Edition AD&D terms—appeared in DRAGON Magazine #263, page 57... along with a Night adventure arc! Her third edition D&D stats are now here for your perusal.)

Bergeon Waters is the next town down the river from Tellen Rapids, about forty miles downstream, marking the next major settlement region along the river. Bergeon Waters is ruled by a marilith named Mur-Edira, one of the Shadow Prince's fiercest rivals for power. Bergeon Waters is also the home of a Watcher, a powerful wizard named Penthor.

The Deep: Tunnel-roads lead from Sandstone to two subterranean communities: the elven city of Phelammita and the dwarven stronghold of Kur-Sathri. Together, these neighboring communities are referred to by gnomes and surface-dwellers as The Deep. The minions of Night have not allowed the dwarves and elves of The Deep to live in peace. An alkilith has taken up residence in The Deep and established its reign of terror there. Under the demon's vile influence, the dwarves and elves of The Deep have been warring against each other for a quarter of a century. The dwarven and elven populations of the twin cities are decimated, and a constant stream of refugees flocks to Sandstone, while some even make their way to the surface.

The Doss Association is a fraternity of bards and entertainers in the Tellen River region, tracing its ancestry (indirectly) back to the ancient bardic Doss College of Elden Faere.

The Flickering Flame is the name of a tavern in Tellen Rapids, owned by Andrew Ostler—a paladin of no mean ability. More importantly, the Flickering Flame is the name for a loose network of Gifted people throughout the Tellen Rapids region, with Andrew Ostler as its hub.

Folgen Castle was owned by a noble Knight of the Chalice before the coming of Night. It became something of a local headquarters for the Knights when Night arrived in the world, a nucleus of open resistance to the evil forces that were quickly taking over the canyon. As such, it was quickly crushed by a horde of vrock, and burned nearly to the ground. One tower of the once-mighty castle remains standing: Folgen Tower. The folk of Tellen Rapids say the tower is haunted by the ghosts of its defenders, in addition to possibly being the lair of any number of demons, and no one has dared enter the tower in many years. However, legend also holds that not only immeasurable riches but also powerful relics of good which would be of inestimable value in the war against Night also can be found in the tower or the dungeons below it. These dungeons actually include ruins from an ancient city of the Empire of Elden Faere. Ancient magic, archaic coinage, and possibly lurking evil all wait to be discovered in the ruins of Folgen Tower!

Gawain's Tower: Outside of Wendell Fields are the ruins of a tower, the former home of a powerful wizard named Gawain the Red. Gawain was slaughtered by a troop of vrocks upon Night's arrival, and his young apprentice-to-be, Bec, was disfigured and left for dead while the tower burned to the ground, leaving only a charred husk. Gawain was the local operative for the Watchers, the mysterious organization of wizards in the Dragon's Claw Canyon. Since his demise, responsibilities for keeping watch over the development of wizards in the area has fallen on a wizard named Penthor in the town of Bergeon Waters, about forty miles to the southeast of Tellen Rapids. Penthor has plenty to do in his own region, and cannot really spare the time to keep an eye on the Tellen Rapids area.

Gholendri is a maurezhi (a lesser tanar'ri) who lives in the Northward Hills.

Hilltop is a tiny walled village, about the northernmost human settlement still standing in the Northward Hills. Beset on all sides by troglodytes and vorr, and tormented internally by their fiendish ruler, the people of Hilltop can be described as xenophobic at best, and at their worst they are bloodthirsty paranoids. The ruler of Hilltop is an half-demon named Zethezri, a lunatic who keeps the population cowed by her alternate moods of psychotic rage and placating sensuality. She is about as twisted as they come, even in the Dragon's Claw Canyon.

The Knights of the Shadow are the strongarm soldiery of the Shadow Prince.

New Monsters so far include only the Abyssal vampire.

The Northward Hills are becoming more and more infested with troglodytes, creeping down from the tablelands and upper canyon through ruined Fort Tellen at Temple Falls. Perhaps the only thing preventing the trogs from expanding into the Tellen Rapids region are the vorr that also infest the hills.

Sandstone is a gnomish settlement built into the canyon wall near Tellen Rapids. Carved into the cliff face, the façade of the village resembles the monumental architecture of ancient Greece, but the interior is very much the gnomish warren. A large number of dwarven and elven refugees from The Deep reside in Sandstone as well, and sometimes feuds between members of the two races, rooted in the decades-old conflict within The Deep, flare up in the halls of Sandstone. Sandstone is ruled by a powerful gnome fighter/illusionist named Flinders—an innocuous enough ruler, compared to many neighboring settlements. What most residents don't know, however, is that Flinders is possessed by an evil incarnate. Sandstone is also home to a renegade gnomish priest of Javen, who holds small gatherings for worship and ritual several times a week. Morri Termar is her name, and she is the greatest force for good within Sandstone, though just a low-level Expert. She is not Gifted and has no spell abilities, but the services she provides to the faithful few in Sandstone are immeasurable.

The Shadow Prince is the titular ruler of this region of the Dragon's Claw Canyon. Before the coming of Night, this keep was the seat of a barony under the High King of Avamere. With Night's arrival, an unknown demon lordling called simply the Shadow Prince has made the keep his home, transforming it into a grotesque place of pain and misery (see description below). A fearsome creature cloaked behind black plate armor, the Shadow Prince keeps a tight hold on the land through his own order of so-called knights, the Knights of the Shadow.

In actual fact, the Shadow Prince does not exist. The armor-clad figure is an illusionary creation of a succubus named Shi'ara. Shi'ara prefers to roam the countryside anonymously while keeping the Shadow Prince on the throne, managing her own affairs through deceit, intrigue, and trickery while relying on the Knights of the Shadow and the Shadow Prince's imaginary authority to maintain her power.

Continuing up the stream, you round a bend in the gorge and find yourself staring up at a hulking stone structure, squatting over the stream like a monstrous toad. Its walls jut out from the living walls of the gorge, and blackish-green ivy grows like a skin over both. Indeed, the keep and the gorge seem almost alive, pulsing as though blood flowed through veins inside them, brooding as if waiting for prey. The stream flows through a massive iron gate and cascades into a small waterfall, water and moss making the ascent to the keep treacherous. The walls are topped with a row of sharp spikes jutting up like teeth — though they may be the spears of guardsmen, it is hard to say.

Shi'ara is featured in the Old Ogden Abbey adventure. Her third edition statistics are here.

St. Alban's Cloister, once a secluded monastery in the Northward Hills, now lies in ruins. Destroyed with the arrival of Night's forces in this part of the canyon, the monastery is abandoned and desolate.

Wendell Fields is a small farming hamlet, smaller even than Tellen Rapids. Most of the town's population lives on farms outside the town proper. The Master of Wendell Fields is an abyssal vampire called Meur. Outside of Wendell Fields are the ruins of a tower, the former home of a powerful wizard named Gawain the Red. Gawain was slaughtered by a troop of vrocks, and his young apprentice-to-be, Bec, was disfigured and left for dead while the tower burned to the ground, leaving only a charred husk. Wendell Fields also has the dubious distinction of hosting a small cult dedicated to the evil god Zovel.

Whitewater Forest: A small community of halflings lives in the forest near Tellen Rapids. The community used to be rather more numerous, but the ravages of a small pack of bar-lgura in the forest has substantially decreased their numbers. The bar-lgura are the effective lords of all that goes on in the forest.

Subpages (2): New Monsters Tellen Rapids
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