The Battle of Red Vale

Ah, there is nothing quite so amusing as a good old-fashioned battle between mortals, don't you agree? The ferocity with which they fight never ceases to amaze me considering the fragility of mortal lives. Thus it was that I found the events described in this area most entertaining.

You are, no doubt, familiar with the war the drow raged upon Bethamin? No? Oh, well, a brief history is in order then. In Saif's Realms the elven survivors of Myth Drannor have gathered in the southern reaches of their once great kingdom. There is a large body of water near the area I believe you call Lake Sember. The elves, under the leadership of Princess Altariel, have founded the elven sanctuary of Bethamin. Well, needless to say this didn't sit well with the drow living under what you call the Dalelands. The drow citadel of Jaish, one of the most potent military forces in the Underdark, launched an attack against the elves of Bethamin. While the battles were violent and terrible, the surface elves were victorious, once again.

Why do I tell you all this? Because during that time period the city council in Jurgenville decided to seal all entrances to the Underdark in an effort to prevent the war in the Underdark from spilling out onto their small town. As a result, the Truth Seekers were stuck in Jurgenville, unable to renew their quest until after the war had ended. While in town they came to an agreement with one of those cursed paladins, the Captain of the City Watch, Tessalynne. If Jurgenville was attacked the Truth Seekers would help to defend it. In exchange Tessalynne helped them to begin construction on a new party compound outside of Jurgenville.

As it turned out hordes of drow did not bubble up out of the ground to attack the alpine mining town. However, other enemies of Jurgenville saw that many of her powerful defenders had left to fight in the drow war. They seized the chance and, after assembling what they believed was a suitable army, marched on Jurgenville.

While in general I have nothing but contempt for these Truth Seekers, even I must admit they handled themselves well during the fight. Their efforts helped to turn the tide in several key battles. So significant were their accomplishments that Saif has chosen to tell your world about them by putting up this page in the cyber realm.

So this page will allow..... what? Oh really? Well, this is most unusual. Saif himself wishes to speak with you now. He apparently wants to explain why the drow war occurred (that's simple enough - drow elves hate surface elves, and surface elves hate drow elves) and what happened during the battles around Jurgenville, battles that collectively became known as the Battle of Red Vale. So, without further adieu, here is Saif.

Background Information   One of the shortfalls of the Night Below module is that it doesn't allow much time for the party to spend doing things like research. To overcome this I came up with a plot twist - a war in the Underdark. This kept the party cooped up in Jurgenville for three months. This allowed the players to have their characters do the research they wanted (like Diana's new "Diligent Defender" spell), cast spells (like Nikki's Find Familiar), and do some good role-playing (like Katrina getting involved in Midnight's organization).

Towards the end of this period I decided to have something else happen as well. For a long time I called this "the event", although in the end it became "The Battle of Red Vale". The general story is that the town of Jurgenville is attacked by humanoid forces. As one of the few adventuring parties in town (it's the middle of winter) the Truth Seekers are commissioned to defend the town (thus the "pager" coins you'll read about). For the most part I wrote the stories you'll read below, giving the players the opportunity to make only basic decisions about their PC's actions.

One of the main reasons I had this "event" was to help elevate the characters in the eyes of the NPCs and in their own eyes. Many of them are reaching upwards of 6th and 7th level. This is normally the level I associate with becoming famous and well known. However, since most of the Truth Seekers' adventures have been in the Underdark, their exploits were not widely known. So I had them participate in a very visible battle. It turned out better than I had expected. The fame of the Truth Seekers will begin to spread as Kantar Sapphire and other bards begin to spread tales of their heroism during the Battle of Red Vale.

I've decided to organize the summaries according to the character rather than in a chronological fashion. As you read along the normal text is my writing. Text in the system font (or courier) is the "OOC" comments I made to the players. Italicized text is the responses the players sent back to me.