User:IGTN/Campaign Page/Player Notes

Setting
For a place notable to everyone, the kingdom is currently ruled by king Ferrin VI of Bladereach, the current head of a nine-king (so far) dynasty. Bladereach and the neighboring kingdoms use the H.F. calendar, which starts its Year 1 soon after the first winter solstice following the defeat of the Lich-King Hadrach. It is currently Summer of H.F. 197.

Bladereach was founded in H.F. 3. For the next seventy years, it fought a bunch of wars to become a regional power.

Timeline
1: Bladereach region resettlement begins. 3: Bladereach founded by King Ferrin Bladereach as one of many kingdoms. Over the next two generations, the area was carved up and recarved until the Bladereach Kingdom controlled much of the shore, and outposts along the Typhon River almost to the Bane Mires. 73: a number of outlying fiefs (former allies absorbed by Bladereach, and conquered lands granted to lieutenants) revolt against Bladereach to form their own kingdom. 77: Third King of Bladereach dies in battle. 79: Revolt finally put down. 86: Orc chieftain unites orcs of mountains and gnolls of foothills to attack Bladereach, supported by lizardfolk mercenaries. 87: Invading horde turned away at the city gates after ravaging much productive farmland. 88: Peasant revolt on intact farmland over elevated grain taxes. Revolt put down. Beginnings of formalization of noble ranks. 100: Hadrachian cultists attack celebrations of centennial of the lich's defeat. Cultists finally put down after retreat to Halan Shador 103: Fourth King of Bladereach dies after a long illness. 105: War with Black Orchard Hills begins over mining territory on the foothills of Mt. Isserik. 107: Black Orchard Elves attack Figmountain to cut off a Bladereach trade partner. 108: Mt. Isserik taken from Black Orchard Hills. Sahuagin pirates cut off sea trade to Bladereach. Black Orchard and Figmountain reach a cease-fire. 109: Armistice negotiated between Black Orchard and Bladereach 111: Sahuagin temple razed and looted by combined Black Orchard/Bladereach adventuring band. 112: Black Orchard Hills normalize trade relations with Bladereach and Figmountain in Celentian Accords, named for their negotiator, Merchant-Prince Celentian 120: A group of kobold exiles from an overpopulated mountain tribe build a new fortress in Mt. Isserik 123: Lizardfolk river pirates attack Bladereach's upriver villages using domesticated Bane Mire monsters. 124: Reprisal against lizardfolk. 129: Fifth King dies of illness. Sixth King raises taxes to build up Bladereach's naval power, sparking a peasant revolt. 136: Sahuagin attack to test and limit Bladereach's naval power (Second Sahuagin War) 139: End of Second Sahuagin War. Bladereach maintains a powerful navy and has control of the entirety of Ferrin's Bay. 140: Grand Lighthouse construction begins 142: Skirmishes break out with mountain orcs. Small raiding parties move through much of the kingdom. 143: Grand Lighthouse functionally completed 146: Orc high chieftain slain. Raids cool for a time. 152: Sixth king of Bladereach assassinated. 154: Seventh king, suspecting everyone as assassins, launches attacks against Gnolls and Lizardfolk as outside enemies, and investigates nobles and guilds within. 155: Seventh king attacks Sahuagin (third Sahuagin War) 158: Seventh king assassinated. Eighth king stops war against Gnolls and Lizardfolk. 160: End negotiated to Third Sahuagin War. 161: Groups responsible for assassinations of the Sixth and Seventh king identified among the nobility. 162: Assassins/sponsors crushed and executed after a brief civil war. 167: Mining of Mt. Isserik begins. Wrotsulver Town founded. Skirmishes against kobolds. 171: Exceptionally good harvest. Peasants on some fiefs, on being told that the excess would be taken by their landlords, revolt. Revolt shows some initial success and spreads before being finally put down. 172: Kobolds hire orc mercenaries to bolster their forces. Towns and fortresses on Mt. Isserik cut off but hold. 173: Kobolds, short of pay for their orc mercenaries, begin looting campain in the Isserik Ruins. Orcs decide looting is better than fighting in wars, and mercenary force reduced. Mt. Isserik liberated. 176: Lizardfolk attack fiefs near Bane Mires to take more arable land. 178: Lizardfolk finally repulsed, lizardfolk temple destroyed. 181: Eighth king of Bladereach's ship sunk by Sahuagin raiders, king is captured and sacrificed. Fourth Sahuagin War begins. Due to complaints from a pretender, no king is crowned. 183: Fourth Sahuagin War ends unsatisfactorily for Bladereach (although there are still no known Sahuagin outposts in Ferrin's Bay). Seeing the opportunity, pretender and legitimate heir fight a civil war. 185: Civil war ends. Pretender is crowned Ninth King of Bladereach (King Ferrin VI). 187: Large-scale human excavation of Isserik Ruins begins 190: Severe raids by orcs, broken in the same year 194: A group of nobles holds a short standoff with the king when the king attempts to change their fief structure. He eventually gives in. 197: Present Day

Bladereach Locale
My notes say that the ruin is on Mt. Isserik, with a major town of Wrotsulver Town. The giant ruins underneath the lizardfolk ruins are called Dvimirsvalt. You have no idea what's under Dvimirsvalt.

Geography

 * Bladereach is on a large bay, on a plain by the side of a river valley. Most of the rest of the bay is surrounded by mountains. The cliffs are pretty much the entire coast except for near the city, so getting to the cliffs is leaving the city, and then finding exactly where (northern cliffs or southern cliffs) you're looking, then getting there.


 * (Quoth the Dungeonomicon on the subject of geography: "The city of Bladereach sits at the mouth of the Typhon River that flows from the Bane Mires into Ferrin's Bay". (had a knock at the door, resolved now). The Bane Mires are up in some mountains that vaguely resemble Scotland in my head. Mt. Isserik is a short way from the river, between Bladereach and the Mires.)