Primer

Welcome to Dunvale!

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This page is the introduction to the setting, rules and options for this campaign and contains everything you need to roll up a character. The lore here is what anyone in Dunvale would know, your background might grant you deeper knowledge of specific things and the rest is waiting to be discovered.

The hook

Aeons ago a mageking sealed something in the mountain, the truth has been lost to time. Legends say many things: great evil bound in stone, hidden wealth beyond imagining, a usurper imprisoned, a magic anomaly contained, perhaps even a fallen god. The mageking's Kingdom flourished and grew to great heights. A fort was built to protect the seal, but as ages passed and the empire prospered, it became mostly ceremonial, a posting for minor nobles and forgotten soldiers.
With the current King assassinated and no clear succession, the kingdom has fallen. Refugees flee collapsing cities, warbands claim territory, monsters descend from the highlands. Then three weeks ago, the seal shattered.
Will you delve deep into the newly-opened mountain passages for ancient secrets and forgotten power, or range wide across the deteriorating surface to secure food, defend nearby settlements, and navigate the rival factions fighting over the kingdoms scraps?

The world

Dunvale

Dunvale is a mountain valley, high in the Greypeak mountains on the north-western edge of the Anauroch desert.

The River Wyrm runs down from the canyon at the valley head, through the dark central loch of Blackmere, and south into the braided marsh of the Wyrmfen where it eventually drains into the desert. Old pine forests cover the northern slopes. Along the lochs edge and towards the south the valley opens into plains and farmland. To the east, the plains descend into badlands and the jagged stones of Vanapagan's Teeth.

The people

Dunvale is a mostly human kingdom. Halflings farm the southern lowlands and the fen margins. Dwarves keep small holds in the western foothills. Elves live in scattered communities along the wood-fringes and the lake shores. Dragonborn range the eastern badlands as nomads. The capital Orlyn was home to a diverse mix of peoples.
Human's generally identify with one of four clans — Frostgar in the north, Holtwyn in the western forest, Hreodwyn in the southern fens and Aldhelm in the south.

Faith

People in Dunvale keep the many gods common in Faerun. However, there were never grand temples built here. Small shrines, wandering clerics, old folklore and superstitions form the majority of religious practice.

The current situation

Here is what everyone knows;

The ward broke. The binding on Wardpeak failed. The cave at the foot of the canyon now stands open. Nobody knows how or why it broke. Everyone has a theory: a curse, the gods' disfavour, an earthquake, an enemy's work, or simply that the old thing finally wore out.

The king is dead. Murdered by a masked assassin. No clear line of succession has left many vying for power.

Orlyn fell. The capital came apart in riots within days of the king's death. It currently stands, half-burned, lawless, and a shadow of itself. A warlord holds the road south. A would-be regent holds a fraction of a court.

The valley is unravelling. It's early summer, the passes are open, and that means people can move. Monsters are pushing down from the highlands; a well-armed goblin band has been raiding the northern farmsteads. Families are abandoning exposed land and drifting toward safety. With no crown to enforce anything, the good ground is being fought over and the clans are pulling back into their own borders.

Fellgard is safe. The old cliff-side fortress at the valley head is the last safe ground. It is increasingly overcrowded, undermanned, and short on supplies.

Fellgard, your home base

A magnificent old fortress of grey granite, built ages ago to watch the seal. It is now badly worse for wear. A dozen soldiers hold walls meant for hundreds. Some thirty refugees camp inside the courtyard. The smithy's roof has fallen in, half the halls are shut and cold, and the granary is thin.
The foundations are solid and with the right means the fort could become a stronghold once more.

How the game works

This is a West Marches style game. This generally means exploration forward, player driven and a rotating party.

• Sessions are whoever signs up on Discord. Ideally 3-6 players. You don't need to play every week, and you don't need to have played before.
• Self-contained expeditions work best. Session starts and ends at Fellgard. You head out and explore, follow a quest and then return home to rest and resupply. Resting in the wilderness is possible but dangerous.
• The game is entirely player driven. The world is full of things to discover but where you go and what you do is up to you (and you're party).
• The world is dangerous from the start. Retreat is always a option.
• The world is responsive and persistent. What one party does might change what the next party walks into.

Character creation

• Ability scores: 4d6, drop the lowest.
• Starting level: 1. You advance by playing number of session equal to level (i.e level 2 after 1 sessions played at level 1, level 3 after 2 sessions at level 2)
• Content: anything from the official sourcebooks. If you want to play something unusual or custom, just ask.
• Equipment: standard starting gear from your class and background or equivalent gold.
• Ancestry: play whatever you like. The "who lives where" notes above are just flavour, your character can be from anywhere and be anyone. If you want a reason your dragonborn or your tiefling is in a half-forgotten mountain valley, that's a great seed for a backstory.

House rules

A few things work differently to standard, and hopefully helps the survival and exploration gameplay.

Rests (Gritty Realism)

• Short rest: about 8 hours.
• Long rest: about 7 days, and really only safe at Fellgard.

Inventory

You carry 20 + your Strength modifier slots' worth of gear comfortably.

Carry more than your comfortable load and you're encumbered (speed halved, disadvantage on Strength and Dexterity checks and saves). You can still overload to haul loot home; you'll just be slow and clumsy doing it.

Supply dice

Don't count individual rations, torches, or arrows. Each has a supply die that starts at d8. When you use it, e.g. a day's food, an hour of torchlight, a fight's worth of arrows, roll the supply die. On a 1, the die steps down: d8 → d6 → d4 → empty.

Water is readily available in the valley, mountain streams are common. This only uses a suplly die in the dry eastern regions.
Resupplying at Fellgard resets your dice to d8.

Tips for a Dunvale character

• Give yourself a reason to be at the fort or exploring the mountain. Coin, debt, curiosity, faith, a missing person, a thing you need that's only found in the deep. Any hook works, but the campaign assumes you want to go out there.
• You don't need to be a hero. Desperate, broke, exiled, hunted, or simply nosy are all perfectly good starting points. Heroism is something that can happen to you here, not a prerequisite.
• Plan to come home. Knowing when to turn back is a skill, and the smart parties live to spend their loot and come back when they're stronger.
• Lean into the unknown. Nobody in Dunvale knows what's really going on. Investigating the theories is great character motivation.
• Exploration and rest rules. Exploration and rest rules make backgrounds like outlander and Warlock spell slot recovery very useful

_Questions, or want help building a character? Bring them to session zero or drop a message in Discord.