Hello again! This week we will be looking at the first of our five player characters for the Red Stone Alliance. This is the character’s backstory. What they have done and been through before the start of the campaign. With that little aside out of the way meet Greenbriar, the dark elf dreamwalker druid of Three Trees.

Greenbriar is from the small village of Three Trees. A humble farming community that sits in a valley between the mountains in the southern corner of South Syonel. Called Three Trees due to a trio of ancient ash trees that are home to three Dryads who protect the valley and the village.

A villager found Greenbriar nestled in the hollow that served as an altar for the villager’s offerings to the forest spirits. A child with two verdant eyes, midnight blue skin and a head of silver hair. When asked for the child’s name the three spirits whispered Greenbriar and from then on the mysterious elf boy was called Greenbriar, Child of the Sisters.

Greenbriar would serve as a messenger between the villagers and the three Dryads, who he called his mothers. Whether an extraordinary true blooded child of the fey creatures or not the Sisters raised him as their own. Teaching him how to use the resources the natural world provided, but also how to sue the magic that existed in the earth and sky to alter it. As he grew older they taught him how to use a sling and sickle as well so he could become a protector of the valley. Though Greenbriar felt the weight of the role’s responsibility, he spent much of his time fishing, monitoring his apiary, or exploring the caves taht twisted underneath the valley rather than training with weapons or poisons.

As Greenbriar neared his thirteenth birthday tragedy struck the small village. One of his mothers, Brozebough, began to slowly wither. A insidious disease or curse took root in her tree and drove her to madness. In this deranged state she attacked the village and Greenbriar rose to fight his own mother to defend the people… and died doing so…. when Greenbriar’s heart beat next, it was not his own, but, rather, Brozebough’s glowing plant like equivalent. Resurrected by his two other mothers, Silverleaf and Coppercrown, who used Bronzebough’s heart in an obscure ritual to restore life to their adopted child.

In the aftermath the villagers fled the valley and called it cursed. The villagers no longer seeing the dryads as protectors but evil spirits whose fickle moods led to the attack of Bronzebough. The Verdant Valley would become the Cursed Vale and soon an evil spirit would come and attempt to wrestle control away from the two forest spirits that remained. To protect Greenbriar the sisters sent the elf boy away, maybe to someday return with allies and save the valley. Greenbriar traveled east to the Morabasi Coast, north through the Oorakardi Steps, and found himself in the Heartland of Astoria where he found Velicinia. The character we shall learn about next week!

Greetings reader! Today I will briefly describe the continent of North Syonel, giving you some background information before jumping into character backstories.

The world has just exited a period of chaos and recovery. Surviving a horrible war against the demons of the abyss that left the world scarred the last few centuries have been recovery. While nations still bicker over land scholars have declared a new age, one of progress. Ancient ruins from before the war are being unearthed and explored, brave explorers have left the continent to explore the ocean and see what lies out there, and arcanists explore distant otherworldly realms and discover new forms of magic. It is an age of discovery. The story starts in North Syonel.

While there is more to the continent shown here, we will only be seeing the southern end of North Syonel and won’t be seeing any of South Syonel today, i’d like to welcome you to the fractured nation of Astoria!

This is Astoria. Seven years ago the nation was invaded by the Varani Dominion, a powerful empire that puts humanity before all other races. The Dominion exists mostly in South Syonel, and is often mistrusted at best by others due to their antagonistic leadership and being the only nation that still allows slavery. The conflict lasted 2 years, Astoria being occupied for most of that time. The war ended thanks to Astoria’s northern allies, The Kingdoms of Oudora, driving the Dominion back. With many of the archmages and noblemen that held the nation together dead the kingdom fell apart and is now four separate kingdoms: The Morabassi Coast to the south, The Farassi League to the east, The Oorakardi Steps in the center, and Remnants of Astoria making up the rest of the map.

Someday our heroes might reunite the greedy Morabassi merchants, the bickering Farassi lords, and savage Oorakardi tribes but their story starts with the Remnants of Astoria.

The Remnants of Astoria, often called the Heartland, is the former capitol of the nation. While no battles were fought on the territory many people left to fight in the war and didn’t return. While I thought i’d show you where the campaign is taking place I want to avoid detailing anymore so you can learn of the different locations along with the players!

This is only a glimpse at the world i’ve been working on. If you would like to learn more feel free to leave a comment, approach me after class, or shoot me an email.

Before I start regaling the tales of my Dungeons and Dragons party, the Redstone Alliance, I should probably explain what Dungeons and Dragons is. Dungeons and Dragons is a table top role playing game. Typically played by 5 to 7 people, one being the Dungeon Master (DM for short). The DM runs the game and presents a narrative or obstacles for the players to overcome.

What does the Dungeon Master do?

The best description for what a Dungeon Master does lies in the 2015 Dungeon Masters guide. “The Dungeon Master (DM) is the creative force behind a D&D game. The DM creates a world for the other players to explore, and also creates and runs adventures that drive the story. An adventure typically hinges on the successful completion of a quest, and can be as short as a single game session. Longer adventures might embroil players in great conflicts that require multiple game sessions to resolve.” (D&D Dungeon Masters Guide pg 4).

The dungeon master plans the adventures. Setting up the people they meet, monsters they fight, and everything in between. The dungeon master is functionally the narrator and everything in the world other than the player’s character. My next post will go over the world I created for this campaign and some of its history to give you all some context before jumping into who the characters are and the players behind them. Speaking of players…

What does the Player do?

The players purpose is simple on the surface, all they gotta do is play the game! But looking into it there are nuances to it that are not immediately clear. To play the game you need a character. Making a character is more than just deciding that you want to play a Fighter or a Wizard but its making a person that you will role play as. Its like writing a protagonist from a movie or a book. Someone with personality traits, flaws, motivations and more. Who was this person before they became an adventurer? After I write about North Syonel, the continent my campaign is taking place on, I’ll write on the five characters in the campaign to show what all goes into making a character! Stay tuned for that in the coming weeks.