Common Calender Timeline

Karthene was one of the greatest cities of old Commona; a proud dominion whose banners once flew across the southern valleys. The city sat at the meeting of trade roads and riverlands, its terraces crowned with marble halls and shrines to Thestus, god of light and fire. For centuries, the Karthene Council ruled its domain with confidence and severity, maintaining old laws and traditions long after neighboring realms softened theirs. It was a place known for its scholars, artisans, and faith; but also for its rigid hierarchy and the cold authority of its magistrates. Hardship came in failed harvests, rising tithes, and the stifling weight of privilege; in response, unrest first took hold among the merchants, craftsmen, and younger officers of the city guard.

The protests began with petitions and processions through the market streets. On the twenty-fourth day of Gloomdawn, the crowd gathered before the Council Hall demanding the release of imprisoned reformers. The dominon's guardsmen opened fire with crossbows and balistae, killing dozens and scattering the crowd in panic. Within hours, the city was in revolt, and a coalition of traders, guildmasters, and dissenting officers, seized the docks and granaries. The Karthene Council entrenched itself in the upper city, and High Karthene and Low Karthene became two armed camps divided by barricades. The outlying lords, uncertain where power would fall, split their forces between the two sides. In the months that followed, famine and fire spread through the streets.

Among the insurgents rose a faction of zealots who separated from the Church of Thestus. They claimed the Council had corrupted the god’s light with false worship and greed. Their leader, the fire Cleric Daphlan Valore, preached purification by flame; his sermons drew farmers, laborers, and dispossessed soldiers into the uprising, but his fanaticism frightened the coalition's moderates. These fanatics began burning shrines and executing officials, deepening the chaos; in response, the Council used these acts to brand all opposition as heresy, and within its walls, suspicion turned to desperation.

An assassination attempt against the Arch-Magistrate, Cecily Crosse, hardened her resolve and gave her absolute command of the city’s defense. Daphlan Valore’s fanatics attempted to kill Cecily, and the rest of the noble Crosse house, in the upper terraces during the height of the Still Rebellion. They struck at dusk, when the Council Hall was preparing emergency deliberations, and tried to breach her inner chambers by setting the outer colonnades alight with consecrated oil. The blaze drew guards out of position, and two assassins forced their way to the magistrate’s antechamber before being cut down. The Archi-Magistrate survived without injury, but the attempt shattered the Council’s last doubts and gave her the justification she needed to argue that the rebellion was not reform, but heresy. 

Cecily Crosse was a Sorceress of formidable power and a woman of severe conviction. She announced that divine retribution had come to Karthene and revealed that the Council was in possession of a relic known as the Stonebinding Scepter, or Stonebinder. No one knew how the Council had acquired an Epochal Artifact, and long after the rebellion, this mystery was never answered. When Cecily raised the scepter over the captured district of Southgate, a wave of magic spread through its streets, petrifying thousands of soldiers, rebels, and bystanders alike. Their flesh turned to stone, the victims were left standing where they perished, locked in postures of defiance, flight, or prayer. Word of Stonebinder's horror spread quickly through the dominion, but it did not bring surrender. 

Over the next two days, the Karthene Council would vote on the next quarter to apply Stonebinder's effects to. It retook the city quarter by quarter, with each binding result in immediate victory. Streets, plazas, and temples were filled with statues of the dead, frozen in place as warnings to those who still resisted. The assembly of dissidents and Daphlan Valore's sect fought on, convinced that death or stone were their only choices, but the rebellion leaders were captured and executed. Eventually, Valore vanished; it was said he perished with his followers while burning the city's Temple of Thestus.

When the rebellion ended, nearly half of the city's residents had fled, been petrified, or were killed. Before any mass mourning could begin, Cecily Crosse issued the Edict of Stillness, commanding that the petrified remain where they had fallen. The decree claimed they stood as witnesses to treachery and sacrifice alike. In time, it became tradition for families to leave flowers and tokens before the stone forms of their kin. The act, once one of mourning, also served as a reminder of the Council’s power, and the damage any rebellion against the Karthene Council could inflict.

Karthene survived, but at a terrible cost. Half its population was lost. The lower terraces lay silent beneath ivy and soot, and whole districts stood like graveyards under open sky. Trade with the outer dominion collapsed, and the surviving lords were brought to heel. For decades, the city lingered in uneasy tension, its pride hollowed by fear and guilt. When the Theurge Iodun the Unifier approached to bring the dominion into the Common League nearly fifty years later, Karthene offered no resistance.

The dominion was dissolved, its autonomy curtailed, and Stonebinder taken to the new capital at Emblem for safekeeping; with it left Karthene's greatest defense, and the Common League became known as the "Land of Tome and Scepter", half in reference to Stonebinder itself.

Two centuries before Common Unification, the great dwarf smith Durgeddin the Black and his clan were driven from their home in the southern Crowncrest Mountains by a horde of fierce orcs and trolls. The horde plundered the dwarves' ancestral halls and slew all they could catch. Fleeing his enemies, Durgeddin led the destitute remnants of his clan in search of a new home. After years of wandering, the dwarves discovered a great cavern system beneath the Stone Tooth: a rugged, forested hill crowned by a bare rocky crag.

There, Durgeddin and his followers founded the stronghold of Khundrukar, and used the fort as a base with which to wage decades of raids on orc tribes to the mountains north of them, coordinating with the Griffon-keepers of Skypeak to employ guerilla-like tactics on the tribes. Eventually, a member of Durgeddin's clan was captured by a powerful orc tribe during a raid, and the orcs learned of their enemy's hidden stronghold. The orc chieftains raised a great army and marched on Khundrukar. In a hard-fought siege lasting months, the orcs tunneled around the dwarven defenses. When they finally stormed the place, they put all within to the sword, then carried off wagonloads of booty.

In the years since the great battle, various creatures occupied the fort and used the place as a base for their raids. At other times, the caverns remained empty, save for the mindless and bloodthirsty monsters that haunted such places. Legends of the extraordinary blades forged in anger still surfaced from time to time in the lands near the Stone Tooth, inevitably resulting in adventuring bands exploring the tunnels, such as in Forge Of Fury.

Nearly five years prior to Common Unification, Iodun Myrdinn had united much of the continent under one banner. He set his sights north to conquer Scycaen Imperium, which had consolidated under the rule of the Terrescel family in response to Common League expansion. Occupied with eastern expansion, Iodun tasked his northern general Yilmaz Mylenthalas to lead the battle against Riyissan Terrescel and take the Wyrmhorn Reach. 

The resulting battle was the largest ever recorded between two largely-Human armies. In an initial skirmish pushing up to the Snoutridge, Mylenthalas' army overwhelmed a prominent Scycaen camp stationed south of the Sylphglade. Larger in number and drilled well by their leader, they soundly defeated their smaller foe, who almost immediately broke rank and retreated north into the forest. 

Though they were outnumbered, the next battle was ultimately a resounding victory for Scycae. While following their foes into the woods, the Common army stayed uniformly compact, not wanting to have battle communications interrupted by the trickster Fey of the Sylphglade. The density of their formation allowed a small Scycaen garrison, led by Riyissan Terrescel himself, to slip past them undetected. Having made a deal with Fairy allies, Terrescel's garrison rounded the glade using a hidden Fey Crossing and were able create a pincer at the regiment's rear.

This maneuver created chaos; fighting on two fronts in a dense and magical forest, the Northern army was tactically overwhelmed. Before they could reach Scil-Torrenae, their attentions were split, and not enough of their force was able to commit to the assault. They were forced to retreat from the Sylphglade but lost many of their number in doing so, and the Imperium's forces followed them out of the woods into the rocky southern field.

This last battle ended when an enormous blast from Terrescel's Soulflare Sword Scyseti struck a nearby mountain. The mountain split in twain from the forces, creating what became known as Mountaintwain, and the remaining Common forces completely lost morale at the sight of such power. Mylenthalas ordered his army to stand down, and the last of his decimated forces were captured.

The conclusive loss at the Battle of Sylphglade permanently halted Commona's northern expansion. Scycae began to build further mountain defenses at Scil-Torrenae to further ensure that ground attacks were all but impossible, and the Common League declared Unification without the northern nation. A treatise between the two was established nearly four years afterward, agreeing the borderline was placed at the "Ironhold".

In the years leading to Common Unification, Iodun Myrdinn faced his greatest resistances in the eastern reach leading to the Neck of the Greatwyrm. Much of the region was populated with tribal forces descended from Orcs, Goblins, Gnolls, and the Giant-descended, such as Giantborn and Ogres. These disparate tribes had complex relationships with each other; however, all the forces in the region shared a love of warfare, and a refusal to surrender to a Human force.

Given the size of the steppe, a lack of natural resources, and the nonstop danger of night raids, the progress of the full Common League army would likely be slowed to a crawl in the plains. Iodun decided to not waste the lives of his soldiers to squabble for scraps of land; instead, he sent much of his forces back to assist with other battles, and decided the matter himself. Accompanied by a small regiment of highly-esteemed warriors, he conducted a 44-day campaign across the plains until he reached the Barren Marches, utilizing the tome Cometfall to a far greater extent than he had in the west.

The result of this campaign read less like a battle, and more like a massacre. The vast majority of the population was slaughtered, and the landscape was forever altered, sundered into the region now known as the "Pockmarks". Eventually, the few remaining tribes were forced to surrender, and Cometfall became renowned as a weapon that could change the face of the world. Many of the remaining settlements retreated back into the Pikes of Uzuk, leaving the Dotted Plains to become an incredibly sparse region.

To the few who remained in these lands, the Eastern Sundering became known as the "Great Skyfire," and remained a controversial subject.

The Unholy Siege of Fort Verdane was the instigating event that lead to the signing a true declaration of Common Unification. Months prior having its borders officially established, the southern Common Leage regiment continued its expansion into Elthys. It passed by historical borderlands down the Flat of Elaedh in an attempt to treatise with the historic house of Merellien, hoping to add Elthys to the League by coercion rather than force.

Before their regiment could approach the capital City of Merellien, however, they were set upon by a horde of Undead, composed of numbers greater than any standing army in the world. Facing down a slowly-moving tide of bone and flesh, the southern army was forced to retreat. As they made their way back up the Flat, their teleporters reported their situation to the Common bastion of Emblem. Mages and Artificers from the capital moved quickly, setting up a series of magical gates with a strong fort behind it, designed to withstand a ground siege. Strategically, the fort was built to occupy the space between the Farmouth Bight and the Jawstone Divide, and was constructed just in time before it was set upon by the horde.

The newly-named Fort Verdane stood strong against these forces of darkness for nearly a calendar month, with supply lines being shipped from other nearby territories of Commona. With much of the undead tide decimated and the Fort still intact, Merellien's remaining forces diverted east through the Sea of Trees, attempting to circumvent its gates via a mountain pass. The undead abandoned their siege and attempted to enter Commona through the Howling Hollowland. No trace of the enemy was ever seen again; most speculate that they were consumed by an even deadlier enemy in the forest depths.

The Unholy Siege was considered a landmark battle in Common history and a testament to the military might of the united League. However, since the building of the Fort, the alliance between Commona and Elthys remained uneasy. While no formal battles were declared after the Siege, whispers remained that Merellien harbored an intense grudge against their northern neighbors.

Considered to be the most momentous piece of legislation in written history, the Common Unification was formalized by the Court of the Torch in Emblem at year 0, on the first day of Crossover. For a half-generation prior to Unification, Iodun Myrdinn led a campaign across the Somnum to unite the continent. He succeeded in persuading or conquering most of the regions west of the Giantlands, though was unable to overtake the Elthysi Sovereign or the Scycaen Imperium, and was not aware of the protected island of Ty-Pharess.

With all members of the new Common League present to witness its ratification, the Unification marked a new beginning. Though the many nations counted amongst its banner remained culturally disparate, over decades, cultures began to amalgamate. The Common Language became dominant, a Common Calendar was made, and the world of Mortalborn grew more stable.

The Raids of Umli unfolded in the far western reaches of Commona, where the logging village of Umli was remotely located in the center of the Woods of Elenmyr. Over a day’s travel from the shipping destinations of Oldoan and Wistimere, the settlement depended on harvesting the rare and unusual trees of the central woods. For generations, its mostly-Human population made a living from the forest, despite longstanding opposition from the Elf tribes who had guarded those woods in ages before Umli’s founding.

A conflict naturally grew, from scattered reprisals against poachers and loggers into sustained violence. Elven warbands struck from concealment, targeting logging camps and patrols; the villagers responded with their own armed forays into the forest, killing defenders when they found them. Neither side could reliably predict the other’s movements, but despite their lack of number, the elves knew the forest better and struck with more conviction. The people of Umli lived in constant uncertainty, often penned within their own settlement, too remote from the Common League to request aid from the Court of the Torch.

The raids eventually ended due to infighting within Umli, its population nearly halved after nearly two months of raids. Yethan Wrenthicket, a popular former logger who had risen to the village council, issued a plea to the village and rallied its citizens during the night of the new moon. The council ordered the dissolution of Umli, marking the close of its resistance, and its population dispersed under cover of darkest night. Most sought refuge in Oldoan, though some traveled to Wistimere, seeking to continue work in the logging which had sustained their lives.

They carried with them the grievances of the Raids, and all but ensured that the conflict’s roots would persist beyond the village’s fall.

For centuries, the once-great Dwarf bastion of Brazenthrone had been declining. Successive generations of the Brasshand house had mismanaged their kingdom's relationships along the Snoutridge, and every generation, more dwarves were leaving the capital. The riches once held in the foothills were drying up, and folk went to where the work was. Some left to become artisans, smiths, or miners in the newly-established human nation of Commona , while soldiers went to the wilderness, seeking refuge with other clans in the Kingdom of the Twelve Mountains. Though life was harder in the hills, work was plentiful, as growing bands of orc raiders were constantly threatening dwarven settlements in the mountains.

The rule of High King Thimdorlum Brasshand was the worst of this. Ill-equipped for statecraft and prone to letting his pride guiding his decisions, Thimdorlum made enemies both outside of his domain and within. Constantly fretting over his houses' diminishing status in the region, he gave near-autonomy to any Brazenthrone soldiers patrolling the region. His soldiers acted with the authority he gave them, pushing around villagefolk and making enemies with the northern hill-tribes. Within the city, he believed in only using the dwindling historical shifts to produce ore, as opening new shafts could potentially create structural risks to the city. This conservative decision lost him popularity with the traders and the miners, who needed to excavate the kingdom's signature brass to continue making a living.

This came to a head when Brufomura Blondebeard attempted a raid of the capital. Incredibly large for a dwarf, Brufomura had made a name for herself as a warrior in the hills. Despite her tender age, her name was beginning to become legend in the northern Snoutridge, as she began to unify long-squabbling mountain and hill dwarf clans under one banner. She took with her some of the finest warriors in the mountains to Brazenthrone, planning to raid the city and confront it's leaders, but on arriving found no garrison awaiting battle.

All guards in the city had been summoned to protect only the High King's inner sanctum, leaving the rest of the colony virtually undefended. She probed around the hallowed halls of the city and did not find a fight, but instead political opportunity; despite the natural lawfulness of the dwarven people, all were sick of the ruling house. She petitioned the other High Clansmen to allow her a chance to win the seat as Queen. By Brazenthrone law, anyone could earn the right to rule by challenging the High King in combat, but few ever did so. Regardless of the challenger's might or the High King's frailty, the house possessed the legendary Thrakûr-Gundak, which guaranteed victory against any opponent.

Brufomura's request was not only granted by the High Clan elders, but a historic decision was made: Thimdorlum would be forced to fight without his familial armor. They contacted an organization called the Golden Vault, who's operatives broke into the throne room sight-unseen and delivered the Mantle to the elders. With their biggest threat removed, the hill-tribe stormed the inner sanctum and conferred the High Clan's ruling to the guards. Taken aback by this, High King Brasshand attempted to don the armor hidden within his throne, but found that the chamber was empty.

Trembling with rage, Thimdorlum still had the finest war gear in his kingdom at his disposal. He donned his kingdom's finest Supreme Enhanced plate armor, bore a shield of Adamantine, and held aloft his Superior Enhanced battleaxe. The High King declared his status as the only deserving sovereign, yelled a war cry, and charged down the thronehall to his opponent. The unarmored Brufomura stove his head in with a single swing of her hammer. 

The Kingdom of the Twelve Mountains knew they had to act quickly to prevent absolute turmoil, as Thimdorlum bore no children. They began spreading word of the a Queen who would restore glory to the dwarves, and reunite the Twelve Mountains. Within the span of a day, the ceremonies to crown a new ruler were placed, and Brufomura was given the clan name "Brassbreaker", as well as the right to don the Mantle of the First Forge. This marked a great change in leadership, as the Kingdom of the Twelve Mountains had never been ruled by a Mountain Dwarf, but so broken was their power that even the famously stubborn dwarven leaders allowed the change to occur.

Almost immediately, brufomura made changes to put Brazenthrone in a better position; their "Brute Queen" mended relationships with the hill-tribes and used the resources of her new queendom to beat back the encroaching Orc hordes. Her fearless mentality encouraged the dwarves to dig ever-deeper, increasing mineral production to levels not seen in centuries. Though it took on significant risks under her rule, Brazenthrone was finally booming again.

Founded decades earlier by the Gnome Rogue Nessa Nina Quickpick Rumbauld Pennyluck, the Whistledrop Crew had operated out of Phyracress with a reputation for skill tempered by an internal code of honor. For a time, the thieves' guild was famous throughout the Fencrest Foothills, and none could figure out the location of the Whistledrop Hideout. As Nessa aged and took fewer jobs, however, the Crew’s activity slowed. Though it still had talented members such as Punmiri Tel-Phaeun and Merc Firewater, the leadership of the Crew was uncertain.

Hope for continuity emerged when Nessa took on a masked Vistani thief known as Dee, whose talent and discipline marked her as a potential successor. Around this time, the Crew also took in a young runaway noblewoman traveling under the name Elle, later known to be Ellenor Breathamof Fang's End. Trained primarily by Dee, Elle proved adept, and the two grew unusually close. Their similar builds and shared use of masks allowed them to imitate one another convincingly, a tactic they used during jobs and to protect Ellenor’s identity. Nessa Nina came to see the pair as the future of the Crew, believing leadership and legacy might pass to them together.

Unbeknownst to the Whistledrop Crew, Ellenor’s family had hired mercenaries to retrieve her and erase the scandal of her flight. The pursuit was led by her brother, Nigel Breatham, who followed her trail across western Commona to Phyracress. When much of the Crew was away on a heist, Nigel and his band located the Whistledrop hideout; in the dead of night, they descended the well and launched an attack against the reduced defenders. In the chaos, Dee hid Elle and used their resemblance to delay Nigel, allowing her friend to remain undiscovered.

The ruse ended with Dee’s death, killed by Nigel in a fit of rage, along with several other members of the Crew. The hideout was left in ruins, and by morning little remained but ash. Ellenor vanished entirely in the aftermath, leaving no word of her fate, and Nigel was left without a trail, disappearing as well. Faced with the loss of her chosen successor, the deaths of her rogues, and the exposure of the hideout, Nessa Nina formally disbanded the Whistledrop Crew.

However, some members of the Crew would later connect, particularly in the Break-In At Bleak End.

On an expedition into the Murkmire Marshlands, Doctor Cassee Dannel and an archaeolical team from the Whiteharbour Academy unearthed a strange object. Light green, opaque, and with a gemstone-like sheen, this ovoid stone was covered in strange furrows. The stone seemed ritualistic in nature, but it matched no recorded historical practices, and no one could identify its composition. The more Doctor Dannel studied it, the more she became convinced this object, which the archaeologists dubbed the Murkmire Stone, was not created by any known civilization.

Doctor Dannel tried to convince the dig's archaeologists to isolate the Murkmire Stone until she could learn more about it, but word of the discovery spread quickly. When the Cliffsunder Museum of Natural History offered a generous price for the stone, it was soon whisked from the dig site to the museum.

Doctor Dannel continued to research the strange stone. Her concern turned to dread when she found descriptions of similar objects in her occult tomes. These objects were, in fact, the eggs of Extraplanar creatures. She learned that such Abberations lay dormant for generations, but once the eggs are unearthed, the creatures within rapidly developed and hatched. The resulting creatures were ravenous for raw meat and grow exponentially as they feed, eventually overwhelming entire villages. The eggs were nearly indestructible, but the tomes claimed encasing them in crystal could neutralize them.

According to Dannel's research, the Murkmire Stone was due to hatch in a matter of days. She frantically presented her findings to the university's administrators, who deemed her work pseudoscience and refused to interfere with the upcoming exhibition of the Murkmire Stone. Desperate, Doctor Dannel snuck into the museum after hours and tried to steal the stone, but she was caught. The Academy disavowed her actions and fired her.

With mere hours left in the Murkmire Stone's gestation period, she reached out to Golden Vault to reclaim the stone.

Two centuries ago, the great Dwarf smith Durgeddin the Black and his clan were driven from their home in Mountain's Meet by a horde of Orcs. The horde plundered the dwarves' ancestral halls and slew all they could catch. Fleeing his enemies, Durgeddin led the destitute remnants of his clan in search of a new home. After years of wandering the Dotted Plains, the dwarves discovered a great cavern system beneath the Stone Tooth: a rugged, forested hill crowned by a bare rocky crag. There, Durgeddin and his followers founded the stronghold of Khundrukar, and used the fort as a base with which to wage decades of raids on orc tribes to the mountains north of them.

In the midst of these assaults, a member of Durgeddin's clan was captured by a powerful orc tribe during a raid, and the orcs learned of their enemy's hidden stronghold. Their chieftains raised a great army and marched on Khundrukar. In a hard-fought siege lasting months, the orcs tunneled around the dwarven defenses. When they finally stormed the place, they put all within to the sword, then carried off wagonloads of booty; this became known as the Smith's War.

In the years since the great battle, various creatures occupied the fort and used the place as a base for their raids. At other times, the caverns remained empty, save for the mindless and bloodthirsty monsters that haunted such places. Legends of the extraordinary blades forged in anger still surfaced from time to time in the lands near the Stone Tooth.

One such legend reached the ears of Yannick Azizi, the young Third Rider of Khazalet. He received word that orc raiders had been pillaging isolated farmsteads and camps in the hills north of the town. His squadron captured an orc warrior left for dead by its comrades and brought it back for questioning. Under the influence of enchantment magic, the orc divulged the location of the monsters' lair, a lonely hill called the Stone Tooth.

Now knowing its location and the possible magic within, Yannick put out a call for Adventurers to oust the orcs from Khundrukar. 

As the owner of an adventurer's guild, the retired Adventurer Tybus Steelborn learned a litany of ancient secrets over the years, and had become obsessed with a mythical group called the Azure Paragon. The name of this ancient organization continually cropped up in seemingly unrelated quests, but he had formed connections between them. The group was potentially responsible for shaping the modern world as they knew it, and likely created the Epochal Artifacts.

He began offering rewards for any information regarding this secret group, and eventually learned of a group of knights who were also interested in the Paragon. The Order of the Silver Dragon had disappeared over twenty years ago, supposedly dogged in their pursuit of the truth. From his scout network, Tybus received intel that the Order had discovered a secret Paragon fort beyond Giantsbane, hidden somewhere in the mists of the Crowncrest Mountains, but had not been heard from again.

With only incomplete maps and hearsay to work from, he put out a call to his guild. He needed to find the Silver Dragon's Hideout, and offered great riches to any who would take on this nebulous and dangerous quest.

A skilled Three-Dragon Ante player and a shrewd Devilborn entrepreneur, Duplicity Kye toured the western Commona gambling circuit for years, making a name for herself and winning numerous large tournaments. While on the circuit, Kye met a gambler named  Quentin Togglepocket Whee Quickweasel Witt. The two hit it off, and they formed a plan to save enough winnings to open their own casino. But just as they seemed poised to put their plan in action, Quentin disappeared, taking all their money with him.

He resurfaced years later, having built the Afterlife Casino using the stolen money. Based on the Mythological idea of the Nine Hells, the Afterlife Casino was set to hold a three-dragon ante tournament. Dubbed the "Grand Minauros Invitational", Quentin recruited the region's best players and offered a golden statuette of an Erinyes being awarded to the winner. To get revenge on his betrayal, Duplicity contacted the Golden Vault, requesting skilled thieves to break into her former partner's vault and steal the erinyes statuette.

For Duplicity, it was not the money or the stauette that truly mattered; it was ensuring that Quentin's betrayal came back to haunt him, and that he knew that the person he betrayed had made him pay.

As recorded in A Stygian Gambit, The Grand Minauros Invitational was a high-profile Three-Dragon Ante tournament. It was held at the Afterlife Casino, built by Quentin Togglepocket Whee Quickweasel Witt using money he had stolen from his former partner, Duplicity Kye. The Invitational offered a golden Erinyes statuette as the top prize, and Quentin invited the region’s best gamblers to compete. Duplicity, heard of the tournament, and wanted Quentin to pay for his betrayal; moreover, she wanted that payment to humiliate him publicly.

She hired thieves through the Golden Vault to ruin the tournament from within and steal the prize in front of his own eyes. Using Gildur's Map of the Afterlife, they scoped out the casino and found the weaknesses and oversights in its security system. The heist unfolded during the tournament itself, conducted by Rasmus O'Dranith, Ellenor Breatham, Leila Vencaryn, and Nessa Nina Quickpick Rumbauld Pennyluck. While the games were underway and the Invitational was reaching its peak, the thieves broke into staff-only areas, raided Quentin’s vault, stole back Duplicity’s original stolen funds, and sabotaged the Grand Minauros prize.

During the final dramatic moments, the thieves used Quentin’s own glass key to open the case and quietly replaced the Erinyes statuette with a golden decoy of a Gnome technically won the Grand Minauros Invitational that day, but the winning prize was gone. The Invitational ended in outrage, scandal, and fury. Quentin realized too late that the person he betrayed had returned and taken everything from him. Duplicity and her thieves sailed away holding the statuette, and the Grand Minauros was remembered more for the robbery than the tournament itself.

Count Strahd von Zarovich was once the conqueror of Barovia, a valley nestled deep in the Balinok Mountains of the Prime Material. Unsatisfied with mere rulership of his lands, Strahd made a dark bargain for utmost control. A Dark Power responded to his plea, and both he and his valley were turned into something unholy. When the pact was sealed, mists peeled Barovia away from its native Realm into the Gloomshrouds, and Strahd was made into its Darklord.

Now a Demirealm of dread, Barovia was untouched by sunlight and filled with death. Its dismal lands were inundated with Undead, Lycanthropes, and other fell, causing its citizens to fear the once-safe Old Svalich Road. Many secrets were lost in the Svalich Woods, including the ancient ruins and battlefields that held the story of Count Strahd's life as a conqueror. Those adventurous enough to brave the wilds could find discarded relics and forgotten remnants of Strahd's ancient enemies, though not all his foes were as dead as one might expect.

For the people of Barovia, hemmed in by impenetrable mists, there was no escape from the harsh world he created. The town of Vallaki stood ready to defend itself against the servants of Strahd, but was far from the secure sanctuary it purported to be. The fortified village of Krezk lay near the edge of the valley, hostile to outsiders, and its Abbey were held in the clutches of evil, misguided creatures. But of all the settlements in Strahd's domain, the Village of Barovia was the most affected by Strahd's bargain. Cowering in the shadow below Castle Ravenloft and terrorized by its ageless Vampire overlord, generations of the village's populace had completely succumbed to despair. 

As part of his dark pact, Strahd allowed Adventurers to occasionally enter his domain, watched closely by those bearing the Mark of Strahd. When the time was deemed right, the Count would invite his "guests" to dine with him at Castle Ravenloft, and for a time, they would become a focus of his obsession. For his own amusement, the vampire turned them against one another, tormented them, and killed them. Those who did not become his thralls would never rise again, their souls forever trapped under Barovia's heavy mists.

As long as Strahd von Zarovich remained the lord of Ravenloft, dawn would never come to Barovia.

Coriander Thorn had made a name for himself as the Fairy "Don" of the Glitterati, a criminal organization which would grow into one of western Commona's most notorious gangs. After decades of thieving, bribing, and racketeering, he had become familiar with all manner of law enforcement across the Fencrest Foothills, and even more familiar with the region's criminals. By far the most secretive, and the most dangerous, of these criminals were the Fold, a cult that most in Somnum had never even heard of.

Only by growing the Glitterati into a notable enough organization did Don Coriander come into contact with the cult. Over time, the fairy gangster met other minor cult members, and from different conversations, pieced together an idea of where the Fold kept their treasure. Disparately, he learned that they protected a massive hoard behind a magical Dwarf-made door, had a hideout in tunnels below the Murkmire Marshlands that connected to the Deepways, and finally, that they kept an important key in Bleak End. 

Coriander believed that this key opened the Dwarf-Door, and that generations of the Fold's riches lay behind it. If his theory was correct, the Glitterati could steal the key and gain enough wealth to buy a kingdom; the Don, however, was planning something much grander than that.

In the far western reaches of Commona, the river town of Wistimere stood between the River Wisting and the ancient Woods of Elenmyr. For generations, its mostly-Human population depended on logging those woods to survive, shipping rare woods through the river to buyers across the Great Pale Sea. The Elf population, who had long guarded the woods, did not tolerate this intrusion. Reprisals escalated until the elves drove the humans from their sister settlement in the Raids Of Umli, pushing both sides to the brink of open war.

Peace came only through the intervention of Perceval LaPall, the proprietor of Wistimere's Marvelous Menagerie and a noted Alchemist. Acting as mediator, he persuaded the town magistrate to halt all forestry operations, and convinced the elves that Wistimere would trespass no further. The agreement held, and for his action, LaPall was named Mayor of Wistimere. Though popular, this peace carried a great cost, as Wistimere’s economy faltered without its timber trade. Desperation led some townsfolk to secretly harvest rare trees under cover of night, risking the agreements of an already-fragile accord.

Matters worsened five years later, when Undead elves began emerging from the forest and attacking the town’s people. With tensions rising and war once again looming, the magistrate compelled Mayor LaPall to ask for outsider's help. He issued a call for capable Adventurers to resolve the growing crisis.

The Big Little Lockford Lockdown was an incident that threw Little Lockford, a Gnome territory at the edge of the Undermire, into a state of chaos. For many years, the town's defenses were overseen by the Artificer Tixie Taffebeser Tockworth, a brilliant but increasingly-obsessive inventor whose Constructs guarded the streets and mines. Her Clockwork Defenders patrolled the districts while floating Clockwork Observers watched for intruders and relayed information back to the security center in the Overlook. Tockworth's inventions helped Little Lockford withstand repeated threats from monsters, raiders, and predators from the Deepways, and her reputation among the townsfolk steadily grew.

Eventually, however, her work became increasingly secretive and disturbing. She withdrew from public life and began replacing portions of her own body with mechanical components fashioned in her workshop in Smoldertown. Artificers and guild leaders attempted to intervene after Tockworth's behavior became erratic. Reports spread of strange outbursts, sleeplessness, and long conversations with unseen companions. Several residents claimed that she had lost interest in the well-being of her fellow citizens and now spoke of flesh as though it were weak or obsolete.

Mayor Zamzu Quickzipper Ukkem Zapp Mulberry Kreem ordered the militia to investigate and, if necessary, shut down Tockworth's workshop, but his attempt failed. Tixie's repaired Shield Guardian stationed outside the workshop drove the militia back, and soon afterward, she ordered her automatons to attack the town. Clockwork defenders turned on miners, guards, and civilians throughout the districts while observers hunted survivors through the streets. Mayor Kreem organized the survivors into a retreat through nearby tunnels and caverns beyond the city gates.

Many rock gnomes died during the evacuation, particularly in Old Lockford and Turbine Heights where militia forces attempted to hold back the constructs long enough for civilians to escape. Once the evacuation was complete, the remaining gnomes sealed the gates of Little Lockford with powerful magic to prevent the automatons from escaping into the Deepways. In the weeks that followed, the exiles established a temporary encampment outside the settlement and searched desperately for outside aid. Without their knowing, important community figures Igna Tynn Nimblepipe Bifimp Giltpurple Flint and Kavoda Zilhink Dazzlehat Urvi Oofenklanger had stayed alive, independently avoiding the automatons.

During that time, Tockworth remained inside the city, continuing her mechanical "apotheosis" while her creations reigned over the abandoned streets. The survivors eventually learned that Tockworth had built a fail-safe device into her workshop that could disable the constructs permanently, provided someone could recover the security key required to activate it.

In Tockworth's Clockworks, Mayor Kreem hired two outside Adventurers, Punmiri Tel-Phaeun and Nessa Nina Quickpick Rumbauld Pennyluck, alongside the town's cartographer Azimuth Andrea Almanac Caspian Kelshplotter and mining union leader Ragnum Ironknuckles. The four entered the sealed city, narrowly surviving near-death encounters, and retrieved Tockworth's key. Alongside forgotten criminals Slonk and Yuzzik, they shut down her automatons and defeated her in battle, forcing Tixie into retreat in the Overlook. However, using the Apparatus of Igna, they tunneled underneath the Overlook's iron defenses and defeated Tixie before she could complete her mechanical apotheosis, saving Little Lockford.

In the weeks that followed, the industrious gnomes cleaned up their city and mourned their dead. Ragnum joined Punmiri and Nessa as Igna took them back to the surface using her Apparatus, and Azimuth was elected its new Security Overseer. He vowed to ensure that Little Lockford would never allow itself to be controlled this way again.

For many years, Little Lockford's defenses were overseen by the Artificer Tixie Taffebeser Tockworth, a brilliant but obsessive inventor whose Artificial Infusions helped Little Lockford withstand repeated threats from monsters, raiders, and predators from the Deepways. Over time, Tockworth's work became increasingly secretive and disturbing. She withdrew from public life and began replacing portions of her own body with mechanical components fashioned in her workshop in Smoldertown. The other rock Gnome artificers and guild leaders attempted to intervene after Tockworth's behavior became erratic. Reports spread of strange outbursts, sleeplessness, and long conversations with unseen companions.

Mayor Zamzu Quickzipper Ukkem Zapp Mulberry Kreem ordered the militia to investigate and, if necessary, shut down Tockworth's workshop, but his attempt failed. Tixie's repaired Shield Guardian stationed outside the workshop drove the militia back, and soon afterward she ordered her Clockwork Constructs to attack the town. The resulting incident, called the Big Little Lockford Lockdown, threw Little Lockford into chaos. Constructs turned on miners, guards, and civilians throughout the districts while observers hunted survivors through the streets. Mayor Kreem organized the town into a retreat through nearby tunnels and caverns beyond the city gates.

Many rock gnomes died during the retreat, particularly in Old Lockford and Turbine Heights where militia forces attempted to hold back the constructs long enough for civilians to escape. Once the evacuation was complete, the gnomes sealed the gates of Little Lockford with powerful magic to prevent the automatons from escaping into the Deepways. In the weeks that followed, the exiles established a temporary encampment outside the settlement and searched desperately for outside aid. During that time, Tockworth remained inside the city, continuing her mechanical transformation while her creations reigned over the abandoned streets. 

The survivors eventually learned that Tockworth had built a fail-safe device into her workshop that could disable the constructs permanently, provided someone could recover the security key required to activate it. The Mayor would have to turn to outside Adventurers for help in shutting down Tockworth's Clockworks.