Spudster's page

"Ownership" of these Regions was not defined at time of the swap, this resulted in eons of warfare (both from locals attempting to possess and destroy the regions). On the Material Plane, this manifested itself mainly as war between the Cyclops and the Fey. Ultimately, Vordekai led the Cyclops, and Count Ranalc led the Fey. During what was shaping up to be a world-altering clash, the Gods again intervened (Erastil, Ragadahn, Yhidothrus, and Corchanus) to broker the "3 generations" agreement - the Vordekain Cyclops would rule for 3 generations, then the Ranalcian Fey would rule for 3 generations, and so forth (enforced by a divine forbidding)...peace was at hand!

except the 3rd generation of Vordekain became a Litch (through an alternate process not involving "death" per-se), thus preventing the change of ownership. Count Ranalc was furious, and declared these lands to be "Stolen", but soon found other distractions (Narissa). Then Earthfall occured, and Vordekai-Litch was almost destroyed, but managed to survive (albeit in a lesser-form and in slumber). All that has survived of this to common knowledge is the title, "Stolen lands".

Narissa does her thing, is punished by having her spirit broken; Briar is given her ambition, the Unicorn is given her hope, the beldame is given her endurance (explaining why she is so long lived), the hodag is given her courage - her cunning goes some where as well (just realized). Narissa is held in the First World, in the material zone (to further punish and limit her); however on the midsummer's day and midwinter's day, the two material worlds are "in-phase" and she is able to use her (limited) powers to influence things. She inhabits a "shadow court", designed to hold and amuse her. Count Ranalc is also there - they swap leadership (he rules the winter, she rules the summer). The Count is largely insane from his years in exile.

For thousands of years, lacking hope/ambition/endurance/courage/cunning she flounders, only slowly learning things. Recently she has re-discovered the Stolen Lands, and begun to "possess" through dreams confederates (The Stag Lord, Troll, King of Pitax, etc). The Stag Lord killed the Unicorn (at her command), and she regained her hope.

As the PC's find (and likely slay) the beldame and the hodag, she will gain more (endurance and courage). At this point she lacks only ambition and cunning.

Then Varnhold will happen, Vordekai will awake, etc. Lacking his full power, Vordekai will be loath to risk himself by leaving his secret lair. Instead he works remotely as best he can, through confederates, spies, and dupes. Eventually the Party stumbles on him, likely defeating him. This will end the divine ban, and revert title to the Fey for 3 generations. It is very unlikely they will suffer a Litch to exist, and if they do it will gain much of it's previous powers back (gain levels) and destroy the PC's and their fledging kingdom(and probably Brevoy as well).

The Count is the new owner, and then his son and grandson shall rule (which might be a very, very long time). However, the Count is locked up in the dungeon of the shadow court, unable to take posession. The Cyclops (long extinct) are barred from entering, but humans (and other races) are fine, having been considered "animals" back then. No one seems to have seen fit to "update" the terms (or even remembered much about this, 3 of the Gods having died and Erastil quite content to let this region "rot" for his animals benefit). When humans entered (600 years ago) Aroden sent priests to ensure the treaty was not violated...in the more recent incursions 60 years ago Aroden was dead, and Iomedae was still assuming the divine mantle so did not have time for this matter. The Gods (with Iomadae as their representative) does not want the Fey to rule this region until the end of time, so seeks to "negotiate" a new treaty with the Fey. In my world, Iomadae is behind this new effort (having put dreams in the Lord Mayor of Restov to select the PC's in the first place, after a "street riot" took the lives of the previous group, who where mostly fey). The party has a cleric of Iomadae. The temple was converted to a temple of Aroden (instead of Erastil) - it is now being converted to Iomadae...(on "Inheritor Day" no less).

So the Count will petition the Queen (Narissa) to take possession for him. Ironically this is exactly what she wants but cannot initiate (lacking ambition herself). So she will send the Hidden Ambassador, etc. And the Shadow Courts module will kick-in (with adjustments).

The PC's will travel to the Shadow Courts, and eventually become the consort of the queen (Narissa!), and convince her (if they are smart) to give them oversite of the stolen lands (which she will do, lacking her cunning and ambition and having lost interest in the Count for now). The PC's will then travel home, content that they have dealt with that threat.

Then they will do the Pitax stuff, and find Briar. Depending how they handle that, when they ultimately face her one of them will have slept with her (making her defeat that much sweeter)

the party explored the lonely barrow last night...I made the final creature a Koloran Cyclops Barbarian wight. This was a King of one of the tribes that fought Vordakai ~10,000 years ago. Emphasized how the skeletons were weaponless and had no clothing, with a few badly corroded lumps here and there that may have been weapons at one time. Only the +2 Fey Bane Bastard Sword (which I said was a non-human weapon equivalent to a bastard sword) survived, as well as a jade necklace strung on a gold chain....(they will have to take the sword back to Restov to sell, and have been developing contacts with the Seers and the Wizards, ultimately to build their own Library to fund their research, so they will get some pre-earthfall history - "only a few scraps of the ancient texts survive")