Vale of Woe

  A land of small villages of huddled homes ... Between settled places, inns provide places of refuge against the night ...  An old land dotted with ruins evidence of a tragic past of loss and conflict ... Even more ancient stones speak to a primeval past of mystical energy ...  Misty, marshy moorland ... travellers are easily lost ...  Hills dotted with rocky tors ...  At the edges of all ruins and settlements ... ancient, thick woods ... ... few paths pass under groaning boughs ...  Deep within the trackless woods, fey and eldritch beings dominate places of power and secrets ...

 The land of the Vale contains many threats ...  Warriors who strive for gold, renown or the acknowledgement of an overlord ...  Desperate men eager to win the favour of a fickle being or spirit ...  Barely human rotten cadavers riddled with virulent plague ...  Hags of the river, lake or sea ...  Fey and cruel Goblin tribes ...   Ravenous wolves of evil cunning ...  Brutal bugbears ...  Brooding and gluttonous ogres and hobgoblins ...  Powerful, ageless trolls ...  Vicious werewolves ...  Ancient trees of wisdom, power and malevolence ...  Spirits of the wood and fen ...  Deep tunnels gouged in the earth by ravening ghouls ...  Flesh devouring crypt worms burrow through graveyards and infest sewers ...  Ancient barrows, tombs and graves haunted by malevolent protectors who despise the living ...  Degraded humans - deranged by hate, greed, loss or revenge - despise life and light ...  Dark sha...

For obligation and honour, Lord Roullot summoned the men of the Vale for a glorious campaign. They were tasked by the king to bring low the perfidious island city of Montaine.  For weeks, Roullot's brave company toiled in the siege. At mounting cost they struggled, growing desperate for promised reinforcement from the King ... that never arrived. As their allies slipped away, Roullet's force was surrounded and imprisoned.  Roullet passed rotting in a squalid prison - unable to raise ransom. Totally isolated, the survivors were enslaved within darkened mines or fettered to splintered galley oars. Dreams of the verdant Vale, and welcoming homes, kept each alive.  Eventually, a few scrabbled for freedom. Over months, each was forced to play many roles before weary footsteps led them toward home. As they neared, rumours rose of the land ahead beset by ravaging wolves.  Their home had been twisted ...  beset by the greed of the King, mercenary bands and barbarian att...