Heroes of the Vale

Written by Jerall Toi Illustrated by Matt Meyer

With Forgegrinder’s fifth automaton on the loose, the chance of outside help arriving shrinks with every passing day. Despite finding themselves in this seemingly impossible situation, there are a few from within the Hidden Vale willing to take action. Brave individuals, from the humblest of beginnings, now set out to find a way, from within, to reconnect the Vale with the outside world.

Forgegrinder’s Apprentice

You’ve always had a talent for magic and the arcane, even though the Vale didn’t provide much opportunity to practice it. You considered Forgegrinder’s arrival as the best thing to ever happen to your secluded home town, despite the tragic turn of events. Though he never accepted you formally as his apprentice, he often managed to purposefully not notice you when you peered through his window or looked over his shoulder. On occasion, he would even absent-mindedly leave the occasional book or pile of notes just where you would find them.

Forgegrinder’s death wasn’t easy for you to process, but you know that he wouldn’t want you to spend your days moping around. Now, you are the only one in the Vale that has a hope of understanding any of his writings. You may not be as skilled or as experienced as Forgegrinder, but your natural talent, sharp mind and Forgegrinder’s collection of books and notes might be enough to help solve the Vale’s automaton problem.

You have no formal training or education, but rather than letting it hinder you, you embrace it. This allows you a freedom of thought that manifests as an insightful, out-of-the-box problem-solving ability not readily found amongst the thought-blinkered formally educated.

Forgegrinder’s books and notes are an invaluable source of information and you’ve managed to retain some of that knowledge. However, there’s simply too much for you to absorb. Thankfully, you’ve managed to puzzle out the Warsmith’s convoluted indexing system. With enough time and access to his texts, you can answer nearly any question pertaining to Forgegrinder’s areas of expertise.

In your backpack, you might find: enough scrap and spares to make minor field repairs to mechanical objects; an improvised warsmith’s toolkit; a selection of Forgegrinder’s notes; and an unlabeled flask of oil taken from a crate under Forgegrinder’s bed.

The Merchant

For as long as you can remember, you’ve been traveling with your uncle and his merchant caravan. His long and winding route would bring you to the hidden vale once a year, during the late spring when the mountain passes were easier to traverse. Your uncle would trade spices, medicinal herbs and poultices, and various luxury items for furs, hides and other produce and products unique to the Vale. Normally, your uncle would only spend a week, maybe two, in the vale. This time, however, you find yourself trapped there, first by marauding soldiers and then by Forgegrinder’s automatons.

Since you’re not used to staying in one place for too long, you now direct your energies towards finding a way out of the Vale. You have learned much on your travels, some of which may prove handy when trying to find a way out of the Vale.

You are no stranger to combat, though you lack any formal training. You’ve needed to defend the caravan, on more than one occasion, against brigands, wild beasts and other dangers of the road.

Watching and working with your uncle has taught you a lot about the power of words. You know how to talk your way past a corrupt guard post, interpret the dangerous legalese of contracts and, perhaps most importantly, dazzle and inspire others – especially potential buyers.

In your backpack, you might find: forged writs of passage through the war-torn lands surrounding the Vale; your lucky coin; a small bag of salt; and a copy of a treasure map, detailing an area that seems very similar to the Hidden Vale.

The Shepherd

The mountains surrounding the Vale can be a dangerous place – especially for a hapless sheep. Looking back on your short life, you realize that most of your martial skill developed through the games you played as a child of a mountain shepherd, and was refined through defending your father’s herd from predators, both mundane and fantastic. You, and your loyal dog, have successfully fended off wild mountain cats, large raptors and the mysterious cave-dwelling beasts of the night.

Though initially wary of the Dwarven Warsmith, Forgegrinder quickly won you over with his various tools and gadgets that made everything, from shearing sheep to getting a scared lamb out of a tight crevice, easier. Now, however, you realize that your original suspicions were well placed.

You are at home in the rough terrain of the mountainside. Despite your size, you are able to move with surprising grace and speed amongst the jagged rocks and slippery slopes. Your ability to navigate through the mountains will surely prove valuable in finding an alternate route to the outside world.

A trained warrior may say that your fighting style seems wild and desperate, but then, how many trained warriors are used to fighting against the dangers of the wild mountainside. Besides, anybody would be desperate, if they had to face your father after losing one of his flock.

In your backpack, you might find: a small musical instrument; a warm, waterproofed blanket; a length of rope; and a tooth from the mountain cat that took one of your fingers (one day, you’ll get that cat).

Heroes of the Vale by Nevermet Press is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.nevermetpress.com/contact.

Portrait of a Villain: Automated Antagonist

Written by Paul King Illustrated by Kenya Ferrand

Keywords: humanoid construct Race: warforged, android, golem Profession: guards, assassin

This one’s purpose is its ‘life,’ to take one is to take the other. Your interference threatens both. This one can not allow that.

Fiction

Many years ago, during a time of strife and forgotten conflict, there stood a quiet, modest city in a small, sheltered valley – both sharing the name Hidden Vale. This city needed no fortifications, for the mountains themselves served as a wall more imposing and formidable than any yet built by the hands of man, dwarf or elf – the only means of accessing the valley being a narrow road that led through a rugged pass in the mountains.

The residents of the valley were a laid back, simple folk who enjoyed the small pleasures of life and warmly received the few travelers and enterprising caravans that endured the trek to their bucolic realm. It was to this area that Rendersson Forgegrinder, artificer of the arcane, arrived one fateful day.

Rendersson arrived in Hidden Vale looking for a peaceful place in which to settle. He had spent much of his life traveling abroad and experiencing the world, only to find that much of it did not suit him. The recent exacerbation of hostilities between two nations bordering the quiet vale serving only to magnify his desire to remove himself from the senseless conflict.

Both fascinated and a little unnerved by the strange contraptions and animated constructs he bore with him, the locals welcomed the worldweary dwarf into their midst. Before long the talented tinkerer and metalworker had set up shop and, day by day, became more immersed in this new place he called home. Rendersson Forgegrinder and his metal menagerie became a common sight around Hidden Vale – repairing tools and equipment, helping wherever he could with farming and construction. For a season, all was well.

Then, one perfect fall evening, the unthinkable happened – the Vale was attacked. A band of marauders rode into the vale. But this group of cutthroats was no simple raiding party, but a detachment of trained soldiers come seeking the one known as Forgegrinder. It did not take long to find out where his shop was located. They rode up to the door, leaving a trail of blood and ash in their wake. The old dwarf met them on his porch.

“Your holiday is over, Warsmith, the King Raithan sent us to fetch you back. There’s work to be done.” Captain Hastur, a hulking brute of a man and the leader of the detachment, hopped from his mount and stalked over.

“You’ve got the wrong dwarf, sir.” Rendersson, replied, “And you have brought pain and suffering to these people, and for no reason. I suggest you leave now.”

“No dwarf, you brought this upon them in hiding here, and your refusal to come with us will only cause more of the same! Did you really think your disappearance would go unnoticed? With a war going on?”

Rendersson Forgegrinder looked past the group of heavily armed men to the chaos that followed them. Those townsfolk who were not putting out fires or fearfully dragging the body of a friend or lover from the street looked upon him from behind shuttered windows and drawn curtains. Even in the growing darkness, he could see the fear and anger in their eyes. He knew that the man, vile as he was and stained by innocent blood, spoke the truth.

“Very well, Captain, if you promise to leave these people be, I’ll return with you.” Rendersson took a few steps forward.

“Not so fast, Warsmith,” The leader put a hand out to stop him, “The king wants you back, but he also wants the papers and scrolls you took when you left. He’s got that unstoppable army of his to finish building.”

“What makes you think I need them? I’ve got all I need up here.” The dwarf tapped his head. The hulking fighter considered this for a moment, then glanced around Hidden Vale.

“I suppose it makes no difference, we’ll be returning here shortly – now that we know about this place, I’m sure the Raithan will be happy to annex it. Sooner or later, we’ll find them.”

The old dwarf’s heart fell. He knew that in choosing to hide in Hidden Vale, he had doomed the very people who so warmly welcomed him into their midst. If only he could erase what he’d done . . . a sudden spark of hope kindled within him. Perhaps there was a way he could protect Hidden Vale.

Forgegrinder allowed a heavy sigh to escape his lips, “That won’t be necessary, I have them inside.”

“I thought you might,” the Hastur sneered, an expression he wore frequently, “Gather them up, and let’s be quit of this sorry backwater.”

The dwarf paused at his door, “It’s more than I can carry alone, either help me or wait for me to make several trips.”

The large man gestured to two of his men as the dwarf disappeared inside his shop. The two soldiers dismounted and made their way onto the porch and left the door open as they wondered inside, looking around for the short stocky form of the dwarf. The Captain turned to open his saddlebags and make room for items he’d been sent to fetch. Suddenly, the door slammed shut, causing him to spin back around. A second later, his sword was in his hand as a crash and a stifled scream made its way to him from within the shop.

“The old fool thinks he can hold out in his shop, does he? Everyone inside!” The large man moved to the porch with surprising speed and, raising a huge boot, kicked the door in as his men rushed inside. They found the dwarf standing in the middle of the room. The bodies of their two comrades splayed lifelessly on the floor.

“Big mistake, Warsmith, it’s not you we’ve been ordered to bring back, merely your notes and plans.” A wicked grin crossed the big soldier’s face. “In attacking my men, you’ve saved us the trouble of having to haul your treasonous carcass back to the king.”

The dwarf calmly held his ground, “Oh, I didn’t attack your men, Hastur.” He pointed to the rafters above them, “they did.”

Hastur and his men looked just in time to see a wave of metal forms crash down upon them from the shadows.

Several long minutes passed before the door to Rendersson Forgegrinder’s shop opened and, trailing footprints of red on the dusty planks, a short, stout form walked out on the porch to stand before the fearful crowd that had begun to gather when the soldiers had all run inside. The dwarf passed a sad, weary gaze over the residents of Hidden Vale that had dared to assemble. His head bowed heavily. “My friends, I am so very sorry. I came here to find peace and escape war, but instead brought pain and bloodshed. I cannot undo what has been done, but I will see to it that you are never harmed by the outside world again. This I swear, not only on my own life, but on the life of any wicked being who sets foot in Hidden Vale from this day forth.”

Background

Rendersson Forgegrinder was a gifted dwarven blacksmith with a talent for arcane infusion. Having seen his creations used time and time again by the greedy, warmongering King Raithan to inflict pain and misery, Forgegrinder collected all of his notes, being especially mindful not to leave behind any plans for his most recent creation – magical automatons the king intended to use as soldiers – and disappeared.

Fearing pursuit, and fearing more that a rival kingdom might try to abuse his creations as his former king had, Forgegrinder fled into the mountains and stumbled, quite literally, into Hidden Vale. The quiet, beautiful Vale was everything Rendersson desired after a life surrounded by conflict and bloodshed. He took quickly to the new environment and worked hard to become a member of their community, using his talents and creations to help the people of the Vale in any way he could.

Unfortunately, word got out about the amazing tinkerer of Hidden Vale and eventually made its way back to his former employer, the vengeful king. He dispatched a group of soldiers to discover the whereabouts of the fugitive dwarf and fetch both the plans and the arcane blacksmith back with them – dead or alive. The dwarf initially attempted to negotiate himself for the safety of the vale, but quickly realized that the king would never leave the vale and its peaceful inhabitants alone. Luring his would-be captors into his shop, he wiped the group of hardened warriors to a man by turning his creations on them.

Knowing that this act of sedition would not go unanswered by the king, Rendersson quickly set about using his unique abilities to construct a special set of autonomous defenses for Hidden Vale. In this way, he hoped to keep the residents of the vale safe from the unwanted attention that hounded him. To keep the small valley hidden, he constructed a special field that could nullify any attempts to magically discern its location or spy on its inhabitants.

Then, re-working and updating the plans he had been preparing for King Raithan, Rendersson built a group of four powerful arcane sentinels to guard the narrow mountain pass leading into the small valley from would-be invaders. To these implacable unliving soldiers of metal he gave a single purpose – ensure that no outsider set foot in Hidden Vale.

Over the next few weeks, several caravans and a handful of travelers were peaceably turned away at the pass. This was tolerated for a time, but as the already-meager trickle of money and goods that flowed into the vale dried up, questions and grumblings about the effectiveness of Forgegrinders’ sentinels began. The tipping point came when the remains of a caravan led by a hardheaded driver who attempted to push his way through the blockade were discovered. Before they knew it, the residents of the Vale were completely cut off from the rest of the world. More upsetting yet, any residents who had traveled outside the vale were no longer allowed to return to their homes and families.

The elders of the Vale approached Rendersson and demanded that he fix his creations to allow traders and residents safe passage without molestation. Forgegrinder tried to explain to them the evils of the outside world and the need to for protection from their greedy kings and the bloody wars they constantly waged and how no one on the outside could be trusted – that even those native to the vale might be seduced and convinced to betray their own people.

It was during this exchange that the old dwarf let slip a surprising detail – a third means of protecting the Vale had been constructed and set in motion. When pressed on the matter, Forgegrinder confessed that, in the crushing remorse and despair he felt over the carnage he’d brought to Hidden Vale, he had come to believe that, for the good of all who lived there, any knowledge of Hidden Vale by the outside world must be extinguished. To that end, a fifth sentinel was created, equipped and dispatched to the outside world to seek and destroy any and all evidence of the vale’s existence, starting with the bloody King Raithan.

Furious, the people of the Vale demanded that Rendersson undo what he had wrought. The dwarf tried to explain that, in order to produce the sentinels so quickly, the rituals and bindings he used to create them could not be altered once applied. A mob formed and drove him up into the pass to put a stop to his creations. The dwarf moved to the nearest sentinel and began to alter one of the runes that defined its operating parameters.

The sentinel, perceiving an attack, lashed out in an act of self-preservation – unknowingly killing its creator. Associating the nearby mob with the attack, the sentinels chased the group back into the valley, before resuming their positions. From that day on, the pass became unapproachable from either direction. Rendersson Forgrinders’ creations were now wardens to those within as well as guards to those without.

Outside the small valley, a mysterious solitary figure traveled the country side, silently stalking the fading legend of Hidden Vale.

Purpose & Behavior

Rendersson Forgegrinders’ sentinels are not motivated so much as they are programmed to behave a certain way. To fulfill their purpose, they will work together to the utmost of their abilities. The set of operating parameters that they were hastily bound to are as follows:

• Ensure that no creature, alive or otherwise, enters Hidden Vale.
• Aid and protect the citizens of Hidden Vale, provided doing so does not conflict with # 1.
• Preserve own ability to function and carry out one’s intended purpose, provided doing so does not conflict with # 1 or 2.

The fifth construct was created with a different purpose – and therefore a different set of operating parameters in mind:

• Seek out and eliminate any reference to or knowledge of Hidden Vale, outside of the Vale itself.
• Aid in the defense and preservation of Hidden Vale against imminent threat, provided doing so does not conflict with # 1.
• Preserve own ability to function and carry out one’s intended purpose, provided doing so does not conflict with # 1 or 2.

Within these parameters, the constructs were granted the ability to reason, plan and act of their own accord, with an emphasis being placed on speed and efficiency. Achieving the maximum result with the minimum amount of effort contributes to success in the face of what might otherwise be overwhelming odds, as does being free from the mental, physical and emotional needs of living beings and possessing limitless endurance and strength beyond that of most (medium to large) humanoids.

As impressive as Forgegrinder’s constructs were, perhaps the most important feature they were granted was the ability to learn and retain knowledge. Any strategy or tactic used against the creations is remembered and, if possible, put into use when deemed appropriate.

They cannot copy abilities they do not already possess, however, such as flight or spellcasting – though they were given wards against magic that might be used against them – but remain keenly aware of any characteristics associated with those who use such abilities for future reference. Consequently, given enough time and the necessary exposure, each sentinel possesses the capacity to become detailed repositories of military and arcane knowledge.

Adventure Hooks

• A terrified NPC approaches the PC’s, convinced that death itself stalks him. In much the same way, this NPC encountered a weary, ragged individual in a forest some distance away who staggered into his presence, muttering incoherently about something called ‘Hidden Vale’ before passing out from exhaustion.The NPC tried to make this battered stranger comfortable and went off in search of food, water and first aid for the various bruises and cuts that appear to have come from a headlong flight through dense wilderness. Upon returning, the NPC finds that the stranger has been brutally murdered and immediately flees for his/her life. Since that day, the NPC has lived in fear of a mysterious, unexplained presence. What the PC’s may not want to hear is that theirs is not the first party of adventurers this fearful NPC has approached . . .
• A mysterious fire has destroyed the wing of a reputable library containing maps and atlases. There are no suspects and no logical motive for such a senseless act of vandalism. The head of the library, an accomplished magic user, attempts to divine some information about the culprit(s) only to discover that the person or persons responsible are hidden and protected by a particular set of wards not seen since the last war instigated by the bloodthirsty (and by now, quite dead) King Raithan.
• In a small frontier town – recently rebuilt and repopulated after a horrific massacre and nearly being razed to the ground – a surprising number of fliers depicting missing persons have been posted. The residents of the town are very emphatic that they have nothing to do with the disappearances and, more curiously, have no desire to repeat the fate of the original town by investigating matters too deeply. The townsfolk ask that the PC’s not visit any further calamity upon them and, for the love of all that is Lawful Good, stay out of the mountains.
• The PC’s, in their travels, happen across an abandoned, nearly overgrown trade route. Oddly enough, they can find no mention of or reference to it on any maps they might possess. Nature and History checks are also of no use in determining where it might lead.

Combat Tactics

The four sentinels guarding Hidden Vale maintain a set defensive posture: Two sentinels stand in the road facing any who approach. The other two sentinels, one hidden on each side of the pass, make their way to the rear of the approaching individuals or group and, should hostilities begin, attack from the rear. When attempts are made to approach the pass from within the Vale (an exceedingly rare occurrence), the two road sentinels move to usher – or fight – them back into the valley while the two hidden sentinels move to take up the two original positions on the road. Any who approach within 10 feet of the sentinels are given a verbal warning to turn back, lest they be attacked. No information as to their purpose or what they guard is given.

The fifth sentinel acts as a lone assassin, assessing a location or situation before acting in populated areas, searching for the most effective means of destroying its target while remaining hidden and anonymous – a tactic it has come to define as allowing for the most complete fulfillment of its purpose in the long run. Should it recognize a target person or object in a secluded area with little or no chance of witnesses, interference or escape, it will attack directly and immediately unless it determines that doing so will jeopardize success on any concurrent or future missions.

This lone sentinel also has the ability to speak, but will rarely do so beyond asking the whereabouts of an individual or directions to a destination.

Automated Antagonist by Nevermet Press is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.nevermetpress.com/contact.