The Farolas Hills
by ShaneGThe Farolas Hills West
The hills are alive with the sound of battle.
Landmarks: Cliff Fortress Hearth-Home
Resources: Minerals (Gems, Salt), Ores (Iron)
Secrets: Goblins have been sneaking into the hills causing strife against dwarves and orcs.
Encounters (Air):
1) Bat
2) Eagle
3) Elemental, Air
4) Owl
5) Vulture
6) Wasp Swarm
Encounters (Land):
1) Badger
2) Boar
3) Dwarven Army
4) Dwarven Hunters
5) Orc Raiders
6) Snake
Encounters (Water): None
In the far northwestern valley of Thunder Rift lie these hills. The area received its name from a famous dwarf adventurer, the first dwarf to set foot in Thunder Rift.
The hills here are smooth and evenly rounded, looking almost fabricated. The brown knolls are littered with sagebrush and small trees, and an occasional cave system pocks the slopes.
The hills terminate to the east in grassland and to the west against a sheer cliff face. There, the dwarven keep Hearth-Home is carved into the living stone of the cliffs, a foreboding presence over the entire area.
Not only are the dwarves powerful in this area. After years of relative peace, the orcs have returned to the Rift from their hiding places, and they harass Hearth-Home whenever possible. Both dwarves and orcs vie for control of the Farolas Hills area, as it is ideally suited for both of them. Since each group holds a lasting enmity for the other, there is little chance that the two races will learn to coexist peacefully. It is much more likely that they will spend their lives trying to exterminate one another.
Hearth-Home
Fortress
Government: autocracy
Population: 140 (120 dwarves, 15 gnomes, 5 others)
Languages: Common, Dwarven
Threats: orc raids
Lord Ragni: The Lord of Hearth-Home
Otaras Stoneson: Leader and Keeper of the Gate (military)
Borren: Ambassador
Cook: A chef
The walls of the fortress are scarred with years of battle and the hills around it are scorched and blackened. Imposing black gates protect the fortress.
Within lie a great hall, chancery offices, apartments for guards, staff and the current lord, kitchen and dining halls. The lord’s audience chamber has stairs down to the dungeon.
The dwarves guard an exit from Thunder Rift in Hearth-Home. An old wizard’s mountain stronghold set within that existed long before the dwarves found the region.
Beneath the fortress is the Underkeep. It is composed of four parts: the kitchen cellars, the dungeons, the vaults, and the crypt. They are all connected together by secret passages. All are linked to an escape tunnel built by the ancestors in the chance that the keep should fall to attackers. It leads about one mile south of Hearth-Home.
The tradition of Hearth-Home is that nothing of value is buried with a departed Lord, so that everything can be handed down to the successor. Therefore, there is nothing to be found among the dead.
One of the ancestors dabbled in evil magic and alchemy, and who knows what else. He secretly built a set of hidden rooms in the Underkeep for his sinister works, but they have never been found.
Dwarves of old
Farolas: Lord and founder of the hills and Heath-Hold - dead
Lord Hargun: Lord - dead
Lord Burgrim: Lord - dead
Lord Durgan: Lord - dead
Lord Gargin the Mad: Lord, Magic-User and Alchemist – undead (Wight)
Thragat Orc's-blood: A member of the Quadrial (generals of the Rift) - dead
Barr: Unknown – Unknown but presumed dead
Others
Asticles: Magic-User (coat of arms: wand crossing over a broken sword) and builder of the wizard stronghold which now lies within Hearth-Home - dead
Nazzird: worked for Asticles as a jailer and assassin – undead (Wraith)
The Farolas Hills East
The hills are alive with the sound of war chants.
Landmarks: Old battlefields
Resources: Used weapons mostly of dwarven or orcish make, orc mercenaries
Secrets: There is an old dwarven salt mine someplace within these hills that is now a dragon’s lair.
Encounters (Air):
1) Bat
2) Eagle
3) Elemental, Air
4) Vulture
5) Wasp Swarm
6) Roll on Upper Great Grasslands Encounters (Air)
Encounters (Land):
1) Dwarven Army
2) Dwarven Scouts
3) Orc Hunters
4) Orc Raiders
5) Orc Warband
6) Roll on Upper Great Grasslands Encounters (Land)
Encounters (Water): None
A road between the village of Kleine and Hearth-Home used to be free of trouble. Kleine used to export many dwarf-made goods to the world outside the Rift. However, with the resurgence of orcs in the area, this route has become highly dangerous. Most caravans are not willing to risk the danger of orcish hordes to make their profits, so the road has fallen into disuse.
Although the dwarves are generally better organized and are better fighters, the orcs have the advantage of numbers. Dwarves produce few offspring, but orcs are extremely prolific and view their kin as expendable. The orcs are thus slowly whittling the dwarves away. They believe that, someday, there will be no more dwarves to oppose them-unless others foil their plans.
Anyone traveling in the Farolas Hills will almost certainly encounter a force of either orcs or dwarves, and encounters with orcs will definitely be in the majority.
Occasionally, adventurers may witness remarkable pitched battles between these foes. The savagery of these engagements often shocks observers, for the dwarves and
orcs spare no thoughts of pity for one another. Both sides welcome allies in their ruthless war, wanting only to eliminate the other as soon as possible.
Orcs of old
Unknown: Leader that brought the orcs back into Thunder Rift – presumed dead