Trials of the Crimson Guard

To serve in the Guard is the greatest Honor or the worst punishment depending on the Kingdom you reside. For two hundered years the Guard has kept the peace amongst the waring Kingdoms settling border disputes and provided security in the hostile lands. Now with a fresh guard deployed to replace a corrupt unit that had ruled the lands for ten years, this new guard must win the hearts of the inhabitants and fight back the corruption and evil that infest these new communities.

History of the Guard

For over two hundred years after the Great War when the armies of the Five Kingdoms united to remove the evil giants that ruled the Northern Lands, the truce between the fractured kingdoms created the Order of the Crimson Guard. Designed with the task of keeping the peace, the guard has been essential to the prosperity of the great Northern Lands for settlement and union with the five kingdoms. Only the best of the communities surrounding the Valley serve in the Guard. To serve to some is an honor passed down from tradition, for others it’s a punishment for insubordination or political isolation. For what ever the case, the guard is respected and loathed in the region for it’s authority over the settlements that have made their home in the Northern Lands.

The Battle of Seth Kar

The Great War ended with the five armies victoious over the giants from the north. But after the fearsome battle as the dust begin to settle, the fragile alliance soon began to fall apart. Already the races began to distrust one another and old conflicts prior to the giant menace began to resurface. Thanks to a contigency of foward thinking soldiers, the resurgence of violence was prevented. They displayed red markings from their banners to distinguish themselves and were dubed the Crimson Guard. The guard was influencial in getting the five kingdoms to form a treaty. They wrote also in the treaty that the Crimson Guard would be the mediator to handle disputes in the future and to uphold the treaty. To replenish it’s ranks, each kingdom would send it’s greates warriors, thinkers, wizards, and holy men to serve the guard. Over the years the guard has served as a neutral party in disputes amongst the races and communties that flourished over the centuries. Only the eldest Eldarin, elf and occasional dwarf can recall that day and it was the Great war that left the Teifling and Dragonborn empires to fall.

Betrayal of the Fifth Kingdom

Eighty years ago, The greatest test of the Crimson Guard was regarding the Vasharan Kingdom moving forces to the west to claim lands they lost during the previous war. The remnants other kingdoms had no desire to face the massive force of the Vasharans and made no effort to marshal forces to protect the people from the conquest. But the Crimson Guard stationed in the lands refuse to allow the approaching army to continue. The Guard held off the overwhelming opposing forces for six bloody days.

The Vasharan Kingdom lost so many soldiers in that battle that they could not secure the lands and the local people drove them back. The heroic but controversial act of the Guard was debated by the four remaining kingdoms and future of the guard was uncertain. Many who lost good soldiers in the guard refuse to send new volunteers into service for many decades.

With the expansion of the kingdoms into the frontier, the need for the guard resurfaced and many of the reluctant communities began to send volunteers to replenish the Guards ranks.

Book 1: The Valley of Obelisks

For three years the Griffon Guard in the Valley of the Obelisks had been a corrupt and cruel guard that exploited the weak and helpless for monetary gain. That guard, however, mysteriously disappeared, calling for a replacement unit under the new Consulate, Amos Peltar, who has made it his priority to clean up the Guard’s reputation in the valley.

On arrival to the valley the Guard lost their Quartermaster to illness and participated in a ceremony where the absence of their predecessors was obvious. Hoping to make a good impression they take on the request of the Village of Stumpflat to investigate a series of robberies. Their investigation lead them to an underground chamber where dark eldricth runes surround the walls and creatures. In combat the Guard falls to the powerful creatures save the Bugbear Ugg the Beast who manages to rescue them. After losing their Spokesman Warlock to the deadly runes and gaining the ally of Eldeth the Dwarf Cleric, they re-ascended the chamber and fight the Pseudo Dragon Blackspire who mistaken them for the Griffon Guard. It was at this confrontation that the group heard the first uttering of Slaughterguard.

With the stolen objects returned, the guard heads to the village of Hemulak to aid their new ally, Eldeth. But they find the village under siege by hobgoblins. They defeat the foes and manage to follow them to their lair in the Slaughterguard Lab. It was their they learned from a Summoned Maug the story of slaughterguard and the story of the Griffon Guard’s fall into evil told by an ex-member Cornelius Red Mane.

On their return, the village of Hemulak is once again attacked leaving the fate of the Twighlight Guard’s Tatictical Officer, Ugg the beast Uncertain. With the village in ruins, Eldeth joins the guard back tot he City of Sumberton in hopes to have an audience with the Governor to request aid for her people.