The history of Shadowdales Own begans many years ago in the town of Shadowdale,located in the Forgotten Realms.Lord Mourngrym of Shadowdale ruled.The town of Daggerfalls was under Zhentish control.The Zhents were on the move trying to expand their influence throughout the realms.There wasn't much to celebrate on.The local town leaders and powers were busy occupied by trying to slow the progress of the Zhentarium forces.The Arch-Mage Elminster himself,was occupied by the ongoing conflict along with several of his local allies.
The young son of a local farmer,Clay Bestil was returning from Tethyr where he recently graduated from Tyrran Paladin Academy,with honors.Normally this would be a great day for the town,had it not been at war.Clay Bestil was met on the road by his fiance the young Priestess of Chauntea, Deeyana.The priestess having a local temple, made good on her promise to marry Clay and they became wed.Upon arriving in town they were greeted by family and friends ,including the twin brothers Maylenyon,pranksters from birth.They sought to impress the newly weds with a display of magic ,which was their current vocation at the time.Well needless to say their skill left something to be desired and a miss cast spell brought an early end to the celebration.
The reunion was short lived there was a war at hand,Lord Mourngrym allied himself with the exciled ruler of Daggerfalls Lord Randal Morn.The city held a council meeting asking for volunteers to aid this cause ,a group of adventurors that could represent the City of Shadowdale.Many volunteers came forth including the young Bestil's,however they were turned away thought to be far to young in their age and experience.This angered the young adventurors,strong in faith and will, they decided to embark on their own.They went to their friends telling them were they were going in case their parents worried.The reaction of their friends was unexpected.First the brothers Jack and John,feeling foolish and guilty over the wedding mishap thought to redeem themselves and opted to join Deeyana and Clay.Next came Deeyana's nature oriented brother Rafar and his very brave young fairie folk companion the Sprite Jabber the Great.Tagging along, having not been invited.Two teenage girls by the name of Topaz and Skylight who were young, and looking for adventure, outside the gates of Shadowdale.
They headed towards Daggerfalls,seeking to join the resistance force led by Randal Morn.Along the way they ran into a small unit of Zhentish soldiers,melee ensued with the adventurors winning.Upon the dying breath of the last soldier the question was asked ,"Who are you."The answer was given we are Shadowdales Own.They joined Lord Randal Morns Freedom Fighters ,working independently of Lord Morn,the company struck out on it's own.
The battle for Daggerfalls was a tremendously fought campaign,being fought on many fronts.The company of Shadowdales Own prove itself many times over.Thats when they first encountered undead troops,which would turn out to be their calling in the years to come.As with all wars certain prices must be paid,such was the case of the young Ranger Topaz who fell at the hands of a Zhentarium ambush.Shadowdales Own was then partnered with a young Sgt.in the Freedom Fighters by the name of Zaread and his warrior sister Zatara.Both were capable warriors who proved themselves in the final conflict.The battle for Daggerfalls finally came to an end.The forces of Lord Randal Morn and his allies proved to be to great for the Zhentarium forces protecting Daggerfalls.Lord Randal Morn took the throne,in sincere appreciation for Shadowdales Own assistence Lord Morn with the cooperation of Lord Mourngrym of Shadowdale officially chartered the Company of Shadowdales Own to defend the interest of the dalelands from hence forth.
Life appeared to be going great the brother and sister team of Zaread and Zatara were so impressed with Shadowdales Own that they took leave of the Freedom Fighters to adventure with Shadowdales Own.Unfortunitly things did not last,first the Ranger Rafar still feeling guilty about losing his young Ranger in training Topaz,took off vowing not to return to civilazation.Then was gone into the forest.Next the Zhentarium struck blaming Shadowdales Own for their loss in Daggerfalls they struck home,while Shadowdales Own was out adventuring Lord Mourngrym was slain.Information found out it was a free lance assassin hired by the Zhentarium out of the city of LLork.The city was in outrage the Zhents struck home,justice must be served.Shadowdales Own was then hired to investigate and if possible bring back the assassin to stand trial for the murder of Lord Mourngrym.
Shadowdales Own left with the assisstence and support of some of the towns more famous notibles.They were given detailed instructions along with several points of contact,and told the safest way to travel, while in the city would be through the underdark.They were also told to look up a Chauntea Priest who was a Harper by the name of Dalnetorh,who had been providing information to them but hadn't been heard from in several weeks.With the information and tasks at hand, the company arrived using the underdark, with very few encounters.During one of there excusions to the surface they found out that the priest had a small temple on the outskirts of town.The company went discovering the temple had been desicrated by Zhentish Baneites.They found it to be occupied by a very powerful Ghost and her undead troops.After a fierce battle was raged costing the life of the newly converted Paladin of Helm,Zaread.The ghost was defeated at the hands of the up and coming priestess of Chauntea Deeyana.Deeyana took a look around at the desicrated temple to her goddess and vowed from henceforth to cleanse and rid the Realm of undead.While searching through the temple the still alive body of the priest Dalnetorh was found.He was alive but very insane,they had brutally tortured him up until his dying breath,in hopes that he would denounce his Goddess.After several hours of prayer she was able to cure his mind, through her strong faith in her Goddess.It was not over however through the Goddess herself spoke to Deeyana in a vision,outlining her quest in life and to aid her in her travels she was given a gift ,a magical mace.Whom she entitled Bone Basher,which had unsual but very useful combat properties vs. undead.Thus she began to consecrate the land once again hoping to return it to holy land for the Temple.The halmark of the Temple had been a very powerful and wise treant that lived in the Temple.Deeyana had been searching throughthe remains when she unearthed a seed from the mighty treant ,vowing to bring this Temple to its former glory.She replanted the seed and prayed,Dalnetorh vowed that he would stay and watch over the treant and the Temple.
Returning to the quest at hand with renewed vigor,the company sought out to infiltrate the Zhent stronghold,the Zhentarium posted a young but powerful and very cruel Wizard as Llork's Lord,Geildarr Ithym.Shadowdales Own struck,disaster,the intel that they recieved brought them up through the underdark,onto the strongholds parade field.Where they were met by an awaiting Zhentish force,ambush.A large melee insued the Zhentish force proved entirely to strong driving the company back to the underground,not with out losses,the fighter Zatara with Jabber in tow(hiding in backpack,under orders from Zatara)had been captured.Retreating underground with the Zhents in tow,Shadowdales Own made their way as quickly as possible,Skylight not having the benefit of time, on her side was unable to properly escort the party safely through the underdark.The mage brother Jack stumbled upon a secret door while using a spell,and without allowing Skylight the chance to examine,fearing the fast approach of the Zhents,he went in,a huge explosion went off,big flash of flame striking the young mage point blank,instantly incenerating him to ashes.In a fit of fury the Company held their ground once again inflicting major losses upon the advancing Zhents,however as before strength in numbers preveiled.The company retreated through the door the surviving brother sealed the entrance with a spell,also sealing off his brothers remains,John would never be the same.
While searcing for a safe place to rest and heal,the spell casters having to refresh their spell list's.They stumbled upon a small band of rogues,melee broke out for it appeared they had stumbled upon the Thieves guild tunnels.The fight was fast and vicious leaving only the rogue leader alive,with several of Shadowdales Own injured,mostly at the hands of this skilled rogue.He had however taken a severe injury to his leg,unable to walk.Shadowdales Own secured the area posting lookouts to watch for more rogues.The priestess Deeyana being who she was offered to heal the rogue.The rogue accepted and upon being healed instinctively reached out grabbing Deeyana's neck,yanking her down.He attempted to release a hidden blade off his wrist the mechanism failed releasing the blade to quickly,causing it to fly to the ground.The company reacted and were more than ready to slay the rogue.However Deeyana had other plans she quickly interjected offering the rogue a proposal for his life.if he would guide the company around the tunnels he would be allowed to live.The rogue's name was Balak,after explaining the companies situation the rogue offered to help even further,for it seemed that the Zhents were interfering in guild interest.Since taking control,the thieves guild had been forced to go in to hiding.Which caused much of their normal operations to cease.It turns out the guild had allied themselves with a resistence group seeking to overthrow the Zhentarium occupation.
Back at the stronghold it seemed Lord Geildarr had plans of his own.He had hired a notorius adventuring company known as the Black Hand led by a powerful priestess of Loviatar.He did this outside of normal Zhentarium lines.It had turned personal for him.Meanwhile the priestess of Loviatar had been ordered to question the young fighter Zatara,to aquire by what ever means any information on the plans or wereabouts of Shadowdales Own.The young warrior was able to hold out with the secret help of Jabber the Great.However the damage had been done Zatara had been beaten bloody several times only to be healed and done over,she had lost an eye through the torture.And after the priestess decided that she obviously did not know anything,allowed the rest of her party to have their way with the warrior.Jabber the great could no longer control himself he attack the Priestess to no avail having been captured.The priestess turned her attention on the sprite,which is what Jabber had hoped to give Zatara a rest.The torture was unbelievable Jabber having had his wings ripped off,only to be healed while the priestess had her nails deeply imbedded in his back.Causing the newly formed wings to grow out deformed and useless.But Jabber new he had to be strong trusting in the faith that Shadowdales Own would rescue them.
Shadowdales Own having been invited to meet with the guild head a local priest of Tymora carved out an agreement.They agreed to provide us with information,assistence in rescueing Zatara and a save haven to stay.In return they wanted money,information and the promise of assistence against the Zhent occupation.Balak had also tooken a liking to the young rogue Skylight in a sibling manner often offering to train her in their ways.The deal was agreed upon by both sides.The rescue went as planned ,with the guild paying off certain people the dungeon was pretty much as expected,and Zatara and Jabber were rescued.This enraged the Lord who posted a 30,000gp reward on information to the where abouts of Shadowdales Own.The guild became uneasy it was much more difficult to act, for the patrols and crackdowns on operations tripled.The base of operations for the guild was a local tavern.But even there the Zhentish presence was felt,and one night the company was suppose to meet the guild and Balak at the tavern.It turns out that one of the guild members collected the bounty having told the lord about the meeting.That night in the bar was the Black Hand along with several Zhent soldiers.Balak or the guild had no way of knowing how to get ahold of the Company for they had been on the move.They had left Jabbar the great at the temple where he wanted to stay and help with the rebuilding of the temple,no longer able to adventure refusing any healing he choose his destiny.
Shadowdales Own arrived having waited outside by the tunnel they could see the tavern to be packed.So they thought to send the young rogue Skylight in, using a ring that granted her invisability that she had recently acuired and wanted to test,the young rogue entered the Tavern.She saw Balak at one of the tables in the back,she proceeded towards him making her way to the table and sat,whispering her presense.The place was to hot and Balak informed her the meeting needs to take place elsewhere and later.Having heard this Skylight began looking around seeing the large Zhent presence along with the Black Hand.She began to get nervious trying to make her way out ,but without knowing she absently played with the ring on her finger,causing her to appear in the middle of the bar.The momentary shock was all Balak had needed to call the Tavern to arms as Skylight was recognized.The melee insued with the Black Hand taking the for front attacking all employees of the Tavern,the soldiers soon followed suit.They even attacked the Bard that had been playing thinking he was an employee of the guild.This turned out to be a major mistake as the Bard soon had a corner full of Zhent soldiers rolling on the ground grasping their heads,screaming in pain and insanity.Next he snatched one of the soldiers by the head and forced his other hand inside his mouth releasing a explosive projectile spell inside the soldiers mouth.The entire back of his head and neck were completely gone.
Upon hearing the rukus Shadowdales Own ran into the Tavern joining the fray.With the help of Shadowdales Own and the Bard the remaining guild members were able to get the upper hand leaving only the Black Hand to be dealt with.Not an easy task the battle went back and forth both sides sustaining multiple injuries.Until slowly Shadowdales Own got the upper hand.This lead to a showdown between the priestess leaders ,who had gotten themselves sealed off in the next room.Where all the company could do was watch and hope.The battle appeared to be in the favor of the Loviatar priestess,until swinging with all she had left fearing she would not last Deeyana brought her mace down across the head of her opponent,crushing her skull,fataly dropping her to the floor.The battle was won with that blow,The rest os shadowdales Own along with the Bard and the thieves guild finished off the rest.The victory was short lived the party had to be on the move,the soldiers would be coming.The Bard introduced himself as Tamin,he said he would be on his way to Loudwater.The party thanked him for his help and escaped back to the underground.The guild had come through they found the information about the assassin that was needed.The time to strike was now.The party converged on another tavern later that night, working on information provided by the guild.The party hit the tavern hard and fast, the Assassin and her two associates were quickly cornered.The fight appeared to be going well,until the assassin's allies had been droped.She was cornered, in a fit of rage her true colors were discovered.She transformed herself into her true being.That of Alieazu, a fiend from the nine hells.The fight quickly turned to its advantage with the party not expecting to have to deal with a greater fiend.The battle was hard fought,but slowly the superior numbers of the party proved to be too much for the fiend who had managed, to gate in some lesser allies of his own. TO BE CONTINUED........
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