Welcome Adventurers!
Welcome B/X Adventurers! You have come to the Duchy of Rorgin, a pleasant and peaceful independent Duchy, located along the windy coastline of The High Cape. Rorgin town sits West of the shadowed forests and perilous lands of the Barony of Wor, East of the treacherous Wyverndown Isles, South of the Berserker Strand, and North across the Sea of Harlots from the wild jungle covered islands of the Emirate of Sakalan.
The Adventurer's Guild Hall
Its a sleepy, cozy spring morning in the village of Krucktin and after spending the last eighteen months as a novice adventurer in training at Rorgin's famed Adventurer's Guild you must face the three challenges presented to you in order to be confirmed as a new hero of the free peoples of the Duchy.
Should you and your small team of companions succeed, you will continue to be offered rooms, training, necessary equipment, and even valuable magical and clerical guidance after your graduation. You will join the ranks of the few dozen senior heroes who make the Adventurer's Guild halls their home. Fail and if you manage to still survive the trials you and your companions will be paid a small amount of gold and be forced to enter the world without the official support and sanction of the Duchy. In that case you may face your destiny alone or perhaps as a free company of mercenaries, available to solve problems of local community leaders and petty nobles.
Adolphus Frostwind
Adolphus Frostwind was a very young apprentice within the ranks of the Guild Mages during the early years of the Nightshade War. In those days, a little more than a century ago, the Guild Mages of the Western Flame gathered at the fortress of Kayelithor, now a crumbled ruin and abandoned. Most of the Mages of the Western Flame traveled across the sea to where the war was being fought in earnest, leaving Adolphus and a handful of others to remain behind in Rorgin to protect the Duchy.
The Nightshade war was a horrifying, devastating era of completely unrestricted warfare, including arcane war where many thousands of folk died and entire regions were scarred forever. Very few of the elder Mages of the Western Flame survived to return to Rorgin after the war. Following that war, the Guild Mages which had independent schools, colleges and cabals in every civilized corner of the known world, fell out of favor. Much of the world viewed them with a certain level of suspicion and over time the old groups of arcane casters became outcasts in their own lands. Into the vacuum left by the decades following the war rose the Pentagarchy, a new cabal of wizardry which proposed to eliminate the unrestricted knowledge of war magic throughout the known world. Today, even in the Duchy of Rorgin which did not see much direct fighting during the Nightshade War, the Pentagarchy now determines who is trained as a magic-user and who is not.
Because he had not directly participated in the Nightshade War and because of his many years of devoted service to the Duchy, Adolphus Frostwind was permitted to retire. He was no longer allowed to teach others the arcane arts and was not allowed to practice magic outside of a handful of lesser spells (1st and 2nd level magic-user spells) which he was granted permission to use as acknowledgement of his trustworthiness throughout the years. If he had not agreed to retire, it is likely that Frostwind would not have been permitted to live in peace on the lands which his family has owned for the last hundred and fifty years.
Adolphus retired from the life of an adventuring magic-user around the age of fifty. He has lived out his remaining years as a land owner, dwelling on his familial estate and managing the dozen or so farms which sit on his lands. Without a family and children of his own, Adolphus opened his home to those orphans whose parents were killed by disasters or monsters within the Duchy.
Today, Adolphus is very old indeed. He is easily past the century mark but no one can really speak to his exact age. To you, Adolphus has been the only parent you can remember, brought to his estate to be raised as an orphan since you were very young. For you, Adolphus has always been kind, patient, long suffering, honest and firm in his role as adopted Father.
Once you reached your teen years, Adolphus packed you and a handful of your close brothers and sisters off to study at The Adventurer's Guild hall in the nearby town of Krucktin. Adolphus handled all of the arrangements which insured your acceptance into training at the guild and has paid all of your expenses. Adolphus makes the journey to visit each of you about once a month, rolling into Krucktin atop his ramshackle cart to offer advice, encouragement, insure that you keep your focus on your studies and to pick up supplies in the town to take back to his estate and the surrounding farms. Adolphus has explained to each of you that training at the Adventurer's Guild is the best possible opportunity he can make for your future and success in the trials could open doors for your future which you could not possibly dream of today. Even if you fail at the trials, Adolphus has told you that he believes your future will still be better for the training and experience you have received.
The Slayers Brotherhood and The Arcanaeum
If you are a Fighter, Thief, Dwarf or Small Folk you likely invested most of your training time at the halls of the Slayer's Brotherhood. The Slayer's Brotherhood is operated by the Ride Watch, the military protectors of the Pentagarchy. At the Slayer's Brotherhood you learned to fight, repair your armor, deal with wounds, ride a horse or pony, swim, climb, run, run farther, and if you had the special aptitude, how to deal with locks, traps and certain special dangers you and your companions might face in adventures wherever they might take you.
If you are a magic-user, cleric or an Elf, likely you spent most of your time studying within the strange mystical halls of the Arcanaeum. You learned to fight but you also learned about magic, history, languages and how to decipher obscure writings and inscriptions.
The Arena of Trials
The Arena of Trials rises up from the center of the village of Krucktin like a crown. Upon the hard dirt of the arena the future heroes of Rorgin are trained, important matters of the Duchy are settled, trials by combat or magic are conducted and the rare execution for magical heresy is prosecuted.
On the Northern side of the Arena are the fighting pits of the Slayers Brotherhood. These dark stone halls also happen to be the headquarters of the Ride Watch, the magically protected strong men and woman who stand by the Pentagarchy in their mission to protect the civilized kingdoms from all threats both magical and monstrous.
On the South side of the Arena stands the graceful marble halls of the Arcanaeum, the regional library, training halls and stronghold of both the Pentagarchy and their allies in the realms of the holy and clerical magic, the Temple of the Voice. While many of the Lawful aligned gods and powers are worshiped throughout the civilized kingdoms it is the Choir of the Temple of the Voice, in service to the Pontifex of Tyrene with which the Pentagarchy has most closely aligned itself.
The West side of the Arena connects to the private quarters, kitchens, feast hall, offices and classrooms of The Adventurer's Guild of Rorgin. Two dozen private rooms have windows which face East along the upper rear wall and stands of the Arena so that the heroes who live there and the students who train there can watch the sun rise over the hard packed soil and stone of the Arena of Trials, a constant reminder of who and where they are.
The East side of the Arena has a few minor offices and a small section of quarters for a dozen guardsmen assigned to duties at the Arena when it is open for important events. Visitors and spectators enter the Arena from the gates along the East side and file into seats either paid for with a handful of silver coins or reserved for them due to their importance and station within the Duchy.
Further to the East of the Arena is the Duke's square where a bronze statue of the current Duke, Lord Adger Rorgin the IV stands proudly at the center of the roundabout. The Duke's square is the primary location for market days in Krucktin and there are two Inns bordering its bustling cobbles. On the far Eastern edge of the Duke's square is The Silver Hall, the fortified home of the Duke and his family when he is visiting Krucktin on business or is attending an important function at the Arena. The primary residence of Duke Adger Rorgin IV is back in Rorgin Town, the largest city within the Duchy and its primary coastal port. There the Duke, his family, bodyguard and servants reside in a small castle overlooking the rest of the town.
The Problem
You and your friends are not the only students facing your trials today. It would be nice if life was so uncomplicated, but it never seems to be. All through your training there have been not one but two other groups of students making their way through the challenges of the guild. One small party of students is by far more usual. Two different parties of students has happened in the past, perhaps once every decade and such a graduation is always a big event as the trials should turn out to be especially interesting for those attracted to the arena to observe. This day of trials there are three parties of potential heroes. Only one of these three groups will be able to win the trials and secure their future as full members of the guild. That third party? The fellow at the center is none other than Burne Rorgin the First, the middle son of Duke Adger himself. Yeah...not good.
Region Map
To the right is the regional map of the Duchy of Rorgin. You may note that no scale of miles is included on this map and that is intentional.This is the sort of map you might see hanging on an office wall in the Guild. One enormous version is painted on the entry wall of the Arcanaeum in Krucktin.
This is the sort of map which will help you find your way in general terms, provided you mostly stick to the roads. You would know that taking the Southern route from Rorgin Town it is a five day journey on foot to the Lame Giant Inn and another two days further to reach Krucktin.
The DM keeps a detailed overland adventure map for actual play which he keeps (usually) to himself.
