Lighthouse Temple Public Library
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The Lighthouse Temple in the Docks District of Peltarch sends out word to all within the land that they are looking to expand upon their public Library with up to date literature regarding the land of Narfell and the people within. Payment will be provided for unique and original books and stories.
((Any stories you have that you wished shared with the rest of Narfell, you may post them here. Whether they be about a certain event within the land or surrounding areas or about a specific person you think is deserving of being written about and their exploits in Narfell. You may also write books based upon artifacts/magic studies/adventurer guides to specific areas in Narfell.
Try to keep them full stories, don't write piece by piece accounts of how you fought the big bad lich. Wait till the end then write the story of it, full works are wanted and will be rewarded.
Do not post things you wished kept secret, this is the new public library of the Lighthouse. Also don't clutter the thread with non-story or book comments please.))
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**History of Peltarch, Vol. 5: The Eastlander War
By Sir Roland Brynmor**
In the years following the Civil War, the character of the Senate changed considerably. The traitor Koreth's seat was vacated and left unfilled for some time, owing to the chaos that followed the war. Senators Vino Sten and Nico Black stepped down. In events detailed elsewhere, Senator Syne's true nature was revealed and he was executed for murder and treason.
A period followed known as the Long Senate, during which five senators – Delvin Gelon, Torin Bravickus, Rath Ashald, Roland Brynmor and Evendur Mildsilver – carried on without an election for the longest time in the Senate's history. This period was marked by increasing tension between the Seafarers' Guild, who held a growing monopoly on the city's trade, and the few remaining independent merchants who opposed them, organized mainly around the Wavebreakers' Guild.
During this time, tensions between the guilds spilled over into the Senate chamber. Open rivalries developed between Roland Brynmor and the Seafarer Senators, Torin Bravickus and Rath Ashald. Both sides vied for Evendur Mildsilver's support and above all, for the crucial tie-breaking vote of Elder Senator Gelon, who was ideologically opposed to the Seafarer monopoly but remained too personally indebted to Vaster Ashald to defy him.
In this climate of political stalemate, Peltarch faced a new challenge in the growing might of the Eastlanders, bandits who had settled in the Nars Pass to prey on merchants and travelers. As their strength increased, the bandits became an army and began raiding the different settlements of Narfell. Several of these raids culminated in major attacks on Peltarch itself. These attacks were beaten back by the Defenders and local adventurers at the city's southern watchtower, though not without loss of life. In some cases, the bandits infiltrated the city itself, killing adventurers, soldiers and defenseless citizens alike. Following these attacks, General Kaster Lavindo came before the Senate with a proposal to declare war on the Eastlanders and remove their threat permanently. Senators Gelon, Mildsilver and Brynmor supported General Lavindo's proposal, outvoting Senators Ashald and Bravickus. The Senate issued the following statement:
_We the people of Peltarch do declare the so called Eastlander army to be a renegade faction that infringes on the rights and damages the livelihood of our citizens. We have on many occassions extended our hand in peace to meet with the leadership of the Eastlanders only to be answered with silence, murder and extorsion. As of this day, the city of Peltarch declares open war on those who wear the colors of the Eastlanders.
Any who wish to surrender may throw down their arms, remove the colors and turn themselves in to the Peltarch Defenders for mercy. All others will be destroyed.
Prosperity to Peltarch and death to her enemies.
-General Lavindo
-Senior Senator Delvin Gelon_With that, the Defenders mobilized for war.
The elite 2nd Corps of the Defenders and the reorganized Far Scouts, now with the strength of a full Corps, were deployed to the Nars Pass. In this initial action, the Far Scouts eliminated most bandit patrols in the Pass in short order. Meanwhile, allied forces from Norwick pushed north, forcing the bandits to defend from both sides. The fighting was fierce and the allied forces faced heavy resistance by the bandits at the Nars Bridge and at the approaches to their tunnels. However, these early advances cleared the way for a combined assault on the bandits' caves and tunnels to the east, and their camp beyond.
General Grag and the Legion led the first attack on the tunnels, spearheading an incursion in order to draw a bandit counterattack. The bandits pursued the retreating Legion out of the tunnels and into the open pass. As they cleared the main ridge between their tunnels and the pass, the bandits realized that they had rushed headlong into an ambush. Over 200 Defenders waited for them in prepared positions, while additional Far Scouts emerged to block the bandits' line of retreat. Those few bandits who survived this battle did not reach their leaders in time to warn of the all-out assault on the tunnels by the full Defender force, together with numerous Legion troops and other allies from across Narfell.
In several days of fierce, close quarters fighting, the bandits were gradually forced to give ground. It was during this time that Rass herself, the ancient red dragon ally of the 'Bandit King' Atol, appeared in the pass to rain fire down on the Defenders and their allies. Many brave people held the line to give Defender artillery time to prepare, with the paladin Sir Mariston Thel himself charging the dragon alone head-on and surviving only due to Torm's protection. At long last, sustained Defender ballista fire forced the dragon to leave the Pass.
Finally, with their numbers dwindling, the Eastlanders made an orderly retreat from their caves to the valley beyond, where their camp lay. Here, Atol and his soldiers made their last stand, and were killed to a man. On General Lavindo's orders, the few Eastlanders who surrendered were taken prisoner. The rest were killed or scattered by the combined Defender, Legion and allied army, who burned the camp to the ground and vowed to keep the Nars Pass free forever after.
With Peltarch's victorious army returning home largely intact, and newfound allies to secure its southern borders, elections were declared. These would prove to be significant in ending the Seafarers' control of the Senate, but only after a series of clashes between the city's factions that nearly led to another civil war. In the result, Aarron Ashald and Mariston Thel joined the Senate, while a third Senator-elect, Tidus Clodpin, fled into exile when it was discovered that the ballots cast for him were fake. Through the efforts of Herald Thril and the Divine Shield, Clodpin's treachery was revealed, though this led to open fighting between the Divine Shield, their allies, and Blood Spiders in the Docks, an event that ultimately led to the revocation of the Blood Spiders' guild charter by the Senate. Clodpin was replaced by Eowiel Senella.
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**History of Peltarch, Vol. 4: Koreth's War (the Peltarch Civil War)
By Sir Roland Brynmor**
History records that Peltarch became an independent city following the Giant Wars, when the Fisher King drove out the occupying forces of Hoarsgate and established a Senate elected by the people. Since that time, three more conflicts, in particular, have shaped the city's development profoundly. These are, in chronological order: the Peltarch Civil War, the Eastlander War, and the N'Jast War.
Although the conflict known as Koreth's War spanned only a few months, the events that set the war in motion began many years earlier.
The man calling himself Koreth the Crusader arrived in Peltarch from Tethyr during the years of the Gelon Senate. Bringing with him great wealth, Koreth presented lavish gifts to the city's elite – a pleasure barge to Senator Ashald, and an ancient elven blade to Aspera Chillwind, then Magistrate – quickly establishing himself as a man of influence in the city.
Claiming to be a priest of Tyr, Koreth cast himself as a force for law and order, and the Senate named him Commander of the Black Dragon Knights, a new, elite and independent unit of Peltarch's military. In the next election, Koreth himself was named to the Senate. During the subsequent Reign of the Hundred Senators (see History of Peltarch, Vol. 9), Koreth used the political chaos to solidify his own power. With the Senate divided, he remained Commander of the Black Dragons, in effect becoming a Senator with his own private army.
Koreth's rise to power did not go unnoticed. Rumours began to spread of people being taken under guard to the Black Dragons' headquarters beneath the City Hall, never to be seen again. Even darker whispers told of Koreth's connection to the vile Blackguard Zargothis, responsible for the deaths of no less than 4 senators. Factions opposed to Koreth's power, led first by Magistrate Zyphlin Re'cual, and later joined by Senators Roland Brynmor and Evendur Mildsilver – began looking for evidence of Koreth's plot to overthrow the Senate and seize power for himself.
Finally, after much debate, a majority of the Senate was convinced to remove Koreth as Commander and disband the Black Dragon Knights. A meeting was convened to take a vote. But it came too late. Seizing on the city's weakness following the death of Defender General Devin Telan, hero of the Giant Wars, Koreth led his former knights and renegade Defenders in a bloody coup.
Declaring the Senate to be suspended, Koreth ordered his troops to arrest everyone and kill any who resisted. The Renegades proceeded to slaughter dozens of men and women, most of them defenseless civilians, who found themselves trapped in the Senate Chamber. Simultaneously, foreign mercenaries hired by Koreth began appearing, some from hiding within the city and others by ship. Bolstering the ranks of the Renegades, these forces occupied strategic points in the Docks, the Civic District, and the Commons, driving the remaining loyal Defenders out of the city.
But all hope was not yet lost. A small number of city officials, including the Magistrates and most Senators present at the meeting, managed to escape Koreth's massacre. They joined the loyal Defender Captains Lavindo and Varid at the Southern Watchtower. There, Sir Mariston Thel of the Order of the Divine Shield and Lady Daisy Millerne had prepared a camp for refugees fleeing the fighting that now raged across the city.
As Peltarch's remaining loyal forces recovered from the initial attack and made provisions for the refugees, Koreth's forces fortified their positions. A Council of War was called, with Captain Lavindo assuming command of the Defenders. Over the next week, volunteers, adventurers and mercenaries from as far away as Norwick and Jiyyd joined the loyal Defenders at the Southern Watchtower. And then the counter-attack began. In a two-pronged assault, Peltarch's Defenders and allies battered their way through the main gates guarding the Civic and Commerce districts.
As the attackers pressed on, vicious street-to-street fighting ensued as loyal citizens and Defenders, trapped in isolated pockets of the city by Koreth's forces, emerged and joined the battle. Senator Rath Ashald and the paladin Lady Natanya Summers led a small isolated force that fought through enemy lines. A group led by Senator Nico Black recaptured the temple of Tyr, while the main Defender force, supported by scores of adventurers, secured the Commons. Meanwhile, Magistrate Zyphlin Re'cual and Senator Roland Brynmor led a group underground, beneath the city's defences, and attacked the Renegade headquarters in the Docks District. This group of a dozen or so - including Sir Mariston Thel, the battle priestesses Eowien and Jirka, and the legendary gnomish sorcerer Iydm, also known as The Fool - destroyed Renegade Captain Akton Sent's entire company, along with a mercenary cadre of elven archers and several squads of Koreth's own elite Black Dragon Knights, before securing the District.
Facing defeat on all fronts, Koreth and his remaining forces retreated to the mountain fortress of Highhold, ancestral seat of the Gor family, which had joined the Renegades. In Peltarch, meanwhile, the survivors buried their dead and set about the long and arduous task of rebuilding their newly liberated city. With thousands dead and wounded and widespread destruction in the city, large parts of the Docks, Commerce and Civic districts were rebuilt. The Seafarers, having removed their wealth from the city by ship on the eve of battle, now returned and proceeded to buy even more land and businesses in Peltarch. While this sped the rebuilding process, it also gave the Seafarers even more control over Peltarch's economy. This would lead to increased tensions amongst the city's various factions in the future. Thus, as one conflict ended, a new one - this time of a political nature - was brewing as Senate elections loomed.
