Welcome back to RPG a Day 2025. The prompt for today is Path.
Last year, I wrote a series of posts with alternate topics as continuing narration, fleshing out a setting I was stitching together each day. While I had fun writing it, I didn’t think it interested blog readers, and I had little engagement with the RPG a Day community. The lesson for me was that the readers are more interested in topical posts than in lengthy campaign background and setting information, at least in the context of this month’s event.
That’s why I struggled with my idea for today. About two years ago, I was inspired by the idea of a northern mountain pass and a town growing into a city during a great, and devastating war that changed a fantasy world. Why I got to write this, I can’t quite remember. It might have been an exercise in creating a two-page background for a city setting. I do know I had D&D 5e in mind when I was writing it. I put it on the back burner along with many other campaign ideas. But the idea or the path across the mountains stuck with me. So, when I was thinking about what to write today, this campaign idea was in my mind.
For the reasons outlined in the first paragraph, I was reluctant, especially since my plans for day 11 are a character story (you’ll see when I post that make-up post I missed!). Regardless, the two other ideas I started writing about for this prompt went nowhere, and I relented. I am sharing the campaign idea for Valienbern, Pathway to the North. I hope you find it inspiring and helpful.
One more thing, last year I used AI to illustrate my posts. I won’t do that this year. Not worth it. So, forgive the lack of illustrations, now on with the post.
Valienbern, Pathway to the North
By Roberto Micheri
Valienbern was founded along the paths and trade routes between the northern provinces of the Theocracy of Dirsdell and the Jeghanner Holds beyond the Kirgsten Mountains in the frigid north. Nestled in the lush pine-filled valley on the southern slopes of the Kirgsten Hills before they become the treacherous northern mountains. Settled by families fleeing the Dirsdellian heresy inquisitions, they signed the charter of Valienbern in the unclaimed valley in the wilderness.
Before the settlement was established and its charter signed by all the founding families, only hunters, solitary hermits, and the odd tribe of goblins or orcs lived in the valley. There were only two permanent settlements in the valley at that time. Black Hawk Keep was built by the fractured Yregian Empire and still garrisoned by an Imperial Commander, even if no Emperor sat on the Ruby Throne. Watching over the Northern Path, pass north into the mountains, the only safe passage across the Kirgsten Mountains for leagues beyond the river Thall. The other was the forest-covered ruins of the Temple of Basall, around which a small community of elves still clung to their old, forgotten ways.
The original settlement was built by the river Tirin, south of the falls of the same name. In these falls, three streams coming down from the mountains, known as Basall’s Wives, or simply the Wives by local hunters, met to form the large navigable river south. Two days’ march from Black Hawk Keep, Valienbern grew as traders and caravans traveling to and from the north made stops to resupply. In time, it became a meeting point for merchants unable or unwilling to travel beyond the Kirgsten Mountains, as well as for merchants and traders from the north. Locals cleared the forests around town as it expanded, farms grew, and the Mayor and Council of Valienbern shared the prosperity with the citizens.
During these prosperous times, whispers of dangers were first heard in Valienbern. First, a dwarven clan settled in town, claiming that monstrosities from the north had overrun their halls. Then the small-folk migrating inland almost destroyed the crops for that year. Those made to work to compensate the farmers for their thievery settled in town and told of the boiling seas of Esterin in the far south.
In the temple to Basall, the elves howled impure incantations, and from the Theocracy of Dirsdell, the priests of the Dragon Gods sent their dragonfolk servants to destroy the temple once and for all. War raged in the western valley, and the Mayor of Valienbern, a follower of the old Yregian gods like many of his citizens, and under the protection of Black Hawk Keep, declared the city would not get involved in the battle. Construction on the walls of Valienbern began during the war, as the city had grown as far north as the Tirin Falls.
As the elves and the dragonfolk fought their holy war, threatening to set the valley on fire, the Jeghanner Holds fell to the Howling Horde. Led on their march south from the ice fields of Xigeria by the enslaved tieflings of the Broken Moon, hordes of tainted orcs, goblins, giants, and unnatural beings from beyond this world, the horde descended like locusts upon the civilized world.
A gnomish citadel crashed east of Valienbern, and the surviving gnomes and local dwarves put aside their ancestral feuds to protect this bastion of civilization from the impending onslaught of the Howling Horde. They built the city walls and created defenses, utilizing the gnome’s inventions and the Moonstone’s magic to power their once-mighty citadel and protect the city, and all who could make it traveled to Valienbern for refuge. Dragonfolk zealots, mad elven enchanters, and cunning elven scouts joined the city’s humans, small-folk, dwarves, and newly arrived gnome saviors to try to weather the storm of savagery and destruction.
Sieges three times, Valienbern survived, but Black Hawk Keep fell. The Howling Horde never stayed long enough to break the city. They ventured south, pouring over the Kirgsten Mountains, east across the merchant cities of Rudell, and west over old Yregia, destroying all in their path.
The Theocracy of Dirsdell fell, its dragons defeated or routed. The merchant princes of Rudell escaped to the Golden Isles across the sea, never to be seen again. Vechinor, The Gardens of Uruth, and even southern Styxeria fell to the Howling Horde. In the west, the vast grasslands of the Unmei proved too difficult to cross, and the Priests of the Nameless God stopped them beyond the Styxerian desert.
In the Jungles of Numir, the Serpent Kings used their ancient magic and banished the Lich Lords of Xigeria from the world, freeing the tieflings who turned on their old masters and destroyed the Howling Horde from within. Some renounced their old ways, turning their back upon their ancestral heritage. Others led their soldiers to carve out small kingdoms. The tainted and corrupted servants of the Howling Horde spread like the wind, carrying their evil to the darkest corners of the world. Magical creatures set loose upon the world now hunt in the night.
The people of Valienbern only found this out after the destruction and scattering of the horde, and the World-Breaking Wars were over.
It has been one hundred and fifty years since the end of the World-Breaking Wars, and Valienbern once again prospers. Trade has slowly resumed along the old Northern Path. Dwarven realms open their halls in the north. Some kingdoms rebuild on the ashes of the old. Valienbern survived and thrived in these dark times and now stands ready as a beacon of hope in a world remaking itself. Will you protect the city? Will you help it grow and prosper? How will you make your mark upon the world?
Dear reader, do you find this type of post interesting and valuable? Do you prefer topical or informative posts over game stories or content? I’d love to know, so please leave a comment or tag me wherever you make them. If you choose to join in the conversation, don’t forget to include the #RPGaDay2025 hashtag so the community can find your contribution.
