Aleho Wiki

Aleho
Aleho history goes back for thousands of years. And all thru written documentation of the lands Baal ruled all. Until a little over three hundred years previous Lord Baal had ruled the entire world without any to pull him down. There is no documentation of times before the rule of Lord Baal. He managed to hold the entire world in sway. This did include those beings from other planes along with the mortals of the lands.

Baal had managed to subdue demons and devils who had foolishly entered his domain. In no other world had a mortal man controlled such power. Gods learned over time to pay respects to the Lord of the lands before even attempting to push into his domain. Gods were allowed to have worshipers, not command the respect. There is no documentation of how Baal managed this at all. No bard songs or even solid rumors as to how he had commanded such power from any. There is no time before Baal.

A little over three hundred years before current time the people of Aleho raised to fight against the Lord of Lords. The first attempts failed miserably with assassination, and blunt confrontations. But, a small band of heroes slowly planned. They grew slowly in power and began to take down the smaller, low interest areas of the lands. Areas that would never be noticed. Low leveled sergeants fell and joined the front against Baal.

Over time this small group turned into a small army. And sacked an actual keep belonging to Baal. The Lord of Lords took notice and acted quickly, but the heroes weren’t ignorant. The small army grabbed all they could in food, men, weapons, and power just before leaving the keep. They had left behind this lost keep behind for Baal to see what remained. The heroic band had planned everything to the end, which did include ditching the keep so that Baal didn’t have any way of finding the enemy. This infuriating Baal to the point of liquid fire.

The first keep lost to Baal ended up being lost to all. Baal burned the lands to ash in frustration with his first loss to another mortal, ever.

One after another cities, keeps, forts, castles, and ports were attacked, turned, and looted of all resources. The First Heroes were gathering what they needed to take on bigger targets. The small army grew to the point that they needed to devided the effort so not to let them all fail at once. Which did save the First Heroes and the objectives at times.

Lord Baal’s fury met with all in his way as news came in with more failures. Mortal, demon, and even Gods felt his anger, and died at his hands. The only ones that stayed at his side, after a few years of this, would be the ones he owned and had no choice. Ball’s territory began to shrink to a decernable size that would need the world to be remapped. Lands controlled by royal mortals and kingdoms began to spring up around him. Alligances drawn, stratagies tested, and resources gathered to further the efforts. Some kingdoms pulled assistance at times only to find that when Baal fought back they didn’t have the assistance of the lost allies.

Three decades of war continued. All mixed with heroes of legend and villains of treason. In the end Lord Baal, Lord of all Lords found himself surrounded at his last and largest citadel on the north eastern shores of his lost domain. Mortal and monster alike met on the fields around the massive city state. All to attack brother and sisters of the same races and people. The armies or the First Hero fought for months before they managed to get to the wall, and shattered it. This lead to the next few months of fighting thru the massive labrynth of the citadel.

Only rumor remains of the sixteen months that the final fight took. But in the end Baal fell, and so did the entire city state Baal knew as his own. Efforts to track losses on any side were useless. And all parties involve have stories of what may have happened. Most contradict another story.

After Baal
Three hundred thirty years later, 330af, an earthquake shook the ground around the, now covered, city of Baal. Several openings in the earth reached out of the ground. Current king of the local lands dispatched his personal knights to secure the area and prevent entry, or exit. The area was then searched for all entrances and studies for security until a year later the entrances were searched. The royal knights searched the immediate areas within and found that the entire city still existed under ground. But, nothing came out of any entrances they had found. Trusting that all that was had been killed or destroyed the King decided to use this as an idea for a grand celebration.

Three years after the great quake the festival of freedom was scheduled to be held. All to celebrate the 333 years of being completely free of the yoke of Lord Baal. Word was delivered to all kingdoms that remembered Baal were invited to join in to the celebration. Games were to be played, bards sing, and prizes won. But the biggest challenge of all with the largest prize was the great hunt.

The great hunt invited heroes across all lands to be challenged to search the caticolms of what was Lord Baal’s final domain. Promised that anything found they keep and the ones who claimed the most would win the biggest prizes. Challenges for the most coin, most art and jewels, and even the most heroic were listed and rewarded. All based on honoring the First Heroes. The grand prize of it all would be the King’s youngest daughter’s hand in marriage.

The return to Veilenguard.
On returning to Veilenguard you realize the scope of the dilemma. Relocating all villagers to the new city will put a major strain on your resources. Thousands of commoners are now under your care and protection. It is also obvious that the combining of the outsiders and the mortals may not go over very well with either side. Most of the commoners have never seen creatures such as these, and they cower in fear of the situation. The city does have enough room for everyone but it is a volatile situation indeed.

Along with the social situation between the mortal and immortal is the logistics of feeding and clothing them all. Outsiders normally have no need for the foods and cloths that mortal beings use as well as tools and materials. This city is completely unprepared for this situation. Known thieves, nobles, commoners, fey, demon, devil, celestial, spell casters, and even the domestic animals are now all added to the mass of citizens and the tension is mounting. if our heroes do not interviene this could turn into something really ugly.

One of the gnomes looks up to Mel “Well, looks like our job is done.” And all four drop to the ground dead. An easy investigation into the bodies using Archan knowledge shows that all four were clones from an original wizard. The location of the original is unknown.

At this point any who wish to expand the information and story of the next few months time line is welcome, and I will do the same. And I hand over the Friday night to lance. May Doomhammer have mercy on his soul. Because I know that we wont.

3 Months later
Its been 3 months after the return to Veilenguard and it has not been a vacation. The combination of fey and mortal living together has been extremely tense during this time. As well as feeding and housing the 2000 fugitives in a city that was originally built for the outsiders. Quelling the unrest from all over has been a chore for all sects and groups. Very few wish to upset this unrest but it is just something that happens when you mix the groups. Assignments of the resources have nearly exhausted the cache restored by our heroes including outfitting the local guards and militia. Armories have been emptied and clerics exhausted, what was once tense has been turning to fear of starvation as the colder months approach.

Elspeth, with the aid of numerous elders, mystics, and alchemists have come up dry looking for a cure to the local inflicted by the marrow grain. Hope is all that drives most on this research, but the grand library is looking to be running bare of options.

Word from the Princess Stepi is not on the favorable side as well. Kingdom and territory alike have been pulling support, or not even acknowledging and possible Baal return. Only a few unfavorable militia have signed on for outrageous demands thus far. Some more unfavorable then others, and its unknown if Stepi will be able to hold up to the bargains at all. It seems that the loss of a kingdom by usurpers is not a concern to others. Stepi has returned to Veilengaurd by now, and has been looking grim for a week.

Construction on the “Fist of Doomhammer” had stalled out when the refugees arrived. All attention and resources had been redirected to the care of the city itself. The Iron clad sits unfinished.

Due to the islands limited resources it has become apparent that lines of trade will need to be established if the city is going to survive at all. Trade routs will need to take precedence over the fight against Baal. If not, there will be no one to fight him at all. Decided by the ruling factions that ships will need to be sent to far off nations and areas to procure needed resources. But, the only option is the marrow grain for trade at this time.

Hope dwindles even farther to the point of waiting for a miracle that just not come.