[SirFozzie]

(My friends wanted me to run a new 5th edition D&D game.. our last game had petered out because of a dissatisfaction with the published adventure.. they preferred more free-form stuff from my brain rather than from a published adventure.. So, I took the seed of a campaign that I had germinating in my brain, and whipped up a beginning adventure while they created their characters. I will hopefully be updating this weekly with their exploits.. be it their character's exploits, the players exploiting the game system, or the players exploiting each other -- Foz)

The Barony of Kavran is the largest of the coastline nations of the continent of Baista. Their ports are busy with trade from the various smaller principalities and sub-nations that dot the coast. 250 years ago, they established the only known land route (The Trade Path) through the Hinterlands, the center of the continent once holding many nations that were all but wiped from the map in the God's War. It is said to be Kavran is to be cultured. Kavran literature, opera and art is said to be that of the highest in the known world. Sure, the elves of the Deep Forest may create better living art, and the dwarves of the Harkstan Mountains better at the forge, but their limited output is dwarfed by the strength, stability and quantity of Kavran. Kavran has been content with its position and land for many many decades.

But the Baron of Kavran has a situation that is both a boast of the virility of the Baron (and thus the nation), but also, at some time in the future, could be a problem of great magnitude to his nation. The Baroness has given birth to not twins, or triplets, but QUADRUPLETS. Since they were born so close to each other, each would have a valid claim to at least some Kavran land, as it's expected that they would quarrel and feud about the order of birth otherwise. So, rather then considering divide his land into fourths and diluting its power and prestige, he has decided that the kingdom must grow.

The word went out all over the land. The baron was offering great rewards to those who would voluntarily resettle new lands for the glory of Kavran. Of course, there were others that were given more of a direct inducement, those who had fallen out of favor with the capital or in great debt, for example, or, people undesirable to the peace and stability of their villages (that usually means that feuds were usually settled by sending warring clans to different settlements far far away from each other).

This includes the settlement of Glory, an ill-fitting name to a small band of re-settlers, who were told to settle an area furthest inland, on the Kayine River, near the Trade Path. Things were made even worse, when the small army unit sent with the settlers to protect them against the encroaching dangers of the Hinterlands managed to politic their way into being recalled to the capital. It is said that the commander of the army unit could not stand to be away from the culture, and the politicking of the captial, and managed to get an order recalling them to the Capital "urgently". The message promised a replacement unit would be sent out as soon as one could be freed up from its other duties. To date, no such unit has been sent.

So, the settlers of Glory, in and amongst building the new homes and building that would make up their new settlement, appointed a Town Mayor (a fighter recently sworn as a Paladin in the service of Karn, the Klavan god of Justice who stayed when his so-called compatriots abandoned their duty to Glory), and offered a deal to some of its members with.. difficult paths. The town would shelter them, and assist them in making their homes, in return, they would investigate areas that could be dangerous to Glory. The town would take a share of what they found (to try to build up the town, and protect it from marauders), but in general, the adventurers would be able to keep most of what they found.

This is the story of one such band, a group that earned its designation in its founding days, the so-called Frantic Four.