Any Other Story, We Would Be Heroes OOC.

The kingdom of Peacehills had enjoyed centuries of the good life. The land was plentiful in animal and plant, both which the peasants helped themselves to eagerly, with knives, and sticks, and bear hands, if they had them.

But then, a horrible darkness fell upon the kingdom. No one is sure when exactly this horrible thing happened, but they were pretty sure it started when the dark clouds gathered above them and rained for seven days and nights non-stop.

Many farmers were soaked wet, and obviously unhappy. They marched to the King's castle, and demanded that there either be change, or there be a new King sitting on the throne by the end of the week!

The fact that most of the castle guards were on break at the moment unnerved the old King, who thought furiously of the situation.

How to please his people? What should he say.

In the end, he walked to the balcony and all the angry peasants silenced themselves. No one spoke a word, until the King opened his wise old mouth.

"MONSTERS!"



Truly this horrible cataclysm can only be the work of forces of evil! Far too long have they plagued the land with their wretched aura, that wilt's the grain, scares the goats and makes boys turn into bards!

The people were confused at start, granted how they didn't know what "monsters" were, until the King pointed them out to be the horrible beasts that lurked the dark corner's of the world, and preyed upon the weak.

"Ooooh." said the people in unison.

So what does this mean?

It means that once again, it's time for the realm of Peacehills to come to life! A generic fantasy world, plagued with horrible creatures, oddjob magic stitching dimensions together in such patchwork manner that your grandmother would be ashamed, and of course more treasure and dungeons to plunder than you could successfully shake a stick at and roll a hit with a d20!

Humans
The humans in the realm of Peacehills live in a fairly standard medieval society. Peasants make a large portion of the population, tending to the farms and feed themselves and the people higher in hierarchy, merchants make business with farm produce and the trinkets craftsmen make, wooden and metal goods of standard quality. The royal family ruling over them is led by the king, who orders the population as they see fit, while the generals advice on military goals. The royal family also has a number of court wizards who mostly tend to bookkeeping as a hobby, whenever they are not researching into the art of magicks, most of which revolves around figuring out the best ways to dispose of enemies in a flashy fashion.

Human cities and villages reside in plains, nearby forests are mainly used for producing timber for construction and hunting grounds for some extra meat on the table. For the most part humans stay neutral when it comes to other species and as they have no reason to intrude in the borders of their neighbours, things have been quiet and peaceful for the most part in the history of Peacehills for them, save for a few larger scale wars that required them to mobilize their armies.

Widesmile
The city where the adventure began for a trio of heroes, Widesmiles is a normal city as far as humans are concerned. The local militias biggest job is to walk about and make sure that nothing unusual happens, which is the most common state for the city. As far as importance goes, Widesmile has no particular interest in the large scheme of things, what is produced in the city can easily be made in any other settlement. If not for the location near the border of the human kingdom adventurers would have little purpose to ever visit, but as it is Widesmile is the best place to stop and stock up on supplies when heading out to the wide world.

Incidentally, Widesmile was renamed from Gigglejoy after an incident caused by a goblin magus, who tried to conquer the city with a horde of goblins under their command, only to be driven away in short order by the army after the militia hold the horde off long enough. In retaliation, the magus cast a horrible spell and caused a plague that left victims permanently smiling as their flesh rotted off. After more than half of the city population died of the plague, the disease was finally gotten rid off after all the bodies were burned and life got back to normal.

Dwarves
The dwarves are a stocky, short race, about as tall as goblins but with none of the random cruelty that goes with their short stature. They reside in underground fortresses dug into the ground or mountains and are best known for their aptitude to create masterful metal goods, trinkets and armor, as well as goods from rocks and gemstone that fetch for a decent price in the market whenever dwarven caravans arrive to trade in other kingdoms.

Dwarves have a natural aversion to anything taller than them, which is almost everyone and everything. Depending on what they are facing, the usual way to deal with the problem is a crossbow bolt to the head and making bone crafts out of the remains after they're butchered. As for civilized species, the dwarves usually attempt diplomacy, save for goblins and kobolds, both of which are more than happy to skip talk altogether and try to steal dwarven goods or children unless they decide that the bearded folks have gotten too used to good living and send armed squads to harass any dwarf they can that wanders too far from the safety of the fortified underground settlement.

Koganusan
The fortress of Koganusan had a brief history, from the start the place was known for it's fairly good location and abundance of metals and gems, as well as the wilds surrounding the area. After a few years it became known as "that place where dwarves go absolutely insane every now and then", starting from a mandrill attack where a few platinum rings were stolen by the furry things after which the dwarves mustered whatever they could to act as militia, killing anything smaller than them that even looked funny towards their settlement.

Then the elephant herds arrived, and the dwarven response was swift but mostly unsuccessful, after the herd stampeded over the dwarves sent to attack and stormed the gates, finally taken down by weapon traps and a few cages that fell on them. In the years after, the dwarves kept up their campaign against the local wildlife, despite the warnings from the elves who bothered to trade with them, culminating in the construction of a device that was then used in many occasions to pump lava from deep within the mountain to the wilds surrounding them. The scorched wasteland left behind has still to grow anything and just like the dwarves wanted, even the elephants stay clear of the area now, albeit a bit too late for the dwarves who lived there.

The last caravan which traded with the dwarves there reported of rotting corpses littering the entrance, elephant and dwarven alike as well as smoke billowing from the corridors within. None of the traders dared enter the fortress to see what was going on, but seeing how the only the broker was not gnashing their teeth wildly at anything around them, crying uncontrollably or stripping off their clothes on a mad dash to the wilds, they opted to do business fast and get out. That was the last anyone saw of the dwarves of Koganusan, the caravan that reported the empty fortress admitted that not even their armed guards were willing to step one foot in the fortress, which still stank of smoke, rot and burning flesh. All the charred skeletons at the broken doors did not improve the morale of the guards either. The merchants who traded with Koganusan called it a tragedy, the dwarves upon hearing the news called it "business as usual, better luck with our next fortress eh?"