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PCs traveling within Dornig may discover all manner of rumors. Are they true or false? Decide for yourself as you plan adventures for your players! You can find Dornig and all of these locations on the big Midgard map!

Dornig

A land intimately tied to the elves of Midgard, the Grand Duchy of Dornig is a realm of ancient fey traditions, intense political intrigue, and a burgeoning population of citizens and refugees from the nearby kingdom of Krakovar. Perhaps nowhere else in the north do rumors spread more rapidly or die more quickly.

RUMOR ONE

Rumors have swirled about Dimitor vann Rottsten for years, claiming that the young prince killed his elven mother to quell opposition to his rule. Just last month, a group of people saw an elven woman walking the parapets of the prince’s castle before vanishing with the morning sun.

True? During a violent quarrel, the elfmarked prince killed his mother, Demalla Ravensblood Olthania, and buried her body in the castle catacombs. Plagued by guilt, the prince threw himself into ruling Bad Solitz but he never forgotten his terrible deed. Now Demalla has risen from her grave as a lady in white (see Creature Codex). If the PCs get into the castle and confront the apparition, Demalla reveals the cause of her torment, which puts them in confrontation with the unpredictable prince.

OR

False? Demalla isn’t dead. She headed west one cold, crisp morning under the noses of the castle guards and without any explanation to her son. Since then, Dimitor has tried to fend off rumors and continue as usual. Unfortunately, with the latest round of innuendo, Dimitor has had enough. He orders the PCs to track down his mother and bring her home, a quest that takes the PCs deep into the ruins of Ascanlia, where Demalla has become a prisoner of the shadow fey court.

RUMOR TWO

The monster-blighted lands around Salzbach are infested with cultists of the Hunter who control the creatures of the wastes and sacrifice the unwary to their terrible god. They have even infiltrated the city’s guilds.

TRUE? In recent months, the lands about Salzbach have become home to a group of cultists made of a mix of disaffected artisans, peasants, and poor guild workers fed up with corruption in the city. The cultists worship the Hunter and deliberately infected themselves with lycanthropy. They plan to infiltrate the city during the next full moon and transform into their hybrid forms in an act of terrorism. Scores of people will be killed unless the cultists are stopped.

OR

FALSE? This is just another in a long series of tales designed to incriminate one of the guilds of possible wrongdoing. Regrettably, this latest rumor has led to violence. The Leatherworker’s Guild in the city was firebombed, causing extensive damage to the building and killing a guild member. The guild master, Veyron Talborg, is looking to hire a group to track down the arsonists and bring them to a rough justice.

RUMOR THREE

An unsanctioned expedition from Tomierau into the Tomierran Forest recently vanished. The expedition was bound for the Cloud Dragon Court but never arrived. Many believe that supporters of Saintmistress Rowanmantle ambushed the expedition, an accusation widely denied by the church.

TRUE?  One of Saintmistress Rowanmantle’s most ardent and militant followers, an elfmarked named Jerrad Flachen, took it upon himself to deal with tomb robbers not backed by the church of Yarila. Jerrad and his men captured the expedition members and imprisoned them in an abandoned estate on the forest’s edge. Jerrad is an apostle (see Tome of Beasts 3) who leads a band of elfmarked and human berserkers.

OR

FALSE?  PCs investigating the expedition’s disappearance discover that no such group left Tomierau for the Cloud Dragon Court. Canny locals believe another expedition is spreading the rumors to frighten off potential competition. Funnily enough, these same people might hire the PCs to explore the Cloud Dragon Court with them, especially given the arrival of a mighty green dragon in the area.

RUMOR FOUR

Hidden paths, known only to the rulers of Dornig and the elves, stretch out beneath and through the duchy. They lead to fey realms and other wondrous places. Recently, the paths have become the hunting grounds for a pack of terrible otherworldly hounds and their foul master, who slays anyone who traverses them.

True? The fey roads within Dornig have become plagued by a pack of relentless hounds (see Tome of Beasts 3) led by a dullahan (see Tome of Beasts 1) under the service of an evil fey lord who wishes to prevent the nobles of Dornig from using the roads to move about the duchy. Lyndosa Aldous-Donner, the princess of Reywald, seeks able adventurers to enter the fey roads and kill the dullahan.

OR

False? Herschel Aunun (human knight), the nephew of Lord Roth Cereck Aunun, went out hunting with his pack of wolfhounds (treat as wolves). He stumbled into the fey roads while pursuing a strange white deer and became lost. Herschel knows how dangerous the fey roads can be for someone like him—he’s desperate to return home. If only someone would come and rescue him!

RUMOR FIVE

The Blood Prince of Doresh and Morgau has seeded spies amid the Krakovan refugees settled in Dornig. The spies’ latest project involved sabotaging the water supply in Kariessen, which led to the deaths of over a dozen people and left hundreds more sick.

True? Both the existence of the spies and their sabotage are true. PCs who question the refugees outside Kariessen inevitably come into conflict with human, halfling, and dhampir agents of the vampires who try to remove them as they ask more questions.

OR

False? The water issue was an outbreak of dysentery caused by population stress and poor living conditions, not by any directed evil. However, PCs investigating the rumors soon discover that a malevolent force hunts the refugees. This could be a pack of ghouls, a red urchin (see Campaign Builder: Cities and Towns), or any similar monster.

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