In late 578, in the month of Ready’reat, our band of heroes travelled north to the leaderless barony of Tumbledown to install their friend Hemgor as the new baron. Previously, Hemgor had been instrumental in rescuing Oreal Nanther from the orcish fortress of Xul-Jarak and this was his reward from Oreal’s grateful father.
On the way to Tumbledown, however, the party had been diverted by the mystery of the extensive passages beneath the Clear Pool heritage. Therein, a terrible argument had broken out between members of the party after the near-deaths of several adventurers. As a result of the argument, Klara left her fellows and returned the south.
This turn of events did not satisfy Oreal Nanther for Klara had recently been elevated to the nobility by Bremen Leiyraghon and he felt the half-orc’s actions were not consummate with a member of the nobility (no matter how minor). Bremen had only recently become a Sword Lord as his father had been assassinated mere weeks before by the orc warrior Vhazror, and seem keen to cement his new position as a Sword Lord. He gifted the young half-orc the ruined Ironwolf Keep, otherwise known as the Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands, with the express purpose of keeping the borderland safe.
After Klara returned south, the party continued on their way and eventually secured the Tumbledown fief for their friend, Hemgor. Once this was done, Oreal headed south intent on having Klara stripped of his title.
At first, Oreal found his task a difficult one to complete. While his father was sympathetic to his cause, many of the other Sword Lords saw it as a matter for Bremen Leiyraghon as Klara owed him her allegiance. (For his part, Bremen seemed uninterested by Oreal’s demands for justice which angered the young ranger). In the following months Oreal worked tirelessly–seemingly driven by some other compulsion to see the task through. After months of diplomacy, Oreal managed to have the matter put before the Iron Council. On the day of the council, as the Sword Lords gathered to hear both adventurers’ version of events, it was discovered that Klara had vanished. Her flight taken as an acknowledgment of guilt, the half-orc was stripped of her title.
Thus was Oreal Nanther victorious in his self-imposed quest. However, after several fraught conversations with Bremen Leiyraghon it seemed the young ranger may have made a powerful enemy…