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Lakeshore Vale

Village at the Foot of the Astral Tree • Red's Trial • Crossroads of Worlds

Overview​

Lakeshore Vale is a tiered lakeside village of wooden buildings and boardwalks at the base of the astral tree — a cosmic tree whose portals connect many worlds. Its people are travelers from other planes who arrived through the tree's portals and could not leave. The party reached it in Session 20 through the portal in the Worm Tunnel on Grimvar's Spine, as part of Red's Skyhammer trial, guided by the star-scaled dragon Sol.

In Session 21 the party defeated the monsters that attacked the village every night, opening portals that freed the villagers. The village then served as the party's resting place between the portal adventures of the early interludes, where it was celebrated for ending the attacks.

The Villagers​

  • Callum — A rusty warforged guard who forbids "roughhousing" and gossips unreliably about everyone.
  • Finnick — A tubby halfling fisherman who feeds much of the town; his prized rod had been stolen. Bru introduced him to fishing with dynamite.
  • Elder Bryn — The village's elder, who performs prophecy rituals with driftwood and had been searching for it in the trash rather than on the beach.
  • Rowan and Isla — An elven hunter who had lived there for about a hundred years and a Goliath herbalist, too shy to admit their feelings until the party played matchmaker.
  • Thalos — The blacksmith, whose tools were going missing.
  • Juni and Thomas — A young halfling artist who stole Thalos's tools to make a friendship bracelet, and the fourteen-year-old human boy, trapped for about two years, she made it for.

The Nightly Monsters​

Fifty years before the party arrived, two wizards had used the site as an experimental base and bred hybrid creatures; the wizards disappeared, and their creations attacked the village every night. Elder Bryn's driftwood vision showed two futures: Red's blood opening a portal that loosed the monsters on other realms, or Red defeating them and freeing everyone. The party fought off star-feathered raptors and wolf-raptors, rescued a captured Rowan, then killed the five chief abominations — Boog, Klar, Kemal, Excess and Sar — on a platform near the original portal. Their blood filled glyphs in the platform and opened portals out, and Sol told the party they needed more training before saving the world (Session 21).

Session History​

  • Session 20 — The party descends the astral tree to Lakeshore Vale for Red's trial and starts on the villagers' tangle of small problems, while Bru introduces dynamite fishing.
  • Session 21 — The party solves the villagers' problems, learns of the wizards' monsters, and kills the nightly abominations, opening portals that free the village.
  • Interlude 1 — The party long-rests in the astral tree village, celebrated as heroes, before heading through a portal to the vampire convent.
  • Interlude 2 — At the astral tree village, Isla invites the party to her grandfather's birthday on her home plane.
  • Interlude 4 — Back in Lakeshore Vale after the convent, Red cures Jasper's mummy rot and Helisanna plays for the villagers.
  • Interlude 10 — Alarm bells wake the party in the astral tree village to a fire on one of the tree's branches, which leads them into a series of pocket dimensions.