Penned on July 23rd, 1206
Travance is a Barony of the Kingdom of Kormyre. It is separated from the rest of the kingdom by a vast and seemingly endless rift that takes weeks to cross through a series of underground tunnels. It was founded in the year 1198 and since then has been home to many wise and powerful adventurers.
It is tradition that every month the Baron of Travance calls all subjects to the proper to take part in his grand baronial feast. It seems to most of the natives of Travance that an evil and vile threat looms over them at every turn. Sometimes these forces are adversaries for a long time to come and sometimes these threats are brief and extinguished as quickly as they come. But one thing is for certain when you ask an adventurer about the lands of Travance, they say its unlike any other place on the face of Arawyn. And so what makes this land so unique you may ask?
For many years the answer to that question remained a mystery. Even now the answer is not fully known but since its founding many clues and hints have been discovered and they have tied together what little information can be presented to you now.
A secret darkness lurks far beneath the soils of Travance proper. It is said that somewhere there is a gateway that leads to a tower that does not soar high into the sky, but instead deep into the bowels of the earth. This inverted tower holds many floors and just as many locked and numbered doors. How far it goes down no one is quite sure, because it is said the deeper you go, the more perilous it becomes for the adventurer.
On the last floor, it is said that a large sealed door keeps something trapped within. Something so dark and powerful that it calls out to the far reaches of the world and wills the forces of darkness to free it.
Most of the time these dark forces that come to Travance know not why , or believes that they have their own agenda, but unknowingly the trapped entity has called out and touched its mind, willing it ever closer to this spot so that it can be discovered.
However not always is it the case that these forces of darkness are so willingly duped. Some on occasion have come to the proper with the purpose in mind to free the dark entity and share in its power. It is these times that the world itself is in the most peril. It is these times that quite possibly the lives of all mortals hinge upon the hope of a few brave adventurers.
This is the dark clandestine of Travance...
