The Companions The Time of Troubles & Era of Upheaval We would like to welcome you to our homebrewed Forgotten Realms campaign setting. Inspired By Ed Greenwood

Arion of the Aspen was born in the Dalelands, near Shadowdale. Both of Arions parents were both members of a now scattered group of Rangers that protected the dale lands which allowed him to grow up learning the ways of the wild under the expert tutelage of his mother and father.

Arion is a skilled archer and tracker, whispers of him being a prodigy of the region circulated among his people. Arion is most at home when he is wandering the forests and wilderlands of the region, most recently, the northern reaches of the Sword Coast.

When Arion was 16 years old, a caravan that his parents were assisting with escorting was attacked by an Orc raiding party, both of his parents were killed in the attack. Arion vowed to avenge his parents deaths. He then set out into the wild to become the Ranger he always wanted to be.

Arion has been traveling throughout the Sword Coast and has fought bandits, goblins, kobolds and other creatures along the coast. He has learned much about the lands and he has become a skilled Ranger. Arion will fight for the justice of others. Arion enjoys widdling small wood figurines and is a skilled fletcher for hire. His left eye has a light blue tent, almost white . . . a symble of the ancient Aspens that grow near his former home - some say his discolored eye was gifted to him by the god Silvanus as a mark of the Aspen.

Life has been relatively difficult for the young Ranger since leaving his home. Survival in the wild is no easy task, let alone for a skilled woodsman such as Arion . . . but this is his home, regardless of how brutal life can be at times but it is the only home he has ever known. Since leaving his homeland years ago to explore the lands, Arion has been mostly alone, occasionally visiting Local settlements to resupply, he mostly has remained along the Sword Coast.

Arion has been traveling the lands around the city of Luskan, looking for adventure, hearing rumors of a darkness spreading through the northlands. Rumors are beginning to spread among the locals of something happening in Icewind Dale. Knowing that adventure lies directly to the north, Arion finds himself becoming restless and looking to the north.

Hordus Blackforge is a founding member of the clan of dwarves that once lived in Battlehammer Hold within the dwarven valley in Icewind Dale. Hordus lived in Battlehammer Hold for most of his life. He was born and raised (for a time) in Battlehammer Hold alongside his brother. On his first mining expedition with his father into the Halls of Black Ice, the section of tunnel that he and his brother were in collapsed.

Covered by rocks, unable to move or see for what seemed like days, all the while listening to his brother dying somewhere nearby. "In reality it did not take a full day for miners to dig him free". He had never been confined in a space this small, unable to move, gasping for breath, with little to no visibility. By the time help arrived to rescue him, his brother was dead.

Afterwords, life had become a struggle with Hordus dealing with the incident and his brothers death. His sleep patterns became eratic, waking up at all hours of the night with recurring dreams of his friend dying and him being unable to do anything about it. He and his brother were very close and his death hit Hordus hard. It got to the point to where he needed a candle or oil lamp lit to be able to sleep. As time went on, it went from a single candle to more candles that one could count. Hordus stopped going into the mines after this accident, finding one excuse after another to keep himself clear of the mines.

Hordus eventually left home, "unable to tolerate the concerned looks from his peers". He traveled south through the Spine of the World to explore the southern regions but often misses his home deeply, even though his clan relocated to Mithril Hall, south of the Spine of the World. Preferring the outdoors, he tends to travel across the land lending aide when possible to those in need of it. Since he prefers to live an isolated life, he usually doesn't stay in one place for long, living mainly in the outdoor wilderness along the coast.

For the most part, Hordus is your typical every day Dwarf, grumbling, never satisfied with his work and loves working with his hands. He took up wood carving at a young age and it has stuck with him over the years. He enjoys relaxing outdoors smoking his pipe and whittling wood. He tends to enjoy the "drink" a little more than he should. He is still coming to terms with the death of his brother.

Hordus is easy to talk with and is very open minded .... and if asked, he swears he is getting better with not having constant lights on in order to sleep. True or not, Hordus prefers to remain above ground whenever possible but his phobia does not prevent him from traveling beneath the surface "it just takes a bit of convincing and persuasion". Most recently, Hordus has been traveling with friends escorting merchant wagons caravans and currently finds himself in the city of Luskan and the region around the city.

The story of Elora Dawn starts with her awakening in a ditch on the side of the road leading into the settlement of Phandalin along the Sword Coast. Something horrible had happened, only she does not know what it was. As she regained consciousness and looked around, she had no idea where she was. On the road next to where she lay was three smoldering wagons. Apparently the wagons had been attacked and she had somehow been knocked unconcious. She climbed from the muddy ditch to inspect the wagons only to find several people lying dead in various locations around the three wagons.

She did not recognize any of them. This was when she realized she had no memory of her past, but she did noticed a name engraved on her money pouch "Elora Dawn" which she assume was her name. The one and only thing that she did remember was her being a priestess of Kelemvot "the god of the dead". How she remembered this she does not know. She gathered herself and began the walk down the road until she arrived at Phandalin where she rented a room at the local inn where she stayed for a week.

Upon getting settled into her room, she began rummaging through her various packs, looking through papers she has stored. Apparently she had started a journal only days before the attack on the wagons. As she read she found out a lot about herself the first few pages of her journal that explained her personality and mannerisms in great detail.

What she was able to gather from her documents is as follows ....

Elora's most prominent features include her Prodigiousness and cleverness. She is levelheaded, book-smart, and always very logical. She is often very outspoken, not afraid to say what she feels yet unfailingly dutiful and loyal to her friends—a person who can always be counted on but she does however have occassions where she lets her "snippy" attitude out. Elora never strays off the path she always keeps her attention focused on the job that must be done.

One particular quote she read was "I enjoy long walks through a cemetery while murming soft prayers to the dead - it has a sort of romantic feel to it". This disturbed her slightly but she promised herself that she would try it out for herself to see what the appeal actually was.

She apparently had no regrets in life other than the acolyte thing really didn't work out for her. She has other ambitions and felt the only way to accomplish those was to leave and set out on her own (it does not say where she left from though). Things such as good, evil, life and death are all part of the order of things and she plans to do her best to help spread the faith of her god - Kelemvor.

Despite Elora's intelligence and outspoken attitude, she has quite a lot of vulnerability in her personality, as well as a sense of insecurity underneath, feeling, utterly inadequate . . . and to compensate, she strives to be the best at everything, projecting a confidence where in fact little exists.

Elora has a deep love for the outdoors and nature and hopes soon to be able to explore the world and educate herself on the lands and its people. Leaving her home was hard for her (wherever home was), but she knows deep down that in order to serve her goddess to the best of her ability she must set out into the world to help those in need and to spread the word of Kelemvor to as many as she can. Since coming to terms with her memory loss, she has sense left Phandalin with her new companions and hopes to find answers about who she is.